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Ultimate Best Books

All :: Novels

    Kim

    Kim

    Rudyard Kipling

    3.17 (6)

    He sat, in defiance of municipal orders, astride the gun Zam-Zammah on her brick platform opposite the old Ajaib-Gher - the Wonder House, as the natives call the Lahore Museum.

    #227
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    2,977
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    Brighton Rock

    Brighton Rock

    Graham Greene

    4.25 (4)

    Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.Hale knew they meant to murder him before he had been in Brighton three hours. [1956 ed.]

    #274
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    2,140
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    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    Ken Kesey

    4.5 (16)

    "They're out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them."They're out there.

    #59
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    11,873
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    The Adventures of Augie March

    The Adventures of Augie March

    Saul Bellow

    4.0 (1)

    I am an American, Chicago born–Chicago, that somber city–and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; and sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent.

    #383
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    1,326
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    A Bend in the River

    A Bend in the River

    V. S. Naipaul

    3.33 (3)

    "The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it."

    #379
    RANK
    1,340
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    The Hound of the Baskervilles

    The Hound of the Baskervilles

    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    4.22 (18)

    Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a “Penang lawyer.” Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. “To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.,” was engraved upon it, with the date “1884.” It was just such a stick as the old-fashioned family practitioner used to carry—dignified, solid, and reassuring.

    #60
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    11,643
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    Housekeeping

    Housekeeping

    Marilynne Robinson

    3.75 (4)

    My name is Ruth.

    #334
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    1,698
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    Sophie's Choice

    Sophie's Choice

    William Styron

    3.0 (1)

    In those days cheap apartments were almost impossible to find in Manhattan, so I had to move to Brooklyn.

    #173
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    4,348
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    Ethan Frome

    Ethan Frome

    Edith Wharton

    3.86 (7)

    I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. (Author's Introductory Note)The village lay under two feet of snow, with drifts at the windy corners.

    #156
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    4,780
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    Buddenbrooks

    Buddenbrooks

    Thomas Mann

    3.67 (3)

    #404
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    1,162
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