List :: 100 Best Novels by Modern Library

• 

  #1

  Ulysses

  by James Joyce

  (13 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 4

  925 points

  "Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed."

  

  I've Read It I Want To Read It
• 

  #2

  The Great Gatsby

  by F. Scott Fitzgerald

  (97 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 1

  994 points

  "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since."

  

  I've Read It I Want To Read It
• 

  #3

  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

  by James Joyce

  (9 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 30

  389 points

  "Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo...."

  

  I've Read It I Want To Read It
• 

  #4

  Lolita

  by Vladimir Nabokov

  (36 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 5

  856 points

  "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palette to tap, at three, on the teeth."

  

  I've Read It I Want To Read It
• 

  #5

  Brave New World

  by Aldous Huxley

  (30 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 13

  664 points

  "A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories."

  

  I've Read It I Want To Read It
• 

  #6

  The Sound and the Fury

  by William Faulkner

  (15 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 9

  703 points

  "Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting."

  

  I've Read It I Want To Read It
• 

  #7

  Catch-22

  by Joseph Heller

  (31 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 6

  823 points

  "It was love at first sight."

  

  I've Read It I Want To Read It
• 

  #8

  Darkness at Noon

  by Arthur Koestler

  (3 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 214

  93 points

  "The cell door slammed behind Rubashov."

  

  I've Read It I Want To Read It
• 

  #9

  Sons and Lovers

  by D. H. Lawrence

  (5 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 77

  232 points

  "The Bottoms" succeeded to "Hell Row."

  

  I've Read It I Want To Read It
• 

  #10

  The Grapes of Wrath

  by John Steinbeck

  (35 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 2

  963 points

  "To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth."

  

  I've Read It I Want To Read It