academic · 8/10 picks in the top 100
"I privileged novels with broad social canvas and that offer political (in the loose sense) commentary."
| # | Title | Author | Critics | Readers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middlemarch | George Eliot | #1 | #2 |
| 2 | Bleak House | Charles Dickens | #12 | =26 |
| 3 | Anna Karenina | Leo Tolstoy | #6 | #11 |
| 4 | Buddenbrooks | Thomas Mann | #81 | — |
| 5 | Mrs Dalloway | Virginia Woolf | #14 | =93 |
| 6 | Heart of Darkness | Joseph Conrad | #41 | =41 |
| 7 | Sentimental Education | Gustave Flaubert | #92 | — |
| 8 | A House for Mr Biswas | VS Naipaul | #78 | — |
| 9 | The Adventures of Augie March | Saul Bellow | — | |
| 10 | A Suitable Boy | Vikram Seth | =41 |
This voter’s picks that didn’t make the critics’ 100 but made the Guardian’s reader-voted 100.
| Readers | Title | Author |
|---|---|---|
| =41 | A Suitable Boy | Vikram Seth |
Voters with the most books in common.