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Home » Readers Advisory » Bibliographies for Adult Readers » Modern Library's 100 Best Novels
From Wikipedia: “Modern Library's 100 Best Novels is a list of the best English-language novels of the 20th century as selected by the Modern Library, an American publishing company owned by Random House.”
The Board's/Editors' List was compiled in 1998. Meanwhile, the Reader's List was solicited and completed in 1999.
NOTE: KLAS has a subject code for these books: “MLC;” = “Literature - Modern Library's Choice 100”
--- //[[dan.malosh@state.mn.us|Dan Malosh @ MN1A Regional]] 2015/01/29 12:18//
REFERENCES:
http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Library_100_Best_Novels
Deals with a single day–June 16, 1904–in the life of Leopold Bloom, a Dublin advertising salesman. The stream-of-consciousness style and the use of interior monologues expose the personalities of the characters. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. 1922.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Against the glitter and recklessness of the Jazz Age, Jay Gatsby makes a desperate attempt to recapture the past and, along with it, the love of Daisy Buchanan. Amid extravagant parties at Gatsby's palatial estate, his neighbor narrates the story of his obsession with the American dream. 1925.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Largely autobiographical novel portrays the Irish childhood, adolescence, and early manhood of Stephen Dedalus, who is one of the leading characters of “Ulysses” (DB 19994). Stephen's growing self-awareness as an artist forces him to reject the narrow world in which he has been brought up.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Incarcerated and awaiting trial, widowed middle-aged professor Humbert Humbert tells of his erotic obsession with preadolescent girls–particularly twelve-year-old Dolly Haze, whom he calls Lolita. Humbert details his fascination with Lolita and describes their bizarre road trip. Some descriptions of sex and some violence. 1955.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
A satire set in a future technocratic society in which people are rigidly classified by the state and kept happy by a government-administered drug. When two bureaucrats, Lenina and Bernard, travel to a “savage” reservation, they “rescue” a woman and her adult son, abandoned long ago, and return them to civilization. For senior high and older readers.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Powerful novel of the Moscow trials, written from the author's own experiences, tells of the imprisonment, confession, and death of one of the Old Bolsheviks. Rubashov, one of the last survivors of the original Central Committee of the Communist Party, is arrested and charged with incredible crimes. Some violence.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
England, 1920s-1930s. Four young men of disparate temperaments enter the adult worlds of business, art, society, and sex. Comprises the first three volumes, which were published separately between 1951 and 1955, of a twelve-novel epic depicting the panorama of English life from World War I through World War II. 1962.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
As events in Germany build toward World War II, four young Englishmen are caught up in a social whirl of personal choices–marriages, adulteries, careers. Fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes, which were published separately between 1957 and 1962, of a twelve-novel epic. 1964.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Follows the exploits of four Englishmen during World War II and its immediate aftermath. Comprises the seventh, eighth, and ninth volumes, which were published separately between 1964 and 1968, of a twelve-novel epic. 1971.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Volumes ten, eleven, and twelve, which were published between 1971 and 1975, depict a triumphant but battered England after World War II and form the conclusion to this epic. Central characters confront losses both physical and moral as they rebuild their lives in a changing political and social order. 1976.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
A satiric view of London intellectuals and English upper-class society during the 1920s. The construction of the novel is supposedly based on Bach's Suite No. 2 in B Minor and contains frequent allusions to the arts, sciences, and British politics.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
University poet-in-residence John Shade writes a 999-line poem just before his death. Demented scholar Charles Kinbote then provides commentary on the poem. Kinbote's literary analysis reveals fantastic escapades of the deposed king of Zembla living in a New York college town and the king's would-be assassin. 1962.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
A 15-year-old hooligan named Alex roams the streets of London terrorizing people at random. He is arrested and subjected to corrective brainwashing with unanticipated results. The author adds a flavor of reality of his prophecy of future urban life by inventing the teenage dialect of “nadsat.” Violence and strong language.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
A controversial, experimental novel written in 1939. The book is apparently a dream sequence representing one night in the unconscious mind of a Dublin tavern keeper. Joyce's unique style makes extensive use of slang, arcane puns, and obscure allusions.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Portrays the divergent lives of two working-class English sisters. While conventional Constance works in her father's drapery shop and marries the chief assistant, spirited Sophia elopes to Paris with an irresistible but unscrupulous traveler. The siblings reunite years later, each shaped by their separate experiences. 1908.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Dagny Taggart, manager of a transcontinental railroad, opposes John Galt and others who relinquish control over their enterprises in exchange for security through government regulations. Espouses the clear-cut social values of the author's philosophy of objectivism within a fictional story line. Thirty-fifth anniversary edition with new
introduction in 1992. Some strong language. 1957.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Although he is expelled from school, Howard Roark is determined to succeed as an architect, rejecting the conventional path of his friend Peter Keating and the wiles of his destructive lover Dominique Francon. Some descriptions of sex. 1943.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Individualism in a world of total collectivism where food, work, and even mating are ordered by the commune is the theme of this short novel. The author vividly describes what she believes are the ultimate, bleak consequences of the collectivist doctrine and the importance of individualism.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
A story of post-revolutionary Russia and of a woman torn between two men who love–one a Communist and the other an aristocrat. Pursues the theme of the individual against the state.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Deals with a single day–June 16, 1904–in the life of Leopold Bloom, a Dublin advertising salesman. The stream-of-consciousness style and the use of interior monologues expose the personalities of the characters. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. 1922.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Against the glitter and recklessness of the Jazz Age, Jay Gatsby makes a desperate attempt to recapture the past and, along with it, the love of Daisy Buchanan. Amid extravagant parties at Gatsby's palatial estate, his neighbor narrates the story of his obsession with the American dream. 1925.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
A satire set in a future technocratic society in which people are rigidly classified by the state and kept happy by a government-administered drug. When two bureaucrats, Lenina and Bernard, travel to a “savage” reservation, they “rescue” a woman and her adult son, abandoned long ago, and return them to civilization. For senior high and older readers.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Incarcerated and awaiting trial, widowed middle-aged professor Humbert Humbert tells of his erotic obsession with preadolescent girls–particularly twelve-year-old Dolly Haze, whom he calls Lolita. Humbert details his fascination with Lolita and describes their bizarre road trip. Some descriptions of sex and some violence. 1955.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
England, 1920s-1930s. Four young men of disparate temperaments enter the adult worlds of business, art, society, and sex. Comprises the first three volumes, which were published separately between 1951 and 1955, of a twelve-novel epic depicting the panorama of English life from World War I through World War II. 1962.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
As events in Germany build toward World War II, four young Englishmen are caught up in a social whirl of personal choices–marriages, adulteries, careers. Fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes, which were published separately between 1957 and 1962, of a twelve-novel epic. 1964.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Follows the exploits of four Englishmen during World War II and its immediate aftermath. Comprises the seventh, eighth, and ninth volumes, which were published separately between 1964 and 1968, of a twelve-novel epic. 1971.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Volumes ten, eleven, and twelve, which were published between 1971 and 1975, depict a triumphant but battered England after World War II and form the conclusion to this epic. Central characters confront losses both physical and moral as they rebuild their lives in a changing political and social order. 1976.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
A satiric view of London intellectuals and English upper-class society during the 1920s. The construction of the novel is supposedly based on Bach's Suite No. 2 in B Minor and contains frequent allusions to the arts, sciences, and British politics.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
University poet-in-residence John Shade writes a 999-line poem just before his death. Demented scholar Charles Kinbote then provides commentary on the poem. Kinbote's literary analysis reveals fantastic escapades of the deposed king of Zembla living in a New York college town and the king's would-be assassin. 1962.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
A 15-year-old hooligan named Alex roams the streets of London terrorizing people at random. He is arrested and subjected to corrective brainwashing with unanticipated results. The author adds a flavor of reality of his prophecy of future urban life by inventing the teenage dialect of “nadsat.” Violence and strong language.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Largely autobiographical novel portrays the Irish childhood, adolescence, and early manhood of Stephen Dedalus, who is one of the leading characters of “Ulysses” (DB 19994). Stephen's growing self-awareness as an artist forces him to reject the narrow world in which he has been brought up.
AVAILABLE FORMATS: