The 25 Greatest Books of All Time: The List Continues
The History of Literature's countdown of the greatest books of all time continues! Here's Jacke's list of books 19 to 11, with opening lines that craftily establish the tone and wonder of what comes next.
For more about why these works made Jacke's list, follow the links to the podcast episodes.
19. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Alexey Fyodorovitch Karamazov was the third son of Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov, a land owner well known in our district in his own day, and still remembered among us owing to his gloomy and tragic death, which happened thirteen years ago, and which I shall describe in its proper place.
18. The Bible
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
17. Harper Lee, To Kill a Mocking Bird
When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.
16. J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings
When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of the 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.
15. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
I have just returned from a visit to my landlord—the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.
13. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes.
12. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
11. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
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.
The 25 Greatest Books of All Time: From 25 to 20
