The Greatest book Ever.

[The Wolf Maid]

Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal

Wow. I cannot believe my eyes. Someone actually mentioned this.

[Sir Thursday]

Only a couple of votes for Victor Hugo's Les Miserables? I'm going to throw my weight behind that one. It was only a translation that I read, but I still relished the prose, and found the story to be incredibly poignant. Jean Valjean was an incredibly well written character, and I was left spellbound by the moral dilemmas both he and Javert found themselves in. So personally, Hugo takes the biscuit.

Sir Thursday

[Kuwa Slayne]

There are a lot of great novels mentioned here. I have to narrow my choice down to three:

1) Crime and Punishment -- Dostoevski

2) The Count of Monte Cristo -- Dumas

3) Most Shakespeare, especially Macbeth

[needle]

Teh Russians are doing pretty well here, I think.

(must read Brothers Karamazov)

I'd go for War and Peace. I might prefer Anna Karenina, or the Idiot, but there's no doubt that in scope War and Peace is by far the bigger acheivement. I honestly can't think of anything comparable in scale, either in my own reading or even by repute. And it has some of the most beautiful prose ever written too, one of the things people don't necc associate Tolstoy with, but it is there alright.)

CH - I used to think people who liked classics so much were snobs, too - until I spent a year in germany with nothing else in English to read. ( I know Dylan thinks we should all read in translation, but if I did that, I would miss out on at least 50 of my favourite authors as I am not about to learn Russian, Czech, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Italian etc to reading fluency level) Forced to read the classics, the rythm soon kicks in and it becomes hard to go back to reading dross.

[Not another Stark]

Forced to read the classics, the rythm soon kicks in and it becomes hard to go back to reading dross.

Nice to see someone else has noticed

[bodhi]

Some great contenders have been mentioned, others I struggle to understand. I decided to divide my proposals by genres and give some explanations why:

Fantasy: ASOIAF of course, this is the Westeros forum, specifically the first Storm. I did not like AGOT at all, almost stopped reading it until the end. Of course LOTR (GRRM once explained it best in an interview: a story about magic without any magic, basically the greatest of all wizards who doesn't pull off a single trick, something that Rowling could learn) but Silmarillion I would not even consider a runner-up. Other good authors like Lewis, White, Bradley haven't been mentioned, pity because I enjoyed thir works.

SF: Neuromancer by Gibson is el numero uno no questions asked, Snowcrash is pretty good and of course the fantastic Cryptonomicon, I loved the Eclipse triology (probably out of print but sometimes we need angry SF books). 1984 I would see as a SF-book which has been extremely influential albeit not such a great writer. The Eternal War from Haldeman and the even better comic from Marvano of the same name, hasn't aged that well though. From Heinlein i always liked Starship Trooper and I don't think he was ironic, I do believe this book is a fascist pamphlet but a good one.

Historical: lots of good ones. Auel proved research and novels mingle well with the Clan of the Cave Bear series. Dumas should also be mentioned, very readable with the 3 Mosqueteers and Monte Christo. Feuchtwaenger missed the plot with False Nero, Hitler was not a small smelly fish albeit his protrait of Goering was accurate. I would also mention Felix Dahn with A fight for Rome, very nationalistic and slightly antisemitic (was written a 100 years ago). Loved it because it has a great villain who murders, betrays, fights and kills his way through the demise of the Ostrogothic Empire and you root for him the whole way. Makes LF look like a beginner.

Also historically extremely accurate.

Classics: never liked Hemingway, Fitzgerald and co. Thought they were boring, will have to wait for the movies. The same applies to the Russians, Kafka or Musil, if I want to be depressed I watch the news. Seriously I loved Nabukov"s Lolita and I missed Conrad here. Both have in common that English wasn't their mother language and they excelled in it, from Conrad Heart of Darkness and the even better Nostromo. From the English side: Moby Dick, Huck Finn are great, sure missed others. Saramago, Marquez on the latino side need no introduction, Ransmayr shows what you can do with the German language with The end of the World (story about Ovid's exile), far better than Musil's 2 page sentences.

Crime: I am a sucker for a good crime story: The Secret History by Donna Tartt, A Simple Plan from Scott Smith, Killing Floor from Lee Child (don't read the rest they suck), Connely with All deadly things, Hiaasen with Tourist Season, Vachss with Flood, Bluebelle and Hard Candy and my favorite Dennis Lehane with A Drink before the War and the incredible: Gone Baby Gone (hope the movie is as mean as the book, no happy endings here, everybody loses and of course it contains a very good villain again who even when dying will not spill the beans).

As the ultimate book: Don Quijote plus sequel. Cervantes created an absolute masterpiece. Easy to read and by the way he destroyed the market for fantasy novels in his time. Maybe Jordan, Goodkind and co should fear him.

[Bastard of Godsgrace]

1. Master and Margarita (most typical choice where I live, I know, but what am I to do?)

2. The Silmarillion

3. The Idiot (My favortie Dostoyevsky, even if Brothers Karamazov are bigegr book).

[Ahimsa]

I'm not sure if novellas should be considered, but since many people included plays, I'd like to throw Greene's Heart of the Matter in the mix. The story is somewhat typical, but the prose is some of the best I've ever encountered.

[Gigei]

"Dream of the Red Chamber" IMHO is the greatest book ever. "Tale of Genji" is also good but Hong Lou Meng (紅樓夢) - literally "Red Mansion Dream" is more complex and pyschologically real.

[Ser Bruce the Hound KG]

Now, that guy is to the English language what Gretzky and Lemieux are to Hockey. Just on a completely different plane than everybody else.

You miss Orr :mad:

I wonder if Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf would ever be one of the greatest books.

Polical and evil views aside the part of [i Mein Kampf I've read are some of worst writing ever

Still being in world of studing and 600 page of read a week i don't get much time to read for myself the last books i read for fun were A song of Ice and Fire over two weeks in the summer before that Snow Crash and loved both of them. The best book ever? I can't answer that as I have not read every book ever. Right now Darwin Awards are great fun for brain dead humour

[Tears of Lys]

Years after reading it, I still think Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, is probably the best written book I've ever read. I've read a great number of English language classics - a great deal of Dickens, the Brontes, Shaw, Shakespeare, Hugo, Austen, and many, many others. Other books may have better plots, some more elegant prose, but none that were as flawless in weaving a spell from the first word to the last. It starts as a dream and never lets up.

The cast is spare and memorable, and not a word is wasted. Told from the sole POV of the young second wife, whose name is never even mentioned throughout the story, it's often been copied, but never equaled.

And the Song of Ice and Fire series has definitely made my list of best books written. While the problems with it growing out of hand may flaw it somewhat, no one can deny its greatness.

Tolkien's LotR and Silmarillion are tremendously flawed creations when looked at from a technical standpoint, but the scope of his undertaking (ETA: and the beauty of his vision) take them far beyond the realm of mere literary creations into another plane altogether.

I loved the Dune series, mainly for its singularity of vision. I'd never read anything quite like it then or since. But then, I've got great gaps in my reading experience. I've never read ANY Asimov, for example.

[Tom the Merciful]

Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell.

Orwell was definately a visionary. This book is rapidly becoming prophecy.

...and many thought it's about communism...

[Larry.]

CH - I used to think people who liked classics so much were snobs, too - until I spent a year in germany with nothing else in English to read. ( I know Dylan thinks we should all read in translation, but if I did that, I would miss out on at least 50 of my favourite authors as I am not about to learn Russian, Czech, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Italian etc to reading fluency level) Forced to read the classics, the rythm soon kicks in and it becomes hard to go back to reading dross.

Oh, it's not that I don't think that people should read translated works, only that there is always something lost in them - usually the rhythm you mention above when referring to the classics. But it never hurts to learn at least one other language just to enjoy a fav in the original rhythmic tongue, no?

[Arataniello]

Define "greatest" and we would find it much easier to come to a consensus.

Book that had the largest impact on the greatest number of people - something like Mao Tse Tung's Little Red Book, or the Bible I suppose.

Best novel - Pride and Prejudice maybe. The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas has also got to be in the running.

Personal greatest - as with many others on the board, I would go with The Silmarillion, but very closely followed by Lord of the Rings.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Aratan

[Ser Bruce the Hound KG]

Define "greatest" and we would find it much easier to come to a consensus.

Book that had the largest impact on the greatest number of people - something like Mao Tse Tung's Little Red Book, or the Bible I suppose.

Book of faith are disallowed to that could be add poltical book that be "faith like"(commuist manifso Mien Kamp[very poorly written] and the Little red book are all in this caigorey) I think but your rigght such book have a truly great Impact on world histor

[Lyanna Stark]

Uggh why the love for "The Great Gatsby" and "Anna Karenina"? Ewwh.

Personally, I'd put another vote for David Copperfield. It has been a few years now since I read it last time, but it's a really really good story.

Other titles that should get a mention:

Voltaire - Candide

Jane Austen - Pride & Prejudice

Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre

Graham Greene - Our man in Havanna (I like other works of Greene as well, but somehow the mixture of Teh Funneh and the tragedy of "Our man in Havanna" really appealed to me.)

I'm also extremely fond of Guy de Maupassant's short stories, his prose is minimalistic and so extremely close to perfection.

Since people want recommendations in different languages, I'll recommend some Swedish ones.

The most obvious here is Röde Orm by Frans G Bengtsson, but Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige and Gösta Berglings saga by Selma Lagerlöf both deserve a mention. My sister swears by Löwensköldska ringen as well, but I haven't read it yet.

I'm a bit put off by the emo of Utvandrarna, but Mans kvinna and Rid i natt by Vilhelm Moberg are both excellent and very moving.

If you are more interested in Swedish poetry than prose (I usually am ) I can strongly recommend the works of Karin Boye, Edith Södergran, Gustaf Fröding and Gunnar Ekelöf. I am so so about Thomas Tranströmer, although I know he has been talked about as a possible Nobel prize winner.

For all that is holy, avoid August Strindberg like the plague.

Dylanfanatic:

I don't read Spanish, but I have a translation of Juan Ramon Jimenez's prose poems about the writer and his donkey and even in translated form, the prose is probably among the most beautiful I have ever read. (According to Wikipedia, it may be Platero y Yo .) I have no idea if his works are in any way influential, but that book has been among my favourites for many years.

[zollo]

>>I can strongly recommend the works of Karin Boye, Edith Södergran, Gustaf Fröding and Gunnar Ekelöf. >>

Whatever happened to Carl Jonas Love Almqvist?

Anyway, I'd recommend that one as well.

[Bronn Stone]

Best American Novel (and personal favorite book ever written) - To Kill a Mockingbird

Best novel not written in English - The Brothers Karamazov

Best novel written in English - A Tale of Two Cities

Might be better but I haven't read yet - War and Peace, David Copperfield, Robinson Crusoe

Close second-best American novel - Huckleberry Finn

[Gildor]

So many ways this can be interpreted, it soon makes the title worthless.

I'll ignore the classics, they bored me to tears most often than not ..

I just can't ignore Lotr, and nor should anyone else, its easily the greatest book written, easily.

[Larry.]

Dylanfanatic:

I don't read Spanish, but I have a translation of Juan Ramon Jimenez's prose poems about the writer and his donkey and even in translated form, the prose is probably among the most beautiful I have ever read. (According to Wikipedia, it may be Platero y Yo .) I have no idea if his works are in any way influential, but that book has been among my favourites for many years.

I haven't read that particular book, but I shall keep that in mind for the near future. Speaking of beautiful prose even in translation, Rabossa's translation of OHYS captures most of the feel of that wonderfully beautiful and tragic novel. But no translation of Rubén Darío's Cantos de la vida y esperanza have come close to capturing the feel and rhythm of his poems. I consider him to be the greatest poet of the Americas, even greater than Whitman. But perhaps the translation might be decent enough for the glimpse of the power of his poems to be captured - if you can find him, I would most highly recommend reading him in whichever language you can find it in.