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Fiction

bucolic_frolic

(56,113 posts)

1. As if anyone or any group could decisively pick the top novel

Reply to cbabe (Original post)

Sat Jun 6, 2026, 12:21 PM

Yesterday

Only 3 stick out for me.

Rebecca
A Tale of Two Cities
Crime and Punishment

If you haven't read those three books, you're not familiar with real literature or much about the world, really.

du Maurier's opening chapter in Rebecca is a most remarkable path through a distorted but tethered mind.

Dickens opening line too: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ...."

Dostoevsky wrote remarkable psychological novels, I might choose "The Idiot" more than this one.

Gulag Archipelago would make my list too. Remarkable insight into where we're headed.

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txwhitedove

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Highlight:

Readers' top 100 novels of all time [View all] cbabe Yesterday OP

As if anyone or any group could decisively pick the top novel bucolic_frolic Yesterday #1

Blood Meridian Hey Joe Yesterday #2

"All the Light We Cannot See" is the one that affected me the most. Jim__ Yesterday #3

Beloved and Grapes of Wrath from the list. Adding to the list: cbabe Yesterday #4

I can relate to many books on this list WestMichRad Yesterday #5