from HERE
13 "Top 100 Books" lists combined and condensed in to one master list, for the benefit of your reading pleasure. 623 books in all -- a lifetime of reading potential!
- The Great Gatsby994 Points"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since."
- The Grapes of Wrath963 Points"To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth."
- Nineteen Eighty-Four946 Points"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
- Ulysses925 Points"Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed."
- Lolita856 Points"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palette to tap, at three, on the teeth."
- Catch-22823 Points"It was love at first sight."
- The Catcher in the Rye735 Points"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they...
- Beloved719 Points"124 was spiteful. Full of baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children."
- The Sound and the Fury703 Points"Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting."
- To Kill a Mockingbird701 Points"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."
- The Lord of the Rings691 Points"When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton."
- One Hundred Years of Solitude667 Points"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de..."
- Brave New World664 Points"A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories."
- To the Lighthouse642 Points"Yes, of course, if it's fine tomorrow," said Mrs. Ramsay. "But you'll have to be up with the lark," she added.
- Invisible Man640 Points"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—...
- Gone with the Wind606 Points"Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm, as the Tarleton twins were."
- Jane Eyre562 Points"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined..."
- On the Road543 Points"I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up."
- Pride and Prejudice540 Points"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
- Lord of the Flies537 Points"The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon."
- Middlemarch519 Points"Who that cares much to know the history of man, and how the mysterious mixture behaves under the varying experiments of Time, has not dwelt, at least briefly, on the life of Saint Theresa, has not..."
- Anna Karenina505 Points"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. (C. Garnett, 1946) and (J. Carmichael, 1960)All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy..."
- Animal Farm495 Points"Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes."
- A Passage to India469 Points"Except for the Marabar caves--and they are twenty miles off--the city of Chrandrapore presents nothing extraordinary."
- In Search of Lost Time455 Points"For a long time, I would go to bed early. [Fr., Longtemps, je me suis couche de bonne heure.]"
- Wuthering Heights417 Points
- The Chronicles of Narnia403 Points"There is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child. (From The Magician's Nephew, first in chronological order)Once there were four children whose names were..."
- The Color Purple392 Points"You better not never tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy."
- Midnight's Children391 Points"I was born in the city of Bombay . . . once upon a time."
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man389 Points"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo...."
- Winnie-the-Pooh383 Points"Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin."
- Heart of Darkness382 Points"The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it..."
- Mrs Dalloway365 Points"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. For Lucy had her work cut out for her. The doors would be taken off their hinges; Rumpelmayer’s men were coming. And then, thought Clarissa..."
- Slaughterhouse-Five358 Points"All this happened, more or less."
- War and Peace357 Points"Well, Prince, Genoa and Lucca are now no more than private estates of the Bonaparte family."Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. (Maude/Maude)
- Of Mice and Men349 Points"A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green."
- Moby-Dick348 Points"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see..."
- Little Women348 Points"“Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug."
- Native Son348 Points"Brrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinng! An alarm clock clanged in the dark and silent room."
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy344 Points"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million..."
- Great Expectations337 Points"My father's family name being Pirrip, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be..."
- The Sun Also Rises335 Points"Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton."
- Rebecca333 Points"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
- The Stranger331 Points"Mother died today. (Stuart Gilbert translation)Maman died today. (Matthew Ward translation)Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas."
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass327 Points"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do; once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or..."
- For Whom the Bell Tolls322 Points"He lay flat on the brown, pine-needled floor of the forest, his chin on his folded arms, and high overhead the wind blew in the tops of the pine trees."
- The Hobbit322 Points"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to..."
- Madame Bovary322 Points"Nous étions à l'Etude, quand le Proviseur entra suivi d'un "nouveau" habillé en bourgeois et d'un garçon de classe qui portait un grand pupitre.We were in study hall when the headmaster walked in,..."
- The Wind in the Willows318 Points"The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring- cleaning his little home. "
- The Handmaid’s Tale316 Points"We slept in what had once been the gymnasium."
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles315 Points"On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor."
- Their Eyes Were Watching God312 Points"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board."
- A Prayer for Owen Meany311 Points"I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice - not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but..."
- Emma310 Points"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the..."
- David Copperfield309 Points"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I..."
- The Portrait of a Lady306 Points"Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. There are circumstances in which, whether you partake of the..."
- The Trial304 Points"Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.Jemand mußte Josef K. verleumdet haben, denn ohne daß er etwas Böses..."
- Crime and Punishment298 Points"On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge. (Garnett..."
- A Clockwork Orange295 Points"'What's it going to be then, eh?'"
- The Age of Innocence292 Points"On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York."
- Don Quixote291 Points"Idle reader, you can believe without any oath of mine that I would wish this book, as the child of my brain, to be the most beautiful, the liveliest and the cleverest imaginable.Prologue: Idle..."
- As I Lay Dying281 Points"Jewel and I come up from the field, following the path in single file."
- His Dark Materials277 Points"Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen. (Northern lights)Will tugged at his mother's hand and said, "Come on, come on..."..."
- Brideshead Revisited269 Points"When I reached C Company lines, which were at the top of the hill, I paused and looked back at the camp, just coming into full view below me through the grey mist of early morning."
- The Golden Notebook266 Points"The two women were alone in the London flat."
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn263 Points"You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," but that ain't no matter.You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The..."
- Things Fall Apart255 Points"Okonkwo was well-known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen he had brought honour to his village by throwing..."
- Tom Jones255 Points"An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money."
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone252 Points"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
- Song of Solomon250 Points"The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance agent promised to fly from Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior at three o'clock."
- Molloy; Malone Dies; The Unnamable247 Points"I am in my mother's room."
- Finnegans Wake247 Points"riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs."
- Absalom, Absalom!246 Points"From a little after two o'clock until almost sundown of the long still hot weary dead September afternoon they sat in what Miss Coldfield still called the office because her father had called it..."
- The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman244 Points"I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly considered how much...
- Charlotte's Web236 Points"Where's Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast."
- The Ambassadors235 Points"Strether's first question, when he reached the hotel, was about his friend; yet on his learning that Waymarsh was apparently not to arrive till evening he was not wholly disconcerted."
- Sons and Lovers232 Points"The Bottoms" succeeded to "Hell Row."
- A Farewell to Arms230 Points"In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains."
- Women in Love226 Points"Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen sat one morning in the window-bay of their father’s house in Beldover, working and talking. Ursula was stitching a piece of brightly-coloured embroidery, and Gudrun was..."
- Birdsong226 Points"The boulevard du cange was a broad, quiet street that marked the eastern flank of the city of Amiens."
- Gulliver's travels225 Points"My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five sons."
- Watership Down225 Points"The primroses were over."
- Gravity's Rainbow221 Points"A screaming comes across the sky."
- Frankenstein219 Points"You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.The event on which this fiction is founded has been..."
- Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady215 Points"I am extremely concerned, my dearest friend, for the disturbances that have happened in your family."
- The Old Man and the Sea215 Points"He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish."
- Dune214 Points"A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. . . . from "Manual of Muad'dib" by the Princess IrulanIn the week before their departure to Arakis, when all..."
- The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe211 Points
- Go Tell It on the Mountain208 Points"Everyone had always said that John would be a preacher when he grew up, just like his father."
- All the King's Men207 Points"MASON CITY. To get there you follow Highway 58, going northeast out of the city, and it is a good highway and new. Or was new, that day we went up it."
- The Magic Mountain203 Points"Die Geschichte Hans Castorps, die wir erzählen wollen, - nicht um seinetwillen (denn der Leser wird einen einfachen, wenn auch ansprechenden jungen Mann in ihm kennenlernen), sondern um der..."
- The Call of the Wild203 Points"Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tide-water dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound..."
- The Tin Drum201 Points"Granted: I'm an inmate of a mental institution; my keeper watches me, scarcely lets me out of his sight; for there's a peephole in the door, and my keeper's eye is the shade of brown that can't see..."
- The 42nd Parallel200 Points"General Mills with his gaudy uniform and spirited charger was the center for all eyes especially as his steed was extremely restless."
- Under the Volcano199 Points"Two mountain chains traverse the republic roughly from north to south, forming between them a number of valleys and plateaus."
- Disgrace193 Points"For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well."
- The Diary of a Young Girl193 Points"On Friday, 12th June, I woke up at six o' clock and no wonder; it was my birthday"
- Bleak House189 Points"London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall."
- Light in August188 Points"Sitting beside the road, watching the wagon mount the hill toward her, Lena thinks, 'I have come from Alabama: a fur piece.'"
- The Scarlet Letter187 Points"A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the..."
- Pale Fire185 Points"I was the shadow of the waxwing slain / By the false azure in the windowpane.Pale Fire, a poem in heroic couplets, of nine hundred ninety-nine lines, divided into four cantos, was composed by John..."
- Captain Corelli's MandolinCorelli's Mandolin183 Points"Dr. Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of his patients had died or got any worse."
- Howards End182 Points"One may as well begin with Helens letters to her sister."
- The Heart is A Lonely Hunter181 Points"In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together."
- Vanity Fair181 Points"While the present century was in its teens, and on one sun-shiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large..."
- Commedia180 Points"Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita/mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,/chè la diritta via era smarrita.Mildway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the..."
- The Count of Monte Cristo180 Points"On February 24, 1815, the watchtower at Marseilles signaled the arrival of the three-master Pharaon, coming from Smyrna, Trieste and Naples."
- An American Tragedy179 Points"Dusk - of a summer night."
- White Noise178 Points"The station wagons arrived at noon, a long shining line that coursed through the west campus."
- The World According to Garp177 Points"Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater."
- Atonement176 Points"The play – for which Briony had designed posters, programs and tickets, constructed the sales booth out of a folding screen tipped on its side, and lined the collection box in red crepe paper – was..."
- Nostromo173 Points"In the time of Spanish rule, and for many years afterwards, the town of Sulaco—the luxuriant beauty of the orange gardens bears witness to its antiquity—had never been commercially anything more..."
- The House of Mirth172 Points"Selden paused in surprise."
- Братья Карамазовы168 Points"Alexey Fyodorovich Karamazov was the third son of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, a landowner well known in our district in his own day, and still remembered among us owing to his tragic and obscure..."
- The Good Soldier168 Points"This is the saddest story I have ever heard."
- The Name of the Rose166 Points"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
- The Shipping News164 Points"Here is an account of a few years in the life of Quoyle, born in Brooklyn and raised in a shuffle of dreary upstate towns."
- The Woman in White164 Points"This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and what a Man's resolution can achieve."
- Herzog162 Points"If I am out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog."
- The Counterfeiters162 Points"The time has now come for me to hear a step in the passage," said Bernard to himself.
- My Ántonia159 Points"I first heard of Ántonia on what seemed to me an interminable journey across the great midland plain of North America. I was ten years old then; I had lost both my father and mother within a year,..."
- Scoop156 Points"While still a young man, John Courteney Boot had, as his publisher proclaimed, 'achieved an assured and enviable position in contemporary letters'."
- A Room with a View156 Points"The Signora had no business to do it," said Miss Bartlett, "no business at all. She promised us south rooms with a view close together, instead of which here are north rooms, looking into a...
- Bible: King James Version155 Points"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.Bibliographical introduction....
- Wide Sargasso Sea153 Points"They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did."
- Love in The Time of Cholera153 Points"It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love."
- The Remains of the day153 Points"It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been preoccupying my imagination now for some days."
- The Big Sleep152 Points"It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills."
- I, Claudius151 Points"I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus This-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles) who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives..."
- Tropic of Cancer151 Points"I am living at the Villa Borghese."
- Tender is the Night147 Points"The hotel and its bright, tan prayer rug of a beach were one.On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about half way between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud,..."
- Journey to the End of the Night145 Points
- The War of the Worlds143 Points"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as..."
- A Suitable Boy143 Points"'You too will marry a boy I choose' said Mrs Rupa Mehra firmly to her younger daughter."
- Possession142 Points"The book was thick and black and covered with dust."
- A Confederacy of Dunces142 Points"A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on..."
- The Bell Jar141 Points"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."
- Waiting for Godot139 Points"Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He pulls at it with both hands, panting. He gives up, exhausted, rests, tries again. As before. Enter Vladimir ESTRAGON: (giving up..."
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao139 Points"They say it came first from Africa, carried in the screams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Tainos, uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn..."
- Being and Nothingness138 Points"Modern thought has realized considerable progress by reducing the existent to the series of appearances which manifest it."
- A Thousand Acres137 Points"At sixty miles per hour, you could pass our farm in a minute, on County Road 686, which ran due north into the T intersection at Cabot Street Road."
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay137 Points"In later years, holding forth to an interviewer or to an audience of aging fans at a comic book convention, Sam Clay liked to declare, apropos of his and Joe Kavalier's greatest creation, that back..."
- The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation136 Points"How do people get to this clandestine Archipelago?"
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory135 Points"These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr Bucket."
- Lady Chatterley's Lover135 Points"Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.Náš věk je v podstatě tragický, a tak ho odmítáme tragicky brát."
- JR134 Points
- The Histories133 Points"This is the showing forth of the Inquiry of Herodotus of Halicarnassos so that neither the deeds of men may be forgotten by lapse of time, nor the works great and marvellous, which have been..."
- Doctor Zhivago133 Points"On they went, singing "Rest Eternal," and whenever they stopped, their feet, the horses, and the gusts of wind seemed to carry on their singing."
- Lucky Jim133 Points"They made a silly mistake, though," the Professor of History said, and his smile, as Dixon watched, gradually sank beneath the surface of his features at the memory.
- Underworld132 Points"He speaks in your voice, American, and there's a shine in his eye that's halfway hopeful.Parla la tua lingua, l'americano, e c'è una luce nel suo sguardo che è una mezza speranza."
- If on a Winter's Night a Traveler130 Points"You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler.Stai per cominciare a leggere il nuovo romanzo Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore di Italo Calvino."
- Life130 Points" PreambleTo begin with, the art of jigsaw puzzles seems of little substance....PART ONE, CHAPTER ONEYes, it could begin this way, right here, just like that, in a rather slow and ponderous way, in..."
- The Master and Margarita130 Points"One hot spring evening, just as the sun was going down, two men appeared at Patriarch’s Ponds.At the sunset hour of one warm spring day two men were to be seen at Patriarch’s Ponds.Однажды весною,..."
- The Good Earth130 Points"It was Wang Lung's marriage day."
- Henderson the Rain King130 Points"What made me take this trip to Africa? There is no quick explanation. Things got worse and worse and worse and pretty soon they were too complicated."
- Ironweed130 Points"Riding up the winding road of Saint Agnes Cemetery in the back of the rattling old truck, Francis Phelan became aware that the dead, even more than the living, settled down in neighborhoods."
- Persuasion129 Points"Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch-hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation..."
- The Rainbow128 Points"The Brangwens had lived for generations on the Marsh Farm, in the meadows where the Erewash twisted sluggishly through alder trees, separating Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire."
- A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement, Spring127 Points"The men at work at the corner of the street had made a kind of a camp for themselves, where, marked out by tripods hung with red hurricane-lamps, an abyss in the road led down to a network of..."
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being126 Points"La idea del eterno retorno es misteriosa y con ella Nietzsche dejó perplejo a los demás filósofos...The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other..."
- Kim125 Points"He sat, in defiance of municipal orders, astride the gun Zam-Zammah on her brick platform opposite the old Ajaib-Gher - the Wonder House, as the natives call the Lahore Museum."
- Brighton Rock125 Points"Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.Hale knew they meant to murder him before he had been in Brighton three hours. [1956 ed.]"
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest122 Points"They're out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them."They're out there.
- The Adventures of Augie March120 Points"I am an American, Chicago born–Chicago, that somber city–and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; and sometimes..."
- A Bend in the River120 Points"The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it."
- The Hound of the Baskervilles119 Points"Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and..."
- Housekeeping118 Points"My name is Ruth."
- Sophie's Choice118 Points"In those days cheap apartments were almost impossible to find in Manhattan, so I had to move to Brooklyn."
- Ethan Frome117 Points"I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. (Author's Introductory Note)The village lay under two feet of snow,..."
- Buddenbrooks116 Points
- Thérèse Desqueyroux116 Points
- The Killer Angels115 Points"1. THE SPY He rode into the dark of the woods and dismounted."
- Anne of Green Gables115 Points"Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the..."
- If This Is a Man and The Truce115 Points
- The bridge of San Luis Rey114 Points"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travellers into the gulf below."
- A Moveable Feast113 Points"Then there was the bad weather."
- Dubliners112 Points"The Sisters - There was no hope for him this time: it was the third stroke.An encounter: It was Joe Dillon who introduced the Wild West to us.Araby: North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet..."
- Ficciones112 Points"I owe the discovery of Uqbar to the conjunction of a mirror and an encyclopedia."
- Schindler's Ark110 Points"In Poland's deepest autumn, a tall young man in an expensive overcoat, double-breasted dinner jacket beneath it and - in the lapel of the dinner jacket - a large ornamental gold-on-black enamel ..."
- The Prime of Miss Jean BrodieLa vera miss Brodie109 Points"The boys, as they talked to the girls from Marcia Blaine School, stood on the far side of their bicycles holding the handlebars, which established a protective fence of bicycle between the sexes,..."
- Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde107 Points"Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet..."
- Far from the Madding Crowd107 Points"When Farmer Oak smiled, the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears, his eyes were reduced to chinks, and diverging wrinkles appeared round them,..."
- Gilead107 Points"I told you last night that I might be gone sometime and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the Good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, Because I'm old, and you said, I don't think you're..."
- Nausea107 Points"These notebooks were found among the papers of Antoine Roquentin. ("Editors' Note")The best thing would be to write down events from day to day."
- The Wings of the Dove107 Points"She waited, Kate Croy, for her father to come in, but he kept her unconscionably, and there were moments at which she showed herself, in the glass over the mantel, a face postiively pale with the..."
- The Little Prince106 Points"Once when I was six years old I saw a beautiful picture in a book about the primeval forest called "True Stories"."
- The Red Badge of Courage104 Points"The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting."
- The Odyssey102 Points"By now the other warriors, those that had escaped headlong ruin by sea or in battle, were safely home.Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once..."
- Memoirs of a Geisha101 Points"One evening in the spring of 1936, when I was a boy of fourteen, my father took me to a dance performance in Kyoto.Suppose that you and I were sitting in a quiet room overlooking a garden, chatting..."
- Men Without Women101 Points"Manuel Garcia climbed the stairs to Don Miguel Retana's office. (THE UNDEFEATED)."
- The Tale of Genji101 Points"In a certain reign (whose can it have been?) someone of no very great rank, among all His Magesty's Consorts and Intimates, enjoyed exceptional favor."
- Cannery Row101 Points"Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream."
- Life of Pi100 Points"My suffering left me sad and gloomy."
- In Our Time99 Points"The strange thing was, he said, how they screamed every night at midnight."
- The Pilgrim's Progress99 Points"As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep; and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream.(Introduction to the..."
- Jude the Obscure99 Points"The schoolmaster was leaving the village, and everybody seemed sorry."
- Breakfast of Champions98 Points"This is the tale of a meeting of two lonely, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast."
- Six Characters in Search of an Author98 Points"When the audience arrives in the theater, the curtain is raised; and the stage, as normally in the daytime, is without wings or scenery and almost completely dark and empty."
- The Day of the Locust98 Points"Around quitting time, Tod Hackett heard a great din on the road outside his office."
- The Stand98 Points"Hapscomb's Texaco sat on Number 93 just north of Arnette, a pissant four-street burg about 110 miles from Houston."Sally.""
- Austerlitz97 Points"In the second half of the 1960s I traveled repeatedly from England to Belgium, partly for study purposes, partly for other reasons which were never entirely clear to me, staying sometimes for just..."
- Cat's Cradle97 Points"Call me Jonah."
- The Public Burning97 Points
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire96 Points"The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it 'the Riddle House', even though it had been many years since the Riddle family had lived there."
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle96 Points"When the phone rang I was in the kitchen, boiling a potful of spaghetti and whistling along to and FM broadcast of the overture to Rossini's The Thieving Magpie, which has to be the perfect music..."
- Man's Fate96 Points"Should he try to raise the mosquito-netting?"
- Jazz95 Points"Sth, I know that woman."
- Dead Souls95 Points"A small, rather smart, well-sprung four-wheeled carriage with a folding top drove through the gates of an inn of the provincial town of N.; it was the sort of carriage bachelors usually drive in:..."
- Rabbit, Run95 Points"Boys are playing basketball around a telephone pole with a backboard bolted to it. "
- The Complete Stories95 Points"Old Dudley folded into the chair he was gradually molding to his own shape and looked out the window fifteen feet away into another window framed by blackened red brick."
- The Making of Americans94 Points"Once an angry man dragged his father along the ground through his own orchard."
- Crash94 Points"Vaughan died yesterday in his last car-crash."
- The Glass Bead Game94 Points"It is our intention to preserve in these pages what scant biographical material we have been able to collect concerning Joseph Knecht, or Ludi Magister Josephus III, as he is called in the Archives..."
- Darkness at Noon93 Points"The cell door slammed behind Rubashov."
- The Plague93 Points"The unusual events described in this chronicle occurred in 194- at Oran.Les curieux événements qui font le sujet de cette chronique se sont produits en 194., à Oran.Le matin du 16 avril, le docteur..."
- The Soft Machine93 Points"I was working the hole with the Sailor and we did not bad fifteen cents on average night boosting the afternoons and short timing the dawn we made out from the land of the free but I was running..."
- Les Liaisons Dangereuses93 Points"Well, Sophie dear, as you see, I'm keeping my word and not spending all my time on bonnets and bows, I'll always have some to spare for you!"
- The Wanderer92 Points"He appeared at our house on a Sunday in November 189...(Davison translation)"
- Winesburg, Ohio91 Points"The writer, an old man with a white mustache, had some difficulty in getting into bed. The windows of the house in which he lived were high and he wanted to look at the trees when he awoke in the..."
- Froth on the Daydream91 Points"Dans la vie, l'essentiel est de porter sur tout des jugements a priori.Colin finished dressing."
- Trainspotting91 Points"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low..."
- The Moviegoer91 Points"This morning I got a note from my aunt asking me to come for lunch."
- The Canterbury Tales90 Points"When the sweet showers of April have pierced/ The drought of March, and pierced it to the root,/ And every vein is bathed in that moisture/ Whose quickening force will engender the flower;/ And..."
- Main Street90 Points"Chapter 1: On a hill by the Mississippi where Chippewas camped two generations ago, a girl stood in relief against the cornflower blue of Northern sky."
- Take It or Leave It90 Points
- Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China90 Points"At the age of fifteen my grandmother became the concubine of a warlord general, the police chief of a tenuous national government of China."
- Nightmare Abbey90 Points"Nightmare Abbey, a venerable family-mansion, in a highly picturesque state of semi-dilapidation, pleasantly situated on a strip of dry land between the sea and the fens, at the verge of the county..."
- My Name is Red90 Points"I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well."
- The Second Sex90 Points"Woman?"
- The Awakening89 Points"A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside, kept repeating over and over: "Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right!""
- From Here to Eternity89 Points"When he finished packing, he walked out on to the third-floor porch of the barracks brushing the dust from his hands, a very neat and deceptively slim young man in the summer khakis that were still..."
- The Black Sheep89 Points"In the year 1792 the townsfolk of Issoudun were fortunate enough to have a doctor of the name of Rouget, who had the reputation of being an extremely wily man."
- The Man Without Qualities89 Points
- The Way of All Flesh89 Points"When I was a small boy at the beginning of the century I remember an old man who wore knee-breeches and worsted stockings, and who used to hobble about the street of our village with the help of a..."
- The Wapshot Chronicle88 Points"St. Botolphs was an old place, an old river town."
- Going native88 Points
- The Charterhouse of Parma88 Points"Le 15 mai 1796, le général Bonaparte fit son entrée dans Milan à la tête de cette jeune armée qui venait de passer le pont de Lodi, et d'apprendre au monde qu'après tant de siècles César et..."
- The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum87 Points"Für den folgenden Bericht gibt es einige Neben- und drei Hauptquellen, die hier am Anfang einmal genannt, dann aber nicht mehr erwähnt werden."
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare87 Points"William Shakespeare's date of birth is not precisely known, but it probably preceded his baptism on April 26, 1564, in Stratfordon-Avon, by only a few days."
- The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street87 Points
- Stranger in a Strange Land87 Points"Once upon a time when the world was young there was a Martian named Smith."
- In Cold Blood86 Points"The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call 'out there'."
- The Code of the Woosters86 Points"I reached out a hand from under the blankets, and rang the bell for Jeeves."
- The Red and the Black86 Points"La petite ville de Verrières peut passer pour l'une des plus jolies de la Franche-Comté.The small town of Verrieres may be regarded as one of the prettiest in the Franche-Comte."
- Sybil86 Points"'I'll take the odds against Caravan.'"
- In the Heart of the Heart of the Country & Other Stories85 Points
- Paroles85 Points
- The Maltese Falcon85 Points"Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth."
- Alcools84 Points
- Wise Blood84 Points"Hazel Motes sat at a forward angle on the green plush train seat, looking one minute at the window as if he might want to jump out of it, and the next down the aisle at the other end of the car."
- The Magus83 Points"I was born in 1927, the only child of middle-class parents, both English, and themselves born in the grotesquely elongated shadow, which they never rose sufficiently above history to leave, of that..."
- Nils Holgersson's Wonderful Travels through Sweden83 Points
- The Blue Lotus83 Points
- The Naked and the Dead83 Points"Nobody could sleep. When morning came, assult craft would be lowered and a first wave of troops would ride through the surf and charge ashore on he beach at Anopopei. All over the ship, all through..."
- Orlando: A Biography82 Points"He - for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it - was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters."
- Hunger82 Points"It was in those days when I wandered about hungry in Kristiania, that strange city which no one leaves before it has set his mark upon him. . .Det var i den tid jeg gikk omkring og sultet i..."
- The Time Traveler's Wife82 Points"PROLOGUE - Clare: It's hard being left behind.FIRST DATE, ONESaturday, October 26, 1991 (Henry is 28, Clare is 20) Clare: The library is cool and smells like carpet cleaner, although all I can see..."
- A Tale of Two Cities82 Points"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of..."
- A Wrinkle in Time82 Points"It was a dark and stormy night. In her attic bedroom Meg Murry, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of her bed and watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind."
- Les Misérables81 Points"In the Year 1815 Monseigneur Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of Digne."
- Tristes Tropiques81 Points"I hate travelling and explorers.Je hais les voyages et les explorateurs."
- Dream of the Red Chamber81 Points"When the Goddess Nugua undertook to repair the Dome of Heaven, she fashioned at the Great Mythical Mountain under the Nonesuch Bluff 36,501 pieces of stone, each 120 feet high and 240 feet around...."
- Slouching Towards Bethlehem80 Points"This is a story about love and death in the golden land, and begins with the country."
- Old Goriot80 Points"Madame Vauquer (nee De Conflans) is an elderly person who for the past forty years has kept a lodging house in the Rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, in the district that lies between the Latin Quarter..."
- Oscar and Lucinda80 Points"If there was a bishop, my mother would have him to tea."
- The Interrogation79 Points
- Appointment in Samarra79 Points"Our story opens in the mind of Luther L. (L. for LeRoy) Fliegler, who is lying in his bed, not thinking of anything, but just aware of sounds, conscious of his own breathing, and sensitive to his..."
- A House for Mr.Biswas79 Points"Ten weeks before he died, Mr. Mohun Biswas, a journalist of Sikkim Street, St. James, Port of Spain, was sacked."
- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer78 Points"In eighteenth century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages."
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets78 Points"Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive."
- The Secret Garden78 Points"When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle, everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen."
- Asterix the Gaul78 Points
- The Wasp Factory77 Points"I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped."
- The Fountainhead77 Points"Howard Roark laughed."
- Four Plays77 Points"The Bald Soprano: Anti-play Scene: A middle class English interior, with English armchairs."
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban77 Points"Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways."
- Germinal76 Points"Dans la plaine rase, sous la nuit sans étoiles, d’une obscurité et d’une épaisseur d’encre, un homme suivait seul la grande route de Marchiennes à Montsou, dix kilomètres de pavé coupant tout..."
- The Moonstone76 Points"In the first part of Robinson Crusoe, at page one hundred and twenty-nine, you will find it thus written: 'Now I saw, though too late, The Folly of beginning a Work before we count the Cost, and..."
- Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha76 Points"We were coming down our road. Kevin stopped at a gate and bashed it with a stick. It was Missis Quigley's gate; she was always looking out the window but she never did anything."
- Sixty Stories76 Points
- Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality76 Points
- Waiting for the Barbarians76 Points"I have never seen anything like it: two little discs of glass suspended in front of his eyes in loops of wire. Is he blind?"
- Angela's Ashes75 Points"My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born."
- The Abyss75 Points
- The Way We Live Now75 Points"Let the reader be introduced to Lady Carbury, upon whose character and doings much will depend of whatever interest these pages may have, as she sits at her writing-table in her own room in her own..."
- The Rifles75 Points
- Democracy in America; and Two essays on America75 Points
- Cranford75 Points"In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses, above a certain rent, are women."
- A Christmas Carol74 Points"Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it:..."
- Fahrenheit 45174 Points"It was a pleasure to burn."
- The Recognitions74 Points"Even Camilla had enjoyed masquerades, of the safe sort where the mask may be dropped at the critical moment it presumes itself as reality."
- On the Origin of Species74 Points"When on board HMS Beagle, as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past..."
- Sula73 Points"In that place, where they tore the nightshade and blackberry patches from the roots to make room for the Medallion City Golf Course, there was once a neighborhood."
- Daniel Deronda73 Points"Was she beautiful or not beautiful? and what was the secret of form or expression which gave the dynamic quality to her glance?"
- The Tartar Steppe72 Points"One September morning, Giovanni Drogo, being newly commissioned, set out from the city for Fort Bastiani; it was his first posting."
- Young Lonigan72 Points
- On the Social Contract72 Points"My purpose is to consider if, in political society, there can be any legitimate and sure principle of government, taking men as they are and laws as they might be."
- Sea of Poppies72 Points"The vision of a tall-masted ship, at sail on the ocean, came to Deeti on an otherwise ordinary day, but she knew instantly that the apparition was a sign of destiny for she had never seen such a..."
- Portnoy's Complaint71 Points"She was so deeply imbedded in my consciousness that for the first year of school I seemed to have believed that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise."
- Shadow of the Torturer71 Points"It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future.To those who have preceded me in the study of the posthistoric world, and particularly to those collectors - too numerous to name here -..."
