100 BEST NOVELS ? PT. 4

 

Here's the next ten books on the list:

31.  Animal Farm, George Orwell, 1944.  Written 4 years before 1984, Orwell was already satirizing Communism in this amusing story of farmyard animals who overthrow their farmer oppressor, improving their lives for a short while, before corruption sets in.  While not exactly subtle this, stark view of a brutal society run by a dictator pig is almost as famous as 1984 is. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  No, 1984 is so good that it can stand alone as the only Orwell, especially since both books are quite similar in their satire.

32.  The Golden Bowl, Henry James, 1904.  I've already made my strong dislike of James's writing known, and if you don't like one of his books, you won't like any of them as his style stayed the same.  This novel has a series of  romantic entanglements that  James envelopes in his  rambling manner, and it's as dull as usual. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  No!

33.  Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser, 1900.  This covers a lot of the same territory as Dreiser's other book on the list, An American Tragedy, as it once again deals with class, sex and scandal in what was then modern America.  Here, "fallen" women Carrie becomes the mistress of more than one man before becoming an unlikely star of the stage. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  No, as I felt with Animal Farm, I don't think 2 novels by the same author that cover similar ground need to be on the list.

34.  A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh, 1934.  This is the first of 3 novels that the English Waugh has on the list.  It deals with a very restrained, English marriage and  affair that interestingly recounts the difficulties of obtaining a divorcee at that time.  The story takes an odd turn when the embittered husband goes traveling for a lost city in the Amazon! DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  No, while this novel is quite good, I don't think that Waugh needs to have 3 on the list, so I would lose this one in lieu of the more famous Brideshead Revisited.

35.  As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner, 1930.  Easier to read than The Sound and the Fury, this dark, funny novel is told from the point of view of 15 different characters.  It's about a large Southern family trying to meet the last request of their mother that she be buried in her hometown.  Most of the novel is about the long, arduous journey they make together. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  Yes, Faulkner's style here is bracing and original.

36.  All the King's Men,Robert Penn Warren, 1946.  Based on the life of Southern politician Huey Long, this tells the story of a corrupt, populist governor from the point of view of the reporter who follows his political rise.  Unfortunately, the story also goes into detail about the reporter investigating his own family's history, which I found nowhere near as interesting as the corrupt politician part.  This is one of the few novels that actually works better as a movie, (directed by Robert Rossen, it won Best Picture in 1949),  because it stuck to the political part of the novel and cut out the rest. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  No, this is a close call for me, but I just found it too uneven to include it.

37.  The Bridges of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder, 1927.  Set in Peru during the 16th century, Wilder's novel has an intriguing premise.  After a rope bridge breaks and six people die, a local friar investigates their lives, trying to find meaning in their deaths.  Although the story rambles at  times, I mostly enjoyed it.  DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  Yes.

38.  Howard's End, E. M. Forster, 1910.  Forster's second novel on the list deals with class and infidelity  in early 20th century England.  While Forster effectively lays out the various romantic stories well, the slowness of the novel sometimes sinks it for me.  I also found myself wishing that Forster's style weren't so bloodless, a common problem with early century English writing., Still, worth a read for most people. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  No, again, when looking at authors with more than one book on the list, I think's it's best to be more critical of each, and this isn't as good as A Passage to India.

39.  Go Tell it on the Mountain, James Baldwin, 1953.  Baldwin's autobiographical tale of growing up the son of a preacher is great.  Baldwin poetically writes about the various lives of the church members as he also recalls his own childhood, and his style is gorgeous.  DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  Yes, and I think that another Baldwin novel, Another Country, should also be on the list.

40.  The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene,  1948.  Based on Greene's own experiences as a British intelligence officer in Sierra Leone during WWII.  The hero is in charge of security on the island and is in a loveless marriage with an unhappy wife.  Inevitably they both eventually fall into affairs, while the hero's position of authority pushes him towards corruption.  A bit slow, but mostly interesting, this is another tragic  story about British people in a foreign land. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? Yes.