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The Atlantic's Reading List

The Atlantic's culture desk, whose Great American Novels project surveyed 136 books that defined the American literary canon.

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The Atlantic's The Great American Novels (2024)

Source: www.theatlantic.com

Cover of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1925 · Buy on Amazon

An American Tragedy

Theodore Dreiser · Buy on Amazon

The Making of Americans

Gertrude Stein · Buy on Amazon

Death Comes to the Archbishop

Willa Cather · Buy on Amazon

Cover of A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Hemingway · 1929 · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Passing

Nella Larsen · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Sound and the Fury

The Sound and the Fury

William Faulkner · 1929 · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Absalom, Absalom!

Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner · Buy on Amazon

Djuna Barnes · Buy on Amazon

Younghill Kang · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston · 1937 · Buy on Amazon

John Dos Passos · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Ask the Dust

John Fante · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Day of the Locust

The Day of the Locust

Nathanael West · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck · 1939 · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Native Son

Richard Wright · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Carson McCullers · Buy on Amazon

A Time to Be Born

Dawn Powell · Buy on Amazon

All the King's Men

Robert Penn Warren · Buy on Amazon

Ann Petry · Buy on Amazon

In a Lonely Place

Dorothy B. Hughes · Buy on Amazon

The Mountain Lion

Jean Stafford · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye

J. D. Salinger · 1951 · Buy on Amazon

Charlotte's Web

E. B. White and Kate DiCamillo · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison · 1952 · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury · 1953 · Buy on Amazon

Gwendolyn Brooks · Buy on Amazon

The Adventures of Augie March

Saul Bellow · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov · 1955 · Buy on Amazon

Giovanni's Room

James Baldwin · Buy on Amazon

Grace Metalious · Buy on Amazon

Patricia Highsmith · Buy on Amazon

John Okada · Buy on Amazon

Cover of On the Road

Jack Kerouac · 1957 · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House

Shirley Jackson · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Catch-22

Joseph Heller · Buy on Amazon

Cover of A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time

Madeleine L'Engle · Buy on Amazon

Another Country

James Baldwin · Buy on Amazon

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Ken Kesey · Buy on Amazon

Vladimir Nabokov · Buy on Amazon

The Zebra-Striped Hearse

Ross Macdonald · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath · Buy on Amazon

Mary McCarthy · Buy on Amazon

The Crying of Lot 49

Thomas Pynchon · Buy on Amazon

A Sport and a Pastime

James Salter · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Couples

John Updike · Buy on Amazon

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Philip K. Dick · Buy on Amazon

Susan Taubes · Buy on Amazon

Portnoy's Complaint

Philip Roth · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut · 1969 · Buy on Amazon

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

Judy Blume · Buy on Amazon

Desperate Characters

Paula Fox · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Play It as It Lays

Play It as It Lays

Joan Didion · Buy on Amazon

Log of the S.S. the Mrs. Unguentine

Stanley G. Crawford · Buy on Amazon

Ishmael Reed · Buy on Amazon

Toni Morrison · Buy on Amazon

The Revolt of the Cockroach People

Oscar Zeta Acosta · Buy on Amazon

Fran Ross · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Dispossessed

The Dispossessed

Ursula K. Le Guin · Buy on Amazon

Winter in the Blood

James Welch · Buy on Amazon

Gayl Jones · Buy on Amazon

Renata Adler · Buy on Amazon

Leslie Marmon Silko · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon

Toni Morrison · 1977 · Buy on Amazon

A Contract With God

Will Eisner · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Dancer From the Dance

Dancer From the Dance

Andrew Holleran · Buy on Amazon

Stephen King · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Kindred

Octavia E. Butler · 1979 · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Dog of the South

The Dog of the South

Charles Portis · Buy on Amazon

Marilynne Robinson · Buy on Amazon

The Salt Eaters

Toni Cade Bambara · Buy on Amazon

Little, Big: Or, the Fairies' Parliament

John Crowley · Buy on Amazon

Charles Johnson · Buy on Amazon

Jayne Anne Phillips · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Blood Meridian

Cormac McCarthy · 1985 · Buy on Amazon

A Summons to Memphis

Peter Taylor · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Watchmen

Alan Moore · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Beloved

Toni Morrison · 1987 · Buy on Amazon

Octavia E. Butler · Buy on Amazon

Katherine Dunn · Buy on Amazon

Tripmaster Monkey

Maxine Hong Kingston · Buy on Amazon

Jessica Hagedorn · Buy on Amazon

Cover of American Psycho

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis · Buy on Amazon

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

Alvarez, Julia · Buy on Amazon

Norman Rush · Buy on Amazon

Bastard Out of Carolina

Dorothy Allison · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Secret History

The Secret History

Donna Tartt · Buy on Amazon

So Far From God

Ana Castillo · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Shipping News

The Shipping News

E. Annie Proulx · Buy on Amazon

Chang-rae Lee · Buy on Amazon

Sabbath's Theater

Philip Roth · Buy on Amazon

Under the Feet of Jesus

Helena María Viramontes · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Infinite Jest

David Foster Wallace · Buy on Amazon

Chris Kraus · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Underworld

Don DeLillo · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Intuitionist

The Intuitionist

Colson Whitehead · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Blonde

Joyce Carol Oates · 2000 · Buy on Amazon

Cover of House of Leaves

House of Leaves

Mark Z. Danielewski · Buy on Amazon

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Michael Chabon · Buy on Amazon

The Last Samurai

Helen DeWitt · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Quick and the Dead

The Quick and the Dead

Joy Williams · 2000 · Buy on Amazon

Percival Everett · Buy on Amazon

Rabih Alameddine · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Corrections

The Corrections

Jonathan Franzen · 2001 · Buy on Amazon

Sandra Cisneros · Buy on Amazon

Debra Magpie Earling · Buy on Amazon

The Russian Debutante's Handbook

Gary Shteyngart · Buy on Amazon

Jhumpa Lahiri · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Junot Díaz · 2007 · Buy on Amazon

Cover of A Visit From the Goon Squad

A Visit From the Goon Squad

Jennifer Egan · 2010 · Buy on Amazon

Karen Tei Yamashita · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Open City

Teju Cole · Buy on Amazon

Salvage the Bones

Jesmyn Ward · Buy on Amazon

The Round House

Louise Erdrich · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Americanah

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · Buy on Amazon

Imogen Binnie · Buy on Amazon

Cover of A Brief History of Seven Killings

A Brief History of Seven Killings

Marlon James · 2014 · Buy on Amazon

Akhil Sharma · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Fates and Furies

Fates and Furies

Lauren Groff · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Fifth Season

The Fifth Season

N. K. Jemisin · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Sellout

Paul Beatty · 2015 · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Sympathizer

The Sympathizer

Viet Thanh Nguyen · 2015 · Buy on Amazon

Amiable With Big Teeth

Claude McKay · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Lincoln in the Bardo

Lincoln in the Bardo

George Saunders · 2017 · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Sabrina

Nick Drnaso · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Severance

Ling Ma · Buy on Amazon

Cover of There There

Tommy Orange · 2018 · Buy on Amazon

Lost Children Archive

Valeria Luiselli · Buy on Amazon

Nothing to See Here

Kevin Wilson · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Old Drift

Namwali Serpell · Buy on Amazon

Cover of No One Is Talking About This

No One Is Talking About This

Patricia Lockwood · 2021 · Buy on Amazon

Cover of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers · Buy on Amazon

Cover of Biography of X

Catherine Lacey · Buy on Amazon

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