Literary pretensions, or, How many novels I've read from the Guardian's 100 Best Novels of All Time

I'm one-quarter educated.

Before we get started let me say that I have no particular love for the Guardian. I'm a big lefty in my own idiosyncratic way, so of course if I had to choose between reading that and anything from the Murdoch press obviously I'd go the Guardian, but then again I'd probably rather run headfirst into a wall than deliberately expose myself to the eye-rollingly transparent editorial position of Uncle Rupert's fish and chip wrappers. On the other hand whenever I see Guardian headlines it's a struggle not to think "c'mon guys, you're playing your hand a bit openly here too." But all that notwithstanding, a friend told me that the paper in question had just released its list of "The 100 best novels of all time" (as chosen by amalgamating the votes of a swathe of authors and critics and other learned people), so because I'm very secure in my own intelligence I immediately scoured the list to see which ones I'd read myself. Here they are with their corresponding spot in the rank, as of the 20th of May 2026.

3. Ulysses 

Hey, I got one in the top three. Nice.

Reading Ulysses as a twenty year old undergraduate who wanted to do anything but study was not the best time to read Joyce's modernist masterpiece, and I basically struggled through it over a semester just so that I could say that I'd done it, but in retrospect I respect this one a lot and ought to reread it one day.

4. To the Lighthouse

Another one in the top five. Go me.

The first Woolf I ever read, I think, except maybe for a short story or two. The "free indirect discourse" technique is incredibly effective at conveying a scene, and the transition of time between the two parts of the novel is done to great effect.

9. Pride and Prejudice

The first Austen I read. Great stuff. Darcy's completely insulting declaration of love to Elizabeth has always stuck with me.

11. The Great Gatbsy

It's really about Nick, isn't it? Liked it when I was forced to read it at high school, liked it when I re read it voluntarily years later.

14. Mrs Dalloway

Another hit from Woolf. I can picture that plane flying over the park now.

15. Moby-Dick

Genius. And even though I swear I've read the whole thing, the bit I think of the most is Ishmael and Queequeg early on tucking into their dinners "with great expedition". Lovely.

16. Nineteen Eighty-Four

One of my favourite novels of all time. It's not really about the Soviet Union, though, you know? It's about Britain during and just after the war. And The Managerial Revolution by James Burnham. And a whole host of other things.

17. One Hundred Years of Solitude

The only Marquez I've read thus far. It's beautiful, the ending is breathtaking, and the bit where it rains non stop for nearly five years gets into my head every time we have a mildly extended wet spell in Sydney.

20. Wuthering Heights

I'm amused that this has this perception in popular culture by people who haven't read it as this spellbinding romance when really it's about a guy ruining everyone else's life out of revenge because he didn't get to marry his stepsister.

24. The Remains of the Day

Not my favourite Ishiguro; that would be The Unconsoled. But its protagonit is all too relatable and the ending is intensely bittersweet.

29. Pale Fire

The second Nabokov I've read. This novel is incredible. The poem on its own is great and delving into the mind of the deranged Kinbote is disturbingly compelling.

30. Frankenstein

It's great but I haven't read it in so long. It's curious how unlike it is to almost all of its adaptations.

35. Great Expectations

The first Dickens I read. Pip's another relatable protagonist. Not sure which ending I prefer.

41. Heart of Darkness

As I always say, I didn't enjoy actually reading this during high school but when I finished it I thought "oh wait, that was really good." I need to re read it one of these days.

48. The Metamorphosis

Embarrassingly the only Kafka I've read in full. Need to read more of his stuff.

59. Never Let Me Go

To be honest I didn't really rate this, but I also read it in one night to prepare for a job interview at which I thought I was going to need to know it (don't ask).

69. Crime and Punishment

Another one where I feel like all I can say is "it's great". Svidrigailov's dream and the moment in which Porfiry reveals that he basically knew it was Raskolnikov the whole time both really stand out.

76. Dracula

Maybe the only piece of borderline popular fiction on the list?

80. Rebecca

So good.

83. A Farewell to Arms

One of the most depressing endings to a novel I've ever read. Loved it.

84. The Talented Mr Ripley

I guess this is also borderline popular fiction. It is gripping. Ripley reminds me a little too much of people I've actually known in real life.

86. The Turn of the Screw

Really good, but Henry James's style sure takes some getting used to.

93. Invisible Cities

Barely a novel, but I was pleased to see some Calvino on there. I love this book.

98. The Road

Considered one of the best novels of the twenty-first century very deservedly.

99. The Go-Between

A teacher got a group of us to read this at school for some reason. I think I found it basically just as distressing as its narrator.

25 out of 100's not too bad, eh? Here are the ones I've partly read:

1. Middlemarch

Does reading the first page count? I thought "I want to read this but I don't think I'm up for it right now." Must get back to it one of these days.

5. In Search of Lost Time

I would be astonished if the majority of voters for Á la recherche du temps perdu have read all seven volumes. I have a sneaking suspicion that Du côté de chez Swann is the real number 5. I've read most of that first volume but don't think I actually read it all; it was for a university course. Again, would like to get back one day.

7. War and Peace

As of time of writing, this is the novel I'm currently reading.

19. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

One I stalled out on early on for some reason. Another I want to get back to one day.

26. Don Quixote

I'm being very strict on myself by not including this in the first list because I've only read volume one, i.e. the original 1605 publication, and not the 1615 second volume. It's on the agenda but I needed a break in between.

27. The Trial

I don't know why I haven't finished this. Yet another I must get back to.

33. David Copperfield

A great novel, but also a long novel. I think I got about halfway through and got distracted by something else. Might get back to it at some point.

66. The Master and Margarita

Couldn't get into it for some reason. Need to give it another go.

67. The Man Without Qualities

Really fascinating insight into prewar Austria from a postwar perspective, but I was trying to rush through it for a uni course. Need to go back. 

95. The Return of the Native

Read some of it on a plane to the UK because I was for whatever reason going to Thomas Hardy's house and seeing the landscape which the opening describes immediately after landing. That at least helped my appreciation of that experience. Should give it another shot one day.

96. Pedro Páramo

Apparently I got more than half way through this so I don't know why I didn't finish it. I'll have to start it again from scratch.

97. Catch-22

Tried to read this too soon after reading Gravity's Rainbow. Another one I really ought to have read.

Speaking of Gravity's Rainbow, that's probably the one thing I'd probably swap in there ahead of some of the ones I've read. I'm glad to see Infinite Jest didn't make it. And I really ought to read Jane Eyre, Emma, Lolita, The Brothers Karamazov, The Sound and the Fury and Blood Meridian. At the very least I can be driven by the sweet motivation of getting to tell people I've read them.