I have read 20 of these, and have attempted a number of others (Proust, Joyce, Sterne) or have read multiple other works by the same author (Le Guin, Steinbeck), or otherwise know the work - for example, I know the 'Last of the Mohicans' from an abridged version that I used to borrow from the library as a child, which had vivid full-colour, full-page illustrations, and I have seen at least multiple film versions of Christie's 'And Then There Were None', as it made a great play.
What struck me about this list, was that the books are darker than those on the first list. There are exceptions: The Betrothed isn't dark and neither is Eliot's Silas Marner, or Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters (which has the unique distinction of being highly respected, even beloved, while also being unfinished).
But The Road, Neuromancer, The Poisonwood Bible, Dracula, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Slaughterhouse Five, 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy', The Old Man and the Sea, The Call of the Wild, The Bell Jar, The Big Sleep, The Razor's Edge, Far From the Madding Crowd, even Gaskell's North and South, are books that seemed to have an atmosphere filled with heavy gray clouds when I read them. That doesn't mean they were bad - several on the list I would or have read again - but their heaviness could be a burden when readers are already weighed down by life.
Two books in this list that were a disappointment: Waugh's Decline and Fall and Cold Comfort Farm. Both of them are from the same era and meant to be amusing satire. Decline and Fall was a pale version of P.G. Wodehouse, while Cold Comfort Farm was chaotic - both were too much of their era and the jokes no longer quite land.
If I’m scanning the top 200 correctly, Mark Twain is officially a one-hit wonder.
Why the hell did I read that 1000 page biography of him?)
I have read 20 of these, and have attempted a number of others (Proust, Joyce, Sterne) or have read multiple other works by the same author (Le Guin, Steinbeck), or otherwise know the work - for example, I know the 'Last of the Mohicans' from an abridged version that I used to borrow from the library as a child, which had vivid full-colour, full-page illustrations, and I have seen at least multiple film versions of Christie's 'And Then There Were None', as it made a great play.
What struck me about this list, was that the books are darker than those on the first list. There are exceptions: The Betrothed isn't dark and neither is Eliot's Silas Marner, or Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters (which has the unique distinction of being highly respected, even beloved, while also being unfinished).
But The Road, Neuromancer, The Poisonwood Bible, Dracula, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Slaughterhouse Five, 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy', The Old Man and the Sea, The Call of the Wild, The Bell Jar, The Big Sleep, The Razor's Edge, Far From the Madding Crowd, even Gaskell's North and South, are books that seemed to have an atmosphere filled with heavy gray clouds when I read them. That doesn't mean they were bad - several on the list I would or have read again - but their heaviness could be a burden when readers are already weighed down by life.
Two books in this list that were a disappointment: Waugh's Decline and Fall and Cold Comfort Farm. Both of them are from the same era and meant to be amusing satire. Decline and Fall was a pale version of P.G. Wodehouse, while Cold Comfort Farm was chaotic - both were too much of their era and the jokes no longer quite land.
I bought The Betrothed based on your previous recommendation. Time to bump it up to the top of my TBR!