Novels first published in the 1970s hold 74 places on the 15 all-time lists. The 1960s hold 133 and the 1980s 130. The dip shows up in ten of the 15 lists taken one at a time, and not one 1970s novel reaches the All-Time Canon.
Source: The Novel Index, from 15 all-time lists: Guardian 2026, Guardian (McCrum) 2015, Observer 2003, BBC Culture 2015, BBC Arts 2019, Telegraph 2009, Time 2005, Modern Library 1998, Bokklubben World Library 2002, Le Monde 1999, Big Read 2003, Guardian readers 2026, Big Jubilee Read 2022, Great American Read 2018, Amazon UK 2014.Download image (PNG)The numbers behind the chart
Decade
Places
Books
All-Time Canon
Essential
Acclaimed
Rising Star
On 2+ lists, no tier
On one list only
Before 1800
43
14
20
12
5
0
0
6
1800s
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1810s
33
8
24
4
0
0
2
3
1820s
2
2
0
0
0
0
0
2
1830s
7
4
0
3
2
0
0
2
1840s
41
12
29
4
0
0
2
6
1850s
28
11
12
4
5
0
2
5
1860s
40
11
30
0
4
0
4
2
1870s
28
10
18
0
3
0
2
5
1880s
17
8
5
0
5
0
4
3
1890s
35
14
12
9
0
0
8
6
1900s
42
21
0
4
17
0
12
9
1910s
43
22
6
5
15
0
4
13
1920s
109
45
40
23
7
0
14
25
1930s
107
47
16
29
16
0
23
23
1940s
81
37
19
15
19
0
6
22
1950s
152
72
51
17
32
0
13
39
1960s
133
61
35
23
23
0
16
36
1970s
74
43
0
6
36
0
13
19
1980s
130
71
25
14
30
0
27
34
1990s
102
67
0
14
19
0
30
39
2000s
93
57
29
14
14
0
17
19
2010s
32
31
1
3
0
7
4
17
2020s
6
6
0
0
0
4
1
1
How we made this
One place is one book on one list. We used the 15 lists of the best novels across many decades: critics' lists, readers' polls and a bookseller's list. The two lists of 21st-century books are left out, since they would pile up the newest decades. Each book sits in the decade it was first published.
Seven of the lists were made before 2010, too early for most books from the 2000s on, which is part of why the columns fall away after the 1980s. The colours show each book's tier on The Novel Index, so a column's height is how often the lists chose that decade, and its colours show how strongly they agree on its books.
