Treasury · Merit

Time Magazine 1923-2005

TIME's all-time hundred novels: the best English-language novels published between TIME's first year, 1923, and 2005, when the list was made.

40 books in the catalog stand on this list. The list itself (opens the list's own website) ↗

A reader aged

9 of these books carry no suggested reading age, so choosing an age leaves them out.

• 1984 by George Orwell, 1949 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1090L · AR 8.9 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids, TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, 1962 · Lexile 1310L
  Remember
• All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren, 1946 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1060L · AR 6.8 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, 1981 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1170L · AR 8.5 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Animal Farm by George Orwell, 1945 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1090L · AR 7.3 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids, TJEd Youth Recommended
  Remember
• A Passage to India by E. M. Forster, 1924 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 950L · AR 7.7 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara, 1934
  Remember
• Atonement by Ian McEwan, 2001 · ages 14–18 · AR 7.5 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien, 1939 · Lexile 1120L
  Remember
• Beloved by Toni Morrison, 1987 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 870L · AR 6.0 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, 1985
  Remember
• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, 1945 · ages 16–18
  Remember
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 1961 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1140L · AR 7.1 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather, 1927 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1150L · AR 7.9 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, 1936 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1030L · AR 7.1 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• I, Claudius by Robert Graves, 1934
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, 1996
  Remember
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, 1952 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1400L · AR 7.2 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Light in August by William Faulkner, 1932 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 930L · AR 6.7 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1954 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 770L · AR 5.0 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Halsted - Best Friends, Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1973 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 860L · AR 6.1
  also on Davidson Gifted, Mensa Kids, TJEd Youth Recommended
  Remember
• Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie, 1981 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1120L · AR 8.4 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, 1981 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 950L · AR 7.2 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on St. John's College
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• Native Son by Richard Wright, 1940 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 700L · AR 6.1 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 970L · AR 6.0 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, 1962 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1040L · AR 6.2 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac, 1955 · Lexile 940L
  Remember
• Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 1969 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 850L · AR 6.0 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Halsted - Best Friends
  Remember
• The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, 1953 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1040L · AR 6.8 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• The Assistant by Bernard Malamud, 2000 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 880L · AR 5.9 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, 1939 · Lexile 660L
  Remember
• The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, 2000 · ages 14–18 · AR 6.8 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, 1969 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 790L · AR 4.7 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles, 1969
  Remember
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 1939 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 680L · AR 4.9 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1969 · ages 15–17 · Lexile 1010L · AR 7.3 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• The Heart is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, 1940 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 760L · AR 6.3 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, 1950 · ages 8–13 · Lexile 940L · AR 5.7
  also on Davidson Gifted, Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids, NY Public Library, The Good & The Beautiful, TJEd Youth Recommended
  Remember
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, 1929 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 800L · AR 4.4 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Halsted - Best Friends, Mensa Kids
  Remember
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 1960 · ages 13–17 · Lexile 790L · AR 5.6 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Beautiful Feet, Davidson Gifted, Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids
  Remember