What is THE greatest modern novel?

Question

I'm not talking Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling, I'm talking genuine literature, a book which in 50 years will be looked upon as THE novel of the era.

Answer 1

To Kill a Mockingbird is definitely up there on the list! Along with:
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Great Gatsby
Of Mice and Men
All Quiet on the Western Front
I, Robot
Catcher in the Rye
... way too many more to name. And also, how do YOU define "Modern"? Within the past 100 years? 50 years? In 50 years, who knows, maybe another great novel will come along...

Answer 2

Every person in the world will have a different book that they would consider the greatest modern novel Depending on the frame of mind and age they were will have a lot to do with how they remember the book. I think the greatest modern novel for older children and young teens is Where the Red Fern Grows.

Then the book that really makes you think about our future and what role we want the government to have in our daily lives and what is socially acceptable is Brave New World.

The last book I would add to the greatest modern novel is Watershhip Down.

Answer 3

If you mean relatively recent fiction, a writers' poll for the New York Times Book Review said Toni Morrison's "Beloved" is the best novel of the past 25 years. Philip Roth had three or four books on the list, including "The Human Stain," and Cormac McCarthy's trilogy was also nominated. "Tuesdays With Morrie?" Huge seller, as was "Da Vinci Code," but these too shall pass. Who still reads the best sellers of 1930, like Edna Ferber's "Cimarron" or Hugh Walpole's "Rogue Herries"? How about "All This, and Heaven Too," a best seller of 1939? Rowling will probably die out for a few decades and be rediscovered, a la C S Lewis.

Answer 4

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
1984, George Orwell
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck

.I, Claudius, Robert Graves

The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

Of Human Bondage, W. Somerset Maugham

Roots, Alex Haley

Sophie's Choice, William Styron

A Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein


AWWWWwww Do we have to pick just ONE?

Answer 5

Tons of literature critics rank the Great Gatsby as the "perfect novel"... I don't want to agree with a bunch of English professors but I can't disagree. It is an amazing book.

My favorite book, but maybe not for everyone, is All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. Another of his is Blood Meridien.

Answer 6

i do no longer think of it relatively is actual. The classics are purely "classic" simply by fact they have been stable adequate to persevere via time. modern novels have yet to be positioned to the try, yet i'm specific in one hundred years, there will be some from as we communicate that are nevertheless standard. while you're searching for stable books, you have have been given to seem a sprint extra durable than the teenybopper and the "person romance/homicide secret" sections of Barnes&Noble. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries had their literary trash, too. P.S. Are you specific you will possibly desire to be judging "literacy benefit" whilst your very own grammar is so damaging? EDIT: I have not got something to ask the 1st poster. He/she has dreadful communique skills, and clearly did no longer understand the question, yet that would not substitute my answer to you. i'm no longer being an @ss; my respond replaced into completely valid. you may't definitely tell me that the previous century has no longer yielded ANY form of wonderful literature, and in case you declare that to be the case, you for sure have not achieved lots analyzing. EDIT: in case you may criticize an entire era of writers such as you're more advantageous, i will criticize your grammar. regardless of the actuality that i've got self belief English isn't your interior of sight language, so i'm keen to cut back you *some* slack, however I nevertheless think of this is form of hypocritical of you to then turn around and positioned down thousands and thousands of novels written in a language you do no longer totally hold close. additionally, i'm petty adequate to end this with: i will supply it a relax once you do.

Answer 7

I don't think there's any one "greatest modern novel" that will epitomize the literature of the age, but maybe As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner or The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Answer 8

I hate to point this out but you and I both know that J.K. Rowling will be on that list. That or something crazy like "Oprah, the thoughs and memories of a carrer gone by" . Feh

Personally I think that "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck is one of my favorite.

But for fun, (standing alone on this one) that The Phantom toll booth" is the greatest childs book as of late. So clever and full of wit on teaching lifes lessons!

*Wanted to point out that the Great Gatsby is a fine, work of art as sugested by above*

Answer 9

To add to the list of great books and authors already here, let me say that I love John Irving's work, as well as Charles Frazier. A Prayer For Owen Meany and both of Frazier's novels, Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons are fabulous.

Answer 10

I would say Of Mice and Men and Tuesday's with Morrie.
Tuesday's would really turn heads.
I couldn't think of none because Harry Potter is the only book i've read that's not school related. And hey, you gotta admit, The Da Vinci Code was a real page turner. But there you go