10 Best Novels of All Time, From Quick Reads to Epics in 2026

Lists of the best novels of all time disagree on almost everything except a small group of books. This page takes the novels that recur across the major lists and sorts them by how demanding they are to read, from a weekend to a season. Each pick names an edition or translation worth buying. It's part of our best books of all time hub, which explains how the famous lists work.

TL;DR: the best novels of all time that appear across critics' lists, writers' polls and public votes include Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, Anna Karenina, Don Quixote, Middlemarch and One Hundred Years of Solitude. Start short with Gatsby or The Stranger, and build toward Don Quixote and War and Peace.

We chose these from five well-known lists, described below, and favored novels that appear on more than one. We did not rank them by quality. They run from the quickest read to the longest.

#1. The Great Gatsby: Best short first pick

The Great Gatsby (Scribner)

Our verdict:

Best short first pick

Best for readers who want a famous novel they can finish in a weekend.

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• By F. Scott Fitzgerald, first published in 1925
• Scribner's authorized edition
• Paperback, under 200 pages

Keep in mind: the narrator is cool and detached, so some readers find it hard to warm to.

Product details checked September 2026

F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel from 1925 came second on the Modern Library board's list and is on TIME's list. It runs under 200 pages, with one narrator and a tight plot. If you have never finished a classic, this is the safest place to start.

#2. Pride and Prejudice: Best for readers who like dialogue

Pride and Prejudice (Penguin Classics)

Our verdict:

Best for readers who like dialogue

Best for anyone who wants a funny, quick classic driven by conversation.

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• By Jane Austen, first published in 1813
• Penguin Classics paperback
• Includes an introduction and notes

Keep in mind: the opening chapters are mostly manners and visits, so the plot takes time to build.

Product details checked September 2026

Jane Austen's novel from 1813 is on nearly every list that includes the 19th century, and it came second in the BBC's 2003 Big Read public vote. It is funny, quick and driven by dialogue. See our Pride and Prejudice guide for where it sits in a reading order.

#3. The Stranger: Best very short world novel

The Stranger by Albert Camus (Vintage International)

Our verdict:

Best very short world novel

Best for readers who want a short, unsettling book they can read in an evening.

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• By Albert Camus, first published in 1942
• Translated by Matthew Ward
• Vintage International paperback

Keep in mind: the flat, emotionless narration is the point, and some readers find it cold.

Product details checked September 2026

Albert Camus wrote this short novel in 1942, about a man who kills on a beach. Readers of Le Monde voted it the book of the century in 1999. Matthew Ward's translation is the common US edition.

#4. Nineteen Eighty-Four: Best political novel

1984 by George Orwell (Signet Classics)

Our verdict:

Best political novel

Best for readers who want a gripping story that is also a famous argument about power.

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• By George Orwell, first published in 1949
• Signet Classics paperback
• About 328 pages

Keep in mind: the last third is bleak by design, with no comfort at the end.

Product details checked September 2026

George Orwell's 1949 novel is on the Modern Library and TIME lists, and it is still one of the most read novels in English. See our 1984 guide for the plot and key terms.

#5. Things Fall Apart: Best short novel from outside Europe

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Our verdict:

Best short novel from outside Europe

Best for readers who want a clear, short novel with a different point of view.

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• By Chinua Achebe, first published in 1958
• Set in an Igbo village as colonial rule arrives
• Anchor paperback

Keep in mind: the ending is abrupt, which is deliberate but can feel sudden.

Product details checked September 2026

Chinua Achebe's novel from 1958 is on the Bokklubben list and TIME's list. It is a short, clear novel about an Igbo village as colonial rule arrives.

#6. One Hundred Years of Solitude: Best for readers who want a spell

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

Our verdict:

Best for readers who want a spell

Best for readers ready for a longer book full of strange events told as ordinary fact.

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• By Gabriel Garcia Marquez, first published in 1967
• Translated by Gregory Rabassa
• Harper Perennial Modern Classics paperback

Keep in mind: many characters share the same few names, so a family tree helps.

Product details checked September 2026

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 1967 novel follows seven generations of the Buendia family in the town of Macondo. It is on the Bokklubben list, and Gregory Rabassa's translation is the one most readers know.

#7. Anna Karenina: Best first long Russian novel

Anna Karenina (Penguin Classics, Pevear and Volokhonsky)

Our verdict:

Best first long Russian novel

Best for readers ready for a big novel with a strong central story.

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• By Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878
• Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
• Penguin Classics paperback

Keep in mind: it is long, and the chapters on farming and politics slow some readers down.

Product details checked September 2026

Leo Tolstoy's most focused novel appeared in book form in 1878 and is a fixture of world-literature lists. Read a modern translation such as Pevear and Volokhonsky's.

#8. Middlemarch: Best long English novel

Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)

Our verdict:

Best long English novel

Best for patient readers who like a whole town of characters and wise commentary.

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• By George Eliot, first published in 1871 to 1872
• Penguin Classics paperback
• A long novel of a whole provincial town

Keep in mind: the pace is slow and the first hundred pages set up many threads at once.

Product details checked September 2026

George Eliot's novel came first in BBC Culture's 2015 poll of the greatest British novels. It covers a whole provincial town, with some of the wisest writing about marriage in fiction.

#9. Don Quixote: Best comic epic

Don Quixote, translated by Edith Grossman

Our verdict:

Best comic epic

Best for readers who want the book many call the first modern novel, in a lively translation.

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• By Miguel de Cervantes, published in 1605 and 1615
• Translated by Edith Grossman, introduction by Harold Bloom
• Ecco paperback

Keep in mind: it is very long and episodic, so it suits reading in short bursts.

Product details checked September 2026

Miguel de Cervantes published the two parts in 1605 and 1615. The Bokklubben poll of writers singled it out as the best work of fiction. Edith Grossman's translation makes it funnier than its age suggests.

#10. War and Peace: Best for a season-long read

War and Peace (Vintage Classics)

Our verdict:

Best for a season-long read

Best for readers who want one huge novel to live with for months.

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• By Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1869
• Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
• Vintage Classics paperback

Keep in mind: its length and the long essays on history make it the biggest commitment here.

Product details checked September 2026

Tolstoy's novel follows five families across the Napoleonic Wars. It is the longest book on this page and one of the most rewarding. The sentences are clear, so the challenge is scope, not style.

Factors to consider when choosing the best novels of all time to read

A few questions narrow the list fast.

• How much time do you have? Gatsby, The Stranger and Things Fall Apart fit a weekend. Middlemarch, Don Quixote and War and Peace take weeks.
• Is it a translation? For Don Quixote, Anna Karenina and One Hundred Years of Solitude, the translator's name matters as much as the author's. Budget reprints often use stiff, old versions.
• Do you want notes? A critical edition with notes helps with long 19th-century novels. A plain paperback is fine for short modern ones.
• Print or audio? Long novels with many characters are easier in print, where you can flip back.

The lists behind this page

Rather than follow one ranking, this page draws on five well-known lists.

• Modern Library 100 Best Novels (1998). A board of writers and editors ranked English-language novels of the 20th century. Ulysses came first. A separate reader poll produced a very different list.
• TIME All-TIME 100 Novels (2005). English-language novels since 1923, chosen by critics Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo, unranked.
• The Guardian's 100 best novels written in English (2013 to 2015). Robert McCrum's chronological list, one novel per author.
• BBC Culture's 100 greatest British novels (2015). A poll of critics from outside the UK, with Middlemarch at number one.
• Bokklubben World Library (2002). One hundred writers from 54 countries named the most meaningful works of fiction in any language. Don Quixote was singled out as the best.

The first three lists are limited to English, so the world-literature picks lean on the Bokklubben list.

More of the best novels of all time the lists agree on

Four more novels turn up on several lists and deserve a place on any reading plan.

• The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway, 1952). A short novel about an old Cuban fisherman and a giant marlin, and a common first Hemingway.
• To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee, 1960). On TIME's list and the winner of PBS's Great American Read vote in 2018.
• Moby-Dick (Herman Melville, 1851). The whale hunt, with long chapters on whaling and philosophy. An annotated edition helps.
• Ulysses (James Joyce, 1922). One day in Dublin, 16 June 1904, told in a different style in each chapter. First on the Modern Library board's list and famously hard going. Read it last, with a guide.

How length and difficulty differ

Page count is a weak guide to difficulty.

War and Peace is long because of its scope, but its sentences are clear. Ulysses is hard sentence by sentence, because Joyce changes style from chapter to chapter. Middlemarch is long and patient. The Stranger is short but unsettling. Knowing which kind of difficulty you face, scope or style, helps set expectations.

A reading order for this list

If you want to work through several of these, try this path: The Great Gatsby, then Pride and Prejudice, then Things Fall Apart, then Anna Karenina, then One Hundred Years of Solitude, then Middlemarch. After those six, you'll know whether Don Quixote, Moby-Dick, War and Peace or Ulysses should come next. For classics beyond the novel, see classic books everyone should read.

Common mistakes with best-novels lists

• Starting at number one. The top of a critics' list is usually the most ambitious book, not the most welcoming. Ulysses is a famous first-page casualty.
• Buying the cheapest translation. For the translated novels here, budget reprints often use stiff, old versions.
• Reading only one kind of list. English-only lists skip Tolstoy and Cervantes entirely. Check a world-literature list alongside them.
• Forcing a book that isn't working. Give a novel 50 pages. If it still isn't clicking, try another from the same difficulty band and come back later.

Why the lists disagree

Critics' boards weight ambition and influence. Public votes weight books people loved, often when young. Writers' polls, like Bokklubben, lean toward books that changed how fiction is written.

The Modern Library ran a board list and a reader poll in the same year, and their top tens barely overlapped. Neither was wrong. They were measuring different things, and the novels that appear on several kinds of list are the safest picks.

Verdict

The best novels of all time to start with are the short ones that appear on several lists: The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice and The Stranger. Build up through Anna Karenina and One Hundred Years of Solitude, and keep Don Quixote and War and Peace for when a long, demanding novel is exactly what you want.

Questions people also ask

What is the best novel of all time?

It depends on the list. The Modern Library board put Ulysses first among 20th-century English-language novels. The 2002 Bokklubben poll of 100 writers singled out Don Quixote. A 2015 BBC Culture poll of critics named Middlemarch the greatest British novel. Each answer reflects what that list set out to measure.

Is a longer novel automatically a better one?

No. Length reflects ambition, not quality. The Great Gatsby and The Old Man and the Sea are short and appear on major lists alongside War and Peace.

Why do critics' lists and reader polls disagree so much?

Critics weight influence and formal ambition; readers weight enjoyment and personal impact. The Modern Library ran both kinds in 1998, and the two top tens barely overlapped. The reader poll was topped by Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, with several L. Ron Hubbard novels high on it, a result many commentators attributed to organized voting.

Which of the best novels of all time are free to read?

Novels published in the US before 1931 are in the US public domain as of 2026, so Pride and Prejudice, Moby-Dick, Middlemarch, The Great Gatsby and Ulysses are free from Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks. Translated novels are free only in old translations, and later novels such as 1984 and One Hundred Years of Solitude are still under copyright.

Should I avoid abridged versions of long novels?

Yes, for a best-novels project. Abridged editions of War and Peace or Les Miserables cut whole subplots and much of what critics admire. If a novel feels too long, pick a shorter one from this list instead.