10. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy
The Hitchhiker’s guide to Galaxy, written by Douglas Adams is a fictional guide for the hitch-hikers. It is a hilarious science fiction piece revolving around two friends Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. Ford is an Alien and they both, escape the Earth before it is destroyed and end up discovering new and strange places, known as the Universe to us. It is an outrageously funny read, and a very enjoyable book. It is a must read for all science fiction lovers.
The Hitchhiker’s guide to Galaxy was published in 1979 and it sold more than 14 million copies.
9. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Lord of the Rings is one of the most famous Fantasy books in the world. The title, ‘Lord of the Rings’ is another name given to the antagonist, the Dark Lord, Sauron who created a One Ring Rule to rule over the other rings of power. It is the story about Frodo, the young hobbit’s dangerous journey to destroy the One Ring so that the Middle Earth safe from the wrath of Sauron. J.R.R Tolkien’s, Lord of the Rings is a masterpiece and is widely read all over the world. It is by far the best Fantasy-Fiction book of all centuries.
Lord of the Rings has been acclaimed as one of the best-selling books of all times with selling more than 100 million copies.
8. To Kill a MockingBird
Written by Harper Lee, the story is set in a small Southern town of Alabama, the novel is about a Black man accused of raping a White woman. The story is told by the eyes two kids, Scout and Jem Finch and their father, Atticus who is the lawyer of the accused. It deals with the serious issues like rape and racial but it also contains just the right amount of humor. All in all, the novel is about loss of innocence, pain of growing up, class, racism and justice.
Published on July 11th, 1956, the book was an immediate bestseller and also won Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. In 1999 it was also voted as the “Best novel of the Century”. It still remains a bestseller with more than 30 million copies in print.
7. Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
Written by George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four may be classified as a social science fiction or political fiction. It is a terrifying vision of the future where a totalitarian government takes over it’s civilians and watches over all their activities. A government, which is becoming powerful day by day.
Nineteen Eighty-Four is ranked number thirteenth on its list of 100 best English language novels.
6. The Catcher in the Rye
Written by J.D Salinger, the Catcher in the Rye is a highly controversial novel because its liberal use of profane language and portrayal of sexuality and teenage angst. It is a book which deals with the complex and complicating issues of a teenager’s life: belonging, identity and connection. The book is a detailed analysis of a human of himself; an individual’s understanding of his own self – the society’s attitude towards a human being; It is a psychological battle of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist. All in all, the Catcher in the Rye is a complex book, dealing with a teenager’s life.
Catcher in the Rye has been nominated as one of the best 100 American novels written which sold more than 250,000 copies each year. A first edition copy of the book was sold for about $19,000.
5. A Hundred Years of Solitude
A story of a Utopian town, Macando, Gabriel Garcia Marquez talks about a family in which we see and feel the whole of humanity. The novel talks about the rise and fall of a mythical town Macando, metaphoric of Columbia. It is a beautiful chronicle of life and death and sad, yet humorous reality of humankind. Through the seven generations of the Buendía Family, the reader sees all of humanity: the history, the growth, rise and fall of the town. Marquez has written about the universal themes in his book; love, riches, revolution, death the leveler, search of truth and peace. This book is the author’s masterpiece.
The author has received various awards for this novel and has received universal recognition. It topped the list of the books that most shaped the world’s literature in the last 25 years. The novel has been awarded Venezuela’s Rómulo Gallegos Prize, Neustadt International Prize for Literature, Italy’s Chianciano Award and France’s Prix de Meilleur Livre Etranger.
4. Catch 22
Catch-22, written by Joseph Heller, is one of a kind novel with it’s unique style and characters. Set during the later days of World War II, the story revolves around Yossarian – a U.S bomber , violence and bureaucracy. Its a gripping and a very affective novel which grows and moves with a surprising power. The is a critique on bureaucratic operation and reasoning. It has been marked as one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century; It is an outrageously funny yet a story about horrors of wars and bureaucracy and is about a man who either wants immortality or wants to die trying for it.
New York Times Herald Tribune commented about the book as,
“A wild, moving, shocking, hilarious, raging, exhilarating, giant roller-coaster of a book.”
At the time of publication, the book didn’t receive any awards or spectacular sales, but after it’s enthusiastic reception in the UK, it sold almost 6 million copies by 1975. It is seen as one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century.
The New York Times commented,
“A dazzling performance that will outrage as many readers as it delights.”
3. Ulysses
Ulysses, which had been labelled as unreadable and blasphemous; was led to prosecution for obscenity and was banned in the U.S is written by an Irish author, James Joyce. Its a story about two people, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, who go about their own lives and business; teach, eat, argue and stroll the streets. Shared with us are their thoughts, emotions and memories. Almost all the kinds of experiences a human goes through, is what we read in this novel. It is humorous, sorrowful and also contains a little suspense. Since publication the book had attracted controversies and was labelled as obscene until in 1933, a U.S District judge declared it as a decent and readable novel. The novel was never banned in Ireland. It was first serialized in parts, in 18 episodes, then later in 1922 it was published as a complete book.
Ulysses is a massive novel, with 267,000 words in total with a vocabulary of 30,000 words. The publication history of Ulysses is very complicated and controversial. Around 11 editions have been published this being controversial too, some say 18 editions were published.
2. The Great Gatsby
Also known as The Great American Novel, it is a very refined piece of American Literature. It is a simple, yet intricately patterned novel and one of the finest books of F. Scott Fitzgerald for which he is best known. It is a perfect portrayal of the author’s generation and the Jazz Age which talks about the three major obsessions of the people at that time: Money, greed and ambitions. It is an elegantly plotted love story, of a person, Jay Gatsby whom in his poverty had fallen in love with a beauty, Daisy, but could not get together because Daisy married a brutal but rich man, Tom Buchanan. After that, Gatsby madly begins to pursuit wealth and Daisy Buchanan. He builds a mansion in the Long Island, where he holds lavish parties and waits for her to come, and when she does come, the story unfolds in quite a dramatic way.
The Great Gatsby received a great amount of positive feedback and it became the source of inspiration for many writers. Richard Yates called The Great Gatsby as
“The most nourishing novel…a miracle of talent…a triumph of technique”
J.D Salinger also revered and praised Fitzgerald’s work and he sometimes he saw himself as “Fitzgerald’s Successor”.
In the 21st century more than a million copies of the Great Gatsby and other works have been sold and The Great Gatsby is required as a must-read for the high school and college students.
T.S Eliot, in a letter to Fitzgerald wrote,
“It seems to me the first step American fiction has taken.”
1. Lolita
Published in 1955, and written by a Russian Novelist, Vladimir Nabokov‘s Lolita is a masterpiece famous for it’s inventive style but controversial because of it’s subject: Sex. The protagonist who also happens to be the narrator, is obsessed and sexually involved with a 12 year old girl, named Dolores Haze. The story revolves around these two characters, and how they go about spending their lives with the truth of their lives unveiling itself bit by bit. The novel has a grasping plot; its a special story with mixed feelings with just the right amount of humor to counter the pathos in the story. The story is humorous, yet sad at the same time.
John Hollander regarding Lolita, says,
“There is no clinical, sociological or mythic seriousness about Lolita, but it flames with a tremendous perversity of an unexpected kind.”
Due to it’s controversial subject matter, Nabokov initially could not find a published. He finally agreed with Olympia Press in Paris. After the printing of the first batch of the novel, the book did not receive any reviews, until in the late 1955, Graham Greene called it one of the best novels of that time. That statement stirred the literary world and received remarks by Sunday express as “The most filthiest book ever” and “sheer unrestrained graphy”. After this, all the published copies were seized and the book remained banned for two years, until in 1958 the first American edition was issued and it was one of the bestsellers, selling 100,000 within three weeks of publication. After that, Lolita received a great response and is still considered as one of the must-read books.