Subject
Top 100 (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Jerry Goodenough <J.Goodenough@uea.ac.uk>
Waterstones, Britain's largest chain of 'serious' booksellers has just completed
the country's largest ever opinion-poll of book-buyers, asking them for their
votes for the greatest books of the 20th century. (The top 100 such books are
being made the subject of a sales promotion in Waterstones' shops).
VN makes a single appearance with Lolita (of course!) charting at 31, just ahead
of Iain Banks' "The Wasp Factory" (32) and Proust's "Recherche" (33) but some
way behind "The Wind in the Willows" (16), "Winnie the Pooh" (17) and "Gone with
the Wind" (23). The list tends towards childhood favourites or schoolroom reads,
nearly all novels, with no poetry and few works of non-fiction, with a strong
post-1945 propensity and an unbalanced view of American literature. (My
charitable description of a list that omits any mention of Faulkner, Hemingway,
Bellow, Mailer, Wolfe, Roth, Updike, Oates, etc. but gets Stephen King in twice!
(at 71 and 73)).
The great British public's choice of the greatest book of the 20th century?
"Lord of the Rings"! (a choice that made headlines in all the usual places
here). Nabokovians can check out the full list at http://www.waterstones.com.uk/
Jerry Goodenough
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ
England
Waterstones, Britain's largest chain of 'serious' booksellers has just completed
the country's largest ever opinion-poll of book-buyers, asking them for their
votes for the greatest books of the 20th century. (The top 100 such books are
being made the subject of a sales promotion in Waterstones' shops).
VN makes a single appearance with Lolita (of course!) charting at 31, just ahead
of Iain Banks' "The Wasp Factory" (32) and Proust's "Recherche" (33) but some
way behind "The Wind in the Willows" (16), "Winnie the Pooh" (17) and "Gone with
the Wind" (23). The list tends towards childhood favourites or schoolroom reads,
nearly all novels, with no poetry and few works of non-fiction, with a strong
post-1945 propensity and an unbalanced view of American literature. (My
charitable description of a list that omits any mention of Faulkner, Hemingway,
Bellow, Mailer, Wolfe, Roth, Updike, Oates, etc. but gets Stephen King in twice!
(at 71 and 73)).
The great British public's choice of the greatest book of the 20th century?
"Lord of the Rings"! (a choice that made headlines in all the usual places
here). Nabokovians can check out the full list at http://www.waterstones.com.uk/
Jerry Goodenough
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ
England