Fiction novels are a popular genre and it is responsible for thousands of classics. Various authors have engraved their names in history by writing novels that have become the face of the genre. That is why we decided to list the 20 best fiction books of all time. Keep reading to find out which novels made the list!
Choosing only 20 novels for this list was not easy. Many amazing novels had to be left off the list and we know many readers will be angry as a result. But we feel strongly about the ones that did make the list. You can see the full list below.
The 20 Best Fiction Books of All Time
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Lots of Classics
All the books on this list are deserving of their selection. Novels such as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë are some of these novels that deserved their spot on the list.
We know that readers will be angry that their favorite books were left out. That is always the hard part about these lists. No list is perfect and the point of these lists is to help readers choose which books to read. Another goal is to start discussions and help others find books that many people believe should have made the list.
Conclusion
That is all for our list of the 20 best fiction books of all time. What books would you have included on the list? Let us know in the comments below!
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Come on – no Dickens? David Copperfield or Great Expectations – or both?
And no Middlemarch?..!!!
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron, Rabbit Run by John Updyke and All The Light We Cannot See
Absolutely right. I don’t get these lists. They are topical, reflect the list-makers biases, limited views or limited exposure to world literature. I could easily pare down this list by eliminating Marquez, Morrison & Mockingbird ( which is a one-shot bullseye full of high-minded pieces) but hardly ” great “. I notice the Russians are completely left out: Dostoevsky, Gorky, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn. A number of authors on the list couldn’t hold a candle to these giants.
No Hemingway, Dickens, Twain, Hawthorne, Melville? I could go on
You are always welcome to write a guest post on the website.
Moby Dick deserves a place.
Does it though? Surely, there have to be at least 50 novels better than Moby Dick? Or a 100?
I have to say The Stand by Stephen King deserves a spot.
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a must as is Don Quixote; I would pick Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five as a personal top 20 pick
Dostoevsky? Gogol? James Joyce?
Interestinh. I disagree though. In the best lost i’d include Shakespeare, Homer, Cervantes. I mean Ernest Hemingway himself talks about Huck Finn is the begining of American lit; how then do you leave it out? How too the GREAT Hemingway?
Too short, white American-European centered. Only one book listed is by a black author, that I’m aware of. No Asian books at all. Needs to be at least 50-100 books. And the problem with any of these lists is people reading problems would give up, why not a few books that are more mainstream to get them started?
Another list that should clarify “In my opinion” – no Dickens, Mark Twain etc.
Wuthering Heights
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
I have to disagree strongly with The Great Gatsby. Replace it with Dune.