Happy Bloomsday

In 1998, the Modern Library polled its editors and produced a list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Number one, as you can see, was Ulysses by James Joyce, a novel set on one day, June 16, 1904. Hence, Bloomsday in honor of the novel’s protagonist, Leopold Bloom. The day is widely celebrated with readings, pub crawls and other good times.

  1. ULYSSES by James Joyce
  2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
  4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
  5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
  6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
  7. CATCH-22
  8. DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
  9. SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
  10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
  11. UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
  12. THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
  13. 1984 by George Orwell
  14. I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
  15. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
  16. AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
  17. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
  18. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
  19. INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
  20. NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
  21. HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
  22. APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O’Hara
  23. U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
  24. WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
  25. A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
  26. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
  27. THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
  28. TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  29. THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
  30. THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
  31. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
  32. THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
  33. SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
  34. A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
  35. AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
  36. ALL THE KING’S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
  37. THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
  38. HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
  39. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
  40. THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
  41. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
  42. DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
  43. A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
  44. POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
  45. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
  46. THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
  47. NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
  48. THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
  49. WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
  50. TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
  51. THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
  52. PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
  53. PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
  54. LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
  55. ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
  56. THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
  57. PARADE’S END by Ford Madox Ford
  58. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
  59. ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
  60. THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
  61. DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
  62. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
  63. THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
  64. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
  65. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
  66. OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
  67. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
  68. MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
  69. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
  70. THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
  71. A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
  72. A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
  73. THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
  74. A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
  75. SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
  76. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
  77. FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
  78. KIM by Rudyard Kipling
  79. A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
  80. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
  81. THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
  82. ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
  83. A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
  84. THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
  85. LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
  86. RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
  87. THE OLD WIVES’ TALE by Arnold Bennett
  88. THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
  89. LOVING by Henry Green
  90. MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
  91. TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
  92. IRONWEED by William Kennedy
  93. THE MAGUS by John Fowles
  94. WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
  95. UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
  96. SOPHIE’S CHOICE by William Styron
  97. THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
  98. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
  99. THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
  100. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington

31 thoughts on “Happy Bloomsday”

  1. The sad news is I consider myself fairly well read and I’ve only read six….and those six were only because I was forced to by the powers that be at Albuquerque Public Schools.

    Oh, I take that back….I read The Sun Also Rises because it is one of my husband’s favorites. Other than that…..

  2. I count 16, pathetic enough but made worse by the fact that I’m not sure on a few others.

  3. 23, but I’d like to remove several. An odd number are/were science fiction at the time, but now classics?

    If I could get Catcher in the Rye out I’d use a hot iron ; ),
    And to see Ulysses at the top is like finding Art by the Yard in a museum.

    And there is a dreadful list of stories in there whose only attribute is being miserable: Under the Volcano to wit.

    And apparently being a Joseph Conrad and Jack London fan helped a lot.

    Good to see Robert Penn Warren – but fiction?

  4. Emmett – there are MANY on the list I take issue with…..MANY.

    Your comment about the Sci Fi items on the list is rather valid.

    Also, I share your feelings on Catcher in the Rye. I thought I was the only one in the world vehemently at a “no” in regards to that book.

    Also…the Grapes of Wrath is a truly crap novel. Colloquial of the time but NOT GREAT FICTION. I think people put it on lists because they think they have to. Cannery Row or The Pearl are FAR better books by the same author!

  5. Well OK – if we are going to thread-jack here

    Joseph Conrad and Jack London were assigned to kids (teens?) and appropriately so, ….

    I guess my problem is Baldwin’s Go Tell it on the Mountain – earthshaking LITrature

    A Passage to India, bosom-clutching little “r” romance.

    But verily – both fiction.

  6. The top three of the readers’ poll they conducted at the same time were ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand, THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand and BATTLEFIELD EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard.

  7. Gotta figure out how to get the coffee outta the key board now.

    I enjoyed Rand, when I was thirteen.

    And Hubbard we don’t need to touch on.

  8. I am a voracious reader, but sadly, I can only count 10 or 12 from this list that I’ve read. Many of those titles are just not books I would ever want to read, despite that some group of scholars and/or editors somewhere thinks they are the best novels. Considering each/most of the ones I have read, I’d have to say I have read many other books I thought were far better. I think that some of those titles get on there because someone had to read them when they were in high school or college, and the books made an impact on their impressionable minds, and hence the book found a place in their imagination/memory as one of the greatest books. I think, if some of those folks went back and re-read some of those same books, they would discover that the books aren’t as great as they remembered them. I believe Catcher in the Rye falls into that category. When I was 16 it was awesome. At 36, and hundreds (if not thousands) of books later, I was not nearly as impressed.

    My personal list would have to include, among many others, and in no particular order:

    Lonesome Dove
    Sho-Gun
    Lord of the Rings (the trilogy)
    A Prayer for Owen Meany
    To Kill a Mockingbird (for its simple eloquence)
    The Color Purple
    The Mists of Avalon
    Dune

  9. I hated Catcher in The Rye. And I didn’t really like The Heart of Darkness much either.

    I agree with Lonesome Dove, Shogun, Lord of The Rings, To Kill a Mocking bird and Dune as all being worthy of being on that list.

  10. Any list of best novels is likely to be debated.

    What do you think the selection criteria should be?

    What makes a book one of your best? Or not?

  11. I simply don’t understand how a list of best American novels can fail to include Sinclair Lewis’s Babbit. That may be the most American book of all. Also, why is Catch-22 the only book without an author? Granted, it’s kind of sloppy and seems a little bit like it was written by a staff, but you’d think Joe Heller would rate at least a mention.

    And stop me if I missed something, but was Huck Finn missing from the list? Doesn’t that automatically make the list invalid in any way, shape or form?

  12. The Modern Library list is for the 20th century. Huck Finn was published in 1884.

    I read it again recently (mostly on my iPhone). It is still the preeminent American novel I believe.

  13. “And stop me if I missed something, but was Huck Finn missing from the list? Doesn’t that automatically make the list invalid in any way, shape or form?”

    Yes. Thanks for pointing out that omission.

  14. My criteria includes (but is not limited to): character development (Lonesome Dove), plot intricacies (Sho-Gun), epic scope (Lord of the Rings), social relevance (To Kill a Mockingbird, Color Purple), generational representation (Owen Meany), and possibly most important, an interesting plot that not only keeps me turning the pages for hours on end at the expense of sleep or anything else I should be doing, but makes me languish and ache for more when it ends. (Although sequels don’t usually rise to the occasion, as with Dune or Mists of Avalon.)

  15. Ok, I’ll be the one to point out that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written in the 19th Century.

  16. When my wife and I were dating she asked me why I liked her. I said,”I don’t know why I like ice cream, but I know I like ice cream.” She accepted that answer.

    I feel the same way about music and literature. What is good? That which speaks to me on some deeper level. When it’s good I like it.

    I’ve read enough to judge what is good and what is bad. There is no need to convince anyone else. When you read something you might like it and you might not.

    These lists serve no other purpose than to instigate dialog, which is in itself a good purpose.

  17. My bad. NMK pointed out in comment 12 that Huck Finn was ineligible. Sorry for the redundancy.

  18. But in addition to being well crafted – shouldn’t a “Best of ” list also require something is being said that transcends the actual plot and characters? Either transcends the period to say something about people?

    Speaking of which – where is Mark Helprin? Umberto Eco?

    And I don’t read fiction – fiction readers can probably come up with way more.

  19. Me: “And stop me if I missed something, but was Huck Finn missing from the list? Doesn’t that automatically make the list invalid in any way, shape or form?”

    SnoLepard (who said it second but sounds sexier than NMK): “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written in the 19th Century.”

    Stop me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t my apparent inability to read make my criticism invalid in any way, shape and form?

  20. These comments are so much fun.

    Especially the one in which SnoLepard’s wife asks him why he likes her.

    We women always want (need) to know that, don’t we? It really is important to us. Men so don’t care.

    She likes me!

    Really? Why?

    Don’t know! Don’t care! She likes me! Woohoo!

    ;D

  21. Actually Tom, your point of view on these kinds of lists and the books on them would be very interesting I’m certain.

  22. Elise,
    We are just SO thrilled we knock wood and REFUSE to question it further lest you begin to wonder too. ; )

    So yeah – lets hear it for WooHoo!

  26. Shoot. I thought he was a girl. I mean, SnoLepard is kind of a girl’s name. I was imagining…well, it’s none of your business what I was imagining.

    Now I’m going to have to go read some Hemingway.

  27. Tom, read Peter Matthiesen while you’re at it. Specifically, The Snow Leopard.”

    And by the way; my wife’s second oldest sister is also Tom.

  28. Wow. Gay marriage has really screwed this country up. Next thing your going to tell me George Elliot was a girl!

  30. And not only that but I keep forgetting to list The Poisonwood Bible as deserving a space on this list.

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