Canon Compass
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316 books

20th Century

Modernism, postwar fiction, dystopia, magical realism, and the global reshaping of literary form. Start with Ulysses by James Joyce, the highest-ranked work here.

Entry Point

Start with Ulysses by James Joyce, ranked #1 in the Canon Compass list.

Featured Books

#1
Cover of Ulysses

Ulysses

by James Joyce

4.2 out of 5 stars(4K)

James Joyce's Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus through Dublin on June 16, 1904. Summary, analysis, and where to buy this modernist masterpiece.

Modern Mind
Epics
$19.38AmazonRead more
#2
Cover of In Search of Lost Time

In Search of Lost Time

by Marcel Proust

4.8 out of 5 stars(458)

Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time explores memory through the famous madeleine scene. Complete summary, the narrator's journey, and where to buy.

Modern Mind
$56.51AmazonRead more
#3
Cover of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

4.4 out of 5 stars(19K)

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Daisy Buchanan in Jazz Age New York. Summary, themes, and where to buy.

American Spirit
Love & Loss
$8.20AmazonRead more
#4
Cover of The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger

4.4 out of 5 stars(46.3K)

The Catcher in the Rye summary & analysis: Holden Caulfield's journey through NYC. J.D. Salinger's classic on alienation, Phoebe, and phoniness explained.

American Spirit
$9.29AmazonRead more
#5
Cover of One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude

by Gabriel García Márquez

4.6 out of 5 stars(4.5K)

Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude: The Buendía family saga in Macondo. Magical realism classic - summary, themes, and where to buy.

Magical Realism
Epics
$11.29AmazonRead more
#6
Cover of Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four

by George Orwell

4.6 out of 5 stars(122.8K)

George Orwell's 1984: Winston Smith rebels against Big Brother in this dystopian classic. Newspeak, Room 101, and totalitarianism - summary and where to buy.

Speculative Futures
$12.00AmazonRead more
#8
Cover of The Sound and the Fury

The Sound and the Fury

by William Faulkner

4.2 out of 5 stars(2.7K)

William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: The Compson family's tragic decline told through Benjy, Quentin, and Jason. Summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Modern Mind
$9.50AmazonRead more
#13
Cover of Lolita

Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

4.3 out of 5 stars(14K)

Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita: Humbert Humbert's disturbing confession about Dolores Haze. A controversial masterpiece - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Modern Mind
American Spirit
$18.27AmazonRead more
#16
Cover of The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings

by J. R. R. Tolkien

4.8 out of 5 stars(24.1K)

Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, and the Fellowship journey to destroy the One Ring. Fantasy epic - summary, characters, and where to buy.

Epics
$35.96AmazonRead more
#17
Cover of To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

4.7 out of 5 stars(145.9K)

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird: Scout, Atticus Finch, and Boo Radley in 1930s Alabama. Classic on justice and racism - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

American Spirit
$8.74AmazonRead more
#20
Cover of The Trial

The Trial

by Franz Kafka

4.3 out of 5 stars(1.7K)

Franz Kafka's The Trial: Josef K. is arrested without knowing his crime. Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Modern Mind
Speculative Futures
$18.00AmazonRead more
#21
Cover of The Stranger

The Stranger

by Albert Camus

4.4 out of 5 stars(10.6K)

Albert Camus' The Stranger: Meursault confronts the absurd in colonial Algeria. Existentialist classic on meaning and indifference - summary and where to buy.

Modern Mind
Philosophy & Faith
$9.99AmazonRead more
#25
Cover of The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

4.6 out of 5 stars(24K)

Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath: The Joad family's journey from Oklahoma to California during the Dust Bowl. Pulitzer winner - summary and where to buy.

American Spirit
$10.99AmazonRead more
#27
Cover of The Magic Mountain

The Magic Mountain

by Thomas Mann

4.5 out of 5 stars(727)

Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain: Hans Castorp's seven years in a Swiss sanatorium. German philosophical novel - summary, themes, and where to buy.

Modern Mind
Speculative Futures
$22.00AmazonRead more
#28
Cover of To the Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse

by Virginia Woolf

4.4 out of 5 stars(929)

Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse: The Ramsay family and Lily Briscoe on the Isle of Skye. Modernist classic - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Modern Mind
$9.99AmazonRead more
#33
Cover of Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway

by Virginia Woolf

4.1 out of 5 stars(5.6K)

Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway: Clarissa's day in London and Septimus's trauma. Modernist classic - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Modern Mind
$10.99AmazonRead more
#34
Cover of The Master and Margarita

The Master and Margarita

by Mikhail Bulgakov

4.5 out of 5 stars(4.5K)

Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita: Satan visits Soviet Moscow. Pontius Pilate, Woland, and love in this classic - summary and where to buy.

Magical Realism
Society & Satire
$19.00AmazonRead more
#35
Cover of Catch-22

Catch-22

by Joseph Heller

4.4 out of 5 stars(14.7K)

Joseph Heller's Catch-22: Yossarian fights absurd military bureaucracy in WWII. The novel that defined paradoxical logic - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Society & Satire
Modern Mind
$11.01AmazonRead more
#36
Cover of Invisible Man

Invisible Man

by Ralph Ellison

4.5 out of 5 stars(8.7K)

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man: a Black man's search for identity in a nation that refuses to see him. Summary, analysis, and where to buy.

American Spirit
$9.79AmazonRead more
#42
Cover of On the Road

On the Road

by Jack Kerouac

4.2 out of 5 stars(11.9K)

Kerouac's On the Road: Sal and Dean's cross-country journeys that defined the Beat Generation. Freedom, jazz, and the open American highway.

American Spirit
$19.00AmazonRead more
#43
Cover of The Little Prince

The Little Prince

by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

4.8 out of 5 stars(8.1K)

Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince: a philosophical fable about love, loss, and seeing with the heart. One of the most beloved books ever written.

Philosophy & Faith
Magical Realism
$9.59AmazonRead more
#44
Cover of Absalom, Absalom!

Absalom, Absalom!

by William Faulkner

4.3 out of 5 stars(1.5K)

Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!: Thomas Sutpen's doomed dynasty and the South's original sin. A dense, demanding masterpiece of American Gothic fiction.

American Spirit
Gothic & Dark
$13.50AmazonRead more
#45
Cover of Fictions

Fictions

by Jorge Luis Borges

4.3 out of 5 stars(1.2K)

Borges's Fictions: seventeen mind-bending stories of labyrinths, mirrors, and infinity. The short fiction collection that reshaped world literature.

Modern Mind
Magical Realism
$11.74AmazonRead more
#47
Cover of Journey to the End of the Night

Journey to the End of the Night

by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

4.4 out of 5 stars(1K)

Céline's Journey to the End of the Night: Bardamu's descent through war, colonialism, and modern despair. A revolutionary voice in world fiction.

Modern Mind
$14.53AmazonRead more

Complete 20th Century Index

  1. #1Ulysses
  2. #2In Search of Lost Time
  3. #3The Great Gatsby
  4. #4The Catcher in the Rye
  5. #5One Hundred Years of Solitude
  6. #6Nineteen Eighty-Four
  7. #8The Sound and the Fury
  8. #13Lolita
  9. #16The Lord of the Rings
  10. #17To Kill a Mockingbird
  11. #20The Trial
  12. #21The Stranger
  13. #25The Grapes of Wrath
  14. #27The Magic Mountain
  15. #28To the Lighthouse
  16. #33Mrs. Dalloway
  17. #34The Master and Margarita
  18. #35Catch-22
  19. #36Invisible Man
  20. #42On the Road
  21. #43The Little Prince
  22. #44Absalom, Absalom!
  23. #45Fictions
  24. #47Journey to the End of the Night
  25. #49Brave New World
  26. #50Lord of the Flies
  27. #51The Old Man and the Sea
  28. #52Beloved
  29. #53Gone with the Wind
  30. #54Animal Farm
  31. #57Under the Volcano
  32. #59The Leopard
  33. #60The Sun Also Rises
  34. #61The Golden Notebook
  35. #62Things Fall Apart
  36. #64Rebecca
  37. #68Midnight's Children
  38. #72Their Eyes Were Watching God
  39. #73A Farewell to Arms
  40. #74The Metamorphosis
  41. #75The Castle
  42. #76A Passage to India
  43. #77The Plague
  44. #80Pale Fire
  45. #81Slaughterhouse-Five
  46. #82As I Lay Dying
  47. #83All Quiet on the Western Front
  48. #84A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
  49. #86The Good Soldier
  50. #87The Tin Drum
  51. #89The Man Without Qualities
  52. #92Buddenbrooks
  53. #93Waiting for Godot
  54. #97The Age of Innocence
  55. #98For Whom the Bell Tolls
  56. #99Orlando
  57. #101Native Son
  58. #102Dune
  59. #103The Unbearable Lightness of Being
  60. #106The Waste Land
  61. #107Doctor Zhivago
  62. #108The Diary of a Young Girl
  63. #109Charlotte's Web
  64. #111The Bell Jar
  65. #112In Cold Blood
  66. #115The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
  67. #116The Big Sleep
  68. #119The Name of the Rose
  69. #121The Stories of Anton Chekhov
  70. #123Doctor Faustus
  71. #129Lord Jim
  72. #131If This Is a Man
  73. #135The Second Sex
  74. #136The Maltese Falcon
  75. #137The Wind in the Willows
  76. #138Memoirs of Hadrian
  77. #140One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
  78. #141Pedro Páramo
  79. #142All the King's Men
  80. #144Sons and Lovers
  81. #145Brideshead Revisited
  82. #146One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
  83. #147A Clockwork Orange
  84. #150Confessions of Zeno
  85. #151The Handmaid's Tale
  86. #152Fahrenheit 451
  87. #153The Hobbit
  88. #154Molloy
  89. #156The Long Goodbye
  90. #157Silent Spring
  91. #158The Talented Mr. Ripley
  92. #159The Hound of the Baskervilles
  93. #160Winnie the Pooh
  94. #161Tender Is the Night
  95. #162Love in the Time of Cholera
  96. #163Steppenwolf
  97. #164The Color Purple
  98. #165Man's Fate
  99. #166Wide Sargasso Sea
  100. #169Of Mice and Men
  101. #170My Antonia
  102. #172Siddhartha
  103. #174The Jungle
  104. #177A Room of One's Own
  105. #178Rabbit, Run
  106. #179Bonjour Tristesse
  107. #180The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
  108. #181Light in August
  109. #182An American Tragedy
  110. #183The Moviegoer
  111. #184Giovanni's Room
  112. #185Lady Chatterley's Lover
  113. #186U.S.A. Trilogy
  114. #187The Power and the Glory
  115. #189And Then There Were None
  116. #190The Book of Disquiet
  117. #191The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
  118. #192A Confederacy of Dunces
  119. #193The Complete Sherlock Holmes
  120. #195The Gulag Archipelago
  121. #196The End of the Affair
  122. #197The Radetzky March
  123. #198Zorba the Greek
  124. #199A Good Man Is Hard to Find
  125. #200Berlin Alexanderplatz
  126. #202The Counterfeiters
  127. #203East of Eden
  128. #204Darkness at Noon
  129. #207Howards End
  130. #208Brighton Rock
  131. #211The Haunting of Hill House
  132. #214Blood Meridian
  133. #218The Call of the Wild
  134. #219The Chronicles of Narnia
  135. #220The Alexandria Quartet
  136. #221Invisible Cities
  137. #222Death of Virgil
  138. #226The House of Mirth
  139. #227The Godfather
  140. #228The Remains of the Day
  141. #229Tropic of Cancer
  142. #230A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
  143. #231The Forsyte Saga
  144. #232Kim
  145. #233Women in Love
  146. #236Life and Fate
  147. #237Nausea
  148. #239The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
  149. #240The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
  150. #241Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
  151. #242The Ambassadors
  152. #245Look Homeward, Angel
  153. #247Babbitt
  154. #248Portnoy's Complaint
  155. #249Naked Lunch
  156. #251Death in Venice
  157. #252Finnegans Wake
  158. #253Cry, the Beloved Country
  159. #254Pippi Longstocking
  160. #255Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats
  161. #256Anne of Green Gables
  162. #258The Devil to Pay in the Backlands
  163. #261Watership Down
  164. #262A House for Mr. Biswas
  165. #263Gravity's Rainbow
  166. #265Wings of the Dove
  167. #266The Tartar Steppe
  168. #268The Good Earth
  169. #270A Room With a View
  170. #271Malone Dies
  171. #273The Once and Future King
  172. #274Disgrace
  173. #275Life, a User's Manual
  174. #277A Wrinkle In Time
  175. #278The Stand
  176. #279The Complete Stories
  177. #280Of Human Bondage
  178. #281The Adventures of Augie March
  179. #283Nostromo
  180. #284Kristin Lavransdatter
  181. #286The Lost Estate
  182. #287The Waves
  183. #289The Double Helix
  184. #291The Confusions of Young Törless
  185. #294Independent People
  186. #295The House of the Spirits
  187. #296The Autobiography of Malcolm X
  188. #298Nightwood
  189. #299Tarzan of the Apes
  190. #300Winesburg, Ohio
  191. #301Labyrinths
  192. #303Peter and Wendy
  193. #304Relativity
  194. #305The Lover
  195. #307The Poems of Robert Frost
  196. #308A Wizard of Earthsea
  197. #309The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
  198. #310The Secret History
  199. #311Where the Wild Things Are
  200. #312We
  201. #315Solaris
  202. #317History
  203. #318Bonfire of the Vanities
  204. #321Herzog
  205. #327The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
  206. #329Sister Carrie
  207. #331Song of Solomon
  208. #332The Unnamable
  209. #334If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
  210. #335The Glass Bead Game
  211. #336The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
  212. #337A Dance to the Music of Time
  213. #339The Day of the Locust
  214. #343The Savage Detectives
  215. #344The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
  216. #346Ada or Ardor
  217. #348Foundation
  218. #349Infinite Jest
  219. #351Dubliners
  220. #352The Bluest Eye
  221. #353Stranger in a Strange Land
  222. #356The Duino Elegies
  223. #357The Thirty-Nine Steps
  224. #358Kolyma Stories
  225. #359Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
  226. #363The Second World War
  227. #364The Education of Henry Adams
  228. #366Ferdydurke
  229. #372Hopscotch
  230. #373At Swim Two-Birds
  231. #374The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
  232. #375The Old Wives' Tale
  233. #376Death Comes for the Archbishop
  234. #378Nadja
  235. #381White Noise
  236. #382The Shining
  237. #384His Dark Materials
  238. #386Housekeeping
  239. #387Lucky Jim
  240. #389American Pastoral
  241. #390The Words
  242. #392The Myth of Sisyphus
  243. #393The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
  244. #394Wise Blood
  245. #395The World According to Garp
  246. #396Parade's End
  247. #399The Alchemist
  248. #400The Day of the Jackal
  249. #401Out of Africa
  250. #402The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
  251. #403The Daughter of Time
  252. #405The God of Small Things
  253. #407Murder on the Orient Express
  254. #409The Razor's Edge
  255. #410The Moon and the Bonfires
  256. #412Death of a Salesman
  257. #413The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
  258. #414The Bridge on the Drina
  259. #415The Naked and the Dead
  260. #418El Aleph
  261. #420Philosophical Investigations
  262. #421The Origins of Totalitarianism
  263. #422The Fountainhead
  264. #423The Crying of Lot 49
  265. #424Underworld
  266. #425The Man Who Was Thursday
  267. #427I'm Not Stiller
  268. #429Gypsy Ballads
  269. #430Homage to Catalonia
  270. #431Les Enfants Terribles
  271. #432The Left Hand of Darkness
  272. #433The Magus
  273. #434The Way of All Flesh
  274. #435Hiroshima
  275. #436I, Claudius
  276. #438V
  277. #439Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
  278. #440Go Tell It on the Mountain
  279. #441The Hollow Man
  280. #447Play It As It Lays
  281. #448Collected Poems
  282. #451The Postman Always Rings Twice
  283. #452The Secret Agent
  284. #453A Death in the Family
  285. #454The Man Who Loved Children
  286. #455The Prophet
  287. #456Embers
  288. #457Fatelessness
  289. #458Alcools
  290. #460Atlas Shrugged
  291. #462Cold Comfort Farm
  292. #463Four Quartets
  293. #465Jakob von Gunten
  294. #466The Golden Bowl
  295. #467The Baron in the Trees
  296. #468The Civil War
  297. #470Tristes Tropiques
  298. #473Ethan Frome
  299. #474Scoop
  300. #476The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
  301. #477Passing
  302. #478A Heart So White
  303. #480Casino Royale
  304. #481Froth on the Daydream
  305. #482Murder Must Advertise
  306. #483The Immoralist
  307. #484Platero and I
  308. #485Everything That Rises Must Converge
  309. #486W, or the Memory of Childhood
  310. #487Joseph and His Brothers
  311. #489Her Lover
  312. #492The Affluent Society
  313. #494The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
  314. #496Sanctuary
  315. #497The Sea, The Sea
  316. #500Auto-da-Fé