Primele 25 din acest top, în ordinea apariţiei acestora. Toate titlurile au şi o prezentare critică ce poate fi accesată prin simpla apăsarea pe titlu. Cărţile se pot găsi şi împrumuta la Secţia de carte în limbi străine.
1. The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
(1678)
A story of a man in search of truth told with the simple clarity and beauty of Bunyan’s prose make this the ultimate English classic.
2. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1719)
By the end of the 19th century, no book in
English literary history had enjoyed more editions, spin-offs and translations.
Crusoe’s world-famous novel is a complex literary confection, and it’s
irresistible.
3. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
(1726)
A satirical masterpiece that’s never been out
of print, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels comes third in our list of the
best novels written in English
4. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (1748)
Clarissa is a tragic heroine, pressured by her
unscrupulous nouveau-riche family to marry a wealthy man she detests, in the
book that Samuel Johnson described as “the first book in the world for the
knowledge it displays of the human heart.”
5. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (1749)
Tom Jones is a classic English novel that
captures the spirit of its age and whose famous characters have come to
represent Augustan society in all its loquacious, turbulent, comic variety.
6. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by
Laurence Sterne (1759)
Laurence Sterne’s vivid novel caused delight
and consternation when it first appeared and has lost little of its original
bite.
7. Emma by Jane Austen (1816)
Jane Austen’s Emma is her masterpiece, mixing
the sparkle of her early books with a deep sensibility.
8. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
Mary Shelley’s first novel has been hailed as
a masterpiece of horror and the macabre.
9. Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
(1818)
The great pleasure of Nightmare Abbey, which
was inspired by Thomas Love Peacock’s
friendship with Shelley, lies in the
delight the author takes in poking fun at the romantic movement.
10. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by
Edgar Allan Poe (1838)
Edgar Allan Poe’s only novel – a classic
adventure story with supernatural elements – has fascinated and influenced
generations of writers.
11. Sybil by Benjamin Disraeli (1845)
The future prime minister displayed flashes of
brilliance that equalled the greatest Victorian novelists.
12. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)
Charlotte Brontë’s erotic, gothic masterpiece
became the sensation of Victorian England. Its great breakthrough was its
intimate dialogue with the reader.
13. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)
Emily Brontë’s windswept masterpiece is
notable not just for its wild beauty but for its daring reinvention of the
novel form itself.
14. Vanity Fair by William Thackeray (1848)
William Thackeray’s masterpiece, set in
Regency England, is a bravura performance by a writer at the top of his game.
15. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
(1850)
David Copperfield marked the point at which
Dickens became the great entertainer and also laid the foundations for his
later, darker masterpieces.
16. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
(1850)
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s astounding book is full
of intense symbolism and as haunting as anything by Edgar Allan Poe.
17. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
Wise, funny and gripping, Melville’s epic work
continues to cast a long shadow over American literature.
18. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis
Carroll (1865)
Lewis Carroll’s brilliant nonsense tale is one
of the most influential and best loved in the English canon.
19. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868)
Wilkie Collins’s masterpiece, hailed by many
as the greatest English detective novel, is a brilliant marriage of the
sensational and the realistic.
20. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
(1868-9)
Louisa May Alcott’s highly original tale aimed
at a young female market has iconic status in America and never been out of
print.
21. Middlemarch by George Eliot (1871-2)
This cathedral of words stands today as
perhaps the greatest of the great Victorian fictions.
22. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
(1875)
Inspired by the author’s fury at the corrupt
state of England, and dismissed by critics at the time, The Way We Live Now is
recognised as Trollope’s masterpiece.
23. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by
Mark Twain (1884/5)
Mark Twain’s tale of a rebel boy and a runaway
slave seeking liberation upon the waters of the Mississippi remains a defining
classic of American literature.
24. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
(1886)
A thrilling adventure story, gripping history
and fascinating study of the Scottish character, Kidnapped has lost none of its
power.
25. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
(1889)
Jerome K Jerome’s accidental classic about
messing about on the Thames remains a comic gem.
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