Top-Rated - ALL-TIME 100 Novels

Index | Complete List | Top Rated | Graphic Novels | Talkback

Try TIME for $1.99!

Text Size:

E-mail this to a friend

About the List

» Managing Editor James Kelly talks about the list and shares his John Le Carre favorite (which didn't make
the cut).
» Richard Lacayo lays bare the process (and the pain) behind stacking up
100 novels.

Reader's Choice

1:
2: Lolita
3: A Passage to India
4: A Death in the Family
5: Ubik

See the full list

Best Graphic Novels

TIME's Andrew Arnold picks Watchmen and nine other comix masterpieces

Archive Trivia

Who was the first author to appear on a TIME cover? Get the answer and much more on our trivia page

Talk Back

Why isn't the Harry Potter series on there!!?? It definitely should be on there!!

—Robin; Seattle, Wash.

Where is Ayn Rand and John Irving? I checked your list twice, I can't believe you did not list either author.

—Susan Sayfan; Longwood, Fla.

Send us your thoughts »

From the TIME Archive

Ernest Hemingway
"Make no mistake, Ernest Hemingway is somebody; a new, honest, un-'literary' transcriber of life...."
Writer 1/18/26

More Writers in TIME

More From TIME.com

All-TIME 100 Movies »
TIME critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel offer their list of 100 great films

50 Coolest Websites »
Best and Worst of 2004 »

Readers Top Rated
Your rankings of our ALL-TIME best novels

RATING		TITLE


5		Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret


5		The Adventures of Augie March


5		Invisible Man


5		A Death in the Family


5		Lolita


5		Blood Meridian


5		A Passage to India


5		The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe


5		A Clockwork Orange


5		Beloved


5		At Swim-Two-Birds


5		Ubik


5		Watchmen


5		Appointment in Samarra


5		Money


5		Gone With the Wind


5		Under the Volcano


5		Gravity's Rainbow


4.57		The Catcher in the Rye


4.17		1984


4		To Kill a Mockingbird


4		Rabbit, Run


4		The Sound and the Fury


4		The Sheltering Sky


4		Housekeeping

More From the Archive:
Great Books for Grown-Ups (6/10/46)
Dirty Book of the Month (4/22/66)
How and What to Read (10/2/72)
Dame Agatha: Queen of the Maze (1/26/76)
Rediscovering the Joy of Text (4/21/97)
Harry Potter Archive Collection
Writers in TIME Archive Collection

Most E-Mailed Stories

Current Issue

Table of Contents

- ADVERTISEMENT -