Well I’ve spun on Jay Z’s lyrics in the title of this piece I’ve long wanted to get hold of the book by Anthony Burgess the best 99 novels in English since 1939 . As a fan of Burgess own work , but also aware that he was quite the cultural commentator back in the day.I felt his choice of 99 novels maybe an interesting list to look at and to work through.I often say I want to try to add a few English novels and as I am of the opinion that nothing of any weight has been written since Burgess passed this looks like the list for me .The bold ones are books I own. I have read a number as well.
- Party Going, Henry Green
- After Many a Summer, Aldous Huxley
- Finnegans Wake, James Joyce
- At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O’Brien
1940
- The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene
- For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
- Strangers and Brothers (to 1970), C. P. Snow(most of these I have )
1941
- The Aerodrome, Rex Warner
1944
- The Horse’s Mouth, Joyce Cary
- The Razor’s Edge, Somerset Maugham
1945
- Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
-
1946
- Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake
1947
- The Victim, Saul Bellow
- Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry
1948
- The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene
- Ape and Essence, Aldous Huxley
- The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
- No Highway, Nevil Shute
-
1949
- The Heat of the Day, Elizabeth Bowen
- Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
- The Body, William Sansom
1950
- Scenes from Provincial Life, William Cooper
- The Disenchanted, Budd Schulberg
1951
- A Dance to the Music of Time (to 1975), Anthony Powell 3 of 4 collect vols
- The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger
- The Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight (to 1969), Henry Williamson
- The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk
1952
- Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
- The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
- The Groves of Academe, Mary McCarthy
- Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor
- Sword of Honour (to 1961), Evelyn Waugh
1953
- The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
1954
- Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis
1957
- Room at the Top, John Braine
- The Alexandria Quartet (to 1960), Lawrence Durrell
- The London Novels (to 1960), Colin MacInnes
- The Assistant, Bernard Malamud
1958
- The Bell, Iris Murdoch
- Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Alan Sillitoe
- The Once and Future King, T. H. White
1959
- The Mansion, William Faulkner
- Goldfinger, Ian Fleming
1960
- Facial Justice, L. P. Hartley
- The Balkans Trilogy (to 1965), Olivia Manning
1961
- The Mighty and Their Fall, Ivy Compton-Burnett
- Catch-22, Joseph Heller
- The Fox in the Attic, Richard Hughes
- Riders in the Chariot, Patrick White
- The Old Men at the Zoo, Angus Wilson
1962
- Another Country, James Baldwin
- An Error of Judgment, Pamela Hansford Johnson
- Island, Aldous Huxley
- The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
- Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
1963
- The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark
1964
- The Spire, William Golding
- Heartland, Wilson Harris
- A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood
- The Defence, Vladimir Nabokov
- Late Call, Angus Wilson
1965
- The Lockwood Concern, John O’Hara
- The Mandelbaum Gate, Muriel Spark
1966
- A Man of the People, Chinua Achebe
- The Anti-Death League, Kingsley Amis
- Giles Goat-Boy, John Barth
- The Late Bourgeois World, Nadine Gordimer
- The Last Gentleman, Walker Percy
1967
- The Vendor of Sweets, R. K. Narayan
1968
- The Image Men, J. B. Priestley
- Cocksure, Mordecai Richler
- Pavane, Keith Roberts
1969
- The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles
- Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth
1970
- Bomber, Len Deighton
1973
- Sweet Dreams, Michael Frayn
- Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
1975
- Humboldt’s Gift, Saul Bellow
- The History Man, Malcolm Bradbury
1976
- The Doctor’s Wife, Brian Moore
- Falstaff, Robert Nye
1977
- How to Save Your Own Life, Erica Jong
- Farewell Companions, James Plunkett
- Staying On, Paul Scott
1978
- The Coup, John Updike
1979
- The Unlimited Dream Company, J. G. Ballard
- Dubin’s Lives, Bernard Malamud
- A Bend in the River, V. S. Naipaul
- Sophie’s Choice, William Stryon
1980
- Life in the West, Brian Aldiss
- Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban
- How Far Can You Go?, David Lodge
- A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
1981
- Lanark, Alasdair Gray
- Darconville’s Cat, Alexander Theroux
- The Mosquito Coast, Paul Theroux
- Creation, Gore Vidal
1982
- The Rebel Angels, Robertson Davies
1983
- Ancient Evenings, Norman Mailer
So that is the list it is more than 99 novels aa a number of the books is a series of Novels like the Powell , Williamson and Snow all of which are ten or more novel series. So I plan to work through this over next few years as a challenge. Anyone else like this list ?
beckylindroos
Aug 10, 2016 @ 19:46:23
Rather ecclectic list, imo, with some surpring inclusions.I’ve read about 1/3 of them. I like the chronological format. I’m thinking of making my own list one of these days, but … so much to actually read! lol
kaggsysbookishramblings
Aug 10, 2016 @ 19:58:21
That’s an interesting list and I guess reflects the time he chose them. There are quite a lot I have and have read, and quite a few I’d like to revisit. If I had infinite time I’d quite like to read my way through the list chronologically!
BookerTalk
Aug 10, 2016 @ 20:10:07
I have had this book for about 10 years and its travelled with me through three house moves but I’ve yet to tackle the list in its entirety. It may be a project for next year
Anokatony
Aug 10, 2016 @ 20:25:54
I have this Anthony Burgess guide, but there is one guide that became my Bible as to modern literature over forty years ago. That book is “Who’s Who in Twentieth Century Literature” by Martin Seymour Smith. He wrote small opinion pieces on all of the writers that were prominent in the 20th century up to about 1975. I totally trusted his opinions and used his advice for selecting the novels I read. I still refer to this guide regularly.
Jonathan
Aug 10, 2016 @ 20:31:21
I read the Burgess book a year or so ago. It was ok but it was way too short with only a page devoted to each book.
Lisa Hill
Aug 11, 2016 @ 05:29:16
This list has been added to Goodreads Listopia and so I can see that I’ve read 25 of them plus A Dance to the Music of Time which is 4 books (or 12, depending on how you count them).
But although it has some interesting authors and titles, overall I don’t find it a very exciting list. The best in English seems to mean mostly male, and mostly from the US and UK with some tokens from the Commonwealth. All those fantastic feminist writers of the 70s and 80s don’t rate a mention…