20th century in literature - Wikipedia
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Overview of the events of 1900–1999 in literature
See also:
20th century in poetry
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June 2019
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Literature portal
Literature
of the 20th century refers to
world literature
produced during the 20th century (1901 to 2000).
The main periods in question are often grouped by scholars as
Modernist literature
Postmodern literature
, flowering from roughly 1900 to 1940 and 1960 to 1990
respectively, roughly using
World War II
as a transition point. After 1960, the somewhat malleable term "
contemporary literature
" widely appears.
Although these terms (modern, contemporary and postmodern) are generally applicable to and stem from Western literary history, scholars often use them in reference to
Asian
Latin American
and
African literatures
. Non-western writers, in particular in
Postcolonial literature
, have been at the forefront of literary evolution during the twentieth century.
Technological advances facilitated lower production cost for books, coupled with rising populations and literacy rates, which resulted in a significant rise in production of popular literature and
trivial literature
, comparable to the similar developments in music. The division of "popular literature" and "high literature" in the 20th century is overlapped by
genres
such as
detectives
or
science fiction
, despite being largely ignored by mainstream
literary criticism
for most of the century. These genres developed their own establishments and critical awards; these include the
Nebula Award
(since 1965), the
British Fantasy Award
(since 1971) or the
Mythopoeic Awards
(since 1971).
Towards the end of the 20th century,
electronic literature
grew in importance in light of the development of
hypertext
and later the
World Wide Web
The
Nobel Prize in Literature
was awarded annually throughout the century (with the exception of 1914, 1918, 1935 and 1940–1943), the first laureate (1901) being
Sully Prudhomme
The New York Times
Best Seller list
has been published since 1942.
The
best-selling literary works
of the 20th century are estimated to be
The Lord of the Rings
(1954/55, 150 million copies),
Le Petit Prince
The Little Prince
, 1943, 140 million copies),
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
(1997, 120 million copies) and
And Then There Were None
(1939, 115 million copies).
The Lord of the Rings
was also voted "book of the century" in various surveys.
Perry Rhodan
(1961 to present) proclaimed as the best-selling book series, with an estimated total of 1 billion copies sold.
1901–1918
edit
Main articles:
1900s literature
and
1910s literature
The
Fin de siècle
movement of the
Belle Époque
persisted into the 20th century, but was brutally cut short with the outbreak of World War I (an effect depicted e.g. in
Thomas Mann
's
The Magic Mountain
, published 1924). The
Dada
movement of 1916–1920 was at least in part a protest against the
bourgeois
nationalist
and
colonialist
interests which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war; the movement heralded the
Surrealism
movement of the 1920s.
1900
Lord Jim
by
Joseph Conrad
(Poland, England)
The Knights of the Cross
by
Henryk Sienkiewicz
(Poland)
Genre fiction
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by
L. Frank Baum
(US)
1901
Buddenbrooks
by
Thomas Mann
(Germany)
The Inheritors
by
Joseph Conrad
and
Ford Madox Ford
(England)
Kim
by
Rudyard Kipling
(India, England)
Genre fiction
The Purple Cloud
by
M. P. Shiel
Montserrat
, England)
The First Men in the Moon
by
H. G. Wells
(England)
1902
Heart of Darkness
by
Joseph Conrad
The Immoralist
by
André Gide
(France)
The Wings of the Dove
by
Henry James
(US, England)
The Grand Babylon Hotel
by
Arnold Bennett
(England)
Genre fiction
The Hound of the Baskervilles
by
Arthur Conan Doyle
(Scotland)
Just So Stories
by
Rudyard Kipling
Plays
Man and Superman
by
George Bernard Shaw
(Ireland)
The Lower Depths
by
Maxim Gorky
1903
Romance
by
Joseph Conrad
and
Ford Madox Ford
The Ambassadors
by
Henry James
The Pit
by
Frank Norris
(US)
In Wonderland
by
Knut Hamsun
(Norway)
Genre fiction
The Call of the Wild
by
Jack London
(US)
The Riddle of the Sands
by
Erskine Childers
(England, Ireland)
1904
The Golden Bowl
by
Henry James
Nostromo
by
Joseph Conrad
The Napoleon of Notting Hill
by
G. K. Chesterton
(England)
The Peasants
by
Władysław Reymont
(Poland)
Genre fiction
The Food of the Gods
by
H. G. Wells
The Sea-Wolf
by
Jack London
Green Mansions
by
William Henry Hudson
(Argentina, England)
Plays
John Bull's Other Island
by
George Bernard Shaw
The Cherry Orchard
by
Anton Chekhov
1905
Hadrian the Seventh
by
Frederick Rolfe
aka
Baron Corvo
(England, Italy)
Where Angels Fear to Tread
by
E. M. Forster
(England)
Kipps
by
H. G. Wells
Songs of Life and Hope
by
Rubén Darío
(Nicaragua)
The House of Mirth
by
Edith Wharton
(US)
The Club of Queer Trades
by
G. K. Chesterton
1906
The Jungle
by
Upton Sinclair
(US)
The Confusions of Young Törless
by
Robert Musil
(Austria)
Mother
by
Maxim Gorky
Genre fiction
Puck of Pook's Hill
by
Rudyard Kipling
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
by
J. M. Barrie
(Scotland)
Time and the Gods
by
Lord Dunsany
(Ireland, England)
White Fang
by
Jack London
Plays
The Aran Islands
by
John Millington Synge
(Ireland)
The Morality of Mrs. Dulska
by
Gabriela Zapolska
(Poland)
1907
Bardidi
by
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
(India)
The Secret Agent
by
Joseph Conrad
The Longest Journey
by
E. M. Forster
Genre fiction
The Listener and Other Stories
by
Algernon Blackwood
(England) – contains
The Willows
, one of the first '
cosmic horror
' stories
The Hill of Dreams
by
Arthur Machen
(England)
Plays
The Playboy of the Western World
by
John Millington Synge
Poetry
Cautionary Tales for Children
by
Hilaire Belloc
(France, England)
1908
The Man Who Was Thursday
by
G. K. Chesterton
A Room with a View
by
E. M. Forster
The Iron Heel
by
Jack London
Hell
by
Henri Barbusse
(France, Russia)
The Magician
by
Somerset Maugham
(England, France) – based on the author's meeting with
Aleister Crowley
Genre fiction
The Wind in the Willows
by
Kenneth Grahame
(England)
Poetry
Personae
by
Ezra Pound
(US, England, Italy) – one of the first examples of 'modernist' poetry
1909
Martin Eden
by
Jack London
Sparrows: the story of an unprotected girl
by
Horace W C Newte
Tono-Bungay
by
H. G. Wells
Three Lives
by
Gertrude Stein
(US, France)
Poetry
Exultations
by
Ezra Pound
Poems
by
William Carlos Williams
(US)
Plays
The Blue Bird
by
Maurice Maeterlinck
(Belgium)
1910
Howards End
by
E. M. Forster
The Card
by
Arnold Bennett
The History of Mr Polly
by
H. G. Wells
1911
Zuleika Dobson
by
Max Beerbohm
(England)
In a German Pension
by
Katherine Mansfield
(England) – short stories
Under Western Eyes
by
Joseph Conrad
The White Peacock
by
D. H. Lawrence
(England)
Jennie Gerhardt
by
Theodore Dreiser
(US)
In Desert and Wilderness
by
Henryk Sienkiewicz
(Poland)
Genre fiction
Peter and Wendy
by
J. M. Barrie
(Scotland)
1912
The Trespasser
by
D. H. Lawrence
Death in Venice
by
Thomas Mann
(Germany)
Genre fiction
Riders of the Purple Sage
by
Zane Grey
(US)
The Lost World
by
Arthur Conan Doyle
Tarzan of the Apes
by
Edgar Rice Burroughs
(US)
Plays
Pygmalion
by
George Bernard Shaw
1913
Petersburg
by
Andrei Bely
(Russia)
Swann's Way
by
Marcel Proust
(France)
Le Grand Meaulnes
by
Alain-Fournier
(France)
Sons and Lovers
by
D. H. Lawrence
Chance
by
Joseph Conrad
Genre fiction
A Prisoner in Fairyland
by
Algernon Blackwood
– adapted into a play, it later became the
Andrew Lloyd Webber
musical
Starlight Express
The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu
by '
Sax Rohmer
' (England)
Poetry
Alcools
by
Guillaume Apollinaire
(Poland, France) – dada poems
Gitanjali
by
Rabindranath Tagore
1914
Dubliners
by
James Joyce
(Ireland, France, Italy) – short stories
The Prussian Officer and Other Stories
by
D. H. Lawrence
– short stories
Der Untertan
by
Heinrich Mann
The Vatican Cellars
by
André Gide
Tender Buttons
by
Gertrude Stein
The Golem
by
Gustav Meyrink
Austria
Mist
by
Miguel de Unamuno
(Spain)
Maurice
by
E. M. Forster
– unpublished
Sinister Street
by
Compton Mackenzie
(Scotland, Greece)
The Flying Inn
by
G. K. Chesterton
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists
by
Robert Noonan
(UK)
Poetry
North of Boston
by
Robert Frost
(US)
1915
The Good Soldier
by
Ford Madox Ford
The Rainbow
by
D. H. Lawrence
The Metamorphosis
by
Franz Kafka
Of Human Bondage
by
Somerset Maugham
The Underdogs
by
Mariano Azuela
(Mexico)
Victory
by
Joseph Conrad
Pointed Roofs
by
Dorothy Richardson
The Voyage Out
by
Virginia Woolf
(England)
Vainglory
by
Ronald Firbank
(England)
Rashōmon
by
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Genre fiction
The Thirty-Nine Steps
by
John Buchan
(Scotland, Canada)
1916
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by
James Joyce
Women in Love
by
D. H. Lawrence
– initially banned, published in 1920
Genre fiction
Greenmantle
by
John Buchan
Poetry
Salt-Water Poems and Ballads
by
John Masefield
(England)
Mountain Interval
by
Robert Frost
1917
Under Fire
by
Henri Barbusse
(France, Russia)
Walpurgis Night
by
Gustav Meyrink
Growth of the Soil
by
Knut Hamsun
The Shadow-Line
by
Joseph Conrad
Caprice
by
Ronald Firbank
Devdas
by
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
Poetry
Dulce et Decorum est
and
Anthem for Doomed Youth
by
Wilfred Owen
(England) – published posthumously
Prufrock and Other Observations
by
T. S. Eliot
(US, England)
Non-fiction
The State and Revolution
by
Vladimir Lenin
1918
Tarr
by
Wyndham Lewis
(Canada, England)
Man of Straw
by
Heinrich Mann
(Germany)
Poetry
Calligrammes
by
Guillaume Apollinaire
– dada poetry
Non-fiction
Eminent Victorians
by
Lytton Strachey
(England)
Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man
by
Thomas Mann
(Germany)
Interwar period
edit
Main articles:
1920s literature
and
1930s literature
Further information:
Surrealism
Roaring Twenties
Modernist literature
, and
Harlem Renaissance
The 1920s were a period of literary creativity, and works of several notable authors appeared during the period.
D. H. Lawrence
's novel
Lady Chatterley's Lover
was a scandal at the time because of its explicit descriptions of sex. James Joyce's novel,
Ulysses
, published in 1922 in Paris, was one of the most important achievements of literary modernism.
1919
Within a Budding Grove
by
Marcel Proust
Night and Day
by
Virginia Woolf
Winesburg, Ohio
by
Sherwood Anderson
(US) – the first 'lost generation' novel
Valmouth
by
Ronald Firbank
Bazaar-e-Husn
by
Premchand
(publ. in Hindi as
Seva-sadan
Genre fiction
Dope
by
Sax Rohmer
– inspired by the true story of Limehouse dope-dealer
Brilliant Chang
Dope Darling
by
Leda Burke
David Garnett
) (England)
1920
We
by
Yevgeny Zamyatin
Russia
Limbo
by
Aldous Huxley
(England) – short stories
The Lost Girl
by
D. H. Lawrence
This Side of Paradise
by
F. Scott Fitzgerald
(US)
The London Venture
by
Michael Arlen
Armenia
, England)
Storm of Steel
by
Ernst Jünger
(Germany)
A Voyage to Arcturus
by
David Lindsay
(Scotland)
Main Street
by
Sinclair Lewis
(US)
The Age of Innocence
by
Edith Wharton
(US)
Plays
Six Characters in Search of an Author
by
Luigi Pirandello
(Italy)
Beyond the Horizon
and
Anna Christie
by
Eugene O'Neill
– Pulitzer prize winner
1921
The Guermantes Way
by
Marcel Proust
Crome Yellow
by
Aldous Huxley
England, My England and Other Stories
by
D. H. Lawrence
– short stories
The Forsyte Saga
by
John Galsworthy
(England) – pentalogy, first volume published in 1906
My Life and Loves
by
Frank Harris
(England, US) – four volumes of quasi-factual sex gossip, the fifth completed by Alex Trocchi
Plays
Back to Methuselah
by
George Bernard Shaw
R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)
by
Karel Čapek
– from which the term 'robot' was coined
1922
Ulysses
by
James Joyce
Jacob's Room
by
Virginia Woolf
Sodom and Gomorrah
by
Marcel Proust
Croatian God Mars
by
Miroslav Krleža
The Enormous Room
by
E. E. Cummings
(US)
Futility
by
William Gerhardie
(Russia, England)
The Beautiful and Damned
by
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mortal Coils
by
Aldous Huxley
– short stories
Aaron's Rod
by
D. H. Lawrence
Kim
The Garden Party
by
Katherine Mansfield
– short stories
Siddhartha
by
Hermann Hesse
(Germany, Switzerland)
Peter Whiffle
by
Carl Van Vechten
(US)
Babbitt
by
Sinclair Lewis
Lady into Fox
by
David Garnett
The True Story of Ah Q
by
Lu Xun
(China)
Poetry
The Waste Land
by
T. S. Eliot
1923
Confessions of Zeno
by
Italo Svevo
(Italy)
The Good Soldier Švejk
by
Jaroslav Hašek
Czechoslovakia
The Captive
by
Marcel Proust
Kangaroo
by
D. H. Lawrence
Antic Hay
by
Aldous Huxley
Three Soldiers
by
John Dos Passos
(US)
The Great American Novel
by
William Carlos Williams
The Devil in the Flesh
by
Raymond Radiguet
(France)
Aelita
by
Alexey Tolstoy
(Russia)
Plays
The Shadow of a Gunman
by
Seán O'Casey
(Ireland)
Poetry
New Hampshire
by
Robert Frost
The Duino Elegies
by
Rainer Maria Rilke
1924
The Magic Mountain
by
Thomas Mann
(Germany)
In Our Time
by
Ernest Hemingway
(US) – short stories
A Passage to India
by
E. M. Forster
The Vortex
by
José Eustasio Rivera
(Colombia)
Little Mexican and Other Stories
by
Aldous Huxley
– short stories
Bohemian Lights
by
Ramón del Valle-Inclán
(Spain)
The Fox
and
The Captain's Doll
by
D. H. Lawrence
– short stories
Miranda
by
Antoni Lange
(Poland)
Riddles and Conundrums for All Occasions
Genre fiction
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by
Agatha Christie
(England)
Plays
Juno and the Paycock
by
Seán O'Casey
The Vortex
by
Noël Coward
(England)
1925
Mrs Dalloway
by
Virginia Woolf
The Trial
by
Franz Kafka
Czechoslovakia
) – posthumous, first English translation in 1930
The Great Gatsby
by
F. Scott Fitzgerald
– often described as the epitome of the "Jazz Age" in American literature
The Green Hat
by
Michael Arlen
– perhaps the epitome of the jazz age in British literature
Paris Peasant
by
Louis Aragon
(France)
Albertine disparue
by
Marcel Proust
Manhattan Transfer
by
John Dos Passos
In the American Grain
by
William Carlos Williams
The Desert of Love
by
François Mauriac
(France)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
by
Anita Loos
(US)
Those Barren Leaves
by
Aldous Huxley
St Mawr
by
D. H. Lawrence
– short stories
The Making of Americans
by
Gertrude Stein
Heart of a Dog
by
Mikhail Bulgakov
(Russia / Soviet Union)
The Artamonov Business
by
Maxim Gorky
(Russia / Soviet Union)
Genre fiction
Beau Geste
by
P. C. Wren
(England)
Poetry
The Hollow Men
by
T. S. Eliot
Non-fiction
The Old Straight Track
by
Alfred Watkins
(England) – introducing ley lines
1926
The Castle
by
Franz Kafka
– posthumous, first English translation in 1932
The Counterfeiters
by
André Gide
The Sun Also Rises
aka
Fiesta
by
Ernest Hemingway
Moravagine
by
Blaise Cendrars
(France)
Don Segundo Sombra
by
Ricardo Güiraldes
(Argentina)
Nigger Heaven
by
Carl Van Vechten
Two or Three Graces and Other Stories
by
Aldous Huxley
– short stories
The Plumed Serpent
by
D. H. Lawrence
The Call of Cthulhu
by
H. P. Lovecraft
Genre fiction
Winnie-the-Pooh
by
A. A. Milne
(England)
Poetry
A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle
by '
Hugh MacDiarmid
' (Scotland)
Plays
The Plough and the Stars
by
Seán O'Casey
Raktakarabi
by
Rabindranath Tagore
Non-fiction
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
by
T. E. Lawrence
(England, Arabia)
1927
To the Lighthouse
by
Virginia Woolf
Time Regained
by
Marcel Proust
Steppenwolf
by
Hermann Hesse
Men Without Women
by
Ernest Hemingway
– short stories
Vestal Fire
by
Compton Mackenzie
Dusty Answer
by
Rosamond Lehmann
(England)
Elmer Gantry
by
Sinclair Lewis
The Rocking-Horse Winner
by
D. H. Lawrence
– short stories
Poetry
Jhôra Palok
by
Jibanananda Das
(India)
Plays
The Silver Tassie
by
Seán O'Casey
(Ireland)
1928
Berlin Alexanderplatz
by
Alfred Döblin
(Germany)
Nadja
by
André Breton
(France)
Story of the Eye
by
Georges Bataille
(France)
Parade's End
by
Ford Madox Ford
– war tetralogy, first volume in 1926
Gypsy Ballads
by
Federico García Lorca
Point Counter Point
by
Aldous Huxley
Lady Chatterley's Lover
by
D. H. Lawrence
– banned until 1963
Decline and Fall
by
Evelyn Waugh
(England)
Amerika
by
Franz Kafka
– posthumous, first English translation in 1938
All Quiet on the Western Front
by
Erich Maria Remarque
(Germany) – recounts the horrors of World War I and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front
Chevengur
by
Andrei Platonov
(Soviet Russia, excerpts)
The City
by
Valerian Pidmohylny
(Soviet Ukraine)
Plays
Strange Interlude
by
Eugene O'Neill
(US) – Pulitzer prize winner
Messrs. Glembay
by
Miroslav Krleža
1929
Les Enfants Terribles
by
Jean Cocteau
(France)
A Farewell to Arms
by
Ernest Hemingway
(US)
Look Homeward, Angel
by
Thomas Wolfe
Death of a Hero
by
Richard Aldington
(England)
The Sound and the Fury
by
William Faulkner
(US)
Doña Bárbara
by
Rómulo Gallegos
(Venezuela)
Mario and the Magician
by
Thomas Mann
(Germany)
The Escaped Cock
by
D. H. Lawrence
(England)
The Defence
by
Vladimir Nabokov
(Russia, France)
Wolf Solent
by
John Cowper Powys
(England)
The Good Companions
by
J. B. Priestley
(England)
Non-fiction
Good-Bye to All That
by
Robert Graves
(England)
A Room of One's Own
by
Virginia Woolf
(England)
Genre fiction
Red Harvest
by
Dashiell Hammett
(US) – the first hard-boiled American detective novel
Yogayog
by
Rabindranath Tagore
(India) – original fiction in Bengali
1930
Vile Bodies
by
Evelyn Waugh
The Apes of God
by
Wyndham Lewis
Brief Candles
by
Aldous Huxley
– short stories
As I Lay Dying
by
William Faulkner
Narcissus and Goldmund
by
Hermann Hesse
Angel Pavement
by
J. B. Priestley
The Virgin and the Gypsy
and
Love Among the Haystacks
by
D. H. Lawrence
– short stories
Genre fiction
Last and First Men
by
Olaf Stapledon
(England)
The Maltese Falcon
by
Dashiell Hammett
(US)
Poetry
Whoroscope
by
Samuel Beckett
(Ireland, France)
Plays
Private Lives
by
Noël Coward
Non-fiction
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man
by
Siegfried Sassoon
(England) – 2 volumes, 1st in 1929
1931
The Good Earth
by
Pearl S. Buck
The Waves
by
Virginia Woolf
Night Flight
by
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
(France)
Genre fiction
The Glass Key
by
Dashiell Hammett
At the Mountains of Madness
by
H. P. Lovecraft
Plays
Mourning Becomes Electra
by
Eugene O'Neill
Cavalcade
by
Noël Coward
Non-fiction
Axel's Castle
by
Edmund Wilson
(US)
Music at Night
by
Aldous Huxley
1932
The Return of Philip Latinowicz
by
Miroslav Krleža
Journey to the End of Night
by
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
(France)
Brave New World
by
Aldous Huxley
(England)
The Memorial
by
Christopher Isherwood
(England)
Laughter in the Dark
by
Vladimir Nabokov
(Russia, France)
Light in August
by
William Faulkner
A Glastonbury Romance
by
John Cowper Powys
Stamboul Train
by
Graham Greene
(England)
Black Mischief
by
Evelyn Waugh
Radetzky March
by
Joseph Roth
(Austria)
Jew Boy
by
Simon Blumenfeld
(England)
Poetry
The Orators
by
W. H. Auden
(England)
1933
Man's Fate
by
André Malraux
(France)
Love on the Dole
by
Walter Greenwood
(England)
Miss Lonelyhearts
by
Nathanael West
(US)
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
by
Gertrude Stein
Cat Country
by
Lao She
(China)
Genre fiction
Lost Horizon
by
James Hilton
(England)
Murder Must Advertise
by
Dorothy L. Sayers
(England)
The Oppermanns
by
Lion Feuchtwanger
Non-fiction
Down and Out in Paris and London
by
George Orwell
(England)
Texts and Pretexts
by
Aldous Huxley
In Praise of Shadows
by
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
1934
Tropic of Cancer
by
Henry Miller
(US) – a groundbreaking obscenity case before the
U.S. Supreme Court
in 1961 allowed its publication there
Call It Sleep
by
Henry Roth
(Austria, US)
Tender Is the Night
by
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Threepenny Novel
by
Bertolt Brecht
(Germany)
Despair
by
Vladimir Nabokov
It's a Battlefield
by
Graham Greene
A Handful of Dust
by
Evelyn Waugh
20,000 Streets Under the Sky
by
Patrick Hamilton
(England)
Voyage in the Dark
by
Jean Rhys
Dominica
, France, England)
Appointment in Samarra
by
John O'Hara
(US)
A Scots Quair
by
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
(Scotland) – trilogy, first volume published in 1932
Novel with Cocaine
aka
Cocain Romance
by
M. Ageyev
(France)
Genre fiction
The Postman Always Rings Twice
by
James M. Cain
(US)
Poetry
18 Poems
by
Dylan Thomas
Wales
Non-fiction
Burmese Days
by
George Orwell
Death in the Afternoon
by
Ernest Hemingway
1935
Mr Norris Changes Trains
by
Christopher Isherwood
Eyeless in Gaza
by
Aldous Huxley
Auto-da-Fe
by
Elias Canetti
Bulgaria
, Germany)
A Clergyman's Daughter
by
George Orwell
England Made Me
by
Graham Greene
A House in Paris
by
Elizabeth Bowen
(Ireland)
Tortilla Flat
by
John Steinbeck
(US)
Studs Lonigan
by
James T. Farrell
(US) – trilogy, first volume published in 1932
Genre fiction
Little House on the Prairie
by
Laura Ingalls Wilder
(US)
Poetry
Collected Poems
by
Cecil Day-Lewis
(Northern Ireland)
Plays
Waiting for Lefty
by
Clifford Odets
(US)
1936
Death on the Installment Plan
by
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Black Spring
by
Henry Miller
U.S.A.
by
John Dos Passos
Mephisto
by
Klaus Mann
(Germany, US)
Absalom, Absalom!
by
William Faulkner
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
by
George Orwell
Confession of a Murderer
by
Joseph Roth
Invitation to a Beheading
by
Vladimir Nabokov
The Wessex Novels
by
John Cowper Powys
(England) – tetralogy, 1st vol published in 1927
Godaan
by
Premchand
Poetry
Ballads of Petrica Kerempuh
by
Miroslav Krleža
Dhushor Pandulipi
by
Jibanananda Das
(India)
Genre fiction
Jamaica Inn
by
Daphne du Maurier
(England)
Gone with the Wind
by
Margaret Mitchell
(US)
A Gun for Sale
by
Graham Greene
1937
To Have and Have Not
by
Ernest Hemingway
The Years
by
Virginia Woolf
Of Mice and Men
by
John Steinbeck
Lions and Shadows
by
Christopher Isherwood
The Black Book
by
Lawrence Durrell
(UK, Egypt)
Ferdydurke
by
Witold Gombrowicz
(Poland)
Revenge for Love
by
Wyndham Lewis
White Mule
by
William Carlos Williams
Wide Boys Never Work
by
Robert Westerby
(England, US)
Rickshaw Boy
by
Lao She
(China)
The Life of Klim Samgin
by
Maxim Gorky
– posthumous, tetralogy, first three volumes published in 1927–1931
Genre fiction
Star Maker
by
Olaf Stapledon
Night and the City
by
Gerald Kersh
(England, US)
The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor
by
Cameron McCabe
Ernest Bornemann
) (Germany, England)
The Hobbit
by
J. R. R. Tolkien
(England)
Non-fiction
The Road to Wigan Pier
by
George Orwell
How Green Was My Valley
by
Richard Llewellyn
(Wales)
1938
Nausea
by
Jean-Paul Sartre
(France)
Murphy
by
Samuel Beckett
Tropic of Capricorn
by
Henry Miller
Man's Hope
by
André Malraux
The Death of the Heart
by
Elizabeth Bowen
Brighton Rock
by
Graham Greene
Scoop
by
Evelyn Waugh
The Gift
by
Vladimir Nabokov
Genre fiction
Brighton Rock
by
Graham Greene
Rebecca
by
Daphne du Maurier
Non-fiction
Journey to a War
by
W. H. Auden
and
Christopher Isherwood
Homage to Catalonia
by
George Orwell
Enemies of Promise
by
Cyril Connolly
(England)
1939
The Grapes of Wrath
by
John Steinbeck
Finnegans Wake
by
James Joyce
The Banquet in Blitva
by
Miroslav Krleža
At Swim-Two-Birds
by
Flann O'Brien
(Ireland)
Goodbye to Berlin
by
Christopher Isherwood
After Many a Summer
by
Aldous Huxley
Coming Up for Air
by
George Orwell
On the Marble Cliffs
by
Ernst Jünger
Good Morning, Midnight
by
Jean Rhys
The Day of the Locust
by
Nathanael West
The Legend of the Holy Drinker
by
Joseph Roth
Lotte in Weimar
by
Thomas Mann
The Confidential Agent
by
Graham Greene
Mister Johnson
by
Joyce Cary
(Ireland)
Wind, Sand and Stars
by
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Pal Joey
by
John O'Hara
Genre fiction
The Big Sleep
by
Raymond Chandler
(US)
Rogue Male
by
Geoffrey Household
(England)
The Mask of Dimitrios
by
Eric Ambler
And Then There Were None
by
Agatha Christie
Poetry
Autumn Journal
by
Louis MacNeice
(N Ireland)
The Map of Love
by
Dylan Thomas
Plays
This Happy Breed
by
Noël Coward
World War II
edit
Further information:
1940s literature
1940
Native Son
by
Richard Wright
(US, France)
Darkness at Noon
by
Arthur Koestler
(Hungary, England)
The Master and Margarita
by
Mikhail Bulgakov
– published in English 1966
For Whom the Bell Tolls
by
Ernest Hemingway
The Power and the Glory
by
Graham Greene
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
by
Carson McCullers
(US)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog
by
Dylan Thomas
Owen Glendower
by
John Cowper Powys
You Can't Go Home Again
by
Thomas Wolfe
And Quiet Flows the Don
by
Mikhail Sholokhov
(Russia) – two volumes, first published in 1934
The feeling of the world by
Carlos Drummond de Andrade
(Brazil)
Genre fiction
Journey into Fear
by
Eric Ambler
(England)
Farewell, My Lovely
by
Raymond Chandler
Plays
The Iceman Cometh
by
Eugene O'Neill
Non-fiction
To the Finland Station
by
Edmund Wilson
1941
Hangover Square
by
Patrick Hamilton
Reflections in a Golden Eye
by
Carson McCullers
The Third Policeman
by
Flann O'Brien
Genre fiction
Mildred Pierce
by
James M. Cain
Non-fiction
Grey Eminence
by
Aldous Huxley
1942
The Stranger
by
Albert Camus
Algeria
, France)
Our Lady of the Flowers
by
Jean Genet
(France)
Flight to Arras
by
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Plays
The Flies
by
Jean-Paul Sartre
1943
Arrival and Departure
by
Arthur Koestler
The Ministry of Fear
by
Graham Greene
The Human Comedy
by
William Saroyan
The Man Without Qualities
by
Robert Musil
(Austria) – trilogy, first volume published 1930
Genre fiction
Double Indemnity
by
James M. Cain
The Little Prince
by
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
(France)
Poetry
Selected Poems by
Keith Douglas
(England)
Non-fiction
Being and Nothingness
by
Jean-Paul Sartre
The Myth of Sisyphus
by
Albert Camus
1944
The Horse's Mouth
by
Joyce Cary
Ficciones
by
Jorge Luis Borges
Argentina
) – short stories
The Razor's Edge
by
Somerset Maugham
Time Must Have a Stop
by
Aldous Huxley
Plays
The Glass Menagerie
by
Tennessee Williams
(US)
1945
Black Boy
by
Richard Wright (author)
Animal Farm
by
George Orwell
Watt
by
Samuel Beckett
– published in 1953
Brideshead Revisited
by
Evelyn Waugh
Black Boy
by
Richard Wright
Lark Rise to Candleford
by
Flora Thompson
(England) – trilogy, first volume in 1939
Genre fiction
If He Hollers Let Him Go
by
Chester Himes
(US, France)
The Space Trilogy
by
C. S. Lewis
(N Ireland) – first volume published in 1938
1946
Cry, the Beloved Country
by
Alan Paton
(South Africa)
The Miracle of the Rose
by
Jean Genet
El Señor Presidente
by
Miguel Ángel Asturias
(Guatemala)
Froth on the Daydream
by
Boris Vian
(France)
The Member of the Wedding
by
Carson McCullers
Poetry
Deaths and Entrances
by
Dylan Thomas
Plays
The Winslow Boy
by
Terence Rattigan
(England)
Non-fiction
Alamein to Zem Zem
by
Keith Douglas
Memoirs of Hecate County
by
Edmund Wilson
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
by
Tadeusz Borowski
(Poland)
1947
The Plague
by
Albert Camus
Under the Volcano
by
Malcolm Lowry
(England, Canada)
Bend Sinister
by
Vladimir Nabokov
The Victim
by
Saul Bellow
(Canada, US)
The Conformist
by
Alberto Moravia
(Italy)
The Middle of the Journey
by
Lionel Trilling
(US)
Slaves of Solitude
by
Patrick Hamilton
Of Love and Hunger
by
Julian MacLaren-Ross
(England)
Funeral Rites
by
Jean Genet
Snow Country
by
Yasunari Kawabata
Plays
A Streetcar Named Desire
by
Tennessee Williams
Non-fiction
The Diary of a Young Girl
by
Anne Frank
(Netherlands)
1948
The Naked and the Dead
by
Norman Mailer
(US)
Confessions of a Mask
by '
Yukio Mishima
' (Japan)
The Heart of the Matter
by
Graham Greene
The Tunnel
by
Ernesto Sabato
(Argentina)
The City and the Pillar
by
Gore Vidal
(US)
Ape and Essence
by
Aldous Huxley
Ashes and Diamonds
by
Jerzy Andrzejewski
(Poland)
Querelle of Brest
by
Jean Genet
Genre fiction
No Orchids for Miss Blandish
by
James Hadley Chase
(England)
Plays
The Browning Version
by
Terence Rattigan
Non-fiction
The Second Sex
by
Simone de Beauvoir
(France — early feminist study)
The Kon-Tiki Expedition
by
Thor Heyerdahl
(Norway)
1949
Nineteen Eighty-Four
by
George Orwell
The Roads to Freedom
by
Jean-Paul Sartre
– trilogy, first volume published 1945
The Thief's Journal
by
Jean Genet
The Man with the Golden Arm
by
Nelson Algren
(US)
The Train Was on Time
by
Heinrich Böll
(Germany)
The Aleph
by
Jorge Luis Borges
The Kingdom of this World
by
Alejo Carpentier
(Mexico)
The Heat of the Day
by
Elizabeth Bowen
Genre fiction
The Trouble with Harry
by
Jack Trevor Story
(England)
The Mating Season
by
P. G. Wodehouse
Plays
Death of a Salesman
by
Arthur Miller
(US)
Postwar period
edit
Main article:
1950s literature
The intermediate
postwar period
separating "Modernism" from "Postmodernism" (
1950s literature
) is the
floruit
of the
beat generation
and the classical science fiction of
Isaac Asimov
Arthur C. Clarke
and
Robert A. Heinlein
. This period also saw the publication of Samuel Beckett's trilogy of novels,
Molloy
Malone Dies
, and
The Unnameable
, which enacted the dissolution of the self-identical human subject and inspired later novelists such as
Thomas Bernhard
John Banville
, and
David Markson
. The first works of
electronic literature
were written in the 1950s.
1950
Scenes from Provincial Life
by
William Cooper
(England) – the first of the British 1950s 'kitchen sink' novels
Canto General
by
Pablo Neruda
Plays
The Bald Soprano
by
Eugène Ionesco
Romania
, France)
Genre fiction
A Town Like Alice
by
Nevil Shute
(England, Australia)
Strangers On a Train
by
Patricia Highsmith
(US)
Non-fiction
The Authoritarian Personality
by
Theodor Adorno
(Germany, US)
1951
Molloy
by
Samuel Beckett
(Ireland, France)
Malone Dies
by
Samuel Beckett
(Ireland, France)
The Catcher in the Rye
by
J. D. Salinger
(US)
The Hive
by
Camilo José Cela
(Spain)
Porius (A Romance of the Dark Ages)
by
John Cowper Powys
(England)
The Grass Harp
by
Truman Capote
(US)
Memoirs of Hadrian
by
Marguerite Yourcenar
(France)
The Opposing Shore
by
Julien Gracq
(France)
Plays
The Lesson
by
Eugène Ionesco
Romania
, France)
Non-fiction
The Rebel
by
Albert Camus
(France)
1952
Invisible Man
by
Ralph Ellison
(US)
Wise Blood
by
Flannery O'Connor
(US)
Go
by
John Clellon Holmes
(US) – the first
Beat
novel
The Natural
by
Bernard Malamud
(US)
The Old Man and the Sea
by
Ernest Hemingway
East of Eden
by
John Steinbeck
Love Letter Generator
by
Christopher Strachey
Genre fiction
The Tiger in the Smoke
by
Margery Allingham
(England)
The Killer Inside Me
by
Jim Thompson
(US)
Plays
The Chairs
by
Eugène Ionesco
Romania
, France)
1953
The Unnameable
by
Samuel Beckett
(Ireland, France)
Junkie
and
Queer
by
William S. Burroughs
(US)
Go Tell It On the Mountain
by
James Baldwin
(US, France)
The Outsider
by
Richard Wright
The Adventures of Augie March
by
Saul Bellow
The Captive Mind
by
Czesław Miłosz
(Poland)
Hurry on Down
by
John Wain
(England) – the first 'angry young man' novel
Genre fiction
Casino Royale
by
Ian Fleming
(England,
Jamaica
) – first James Bond novel
The Long Goodbye
by
Raymond Chandler
Childhood's End
by
Arthur C. Clarke
(England,
Sri Lanka
Foundation
by
Isaac Asimov
(US) – trilogy, first volume published in 1951
Prelude to a Certain Midnight
by
Gerald Kersh
Plays
Waiting for Godot
by
Samuel Beckett
1954
Lord of the Flies
by
William Golding
(England)
Lucky Jim
by
Kingsley Amis
(England) – the most famous 'angry young man' novel
Under the Net
by
Iris Murdoch
(England)
Bonjour Tristesse
by
Françoise Sagan
(France)
Genre fiction
Fahrenheit 451
by
Ray Bradbury
(US)
Story of O
by
Pauline Réage
(France)
Plays
Under Milk Wood
by
Dylan Thomas
The Quare Fellow
by
Brendan Behan
(Ireland)
Non-fiction
The Doors of Perception
by
Aldous Huxley
1955
Lolita
by
Vladimir Nabokov
One
by
David Karp
(US)
The Quiet American
by
Graham Greene
The Bread of Those Early Years
by
Heinrich Böll
The Tree of Man
by
Patrick White
(Australia)
The Inheritors
by
William Golding
Pedro Páramo
by
Juan Rulfo
(Mexico)
The Voyeur
by
Alain Robbe-Grillet
(France)
The Genius and the Goddess
by
Aldous Huxley
The Deer Park
by
Norman Mailer
The Recognitions
by
William Gaddis
(US)
Memed, My Hawk
by
Yaşar Kemal
(Turkey)
Genre fiction
The Lord of the Rings
by
J. R. R. Tolkien
, first volume in 1954
The Talented Mr. Ripley
by
Patricia Highsmith
Plays
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
by
Tennessee Williams
Bus Stop
by
William Inge
(US)
Poetry
The Less Deceived
by
Philip Larkin
(England)
1956
The Fall
by
Albert Camus
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands
by
João Guimarães Rosa
Giovanni's Room
by
James Baldwin
The Lonely Londoners
by
Samuel Selvon
Trinidad
, England)
A Walk on the Wild Side
by
Nelson Algren
Genre fiction
The Chronicles of Narnia
by
C. S. Lewis
(N Ireland) – seven volumes, first in 1950
Peyton Place
by
Grace Metalious
The Hundred and One Dalmatians
by
Dodie Smith
(England)
Plays
Look Back In Anger
by
John Osborne
(England) – the first 'angry young man' play
Poetry
Howl and Other Poems
by
Allen Ginsberg
(US)
Non-fiction
Heaven and Hell
by
Aldous Huxley
1957
On the Road
by
Jack Kerouac
(Canada, US)
Young Adam
by
Alexander Trocchi
(Scotland)
Room at the Top
by
John Braine
(England)
Doctor Zhivago
by
Boris Pasternak
(Russia)
Voss
by
Patrick White
The Assistant
by
Bernard Malamud
Second Thoughts
by
Michel Butor
(France)
Pnin
by
Vladimir Nabokov
Cairo Trilogy
by
Naguib Mahfouz
(Egypt)
Gimpel the Fool
by
Isaac Bashevis Singer
(Poland, US) – short stories, originally published in Yiddish years earlier
Atlas Shrugged
by
Ayn Rand
(US)
Genre fiction
On the Beach
by
Nevil Shute
Plays
The Room
and
The Birthday Party
by
Harold Pinter
(England)
Endgame
by
Samuel Beckett
The Entertainer
by
John Osborne
Orpheus Descending
by
Tennessee Williams
The Visit
by
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
(Switzerland)
Poetry
Calling Out to Yeti
by
Wisława Szymborska
(Poland)
1958
If This Is a Man
by
Primo Levi
(Italy)
Breakfast At Tiffany's
by
Truman Capote
The Dharma Bums
by
Jack Kerouac
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
by
Alan Sillitoe
(England)
A Taste of Honey
by
Shelagh Delaney
(England)
Things Fall Apart
by
Chinua Achebe
(Nigeria)
The Bell
by
Iris Murdoch
Fowlers End
by
Gerald Kersh
Our Man in Havana
by
Graham Greene
Candy
by
Terry Southern
(US)
Genre fiction
Exodus
by
Leon Uris
(US)
Zimiamvian Trilogy
by
E. R. Eddison
(England) – first volume in 1935
Molesworth
by
Geoffrey Willans
(England) and
Ronald Searle
(England, France) – tetralogy, first book in 1954
Plays
Krapp's Last Tape
by
Samuel Beckett
Suddenly, Last Summer
by
Tennessee Williams
Non-fiction
The Theatre and Its Double
by
Antonin Artaud
(France)
Borstal Boy
by
Brendan Behan
1959
A Raisin in the Sun
by
Lorraine Hansberry
(United States of America)
The Tin Drum
by
Günter Grass
(Germany)
Naked Lunch
by
William S. Burroughs
The Last of the Just
by
André Schwarz-Bart
(France)
Goodbye, Columbus
by
Philip Roth
(US)
Zazie in the Metro
by
Raymond Queneau
(France)
In the Labyrinth
by
Alain Robbe-Grillet
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
by
Alan Sillitoe
Billy Liar
by
Keith Waterhouse
(England)
The Long Day Wanes
by
Anthony Burgess
(England) – trilogy, first volume published in 1956
The Magic Christian
by
Terry Southern
Genre fiction
The Gormenghast Trilogy
by
Mervyn Peake
(England) – first volume in 1946
The Getaway
by
Jim Thompson
Plays
The Dumb Waiter
and
The Caretaker
by
Harold Pinter
Rhinoceros
by
Eugène Ionesco
Cold War period, 1960–1989
edit
Main articles:
1960s literature
1970s literature
1980s literature
, and
Postmodern literature
Further information:
Feminist literature
1960
To Kill a Mockingbird
by
Harper Lee
(US)
The London Trilogy
by
Colin MacInnes
(England) – first volume,
Absolute Beginners
, published in 1957
Cain's Book
by
Alexander Trocchi
(UK, France, US)
This Sporting Life
by
David Storey
(UK)
A Burnt-Out Case
by
Graham Greene
Hiroshima Mon Amour
by
Marguerite Duras
(France)
The Ballad of Peckham Rye
by
Muriel Spark
(Scotland)
The Rosy Crucifixion
by
Henry Miller
(US) – trilogy, first volume published 1949
The Sot-Weed Factor
by
John Barth
(US)
The Magician of Lublin
by
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
The Morning of the Magicians
by
Louis Pauwels
and
Jacques Bergier
(France) – the 1960s obsession with the occult starts here. Published in English 1963
A Canticle for Leibowitz
by
Walter M. Miller Jr.
(US)
1961
Catch-22
by
Joseph Heller
(US)
A House for Mr Biswas
by
V. S. Naipaul
Trinidad
, England)
Riders in the Chariot
by
Patrick White
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by
Muriel Spark
A Severed Head
by
Iris Murdoch
Sword of Honour
by
Evelyn Waugh
– trilogy, first volume published in 1952
Revolutionary Road
by
Richard Yates
(US)
Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place
by
Malcolm Lowry
– posthumous
Genre fiction
Solaris
by
Stanisław Lem
(Poland)
Stranger in a Strange Land
by
Robert A. Heinlein
(US)
The Man in the High Castle
by
Philip K. Dick
(US)
1962
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
by
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
(Russia)
A Clockwork Orange
and
The Wanting Seed
by
Anthony Burgess
(England)
Pale Fire
by
Vladimir Nabokov
Island
by
Aldous Huxley
The Time of the Hero
by
Mario Vargas Llosa
(Peru)
The Golden Notebook
by
Doris Lessing
(Zimbabwe, England)
The Death of Artemio Cruz
by
Carlos Fuentes
(Mexico)
The Alexandria Quartet
by
Lawrence Durrell
– first volume published 1957
Big Sur
by
Jack Kerouac
– the last of the Lost Generation at the end of the Beat Generation
Genre fiction
The IPCRESS File
by
Len Deighton
(England) – first of the Harry Palmer novels
Non-fiction
Silent Spring
by
Rachel Carson
(US) – the first major popular study on the deterioration of the environment
1963
V.
by
Thomas Pynchon
(US)
The Bell Jar
by
Sylvia Plath
(US, England)
Hopscotch
by
Julio Cortázar
(Argentina)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
by
Ken Kesey
(US)
The Collector
by
John Fowles
(England)
The Lowlife
by
Alexander Baron
(England)
Cat's Cradle
by
Kurt Vonnegut
(US)
Genre fiction
Planet of the Apes
by
Pierre Boulle
(France)
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
by
John le Carré
(England)
The Grifters
by
Jim Thompson
Non-fiction
The Truce
by
Primo Levi
1964
Herzog
by
Saul Bellow
A Single Man
by
Christopher Isherwood
Last Exit to Brooklyn
by
Hubert Selby
(US)
The Spire
by
William Golding
(England)
Nothing Like the Sun
by
Anthony Burgess
Atmaprakash
by
Sunil Gangopadhyay
(India)
Genre fiction
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by
Roald Dahl
(UK)
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
by
Philip K. Dick
(US)
Little Big Man
by
Thomas Berger
(US)
Non-fiction
Understanding Media
by
Marshall McLuhan
(Canada)
1965
The Magus
by
John Fowles
The Interpreters
by
Wole Soyinka
(Nigeria)
Cosmicomics
by
Italo Calvino
(Italy)
The Painted Bird
by
Jerzy Kosinski
(Poland, US)
Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
by
Hunter Davies
(England) – the kitchen sink novel mutates into the swinging 1960s novel
Genre fiction
The Cyberiad
by
Stanisław Lem
Plays
Marat/Sade
by
Peter Weiss
(Germany, Sweden)
Tango
by
Sławomir Mrożek
(Poland)
Poetry
Briggflatts
by
Basil Bunting
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby
by
Tom Wolfe
(US)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by
Alex Haley
(US)
1966
A Man of the People
by
Chinua Achebe
(Nigeria)
Alfie
by
Bill Naughton
(England)
The Comedians
by
Graham Greene
Wide Sargasso Sea
by
Jean Rhys
Tremor of Intent
by
Anthony Burgess
Genre fiction
Pavane
by
Keith Roberts
(England)
The Anti-Death League
by
Kingsley Amis
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
In Cold Blood
by
Truman Capote
Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs
by
Hunter S. Thompson
(US)
Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me
by
Richard Fariña
(US)
1967
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by
Gabriel García Márquez
Colombia
The Crying of Lot 49
by
Thomas Pynchon
The Vendor of Sweets
by
R. K. Narayan
(India)
Poor Cow
by
Nell Dunn
(England)
A Grain of Wheat
by
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Non-fiction
In the First Circle
by
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The Medium is the Message
by
Marshall McLuhan
and
Quentin Fiore
1968
Cocksure
by
Mordecai Richler
(Canada)
Couples
by
John Updike
(US)
The Public Image
by
Muriel Spark
Lunar Caustic
by
Malcolm Lowry
– posthumous
The Abyss
by
Marguerite Yourcenar
Non-fiction and quasi-fiction
Cancer Ward
by
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
by
Tom Wolfe
The Armies of the Night
and
Miami and the Siege of Chicago
by
Norman Mailer
Bomb Culture
by
Jeff Nuttall
(England)
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
by
Joan Didion
(US)
The Teachings of Don Juan
by
Carlos Castaneda
(US)
1969
Portnoy's Complaint
by
Philip Roth
The French Lieutenant's Woman
by
John Fowles
A Void
by
Georges Perec
(France)
Passacaille
by
Robert Pinget
(France)
Dark as the Grave wherein my Friend is Laid
by
Malcolm Lowry
– posthumous
Genre fiction
Barefoot in the Head
by
Brian Aldiss
The Final Programme
by
Michael Moorcock
(England, US)
Slaughterhouse-Five
by
Kurt Vonnegut
(US)
The Godfather
by
Mario Puzo
(US)
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
Papillon
by
Henri Charrière
(France)
The View Over Atlantis
by
John Michell
(England)
1970
Play It as It Lays
by
Joan Didion
Mr. Sammler's Planet
by
Saul Bellow
Being There
by
Jerzy Kosiński
October Ferry to Gabriola
by
Malcolm Lowry
– posthumous
Aranyer Din Ratri
by
Sunil Gangopadhyay
Genre fiction
The Hot Rock
by
Donald E. Westlake
(US)
Deliverance
by
James Dickey
(US)
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
The Female Eunuch
by
Germaine Greer
(Australia, England)
Groupie
by
Jenny Fabian
(England)
Playpower
by
Richard Neville
(Australia, England)
Revolt into Style
by
George Melly
(England)
Soledad Brother
by
George Jackson
(US) – prison letters
Soul on Ice
by
Eldridge Cleaver
(US)
1971
In a Free State
by
V. S. Naipaul
Trinidad
, England)
M/F
by
Anthony Burgess
Our Gang
by
Philip Roth
The Dice Man
by
Luke Rhinehart
(US)
Another Roadside Attraction
by
Tom Robbins
(US)
Genre fiction
The Day of the Jackal
by
Frederick Forsyth
(England)
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
The Happy Hooker
by
Xaviera Hollander
(Indonesia, Netherlands)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
by
Hunter S. Thompson
1972
The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
by
Angela Carter
(England)
Invisible Cities
by
Italo Calvino
by
John Berger
(England, France)
The Good for Nothing
by
Oğuz Atay
(Turkey)
Genre fiction
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
by
George V. Higgins
(US)
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
by
Richard Bach
(US)
The Odessa File
by
Frederick Forsyth
Poetry
Crossing the Water
and
Winter Trees
by
Sylvia Plath
1973
Gravity's Rainbow
by
Thomas Pynchon
Crash
by
J. G. Ballard
(England)
Season of Anomy
by
Wole Soyinka
(Nigeria)
Life Is Elsewhere
by
Milan Kundera
Czechoslovakia
, France)
Sweet Dreams
by
Michael Frayn
(England)
Fear of Flying
by
Erica Jong
(US)
The Great American Novel
by
Philip Roth
Genre fiction
Frankenstein Unbound
by
Brian Aldiss
1974
If Beale Street Could Talk
by
James Baldwin
(US)
The Conservationist
by
Nadine Gordimer
(South Africa)
The Fan Man
by
William Kotzwinkle
(US)
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
by
Heinrich Böll
I, the Supreme
by
Augusto Roa Bastos
(Paraguay)
Napoleon Symphony
by
Anthony Burgess
Myra Breckinridge
and
Myron
by
Gore Vidal
– first of pair published in 1968
Genre fiction
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
by
John le Carré
Fletch
by
Gregory Mcdonald
(US)
Genre fiction
Jaws
by
Peter Benchley
(US)
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
All the President's Men
by
Bob Woodward
and
Carl Bernstein
(US)
Poetry
Mr. Cogito
by
Zbigniew Herbert
(Poland)
1975
Humboldt's Gift
by
Saul Bellow
The Deptford Trilogy
by
Robertson Davies
– first volume published 1970
Dead Babies
by
Martin Amis
(England)
The Autumn of the Patriarch
by
Gabriel García Márquez
The History Man
by
Malcolm Bradbury
(England)
The Periodic Table
by
Primo Levi
– short stories
Genre fiction
Watership Down
by
Richard Adams
(England)
The Choirboys
by
Joseph Wambaugh
(US)
Shōgun
by
James Clavell
(England, US)
'Salem's Lot
by
Stephen King
(US)
1976
Ragtime
by
EL Doctorow
(US)
Genre fiction
Interview with the Vampire
by
Anne Rice
(US)
Non-fiction and quasi-fiction
Roots
by
Alex Haley
Another Day of Life
by
Ryszard Kapuściński
(Poland)
Poetry
Christmas O Shiter Sanet Guchho
(ক্রিসমাস ও শীতের সনেটগুচ্ছ)
by
Joy Goswami
West Bengal, India
Drama
Death and the King's Horseman
by
Wole Soyinka
1977
The Engineer of Human Souls
by
Josef Škvorecký
Czechoslovakia
Song of Solomon
by
Toni Morrison
(US)
1978
Success
by
Martin Amis
The Sea, the Sea
by
Iris Murdoch
Lanark: A Life in Four Books
by
Alasdair Gray
(Scotland)
Life A User's Manual
by
Georges Perec
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
by
Milan Kundera
Jake's Thing
by
Kingsley Amis
The World According to Garp
by
John Irving
(US)
1985
by
Anthony Burgess
Horatio Stubbs
by
Brian Aldiss
– trilogy, first volume published in 1970
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
The Emperor
by
Ryszard Kapuściński
Genre fiction
Rumpole of the Bailey
by
John Mortimer
(England)
1979
A Bend in the River
by
V. S. Naipaul
The Unlimited Dream Company
by
J. G. Ballard
Sophie's Choice
by
William Styron
(US)
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
The White Album
by
Joan Didion
The Right Stuff
by
Tom Wolfe
(US)
1980
The Name of the Rose
by
Umberto Eco
Pascali's Island
by
Barry Unsworth
(England)
Earthly Powers
by
Anthony Burgess
1981
Midnight's Children
by
Salman Rushdie
(India, UK)
The Comfort of Strangers
by
Ian McEwan
(England)
The White Hotel
by
D. M. Thomas
(England)
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
by
Gabriel García Márquez
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
by
Raymond Carver
(US) – short stories
Genre fiction
The Red Dragon
by
Thomas Harris
(US)
Gorky Park
by
Martin Cruz Smith
(England, Russia)
Non-fiction
Conversations with an Executioner
by
Kazimierz Moczarski
(Poland)
1982
Schindler's Ark
by
Thomas Keneally
(Australia)
An Ice-Cream War
by
William Boyd
(Ghana, Scotland)
The Color Purple
by
Alice Walker
(US)
A Wild Sheep Chase
by
Haruki Murakami
Genre fiction
Prizzi's Honor
by
Richard Condon
Limes Inferior
by
Janusz A. Zajdel
(Poland)
1983
Waterland
by
Graham Swift
(England)
Shame
by
Salman Rushdie
Erev
by
Eli Schechtman
(USSR, Israel)
Genre fiction
The Colour of Magic
by
Terry Pratchett
(England) – first book of the
Discworld
series
1984
Money
by
Martin Amis
Bright Lights, Big City
by
Jay McInerney
(US)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
by
Milan Kundera
Flaubert's Parrot
by
Julian Barnes
(England)
Nights at the Circus
by
Angela Carter
Enderby
by
Anthony Burgess
– tetralogy, first volume published in 1963
The Witches of Eastwick
by
John Updike
Non-fiction
Empire of the Sun
by
J. G. Ballard
1985
Sei Somoy
by
Sunil Gangopadhyay
(India)
White Noise
by
Don DeLillo
(US)
Less than Zero
by
Bret Easton Ellis
(US)
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
by
Jeanette Winterson
(England)
The Accidental Tourist
by
Anne Tyler
(US)
Hawksmoor
by
Peter Ackroyd
(England)
Illywhacker
by
Peter Carey
(Australia)
The Kingdom of the Wicked
by
Anthony Burgess
Genre fiction
L.A. Quartet
by
James Ellroy
(US) – tetralogy, first volume published 1984
The Handmaid's Tale
by
Margaret Atwood
– (US)
1986
Slaves of New York
by
Tama Janowitz
(US)
The Old Devils
by
Kingsley Amis
An Artist of the Floating World
by
Kazuo Ishiguro
(Japan, UK)
Non-fiction
Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature
by
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
1987
The Satanic Verses
by
Salman Rushdie
The Bonfire of the Vanities
by
Tom Wolfe
Anthills of the Savannah
by
Chinua Achebe
The Alchemist
by
Paulo Coelho
(Brasil)
Genre fiction
Presumed Innocent
by
Scott Turow
(US)
1988
Mother London
by
Michael Moorcock
Libra
by
Don DeLillo
Oscar and Lucinda
by
Peter Carey
(Australia)
Love in the Time of Cholera
by
Gabriel García Márquez
Genre fiction
Sprawl
by
William Gibson
(Canada, US) – trilogy, first volume published 1984
1989
London Fields
by
Martin Amis
Foucault's Pendulum
by
Umberto Eco
The Remains of the Day
by
Kazuo Ishiguro
To the Ends of the Earth
by
William Golding
– trilogy, first volume published 1980
Ghumiyecho, Jhaupata?
(ঘুমিয়েছো, ঝাউপাতা?)
by
Joy Goswami
The Book of Evidence
by
John Banville
(Ireland)
The Trick of It
by
Michael Frayn
1990s
edit
Main article:
1990s literature
The English Patient
by
Michael Ondaatje
Slam poetry
1990
The New York Trilogy
by
Paul Auster
(US) – first volume published 1985
The Black Book
by
Orhan Pamuk
(Turkey)
Restoration
by
Rose Tremain
(England)
Possession
by
A. S. Byatt
(England)
The Buddha of Suburbia
by
Hanif Kureishi
(England)
Dirty Weekend
by
Helen Zahavi
(England)
Genre fiction
Devil in a Blue Dress
by
Walter Mosley
(US)
Good Omens
by
Neil Gaiman
and
Terry Pratchett
1991
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
by
Douglas Coupland
(Canada)
1992
The Secret History
by
Donna Tartt
(USA)
1993
A Suitable Boy
by
Vikram Seth
(India)
1994
Blood of Elves
by
Andrzej Sapkowski
(Poland)
1995
The Moor's Last Sigh
by
Salman Rushdie
(UK)
1996
Infinite Jest
by
David Foster Wallace
(US)
Prathama Alo
by
Sunil Gangopadhyay
(India)
1997
Underworld
by
Don DeLillo
(US)
American Pastoral
by
Philip Roth
Nightmare
by
Zlatko Topčić
Into Thin Air
by
Jon Krakauer
Genre fiction
Northern Lights
by
Philip Pullman
(UK) – first in
His Dark Materials
trilogy
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
by
J. K. Rowling
(UK) – first in series
1998
About a Boy (novel)
by
Nick Hornby
See also
edit
American literature
Experimental literature
French literature of the 20th century
List of 20th-century writers
Literary modernism
Twentieth-century English literature
20th-century music
Electronic literature
References
edit
Lewis, Barry. "Postmodernism and Literature."
The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism
NY: Routledge, 2002, p. 121.
Seiler, Andy (December 16, 2003).
'Rings' comes full circle"
USA Today
. Retrieved
2006-03-12
Diver, Krysia (October 5, 2004).
"A lord for Germany"
The Sydney Morning Herald
Archived
from the original on 28 March 2006
. Retrieved
2006-03-12
Cooper, Callista (December 5, 2005).
"Epic trilogy tops favourite film poll"
ABC News Online
. Archived from
the original
on 2006-01-16
. Retrieved
2006-03-12
O'Hehir, Andrew (June 4, 2001).
"The book of the century"
Salon.com
. Retrieved
2006-03-12
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