Women dominate 100 greatest British books list

 Alice Vincent, entertainment writer 

A list of 100 best British books chosen by international critics has women coming out on top, with George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Charlotte and Emily Brontë and Mary Shelley listed in the top 10.

The list, which was compiled by the BBC from contributions made by 82 literary critics from around the world – none of whom were from the UK – is topped by Middlemarch, whose author, Mary Anne Evans, had to submit it under a man’s name, George Eliot, to ensure publication.

Modernist writer Woolf had two of her novels in the top three: To The Lighthouse in second place and Mrs Dalloway in third. Both she and Elliot appear again further up the list: The Waves is at 16 and Orlando at 65, and Eliot’s Daniel Deronda appears at 70.

The list included only novels by British authors, and ruled out no nonfiction, plays, narrative or epic poems nor short story collections, as well as work by Irish writers such as James Joyce.

While the Brontë sisters, who also initially published their work under male pseudonyms, have three novels in the list, and Jane Austen contributes four, the majority of the books listed were published in the 20th century.

Here Doris Lessing’s Golden Notebook, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark and Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women join the ranks of JRR Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings and George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four.

Although the number of books written by men far outweighs the number written by women: 73 to 37, the top 10 books are comprised of six novels written by women and four by men: three of which were the work of Charles Dickens.

The list includes almost double the number of men to women: 47 to 24, but the top 10 bucks these figures, with five female authors listed to just two men: Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, for his novel Vanity Fair.

The vast majority of the novels listed in the top 10 were written in the 19th century, with just two: To the Lighthouse and Mrs Dalloway, written in the early 20th century.

Thirteen were written in the past 15 years, with Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2000) and NW (2012) among the most recently published. Six dated from the 18th century: Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, Gulliver’s Travels, Clarissa and The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.

100. The Code of the Woosters (PG Wodehouse, 1938)

99. There but for the (Ali Smith, 2011)

98. Under the Volcano (Malcolm Lowry,1947)

97. The Chronicles of Narnia (CS Lewis, 1949-1954)

96. Memoirs of a Survivor (Doris Lessing, 1974)

95. The Buddha of Suburbia (Hanif Kureishi, 1990)

94. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (James Hogg, 1824)

93. Lord of the Flies (William Golding, 1954)

92. Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons, 1932)

91. The Forsyte Saga (John Galsworthy, 1922)

90. The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins, 1859)

89. The Horse’s Mouth (Joyce Cary, 1944)

88. The Death of the Heart (Elizabeth Bowen, 1938)

87. The Old Wives’ Tale (Arnold Bennett,1908)

86. A Legacy (Sybille Bedford, 1956)

85. Regeneration Trilogy (Pat Barker, 1991-1995)

84. Scoop (Evelyn Waugh, 1938)

83. Barchester Towers (Anthony Trollope, 1857)

82. The Patrick Melrose Novels (Edward St Aubyn, 1992-2012)

81. The Jewel in the Crown (Paul Scott, 1966)

80. Excellent Women (Barbara Pym, 1952)

79. His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman, 1995-2000)

78. A House for Mr Biswas (VS Naipaul, 1961)

77. Of Human Bondage (W Somerset Maugham, 1915)

76. Small Island (Andrea Levy, 2004)

75. Women in Love (DH Lawrence, 1920)

74. The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy, 1886)

73. The Blue Flower (Penelope Fitzgerald, 1995)

72. The Heart of the Matter (Graham Greene, 1948)

71. Old Filth (Jane Gardam, 2004)

70. Daniel Deronda (George Eliot, 1876)

69. Nostromo (Joseph Conrad, 1904)

68. A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess, 1962)

67. Crash (JG  Ballard 1973)

66. Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen, 1811)

65. Orlando (Virginia Woolf, 1928)

64. The Way We Live Now (Anthony Trollope, 1875)

63. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark, 1961)

62. Animal Farm (George Orwell, 1945)

61. The Sea, The Sea (Iris Murdoch, 1978)

60. Sons and Lovers (DH Lawrence, 1913)

59. The Line of Beauty (Alan Hollinghurst, 2004)

58. Loving (Henry Green, 1945)

57. Parade’s End (Ford Madox Ford, 1924-1928)

56. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (Jeanette Winterson, 1985)

55. Gulliver’s Travels (Jonathan Swift, 1726)

54. NW (Zadie Smith, 2012)

53. Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys, 1966)

52. New Grub Street (George Gissing, 1891)

51. Tess of the d’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy, 1891)

50. A Passage to India (EM Forster, 1924)

49. Possession (AS Byatt, 1990)

48. Lucky Jim (Kingsley Amis, 1954)

47. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Laurence Sterne, 1759)

46. Midnight’s Children (Salman Rushdie, 1981)

45. The Little Stranger  (Sarah Waters, 2009)

44. Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel, 2009)

43. The Swimming Pool Library (Alan Hollinghurst, 1988)

42. Brighton Rock (Graham Greene, 1938)

41. Dombey and Son (Charles Dickens, 1848)

40. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865)

39.  The Sense of an Ending (Julian Barnes, 2011)

38. The Passion (Jeanette Winterson, 1987)

37. Decline and Fall (Evelyn Waugh, 1928)

36. A Dance to the Music of Time (Anthony Powell, 1951-1975)

35. Remainder (Tom McCarthy, 2005)

34. Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005)

33. The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame, 1908)

32. A Room with a View (EM Forster, 1908)

31. The End of the Affair (Graham Greene, 1951)

30. Moll Flanders (Daniel Defoe, 1722)

29. Brick Lane (Monica Ali, 2003)

28. Villette (Charlotte Brontë, 1853)

27. Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe, 1719)

26. The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien, 1954)

25. White Teeth (Zadie Smith, 2000)

24. The Golden Notebook (Doris Lessing, 1962)

23. Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy, 1895)

22. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (Henry Fielding, 1749)

21. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad, 1899)

20. Persuasion (Jane Austen, 1817)

19. Emma (Jane Austen, 1815)

18. Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro, 1989)

17. Howards End (EM Forster, 1910)

16. The Waves (Virginia Woolf, 1931)

15. Atonement (Ian McEwan, 2001)

14. Clarissa (Samuel Richardson, 1748)

13. The Good Soldier (Ford Madox Ford, 1915)

12. Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell, 1949)

11. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen, 1813)

10. Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray, 1848)

9. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818)

8. David Copperfield (Charles Dickens, 1850)

7. Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847)

6. Bleak House (Charles Dickens, 1853)

5. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)

4. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1861)

3. Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf, 1925)

2. To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf, 1927)

1. Middlemarch (George Eliot, 1874)/Agencies