Joyce is Top Choice of Modern Library's 100 Best

Staff -- Library Journal, 7/27/1998

Even James Joyce's stone face must have cracked a smile. His Ulysses has been selected as the best English-language novel of the 20th century by the editorial board of Random House's Modern Library line. Not only did Ulysses take the top slot, but his earlier work, A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man ranked number three. It was a good day for the Irish all around as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby took second place. The remainder of the top ten are Nabakov's Lolita, Huxley's Brave New World, Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Heller's Catch-22, Koestler's Darkness at Noon, Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, and Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. According to a report in the July 20 New York Times, Random hoped the list would engender "public debate about the greatest works of fiction of the last 100 years," a feat it quickly accomplished: the list immediately sparked controversy over the few women and non-British or American English-speaking writers represented. Since Modern Library publishes 59 of the 100, the publisher undoubtedly also hoped the list would generate enhanced sales. Modern Library also plans to reissue a number of the novels, among them Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh and Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Amberson's. Random's Director of Publicity Tom Perry told LJ "what we have planned right now is in another year to do the nonfiction 100, and that will be with an expanded editorial board -- probably about ten more people. We're in the process now of assembling them. In the year 2000, we plan to do the top 100 books, fiction and/or nonfiction." There are currently no plans for lists of the top 100 novels by European or African or other writers. In related news, the Modern Library is also enjoying great success with its new line of paperbacks. Its edition of Sam Tanenhaus's Whittaker Chambers: A Biography debuted at number eight on the Independent Best Seller list.

[ATTENTION LIBRARIANS: LJ is compiling a list of 100 librarian-selected English-language fiction and nonfiction titles of the 20th century. Anyone interested in contributing can send a list of 25-50 titles (fewer or more are OK too) by FAX to 212-463-6734 or E-mail: ejones@lj.cahners.com]