The Modern Library Read Free Page A

reader as you would give to a friend going on a journey; 194 examples of the best novels and stories in English published during the last half of the twentieth century.
How to use this book
    All entries are alphabetical under the name of the author. Sometimes we have chosen a novel within a sequence, sometimes the sequence itself: the full work is detailed in both cases.
A note on this edition
    Our readers, all over the world, sent us thousands of entries for the final six titles for this book. The four most popular are included here. In order of popularity they read as follows: Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong , Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain , John Fowles’ The Magus – which beat his French Lieutenant’s Woman by a whisker – and Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy.
    We used our rights as authors to choose the last two: William Maxwell’s So Long , See You Tomorrow because it was a grave omission and authorial mistake of ours in the hardback edition, and Helen Garner’s The Children’s Bach because she topped the poll outside the world of British and American writers, who seem to dominate our readers’ tastes.

List of titles in order of publication
     
     
    1950
A Murder is Announced Agatha Christie
Nothing Henry Green
Power Without Glory Frank Hardy
The Grand Sophy Georgette Heyer
1951
December Bride Sam Hanna Bell
My Cousin Rachel Daphne du Maurier
The West Pier Patrick Hamilton
The Ballad of the Sad Café Carson McCullers
A Dance to theMusic of Time (1951–75 ) Anthony Powell
The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger
1952
Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway
The Natural Bernard Malamud
The Financial Expert R. K. Narayan
Wise Blood Flannery O’Connor
East of Eden John Steinbeck
The Sword of Honour Trilogy (1952–61) Evelyn Waugh
1953
Private Life of an Indian Prince Mulk Raj Anand
Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin
The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow
The Long Good-Bye Raymond Chandler
The Go-Between L. P. Hartley
The Echoing Grove Rosamond Lehmann
The Palm-Wine Drinkard Amos Tutuola
1954
Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis
Lord of the Flies William Golding
The Tortoise and the Hare Elizabeth Jenkins
The Flint Anchor Sylvia Townsend Warner
1955
The Molloy Trilogy (1955–58) Samuel Beckett
The Recognitions William Gaddis
The Talented Mr Ripley Patricia Highsmith
Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
1956
A Legacy Sybille Bedford
Train to Pakistan Khushwant Singh
1957
Owls Do Cry Janet Frame
On the Road Jack Kerouac
Angel Elizabeth Taylor
The Fountain Overflows Rebecca West
1958
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
Anecdotes of Destiny Isak Dinesen
From the Terrace John O’Hara
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe
1959
Naked Lunch William Burroughs
A Heritage and its History Ivy Compton-Burnett
The Little Disturbances of Man Grace Paley
1960
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
The Balkan Trilogy (1960–65) Olivia Manning
The Rabbit Quartet (1960–90) John Updike
Jeeves in the Offing P. G. Wodehouse
(US: How Right You Are, Jeeves )
1961
Catch-22 Joseph Heller
A House for Mr Biswas V. S. Naipaul
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark
Riders in the Chariot Patrick White
1962
That’s How it Was Maureen Duffy
The Reivers William Faulkner
The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing
The Lonely Girl Edna O’Brien
(renamed Girl with Green Eyes 1964)
Ship of Fools Katherine Anne Porter
1963
The Little Girls Elizabeth Bowen
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold John Le Carré
The Group Mary McCarthy
The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
1964
Herzog Saul Bellow
Heartland Wilson Harris
Last Exit to Brooklyn Hubert Selby Jr.
1965
Memoirs of a Peon Frank Sargeson The Interpreters Wole Soyinka
1966
The Magus John Fowles
A Jest of God Margaret Laurence
Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
The Jewel in the Crown Paul Scott
Cotters’ England Christina Stead
(US: Dark Places of the Heart 1967)
1967
The Confessions of Nat Turner William Styron
A Grain of Wheat Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
1968
In the Heart of the Heart of the Country William H. Gass
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