1898 C.K. Shorter List of Best 100 Novels

In 1898, an editor named Clement K. Shorter made a list of the 100 best novels (with a limit of one book per author).
Updated September 19, 2022
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Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë
Paper Book
'The masterwork of a great genius' William Makepeace Thackeray A novel of intense emotional power, heightened atmosphere and fierce intelligence, Jane Eyre dazzled and shocked readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom on her own...
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
Paper Book
An iconic novel dressed in a fierce design by acclaimed fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo. This couture-inspired collection also features Jane Eyre, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dracula, The Scarlet Letter and Wuthering Heights. Ruben Toledo's breathtaking drawings have appeared in...
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Paper Book
An iconic novel dressed in a fierce design by acclaimed fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo. Other titles in the couture-inspired collection include Jane Eyre, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dracula, Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice.Ruben Toledo's breathtaking drawings have appeared in...
The Woman in White
Wilkie Collins
Ebook
The first and greatest sensation novel, a thrilling story of evil thwarted and love reclaimed The night before he leaves London for a temporary engagement in the North of England, drawing instructor Walter Hartright walks home on an empty, moonlit road. Suddenly a hand...
David Copperfield
Charles Dickens
Paper Book
When David Copperfield escapes from the cruelty of his childhood home, he embarks on a journey to adulthood which will lead him through comedy and tragedy, love and heartbreak and friendship and betrayal. Over the course of his adventure, David meets an array of eccentric characters and learns...
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Paper Book
Harriet Beecher Stowe's seminal anti-slavery novel with an afterword by Pat Righelato.When a Kentucky farmer falls on hard times he is forced to sell his slaves, and among them is Uncle Tom, who's bought by a brutal plantation owner. The novel describes the horror of plantation labour and Tom...
Les Misérables
Victor Hugo
Paper Book
Few novels ever swept across the world with such overpowering impact as Les Misérables. Within 24 hours, the first Paris edition was sold out. In other great cities of the world it was devoured with equal relish. Sensational, dramatic, packed with rich excitement and...
Candide
Voltaire
Paper Book
A flamboyant and controversial personality of enormous wit and intelligence, Voltaire remains one of the most influential figures of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment.Candide,his masterpiece, is a brilliant satire of the theory that our world is “the best of all possible worlds.” The...
Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray
Paper Book
Silas Marner
George Eliot
Paper Book
Wrongly accused of theft and exiled from a religious community many years before, the embittered weaver Silas Marner lives alone in Raveloe, living only for work and his precious hoard of money. But when his money is stolen and an orphaned child finds her way into his house, Silas is given the...
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Henry Fielding
Ebook
Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the...
The Three Musketeers
Alexandre Dumas
Paper Book
The classic adventure from the author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Man in the Iron Mask. In this swashbuckling epic, d'Artagnan, not yet twenty, sets off for Paris in hopes of joining the Musketeers, that legion of heroes highly favored by King Louis XIII...
The Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper
Paper Book
Presented for the first time as an illustrated novel--with unabridged text--experience anew the war for control of the New World in this classic tale by James Fenimore Cooper. The wild rush of action in this classic frontier adventure novel has made The Last of the Mohicans the...
The Castle of Otranto
Horace Walpole
Ebook
This provocative and playful tale of medieval dynastic and sexual politics is regarded as the first-ever published gothic novel and has inspired authors from Stoker to Poe to Rowling Abounding with unfulfilled prophecies, supernatural occurrences, adventure, suspense, and...
Old Goriot
Honoré de Balzac
Ebook
A kindhearted and idealistic youth enters the grasping Parisian society of the 1820s, starting at a shabby but respectable boardinghouse, the Pension Vauquer. Eugène de Rastignac has arrived in the glittering capital to make his fortune, and his friendships with the pension's other...
The Mysteries of Udolpho
Ann Radcliffe
Paper Book
This was the most popular novel of Radcliffe's time and Radcliffe's portrayal of her heroine's inner life raised the Gothic romance to a new level. The atmosphere of fear and the gripping plot continue to thrill today. This is the story of the orphaned Emily St Aubert who finds herself separated...
Fathers and Sons
Ivan Turgenev
Ebook
Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student...
Barchester Towers
Anthony Trollope
Paper Book
The Vicar of Wakefield
Oliver Goldsmith
Ebook
Rich with wisdom and gentle irony, Oliver Goldsmith's only novel is a charming comedy that tells of an unworldly and generous vicar who lives contentedly with his large family until disaster strikes. When his idyllic life is brutally interrupted by bankruptcy and his daughter's abduction, he...
Evelina
Frances Burney
Ebook
Good-looking, kind-hearted Evelina Anville has grown up in rural obscurity as the ward of a country parson. At the age of seventeen, she begins her progress from provincial life to fashionable London ― a transition that's complicated by vulgar relatives and her own naiveté. Evelina's shrewd...
Tom Brown's School Days
Thomas Hughes
Ebook
One of the earliest books written specifically for boys, and now considered a classic; this is the tale of young Tom Brown, who attends the influential Rugby School. He is repeatedly bullied by Flashman, a fellow student, but manages to overcome...
Ruth
Elizabeth Gaskell
Ebook
Published in 1853, this novel features a young orphan girl named Ruth, who works in a sweatshop and is seduced by Henry Bellingham, a wealthy rake. Eventually abandoned by Bellingham, Ruth gives birth to a son, Leonard, whom she tries to raise in ignorance of the circumstances of his birth. But...
Rasselas
Samuel Johnson
Ebook
In this entertaining and instructive tale, Rasselas, the son of the King of Abyssinia, is cloistered in a beautiful valley, his home until he ascends the throne. Bored, he escapes with his sister and some companions. They travel the world searching for happiness,...
Westward Ho!
Charles Kingsley
Paper Book
Salammbô
Gustave Flaubert
Ebook
This compelling portrait of obsessive love is drawn against the backdrop of ancient Carthage after a fierce battle. It is the story of the beautiful high priestess Salambo, who beguiles the leader of the invading army and sets in motion a horrific tragedy....
The Wandering Jew
Eugène Sue
Ebook
Written in 1845, just 3 years before revolutions swept Europe, The Wandering Jew is a classic French novel that became an international bestseller. Originally serialized in a French newspaper, the novel created an instant controversy with it
Roderick Random
Tobias Smollett
Ebook
Roderick "Rory" Random, shunned by his family, goes almost everywhere trying to earn his status as a gentleman. After an abusive education, he embarks on a global series of misadventures, many involving wealthy women. Random's Royal Navy experiences are based on...
The Scottish Chiefs
Jane Porter
Ebook
This pioneering historical novel is about the life of the Scottish patriot Sir William Wallace, who fought against the Normans for Scottish freedom. Published in 1810, it was one of the literary sources for the Academy Award...
Tom Cringle's Log
Michael Scott
Ebook
At thirteen, Tom Cringle enters the Royal Navy as a midshipman. Assigned at first to service in home water, Tom is soon transferred to the exotic Caribbean where war, piracy, smuggling, and slave running are the order of the day.
Consuelo
George Sand
Ebook
In what is considered Sand's masterpiece, a gifted gypsy singer, Consuelo, climbs above her humble beginnings and becomes the Prima Donna in Venice. Consuelo's talent and artistry is admired by all, and leads to passionate love affairs and...

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