| First posted 6/26/2018; updated 7/5/2020. |
 | Fiction:Top 100 Novels |
These are the best fiction books of all-time, according to an aggregate of more than 20 lists focused specifically on fiction books and another 50+ general book lists. Note: this list was originally posted in June 2018 and that version was used as the springboard for the Classic Novels Book Club. Check out the original list here.
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| First posted 6/16/2020; updated 7/6/2020. |
 
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The Age of InnocenceEdith Wharton
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First Publication: 1920 Category: novel Sales: ? |
Accolades: 
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About the Book: “The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s twelfth novel, initially serialized in four parts in the Pictorial Review magazine in 1920, and later released by D. Appleton and Company as a book in New York and in London. It…[was] the first novel written by a woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.” AZ “The story is set in upper-class New York City in the 1870s.” AZ It is a “masterful portrait of desire and betrayal during the sumptuous Golden Age of Old New York, a time when society people “dreaded scandal more than disease.” BN “This is Newland Archer’s world as he prepares to marry the beautiful but conventional May Welland. But when the mysterious Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a disastrous marriage, Archer falls deeply in love with her. Torn between duty and passion, Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life – or mercilessly destroy it.” BN Resources and Related Links:
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| Last updated 7/5/2020. |
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The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald
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First Publication: April 10, 1925 Category: novel Sales: 25 million |
Accolades:
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About the Book: “The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career” BN “and one of the greatest novels of American literature.” AZ It “is a vivid chronicle” AZ “of the Jazz Age (1920s) in all its decadence and excess,” LC “a time when The New York Times noted ‘gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession.’” BN “The Great Gatsby captured the spirit of the author’s generation” LC “and earned a permanent place in American mythology.” LC In this “timeless cautionary critique of the American dream,” AZ Fitzgerald explores “themes of class, wealth, and social status” LC by taking “a cynical look at the pursuit of wealth among a group of people for whom pleasure is the chief goal.” LC Jay Gatsby is a “flamboyant but reserved” AZ “self-made, self-invented millionaire” LC “with murky business interests and a shadowy past.” AZ “Nick Carraway [is] a young bachelor who has just settled in the neighbouring cottage.” AZ After attending “an extravagantly lavish party” AZ at Gatsy’s “Long Island mansion, [he] …is intrigued by the mysterious host.” AZ “As the two men strike up an unlikely friendship, details of Gatsby’s impossible love for a married woman emerge, until events spiral into tragedy.” AZ
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You can watch the 2013 movie version starring Leonardo DiCaprio on YouTube for $3.99. Also available: the 1974 movie version, starring Robert Redford, is available on Amazon for $3.99. Click here. |
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In July 2018, I became the organizer of the Classic Novels Book Club. Check out the Book Club tab here or Meetup for more information. This is our February 2019 book. |
