Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting list. Pretty solid, but still noticeably of-the-moment (for example, Wuthering Heights is way too high). Not many big surprises, although Middlemarch as #1? Top 20, ok. Top 10? Pushing it. Number one? That's verging on an lol.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

discuss...

It's a list based on responder's votes. There are a couple of good ones on there, but I don't take this list seriously. Many of the titles are predictable choices and a few don't have the full or correct title. These aren't serious readers, imo.

Did you click on the list to see who the "readers" are? Pretty serious readers, I'd say.

Anonymous wrote:A list like this is debate-bait but if your profs would have lol’d at Middlemarch that says more about them than the book

I didn't say they would "lol at Middlemarch." My point was that they would find it taking the number 1 place amusing. Above, oh, say, Ulysses. Or any Jane Austen. As would plenty of literary critics.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting list. Pretty solid, but still noticeably of-the-moment (for example, Wuthering Heights is way too high). Not many big surprises, although Middlemarch as #1? Top 20, ok. Top 10? Pushing it. Number one? That's verging on an lol.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

discuss...

It's a list based on responder's votes. There are a couple of good ones on there, but I don't take this list seriously. Many of the titles are predictable choices and a few don't have the full or correct title. These aren't serious readers, imo.

Few surprises. Heavily British, but consider the source.

I'm not a Cormac McCarthy fan . . . overrated, gratuitous violence. He should not have one book on this list, let alone two. I'd give his spots to Emil Zola and Larry McMurtry, who aren't on this list but should be.

A list like this is debate-bait but if your profs would have lol’d at Middlemarch that says more about them than the book

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting list. Pretty solid, but still noticeably of-the-moment (for example, Wuthering Heights is way too high). Not many big surprises, although Middlemarch as #1? Top 20, ok. Top 10? Pushing it. Number one? That's verging on an lol.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

discuss...

Middlemarch is my favorite novel. I have long thought it was the best novel written in English (an opinion which none of my English profs in grade school LOLed at).

I think my English profs in grad school would have loled at it. As #1, anyway.

I just realized my phone autocorrected "grad" to "grade." Oops.

I knew what you meant, ha ha. I had to think for a sec, though.

I was just thinking that I did not discuss Middlemarch with my grade school teachers. I was a voracious young reader, but not that precocious.

Anonymous wrote:I've read about 80 of these, so obviously they are novels I would have picked too. But when you ask people to pick their top 10 and create a list of 100 novels that way, you just miss a lot of fantastic books. I'm not sure what the solution is, but I don't think it's a great method to create a list like this.

It's generating buzz and clicks, so it is working precisely as intended. There is no objective list of the best novels. Period. There are lists that are way off the mark and lists that reflect more of a consensus or reasoned view. The point of such a list is to generate conversation and encourage people to read good books.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting list. Pretty solid, but still noticeably of-the-moment (for example, Wuthering Heights is way too high). Not many big surprises, although Middlemarch as #1? Top 20, ok. Top 10? Pushing it. Number one? That's verging on an lol.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

discuss...

Middlemarch is my favorite novel. I have long thought it was the best novel written in English (an opinion which none of my English profs in grade school LOLed at).

I think my English profs in grad school would have loled at it. As #1, anyway.

I just realized my phone autocorrected "grad" to "grade." Oops.

I knew what you meant, ha ha. I had to think for a sec, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting list. Pretty solid, but still noticeably of-the-moment (for example, Wuthering Heights is way too high). Not many big surprises, although Middlemarch as #1? Top 20, ok. Top 10? Pushing it. Number one? That's verging on an lol.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

discuss...

Middlemarch is my favorite novel. I have long thought it was the best novel written in English (an opinion which none of my English profs in grade school LOLed at).

I think my English profs in grad school would have loled at it. As #1, anyway.

I just realized my phone autocorrected "grad" to "grade." Oops.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting list. Pretty solid, but still noticeably of-the-moment (for example, Wuthering Heights is way too high). Not many big surprises, although Middlemarch as #1? Top 20, ok. Top 10? Pushing it. Number one? That's verging on an lol.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

discuss...

Middlemarch is my favorite novel. I have long thought it was the best novel written in English (an opinion which none of my English profs in grade school LOLed at).

I think my English profs in grad school would have loled at it. As #1, anyway.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting list. Pretty solid, but still noticeably of-the-moment (for example, Wuthering Heights is way too high). Not many big surprises, although Middlemarch as #1? Top 20, ok. Top 10? Pushing it. Number one? That's verging on an lol.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

discuss...

Middlemarch is my favorite novel. I have long thought it was the best novel written in English (an opinion which none of my English profs in grade school LOLed at).

I can't believe that Rebecca is on there. I was mesmerized by Rebecca in 8th grade. Re-read it as an adult and [cringe]

I've read about 80 of these, so obviously they are novels I would have picked too. But when you ask people to pick their top 10 and create a list of 100 novels that way, you just miss a lot of fantastic books. I'm not sure what the solution is, but I don't think it's a great method to create a list like this.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting list. Pretty solid, but still noticeably of-the-moment (for example, Wuthering Heights is way too high). Not many big surprises, although Middlemarch as #1? Top 20, ok. Top 10? Pushing it. Number one? That's verging on an lol.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

discuss...

One Hundred Years of Solitude should be #1
Emma is overrated
Things Fall Apart is underrated
Frankenstein is overrated
The Sound and the Fury is underrated

Interesting list. Pretty solid, but still noticeably of-the-moment (for example, Wuthering Heights is way too high). Not many big surprises, although Middlemarch as #1? Top 20, ok. Top 10? Pushing it. Number one? That's verging on an lol.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

discuss...