list of novels

References & Edit History

list of novels

Written and fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

This is a list of novels ordered chronologically by century and alphabetically by book title. See also novel and fiction.

1st century ce

Satyricon (undated)–Gaius Petronius Arbiter

2nd century ce

The Golden Ass (undated)–Lucius Apuleius

10th century

Ochikubo monogatari (undated)
Utsubo monogatari (undated)

11th century

The Tale of Genji (undated)–Murasaki Shikibu

15th century

1499

La Celestina–attributed to Fernando de Rojas

16th century

1532

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–64)–François Rabelais
Water Margin (undated)
Xiyouji (undated)–Wu Cheng’en

17th century

1605

Don Quixote (1605–15)–Miguel de Cervantes

1617

Jinpingmei

1669

Simplicissimus–Hans Jacob Christoph von Grimmelshausen

1678

La Princesse de Clèves–Marie-Madeleine, comtesse de La Fayette

1688

Oroonoko–Aphra Behn

18th century

1715

Gil Blas (1715–35)–Alain-René Lesage

1719

Robinson Crusoe–Daniel Defoe

1722

Moll Flanders–Daniel Defoe

1726

Gulliver’s Travels–Jonathan Swift

1731

Manon Lescaut–Antoine-François, Abbé Prévost d’Exiles

1740

Pamela–Samuel Richardson

1741

Shamela–Henry Fielding

1742

Joseph Andrews–Henry Fielding

1747

Clarissa (1747–48)–Samuel Richardson

1748

Fanny Hill (1748–49)–John Cleland
Roderick Random–Tobias Smollett

1749

Tom Jones–Henry Fielding

1751

Peregrine Pickle–Tobias Smollett

1754

The History of Sir Charles Grandison–Samuel Richardson

1759

Candide–Voltaire
Rasselas–Samuel Johnson
Tristram Shandy (1759–67)–Laurence Sterne

1765

The Castle of Otranto–Horace Walpole

1766

The Vicar of Wakefield–Oliver Goldsmith

1768

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy–Laurence Sterne

1771

Humphry Clinker–Tobias Smollett

1774

The Sorrows of Young Werther–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1778

Evelina–Frances Burney

1782

Dangerous Liaisons–Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

1785

120 Days of Sodom–Marquis de Sade

1786

Vathek–William Beckford

1791

Justine–Marquis de Sade

1794

The Mysteries of Udolpho–Ann Radcliffe

1795

Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (1795–96)–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1796

The Monk–Matthew Gregory Lewis

1797

Hyperion (1797–99)–Friedrich Hölderlin
The Italian–Ann Radcliffe

1798

Wieland–Charles Brockden Brown

19th century

1800

Castle Rackrent–Maria Edgeworth

1801

Atala–François-Auguste-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand

1805

René–François-Auguste-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand

1811

Sense and Sensibility–Jane Austen

1813

Pride and Prejudice–Jane Austen

1814

Mansfield Park–Jane Austen

1815

Emma–Jane Austen

1816

1817

1818

The Heart of Midlothian–Walter Scott

1819

Ivanhoe–Walter Scott

1820

Melmoth the Wanderer–Charles Robert Maturin

1821

1823

The Leatherstocking Tales (1823–41)–James Fenimore Cooper
The Pilot–James Fenimore Cooper
The Pioneers–James Fenimore Cooper
Quentin Durward–Walter Scott

1825

I promessi sposi (1825–27)–Alessandro Manzoni

1826

The Last of the Mohicans–James Fenimore Cooper

1827

The Prairie–James Fenimore Cooper
The Swiss Family Robinson–Johann David Wyss and Johann Rudolf Wyss

1828

Fanshawe–Nathaniel Hawthorne

1829

The Human Comedy (1829–47)–Honoré de Balzac

1830

The Red and the Black–Stendhal

1831

1833

1835

Le Père Goriot–Honoré de Balzac

1837

The Pickwick Papers–Charles Dickens

1838

Oliver Twist–Charles Dickens

1839

The Charterhouse of Parma–Stendhal
A Harlot High and Low (1839–47)–Honoré de Balzac
Nicholas Nickleby–Charles Dickens

1840

1841

1842

Dead Souls–Nikolay Gogol

1843

A Christmas Carol–Charles Dickens

1844

Coningsby–Benjamin Disraeli
The Count of Monte Cristo (1844–45)–Alexandre Dumas, père
Martin Chuzzlewit–Charles Dickens
The Three Musketeers–Alexandre Dumas, père

1846

1847

1848

1849

Mardi–Herman Melville
Pendennis (1849–50)–William Makepeace Thackeray
Redburn–Herman Melville

1850

1851

1852

1853

1854

Green Henry (1854–55)–Gottfried Keller
Hard Times–Charles Dickens

1855

1856

Rudin–Ivan Turgenev

1857

1858

1859

1860

1861

1862

1863

Romola–George Eliot

1864

1865

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland–Lewis Carroll
From the Earth to the Moon–Jules Verne
Hans Brinker–Mary Mapes Dodge
Our Mutual Friend–Charles Dickens
War and Peace (1865–69)–Leo Tolstoy

1866

1867

1868

The Idiot (1868–69)–Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Little Women (1868–69)–Louisa May Alcott
The Moonstone–Wilkie Collins
Ragged Dick–Horatio Alger

1869

1870

1871

The Hoosier School-Master–Edward Eggleston
Middlemarch (1871–72)–George Eliot
Les Rougon-Macquart cycle (1871–93)–Émile Zola
Through the Looking-Glass–Lewis Carroll

1872

1873

Around the World in Eighty Days–Jules Verne
Episodios nacionales (1873–1912; 46 vol.)–Benito Pérez Galdós

1874

1875

Anna Karenina (1875–77)–Leo Tolstoy
The Way We Live Now–Anthony Trollope

1876

1877

1878

The Return of the Native–Thomas Hardy

1879

1880

Ben-Hur–Lewis Wallace
The Brothers Karamazov–Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Heidi (1880–81)–Johanna Spyri
Nana–Émile Zola
Washington Square–Henry James

1881

1883

1884

1885

1886

1887

1889

1890

1891

Billy Budd, Foretopman–Herman Melville
The Little Minister–J.M. Barrie
New Grub Street–George Gissing
The Picture of Dorian Gray–Oscar Wilde
Tess of the d’Urbervilles–Thomas Hardy

1893

Catriona–Robert Louis Stevenson

1894

1895

Jude the Obscure–Thomas Hardy
The Red Badge of Courage–Stephen Crane
The Time Machine–H.G. Wells

1896

1897

1898

The War of the Worlds–H.G. Wells

1899

20th century

1900

1901

1902

1903

1904

1905

1906

1907

The Secret Agent–Joseph Conrad

1908

1909

Martin Eden–Jack London

1910

1911

1912

1913

The Custom of the Country–Edith Wharton
In Search of Lost Time (1913–27)–Marcel Proust
O Pioneers!–Willa Cather
Sons and Lovers–D.H. Lawrence

1914

Penrod–Booth Tarkington

1915

The Good Soldier–Ford Madox Ford
Of Human Bondage–W. Somerset Maugham
Pilgrimage (1915–35)–Dorothy M. Richardson
The Rainbow–D.H. Lawrence
Song of the Lark–Willa Cather

1916

1917

The Cream of the Jest–James Branch Cabell

1918

1919

1920

The Age of Innocence–Edith Wharton
Chéri–Colette
Kristin Lavransdatter (1920–22)–Sigrid Undset
This Side of Paradise–F. Scott Fitzgerald

1921

Alice Adams–Booth Tarkington
Crome Yellow–Aldous Huxley
The Good Soldier Schweik (1921–23)–Jaroslav Hašek

1922

Aaron’s Rod–D.H. Lawrence
Babbitt–Sinclair Lewis
The Beautiful and Damned–F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Forsyte Saga–John Galsworthy
Jacob’s Room–Virginia Woolf
Les Thibault (1922–40)–Roger Martin du Gard
One of Ours–Willa Cather
Siddhartha–Hermann Hesse
Ulysses–James Joyce

1923

1924

Beau Geste–Percival C. Wren
Giants in the Earth (1924–25)–O.E. Rölvaag
The Magic Mountain–Thomas Mann
A Passage to India–E.M. Forster
Precious Bane–Mary Webb
So Big–Edna Ferber

1925

1926

1927

1928

And Quiet Flows the Don (1928–40)–Mikhail Sholokhov
Decline and Fall–Evelyn Waugh
Home to Harlem–Claude McKay
King, Queen, Knave–Vladimir Nabokov
Lady Chatterley’s Lover–D.H. Lawrence
Orlando–Virginia Woolf
Point Counter Point–Aldous Huxley

1929

1930

As I Lay Dying–William Faulkner
Cakes and Ale–W. Somerset Maugham
The Maltese Falcon–Dashiell Hammett
The Man Without Qualities (1930–43)–Robert Musil
Vile Bodies–Evelyn Waugh

1931

The Good Earth–Pearl S. Buck
Sanctuary–William Faulkner
Shadows on the Rock–Willa Cather
The Sleepwalkers (1931–32)–Hermann Broch
The Waves–Virginia Woolf

1932

Black Mischief–Evelyn Waugh
Brave New World–Aldous Huxley
Cold Comfort Farm–Stella Gibbons
Light in August–William Faulkner
Men of Good Will–Jules Romains
Mutiny on the Bounty–Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
Studs Lonigan (1932–35)–James T. Farrell
Tobacco Road–Erskine Caldwell

1933

1934

1935

1936

Absalom, Absalom!–William Faulkner
Black Thunder–Arna Bontemps
The Diary of a Country Priest–Georges Bernanos
Eyeless in Gaza–Aldous Huxley
The Sea of Grass–Conrad Richter

1937

The Hobbit–J.R.R. Tolkien
Their Eyes Were Watching God–Zora Neale Hurston
To Have and Have Not–Ernest Hemingway

1939

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

Brideshead Revisited–Evelyn Waugh
Cannery Row–John Steinbeck
The Death of Virgil–Hermann Broch
The Egyptian–Mika Waltari
If He Hollers Let Him Go–Chester Himes
Pippi Longstocking–Astrid Lindgren
That Hideous Strength–C.S. Lewis

1946

1947

1948

Cry, the Beloved Country–Alan Paton
The Heart of the Matter–Graham Greene
Intruder in the Dust–William Faulkner
Joseph and His Brothers–Thomas Mann
The Loved One–Evelyn Waugh
The Makioka Sisters–Tanizaki Juni′chirō
The Naked and the Dead–Norman Mailer
Remembrance Rock–Carl Sandburg
The Sheltering Sky–Paul Bowles
Snow Country–Kawabata Yasunari

1949

1950

The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–56)–C.S. Lewis
The Family Moskat–Isaac Bashevis Singer
Parade’s End–Ford Madox Ford
The Town–Conrad Richter
The Wall–John Hersey

1951

The Caine Mutiny–Herman Wouk
The Catcher in the Rye–J.D. Salinger
A Dance to the Music of Time (1951–72)–Anthony Powell
The End of the Affair–Graham Greene
Malone Dies–Samuel Beckett
Memoirs of Hadrian–Marguerite Yourcenar
Salterton Trilogy (1951–58)–Robertson Davies

1952

Charlotte’s Web–E.B. White
East of Eden–John Steinbeck
The Gift–Vladimir Nabokov
Invisible Man–Ralph Ellison
The Natural–Bernard Malamud
The Old Man and the Sea–Ernest Hemingway
The Palm-Wine Drinkard–Amos Tutuola
Player Piano–Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Thousand Cranes–Kawabata Yasunari
Wise Blood–Flannery O’Connor

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

The Alexandria Quartet (1957–60)–Lawrence Durrell
The Assistant–Bernard Malamud
Atlas Shrugged–Ayn Rand
A Death in the Family–James Agee
Doctor Zhivago–Boris Pasternak
On the Road–Jack Kerouac
Pnin–Vladimir Nabokov
The Town–William Faulkner
The Wapshot Chronicle–John Cheever
Two Women–Alberto Moravia

1958

The Dharma Bums–Jack Kerouac
The Leopard–Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
The Once and Future King–T.H. White
Our Man in Havana–Graham Greene
Things Fall Apart–Chinua Achebe
The Ugly American–William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

Herzog–Saul Bellow

1965

Manchild in the Promised Land–Claude Brown
The Sea of Fertility (1965–70)–Mishima Yukio
Sword of Honour–Evelyn Waugh

1966

The Comedians–Graham Greene
The Fixer–Bernard Malamud
Giles Goat-Boy–John Barth
The Master and Margarita (1966–67)–Mikhail Bulgakov
The Raj Quartet (1966–75)–Paul Scott
Wide Sargasso Sea–Jean Rhys

1967

The Confessions of Nat Turner–William Styron
One Hundred Years of Solitude–Gabriel García Márquez
The Silent Cry–Ōe Kenzaburō

1968

1969

1970

The Bluest Eye–Toni Morrison
The Deptford Trilogy (1970–75)–Robertson Davies
Mr. Sammler’s Planet–Saul Bellow
The Trumpet of the Swan–E.B. White

1971

1972

1973

1974

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum–Heinrich Böll

1975

Humboldt’s Gift–Saul Bellow

1976

Kiss of the Spider Woman–Manuel Puig

1977

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter–Mario Vargas Llosa

1978

The Hydra Head–Carlos Fuentes

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

Praisesong for the Widow–Paule Marshall

1984

The Unbearable Lightness of Being–Milan Kundera

1985

1987

Beloved–Toni Morrison

1988

The Lyre of Orpheus–Robertson Davies

1997

Harry Potter series (1997–2007)–J.K. Rowling

2005

Twilight Saga (2005–08)–Stephenie Meyer

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.

list of novels

1st century ce

2nd century ce

10th century

11th century

15th century

16th century

17th century

18th century

19th century

20th century

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