The Guardian's 1000 novels everyone must read

In January 2009, the Guardian's Review team and a panel of expert judges built up a list of the best novels from any decade and in any language.

Comedy

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis Money by Martin Amis The Information by Martin Amis The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes Augustus Carp, Esq. by Himself: Being the Autobiography of a Really Good Man by Henry Howarth Bashford Molloy by Samuel Beckett Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett Queen Lucia by EF Benson The Ascent of Rum Doodle by WE Bowman A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury No Bed for Bacon by Caryl Brahms and SJ Simon Illywhacker by Peter Carey A Season in Sinji by JL Carr The Harpole Report by JL Carr The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin Just William by Richmal Crompton The Provincial Lady by EM Delafield Slouching Towards Kalamazoo by Peter De Vries The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens Jacques the Fatalist and his Master by Denis Diderot A Fairy Tale of New York by JP Donleavy The Commitments by Roddy Doyle Ennui by Maria Edgeworth Cheese by Willem Elsschot Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding Caprice by Ronald Firbank Bouvard et Pcuchet by Gustave Flaubert Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn The Polygots by William Gerhardie Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame Brewster's Millions by Richard Greaves (George Barr McCutcheon) Squire Haggard's Journal by Michael Green Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House by Eric Hodgkins High Fidelity by Nick Hornby I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal The Lecturer's Tale by James Hynes Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood The Mighty Walzer Howard by Jacobson Pictures from an Institution by Randall Jarrell Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome Finnegans Wake by James Joyce The Castle by Franz Kafka Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane (Gil Blas) Alain-Ren Lesage Changing Places by David Lodge Nice Work by David Lodge The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay England, Their England by AG Macdonell Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf by David Madsen Cakes and Ale - Or, the Skeleton in the Cupboard by W Somerset Maugham Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney Puckoon by Spike Milligan The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills Charade by John Mortimer Titmuss Regained by John Mortimer Under the Net by Iris Murdoch

Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul The Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin La Disparition by Georges Perec Les Revenentes by Georges Perec La Vie Mode d'Emploi by Georges Perec My Search for Warren Harding by Robert Plunkett A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell Excellent Women by Barbara Pym Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler Alms for Oblivion by Simon Raven Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth The Westminster Alice by Saki The Unbearable Bassington by Saki Hurrah for St Trinian's by Ronald Searle Great Apes by Will Self Porterhouse Blue by Tom Sharpe Blott on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe Office Politics by Wilfrid Sheed Belles Lettres Papers: A Novel by Charles Simmons Moo by Jane Smiley Topper Takes a Trip by Thorne Smith The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett The Adventures of Roderick Random by Tobias Smollett The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollett The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne White Man Falling by Mike Stocks Handley Cross by RS Surtees A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift Penrod by Booth Tarkington The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell Tropic of Ruislip by Leslie Thomas A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

Venus on the Half-Shell by Kilgore Trout The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh Scoop by Evelyn Waugh The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh The Life and Loves of a She-Devil by Fay Weldon Tono Bungay by HG Wells Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson Something Fresh by PG Wodehouse Piccadilly Jim by PG Wodehouse Thank You Jeeves by PG Wodehouse Heavy Weather by PG Wodehouse The Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse Joy in the Morning by PG Wodehouse

Crime

The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren Fantomas by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler Journey into Fear by Eric Ambler The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster Trent's Last Case by EC Bentley The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake Lady Audley's Secret by Mary E Braddon The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan Greenmantle by John Buchan The Asphalt Jungle by WR Burnett The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain Double Indemnity by James M Cain True History of the Ned Kelly Gang by Peter Carey The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler No Orchids for Miss Blandish by James Hadley Chase The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton Poetic Justice by Amanda Cross The Ipcress File by Len Deighton Last Seen Wearing by Colin Dexter The Remorseful Day by Colin Dexter Ratking by Michael Dibdin Dead Lagoon by Michael Dibdin Dirty Tricks by Michael Dibdin A Rich Full Death by Michael Dibdin Vendetta by Michael Dibdin Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas The Pledge by Friedrich Durrenmatt The Crime of Father Amado by Jos Maria de Ea de Queiroz The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis LA Confidential by James Ellroy The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy A Quiet Belief in Angels by RJ Ellory Sanctuary by William Faulkner Casino Royale by Ian Fleming Goldfinger by Ian Fleming You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene The Third Man by Graham Greene A Time to Kill by John Grisham The King of Torts by John Grisham Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett Fatherland by Robert Harris Black Sunday by Thomas Harris Red Dragon by Thomas Harris Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V Higgins Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith Bones and Silence by Reginald Hill A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles Silence of the Grave by Arnadur Indridason Death at the President's Lodging by Michael Innes Cover Her Face by PD James A Taste for Death by PD James Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman Misery by Stephen King Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King Kim by Rudyard Kipling The Constant Gardener by John le Carre Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 52 Pick-up by Elmore Leonard Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum Cop Hater by Ed McBain No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy Enduring Love by Ian McEwan Sidetracked by Henning Mankell Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley The Great Impersonation by E Phillips Oppenheim The Strange Borders of Palace Crescent by E Phillips Oppenheim

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk Toxic Shock by Sara Paretsky Blacklist by Sara Paretsky Nineteen Seventy Four by David Peace Nineteen Seventy Seven by David Peace The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos Hard Revolution by George Pelecanos Lush Life by Richard Price The Godfather by Mario Puzo V by Thomas Pynchon The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon Black and Blue by Ian Rankin The Hanging Gardens by Ian Rankin Exit Music by Ian Rankin Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell Live Flesh by Ruth Rendell Dissolution by CJ Sansom Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Le Sayers The Madman of Bergerac by Georges Simenon The Blue Room by Georges Simenon The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout Perfume by Patrick Suskind The Secret History by Donna Tartt The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey The Getaway by Jim Thompson Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine A Fatal inversion by Barbara Vine King Solomon's Carpet by Barbara Vine The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace Fingersmith by Sarah Waters Native Son by Richard Wright Therese Raquin by Emile Zola

Family and self

The Face of Another by Kobo Abe Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood Epileptic by David B

Room Temperature by Nicholson Baker Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac Le Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac The Crow Road by Iain Banks The L Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks Fun Home by Alison Bechdel Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett A Legacy by Sybille Bedford Herzog by Saul Bellow Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett G by John Berger Extinction by Thomas Bernhard Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles Any Human Heart by William Boyd The Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch Evelina by Fanny Burney The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler The Sound of my Voice by Ron Butlin The Outsider by Albert Camus Wise Children by Angela Carter The Professor's House by Willa Cather The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever The Awakening by Kate Chopin Les Enfants Terrible by Jean Cocteau The Vagabond by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette Manservant and Maidservant by Ivy Compton-Burnett Being Dead by Jim Crace Quarantine by Jim Crace The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir Roxana by Daniel Defoe Great Expectations by Charles Dickens The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky My New York Diary by Julie Doucet The Millstone by Margaret Drabble My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell Silence by Shusaku Endo The Gathering by Anne Enright Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner The Sportswriter by Richard Ford Howards End by EM Forster Spies by Michael Frayn Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud

The Man of Property by John Galsworthy Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell The Immoralist by Andre Gide The Vatican Cellars by Andre Gide The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene Hunger by Knut Hamsun The Shrimp and the Anemone by LP Hartley The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse Narziss and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse The Three Paradoxes by Paul Hornschemeier Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving The Ambassadors by Henry James Washington Square by Henry James The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins The Unfortunates by BS Johnson A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce Ulysses by James Joyce Good Behaviour by Molly Keane Memet my Hawk by Yasar Kemal One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing How Green was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn Martin Eden by Jack London Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz The Assistant by Bernard Malamud Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann The Chateau by William Maxwell The Rector's Daughter by FM Mayor The Ordeal of Richard Feverek by George Meredith Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch

The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul At-Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness by Kezaburo Oe The Moviegoer by Walker Percy The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok The Good Companions by JB Priestley The Shipping News by E Annie Proulx Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust A Married Man by Piers Paul Read Pointed Roofs by Dorothy Richardson The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney by Henry Handel Richardson Call it Sleep by Henry Roth Julie, ou la Nouvelle Heloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth Unless by Carol Shields We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver The Three Sisters by May Sinclair The Family Moskat or The Manor or The Estate by Isaac Bashevis Singer A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley On Beauty by Zadie Smith The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead East of Eden by John Steinbeck Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield Confessions of Zeno by Italo Svevo The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington Angel by Elizabeth Taylor Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend Death in Summer by William Trevor Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev Peace in War by Miguel de Unamuno The Rabbit Omnibus by John Updike The Color Purple by Alice Walker Jimmy Corrigan, The Smarest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware Morvern Callar by Alan Warner The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West Frost in May by Antonia White The Tree of Man by Patrick White

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson I'll Go to Bed at Noon by Gerard Woodward To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

Love

Le Grand Meaulnes by Henri Alain-Fournier Dom Casmurro Joaquim by Maria Machado de Assis Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Mansfield Park by Jane Austen Emma by Jane Austen Persuasion by Jane Austen Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin Nightwood by Djuna Barnes The Garden of the Finzi-Cortinis by Giorgio Bassani Love for Lydia by HE Bates More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow Lorna Doone by RD Blackmore The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Vilette by Charlotte Bronte Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Look At Me by Anita Brookner Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown Possession by AS Byatt Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey A Month in the Country by JL Carr My Antonia by Willa Cather A Lost Lady by Willa Cather Claudine a l'ecole by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette Cheri by Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette Victory: An Island Tale by Joseph Conrad The Princess of Cleves by Madame de Lafayette The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier The Lover by Marguerite Duras Adam Bede by George Eliot Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford A Room with a View by EM Forster The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell Strait is the Gate by Andre Gide Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang Goethe Living by Henry Green The End of the Affair by Graham Greene The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy The Go-Between by LP Hartley The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway The Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest by WH Hudson Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro Portrait of a Lady by Henry James The Wings of the Dove by Henry James The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek Beauty and Saddness by Yasunari Kawabata The Far Pavillions by Mary Margaret Kaye Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis Moon over Africa by Pamela Kent The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre-Ambroise-Francois Choderlos de Laclos Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence The Rainbow by DH Lawrence Women in Love by DH Lawrence

The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos Zami by Audre Lorde Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie Samarkand by Amin Maalouf Death in Venice by Thomas Mann The Silent Duchess by Dacia Maraini A Heart So White by Javier Marias Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham So Long, See you Tomorrow by William Maxwell The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers Atonement by Ian McEwan The Child in Time by Ian McEwan The Egoist by George Meredith Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami Lolita, or the Confessions of a White Widowed Male by Vladimir Nabokov The Painter of Signs by RK Narayan Delta of Venus by Anais Nin All Souls Day by Cees Nooteboom The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson Pamela by Samuel Richardson Clarissa by Samuel Richardson Gilead by Marilynne Robinson Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan Ali and Nino by Kurban Said Light Years by James Salter A Sport and a Passtime by James Salter The Reader by Benhardq Schlink The Reluctant Orphan by Aara Seale Love Story by Eric Segal Enemies, a Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer At Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann Waterland by Graham Swift Diary of a Mad Old Man by Junichiro Tanizaki Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Music and Silence by Rose Tremain First Love by Ivan Turgenev Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler The Night Watch by Sarah Waters The Graduate by Charles Webb The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton The Passion by Jeanette Winterson East Lynne by Ellen Wood Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates