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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:
In 1928 Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, the Compson brothers–Quentin, Jason, and the “idiot” son Benjy–narrate events that trace the gradual disintegration of the family and include the ostracism of their wanton sister, Caddy. 1929.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Bombardier Yossarian desperately tries to stay alive during World War II. Military rules make it impossible for anyone to achieve the combat quota necessary to quit flying. Yossarian and his buddies concoct ways to avoid the ridiculous orders of their officers. Strong language and descriptions of sex.
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.
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Story of Paul and William Morel, brothers who bear witness to the tensions of their working-class parents. William adopts the bitterness that his father expresses too freely. Paul, the younger, finds one woman appealing and another exciting, but can elicit for neither the sensitive feelings he has for his mother. Some strong language and some descriptions of sex.
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Steinbeck's classic tale of the Joads, who, like many other families during the Great Depression, are driven from their homestead by drought, economic hardship, and the encroachment of large agricultural interests. They leave Oklahoma in search of a better life in California but meet with hardship and injustice. Pulitzer Prize. 1939.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Quauhnahuac, Mexico; 1938. On the Day of the Dead, Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic former British consul, is consumed by the arrival of his ex-wife Yvonne. Her mission to save Geoffrey is complicated by the presence of Geoffrey's half brother and a childhood friend. Some violence and some strong language. 1947.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Satirical portrayal by notable Victorian novelist, in a partly autobiographical piece, of the relations between Ernest Pontifex and his pious, self-righteous parents. Being the son of a middle-class English clergyman and a sanctimonious mother makes for an unhappy childhood, followed by dismal university years and an unsuitable marriage. Literature–and an aunt's bequest–become his salvation. 1903.
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Satire about an alternate London under a totalitarian regime overseen by the omnipresent Big Brother. Winston Smith, a Ministry of Truth bureaucrat, attempts an intellectual rebellion against the Party while he pursues an illicit romance. His actions lead to his imprisonment, torture, and reeducation by the Thought Police. 1949.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Realistic story purports to be the lost autobiography of the emperor Claudius, who lived from 10 B.C. to 54 A.D. It vividly depicts the political conspiracies, superstitions, orgies, and incest within imperial Rome. Violence.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
During summer visits to the Scottish coast, members of the Ramsey family reveal their personal challenges and innermost thoughts. Youngest child James must forfeit a yearned-for visit to the lighthouse. Ten years later, James, surviving family members, and former guests complete the long-delayed outing. Includes Eudora Welty's 1981 foreword. 1927.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
First published in 1925 and based on an actual murder case, this classic novel depicts the dark side of the American dream in the story of a young man who will do almost anything to gain wealth and social acceptance. While he loves a poor factory worker who is carrying his child, he is dazzled by a rich woman who seems to embody all his fantasies.
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Deep South, 1930s. John Singer, who is deaf and mute, feels content until his best friend, also mute, is committed to a mental institution. Singer, who can read lips, becomes the confidante of several town residents, all of whom want answers to their problems. Some strong language. 1940.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Billy Pilgrim, adrift in time, randomly revisits past and present manifestations: senile widower stalked by an assassin, hopeful young newlywed, giraffe on the planet Tralfamadore–where time is an illusion–and, most crucially, American POW during the firebombing of Dresden in World War II. Strong language. 1969.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Classic novel of a young black man's search for identity. Follows the unnamed protagonist from his youth in a Southern town through the depression years in Harlem, where he examines and rejects the values thrust on him by both whites and blacks. Some strong language. National Book Award 1953. 1947.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Classic work shows the plight of victimized blacks fighting against the political and social conditions of Chicago in the 1930s. A frustrated and resentful black man is driven to violence and murder.
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In his search for identity, an American millionaire travels to a remote area of Africa, where he is captured by a native tribe. His friendship with the king wins him the title of rain god, and he becomes deeply involved with the natives and participates in a strange experiment.
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Fast-moving first novel by journalist/critic John O'Hara (1905-1970) set in 1930s small-town Pennsylvania. As Gibbsville celebrates Christmas with parties, music, and liquor, aristocratic drunkard Julian English breaks with polite society in one rash moment, beginning his rapid descent to self-destruction. Some strong language. 1934.
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Three novels first published as a trilogy in 1938: //The 42nd Parallel// (1930), //1919// (1932), and //The Big Money// (1936). Dos Passos satirizes life in America from 1900 until the 1930s, using period “newsreels,” autobiographical “camera eye” pieces, and biographical sketches. Contains chronologies of Dos Passos's life and historical events cited. Some strong language.
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Classic political satire targets Soviet Communism. The animals on a farm overthrow their master and live a utopian life, until the intelligent pigs take over–and one establishes himself as dictator. 1946.
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The Bundrens, poor whites in Mississippi, face numerous obstacles as they trek across the countryside to deliver their mother's body for burial in her home town. First published in 1930; this edition includes changes made by Noel Polk in 1985 based on the author's notes.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
With horrifying implications, this novel relates the experiences of a group of English boys who are wrecked on a desert island and have to establish their own system of government. For junior and senior high and older readers.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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A wealthy group of English and American ex-patriates in post-World War I Europe move from the boulevards of Paris to the bullfights of Spain–bathing, eating, and drinking. The disillusioned characters reflect the war-weary “lost generation” of the 1920s. Some strong language.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Recounts the experiences, sensations, and thoughts of a young expatriate American writer and his friends in 1930s Paris as they scrounge for food, read and converse, and have relationships. The author's autobiographical first novel initially published in 1934. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. 1934.\\
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.
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Joe Christmas, an orphan of mixed blood, travels to the South, seeking a place and people with whom he can belong. But he is soon hardened by white and black bigotry.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
The adventures of free-spirited Dean Moriarty, Sal Paradise, and their eclectic friends as they traverse North America by bus, car (both stolen and borrowed), and thumb on a wild, anarchic quest for identity and purpose. Classic autobiographical portrayal of the beat generation. Descriptions of sex and some strong language. 1957.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
New Orleans. Apathetic young businessman and avid movie fan Binx Bolling undertakes a quest for authenticity that outrages his family, endangers his aunt's fragile stepdaughter Kate, and leads him into the chaos of Mardi Gras–during which he opens up to love. Some strong language. National Book Award. 1960.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
As Christmas vacation begins, Holden Caulfield recounts his feelings and reactions to flunking out of Pencey, his third prep school. Instead of heading straight home, he wanders around New York City. This account of his adventures conveys his dismay at the adult world. Strong language. For senior high and older readers.
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.
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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:
Fascinated with the character of Bertha, the madwoman in “Jane Eyre” (DB 47868), Jean Rhys has imagined her as a carefree girl and an attractive young woman in the days before she came to England. Rhys creates a romantic, colorful, and thought-provoking past for this enigmatic woman.
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In the nineteenth century Major Amberson made a fortune, and his family became the most prominent in their midwestern town. When industrialization transforms the town into a city, the major's only grandson, arrogant George Amberson Minafer, cannot adjust to the change; his only ambition is to be a yachtsman. Pulitzer Prize.
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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:
Satire about an alternate London under a totalitarian regime overseen by the omnipresent Big Brother. Winston Smith, a Ministry of Truth bureaucrat, attempts an intellectual rebellion against the Party while he pursues an illicit romance. His actions lead to his imprisonment, torture, and reeducation by the Thought Police. 1949.
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:
Bombardier Yossarian desperately tries to stay alive during World War II. Military rules make it impossible for anyone to achieve the combat quota necessary to quit flying. Yossarian and his buddies concoct ways to avoid the ridiculous orders of their officers. Strong language and descriptions of sex.
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:
Classic political satire targets Soviet Communism. The animals on a farm overthrow their master and live a utopian life, until the intelligent pigs take over–and one establishes himself as dictator. 1946.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Steinbeck's classic tale of the Joads, who, like many other families during the Great Depression, are driven from their homestead by drought, economic hardship, and the encroachment of large agricultural interests. They leave Oklahoma in search of a better life in California but meet with hardship and injustice. Pulitzer Prize. 1939.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Billy Pilgrim, adrift in time, randomly revisits past and present manifestations: senile widower stalked by an assassin, hopeful young newlywed, giraffe on the planet Tralfamadore–where time is an illusion–and, most crucially, American POW during the firebombing of Dresden in World War II. Strong language. 1969.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
With horrifying implications, this novel relates the experiences of a group of English boys who are wrecked on a desert island and have to establish their own system of government. For junior and senior high and older readers.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
In 1928 Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, the Compson brothers–Quentin, Jason, and the “idiot” son Benjy–narrate events that trace the gradual disintegration of the family and include the ostracism of their wanton sister, Caddy. 1929.
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:
Quauhnahuac, Mexico; 1938. On the Day of the Dead, Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic former British consul, is consumed by the arrival of his ex-wife Yvonne. Her mission to save Geoffrey is complicated by the presence of Geoffrey's half brother and a childhood friend. Some violence and some strong language. 1947.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
The adventures of free-spirited Dean Moriarty, Sal Paradise, and their eclectic friends as they traverse North America by bus, car (both stolen and borrowed), and thumb on a wild, anarchic quest for identity and purpose. Classic autobiographical portrayal of the beat generation. Descriptions of sex and some strong language. 1957.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
During summer visits to the Scottish coast, members of the Ramsey family reveal their personal challenges and innermost thoughts. Youngest child James must forfeit a yearned-for visit to the lighthouse. Ten years later, James, surviving family members, and former guests complete the long-delayed outing. Includes Eudora Welty's 1981 foreword. 1927.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
New Orleans. Apathetic young businessman and avid movie fan Binx Bolling undertakes a quest for authenticity that outrages his family, endangers his aunt's fragile stepdaughter Kate, and leads him into the chaos of Mardi Gras–during which he opens up to love. Some strong language. National Book Award. 1960.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Deep South, 1930s. John Singer, who is deaf and mute, feels content until his best friend, also mute, is committed to a mental institution. Singer, who can read lips, becomes the confidante of several town residents, all of whom want answers to their problems. Some strong language. 1940.
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:
A wealthy group of English and American ex-patriates in post-World War I Europe move from the boulevards of Paris to the bullfights of Spain–bathing, eating, and drinking. The disillusioned characters reflect the war-weary “lost generation” of the 1920s. Some strong language.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
The Bundrens, poor whites in Mississippi, face numerous obstacles as they trek across the countryside to deliver their mother's body for burial in her home town. First published in 1930; this edition includes changes made by Noel Polk in 1985 based on the author's notes.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Recounts the experiences, sensations, and thoughts of a young expatriate American writer and his friends in 1930s Paris as they scrounge for food, read and converse, and have relationships. The author's autobiographical first novel initially published in 1934. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. 1934.\\
Classic novel of a young black man's search for identity. Follows the unnamed protagonist from his youth in a Southern town through the depression years in Harlem, where he examines and rejects the values thrust on him by both whites and blacks. Some strong language. National Book Award 1953. 1947.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Realistic story purports to be the lost autobiography of the emperor Claudius, who lived from 10 B.C. to 54 A.D. It vividly depicts the political conspiracies, superstitions, orgies, and incest within imperial Rome. Violence.
AVAILABLE FORMATS:
Joe Christmas, an orphan of mixed blood, travels to the South, seeking a place and people with whom he can belong. But he is soon hardened by white and black bigotry.
AVAILABLE FORMATS: