Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939 – A Personal Choice is an essay by British writer Anthony Burgess, published by Allison & Busby in 1984. It covers a 44-year span between 1939 and 1983. Burgess was a prolific reader, in his early career reviewing more than 350 novels in just over two years for The Yorkshire Post. In the course of his career he wrote more than 30 novels. The list represents his choices; in an interview with Don Swaim, Burgess revealed that the book was originally commissioned by a Nigerian publishing company and written in two weeks.
The List
Author Title Year Chinua Achebe A Man of the People 1966 Brian Aldiss Life in the West1980 Kingsley AmisLucky Jim1954 Kingsley AmisThe Anti-Death League1966 James BaldwinAnother Country1962 J. G. BallardThe Unlimited Dream Company1979 John BarthGiles Goat-Boy1966 Saul BellowThe Victim1947 Saul BellowHumboldt's Gift1975 Elizabeth BowenThe Heat of the Day1949 Malcolm BradburyThe History Man1975 John BraineRoom at the Top1957 Joyce CaryThe Horse's Mouth1944 Raymond ChandlerThe Long Goodbye1953 Ivy Compton-BurnettThe Mighty and Their Fall1961 William CooperScenes from Provincial Life1950 Robertson DaviesThe Rebel Angels1982 Len DeightonBomber1970 Lawrence DurrellThe Alexandria Quartet1957 Ralph EllisonInvisible Man1952 William FaulknerThe Mansion1959 Ian FlemingGoldfinger1959 John FowlesThe French Lieutenant's Woman1969 Michael FraynSweet Dreams1973 William GoldingThe Spire1964 Nadine GordimerThe Late Bourgeois World1966 Alasdair GrayLanark1981 Henry GreenParty Going1939 Graham GreeneThe Power and the Glory1940 Graham GreeneThe Heart of the Matter1948 Wilson HarrisHeartland1964 L. P. HartleyFacial Justice1960 Joseph Heller Catch-221961 Ernest HemingwayFor Whom the Bell Tolls1940 Ernest HemingwayThe Old Man and the Sea1952 Russell HobanRiddley Walker1980 Richard HughesThe Fox in the Attic1961 Aldous HuxleyAfter Many a Summer1939 Aldous HuxleyApe and Essence1948 Aldous HuxleyIsland1962 Christopher IsherwoodA Single Man1964 Pamela Hansford JohnsonAn Error of Judgement1962 Erica JongHow to Save Your Own Life1977 James JoyceFinnegans Wake1939 Doris LessingThe Golden Notebook1962 David LodgeHow Far Can You Go?1980 Malcolm LowryUnder the Volcano1947 Colin MacInnesThe London Novels1957 Norman MailerThe Naked and the Dead1948 Norman MailerAncient Evenings1983 Bernard MalamudThe Assistant1957 Bernard MalamudDubin's Lives1979 Olivia ManningThe Balkan Trilogy1960 W. Somerset MaughamThe Razor's Edge1944 Mary McCarthyThe Groves of Academe1952 Brian MooreThe Doctor's Wife1976 Iris MurdochThe Bell1958 Vladimir NabokovPale Fire1962 Vladimir NabokovThe Defense1964 V. S. NaipaulA Bend in the River1979 R. K. NarayanThe Vendor of Sweets1967 Robert NyeFalstaff1976 Flann O'BrienAt Swim-Two-Birds1939 Flannery O'ConnorWise Blood1952 John O'HaraThe Lockwood Concern1965 George OrwellNineteen Eighty-Four1949 Mervyn PeakeTitus Groan1946 Walker PercyThe Last Gentleman1966 James PlunkettFarewell Companions1977 Anthony PowellA Dance to the Music of Time1951 J. B. PriestleyThe Image Men1968 Thomas PynchonGravity's Rainbow1973 Mordecai RichlerCocksure1968 Keith RobertsPavane1968 Philip RothPortnoy's Complaint1969 J. D. SalingerThe Catcher in the Rye1951 William SansomThe Body1949 Budd SchulbergThe Disenchanted1950 Paul Mark ScottStaying On1977 Nevil ShuteNo Highway1948 Alan SillitoeSaturday Night and Sunday Morning1958 C. P. SnowStrangers and Brothers1940 Muriel SparkThe Girls of Slender Means1963 Muriel SparkThe Mandelbaum Gate1965 William StyronSophie's Choice1979 Alexander TherouxDarconville's Cat1981 Paul TherouxThe Mosquito Coast1981 John Kennedy TooleA Confederacy of Dunces1980 John UpdikeThe Coup1978 Gore VidalCreation1981 Rex WarnerThe Aerodrome1941 Evelyn WaughBrideshead Revisited1945 Evelyn WaughSword of Honour1952 T. H. WhiteThe Once and Future King1958 Patrick WhiteRiders in the Chariot1961 Henry WilliamsonA Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight1951 Angus WilsonThe Old Men at the Zoo1961 Angus WilsonLate Call1964 Herman WoukThe Caine Mutiny1951
References
External links Anthony Burgess (February 5, 1984), "Modern Novels; The 99 Best", The New York Times, full text of "Introduction". Deccan Herald (April 11, 2004): "Big novel, shrinking universe"