I’m already getting excited about A Century of Books, the anti-challenge reading challenge with very few rules and low expectations(!) If you missed my original post on it, click here. I’m especially excited about how excited lots of you are – whether you’re joining in wholly or casually or just watching from the sidelines. It’s going to be fun!
I was asked by Jo if I could give some suggestions for books, as I imagine most of us have sections of the twentieth century where we’re at a bit of a loss for inspiration. (For me, it’s the 1900s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s…) Jo’s was the kind of question I could not possibly resist – the lure of a list, and of going back through my book-lists from the past ten years, was too wonderful a prospect to delay.
And I have made my list! I was somewhat astonished that not only had I read a book for every year of the twentieth century already (almost), but I could recommend books I thought were good! 1994 took a while, because I absolutely refused to include the abominable Captain Correli’s Mandolin, but thankfully I discovered Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Diaries were published that year – hurrah! That book is one of a few below that I haven’t actually *finished*, but have dipped into and can safely recommend.
I haven’t duplicated any authors, and there is a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Unless otherwise stated, the books are novels (and there are evidently some decades where my familiarity with novels is second to children’s books or plays!) Quite a few of these have been reviewed on SiaB – just search in the search box, or scroll through all reviews. And if they’re not there and you’re interested, just ask!
Without further ado… my suggestions for 1900-1999.
1900 – The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud (non-fiction)
1901 – Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov (play)
1902 – Just-So Stories by Rudyard Kipling (children’s short stories)
1903 – The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter (children’s)
1904 – Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (play)
1905 – The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (short stories)
1906 – The Railway Children by E. Nesbit (children’s)
1907 – The Unlucky Family by Mrs. Henry de la Pasture (children’s)
1908 – Love’s Shadow by Ada Leverson
1909 – The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim
1910 – Literary Lapses by Stephen Leacock (short stories)
1911 – The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (children’s)
1912 – The Unbearable Bassington by Saki
1913 – Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil G. Brinton (first Austen sequel)
1914 – The Wise Virgins by Leonard Woolf
1915 – Psmith, Journalist by P.G. Wodehouse
1916 – London Revisited by E.V. Lucas (essays)
1917 – Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
1918 – The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
1919 – The Young Visiters [sic!] by Daisy Ashford
1920 – Queen Lucia by E.F. Benson
1921 – Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
1922 – Lady Into Fox by David Garnett
1923 – Bliss by Katherine Mansfield (short stories)
1924 – The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
1925 – William by E.H. Young
1926 – As It Was by Helen Thomas (biog./autobiog.)
1927 – The Love Child by Edith Olivier
1928 – Orlando by Virginia Woolf
1929 – David Golder by Irene Nemirovsky
1930 – Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
1931 – The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1932 – Cheerful Weather For The Wedding by Julia Strachey
1933 – Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge
1934 – Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers (children’s)
1935 – Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand
1936 – The New House by Lettice Cooper
1937 – They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell
1938 – Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
1939 – It’s Too Late Now by A.A. Milne (autobiog.)
1940 – Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
1941 – Parents and Children by Ivy Compton-Burnett
1942 – The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
1943 – The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton (children’s)
1944 – A House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair
1945 – Animal Farm by George Orwell
1946 – Westwood by Stella Gibbons
1947 – The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
1948 – The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
1949 – I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
1950 – Frost at Morning by Richmal Crompton
1951 – The Lagoon by Janet Frame (short stories)
1952 – Make Me An Offer by Wolf Mankowitz
1953 – The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
1954 – Love of Seven Dolls by Paul Gallico
1955 – Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
1956 – The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis (children’s)
1957 – The Entertainer by John Osborne (play)
1958 – Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce (children’s)
1959 – The Caretaker by Harold Pinter (play)
1960 – The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
1961 – Provincial Daughter by R.M. Dashwood
1962 – We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
1963 – Let’s Kill Uncle by Rohan O’Grady
1964 – The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
1965 – Oxford by Jan Morris (non-fiction)
1966 – Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
1967 – The Death of the Author by Roland Barthes (essay)
1968 – The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard (play)
1969 – Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
1970 – 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (letters)
1971 – Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
1972 – The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
1973 – In the Springtime of the Year by Susan Hill
1974 – Enid Blyton: the biography by Barbara Stoney (biog.)
1975 – Danny: The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl (children’s)
1976 – Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure by Joyce Grenfell (sketches)
1977 – Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh (play)
1978 – The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
1979 – The Path Through The Trees by Christopher Milne (autobiog.)
1980 – A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
1981 – Loitering With Intent by Muriel Spark
1982 – Wish Her Safe At Home by Stephen Benatar
1983 – A Very Great Profession by Nicola Beauman (non-fiction)
1984 – Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon
1985 – Henrietta’s War by Joyce Dennys
1986 – Richmal Crompton: the Woman behind William by Mary Cadogan (biog.)
1987 – Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life by Claire Tomalin (biog.)
1988 – The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
1989 – People Who Say Goodbye by P.Y. Betts (autobiog.)
1990 – Immortality by Milan Kundera
1991 – Forever England by Alison Light (lit. crit.)
1992 – The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder
1993 – The Matisse Stories by A.S. Byatt (short stories)
1994 – Diaries by Sylvia Townsend Warner (diaries!)
1995 – The Tattooed Map by Barbara Hodgson
1996 – Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding
1997 – Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
1998 – Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman (essays)
1999 – All Quiet on the Orient Express by Magnus Mills