List :: 100 Greatest Novels of All Time by The Guardian

  • Don Quixote

    #1

    Don Quixote

    by Miguel de Cervantes

    (9 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 61

    291 points

    "Idle reader, you can believe without any oath of mine that I would wish this book, as the child of my brain, to be the most beautiful, the liveliest and the cleverest imaginable.Prologue: Idle..."

  • The Pilgrim's Progress

    #2

    The Pilgrim's Progress

    by John Bunyan

    (5 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 195

    99 points

    "As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep; and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream.(Introduction to the..."

  • The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

    #3

    The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

    by Daniel Defoe

    (10 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 88

    211 points

  • Gulliver's travels

    #4

    Gulliver's travels

    by Jonathan Swift

    (12 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 81

    225 points

    "My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five sons."

  • Tom Jones

    #5

    Tom Jones

    by Henry Fielding

    (3 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 68

    255 points

    "An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money."

  • Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady

    #6

    Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady

    by Samuel Richardson

    (4 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 85

    215 points

    "I am extremely concerned, my dearest friend, for the disturbances that have happened in your family."

  • The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

    #7

    The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

    by Laurence Sterne

    (4 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 74

    244 points

    "I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly considered how much...

  • Les Liaisons Dangereuses

    #8

    Les Liaisons Dangereuses

    by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

    (5 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 217

    93 points

    "Well, Sophie dear, as you see, I'm keeping my word and not spending all my time on bonnets and bows, I'll always have some to spare for you!"

  • Emma

    #9

    Emma

    by Jane Austen

    (17 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 54

    310 points

    "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the..."

  • Frankenstein

    #10

    Frankenstein

    by Mary Shelley

    (30 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 84

    219 points

    "You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.The event on which this fiction is founded has been..."