How many of the top 100 novels of all time have you read? | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Tuesday
June 10, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2025
How many of the top 100 novels of all time have you read?

Features

TBS Desk
03 July, 2019, 08:30 am
Last modified: 21 August, 2019, 12:08 am

Related News

  • Solyman and his Tk30 books: A business with a heart
  • Horror, humour, and the unexpected: Tanzim Rahman’s unique storytelling style
  • Beyond the drama: Books making waves at Boi Mela
  • The best nonfiction books of 2024
  • Books we read in 2024 to prepare us for the future

How many of the top 100 novels of all time have you read?

If you are thinking of plunging in an ocean of literary canon, this article is worth a read.

TBS Desk
03 July, 2019, 08:30 am
Last modified: 21 August, 2019, 12:08 am
How many of the top 100 novels of all time have you read?

A book is just not a few pieces of paper bound together to form a series of stories. For avid readers, a book is more than that. It is a piece of literature that can give them peace, fulfilment, enjoyment and a lifetime full of experiences. It can transport readers to a world of mischief and adventures, teach the reader about the world’s history, and last but not the least – books enrich our knowledge, broaden our minds, relieve us from stress, and purify our souls from within.

The Online Computer Library Center has published a list of top 100 novels of all time that can be found in libraries around the world. 

So, if you are thinking of plunging in an ocean of literary canon, this article is worth a read.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

As it stands, we at The Business Standard have whittled down the Top 100 list to Top 10 for you to decide on where to start. We hope you enjoy our curation, or at least debate on what else should or should not have made the cut.

10. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 

In what may be regarded as Charles Dickens's best work of fiction, Philip Pirrip – the meek and orphaned protagonist of the story – is apprenticed to have the career of a blacksmith but dreams of   becoming a gentleman, and one day, under sudden and enigmatic circumstances, he finds himself in possession of “great expectations”. In this gripping tale of crime and guilt, revenge and reward,   and the compelling characters of Magwitch, Estella, and the embittered Miss Havisham, the novel comes together to give readers the ultimate taste of revelation.

9. The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling 

 A childhood classic, a timeless series of tales of the boy who was marked as “the chosen one”, JK Rowling has delivered to readers what may simply be her best set of   works till date.
 With seven books in the series, the stories set the readers for an enthralling ride to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with Harry and Co in the magical world of   The Burrow, Hogsmeade and Number 4 Privet Drive.

8. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald 

The Great Gatsby stands as the defining achievement of F Scott Fitzgerald’s career. The story is based on a fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his newly formed love for the breathtakingly beautiful Daisy Buchanan and of exquisite parties on Long Island. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age from the 1920s has been celebrated by generations of readers.

 

7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

 Brave New World, written in 1931, is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley. Set in a futuristic World State of genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel prophesied immense scientific developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning that are combined to make a utopian society that faces challenges thrown at it by a single outsider. Considered a novel to be much ahead of its time, Brave New World has continued to be a part of many readers’ collection even today.

6. Animal Farm by George Orwell 

With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, Animal Farm sets the stage for one of the most telling and satirical fables ever penned. The story is centred around a farm that is taken over by its overworked and mistreated animals, and they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality for all.

A Stalinist Russia was accounted as the target when the novel was first published. Today, it is devastatingly clear that whenever national freedom is under siege, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece never fails to deliver a ferociously fresh message to all of humanity.

5. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

 Victor Hugo, taking the novel as his canvas for criticising French political and judicial systems, takes readers deep into the Parisian underworld, immerses them in a battle between good and evil, and carries them to the  barricades during the uprising of 1832 with a breathtaking realism that is unsurpassed in modern prose. The story revolves around Jean Valjean, a prisoner who breaks parole, and police inspector Javert, who tries to hunt him  down for breaking parole. Buried within the dramatic story are themes that capture both intellect and emotions – enticing the readers’ thought process as the plot thickens. 

4. The Stranger by Albert Camus

First published in 1946, Albert Camus painted the story of an ordinary man who was unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach. Camus explored what he then termed “the nakedness of man faced with the absurd”. His origin in Algeria and his experiences there in the thirties had been dominating influences in his thought and work. 

3. The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 

 Familiar to many, the stories of Sherlock Holmes are timeless classics that ring all the bells in even the minds of people who know the least about literature.

The classic lineup of 12 short stories was first serialised between July 1891 and June 1892, to finally be published the latter year. Since then, hundreds of thousands of readers have taken the stories to their hearts – making it an absolute must read for anyone with the slightest knack for thrill, adventure and mystery.  

2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

First published in 1962, To Kill a Mockingbird introduces feelings of compassion and drama, moving the readers deeply and transporting them to the roots of human behaviour – innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humour and pathos. The unforgettable story of a sleepy southern town and the lacking of basic humane conscience made the book what it is today, by becoming an instant bestseller and a critical success.
What Harper Lee always considered to be a simple love story today is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature – which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and later made into an Academy Award-winning film. 

1. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

 In Russia’s struggle with Napoleon, Leo Tolstoy was confronted with a tragedy that got tangled with all of mankind. The novel can be described as a complete picture of everything in which people find their   happiness and greatness, their grief and humiliation. 

 Greater than a historical chronicle, War and Peace is an affirmation of life itself and is considered as a central work of world literature and one of Leo Tolstoy’s finest literary achievements.
 

books / literature / novels / must read / top 100 books / top 10 novels of all time

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman. Photos: Collected
    Yunus-Tarique meeting in London on Friday can be a major turning point: Fakhrul
  • The recovered weapon. Photo: Courtesy
    Controversy surrounds weapon recovered in Narail: Sniper rifle or airgun?
  • An Israeli soldier passes a bun to Greta Thunberg onboard the Gaza-bound British-flagged yacht ‘Madleen’ after Israeli forces boarded the charity vessel as it attempted to reach the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade, in this still image released on June 9, 2025. Israel Foreign Ministry via X/Handout via REUTERS
    Greta Thunberg deported from Israel after Gaza aid boat seized

MOST VIEWED

  • On left, Abdullah Hil Rakib, former senior vice president (SVP) of BGMEA and additional managing director of Team Group; on right, Captain Md Saifuzzaman (Guddu), a Boeing 787 Dreamliner pilot for Biman Bangladesh Airlines. Photos: Collected
    Ex-BGMEA SVP Abdullah Hil Rakib, Biman 787 pilot Saifuzzaman drown in boating accident in Canada
  • A photo showing the former president on his return to Dhaka today (9 June). 
Source: Collected
    Former president Abdul Hamid returns to Bangladesh from Thailand
  • File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar
    Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do
  • Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus leaves for a four-day visit to the United Kingdom from the Dhaka airport on 9 June 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    CA Yunus leaves for UK; discussion expected on renewable energy investment, laundered money
  • Inside the aid ship stormed by Israeli forces on 9 June 2025. Photo: BBC
    Israeli forces stormed aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg bound for Gaza: Freedom Flotilla Coalition
  • Enhanced surveillance at Ctg airport amid rising global Covid-19 cases
    Enhanced surveillance at Ctg airport amid rising global Covid-19 cases

Related News

  • Solyman and his Tk30 books: A business with a heart
  • Horror, humour, and the unexpected: Tanzim Rahman’s unique storytelling style
  • Beyond the drama: Books making waves at Boi Mela
  • The best nonfiction books of 2024
  • Books we read in 2024 to prepare us for the future

Features

File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

1d | Features
Photo collage shows political posters in Bagerhat. Photos: Jannatul Naym Pieal

From Sheikh Dynasty to sibling rivalry: Bagerhat signals a turning tide in local politics

3d | Bangladesh
Illustration: TBS

Unbearable weight of the white coat: The mental health crisis in our medical colleges

5d | Panorama
(From left) Sadia Haque, Sylvana Quader Sinha and Tasfia Tasbin. Sketch: TBS

Meet the women driving Bangladesh’s startup revolution

6d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

What's the problem with elections in April? What BNP says

What's the problem with elections in April? What BNP says

35m | TBS Today
Tarique to meet CA Yunus in London on Friday, confirms Fakhrul

Tarique to meet CA Yunus in London on Friday, confirms Fakhrul

1h | TBS Today
Israel has taken the aid ship 'Madeleine' to its port

Israel has taken the aid ship 'Madeleine' to its port

3h | TBS World
Dr. Yunus and Tarique Rahman's meeting will not solve all problems: Mirza Fakhrul

Dr. Yunus and Tarique Rahman's meeting will not solve all problems: Mirza Fakhrul

1h | TBS Today
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net