The best modern books. The best books of all time - rating The rating of literary works of all time

In "NG - ExLibris" in the issue dated 01.31.2008 under the heading "From the Divine Bottle of Master Francois Rabelais to the scandalous "Blue Fat" by Vladimir Sorokin" a very curious and undisputed list of "100 novels, which, according to the editorial staff of" NG-Ex libris" shocked the literary world and influenced the entire culture."

“The millennium has just begun, we can sum up the results. including literary ones. The year is also at the very beginning, we bring to your attention a list of the 100 best, in the opinion of the editors of NG-EL, novels of all times and peoples.
After all, why are we worse? The English/Americans make their lists of great novels, including either boring modern English fiction or even more boring but long forgotten English fiction. Adding "for objectivity" a few Russian novels, a few things from world literature. We are also tendentious, we also include only what we know, what we are sure of - after all, this is our choice. We really want to be objective, but absolute objectivity in such lists is impossible. Although we, of course, have much more English-language novels than the English-Russians. We are not offended. And if we like something, we say so - we like it.
Of course, the novels of living (or recently deceased) authors are closer to us, more understandable, therefore there are more of them than we should. If we had written our list 100 years ago, we would certainly have included Artsybashov, Veltman, Chernyshevsky, Pisemsky, Krestovsky, Leskov and Merezhkovsky (they should still be included now, but their stories and stories, like many others not included, perhaps all is better), etc. Of course, many did not enter. Those without which literature is unthinkable. Ivan Bunin, for example. Or Edgar Poe. Or Anton Chekhov. Or Knut Hamsun, the author of many great novels. But his best thing is “Hunger” - a story! A similar story, by the way, with Yuz Aleshkovsky. He has novels, but his "calling cards" - "Disguise" and "Nikolai Nikolaevich" - stories, if they are three times wrong!
Others, on the contrary, entered "by pull". For example, Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" is a poem, but the author called his work "a novel in verse." So romance. On the other hand, both “Dead Souls” by Gogol and “Moscow-Petushki” by Erofeev, according to the authors, are poems. Yes, poems. But if these are not novels, then what are novels? What do Sergei Minaev and Oksana Robski write? So our position is not a contradiction, it is a dialectic, our editorial arbitrariness.
Despite the exceptional prevalence of the novel genre, its boundaries are still not clearly defined. Most literary critics believe that the genre of large narrative works, called the novel, arose in Western European literature of the 12th-13th centuries, when literary creativity the third estate, headed by the commercial bourgeoisie. As a result, the heroic epic and the tale-legend that dominated ancient and feudal-chivalric literature were replaced by the genre of the novel. Hegel called the novel a "bourgeois epic" for a reason. Therefore, you will not find in our list either Apuleius' Golden Ass or Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parsifal. An exception is made only for the works of Rabelais and Cervantes, which can be considered embryonic novels, or proto-novels.
We repeat: this is solely our choice, subjective and biased. We, as is customary, included some in vain, while others, on the contrary, were unfairly ignored. Make up your own version. The one who does nothing makes no mistakes.
You can see the list itself in today's issue of NG-EL. With brief comments. We have arranged the novels in chronological order (either by the time of writing or by the date of the first publication).

"100 novels that, according to the editorial staff of NG - Ex libris, shocked the literary world and influenced the entire culture"

1. Francois Rabelais. "Gargantua and Pantagruel" (1532-1553).
An extravaganza of mental health, rough and good jokes, a parody of parodies, a catalog of everything. How many centuries have passed, but nothing has changed.

2. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. "The cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha" (1605-1615).
A parody that survived for many centuries parodied works. A comic character that has become tragic and a household name.

3. Daniel Defoe. “The life and amazing adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a sailor from York, who lived for twenty-eight years all alone on a desert island off the coast of America near the mouth of the Orinoco River, where he was thrown out by a shipwreck, during which the entire crew of the ship except him died; with an account of his unexpected release by pirates, written by himself ”(1719).
An extremely accurate embodiment in the artistic form of the ideas of humanism of the Renaissance. A fictionalized proof that a single person has an independent value.

4. Jonathan Swift. Travels of Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of several ships (1726).
The biography of a man who encountered incredible forms of intelligent life - midgets, giants, intelligent horses - and found not only a common language with them, but also many common features with his fellow tribesmen.

5. Abbe Prevost. "The Story of the Chevalier de Grieux and Manon Lescaut" (1731).
In fact, "Manon ..." is a story, an inserted chapter in the multi-volume novel "Notes of a noble man who retired from the world." But it was this inserted chapter that became the masterpiece of a love story that struck not so much contemporaries as descendants, a masterpiece that overshadowed everything else written by Prevost.

6. Johann Wolfgang Goethe. "The Suffering of Young Werther" (1774).
They say that in the 18th century, young people committed suicide after reading this novel. And today the story of a vulnerable person, unable to defend his "I" in the face of hostile reality, leaves no one indifferent.

7. Lawrence Stern. "The Life and Beliefs of Tristram Shandy" (1759-1767).
A charming game of nothing and never. Subtle postmodernism, cheerful and light struggle of witty and risky. The whole text is on the brink, hence, from the opinions of the gentleman Shandy, not only Sasha Sokolov, not only Bitov, but even Sigismund Krzhizhanovsky arose, alas, a storyteller, not a novelist.

8. Choderlos de Laclos. "Dangerous Liaisons" (1782).
A moralizing novel in letters from the life of a courtly 18th century. Vice weaves cunning intrigues, forcing to exclaim: “O times! Oh manners! However, virtue still prevails.

9. Marquis de Sade. "120 days of Sodom" (1785).
The first computer game in the history of world literature with cut off parts of the bodies and souls of puppet characters, a multi-level cutter-choker-burner. Plus black-black humor in a black-black room on a black-black night. Scary, creepy.

10. Jan Potocki. "Manuscript found in Zaragoza" (1804).
Labyrinth-like novel-box in short stories. The reader gets from one story to another without having time to take a breath, and there are only 66 of them. Amazing adventures, dramatic events and mysticism of the highest standard.

11 Mary Shelley "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus" (1818).
A gothic story that unleashed a whole "brood" of themes and characters, subsequently picked up by many and still exploited. Among them are an artificial person, and a creator who is responsible for his work, and a tragically lonely monster.

12. Charles Maturin. "Melmoth the Wanderer" (1820).
True gothic romance full of secrets and horror. Paraphrase on the topic of the Eternal Jew Ahasuerus and the Seville Seducer Don Juan. And also a novel of temptations, varied and irresistible.

13. Honore de Balzac. "Shagreen leather" (1831).
The most terrible novel by Balzac, the first and best author of serials to date. “Shagreen Skin” is also part of his big series, just a piece is getting smaller and smaller, I really don’t want to finish reading it, but it already irresistibly leads me into the abyss.

14. Victor Hugo. "Notre Dame Cathedral" (1831).
An apology for romance and social justice based on the material of the French Middle Ages, which still has a lot of fans - at least in the form of a musical of the same name.

15. Stendhal. "Red and Black" (1830–1831).
Dostoevsky made from this - from a newspaper criminal chronicle - a tendentious accusatory pamphlet with philosophy. Stendhal has a love story where everyone is to blame, everyone is sorry, and most importantly - passion!

16. Alexander Pushkin. "Eugene Onegin" (1823-1833).
A novel in verse. The story of love and the life of an “extra person” and an encyclopedia of Russian life, which, thanks to the critic Belinsky, we know about from school.

17. Alfred de Musset. "Confessions of a Son of the Century" (1836).
"A Hero of Our Time", written by Eduard Limonov, only without obscenities and loving African Americans. Lovingness, however, is enough here too, full of melancholy, despair and self-pity, but there is also a sober calculation. I'm the last bastard, says the lyrical hero. And he is certainly right.

18. Charles Dickens. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837).
Surprisingly funny and positive work of the English classic. All of old England, all the best that was in it, was embodied in the image of a noble, good-natured and optimistic old man - Mr. Pickwick.

19. Mikhail Lermontov. "A Hero of Our Time" (1840).
The story of the "superfluous man", who nevertheless became, or rather, for this very reason, an example to follow for many generations of pale young men.

20. Nikolai Gogol. "Dead Souls" (1842).
It is difficult to find a larger picture of Russian life at its deepest, mystical level. Moreover, written with such a combination of humor and tragedy. In her heroes they see both accurate portraits painted from life and images of evil spirits that burden the nation.

21. Alexandre Dumas. "Three Musketeers" (1844).
One of the most famous historical adventure novels - an encyclopedia of French life of the era Louis XIII. Musketeer heroes - romantics, revelers and duelists - still remain the idols of young men of primary school age.

22. William Thackeray. "Vanity Fair" (1846).
Satire, only satire, no humor. All against all, snobs sit on snobs and accuse each other of snobbery. Some contemporaries laughed because they did not know that they were laughing at themselves. Now they also laugh, and also because they don’t know that time has changed, not people.

23. Herman Melville. "Moby Dick" (1851).
A novel-parable about American whalers and the consequences of obsession with a single unfulfilled desire that completely enslaves a person.

24. Gustave Flaubert "Madame Bovary" (1856).
A novel that ended up in the dock in the form of a magazine publication - for insulting morality. The heroine, who sacrificed family ties and reputation for love, is tempted to call the French Karenina, but "Madame" was ahead of "Anna" by more than twenty years.

25. Ivan Goncharov. "Oblomov" (1859).
The most Russian hero of the most Russian novel about Russian life. There is nothing more beautiful and more destructive than Oblomovism.

26. Ivan Turgenev. "Fathers and Sons" (1862).
The anti-nihilistic satire, which became a revolutionary guide to action, then satire again, will soon be a guide again. And so without end. Because Enyusha Bazarov is eternal.

27. Mine Reid. "Headless Horseman" (1865).
The most tender, the most American, the most romantic of all American novels. Because, probably, that the Briton wrote, really in love with Texas. He scares us, but we are not afraid, for this we love him even more.

28. Fyodor Dostoevsky. "Crime and Punishment" (1866).
A novel of contrasts. The Napoleonic plans of Rody Raskolnikov lead him to the most vulgar crime. No scope, no grandeur - only abomination, dirt and an unpleasant aftertaste in the mouth. He can't even use stolen goods..

29. Leo Tolstoy. "War and Peace" (1867–1869).
War, peace and the inhabited universe of the human spirit. An epic about any war, about any love, about any society, about any time, about any people.

30. Fyodor Dostoevsky. "Idiot" (1868–1869).
An attempt to create an image of a positively beautiful person, which can be considered the only successful one. And that Prince Myshkin is an idiot, that's just normal. As well as the fact that everything ends in failure.

31. Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. "Venus in furs" (1870).
The work on the eroticization of suffering, begun by Turgenev, was continued by his Austrian admirer. In Russia, where suffering is one of the “most important, most fundamental spiritual needs” (according to Fyodor Dostoevsky), the novel is of unflagging interest.

32. Fyodor Dostoevsky. "Demons" (1871–1872).
About Russian revolutionaries - atheists and nihilists - the second half of XIX century. Prophecy and warning, which, alas, was not heeded. And besides, murders, suicides, vagaries of love and passion.

33. Mark Twain. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876) / "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1884).
A novel in two books. Forerunner of postmodernism: the same events are shown through the eyes of two boys - younger (Tom) and older (Huck).

34. Leo Tolstoy. "Anna Karenina" (1878).
A violent love story, a married woman's rebellion, struggle and defeat. Under the wheels of the train. Even militant feminists are crying.

35. Fyodor Dostoevsky. "The Brothers Karamazov" (1879-1880).
Parricide, in which - one way or another - all the sons of Fyodor Karamazov are involved. Freud read and came up with the Oedipus complex. For Russians, the main thing is: is there a God and the immortality of the soul? If there is, then not everything is permitted, and if not, then I'm sorry.

36. Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. "Gentlemen Golovlevs" (1880-1883).
Vertex literary activity the toughest Russian satirist of the 19th century, the final verdict on the feudal system. An unusually relief image of an ugly family - people, distorted by a combination of physiological and social conditions.

37. Oscar Wilde. "Portrait of Dorian Gray" (1891).
A magical, fabulous, wonderful, touching and airy story of the rapid transformation of a young scoundrel into an old bastard.

38. HG Wells. "Time Machine" (1895).
One of the pillars of modern social fiction. He was the first to demonstrate that you can move back and forth in time, and also that the light genre can raise very serious problems.

39. Bram Stoker. "Dracula" (1897).
A bridge between measured Victorian literature and energetic adventure prose of the 20th century. A work that first turned a petty Orthodox prince, balancing between Islamic Turkey and Catholic Germany, into the embodiment of absolute Evil, and then made him a movie star.

40. Jack London. "Sea Wolf" (1904).
Maritime romance is just the backdrop for the portrait of Captain Larson, an amazing personality who combines brute force and philosophical thought. Later, such people became the heroes of the songs of Vladimir Vysotsky.

41. Fedor Sologub. "Small demon" (1905).
The most realistic thing in all decadent literature. A story about what envy, anger and extreme selfishness lead to.

42. Andrey Bely. "Petersburg" (1913-1914).
A novel in verse written in prose. In addition, about terrorists and Russian statehood.

43. Gustav Meyrink. "Golem" (1914).
A bewitching occult novel, the action of which takes place on the verge of reality and sleep, the gloomy streets of the Prague ghetto and the intricate labyrinths of the author's consciousness.

44. Evgeny Zamyatin. "We" (1921).
An ideal totalitarian state seen through the eyes of a mathematician. Literary proof that social harmony cannot be verified by algebra.

45. James Joyce. "Ulysses" (1922).
A novel is a labyrinth from which, to date, no one has managed to get out alive. Not a single literary Theseus, not a single literary Minotaur, not a single literary Daedalus.

46. Ilya Ehrenburg. "The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito" (1922).
A satire in which the 20th century is displayed as the protagonist Julio Jurenito. A book, some pages of which turned out to be prophetic.

47. Yaroslav Gashek. "The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik during the World War" (1921-1923).
Common sense during the plague. A hero who is declared an idiot for being the only normal one. Funniest war book ever.

48. Mikhail Bulgakov. "White Guard" (1924).
The sinking ship of the past is nothing and no one can save. The more tempting is the toy house, where real soldiers who lost the war against their people will be truly killed.

49. Thomas Mann. "Magic Mountain" (1924).
Tomorrow was the war. Only World War I. And indeed - the Magic Mountain. Up there, where the mountains are, you want to sit out, to escape from the plague (any, it is approximately the same at all times and in all countries), but you just can’t. The magic does not work, they are already waiting downstairs, and they have very good arguments.

50. Franz Kafka. "Process" (1925).
One of the most complex and multifaceted novels of the 20th century, which gave rise to hundreds of mutually exclusive interpretations ranging from an entertainingly told dream to an allegory of a metaphysical search for God.

51. Francis Scott Fitzgerald. "The Great Gatsby" (1925).
A novel from the era of the American Jazz Age. Literary critics are still arguing: whether the author buried the great American dream in him, or simply regrets the eternal delay of today, sandwiched between the memory of the past and the romantic promise of the future.

52. Alexander Green. "Running on the waves" (1928).
A beautiful-hearted romantic extravaganza that has already helped a generation of young people and girls to survive the puberty period and gain faith in the Good and the Light and in their own higher destiny.

53. Ilya Ilf, Evgeny Petrov. "Twelve Chairs" (1928).
A picaresque novel of the era of building socialism with the main character-adventurer Ostap Bender. A satire on Soviet society in the 1920s is on the verge of anti-Sovietism, fortunately almost unnoticed by the censors of those years.

54. Andrey Platonov. "Chevengur" (1927-1929).
The history of building communism in a single village. Perhaps the most disturbing novel about the explosion of messianic and eschatological sentiments in the first post-revolutionary years.

55. William Faulkner. "The Sound and the Fury" (1929).
The discreet charm of the magical American South. Legends, fairy tales, myths. They don't let go, they still call back to the Americans, because you have to be afraid of the past. Faulkner comes up with the American Zurbagan, only there you can be saved.

56. Ernest Hemingway. "Bye weapons!" (1929).
Military prose, overseas military prose. War without war, world without peace, people without faces and eyes, but with glasses. The glasses are full, but they drink from them slowly, because the dead don't get drunk.

57. Louis Ferdinand Celine. "Journey to the End of the Night" (1932).
Stylish and sophisticated black. Without hope. Slums, poverty, war, dirt, and no light, no ray, one dark kingdom. Even the corpses are not visible. But they are, the journey must continue while Charon is having fun. Especially for tolerant optimists.

58. Aldous Huxley. "Oh wonderful new world» (1932).
Interpreters argue: is it a utopia or a dystopia? Be that as it may, Huxley was able to anticipate the blessings and plagues of the modern "consumer society".

59. Lao She. "Notes on the Cat City" (1933).
Cats have nothing to do with it. Even foxes, traditional for the Chinese, also have nothing to do with it. This is power, this is plainclothes readers who come and knock on the door. It begins cheerfully and allegorically, and ends with a Chinese torture chamber. Very beautiful, very exotic, you just want to howl and growl, not meow.

60. Henry Miller. Tropic of Cancer (1934).
The groan and howl of the male, longing for cities and years. The most physiologically crude prose poem.

61. Maxim Gorky. "The Life of Klim Samgin" (1925–1936).
Almost an epic, a political leaflet written almost in verse, the agony of the intelligentsia at the beginning of the century is relevant both at the end of it and in the middle.

62. Margaret Mitchell "Gone with the Wind" (1936).
A harmonious combination of women's prose with an epic picture of American life during the Civil War of the North and South; deservedly became a bestseller.

63. Erich Maria Remarque. "Three comrades" (1936–1937).
One of the most famous novels on the theme of the "lost generation". People who have gone through the crucible of war cannot escape the ghosts of the past, but it was the military brotherhood that rallied the three comrades.

64. Vladimir Nabokov. "The Gift" (1938–1939).
The piercing theme of exile: a Russian emigrant lives in Berlin, writes poetry and loves Zina, and Zina loves him. The famous chapter IV is the biography of Chernyshevsky, the best of all existing ones. The author himself said: “The Gift” is not about Zina, but about Russian literature.

65. Mikhail Bulgakov. "Master and Margarita" (1929-1940).
A unique synthesis of satire, mystery and love story, created from a dualistic perspective. A hymn to free creativity, for which you will definitely be rewarded - even after death.

66. Mikhail Sholokhov. "Quiet Don" (1927-1940).
Cossack "War and Peace". The war during the Civil War and the world, which we will destroy to the ground, so that later we will never build anything again. The novel dies towards the end of the novel, a surprising occurrence in literature.

67. Robert Musil. "A Man Without Qualities" (1930–1943).
For many years, Musil adjusted one to the other polished lines to the limit. It is not surprising that the filigree novel remained unfinished.

68. Hermann Hesse. "The Glass Bead Game" (1943).
A philosophical utopia written in the midst of the terrible war XX century. Anticipated all the main features and theoretical constructions of the era of postmodernism.

69. Veniamin Kaverin. "Two Captains" (1938–1944).
A book that called on the Soviet youth to "fight and seek, find and not give up." However, the romance of distant wanderings and scientific research captivates and attracts so far.

70. Boris Vian. "Foam of days" (1946).
The elegant French Kharms, an ironist and postmodernist, dumped all the culture of his time in feathers and diamonds. Culture cannot be washed off until now.

71. Thomas Mann. "Doctor Faustus" (1947).
Composer Adrian Leverkühn sold his soul to the devil. And he began to compose magnificent, but terrifying music, where hellish laughter and a pure children's choir sound. His fate reflects the fate of the German nation, which succumbed to the temptation of Nazism.

72. Albert Camus. "Plague" (1947).
A metaphorical novel about the "plague of the 20th century" and the role that the invasion of evil plays in the existential awakening of man.

73. George Orwell. "1984" (1949).
A dystopia imbued with Western society's hidden fear of Soviet state and pessimism about the human ability to resist social evil.

74. Jerome D. Salinger. "The Catcher in the Rye" (1951).
Touching teenager Holden Caulfield, who does not want (and cannot) be like everyone else. That is why everyone immediately loved him. Both in America and in Russia.

75. Ray Bradbury. "451 Fahrenheit" (1953).
A dystopia that came true a long time ago. Books are not burned now, they are simply not read. We switched to other media. Bradbury, who always wrote about the village (well, Martian or whatever, but still - the village), is especially furious here. And he is absolutely right in his rage.

76. John R. R. Tolkien. "The Lord of the Rings" (1954-1955).
A three-volume saga-tale about the struggle between Good and Evil in a fictional world, which most accurately reflected the aspirations of the people of the twentieth century. Made millions of readers worry about the fate of the gnomes, elves and furry hobbits, as for their fellow tribesmen. Formed the fantasy genre and spawned many imitators.

77. Vladimir Nabokov. "Lolita" (1955; 1967, Russian version).
A shocking, but literary sophisticated story about the criminal passion of an adult man for a youngster. However, lust here strangely turns into love and tenderness. Lots of touching and funny stuff.

78. Boris Pasternak. "Doctor Zhivago" (1945-1955).
A novel by a brilliant poet, a novel that received Nobel Prize according to literature, the novel that killed the poet is the one that killed physically.

79. Jack Kerouac "On the Road" (1957).
One of the cult compositions of the beatnik culture. The poetics of the American freeway in all its raw charm. A hipster chase that ends in nothing. But the chase is interesting.

80. William Burroughs. "Naked Lunch" (1959).
Another cult composition of beatnik culture. Homosexuality, perversions, glitches and other horrors. Interzone populated by secret agents, mad doctors and all sorts of mutants. But in general - a hysterical rhapsod, repulsive and bewitching.

81. Witold Gombrowicz. "Pornography" (1960).
Despite the fact that the provocative title does not match the content, none of those who mastered this sensual-metaphysical novel was left disappointed.

82. Kobo Abe. "Woman in the Sands" (1962).
Russian melancholy without Russian expanses. Vertical escape. From skyscrapers to the sand pit. Escape with no right to return, no right to stop, no right to rest, no rights whatsoever. A woman can only cover with sand, only fall asleep. Which is what she does. The escape is considered successful: the fugitive is not found.

83. Julio Cortazar. "Playing Hopscotch" (1963).
A novel made up of novels. Interactive games, call, mister reader, live, I'll do as you say. Latin Americans love to play, they are very reckless. This novel is a big game of literary gambling. Some win.

84. Nikolay Nosov. "Dunno on the Moon" (1964-1965).
A novel is a fairy tale. Only there is very little fairy tale, but a lot of funny and scary. The most accurate, most come true dystopia of the twentieth century. And now this book is still coming true and coming true.

85. John Fowles Magus (1965).
The life and terrifying adventures of the soul and meaning of modern Robinson Crusoe on, alas, an inhabited island of sheer nightmares. No one will ever forgive anyone or anything.

86. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967).
The story of the fictional city of Macondo, full of drama, was founded by a passionate tyrant leader interested in the mystical secrets of the Universe. Mirror in which reflected real story Colombia.

87. Philip K. Dick. "Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep" (1968).
A work that asks the question “Are we who we take ourselves to be, and is the reality as our eyes see it?”. It forced serious philosophers and culturologists to turn to fantasy and at the same time infected several generations of writers and filmmakers with a specific paranoia.

88. Yuri Mamleev. "Connecting Rods" (1968).
A metaphysical novel about a mysterious esoteric circle whose members different ways trying to escape from the ordinary world into the beyond.

89. Alexander Solzhenitsyn. "In the first circle" (1968).
A novel about a “good” camp, a novel about what, it would seem, is not so scary, which, apparently, is why it has such a strong effect. In a complete nightmare, you no longer feel anything, but here - when "you can live" - here you understand that there is no life and cannot be. The novel is not even devoid of humorous scenes, and this also acts even more strongly. Let's not forget that the circle may be the first, but this is not a lifeline, but one of the circles of the Kolyma hell.

90. Kurt Vonnegut "Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children's Crusade" (1969).
A funny and crazy novel in a schizophrenic-telegraphic style. The bombing of Dresden by the Americans and the British in 1945, aliens dragging Billy Pilgrim to the planet Tralfamador. And "things like that," said every time someone dies.

91. Venedikt Erofeev. "Moscow-Petushki" (1970).
Underground encyclopedia of Russian spiritual life in the second half of the twentieth century. The funny and tragic Bible of a dervish, an alcoholic and a passion-bearer - whoever is closer.

92. Sasha Sokolov "School for Fools" (1976).
One of those rare novels in which it is not what is more important, but how. Main character by no means a schizophrenic boy, but the language is complex, metaphorical, musical.

93. Andrey Bitov. "Pushkin House" (1971).
About the charming conformist, philologist Lev Odoevtsev, who leaves the vile "Soviet" 1960s in gold XIX century, so as not to get dirty. Truly an encyclopedia Soviet life, an organic part of which is the great Russian literature.

94. Eduard Limonov. "It's me - Eddie" (1979).
A novel-confession, which became one of the most shocking books of its time thanks to the utmost frankness of the author.

95. Vasily Aksenov. "Island of Crimea" (1979).
Taiwanese variant Russian history: The Bolsheviks did not get the Crimea in Civil. The plot is fantastic, but the feelings and actions of the characters are real. And noble. For which they have to pay very dearly.

96. Milan Kundera "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (1984).
Intimate life against the background of political cataclysms. And the conclusion - any choice is unimportant, "what happened once, could not happen at all."

97. Vladimir Voinovich. "Moscow 2042" (1987).
The most sophisticated work of the writer. Four utopias inserted into each other like nesting dolls. Tricks with the chronotope and other fun. And also - the most eccentric manifestations of the Russian mentality in all its glory.

98. Vladimir Sorokin. "Romance" (1994).
This book is primarily for writers. Roman, the hero of "Roman", arrives in a typical Russian village, where he lives a typical village life - everything is like in the realistic novels of the 19th century. But the ending - special, Sorokinsky - symbolizes the end of traditional novel thinking.

99. Victor Pelevin. "Chapaev and Void" (1996).
Buddhist thriller, mystical thriller about two eras (1918 and 1990s). Which of the eras is real is unknown, and it doesn’t matter. A keen sense of life in different dimensions, flavored with signature irony. Sometimes even breathtaking. Scary and fun.

100. Vladimir Sorokin. "Blue fat" (1999).
The most scandalous novel by this author. A stormy plot, a whirlpool of events. A fascinating play with language - like in a symphony. Chinaized Russia of the future, Stalin and Hitler in the past, and much more. But in general, when you finish reading, it breaks to tears.

We read really good books. The collection features classics, the best books of all time. 20 books every adult should read.

Can you answer what was the last book you read? Someone will answer that he does not remember, someone will say with a smile: "Primer" and only a few will specifically name the author and the title of the work. The second question arises - why do modern people not want to read? Because of the rapid development of technological progress, the banal lack of time, or simply because of reluctance and laziness? After all, reading is an exciting activity that can become an ideal hobby for every person.

Reading books is not only useful and informative. Some works can radically change your outlook on life and even change your personality. It is desirable to instill a love of reading from childhood. Moreover, this must be done carefully and gently so as not to permanently discourage the child from picking up a book.

In this article, we have prepared a list of the best books of all time that everyone should read. If you are of the opinion what to read in modern world not fashionable, then you are mistaken. The book is not subject to fashion and time. Being well-read and educated are valuable human qualities, independent of surrounding circumstances.

Each of the works presented below has made a huge contribution to world culture and affected the worldview of entire generations. So, let's start our TOP of the best books.

Top best books everyone should read

Leo Tolstoy "War and Peace" begins our rating for a reason. A classic and a real masterpiece from the world famous Russian author. This is an epic novel about the life and culture of the Russian people during the Napoleonic Wars. You need to be mentally prepared to read. It is foolish to start a novel for a very young reader.
George Orwell "1984". This is a well-known dystopia, relevant in our time more than ever. The author touches upon the problem of totalitarianism. A strange feeling grips while reading that all this has a similarity with what is happening in the world now.
Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451. This is not just a science fiction work, but also a dystopia, recognizable in our time. The book is definitely a must read.
Jerome Salinger "The Catcher in the Rye" The most famous novel, which rightfully takes its place among the best books of all time. The book, which made its powerful impact on the formation of world culture in its time, continues to be relevant today.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude. Incredibly atmospheric classic. Written in a very interesting style - magical realism. After reading this work, there remains a strange aftertaste and the realization that not only people, but also entire civilizations can be lonely.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby. A story about unearthly love or endless selfishness? Everyone has their own vision. The atmosphere of the jazz era captures from the first second.
Erich Maria Remarque "Three Comrades". What do you know about the lost generation if you are not familiar with the works of the Great Remarque? Carefully! The writing style is addictive.
Ernest Hemingway "Goodbye Arms" A true classic, a must read. Enters the ranks best books about lost generation. Fully reveals this topic against the backdrop of a story of beautiful and tragic love.
Mikhail Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita" A novel known throughout the world. This is exactly the kind of work that can be read many times and each time understood in a new way.
Vladimir Nabokov "Lolita" One of the author's most popular novels. It is also included in the lists of the most beloved and read works worldwide.
Margaret Mitchell Gone with the Wind. This piece hardly needs any introduction. A popular novel about events in the southern United States of America during the civil war, as well as after it.
Oscar Wilde "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Great work, one of the best books of all time, about not chasing illusions. You have to live with your soul. The novel is very relevant in our time, in a world where they only do what they "meet by clothes."
William Faulkner "The Sound and the Fury" In some places a difficult book, but still made its contribution to the formation of world culture. Makes you think about many things.
John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath. A true American classic novel that won a Pulitzer Prize. Describes the hard life of a farming family during the Great Depression.
Lee Harper "To Kill a Mockingbird" The story is told from the point of view of the child, which makes it immediate and easy to understand. It touches upon the problem of injustice in the world. While reading, it captures an indescribable feeling of atmosphere and comfort.
Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice. Classic English Literature. A love story, a very difficult love.
James Joyce "Ulysses". A complex novel written in completely different styles. Contains many references to various events. Rightfully recognized as the pinnacle of modernism.
Daniel Keyes "The Mysterious Case of Billy Milligan". This novel is based on real events and tells us about a man who suffered from a very serious mental illness - 24 completely different personalities lived in his body.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery "The Little Prince" A short work that easily accommodates a whole ocean of problems, revealing them to the reader. A striking difference from other popular books are the author's illustrations, which carry a lot of meaning.
Mikhail Bulgakov "Heart of a Dog". A small, but no less interesting and light work by Bulgakov. A story about a risky experiment by a genius doctor.

Our TOP of the best books has come to an end, but believe me, this list can be continued almost forever. Therefore, sit back and dive into the world of literature that has become a real classic. These are truly the best books of all time, on which more than one generation has grown up. They are all very different, but equally good. After reading this list, you will form your personal literary taste, that is, you will understand which genre you like best. Even if you have very little time, remember that just one chapter a day, page by page, and the result is a read book.

Anna Karenina. Lev Tolstoy

The greatest love story of all time. A story that has not left the stage, filmed countless times - and still has not lost the boundless charm of passion - a destructive, destructive, blind passion - but all the more bewitching with its grandeur.