Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century
Le Monde asked its readers in 1999 to name the century's books, and the answers came back French and severe. Titles out of copyright are open; the rest count down.
- The Stranger Englishpubblico dominio dal 2042
- In Search of Lost Time EnglishFair warning, the sentences wander for pages and almost nothing happens fast, but if you let it slow you down, that famous madeleine scene really does change how you notice your own memories. Read it in small pieces over months, not weeks.
- The Trial Englishpubblico dominio dal 2033
- The Little Prince Englishpubblico dominio dal 2039
- Man’s Fate Englishpubblico dominio dal 2030
- Journey to the End of the Night Englishpubblico dominio dal 2030
- The Grapes of Wrath Englishpubblico dominio dal 2035
- For Whom the Bell Tolls Englishpubblico dominio dal 2036
- Froth on the Daydream Englishpubblico dominio dal 2063
- The Second Sex Englishpubblico dominio dal 2049
- Waiting for Godot Englishpubblico dominio dal 2049
- Being and Nothingness Englishpubblico dominio dal 2052
- The Name of the Rose Englishnon ancora di pubblico dominio
- The Gulag Archipelago Englishpubblico dominio dal 2070
- Paroles Englishpubblico dominio dal 2042
- The Diary of a Young Girl Englishpubblico dominio dal 2048
- Tristes Tropiques Englishpubblico dominio dal 2057
- Brave New World Englishpubblico dominio dal 2028
- Nineteen Eighty-Four Englishpubblico dominio dal 2045
- The Bald Soprano Englishpubblico dominio dal 2046
- The Abyss Englishnon ancora di pubblico dominio
- Lolita Englishpubblico dominio dal 2051
- Ulysses EnglishYou’re glad you read it for the strange intimacy of spending a day inside Leopold Bloom’s mind, where errands, advertisements, hunger, and memory keep turning unexpectedly funny and tender. It’s demanding and occasionally maddening, but the jokes, wordplay, and Molly Bloom’s closing monologue reward patience.
- The Tartar Steppe Englishpubblico dominio dal 2048
- The Counterfeiters EnglishFair warning, it's a hall of mirrors: Édouard is a novelist writing a novel called The Counterfeiters while Gide watches him do it. But if you like books that think out loud, the tangle of Bernard, Olivier, and all those slippery adults is quietly gripping stuff.
- The Horseman on the Roof Englishpubblico dominio dal 2050
- Belle du Seigneur Englishnon ancora di pubblico dominio
- One Hundred Years of Solitude Englishpubblico dominio dal 2066
- The Sound and the Fury EnglishFair warning, the first section drops you into Benjy's mind with no timeline and no hand-holding, and it feels like drowning until it suddenly doesn't. Push through and the Compsons' slow collapse, especially Quentin's day in Cambridge, will sit in your chest for years.
- Zazie in the Metro Englishpubblico dominio dal 2055
- Gone with the Wind Englishpubblico dominio dal 2032
- Lady Chatterley’s Lover EnglishForget the scandal, it's really about Connie coming back to life in that gamekeeper's hut while Clifford talks coal profits up at the house. Lawrence preaches a bit, he can't help it, but the tenderness is real and it lands if you let it.
- The Magic Mountain EnglishHans Castorp goes up to a Davos sanatorium for three weeks and stays seven years, and somehow you feel time warp right along with him. It's slow and talky (Settembrini's arguments go on for pages), but if you like ideas as drama, it rewards patience.
- Bonjour Tristesse Englishpubblico dominio dal 2051
- Silence of the Sea Englishpubblico dominio dal 2040
- Life: A User’s Manual Englishnon ancora di pubblico dominio
- The Hound of the Baskervilles EnglishDoyle sends Watson off alone to a fog-soaked moor with a family curse and something howling in the dark, and it's genuinely eerie, not cozy. Holmes vanishes for long stretches, which somehow makes it better.
- Under the Sun of Satan Englishpubblico dominio dal 2036
- The Great Gatsby EnglishYou watch Gatsby stare at that green light across the bay and slowly realize the whole glittering party is built on wanting one thing he can't have. It's short, sad, and gorgeous sentence by sentence, best read in a couple of quiet sittings.
- The Joke Englishnon ancora di pubblico dominio
- Contempt Englishpubblico dominio dal 2051
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd EnglishPoirot has retired to a village to grow vegetable marrows, and it goes about as well as you'd expect once a neighbor turns up dead. Half the fun is the doctor narrating and his gossipy sister Caroline; the other half you'll want to discuss immediately after.
- Nadja Englishpubblico dominio dal 2056
- Aurelíen Englishpubblico dominio dal 2043
- The Satin Slipper Englishpubblico dominio dal 2041
- You get a wonderfully unsettling theatre rehearsal where six unfinished characters interrupt the actors and insist their suffering is more real than performance. It’s funny, argumentative, and deliberately slippery, especially if you enjoy questions about identity and art more than tidy emotional resolution.
- The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui Englishnon ancora di pubblico dominio
- Friday Englishpubblico dominio dal 2063
- The War of the Worlds EnglishWells writes the invasion like a newspaper report gone wrong, all named Surrey towns and refugee crowds, which makes it eerier than any spectacle. You'll spend chapters hiding in a wrecked house with a panicking curate, and honestly that dread stays with you longer than the Martians do.
- If This Is a Man Englishpubblico dominio dal 2055
- The Two Towers Englishpubblico dominio dal 2050
- The Return of the King Englishpubblico dominio dal 2051
- The Fellowship of the Ring Englishpubblico dominio dal 2050
- Martin Eden EnglishYou watch Martin teach himself grammar, literature, and the manners of the people he wants to join, while his love for Ruth keeps tangling ambition with humiliation. It’s rough-edged and sometimes argumentative, but its account of writing against poverty and respectability feels startlingly honest.
- Writing Degree Zero Englishpubblico dominio dal 2063
- pubblico dominio dal 2071
- The Opposing Shore Englishnon ancora di pubblico dominio
- The Order of Things Englishpubblico dominio dal 2066
- On the Road Englishpubblico dominio dal 2053
- The Wonderful Adventures of Nils EnglishNils starts out mean, honestly, a boy who torments the farm animals, and watching him earn the trust of Akka and the wild geese as they fly the length of Sweden is quietly moving. It's episodic and folkloric, better savored a chapter a night than rushed.
- The Martian Chronicles Englishpubblico dominio dal 2046
- The Ravishing of Lol Stein Englishpubblico dominio dal 2062
- The Interrogation Englishpubblico dominio dal 2060
- Tropisms Englishpubblico dominio dal 2035
- The Journal of Jules Renard Englishpubblico dominio dal 2060
- Lord Jim EnglishIf you've ever done one cowardly thing and never quite forgiven yourself, Jim's leap off the Patna will sit in your chest for weeks. Marlow tells it slantwise and slow, so give it patience; the reward is watching a man try to outrun his own shame.
- Écrits Englishpubblico dominio dal 2073
- Manhattan Transfer EnglishYou have to be okay with drift here, since it jumps between dozens of lives (Ellen the actress, Jimmy the restless reporter, poor Bud fresh off the ferry) and never settles. But if you like cities more than plots, the noise of 1920s New York gets into you.
- Moravagine Englishpubblico dominio dal 2064
- The General of the Dead Army Englishpubblico dominio dal 2067
- Sophie’s Choice Englishnon ancora di pubblico dominio
- pubblico dominio dal 2029
- Our Lady of the Flowers Englishpubblico dominio dal 2045
- The Man Without Qualities Englishpubblico dominio dal 2057
- The Catcher in the Rye Englishpubblico dominio dal 2047
- No Orchids for Miss Blandish Englishpubblico dominio dal 2035
- Second Thoughts Englishpubblico dominio dal 2054
- The Origins of Totalitarianism Englishpubblico dominio dal 2047
- The Master and Margarita Englishpubblico dominio dal 2063
- The Rosy Crucifixion Englishpubblico dominio dal 2055
- The Big Sleep Englishpubblico dominio dal 2035
- Under the Volcano Englishpubblico dominio dal 2043
- Midnight’s Children Englishnon ancora di pubblico dominio