I’ve read thirty of these, which is embarrassing for an English professor, but when I remind myself that my literary specialty is plays, I feel less guilty. Plenty of contemporary ones I’ve heard of but never got to.
Especially because of the confusing “all time” in the title, I wonder why they chose 1923 as the starting point, Is that because all works from 1922 and before are no longer protected by copyright?
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I’m gratified to see several of my personal favorites made it: Neuromancer, the Big Sleep, Snow Crash, and Red Harvest. I wonder if this list was compiled by committe or by an individual.
I only read 14 of these novels, which seems sad considering my undergrad major was Literature, but I notice most of the titles here are American Literature. During my time at UW-Eau Claire, I remember taking an equal number of American and British Literature courses.
Moore’s _Watchmen_ ranking in legitimate publications is a huge acknowledgment of Comic Scholarship, an always struggling area of research, but not because of its scholars like myself. Comics has conflicts with dogmatic professors who refuse to acknowledge new and innovative areas of English study. _Watchmen_ is always discussed and written about at the Popular Culture Conference I attend each year. Another strong subject is Art Spiegelman’s _Maus_ and _In the Shadow of No Towers_.
“All-Time”…well, it’s “Time” magazine, isn’t it? (I notice all the headlines on the page actually say “100 Best”). And the 1923 choice seems arbitrary, but it’s actually the date when Time started publishing, so this was their motive. Not to be snarky, but click through the “about the list” page, for heaven’s sake! :-)
A number of these were on my reading list for the “Oral Exam” part of my PhD work (the “final step” before you’re permitted to proceed on to the dissertation stage), since I chose “contemporary lit” as my emphasis for that part of my work. A lot of these are well chosen based on literary merit, but a number are probably there because they are “talked about” even more than they are popularly read. I know, because I had a hard time tracking down some of these titles in used bookstores when I was preparing for my exam, despite having seen references to them in literary criticism!
I found the “reader’s choice” list on the sidebar equally interesting… WATCHMEN — a graphic novel — is #3! And George Orwell actually takes two slots in the top five books. I wonder what accounts for this (High School teaching? Fear of socialism? A love of talking pigs and rat cages? Who knows!).
— Mike Arnzen
Good question, Kait.
What does “all time” mean? Greatest novels of all time? Timeless novels?
Yes, I see the “About” link now. Thanks for pointing it out.