Saturday, April 20, 2024

50 Best Novels, Says L.H. Borlander, April 20, 1924

Fifty of the Best Novels Selected. . . The Readers’ Service Committee Makes a Report on a List of Books

The readers’ service committee for the libraries, working under the cooperative committee of the chamber of commerce and Trinity college (now Duke University), has made a report on novels to read, which has been found acceptable, and the lists furnished the libraries. The list was made out by L.H. Borlander, reference librarian at Trinity college. this list does not aim to mean that these are the 50 best novels, but it does include some of the great classics and some of the best of the later novels that have met with general approval. They are:

Pride and Prejudice by Austin.

Eben Holder by Bacheller. [Holden]

Pire Goriot by Belzar. [Pere Goriot by Belzac]

Little Minister by Barrie.

Lorna Doone by Blackmore.

Jane Eyre by Bronte.

Last of the Mohicans by Cooper.

The Spy by Cooper.

Robinson Crusoe by Defoe.

Joseph Vance by De Maigan.

David Copperfield by Dickens.

A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens.

The Three Musketeers by Dumas.

Adam Bede by Elot [George Eliot].

Silas Marner by Eliot.

Mill on the Floss by Eliot.

Captain of the Gray Horse Troop by Garland.

The Vicar of Wakefield by Goldsmith.

Tess of D’Uberville by Hardy. [D’Ubervilles]

Far from the Maddening Crowd by Hardy. [Maddning]

The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne.

The Garden of Allah by Dickens [Hichens].

The Rise of Silas Lapham by Howells.

Les Miserables by Hugo.

The American by James.

Kim by Kipling.

The Light that Failed by Kipling.

Main Street by Lewis.

Beloved Vagabond by Loche.

Call of the Wild by London.

Handy Andy by Love.

Diana of the Crossways by Meredith.

The Ordeal of Richard Feverel by Meredith.

John Halifax Gentlemen by Mulock.

Red Rock by Page.

The Seats of the Mighty by Parker.

The Harbor by Poole.

The Cloister and the Hearth by Reade.

Kenilworth by Scott.

Kidnapped by Stevenson.

Treasure Island by Steventon.

The Conquest of Canaan by Tarkington.

Vanity Fair by Trackery [Thackery].

Anne Karinia by Tolstoy. [Anna Karenina].

Huckleberry Finn by Twain.

Tom Sawyer by Twain.

Blazed Trail by White.

The Virginian by Winter.

The report naming these novels as the best 50 to read closes with this quotation: “One may live and be happy and read no stories, but most people are wiser, happier and worth more to their fellows for the novels they have read.”

From page 8 of the Durham Morning Herald, Sunday, April 20, 1924

No comments:

Post a Comment