Best Novels

(since 1850 and only one per writer)

selected by piero scaruffi


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(The lists by language are more reliable ==>)
(Yes, some day i will merge them all together and update this page
and here is the merge for novels of the 20th century)
  1. Kafka: The Trial (1915)
  2. Bulgakov: The Master and Margherita (1940)
  3. Witkiewicz: Insatiability
  4. Mann T: Buddenbrooks (1901)
  5. James Henry: The Golden Bowl
  6. Bronte Emily:Wuthering Heights
  7. Nabokov Vladimir: Ada
  8. Pynchon Thomas: V
  9. Faulkner William: Light in August
  10. Stendhal: The Red and the Black (1830)
  11. Dostoevskij Fyodor: The Idiot (1869)
  12. Tolstoj Lev: Anna Karenina (1877)
  13. Gogol Nikolaj: Death Souls (1852)
  14. Goncarov Ivan: Oblomov (1859)
  15. Cortazar Julio: Rayuela (1963)
  16. Zola Emile: Germinal (1885)
  17. Flaubert Gustave: Madame Bovary (1856)
  18. Carpentier: La Consagracion De La Primavera (1978)
  19. Abe Kobo: Suna Na Onn/ Woman in the Dunes (1962)
  20. VargasLlosa Mario: Casa Verde (1966)
  21. Musil: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften/ The Man Without Qualities(1933)
  22. Gombrowicz: Pornography (1960)
  23. Canetti: Autodafe (1935)
  24. Balzac Honore: Eugene Grandet (1833)
  25. PerezGaldos Benito: Nazarin (1895)
  26. Kis Danilo: Clessidra (1972)
  27. Svevo: Coscienza di Zeno (1923)
  28. Woolf Virginia: To the Lighthouse
  29. Gaddis William: The Recognitions
  30. Conrad Joseph: Nostromo
  31. Barth John: Giles Goat Boy
  32. Joyce James: Ulysses
  33. Andric: The Bridge on the Drina (1945)
  34. Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1985)
  35. Gide: Les Faux-Monnayeurs (1925)
  36. Gadda: Cognizione del DOlore (1963)
  37. Assis Machado: Memorias Postumas de Bras Cubas (1881)
  38. Pavese: Luna e i falo' (1950)
  39. Buzzati: Deserto dei tartari (1940)
  40. Unamuno: Nebla (1914)
  41. Singer IB: Moskat Family (1950)
  42. Oe Kenzaburo: Silent Cry (1967)
  43. Schnitzler: Doppio Sogno (1925)
  44. Lem: Solaris (1961)
  45. GarciaMarquez: Cien Anos de Soledad (1967)

Best novels in...:

  • Balkan
  • Baltic and Scandinavian
  • Bulgarian
  • Chinese
  • Czech
  • Dutch
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Hungarian
  • Indian
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Persian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Serbocroatian
  • Spanish
  • Arabic/Hebrew/Turkish
  • Ancient
  • ...see the full list...