[O] The Observer’s 100 Greatest Novels of All Time

The Observer’s 100 Greatest Novels of All Time [O]

Published in 2003

This is a pleasant list. Short, random, and, as its compilers note, “fundamentally English.” It does not aspire to be exhaustive or hold Historic Importance. Nor is it intentionally anti-establishment. It is 100 novels the staff of this esteemed newspaper enjoy, released in direct response to a program the BBC put out called the Big Read (A list I didn’t include because it was assembled by a write-in poll. We already have one problem child in this pack of lists). The Observer stuck to novels and most of them are 20th century novels at that. With eighty-eight of their titles making the master list, their staff seem to have picked well.