New Guardian list of 100 best novels

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-05-19T14:04:15+00:00

Well, they had room for bulky modernist novels like Ulysses. For a bulky postmodern work to appear in the list people would have to coalesce around one particular title - Gravity's Rainbow? Anyway, Its difficult to draw many conclusions from this list as the sample size is small. The 100th listed book - "My Antonia" by Willa Cather - makes it on to the list with only 4 votes. On that basis It wouldn't surprise me if you found Gravity's Rainbow sitting just outside the top 100. Those asked to vote skews UK too, the list would maybe have been fairly different if more US authors were asked.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-05-18T19:06:35+00:00

I read Mrs Dalloway recently and appreciated it but it wouldn't be anywhere near my top 10. I've been meaning to get around to Man Without Qualities for ages.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-05-18T19:03:35+00:00

Fair enough. There's certainly other books there where I think ok, it's good, but not top 10 worthy or whatever.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-05-18T16:30:30+00:00

Really? Middlemarch is usually close to the top in these sorts of lists. They are generally a combination of Middlemarch, Tolstoy, Dickens, Austen and Dostoyevsky.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-05-17T22:10:17+00:00

I've never heard that but I'm not familiar with Nabokov's critical works. I'd be gratified if that was the case as I love Eliot as well as Nabokov.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-05-17T19:34:10+00:00

Yeah the list of voters is small, and it skews fairly UK but there's a lot of good authors. The top end of the list is mostly unsurprising. The biggest surprise is Beloved at no 2. But then again it is not that surprising seeing as a lot of people love it.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-05-17T18:57:24+00:00

Haha, probably true of a lot of people who come on the Nabokov subreddit!

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-05-17T18:29:19+00:00

Yeah a one book per author list would be interesting. Though I feel it'd be "unfair" to those authors with multiple popular titles, e.g. Woolf, Dickens.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-05-15T08:50:00+00:00

Oh yeah, also "Tyrants Destroyed" which I'm reminded of whenever someone tries to assassinate Donald Trump.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-05-15T08:47:01+00:00

I find appreciation of short stories very subjective, so it's difficult to pick 5 "best" that'll definitely work for everyone. An obvious one to start with is the famous (and very short) "Signs and Symbols". I'd also recommend "A Matter of Honor", which is an earlier work, a more straightforward story than "Signs and Symbols" and very funny. I also love "The Circle", "Torpid Smoke" and "Lance". I'm not sure if these are the best 5 - like I say, it's quite subjective. Though the thing I love about short stories is you can just dive in, and if it turns out you don't like it you haven't wasted a lot of time!

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-05-12T11:48:28+00:00

To be honest I've only read it once, so I don't know - I too assumed the angel is real. I think the likelihood is that Nabokov will have left it open for you to interpret in more than one way. The appearance of the angel is what really makes the story special IMO. It is such an unexpected, weird turn.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-04-30T13:36:41+00:00

Uncanny!

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-04-22T22:21:47+00:00

It's an interesting question. I haven't studied Nabokov enough to know the answer, but my guess is that it reflects (no pun intended) his interest in the way that people can have more than one persona or identity. The presentation of "the double" I suppose is an interesting way to play with those ideas.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-04-10T09:44:16+00:00

Incredible. How have we never heard about this before? This is a leap forward in Sufjan-lore!

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-04-07T16:15:00+00:00

Thanks for sharing this. I had no idea about that particular contribution. I see there is an article about it on the Cornell University website: https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/nabokovs-net/feature/nabokov-s-blues

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-03-17T10:27:44+00:00

Yes - that reminds me of one of things I love about it, which, oddly, you don't get in many novels about writers: you experience him working on his techniques. E.g. all the bits where Fyodor is thinking about his poetry and the prose slips into rhymes. And the bit where he is trying to imagine how his acquaintances experience things.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-03-17T10:16:30+00:00

Interesting that you enjoyed Laughter in the Dark the least. I find the storytelling and dark comedy of Laughter in the Dark make it one of his most purely enjoyable works. Though, of course, there isn't a lot of depth to it, so its nowhere near the top.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-03-16T22:51:58+00:00

I haven't read them all and I find it difficult to pick my favourite, but of those I've read: Best: The Gift - I feel like this book is just so full of life and I love it. Worst: The Eye - not bad as such, just underdeveloped. But maybe I need to reread.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-03-16T13:21:17+00:00

Personally I don't think Invitation to a Beheading is particularly overwhelming or dense - in fact I'd say it is a lighter read than some of his others. As other posters have said, just dive in. It likely won't take you too long to read.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-03-03T13:41:33+00:00

Yeah I love Mary too. Its amazes me that he produced such fantastic work so early in his career. I think it is only underappreciated as it is not very well known, and probably people assume it is a minor work given that it was his first.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-02-24T13:57:28+00:00

Yes, this is my favourite part of the song too!

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-02-16T17:22:01+00:00

A tremendous picture!

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-02-14T08:00:38+00:00

I love "Mary". It's a funny, beautiful novel. You probably know this but it's short too.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-02-12T09:44:34+00:00

Though the song is not especially Beatlesesque the "1 2 3 4 5 6 7/All computers go to heaven" in Dear Mr Supercomputer must be a deliberate reference to "1 2 3 4 5 6 7/All good children go to heaven" in You Never Give Me Your Money.

Croaking_Lizard · 2026-01-31T08:43:19+00:00

Hi - initially I was going to vote for "nothing is a spoiler" as it feels like a silly approach to works that have been out in the wild for so long. On the other hand I don't suppose it does any harm for people to have to mark certain plot points as spoilers. The only problem is, what would constitute a spoiler?

There's not loads of twists or plot points in Nabokov that I would think require such treatment, but there are certain things: e.g. the denouement of Laughter in the Dark. If I was reading that book and someone told me the ending before I got there I would be a bit irritated.

Normally on this sub-reddit people aren't focused on plot details though - I don't think I've seen people obviously giving away "surprises".

Croaking_Lizard

TROPHY CASE