author · 3/10 picks in the top 100
"I suppose if I had a guiding rule here – since of course so many masterpieces have been left off – it was to choose the books that have left the strongest impression in my memory: that when I recall the most revelatory, gripping, pleasurable reading experiences of my life, these are the ones that come first to mind. "
| # | Title | Author | Critics | Readers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Palliser Novels | Anthony Trollope | — | |
| 2 | Anna Karenina | Leo Tolstoy | #6 | #11 |
| 3 | The Red and the Black | Stendhal | =80 | |
| 4 | Cousin Bette | Honoré de Balzac | — | |
| 5 | Middlemarch | George Eliot | #1 | #2 |
| 6 | Mansfield Park | Jane Austen | #56 | — |
| 7 | Miss Marjoribanks | Margaret Oliphant | — | |
| 8 | Les Misérables | Victor Hugo | #24 | |
| 9 | Pickwick Papers | Charles Dickens | — | |
| 10 | The Ambassadors | Henry James | — |
This voter’s picks that didn’t make the critics’ 100 but made the Guardian’s reader-voted 100.
| Readers | Title | Author |
|---|---|---|
| #24 | Les Misérables | Victor Hugo |
| =80 | The Red and the Black | Stendhal |
Voters with the most books in common.