An article on the greatest novels of all time
I have read so many and written novels myself, but some novels out rightly stand out and seem to me the greatest and have never been surpassed by later writings. I have discussed the twenty greatest writers of all time elsewhere, and some of their works now feature on this list.
- Anna Karenina – Straight from the first sentence, this great novel by Count Tolstoy knocks you out as being different. It’s not about length, and neither is this verdict based on the many philosophical interlocutions that interrupt the storyline. The beauty of Tolstoy’s prose and his moral themes simply stand out.
- War and Peace – This is another voluminous piece of art from the respected count. I spend more than a month reading it and never regretted. It is simply great, and packed with so many ideas and characters that easily compete with true life itself.
- Crime and Punishment – Another Russian offering, this time from Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This is a great psychological narrative that nobody else other than Fyodor would have written.
- Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert’s novel is one of the best half dozen novels of all time, from whichever point you look at it. He should never have written anything else. I feel sorry for Bovary up to this minute.
- A la recherché du temps perdu – Marcel Proust’s effort couldn’t fail to make this list. Not when I am the author. Translated as In Search of time lost, this is simply great effort.
- The Tin Drum – This is the novel that catapulted Gunter Grass to fame. I doubt if he will ever write anything like it again. It perfectly paints the picture of the Nazi atrocities
- One hundred years of Solitude – One would easily start looking for Macondo on the map after reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez fictional offering.
- The Idiot – Another of Dostoyevsky’s important works. It is simply great and has the great psychological insight earlier mentioned.
- Buddenbrooks – Now this may be dismissed as a family lineage, but its literary importance can not be downplayed. Its kudos for Thomas Mann for this wonderful offering.
- Midnight’s Children – This novel fairly won the booker of the bookers and rightfully so. It’s Rushdie at his best.
- Satanic Verses – There is something about Rushdie and I. he seems to strike a cord deep within my soul. Forget the controversy, this is a great novel. The ayatollah should have read it rather that depend on fundamentalist critics.
- Disgrace – There seem to be no words with which to describe an atrocity such as rape, worse if this is ignited by nothing other than racial discrimination. Coetzee’s attempt is so touching.
- The Wizard of the crow – Ngugi has accomplished a task that has eluded so many writers on the black continent. This novel seems to sum up the finest of his writings. It’s the greatest attack on dictatorship by an African writer so far.
- Oryx and Crake – Like I confessed, all of Atwood’s novels seem to astound me. With this one, she seems to have done one better by fusing art with science and producing one big miracle. Good work.
- A House for Mr. Biswas – Naipaul should have stopped writing the moment he penned this novel. I simply love the theme.
- The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje’s efforts can not be ignored. He seems to have researched a lot when writing this important wartime novel. I can’t forget Hana, Caravaggio, and Almasy…
- The Eye of the Storm – The beauty of Patrick White’s prose and the strangeness of the characters he creates leaves me drooling. This and the Riders in a Chariot are my best.
- The Old Man and the Sea – I must confess I never loved the author but Ernest Hemingway’s best piece of art must surely make it to the top twenty.
- Lady Chatterley’s Lover – There is something about D.H. Lawrence and writing. I love the beauty of his descriptions but this tale happens to paint a writer at the height of his powers.
- Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov sums up my list of the greatest novels of all time. Not because he is Russian, but because this is a great story, full of feeling.
I have left many others out, not because they weren’t great, but because the list is limited to twenty great works of fiction. Not a hundred. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, Oliver Twist by Dickens, Two Thousand Seasons by Armah, The Sea, the sea by Iris Murdoch, Middlemarch by T.S. Eliot, Nostromo by Joseph Conrad, Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin, The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky and Riders in a Chariot by Patrick White. I don’t know how to rate Kafka’s Metamorphosis and The Trial. This is great literature!