Best English books: top English Literature of all time

English books

Searching for a good English book? Here you can find an introduction to English literature. The best English books will be provided based on crtics lists. You can also find a list which says what English book is the best according to the readers. Here you can find a manual helping you to find a good English book.

English book: introduction to English literature

There are few language groups with so much variety as the English Language. This can also be applied when it comes to English literature. Not to mention that a lot of the biggest writers are not even from England or America. An English book belong to English literature as soon as it is written in English and is not translated from a different language. But foreign writers, like Vladimir Nabokov ( a russian) have managed to produce beautiful English books, with English as their second language. Other writers who are not originally from England are also part of the select group of best authors, like Robert Burns from Scotland, James Joyce from Ireland and Dylan Thomas from Wales. But also in the British colonies great English books have been written. However, the most important English writer is up to this date still the Englishman William Shakespeare. His works are still being read and performed worldwide.

The English Book throughout the centuries

Just like most other societies, also the English society had a very strong oral tradition. The first written work is from the middle-ages and is written in Old-English: The hymn of Caedmon. The English book already started to take more shape during the knight era. From the 12th century onwards the first religious works, courtly love novels, and knights novels have been written. Up to now King Arthur and the Knights of the round table continue to stimulate the reader's imagination worldwide. With the Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer is being considered by many as the Founding Father of English literature. Also Robin hood originates from this period. With the introduction of the printing press by Willia Claxton in 1476 the amount of English books increased dramatically. The first real English novel not based on mythes, history or legends etc is Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Lets now have a look at which English books have been marked as being the best English books ever.

The best English books of all time

The critics and experts of the Guardian have recently selected a list with all the best books of all time. Here all the English Language books I have filtered. Below this list you can also find a list with more modern English books. Here are the first 11 books of the Guardian best novels of all time list:

1. Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan
2. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
3. Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
4. Tom Jones - Henry Fielding
5. Clarissa - Samuel Richardson
6. Tristram - Shandy Laurence Sterne
7. Emma - Jane Austen
8. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
9. Nightmare Abbey - Thomas Love Peacock
10. Sybil Benjamin Disraeli
11. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

The best English books from 1900

An English book that is on top of many lists is Ulysess by James Joyce. Also the Great Gatsby also does very well. Here you will find a list compiled by the Modern Library. In response to they have also published a list based on the readers opinions. Now first a list portraying what the critics think.

1. Ulysses - James Joyce (1922)
2. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
3. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce (1916)
4. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
5. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1932)
6. The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner (1929)
7. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller (1961)
8. Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler (1940)
9. Sons and Lovers - D. H. Lawrence (1913)
10. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (1939)

Best English books according to readers

1. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
2. The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
3. Battlefield Earth - L. Ron Hubbard
4. The Lord of the Rings -J.R.R. Tolkien
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. 1984 - George Orwell
7. Anthem - Ayn Rand
8. We the Living - Ayn Rand
9. Mission Earth -L. Ron Hubbard
10. Fear - L. Ron Hubbard

Also curious about the current best English Cinema? Here are the best English Movies of europeanmovies.org where you can watch trailers and read reviews.