Modern Library of America: 100 Best English-Language Novels of the 20th Century
The Fletcher Library owns nearly all of these titles and often has more than one edition or copy of a title. For a list of available titles please consult the annotated list below.
- A hyperlink is provided to just one copy (usually the most current or definitive edition) of the West-owned title. All titles with more than one edition available from the West Library are followed by an * (asterisk).
The Modern Library - 100 Best Novels list has been criticized for undervaluing women, minorities, and contemporary writers. For an example of an alternative list of "Top 100 Novels," please view The Radcliffe Publishing Course List.
- The two lists (Modern Library and Radcliffe) only agree on 47 titles - Titles Appearing on Both Lists.
Annotated List of Fletcher Library Holdings
Switch to the Annotated Radcliffe Publishing Course List.
1. Ulysses by James Joyce (1882-1941)*
PR6019 .O9 U4 1946 West Stacks
2. The Great Gatsby by F(rancis) Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)*
PS3511.I9 G7 1991 West Stacks
3. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (1882-1941)*
PR6019 .O9 P6 1964 West Stacks
4. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov (1899-1977)*
PS3527.A15 L6 West Stacks
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
PR6015.U9 B69 1946 West Stacks
6. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1897-1962)*
PS3511 .A86 S62 1956a West Stacks
7. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1923-1999)*
PS3558 .E476 C3 1961 West Stacks
8. Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler (1905-1983)*
PR6021.O4 D3 1941 West Stacks
9. Sons and Lovers by D(avid) H(erbert) Lawrence (1885-1930)*
PR6023.A96 S7 1962 West Stacks
10. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1902-1968)*
PS3537 .T3234 G8 1993 West Stacks
11. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry (1909-1957)
PR6023.O96 U5 1984 West Stacks
12. The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler (1835-1902)*
PR4349.B7 W3 1944 West Stacks
13. 1984 by George Orwell (1903-1950)*
PR6029 .R8 N49 1982 West Stacks
14. I, Claudis: From The Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born B.C. 10, Murdered and Deified A. D. 54 by Robert Graves (1895-1985)*
PR6013.R35 I2 1934 West Stacks
15. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)*
PR6045.O72 T6 1992 West Stacks
16. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)*
PS3507 .R55 A45 1956 West Stacks
17. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (1917-1967)
PS3525.A1772 H4 1967 West Stacks
18. Slaughterhouse-Five or, The Children's Crusade, a Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut (1922- )
PS3572 .O5 S58 West Stacks
19. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1914-1994)*
PS3555 .L625 I5 1952b West Stacks
20. Native Son by Richard Wright (1908-1960)
PS3545.R815 N25 1998 West Stacks
21. Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow (1915- )
PS3503 .E4488 H38 1959 West Stacks
22. Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara (1905-1970)*
PS3529.H29 A65 1934b West Stacks
23. U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos (1896-1970)*
Includes: The 42nd Parallel -- 1919 -- The Big Money
PS3507.O743 A6 1996 West Stacks
24. Winesburg, Ohio; A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941)*
PS3501.N4 W5 1919 West Stacks
25. A Passage to India by E(dward) M(organ) Forster (1879-1970)
PR6011 .O58 P3 1952 West Stacks
26. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James (1843-1916)
PS2116 .W5 1937 West Stacks
27. The Ambassadors by Henry James (1843-1916)
PS2116 .A5 1958 West Stacks
28. Tender is the Night by F(rancis) Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)*
PS3511 .I9 T4 1962 West Stacks
29. Studs Lonigan: a Trilogy by James T(homas) Farrell (1904-1979)
Includes: Young Lonigan -- The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan -- Judgment Day West Stacks
PS3511 .A738 S7 1978 West Stacks
30. The Good Solider: a Tale of Passion by Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939)
PR6011.O53 G5 1991 West Stacks
31. Animal Farm: a Fairy Story by George Orwell (1903-1950)*
PR6029.R8 A63 1995 West Stacks
32. The Golden Bowl by Henry James (1843-1916)
PS2116 .G6 1932 West Stacks
33. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)*
PS3507.R55 S5 1997 West Stacks
34. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966)
PR6045 .A97 H3 1945 West Stacks
353. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (1897-1962)*
PS3511.A86 A86 1957 West Stacks
36. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989)
PS3545.A748 A7 1996 West Stacks
37. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (1897-1975)*
PS3545.I345 .A6 1956 West Stacks
38. Howards End by E(dward) M(organ) Forster (1879-1970)*
PR6011.O58 H6 1996 West Stacks
39. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin (1924-1987)
PS3552 .A45 G56 1969 West Stacks
40. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene (1904-1991)
PR6013 .R44 1970 v.6 West Stacks
41. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1911-1993)
PR6013 .O35 L6 1962 West Stacks
42. Deliverance by James Dickey (1923-1997)
PS3554 .I32 D4 West Stacks
43. A Dance to the Music of Time (series) by Anthony Powell (1905-2000)
Books Do Furnish a Room PR6031 .O74 B6 1971b West Stacks
Hearing Secret Harmonies PR6031.O74 H43 1976 West Stacks
Note: other parts of this series are available from the Hayden Library.
44. Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)*
PR6015.U9 P6x 1928 West Stacks
45. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
PS3515.E37 S9 1954 West Stacks
46. The Secret Agent: a Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)*
PR6005.O4 S42 1924b West Stacks
47. Nostromo: a Tale of the Seaboard by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
PR6005.O4 N593 1924 West Stacks
48. The Rainbow by D(avid) H(erbert) Lawrence (1885-1930)
PR6023.A93 R3563 2002 West Stacks
49. Women in Love by D(avid) H(erbert) Lawrence (1885-1930)*
PR6023.A93 W6 1931 West Stacks
50. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1891-1980)
PS3525.I5454 T7 1987 West Stacks
51. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (1923- )*
PS3525 .A4152 N3 West Stacks
52. Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth (1933- )
PS3568 .O855 P6 1969 West Stacks
53. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)*
PS3527 .A15 P3 West Stacks
54. Light in August by William Faulkner (1897-1962)
PS3511 .A86 L5 1950 West Stacks
55. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
PS3521.E735 O5 1991 West Stacks
56. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961)
PS3515.A4347 M3 1930 West Stacks
57. Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939)
Includes: Some Do Not -- No More Parades -- A Man Could Stand Up -- The Last Post
PR6011 .O53 P3 1961 West Stacks
58. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1862-1937)*
PS3545.H16 A7 1920 West Stacks
59. Zuleika Dobson: Or An Oxford Love Story by Max Beerbohm (1872-1956)
PR6003.E4 Z45 1946 West Stacks
60. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (1916-1990)
PS3566 .E6912 M65 1962 West Stacks
61. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (1873-1947)
PS3505 .A87 D4 1999 West Stacks
62. From Here to Eternity by James Jones (1921-1977)
PS3560.O49 F7 1951 West Stacks
63. The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever (1912-1982)
PS3505 .H6428 W3 1957 West Stacks
64. The Catcher in the Rye by J(erome) D(avid) Salinger (1919- )
PS3537.A426 C3 1951 West Stacks
65. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1917-1993)
PR6052.U638 C55 1963b West Stacks
66. Of Human Bondage by W(illiam) Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)*
PR6025 .A86 O4 1936a West Stacks
67. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)*
PR6005.O4 H4 1999 West Stacks
68. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951)*
PS3523.E94 M2 1992 West Stacks
69. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (1862-1937) *
PS3545.H16 H68 1990 West Stacks
70. The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea by Lawrence Durell (1912-1990)
PR6007.U76 A73 1962 West Stacks
71. A High Wind in Jamaica (The Innocent Voyage) by Richard Hughes (1900-1976)
PR6015.U35 H54 1929b West Stacks
72. A House For Mr. Biswas by V(idiadhar) S(uragprasad) Naipaul (1932- )
PR9272.9.N32 H6 1983 West Stacks
73. The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West (1903-1940)*
PS3545.E8334 D3 1965 West Stacks
74. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
PS3515.E37 F3 1957b West Stacks
75. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966)
PR6045.A97 S36 1977 West Stacks
76. The Rime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1918- )
PR6037 .P29 P7 1962 West Stacks
77. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1882-1941)
PR6019.O9 F5 1959 West Stacks
78. Kim by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
PR4854 .K5 1901b West Stacks
79. A Room With a View by E(dward) M(organ) Forster (1879-1970)
PR6011.O58 R6 1976 West Stacks
80. Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966)
PR6045.A97 B75 1946 West Stacks
81. The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (1915- )
PS3503 .E4488 A64 West Stacks
82. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (1909-1993)
PS3537.T316 A8 2000 West Stacks
83. A Bend in the River by V(idiadhar) S(uragprasad) Naipaul (1932- )
PR9272.9 .N32 B4x 1979 West Stacks
84. The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973)
PR6003.O6757 D4 1975 West Stacks
85. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
PR6005.O4 L6 1958 West Stacks
86. Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow (1931- )
PS3554 .O3 R3 West Stacks
87. The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett (1867-1931)*
PR6003.E6 O4 1931 West Stacks
88. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1876-1916)
PS3523.O46 C3 1960b West Stacks
89. Loving by Henry Green (1905-1974)
PR6013 .R416 L6 1949 West Stacks
90. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (1947- )
PR6068.U757 M5 1995 West Stacks
91. Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell (1903-1987)
PS3505.A322 T6 1999 West Stacks
92. Ironweed by William Kennedy (1928- )
PS3561.E428 I7 1984 West Stacks
93. The Magus by John Fowles (1926- )
PR6056 .O85 M3 West Stacks
94. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (1890-1979)
PR6035.H96 W5 1999 West Stacks
95. Under the Net by Iris Murdoch (1919-1999)
PR6063 .U7 U5 West Stacks
96. Sophie's Choice by William Styron (1925- )
PS3569 .T9 S67 1979 West Stacks
97. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (1910-1999)
PS3552.O874 S5 1977 West Stacks
98. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M(allahan) Cain (1892-1977)
PS3505 .A3113 C3 1969 West Stacks
99. The Ginger Man by J(ames) P(atrick) Donleavy (1926- )
PS3507 .O686 G56 1988 West Stacks
100. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (1869-1946)
PS2972 .M25 1989 West Stacks
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