Fiction books are some of the most common books out there. Most people have read some sort of fiction novel. That is why we decided to make a list of the greatest fiction books of all time.
There are various types of fiction novels and that gives us a lot of books to choose from. Many of these books are considered classics and have had a major impact in the literary world or I felt like should be read once by avid book fans. Without further ado, you can see the list of books below!
The Greatest Fiction Books of All Time
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
- Beloved by Toni Morrison, 1987
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, 1967
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt 1992
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick 1968
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, 1847
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 1960
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, 1813
- Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, 1949
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, 1878
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, 1844
- Ulysses by James Joyce, 1920
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, 1952
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, 2003
- The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, 1954
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 1939
- The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, 1951
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1932
- The Stranger by Albert Camus, 1942
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, 1867
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead , 2016
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis, 1950
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 1865
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1954
- Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1897
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, 1985
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, 1985
- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, 1929
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 1969
- Animal Farm by George Orwell, 1945
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, 2005
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, 1988
- The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, 1937
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2013
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, 1849
- Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, 1851
Books Worth Mentioning
It was hard to leave out many books because they didn’t meet the criteria of being amazing books but were still good. Novels like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Count of Monte Cristo were obvious choices but other books like Americanah and The Secret History that aren’t as well-known but felt like they belonged on the list.
Other books that should be mentioned include books such as The Book Thief, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Catcher in the Rye. While these books are mostly assigned in English class, they made a splash when they were first released. Most of these books were released before the internet existed and most people were still reading mostly the same stuff.
Conclusion
What books do you think should have been on the list that weren’t? No list is perfect but most of these books are well known and are on many people’s to-read list even if they never get to them. I have enjoyed most of them and was glad that I did give them a read even.
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Missing are some favourite works by Friedrich Dürrenmatt: das Versprechen and der Verdacht.
There are a lot of them that I read. It’s a nice list. The one I am planning to read next is “How to kill a mockingbird”. I loved the post.
Thank you!
Dostoyevsky
The publication date of Ulysses is wrong! How reliable is the rest of the list?
How about the many works of HG Wells? Perhaps the style is a bit dated, yet his books still provide sheer entertainment.
I wait with baited breath for you to review one of my novels.
Unlawful Disorder
A Blind Eye
State of the Nation
By David Jackson Ambrose
“How to Kill a Mockingbird?” I think you mean “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, Native Son, Brothers Karamazov have to be on list
Anna Karenina is #11 on the list.
James Hadley Chase
I’m a retired teacher of English literature, and this is an excellent list.
Thanks! Some classics are pretty good and should be read more
How about the Outlander series as well as Game of Thrones
We’re just going to ignore Hemingway?
He’s a great writer but for me, his books never really stuck with me. I did forget about Of Mice and Men and will be adding that!
House of Spirits, Isabel Allende; Razor’s Edge, Maugham; The Storyteller, Llosa Vargas; Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller.
and also we’re ignoring Philip Roth? Plot against America, American Pastoral, Human Stain, I married a Communist, Goodbye Columbus … none of them add up?
How about Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell?
That should have made this list. I’ll amend that mistake.
The World According to Garp, John Irving. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth.
I was thrilled to see Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for a book written in the 21st century to be amongst this list of great classics shows how good it is. I have Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird in my e-library, but I haven’t gotten to it just yet. This is an inspiration to do so. Thank you
I just finished Half of a Sun and that also deserves to be on the list as it is a really moving book. The three books you mentioned are all great and while they tell different stories of The U.S., they played an important part in its history.
The Harry Potter series should be on the list
Stuff that recent should not be near the top. Even from the last 50-60 years. We have no idea what will last. Also, where is Don Quixote, The Brothers Karamazov, In Search of Lost Time? Groundbreaking novels of massive stature and influence.
War of the world’s treasure island stephen kings under the dome these are my favorite s
I used to think that too, but if you read a lot, you can also go by the books that leave a lasting impression on you and you go back to over and over. One contemporary book like that for me is The River Why….sooooo well written, so many life truths. Others:
One for the Blackbird, one for the crow
The ragged edge of night
Shantaram
A Man in Full, the Rabbit trilogy, All the King’s Men, Huckleberry Finn, A Separate Peace, QB VII, to name a few.
Papillon by Henri Charrière?
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
I would agree with most of these but not all.
The Grapes of Wrath is on your main list but you include it later in other books worth mentioning.
Loved your list and I agree with every book you listed. For my list, I would have added “Dune” ( the first book) by Frank Herbert and “Gravity’s Rainbow” by Thomas Pynchon.
REBECCA .
I can’t imagine including Enders Game in such a list without including A wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin much further up the list. The dispossessed should also have a place.
A Confederacy of Dunces is a great book that could be up there. Same with Zeno’s Conscience. I would also definitely add a confederate Yankee in king Arthur’s court by Twain.
And honestly great Gatsby and to kill a mockingbird should be much further down that list.
Interesting list, but any “greatest novels list” without including Dostoyevsky is incomplete. The Brothers Karamazov is generally considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, novels ever written.
A gentleman in Moscow
Gone with the wind
The river why
The brothers k
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Frankly, I don’t see how any list that professes to be the absolutely greatest books of all time can possibly exclude Proust’s “Remembrance of Things Past” or “Don Quixote?” No Saul Bellow or Philip Roth and especially no Isaac Bashevis Singer? Or Dostoyevsky? Or Mishima? What about “Madame Bovary,” a d “The Red and the Black.” And for a more contemporary author, what about Richard Ford?