Category: Review

A.S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance won the 1990 Booker Prize for Fiction. It appeared on Time Magazine’s list of the 100 greatest novels since 1923, and came in at #49 on the BBC’s list of the 100 Greatest British Novels. And for me, Byatt’s novel comes in at #15 (alphabetically) on my own list of the “100 Most Lovable… Continue reading A.S. Byatt’s “Possession”

Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange may not at first seem like a “lovable” novel, as I’ve titled my list, since it seems to glorify violence—or at least it seems to do so for people who only know Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film version of the book, after viewing which nobody will ever innocently hear “Singin’ in the… Continue reading Anthony Burgess’s “A Clockwork Orange”

Since I’m presenting my list of the “100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language,” alphabetically by author’s last name, and since Charlotte Bronte had Tuesday’s #12 book, it’s probably no surprise that today’s honoree should be Emily Bronte’s Gothic romance Wuthering Heights, coming in at book #13 on my list. Though unlike Jane Eyre, Emily’s novel met… Continue reading Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights”

Okay, well, this was a no-brainer. Charlotte Bronte’s novel has been a favorite with both critics and readers ever since its publication in 1847 under her pen name of “Currer Bell.” The novel has been adapted as a stage play, several film and television versions, and two operas, and has inspired popular literature as varying… Continue reading Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre”

In 1976, Saul Bellow became the seventh American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (if you don’t count T.S. Eliot, who had eschewed his American citizenship well before his award). Bellow had just won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Humboldt’s Gift. He had already become the only writer in the history of the award to… Continue reading Saul Bellow’s “Henderson the Rain King”

When I think of John Barth, I can’t help thinking of those lines in A.E. Housman’s famous poem “To an Athlete Dying Young”: “Now you will not swell the rout / Of lads who wore their honors out, / Runners whom renown outran, / And the name died before the man.” Barth, the darling of… Continue reading John Barth’s “The Sot-Weed Factor”

James Baldwin is one of the most significant American writers of the twentieth century, across several genres, but perhaps most importantly in his fiction. His work deals with themes of sexuality, race, and class, and are vivid contributions to the civil rights movement and the gay liberation movement. His 1962 novel Another Country is, perhaps, his most… Continue reading James Baldwin’s “Go Tell It on the Mountain”

This may be a bit of a surprise. It was to me. The #8 book (alphabetically) on my list of “The 100 Most Loveable Novels in the English Language” turns out to be another novel from Jane Austen. One of the unwritten laws I wrote down for myself at the beginning of this project was… Continue reading Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”

Just in case you thought I was going to be ignoring the classics in my list of “The 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language,” think again: my novel #7 (alphabetically) is Jane Austen’s Emma, her final novel published during her lifetime (Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously in 1818). Austen has long been recognized as one… Continue reading Jane Austen’s “Emma”

Margaret Atwood may be the most significant author in world literature who has not yet won the Nobel Prize. Two of her novels (The Blind Assassin and The Testaments) have won the Booker Prize—the elite annual British award for the best novel written in English and published in the UK or Ireland. And four other novels have been… Continue reading Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”