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100 novels everyone should read
The Telegraph, 2009. A critics list, ranked. See the original list
We use only the titles, authors and places from this list. 98 novels from it are in The Novel Index.
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The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Laurence Sterne, 1759
On 7 of the 13 lists it was eligible for
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The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886
On 2 of the 13 lists it was eligible for
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The Dream of the Red Chamber
Cao Xueqin, 1792
On 1 of the 10 lists it was eligible for
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Waiting for the Mahatma
RK Narayan, 1955
On 1 of the 16 lists it was eligible for
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The Three Musketeers
Alexandre Dumas, 1844
On 1 of the 10 lists it was eligible for
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The Sorrows of Young Werther
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774
On 1 of the 10 lists it was eligible for
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The Home and the World
Rabindranath Tagore, 1916
On 1 of the 11 lists it was eligible for
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The lists that agree with this one most
| List | Books in common |
|---|---|
| The 100 greatest novels of all time (The Observer, 2003) | 43 |
| Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026) | 42 |
| The 100 best novels of all time (The Guardian, 2026) | 35 |
| The 100 best novels written in English (The Guardian / Observer, 2015) | 35 |
| Bokklubben World Library (Norwegian Book Clubs, 2002) | 27 |