The Best English-Language Fiction of the Twentieth Century
A Composite List and Ranking
by Brian Kunde

 
INTRODUCTION
SOURCE LISTS
COMPOSITE LIST
RANKING SYSTEM
COLUMN KEY
REVIEWS
LINKS

Reviews.

This section, new to the second edition of this work, is under construction. At present not all reviews cited below are available; it takes time to bring together data on 163 different authors and 223 separate titles! Entries are posted as time and inclination permit; when they do, I complete a couple a day, on average. More will be added as they are written.

Arrangement of the reviews is alphabetical by author, with different works by the same author grouped alphabetically under that author. If you are not certain of the author of a particular work, use your browser's "find" feature to locate the title.

This section's entries are reviews only in the sense that they provide basic information on the authors and teasers for the books themselves, to help potential readers determine whether they want to investigate the works or their authors further. I have attempted no general evaluations of either, and any opinions expressed in these reviews should be considered supplementary, not determining.

This site being intended for a general audience, I have as a rule passed over potentially controversial issues in author's backgrounds, while discretely pointing out when particular works deal with mature or divisive topics, when I am aware of them. In so doing it is my purpose neither take sides nor express judgment; I merely recognize the importance of such matters to many people in determining their reading choices, particularly where issues of age-appropriateness arise.

Names and dates in the entries are from library databases, notably Stanford University's online Socrates catalog, supplemented by internet research. Entry content is based primarily on internet research, particularly but far from exclusively in Wikipedia, along with my own reading and knowledge. While I have attempted to recast all findings into my own words, I may possibly on occasion have inadvertantly repeated or echoed phrases from sources consulted, or reproduced errors, misapprehensions, or misrepresentations in the same sources. I apologize for any such errors, and any corrections will be appreciated.

Corrections should be submitted via email to Brian Kunde.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
[boldfaced letters complete; others in progress or to be added]

<- Achebe, Chinua, 1930- <- Adams, Douglas, 1952-2001. <- Adams, Richard, 1920- <- Agee, James, 1909-1955. <- Allison, Dorothy, 1949- <- Anderson, Sherwood, 1876-1941. <- Archer, Jeffrey, 1940- <- Atwood, Margaret, 1939- <- Baldwin, James, 1924-1987. <- Baum, L. Frank, 1856-1919. <- Beerbohm, Max, 1872-1956. <- Bellow, Saul, 1915-2005. <- Bennett, Arnold, 1867-1931. <- Berg, Elizabeth, 1948- <- Blume, Judy, 1938- <- Bowen, Elizabeth, 1899-1973. <- Bowles, Paul, 1910-1999. <- Bradbury, Ray, 1920- <- Bradley, Marion Zimmer, 1930-1999. <- Brown, Rita Mae, 1944- <- Buck, Pearl S., 1892-1973. <- Burgess, Anthony, 1917-1993. <- Burns, Olive-Ann, 1924-1990. <- Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 1875-1950. <- Burroughs, William S., 1914-1997. <- Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902. <- Byatt, A. S., 1936- <- Cain, James M., 1892-1977. <- Caldwell, Erskine, 1903-1987. <- Carr, Caleb, 1955- <- Cather, Willa, 1873-1947. <- Chandler, Raymond, 1888-1959. <- Cheever, John, 1912-1982. <- Clarke, Arthur C., 1917- <- Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924. <- Conroy, Pat, 1945- <- de Bernières, Louis, 1945- <- DeLillo, Don, 1936- <- Dickey, James, 1923-1997. <- Doctorow, E. L., 1931- <- Donleavy, J. P., 1926- <- Dos Passos, John, 1896-1970.
  • U.S.A. (trilogy). 1930-1937.
<- Doyle, Arthur Conan, 1859-1930. <- Dreiser, Theodore, 1871-1945. <- Drury, Allen, 1918-1998. <- Du Maurier, Daphne, 1907-1989. <- Durrell, Lawrence, 1912-1990. <- Ellison, Ralph, 1913-1994. <- Farrell, James T., 1904-1979. <- Faulkner, William, 1897-1962. <- Finney, Jack, 1911-1995. <- Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 1896-1940. <- Ford, Ford Madox, 1873-1939. <- Forster, E. M., 1879-1970. <- Fowles, John, 1926- <- Galsworthy, John, 1867-1933. <- Gibbons, Kaye, 1960- <- Golding, William, 1911-1993. <- Gordimer, Nadine, 1923- <- Grahame, Kenneth, 1859-1932. <- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985. <- Green, Henry, 1905-1973. <- Greene, Graham, 1904-1991. <- Guest, Judith, 1936- <- Guterson, David, 1956- <- Haley, Alex, 1921-1992. <- Hammett, Dashiell, 1894-1961. <- Heinlein, Robert A., 1907-1988. <- Heller, Joseph, 1923-1999. <- Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961. <- Herbert, Frank, 1920-1986. <- Hughes, Richard, 1900-1976. <- Hurston, Zora Neale, 1891-1960. <- Huxley, Aldous, 1894-1963. <- Irving, John, 1942- <- Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954- <- James, Henry, 1843-1916. <- Jones, James, 1921-1977. <- Joyce, James, 1882-1941. <- Keneally, Thomas, 1935- <- Kennedy, William, 1928- <- Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969. <- Kesey, Ken, 1935-2001. <- King, Stephen, 1947- <- Kingsolver, Barbara, 1955- <- Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936. <- Knowles, John, 1926-2001. <- Lawrence, D. H., 1885-1930. <- Lee, Harper, 1926- <- Lessing, Doris, 1919- <- Lewis, C. S>, 1898-1963. <- Lewis, Sinclair, 1885-1951. <- London, Jack, 1876-1916. <- Lowry, Malcolm, 1909-1957. <- Mailer, Norman, 1923- <- Maugham, W. Somerset, 1874-1965. <- McCullers, Carson, 1917-1967. <- McCullough, Colleen, 1937- <- McMurtry, Larry, 1936- <- Michener, James A., 1907-1997. <- Miller, Henry, 1891-1980. <- Milne, A. A., 1882-1956. <- Mitchell, Margaret, 1900-1949. <- Morrison, Toni, 1931- <- Murdoch, Iris, 1919-1999. <- Nabokov, Vladimir, 1899-1977. <- Naipaul, V. S., 1932- <- Oates, Joyce Carol, 1938- <- O'Connor, Flannery, 1925-1964. <- O'Hara, John, 1905-1970. <- Orwell, George, 1903-1950. <- Paton, Alan, 1903-1988. <- Percy, Walker, 1916-1990. <- Pilcher, Rosamunde, 1924- <- Plath, Sylvia, 1932-1963. <- Porter, Katherine Anne, 1890-1980. <- Powell, Anthony, 1905-2000. <- Price, Reynolds, 1933- <- Proulx, E. Annie, 1935- <- Puzo, Mario, 1920-1999. <- Rand, Ayn, 1905-1982. <- Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan, 1896-1953. <- Rhys, Jean, 1890-1979. <- Roth, Henry, 1906-1995. <- Roth, Philip, 1933- <- Rushdie, Salman, 1947- <- Salinger, J. D., 1919- <- Sendak, Maurice, 1928- <- Shaara, Michael, 1928-1988. <- Shields, Carol, 1935-2003. <- Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968. <- Smiley, Jane, 1949- <- Smith, Betty, 1896-1972. <- Spark, Muriel, 1918- <- Stegner, Wallace, 1909-1993. <- Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968. <- Stone, Irving, 1903-1989. <- Styron, William, 1925- <- Tan, Amy, 1952- <- Tarkington, Booth, 1869-1946. <- Tolkien, J. R. R., 1892-1973. <- Toole, John Kennedy, 1937-1969. <- Trumbo, Dalton, 1905-1976. <- Tyler, Anne, 1941- <- Updike, John, 1932- <- Uris, Leon, 1924-2003. <- Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr., 1922-2007. <- Walker, Alice, 1944- <- Warren, Robert Penn, 1905-1989. <- Waugh, Evelyn, 1903-1966. <- Welty, Eudora, 1909-2001. <- West, Nathanael, 1903-1940. <- Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937. <- White, E. B., 1899-1985. <- White, T. H., 1906-1964. <- Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 1867-1957. <- Wilder, Thornton, 1897-1975. <- Wilson, Colin, 1931- <- Wolfe, Thomas, 1900-1938. <- Wolfe, Tom, 1931- <- Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941. <- Wouk, Herman, 1915- <- Wright, Richard, 1908-1960.


2nd web edition posted 6/24/05 (last updated 4/12/07).
Please report any errors to the compiler.
Published by Fleabonnet Press.
The source list data is public domain.
Additional material © 1999-2007 by Brian Kunde.