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Literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...
of the 20th century refers to
world literature World literature is used to refer to the total of the world's national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin. In the past, it primarily referred to the masterpieces of Western European lit ...
produced during the 20th century (1901 to 2000). In terms of the Euro-American tradition, the main periods are captured in the bipartite division,
Modernist literature Literary modernism, or modernist literature, originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented ...
and
Postmodern literature Postmodern literature is a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narrator, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues. This sty ...
, flowering from roughly 1900 to 1940 and 1960 to 1990 respectively, divided, as a rule of thumb, by
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. The somewhat malleable term "
contemporary literature Contemporary literature is literature which is generally set after World War II in the English-speaking world. Subgenres of contemporary literature include contemporary romance. History Literary movements are always contemporary to the writer di ...
" is usually applied with a post-1960 cut off point. Although these terms (modern, contemporary and postmodern) are most applicable to Western literary history, the rise of the globalization has allowed European literary ideas to spread into non-Western cultures fairly rapidly, so that Asian and
African literature African literature is literature from Africa, either oral ("orature") or written in African and Afro-Asiatic languages. Examples of pre-colonial African literature can be traced back to at least the fourth century AD. The best-known is the '' K ...
s can be included into these divisions with only minor qualifications. And in some ways, such as in
Postcolonial literature Postcolonial literature is the literature by people from formerly colonized countries. It exists on all continents except Antarctica. Postcolonial literature often addresses the problems and consequences of the decolonization of a country, espe ...
, writers from non-Western cultures were on the forefront of literary development. Technological advances during the 20th century allowed cheaper production of books, resulting in a significant rise in production of popular literature and trivial literature, comparable to the similar developments in music. The division of "popular literature" and "high literature" in the 20th century is by no means absolute, and various
genres Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
such as
detectives A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
or
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
fluctuate between the two. Largely ignored by mainstream
literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...
for the most of the century, these genres developed their own establishments and critical awards; these include the
Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of prof ...
(since 1965), the
British Fantasy Award The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards (see August Derleth Award). First awarded in 1972 (to ''The Knight of ...
(since 1971) or the Mythopoeic Awards (since 1971). Towards the end of the 20th century,
electronic literature Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature encompassing works created exclusively on and for digital devices, such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones. A work of electronic literature can be defined as "a constr ...
developed due to the development of
hypertext Hypertext is text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references ( hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typically ...
and later the
World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web ...
. The
Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...
was awarded annually throughout the century (with the exception of 1914, 1918, 1935 and 1940–1943), the first laureate (1901) being
Sully Prudhomme René François Armand "Sully" Prudhomme (; 16 March 1839 – 6 September 1907) was a French poet and essayist. He was the first winner of the 1901 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901. Born in Paris, Prudhomme originall ...
. The
New York Times Best Seller list ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...
has been published since 1942. The best-selling literary works of the 20th century are estimated to be ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's bo ...
'' (1954/55, 150 million copies), ''Le Petit Prince'' (''
The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...
'', 1943, 140 million copies), ''
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' is a 1997 fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling. The first novel in the ''Harry Potter'' series and Rowling's debut novel, it follows Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, a youn ...
'' (1997, 120 million copies) and ''
And Then There Were None ''And Then There Were None'' is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, a ...
'' (1939, 115 million copies). ''The Lord of the Rings'' was also voted "book of the century" in various surveys. '' Perry Rhodan'' (1961 to present) proclaimed as the best-selling book series, with an estimated total of 1 billion copies sold.


1901–1918

The ''
Fin de siècle () is a French term meaning "end of century,” a phrase which typically encompasses both the meaning of the similar English idiom "turn of the century" and also makes reference to the closing of one era and onset of another. Without context, ...
'' movement of the ''
Belle Époque The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (; French for "Beautiful Epoch") is a period of French and European history, usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era ...
'' persisted into the 20th century, but was brutally cut short with the outbreak of World War I (an effect depicted e.g. in
Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
's ''
The Magic Mountain ''The Magic Mountain'' (german: Der Zauberberg, links=no, ) is a novel by Thomas Mann, first published in German in November 1924. It is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of twentieth-century German literature. Mann s ...
'', published 1924). The
Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...
movement of 1916-1920 was at least in part a protest against the
bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. ...
nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
and
colonialist Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
interests which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war; the movement heralded the
Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
movement of the 1920s. 1900 * ''
Lord Jim ''Lord Jim'' is a novel by Joseph Conrad originally published as a serial in ''Blackwood's Magazine'' from October 1899 to November 1900. An early and primary event in the story is the abandonment of a passenger ship in distress by its crew, i ...
'' by
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...
(Poland, England) * ''
The Knights of the Cross ''The Knights of the Cross'' or ''The Teutonic Knights'' ( pl, Krzyżacy) is a 1900 historical novel written by the Polish Positivist writer and the 1905 Nobel laureate, Henryk Sienkiewicz. Its first English translation was published in the same ...
'' by
Henryk Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz ( , ; 5 May 1846 – 15 November 1916), also known by the pseudonym Litwos (), was a Polish writer, novelist, journalist and Nobel Prize laureate. He is best remembered for his historical novels, espe ...
(Poland) ''Genre fiction'' * ''
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz afte ...
'' by L. Frank Baum (US) 1901 * '' Buddenbrooks'' by
Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
(Germany) * '' The Inheritors'' by
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...
and
Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals '' The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review'' were instrumental in ...
(England) * ''
Kim Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese f ...
'' by
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...
(India, England) ''Genre fiction'' * ''
The Purple Cloud ''The Purple Cloud'' is an apocalyptic "last man" novel by the British writer M. P. Shiel. It was published in 1901. H. G. Wells lauded ''The Purple Cloud'' as "brilliant" and H. P. Lovecraft later praised the novel as exemplary weird fictio ...
'' by
M. P. Shiel Matthew Phipps Shiell (21 July 1865 – 17 February 1947), known as M. P. Shiel, was a British writer. His legal surname remained "Shiell" though he adopted the shorter version as a ''de facto'' pen name. He is remembered mainly for supernatura ...
(
Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with roughly of coastline. It is n ...
, England) * ''
The First Men in the Moon ''The First Men in the Moon'' is a scientific romance by the English author H. G. Wells, originally serialised in '' The Strand Magazine'' from December 1900 to August 1901 and published in hardcover in 1901, who called it one of his "fantast ...
'' by H. G. Wells (England) 1902 * ''
Heart of Darkness ''Heart of Darkness'' (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The no ...
'' by
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...
* '' The Immoralist'' by
André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism ...
(France) * '' The Wings of the Dove'' by
Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
(US, England) * '' The Grand Babylon Hotel'' by
Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist. He wrote prolifically: between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboratio ...
(England) ''Genre fiction'' * ''
The Hound of the Baskervilles ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in ''The Strand Magazine'' from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set ...
'' by
Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
(Scotland) * ''
Just So Stories ''Just So Stories for Little Children'' is a 1902 collection of origin stories by the British author Rudyard Kipling. Considered a classic of children's literature, the book is among Kipling's best known works. Kipling began working on the ...
'' by
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...
''Plays'' * ''
Man and Superman ''Man and Superman'' is a four-act drama written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to a call for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. ''Man and Superman'' opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London o ...
'' by
George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
(Ireland) 1903 * '' Romance'' by
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...
and
Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals '' The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review'' were instrumental in ...
* '' The Ambassadors'' by
Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
* '' The Pit'' by
Frank Norris Benjamin Franklin Norris Jr. (March 5, 1870 – October 25, 1902) was an American journalist and novelist during the Progressive Era, whose fiction was predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include '' McTeague: A Story of Sa ...
(US) * '' In Wonderland'' by
Knut Hamsun Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective ...
(Norway) ''Genre fiction'' * ''
The Call of the Wild ''The Call of the Wild'' is a short adventure novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The central character of the novel is a dog named ...
'' by
Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
(US) * '' The Riddle of the Sands'' by Erskine Childers (England, Ireland) 1904 * '' The Golden Bowl'' by
Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
* ''
Nostromo ''Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard'' is a 1904 novel by Joseph Conrad, set in the fictitious South American republic of "Costaguana". It was originally published serially in monthly instalments of '' T.P.'s Weekly''. In 1998, the Modern Li ...
'' by
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...
* ''
The Napoleon of Notting Hill ''The Napoleon of Notting Hill'' is a novel written by G. K. Chesterton in 1904, set in a nearly unchanged London in 1984. Although the novel is set in the future, it is, in effect, set in an alternative reality of Chesterton's own period, wit ...
'' by G. K. Chesterton (England) * '' The Peasants'' by Władysław Reymont (Poland) ''Genre fiction'' * '' The Food of the Gods'' by H. G. Wells * ''
The Sea-Wolf Seawolf, Sea wolf or Sea Wolves may refer to: Animals * Sea wolf, a wolf subspecies found in the Vancouver coastal islands * Seawolf (fish), a marine fish also known as wolffish or sea wolf * A nickname of the killer whale * South American sea ...
'' by
Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
* ''
Green Mansions ''Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest'' (1904) is an exotic romance by William Henry Hudson about a traveller to the Guyana jungle of southeastern Venezuela and his encounter with a forest-dwelling girl named Rima. The principal ...
'' by
William Henry Hudson William Henry Hudson (4 August 1841 – 18 August 1922) – known in Argentina as Guillermo Enrique Hudson – was an Anglo-Argentine author, naturalist and ornithologist. Life Hudson was the son of Daniel Hudson and his wife Catherine (), U ...
(Argentina, England) ''Plays'' * '' John Bull's Other Island'' by
George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
1905 * ''
Hadrian the Seventh ''Hadrian the Seventh: A Romance'' (sometimes called ''Hadrian VII'') is a 1904 novel by the English novelist Frederick Rolfe, who wrote under the pseudonym "Baron Corvo". Rolfe's best-known work, this novel of extreme wish-fulfilment developed o ...
'' by
Frederick Rolfe Frederick William Rolfe (surname pronounced ), better known as Baron Corvo (Italian for "Crow"), and also calling himself Frederick William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe (22 July 1860 – 25 October 1913), was an English writer, artist, ph ...
aka Baron Corvo (England, Italy) * ''
Where Angels Fear to Tread ''Where Angels Fear to Tread'' (1905) is a novel by E. M. Forster. The title comes from a line in Alexander Pope's ''An Essay on Criticism'': "For fools rush in where angels fear to tread". The BBC adapted the novel for television in 1966 as ...
'' by E. M. Forster (England) * '' Kipps'' by H. G. Wells * Songs of Life and Hope by
Rubén Darío Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (January 18, 1867 – February 6, 1916), known as Rubén Darío ( , ), was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-language literary movement known as ''modernismo'' (modernism) that flourished at the end of ...
(Nicaragua) * '' The House of Mirth'' by
Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...
(US) * '' The Club of Queer Trades'' by G. K. Chesterton 1906 * ''
The Jungle ''The Jungle'' is a 1906 novel by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair's primary purpose in describing the meat industry and its working conditions was to advance socialism in the United States. However, most readers we ...
'' by
Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in sever ...
(US) * '' The Confusions of Young Törless'' by
Robert Musil Robert Musil (; 6 November 1880 – 15 April 1942) was an Austrian philosophical writer. His unfinished novel, '' The Man Without Qualities'' (german: link=no, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften), is generally considered to be one of the most importan ...
(Austria) ''Genre fiction'' * ''
Puck of Pook's Hill ''Puck of Pook's Hill'' is a fantasy book by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1906, containing a series of short stories set in different periods of English history. It can count both as historical fantasy – since some of the stories told of ...
'' by
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...
* ''
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens ''Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens'' is a novel by J. M. Barrie, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, and published by Hodder & Stoughton in late November or early December 1906; it is one of four major literary works by Barrie featuring the widely kn ...
'' by
J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succ ...
(Scotland) * ''
Time and the Gods ''Time and the Gods'' is the second book by Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany, considered a major influence on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula K. Le Guin, and others. The book was first published in hardcover by William ...
'' by
Lord Dunsany Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (; 24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957, usually Lord Dunsany) was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist. Over 90 volumes of fiction, essays, poems and plays appeared in his lifetime.Lanham, M ...
(Ireland, England) * '' White Fang'' by
Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
''Plays'' * ''
The Aran Islands ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' by
John Millington Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best known play '' The Playboy of the Western World'' was poorly ...
(Ireland) * '' The Morality of Mrs. Dulska'' by
Gabriela Zapolska Maria Gabriela Stefania Korwin-Piotrowska (1857–1921), known as Gabriela Zapolska, was a Polish novelist, playwright, naturalist writer, feuilletonist, theatre critic and stage actress. Zapolska wrote 41 plays, 23 novels, 177 short stories, 25 ...
(Poland) 1907 * ''
The Secret Agent ''The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale'' is a novel by Joseph Conrad, first published in 1907.. The story is set in London in 1886 and deals with Mr. Adolf Verloc and his work as a spy for an unnamed country (presumably Russia). ''The Secret Agent ...
'' by
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...
* ''
The Longest Journey ''The Longest Journey'' ( nb, Den Lengste Reisen) is a magical realist point-and-click adventure video game developed by Norwegian studio Funcom for Microsoft Windows and released in 1999. The game was a commercial success, with sales in ex ...
'' by E. M. Forster ''Genre fiction'' * '' The Listener and Other Stories'' by
Algernon Blackwood Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary crit ...
(England) - contains The Willows, one of the first ' cosmic horror' stories * '' The Hill of Dreams'' by
Arthur Machen Arthur Machen (; 3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was the pen-name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His ...
(England) ''Plays'' * ''
The Playboy of the Western World ''The Playboy of the Western World'' is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge and first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 26 January 1907. It is set in Michael James Flaherty's public house in County Mayo (o ...
'' by
John Millington Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best known play '' The Playboy of the Western World'' was poorly ...
''Poetry'' * ''
Cautionary Tales for Children ''Cautionary Tales for Children: Designed for the Admonition of Children between the ages of eight and fourteen years'' is a 1907 children's book written by Hilaire Belloc. It is a parody of the cautionary tales that were popular in the 19th cent ...
'' by
Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. ...
(France, England) 1908 * '' The Man Who Was Thursday'' by G. K. Chesterton * ''
A Room with a View ''A Room with a View'' is a 1908 novel by English writer E. M. Forster, about a young woman in the restrained culture of Edwardian era England. Set in Italy and England, the story is both a romance and a humorous critique of English society a ...
'' by E. M. Forster * ''
The Iron Heel ''The Iron Heel'' is a political novel in the form of science fiction by American writer Jack London, first published in 1908.Kershaw, Alex. ''Jack London: A Life''. London: HarperCollins, 1997: 164. Background The main premise of the book i ...
'' by
Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
* ''
Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
'' by
Henri Barbusse Henri Barbusse (; 17 May 1873 – 30 August 1935) was a French novelist and a member of the French Communist Party. He was a lifelong friend of Albert Einstein. Life The son of a French father and an English mother, Barbusse was born in Asnièr ...
(France, Russia) * '' The Magician'' by Somerset Maugham (England, France) - based on the author's meeting with
Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
''Genre fiction'' * '' The Wind in the Willows'' by
Kenneth Grahame Kenneth Grahame ( ; 8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932) was a British writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most famous for '' The Wind in the Willows'' (1908), a classic of children's literature, as well as '' The Reluctant Dragon''. Both books ...
(England) ''Poetry'' * ''Personae'' by
Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
(US, England, Italy) - one of the first examples of 'modernist' poetry 1909 * ''
Martin Eden ''Martin Eden'' is a 1909 novel by American author Jack London about a young proletarian autodidact struggling to become a writer. It was first serialized in ''The Pacific Monthly'' magazine from September 1908 to September 1909 and then publish ...
'' by
Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

Sparrows: the story of an unprotected girl
by Horace W C Newte * ''
Tono-Bungay ''Tono-Bungay'' is a realist semiautobiographical novel written by H. G. Wells and first published in book form in 1909. It has been called "arguably his most artistic book". It had been serialised before book publication, both in the United ...
'' by H. G. Wells * '' Three Lives'' by
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
(US, France) ''Poetry'' * '' Exultations'' by
Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
* ''
Poems Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...
'' by
William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
(US) ''Plays'' * '' The Blue Bird'' by Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgium) 1910 * ''
Howards End ''Howards End'' is a novel by E. M. Forster, first published in 1910, about social conventions, codes of conduct and relationships in turn-of-the-century England. ''Howards End'' is considered by many to be Forster's masterpiece. The book was ...
'' by E. M. Forster * ''
The Card ''The Card'' is a comic novel written by Arnold Bennett in 1911 (entitled ''Denry the Audacious'' in the American edition). It was later made into a 1952 movie, starring Alec Guinness and Petula Clark. Like much of Bennett's best work, it i ...
'' by
Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist. He wrote prolifically: between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboratio ...
* '' The History of Mr Polly'' by H. G. Wells 1911 * ''
Zuleika Dobson ''Zuleika Dobson'', full title ''Zuleika Dobson, or, an Oxford love story'', is the only novel by English essayist Max Beerbohm, a satire of undergraduate life at Oxford published in 1911. It includes the famous line "Death cancels all engagem ...
'' by
Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, Parody, parodist and Caricature, caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the drama critic ...
(England) * '' In a German Pension'' by
Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer, essayist and journalist, widely considered one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her works are celebra ...
(England) - short stories * '' Under Western Eyes'' by
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...
* ''
The White Peacock ''The White Peacock'' is the first novel by D. H. Lawrence, published in 1911, though with 1910 on the title page. Lawrence started the novel in 1906 and then rewrote it three times. The early versions had the working title of ''Laetitia.'' ...
'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
(England) * ''
Jennie Gerhardt ''Jennie Gerhardt'' is a 1911 novel by Theodore Dreiser. Plot summary Jennie Gerhardt is a destitute young woman. While working in a hotel in Columbus, Ohio, Jennie meets George Brander, a United States Senator, who becomes infatuated with her. ...
'' by
Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...
(US) *''
In Desert and Wilderness ''In Desert and Wilderness'' ( pl, W pustyni i w puszczy) is a popular young adult novel by the Polish author and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, written in 1911. It is the author's only novel written for children/teenagers. It ...
'' by
Henryk Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz ( , ; 5 May 1846 – 15 November 1916), also known by the pseudonym Litwos (), was a Polish writer, novelist, journalist and Nobel Prize laureate. He is best remembered for his historical novels, espe ...
(Poland) ''Genre fiction'' * ''
Peter and Wendy ''Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'' or ''Peter and Wendy'', often known simply as ''Peter Pan'', is a work by J. M. Barrie, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel. Both versions tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous l ...
'' by
J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succ ...
(Scotland) 1912 * '' The Trespasser'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
* '' Death in Venice'' by
Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
(Germany) ''Genre fiction'' * ''
Riders of the Purple Sage ''Riders of the Purple Sage'' is a Western novel by Zane Grey, first published by Harper & Brothers in 1912. Considered by scholars to have played a significant role in shaping the formula of the popular Western genre, the novel has been called ...
'' by
Zane Grey Pearl Zane Grey (January 31, 1872 – October 23, 1939) was an American author and dentist. He is known for his popular adventure novels and stories associated with the Western genre in literature and the arts; he idealized the American fronti ...
(US) * '' The Lost World'' by
Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
* ''
Tarzan of the Apes ''Tarzan of the Apes'' is a 1912 story by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the first in the Tarzan series. It was first serialized in the pulp magazine ''The All-Story'' beginning October 1912 before being released as a novel in June 1 ...
'' by
Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, ...
(US) ''Plays'' * '' Pygmalion'' by
George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
1913 * '' Petersburg'' by
Andrei Bely Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev ( rus, Бори́с Никола́евич Буга́ев, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ bʊˈɡajɪf, a=Boris Nikolayevich Bugayev.ru.vorb.oga), better known by the pen name Andrei Bely or Biely ( rus, Андр ...
(Russia) * ''
Swann's Way ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...
'' by
Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous ...
(France) * ''
Le Grand Meaulnes ''Le Grand Meaulnes'' () is the only novel by French author Alain-Fournier, who was killed in the first month of World War I. The novel, published in 1913, a year before the author's death, is somewhat autobiographical – especially the name of t ...
'' by
Alain-Fournier Alain-Fournier () was the pseudonym of Henri-Alban Fournier (3 October 1886 – 22 September 1914Mémoi ...
(France) * ''
Sons and Lovers ''Sons and Lovers'' is a 1913 novel by the English writer D. H. Lawrence. It traces emotional conflicts through the protagonist, Paul Morel, and his suffocating relationships with a demanding mother and two very different lovers, which exert c ...
'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
* '' Chance'' by
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...
''Genre fiction'' * '' A Prisoner in Fairyland'' by
Algernon Blackwood Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary crit ...
- adapted into a play, it later became the
Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musical ...
musical ''
Starlight Express ''Starlight Express'' is a 1984 British musical, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. It tells the story of a young but obsolete steam engine, Rusty, who races in a championship against modern engines in the hope o ...
'' * '' The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu'' by ' Sax Rohmer' (England) ''Poetry'' * ''
Alcools ''Alcools'' (English: Alcohols) is a collection of poems by the French author Guillaume Apollinaire. His first major collection was published in 1913. The first poem in the collection, ''Zone'' (an epic poem of Paris), has been called "''the'' ...
'' by
Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of t ...
(Poland, France) - dada poems * ''
Gitanjali __NOTOC__ ''Gitanjali'' ( bn, গীতাঞ্জলি, lit='Song offering') is a collection of poems by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature, for the English translation, Gitanjali:'' Song Off ...
'' by
Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
1914 * ''
Dubliners ''Dubliners'' is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. It presents a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were writ ...
'' by
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...
(Ireland, France, Italy) - short stories * '' The Prussian Officer and Other Stories'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
- short stories * '' The Vatican Cellars'' by
André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism ...
* '' Tender Buttons'' by
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
* '' The Golem'' by Gustav Meyrink (
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
) *
Mist Mist is a phenomenon caused by small droplets of water suspended in the cold air, usually by condensation. Physically, it is an example of a dispersion. It is most commonly seen where water vapor in warm, moist air meets sudden cooling, such a ...
by
Miguel de Unamuno Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (29 September 1864 – 31 December 1936) was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher, professor of Greek and Classics, and later rector at the University of Salamanca. His major philosophical essa ...
(Spain) * '' Maurice'' by E. M. Forster - unpublished * ''
Sinister Street ''Sinister Street'' is a 1913–1914 novel by Compton Mackenzie. It is a kind of ''Bildungsroman'' or novel about growing up, and concerns two children, Michael Fane and his sister Stella. Both of them are born out of wedlock, something which ...
'' by
Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist. He was one of th ...
(Scotland, Greece) * '' The Flying Inn'' by G. K. Chesterton *''
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists ''The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists'' (1914) is a semi-autobiographical novel by Irish house painter and sign writer Robert Noonan, who wrote the book in his spare time under the pen name Robert Tressell. Published after Tressell's death fr ...
'' by Robert Noonan (UK) ''Poetry'' * ''
North of Boston ''North of Boston'' is a collection of seventeen poems by Robert Frost, first published in 1914 by David Nutt in Great Britain. Most of the poems resemble short dramas or dialogues. It is also called a book of people because most of the poems de ...
'' by
Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American collo ...
(US) 1915 * '' The Good Soldier'' by
Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals '' The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review'' were instrumental in ...
* '' The Rainbow'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
* ''
The Metamorphosis ''Metamorphosis'' (german: Die Verwandlung) is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, ''Metamorphosis'' tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himsel ...
'' by
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...
* '' Of Human Bondage'' by Somerset Maugham * The Underdogs by
Mariano Azuela Mariano Azuela González (January 1, 1873 – March 1, 1952) was a Mexican author and physician, best known for his fictional stories of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. He wrote novels, works for theatre and literary criticism. He is the fi ...
(Mexico) * ''
Victory The term victory (from Latin ''victoria'') originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitutes ...
'' by
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...
* ''Pointed Roofs'' by
Dorothy Richardson Dorothy Miller Richardson (17 May 1873 – 17 June 1957) was a British author and journalist. Author of ''Pilgrimage'', a sequence of 13 semi-autobiographical novels published between 1915 and 1967—though Richardson saw them as chapters of o ...
* ''
The Voyage Out ''The Voyage Out'' is the first novel by Virginia Woolf, published in 1915 by Duckworth. Development and first draft Woolf began work on ''The Voyage Out'' by 1910 (perhaps as early as 1907) and had finished an early draft by 1912. The novel ...
'' by
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...
(England) * ''Vainglory'' by
Ronald Firbank Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank (17 January 1886 – 21 May 1926) was an innovative English novelist. His eight short novels, partly inspired by the London aesthetes of the 1890s, especially Oscar Wilde, consist largely of dialogue, with referen ...
(England) * '' Rashōmon'' by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa ''Genre fiction'' * '' The Thirty-Nine Steps'' by
John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career ...
(Scotland, Canada) 1916 * ''
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's fictional al ...
'' by
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...
* ''
Women in Love ''Women in Love'' (1920) is a novel by English author D. H. Lawrence. It is a sequel to his earlier novel '' The Rainbow'' (1915) and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, ...
'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
- initially banned, published in 1920 ''Genre fiction'' * ''
Greenmantle ''Greenmantle'' is the second of five novels by John Buchan featuring the character Richard Hannay. It was first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. It is one of two Hannay novels set during the First World War, the other being ' ...
'' by
John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career ...
''Poetry'' * '' Salt-Water Poems and Ballads'' by
John Masefield John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels ''The Midnight Folk'' and ''The Box of Delights'', and the poem ...
(England) * '' Mountain Interval'' by
Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American collo ...
1917 * '' Under Fire'' by
Henri Barbusse Henri Barbusse (; 17 May 1873 – 30 August 1935) was a French novelist and a member of the French Communist Party. He was a lifelong friend of Albert Einstein. Life The son of a French father and an English mother, Barbusse was born in Asnièr ...
(France, Russia) * ''
Walpurgis Night Walpurgis Night (), an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess ...
'' by Gustav Meyrink * ''
Growth of the Soil ''Growth of the Soil'' ( Norwegian ''Markens Grøde'') is a novel by Knut Hamsun which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. It follows the story of a man who settles and lives in rural Norway. First published in 1917, it has since been tr ...
'' by
Knut Hamsun Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective ...
* ''
The Shadow Line ''The Shadow-Line'' is a short novel based at sea by Joseph Conrad; it is one of his later works, being written from February to December 1915. It was first published in 1916 as a serial in New York's ''Metropolitan Magazine'' (September—O ...
'' by
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...
* '' Caprice'' by
Ronald Firbank Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank (17 January 1886 – 21 May 1926) was an innovative English novelist. His eight short novels, partly inspired by the London aesthetes of the 1890s, especially Oscar Wilde, consist largely of dialogue, with referen ...
''Poetry'' * '' Dulce et Decorum est and Anthem for Doomed Youth'' by
Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced b ...
(England) - published posthumously * '' Prufrock and Other Observations'' by T. S. Eliot (US, England) 1918 * ''
Tarr ''Tarr'' is a modernist novel by Wyndham Lewis, written in 1909–11, revised and expanded in 1914–15 and first serialized in the magazine ''The Egoist ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already ...
'' by
Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''BLAST,'' the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include ''Tarr'' ( ...
(Canada, England) * ''Man of Straw'' by
Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; 27 March 1871 – 11 March 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German author known for his socio-political novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the Prussian Academy ...
(Germany) ''Poetry'' * '' Calligrammes'' by
Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of t ...
- dada poetry ''Non-fiction'' * '' Eminent Victorians'' by
Lytton Strachey Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of '' Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychological insight ...
(England)


Interwar period

The 1920s were a period of literary creativity, and works of several notable authors appeared during the period.
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
's novel ''
Lady Chatterley's Lover ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is the last novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Italy, and in 1929, in France. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960, wh ...
'' was a scandal at the time because of its explicit descriptions of sex. James Joyce's novel, '' Ulysses'', published in 1922 in Paris, was one of the most important achievements of literary modernism. 1919 * '' Within a Budding Grove'' by
Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous ...
* '' Night and Day'' by
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...
* ''
Winesburg, Ohio ''Winesburg, Ohio'' (full title: ''Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life'') is a 1919 short story cycle by the American author Sherwood Anderson. The work is structured around the life of protagonist George Willard, from the ...
'' by
Sherwood Anderson Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and ...
(US) - the first 'lost generation' novel * '' Valmouth'' by
Ronald Firbank Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank (17 January 1886 – 21 May 1926) was an innovative English novelist. His eight short novels, partly inspired by the London aesthetes of the 1890s, especially Oscar Wilde, consist largely of dialogue, with referen ...
* '' Bazaar-e-Husn'' by
Premchand Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (31 July 1880 – 8 October 1936), better known by his pen name Premchand (), was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindustani literature. Premchand was a pioneer of Hindi and Urdu social fiction. He was one of ...
(publ. in Hindi as ''Seva-sadan'') ''Genre fiction'' * '' Dope'' by Sax Rohmer - inspired by the true story of Limehouse dope-dealer
Brilliant Chang Brilliant (Billy) Chang (real name Chan Nan; born c. 1886, death date unknown) was a Chinese restaurateur and drug dealer who was implicated in supplying the drugs that killed Freda Kempton in 1922.Dope Darling'' by Leda Burke ( David Garnett) (England) 1920 * '' We'' by
Yevgeny Zamyatin Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin ( rus, Евге́ний Ива́нович Замя́тин, p=jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ zɐˈmʲætʲɪn; – 10 March 1937), sometimes anglicized as Eugene Zamyatin, was a Russian author of science fictio ...
(
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
) * ''
Limbo In Catholic theology, Limbo (Latin '' limbus'', edge or boundary, referring to the edge of Hell) is the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. Medieval theologians of Western Euro ...
'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
(England) - short stories * ''
The Lost Girl ''The Lost Girl'' is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1920. It was awarded the 1920 James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the fiction category. Lawrence started it shortly after writing '' Women in Love'', and worked on it only spor ...
'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
* '' This Side of Paradise'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald (US) * '' The London Venture'' by Michael Arlen (
Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''O ...
, England) * '' Storm of Steel'' by
Ernst Jünger Ernst Jünger (; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir '' Storm of Steel''. The son of a successful businessman and ...
(Germany) * ''
A Voyage to Arcturus ''A Voyage to Arcturus'' is a novel by the Scottish writer David Lindsay, first published in 1920. An interstellar voyage is the framework for a narrative of a journey through fantastic landscapes. The story is set at Tormance, an imaginary pl ...
'' by David Lindsay (Scotland) * '' Main Street'' by
Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
(US) * ''
The Age of Innocence ''The Age of Innocence'' is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine '' Pictorial Review''. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. App ...
'' by
Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...
(US) ''Plays'' * ''
Six Characters in Search of an Author ''Six Characters in Search of an Author'' ( it, Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore, link=no ) is an Italian play by Luigi Pirandello, written and first performed in 1921. An absurdist metatheatric play about the relationship among authors, the ...
'' by
Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his almost magical power ...
(Italy) * '' Beyond the Horizon and
Anna Christie ''Anna Christie'' is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It made its Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. O'Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this work. According to historian Paul Avrich, the ...
'' by
Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earli ...
- Pulitzer prize winner 1921 * '' The Guermantes Way'' by
Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous ...
* ''
Crome Yellow ''Crome Yellow'' is the first novel by British author Aldous Huxley, published by Chatto & Windus in 1921, followed by a U.S. edition by George H. Doran Company in 1922. Though a social satire of its time, it is still appreciated and has been ...
'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
* ''
England, My England and Other Stories ''England, My England'' is a collection of short stories by D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrializati ...
'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
- short stories * '' The Forsyte Saga'' by
John Galsworthy John Galsworthy (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include '' The Forsyte Saga'' (1906–1921) and its sequels, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of the Chapter''. He won the Nobel Prize ...
(England) - pentalogy, first volume published in 1906 * ''
My Life and Loves ''My Life and Loves'' is the autobiography of the Ireland-born, naturalized-American writer and editor Frank Harris (1856–1931). As published privately by Harris between 1922 and 1927, and by Jack Kahane's Obelisk Press in 1931, the work consi ...
'' by
Frank Harris Frank Harris (14 February 1855 – 26 August 1931) was an Irish-American editor, novelist, short story writer, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United State ...
(England, US) - four volumes of quasi-factual sex gossip, the fifth completed by Alex Trocchi ''Plays'' * '' Back to Methuselah'' by
George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
* '' R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)'' by
Karel Čapek Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright and critic. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel '' War with the Newts'' (1936) and play '' R.U.R.'' (''Rossum's Universal ...
- from which the term 'robot' was coined 1922 * '' Ulysses'' by
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...
* ''
Jacob's Room ''Jacob's Room'' is the third novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 26 October 1922. The novel centres, in a very ambiguous way, around the life story of the protagonist Jacob Flanders and is presented almost entirely through the impressi ...
'' by
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...
* ''
Sodom and Gomorrah Sodom and Gomorrah () were two legendary biblical cities destroyed by God for their wickedness. Their story parallels the Genesis flood narrative in its theme of God's anger provoked by man's sin (see Genesis 19:1–28). They are mentioned frequ ...
'' by
Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous ...
* '' Croatian God Mars'' by Miroslav Krleža * '' The Enormous Room'' by E. E. Cummings (US) * '' Futility'' by William Gerhardie (Russia, England) * '' The Beautiful and Damned'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald * ''
Mortal Coils ''Mortal Coils'' is a collection of five short fictional pieces written by Aldous Huxley in 1921. The title uses a phrase from ''Hamlet'', Act 3, Scene 1: : ... To die, to sleep, :To sleep, perchance to dream; aye, there's the rub, :For in that ...
'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
- short stories * '' Aaron's Rod'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
Kim * '' The Garden Party'' by
Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer, essayist and journalist, widely considered one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her works are celebra ...
- short stories * '' Siddhartha'' by
Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include '' Demian'', '' Steppenwolf'', '' Siddhartha'', and '' The Glass Bead Game'', each of which explores an individual ...
(Germany, Switzerland) * '' Peter Whiffle'' by Carl Van Vechten (US) * '' Babbitt'' by
Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
* ''
Lady into Fox ''Lady into Fox'' was David Garnett's first novel using his own name, published in 1922. This short and enigmatic work won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the Hawthornden Prize a year later. Being a work of fantasy set in the presen ...
'' by David Garnett ''Poetry'' * ''
The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of Modernist poetry in English, modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the ...
'' by T. S. Eliot 1923 * '' Confessions of Zeno'' by
Italo Svevo Aron Hector Schmitz (19 December 186113 September 1928), better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo (), was an Italian writer, businessman, novelist, playwright, and short story writer. A close friend of Irish novelist and poet James Joyce, Svev ...
(Italy) * ''
The Good Soldier Švejk ''The Good Soldier Švejk'' () is an unfinished satirical dark comedy novel by Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek, published in 1921–1923, about a good-humored, simple-minded, middle-aged man who pretends to be enthusiastic to serve Austria-Hungary ...
'' by
Jaroslav Hašek Jaroslav Hašek (; 1883–1923) was a Czech writer, humorist, satirist, journalist, bohemian and anarchist. He is best known for his novel '' The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk during the World War'', an unfinished collection of farcical inci ...
(
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
) * '' The Captive'' by
Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous ...
* ''
Kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...
'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
* ''
Antic Hay ''Antic Hay'' is a comic novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1923. The story takes place in London, and depicts the aimless or self-absorbed cultural elite in the sad and turbulent times following the end of World War I. The book follows the ...
'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
* ''
Three Soldiers ''Three Soldiers'' is a 1921 novel by American writer and critic John Dos Passos. It is one of the American war novels of the First World War, and remains a classic of the realist war novel genre. Background H. L. Mencken praised the book in ...
'' by
John Dos Passos John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist, most notable for his ''U.S.A.'' trilogy. Born in Chicago, Dos Passos graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He traveled widely as a young man, visit ...
(US) * '' The Great American Novel'' by
William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
* '' The Devil in the Flesh'' by Raymond Radiguet (France) * ''
Aelita ''Aelita'' (russian: Аэли́та, ), also known as ''Aelita: Queen of Mars'', is a 1924 Soviet silent science fiction film directed by Yakov Protazanov and produced at the Mezhrabpom-Rus film studio. It was based on Alexei Tolstoy's 1923 ...
'' by
Alexey Tolstoy Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy (russian: link= no, Алексей Николаевич Толстой; – 23 February 1945) was a Russian writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels. Despite having ...
(Russia) ''Plays'' * ''
The Shadow of a Gunman ''The Shadow of a Gunman'' is a 1923 tragicomedy play by Seán O'Casey set during the Irish War of Independence. It centres on the mistaken identity of a building tenant who is thought to be an IRA assassin. It is the first in O'Casey's "Dub ...
'' by
Seán O'Casey Seán O'Casey ( ga, Seán Ó Cathasaigh ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. ...
(Ireland) ''Poetry'' * ''
New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
'' by
Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American collo ...
* ''
The Duino Elegies The ''Duino Elegies'' (german: Duineser Elegien) are a collection of ten elegy, elegies written by the Bohemian-Austrians, Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. He was then "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language po ...
'' by
Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogn ...
1924 * ''
The Magic Mountain ''The Magic Mountain'' (german: Der Zauberberg, links=no, ) is a novel by Thomas Mann, first published in German in November 1924. It is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of twentieth-century German literature. Mann s ...
'' by
Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
(Germany) * ''
In Our Time In Our Time may refer to: * ''In Our Time'' (1944 film), a film starring Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid * ''In Our Time'' (1982 film), a Taiwanese anthology film featuring director Edward Yang; considered the beginning of the "New Taiwan Cinema" * ''In ...
'' by
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
(US) - short stories * ''
A Passage to India ''A Passage to India'' is a 1924 novel by English author E. M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. It was selected as one of the 100 great works of 20th century English liter ...
'' by E. M. Forster * '' The Vortex'' by José Eustasio Rivera (Colombia) * '' Little Mexican'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
- short stories * ''
Bohemian Lights ''Bohemian Lights'', or ''Luces de Bohemia'' in the original Spanish, is a play written by Ramón del Valle-Inclán, published in 1924. The central character is Max Estrella, a struggling poet afflicted by blindness due to developing syphilis. ...
'' by
Ramón del Valle-Inclán Ramón María del Valle-Inclán y de la Peña (in Vilanova de Arousa, Galicia, Spain, 28 October 1866 – Santiago de Compostela, 5 January 1936) was a Spanish dramatist, novelist and member of the Spanish Generation of 98. He is considered p ...
(Spain) * '' The Fox and The Captain's Doll'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
- short stories *'' Miranda'' by
Antoni Lange Antoni Lange (1863 – 17 March 1929) was a Polish poet, philosopher, polyglot (15 languages), writer, novelist, science-writer, reporter and translator. A representative of Polish Parnassianism and symbolism, he is also regarded as belonging ...
(Poland) *Riddles and Conundrums for All Occasions ''Genre fiction'' * '' The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'' by
Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fiction ...
(England) ''Plays'' * ''
Juno and the Paycock ''Juno and the Paycock'' is a play by Seán O'Casey. Highly regarded and often performed in Ireland, it was first staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1924. It is set in the working-class tenements of Dublin in the early 1920s, during the ...
'' by
Seán O'Casey Seán O'Casey ( ga, Seán Ó Cathasaigh ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. ...
* '' The Vortex'' by
Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...
(England) 1925 * ''
Mrs Dalloway ''Mrs. Dalloway'' is a novel by Virginia Woolf, published on 14 May 1925, that details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional upper-class woman in post-First World War England. It is one of Woolf's best-known novels. The working ...
'' by
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...
* ''
The Trial ''The Trial'' (german: Der Process, link=no, previously , and ) is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and p ...
'' by
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...
(
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
) - posthumous, first English translation in 1930 * ''
The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby ...
'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald - often described as the epitome of the "Jazz Age" in American literature * ''The Green Hat'' by Michael Arlen - perhaps the epitome of the jazz age in British literature * '' Paris Peasant'' by
Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He ...
(France) * '' Albertine disparue'' by
Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous ...
* '' Manhattan Transfer'' by
John Dos Passos John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist, most notable for his ''U.S.A.'' trilogy. Born in Chicago, Dos Passos graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He traveled widely as a young man, visit ...
* '' In the American Grain'' by
William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
* '' The Desert of Love'' by
François Mauriac François Charles Mauriac (, oc, Francés Carles Mauriac; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the'' Académie française'' (from 1933), and laureate of the Nobel Prize ...
(France) * '' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' by
Anita Loos Corinne Anita Loos (April 26, 1888 – August 18, 1981) was an American actress, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. In 1912, she became the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood, when D. W. Griffith put h ...
(US) * ''
Those Barren Leaves ''Those Barren Leaves'' is a satirical novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1925. The title is derived from the poem "The Tables Turned" by William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet ...
'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
* ''
St Mawr ''St Mawr'' is a short novel (or novella) written by D. H. Lawrence. It was first published in 1925. The heroine of the story, Lou Witt, abandons her sterile marriage and a brittle, cynical post-First World War England. Her sense of alienatio ...
'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
- short stories * ''
The Making of Americans ''The Making of Americans: Being a History of a Family's Progress'' is a modernist novel by Gertrude Stein. The novel traces the genealogy, history, and psychological development of members of the fictional Hersland and Dehning families. Stein ...
'' by
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
* '' Heart of a Dog'' by
Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the fir ...
(Russia) ''Genre fiction'' * ''
Beau Geste ''Beau Geste'' is an adventure novel by British writer P. C. Wren, which details the adventures of three English brothers who enlist separately in the French Foreign Legion following the theft of a valuable jewel from the country house of a re ...
'' by
P. C. Wren Percival Christopher Wren (1 November 187522 November 1941) was an English writer, mostly of adventure fiction. He is remembered best for ''Beau Geste'', a much-filmed book of 1924, involving the French Foreign Legion in North Africa. This was ...
(England) ''Poetry'' * ''
The Hollow Men "The Hollow Men" (1925) is a poem by the modernist writer T. S. Eliot. Like much of his work, its themes are overlapping and fragmentary, concerned with post– World War I Europe under the Treaty of Versailles (which Eliot despised: compare ...
'' by T. S. Eliot ''Non-fiction'' * ''
The Old Straight Track ''The Old Straight Track: Its Mounds, Beacons, Moats, Sites and Mark Stones'' is a book by Alfred Watkins, first published in 1925, describing the existence of alleged ley lines in Great Britain. Presentation Watkins presents a methodical and th ...
'' by
Alfred Watkins Alfred Watkins (27 January 1855 – 15 April 1935) was an English author, self-taught amateur archaeologist, antiquarian and businessman who, while standing on a hillside in Herefordshire, England, in 1921 experienced a revelation. He noticed ...
(England) - introducing ley lines 1926 * '' The Castle'' by
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...
- posthumous, first English translation in 1932 * '' The Counterfeiters'' by
André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism ...
* ''
The Sun Also Rises ''The Sun Also Rises'' is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bu ...
'' aka ''Fiesta'' by
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
* '' Moravagine'' by
Blaise Cendrars Frédéric-Louis Sauser (1 September 1887 – 21 January 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars, was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalized French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European mo ...
(France) * Don Segundo Sombra by
Ricardo Güiraldes Ricardo Güiraldes (13 February 1886 — 8 October 1927)Escuela Normal Superior de Chascomús was an Argentine novelist and poet, one of the most significant Argentine writers of his era, particularly known for his 1926 novel ''Don Segundo Sombra ...
(Argentina) * ''
Nigger Heaven ''Nigger Heaven'' is a novel written by Carl Van Vechten, and published in October 1926. The book is set during the Harlem Renaissance in the United States in the 1920s. The book and its title have been controversial since its publication. The ...
'' by Carl Van Vechten * '' Two or Three Graces'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
- short stories * ''
The Plumed Serpent ''The Plumed Serpent'' is a 1926 political novel by D. H. Lawrence; Lawrence conceived the idea for the novel while visiting Mexico in 1923, and its themes reflect his experiences there. The novel was first published by Martin Secker's firm in ...
'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
* ''
The Call of Cthulhu "The Call of Cthulhu" is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written in the summer of 1926, it was first published in the pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' in February 1928. Inspiration The first seed of the story's first chapter '' ...
'' by H. P. Lovecraft ''Genre fiction'' * ''
Winnie-the-Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character was the book ''Win ...
'' by A. A. Milne (England) ''Poetry'' * ''
A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle ''A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle'' is a long poem by Hugh MacDiarmid written in Scots and published in 1926. It is composed as a form of monologue with influences from stream of consciousness genres of writing. A poem of extremes, it ranges bet ...
'' by ' Hugh MacDiarmid' (Scotland) ''Plays'' * ''
The Plough and the Stars ''The Plough and the Stars'' is a four-act play by the Irish writer Seán O'Casey that was first performed on 8 February 1926 at the Abbey Theatre. It is set in Dublin and addresses the 1916 Easter Rising. The play's title references the Sta ...
'' by
Seán O'Casey Seán O'Casey ( ga, Seán Ó Cathasaigh ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. ...
''Non-fiction'' * '' Seven Pillars of Wisdom'' by T. E. Lawrence (England, Arabia) 1927 * '' To the Lighthouse'' by
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...
* '' Time Regained'' by
Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous ...
* '' Steppenwolf'' by
Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include '' Demian'', '' Steppenwolf'', '' Siddhartha'', and '' The Glass Bead Game'', each of which explores an individual ...
* '' Men Without Women'' by
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
- short stories * '' Vestal Fire'' by
Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist. He was one of th ...
* '' Dusty Answer'' by
Rosamond Lehmann Rosamond Nina Lehmann (3 February 1901 – 12 March 1990) was an English novelist and translator. Her first novel, '' Dusty Answer'' (1927), was a ''succès de scandale''; she subsequently became established in the literary world and intimat ...
(England) * ''
Elmer Gantry ''Elmer Gantry'' is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 that presents aspects of the religious activity of America in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it. The novel's protagonis ...
'' by
Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
* '' The Rocking-Horse Winner'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
- short stories ''Plays'' * '' The Silver Tassie'' by
Seán O'Casey Seán O'Casey ( ga, Seán Ó Cathasaigh ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. ...
1928 * ''
Berlin Alexanderplatz ''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' () is a 1929 novel by Alfred Döblin. It is considered one of the most important and innovative works of the Weimar Republic. In a 2002 poll of 100 noted writers the book was named among the top 100 books of all time. ...
'' by
Alfred Döblin Bruno Alfred Döblin (; 10 August 1878 – 26 June 1957) was a German novelist, essayist, and doctor, best known for his novel ''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' (1929). A prolific writer whose œuvre spans more than half a century and a wide variety of ...
(Germany) * ''
Nadja Nadja may refer to: * Nadja (given name) * Nadja, pen-name of Louisa Nadia Green (1896—1934), British poet * ''Nadja'' (novel), 1928 surrealist novel by André Breton * ''Nadja'' (film), 1994 vampire film by Michael Almereyda * Nadja (band) ...
'' by
André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first '' Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...
(France) * ''
Story of the Eye ''Story of the Eye'' (french: L'histoire de l'œil) is a 1928 novella written by Georges Bataille that details the increasingly bizarre sexual perversions of a pair of teenage lovers, including an early depiction of omorashi fetishism in Western ...
'' by
Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels ...
(France) * '' Parade's End'' by
Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals '' The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review'' were instrumental in ...
- war tetralogy, first volume in 1926 * Gypsy Ballads by
Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...
* ''
Point Counter Point ''Point Counter Point'' is a novel by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1928. It is Huxley's longest novel, and was notably more complex and serious than his earlier fiction. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked ''Point Counter Point'' 44th on ...
'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
* ''
Lady Chatterley's Lover ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is the last novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Italy, and in 1929, in France. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960, wh ...
'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
- banned until 1963 * '' Decline and Fall'' by
Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
(England) * '' Amerika'' by
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...
- posthumous, first English translation in 1938 ''Plays'' * ''
Strange Interlude ''Strange Interlude'' is an experimental play in nine acts by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill began work on it as early as 1923 and developed its scenario in 1925; he wrote the play between May 1926 and the summer of 1927, and complete ...
'' by
Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earli ...
(US) - Pulitzer prize winner * '' Messrs. Glembay'' by Miroslav Krleža ''Non-fiction'' * ''
All Quiet on the Western Front ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (german: Im Westen nichts Neues, lit=Nothing New in the West) is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental trauma ...
'' by
Erich Maria Remarque Erich Maria Remarque (, ; born Erich Paul Remark; 22 June 1898 – 25 September 1970) was a German-born novelist. His landmark novel ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1928), based on his experience in the Imperial German Army during World ...
(Germany) - recounts the horrors of World War I and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front 1929 * '' Les Enfants Terribles'' by
Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
(France) * ''
A Farewell to Arms ''A Farewell to Arms'' is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant () in the a ...
'' by
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
(US) * ''
Look Homeward, Angel ''Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life'' is a 1929 novel by Thomas Wolfe. It is Wolfe's first novel, and is considered a highly autobiographical American coming-of-age story. The character of Eugene Gant is generally believed to be ...
'' by
Thomas Wolfe Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early 20th century. Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly origi ...
* ''
Death of a Hero ''Death of a Hero'' is a World War I novel by Richard Aldington. It was his first novel, published by Chatto & Windus in 1929, and thought to be partly autobiographical. Plot summary ''Death of a Hero'' is the story of a young English artist n ...
'' by
Richard Aldington Richard Aldington (8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962), born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet, and an early associate of the Imagist movement. He was married to the poet Hilda Doolittle (H. D.) from 1911 to 1938. His 50-year w ...
(England) * ''
The Sound and the Fury ''The Sound and the Fury'' is a novel by the American author William Faulkner. It employs several narrative styles, including stream of consciousness. Published in 1929, ''The Sound and the Fury'' was Faulkner's fourth novel, and was not immedi ...
'' by
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
(US) *
Doña Bárbara ''Doña Bárbara (Lady Bárbara)'' is a novel by Venezuelan author Rómulo Gallegos, first published in 1929. It was described in 1974 as "possibly the most widely known Latin American novel".Shaw, Donald, "Gallegos' Revision of Doña Bárbara ...
by
Rómulo Gallegos Rómulo Ángel del Monte Carmelo Gallegos Freire (2 August 1884 – 5 April 1969) was a Venezuelan novelist and politician. For a period of nine months during 1948, he governed as the first freely elected president in Venezuela's history. He was ...
(Venezuela) * '' Mario and the Magician'' by
Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
(Germany) * ''
The Escaped Cock ''The Escaped Cock'' is a short novel by D. H. Lawrence that he originally wrote in two parts and published in 1929. Lawrence wrote the first part in 1927 after visiting some Etruscan tombs with his friend Earl Brewster, a trip that encouraged t ...
'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
(England) * ''
The Defence ''The Defense'' is the third novel written by Vladimir Nabokov after he had emigrated to Berlin. It was published in 1930. Publication The novel appeared first under Nabokov's pen name V. Sirin in the Russian emigre quarterly ''Sovremennye zapis ...
'' by
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
(Russia, France) * Wolf Solent by
John Cowper Powys John Cowper Powys (; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...
(England) * ''
The Good Companions ''The Good Companions'' is a novel by the English author J. B. Priestley. Written in 1929, it follows the fortunes of a concert party on a tour of England. It is Priestley's most famous novel and established him as a national figure. It won ...
'' by J. B. Priestley (England) ''Non-fiction'' * ''
Good-Bye to All That ''Good-Bye to All That'' is an autobiography by Robert Graves which first appeared in 1929, when the author was 34 years old. "It was my bitter leave-taking of England," he wrote in a prologue to the revised second edition of 1957, "where I ha ...
'' by
Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celt ...
(England) * ''
A Room of One's Own ''A Room of One's Own'' is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, first published in September 1929. The work is based on two lectures Woolf delivered in October 1928 at Newnham College and Girton College, women's colleges at the University of C ...
'' by
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...
(England) ''Genre fiction'' * '' Red Harvest'' by
Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
(US) - the first hard-boiled American detective novel 1930 * '' Vile Bodies'' by
Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
* ''
The Apes of God ''The Apes of God'' is a 1930 novel by the British artist and writer Wyndham Lewis. It is a satire of London's contemporary literary and artistic scene. The Sitwells, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury group ar ...
'' by
Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''BLAST,'' the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include ''Tarr'' ( ...
* '' Brief Candles'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
- short stories * '' As I Lay Dying'' by
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
* '' Narcissus and Goldmund'' by
Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include '' Demian'', '' Steppenwolf'', '' Siddhartha'', and '' The Glass Bead Game'', each of which explores an individual ...
* '' Angel Pavement'' by J. B. Priestley * ''
The Virgin and the Gypsy ''The Virgin and the Gipsy'' is a short novel (or novella) by English author D.H. Lawrence. It was written in 1926 and published posthumously in 1930. Today it is often entitled ''The Virgin and the Gypsy'' which can lead to confusion because fir ...
and Love Among the Haystacks'' by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
- short stories ''Genre fiction'' * ''
Last and First Men ''Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future'' is a " future history" science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon. A work of unprecedented scale in the genre, it describes the history of humanity from ...
'' by
Olaf Stapledon William Olaf Stapledon (10 May 1886 – 6 September 1950) – known as Olaf Stapledon – was a British philosopher and author of science fiction.Andy Sawyer, " illiamOlaf Stapledon (1886-1950)", in Bould, Mark, et al, eds. ''Fifty Key Figures ...
(England) * '' The Maltese Falcon'' by
Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
(US) ''Poetry'' * '' Whoroscope'' by
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...
(Ireland, France) ''Plays'' * ''
Private Lives ''Private Lives'' is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It concerns a divorced couple who, while honeymooning with their new spouses, discover that they are staying in adjacent rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetu ...
'' by
Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...
''Non-fiction'' * '' Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man'' by
Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...
(England) - 2 volumes, 1st in 1929 1931 * '' The Good Earth'' by
Pearl S. Buck Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, Pulitze ...
* ''
The Waves ''The Waves'' is a 1931 novel by English novelist Virginia Woolf. It is critically regarded as her most experimental work, consisting of ambiguous and cryptic soliloquies spoken mainly by six characters; Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny a ...
'' by
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...
* '' Night Flight'' by
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of s ...
(France) ''Genre fiction'' * ''
The Glass Key ''The Glass Key'' is a novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett. First published as a serial in '' Black Mask'' magazine in 1930, it then was collected in 1931 (in London; the American edition followed 3 months later). It tells the story of a ga ...
'' by
Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
* ''
At the Mountains of Madness ''At the Mountains of Madness'' is a science fiction-horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931 and rejected that year by ''Weird Tales'' editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length. It was or ...
'' by H. P. Lovecraft ''Plays'' * ''
Mourning Becomes Electra ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932, starring Lee Baker ...
'' by
Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earli ...
* '' Cavalcade'' by
Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...
''Non-fiction'' * ''
Axel's Castle ''Axel's Castle: A Study in the Imaginative Literature of 1870–1930'' is a 1931 book of literary criticism by Edmund Wilson on the symbolist movement in literature. Contents It includes a brief overview of the movement's origins and chapters on ...
'' by
Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...
(US) * '' Music at Night'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
1932 * ''The Return of Philip Latinowicz'' by Miroslav Krleža * ''Journey to the End of the Night, Journey to the End of Night'' by Louis-Ferdinand Céline (France) * ''Brave New World'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
(England) * ''The Memorial'' by Christopher Isherwood (England) * ''Laughter in the Dark (novel), Laughter in the Dark'' by
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
(Russia, France) * ''Light in August'' by
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
* ''A Glastonbury Romance'' by
John Cowper Powys John Cowper Powys (; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...
* ''Stamboul Train'' by Graham Greene (England) * ''Black Mischief'' by
Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
* ''Radetzky March'' by Joseph Roth (Austria) * ''Jew Boy'' by Simon Blumenfeld (England) ''Poetry'' * ''The Orators'' by W. H. Auden (England) 1933 * ''Man's Fate'' by André Malraux (France) * ''Love on the Dole'' by Walter Greenwood (England) * ''Miss Lonelyhearts'' by Nathanael West (US) * ''The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas'' by
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
''Genre fiction'' * ''Lost Horizon'' by James Hilton (novelist), James Hilton (England) * ''Murder Must Advertise'' by Dorothy L. Sayers (England) ''Non-fiction'' * ''Down and Out in Paris and London'' by George Orwell (England) * ''Texts and Pretexts'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
* ''In Praise of Shadows'' by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki 1934 * ''Tropic of Cancer (novel), Tropic of Cancer'' by Henry Miller (US) - a groundbreaking obscenity case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1961 allowed its publication there * ''Call It Sleep'' by Henry Roth (Austria, US) * ''Tender Is the Night'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald * ''Threepenny Novel'' by Bertolt Brecht (Germany) * ''Despair (novel), Despair'' by
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
* ''It's a Battlefield'' by Graham Greene * ''A Handful of Dust'' by
Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
* ''20,000 Streets Under the Sky'' by Patrick Hamilton (writer), Patrick Hamilton (England) * ''Voyage in the Dark'' by Jean Rhys (Dominica, France, England) * ''Appointment in Samarra'' by John O'Hara (US) * ''A Scots Quair'' by Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Scotland) - trilogy, first volume published in 1932 ''Genre fiction'' * ''The Postman Always Rings Twice (novel), The Postman Always Rings Twice'' by James M. Cain (US) * ''Novel with Cocaine aka Cocain Romance'' by M. Ageyev (Russia) ''Poetry'' * ''18 Poems'' by Dylan Thomas (Wales) ''Non-fiction'' * ''Burmese Days'' by George Orwell * ''Death in the Afternoon'' by
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
1935 * ''Mr Norris Changes Trains'' by Christopher Isherwood * ''Eyeless in Gaza (novel), Eyeless in Gaza'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
* ''Auto-da-Fé (novel), Auto-da-Fe'' by Elias Canetti (Bulgaria, Germany) * ''A Clergyman's Daughter'' by George Orwell * ''England Made Me (novel), England Made Me'' by Graham Greene * ''A House in Paris'' by Elizabeth Bowen (Ireland) * ''Tortilla Flat'' by John Steinbeck (US) * ''Studs Lonigan'' by James T. Farrell (US) - trilogy, first volume published in 1932 ''Genre fiction'' * ''Little House on the Prairie'' by Laura Ingalls Wilder (US) ''Poetry'' * ''Collected Poems (Cecil Day-Lewis), Collected Poems'' by Cecil Day-Lewis (Northern Ireland) ''Plays'' * ''Waiting for Lefty'' by Clifford Odets (US) 1936 * ''Death on the Installment Plan'' by Louis-Ferdinand Céline * ''Black Spring (novel), Black Spring'' by Henry Miller * ''U.S.A. trilogy, U.S.A.'' by
John Dos Passos John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist, most notable for his ''U.S.A.'' trilogy. Born in Chicago, Dos Passos graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He traveled widely as a young man, visit ...
* ''Mephisto (novel), Mephisto'' by Klaus Mann (Germany, US) * ''Absalom, Absalom!'' by
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
* ''Keep the Aspidistra Flying'' by George Orwell * ''Confession of a Murderer'' by Joseph Roth * ''Invitation to a Beheading'' by
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
* ''The Wessex Novels'' by
John Cowper Powys John Cowper Powys (; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...
(England) - tetralogy, 1st vol published in 1927 * ''Godaan'' by
Premchand Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (31 July 1880 – 8 October 1936), better known by his pen name Premchand (), was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindustani literature. Premchand was a pioneer of Hindi and Urdu social fiction. He was one of ...
''Poetry'' * ''Ballads of Petrica Kerempuh'' by Miroslav Krleža ''Genre fiction'' * ''Jamaica Inn (novel), Jamaica Inn'' by Daphne du Maurier (England) * ''Gone with the Wind (novel), Gone with the Wind'' by Margaret Mitchell (US) * ''A Gun for Sale'' by Graham Greene 1937 * ''To Have and Have Not'' by
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
* ''The Years'' by
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...
* ''Of Mice and Men'' by John Steinbeck * ''Lions and Shadows'' by Christopher Isherwood * ''The Black Book (list), The Black Book'' by Lawrence Durrell (UK, Egypt) * ''Ferdydurke'' by Witold Gombrowicz (Poland) * ''Revenge for Love'' by
Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''BLAST,'' the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include ''Tarr'' ( ...
* ''White Mule'' by
William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
* ''Wide Boys Never Work'' by Robert Westerby (England, US) ''Genre fiction'' * ''Star Maker'' by
Olaf Stapledon William Olaf Stapledon (10 May 1886 – 6 September 1950) – known as Olaf Stapledon – was a British philosopher and author of science fiction.Andy Sawyer, " illiamOlaf Stapledon (1886-1950)", in Bould, Mark, et al, eds. ''Fifty Key Figures ...
* ''Night and the City'' by Gerald Kersh (England, US) * ''The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor'' by Cameron McCabe (Ernest Bornemann) (Germany, England) * ''The Hobbit'' by J. R. R. Tolkien (England) ''Non-fiction'' * ''The Road to Wigan Pier'' by George Orwell * ''How Green Was My Valley'' by Richard Llewellyn (Wales) 1938 * ''Nausea (novel), Nausea'' by Jean-Paul Sartre (France) * ''Murphy (novel), Murphy'' by
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...
* ''Tropic of Capricorn (novel), Tropic of Capricorn'' by Henry Miller * ''Man's Hope'' by André Malraux * ''The Death of the Heart'' by Elizabeth Bowen * ''Brighton Rock (novel), Brighton Rock'' by Graham Greene * ''Scoop (novel), Scoop'' by
Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
* ''The Gift (Nabokov novel), The Gift'' by
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
''Genre fiction'' * ''Brighton Rock (novel), Brighton Rock'' by Graham Greene * ''Rebecca (novel), Rebecca'' by Daphne du Maurier ''Non-fiction'' * ''Journey to a War'' by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood * ''Homage to Catalonia'' by George Orwell * ''Enemies of Promise'' by Cyril Connolly (England) 1939 * ''The Grapes of Wrath'' by John Steinbeck * ''Finnegans Wake'' by
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...
* ''The Banquet in Blitva'' by Miroslav Krleža * ''At Swim-Two-Birds'' by Flann O'Brien (Ireland) * ''Goodbye to Berlin'' by Christopher Isherwood * ''After Many a Summer'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
* ''Coming Up for Air'' by George Orwell * ''On the Marble Cliffs'' by
Ernst Jünger Ernst Jünger (; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir '' Storm of Steel''. The son of a successful businessman and ...
* ''Good Morning, Midnight (Rhys novel), Good Morning, Midnight'' by Jean Rhys * ''The Day of the Locust'' by Nathanael West * ''The Legend of the Holy Drinker'' by Joseph Roth * ''Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns, Lotte in Weimar'' by
Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
* ''The Confidential Agent'' by Graham Greene * ''Mister Johnson (novel), Mister Johnson'' by Joyce Cary (Ireland) * ''Wind, Sand and Stars'' by
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of s ...
* ''Pal Joey (novel), Pal Joey'' by John O'Hara ''Genre fiction'' * ''The Big Sleep'' by Raymond Chandler (US) * ''Rogue Male (novel), Rogue Male'' by Geoffrey Household (England) * ''The Mask of Dimitrios'' by Eric Ambler * ''
And Then There Were None ''And Then There Were None'' is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, a ...
'' by
Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fiction ...
''Poetry'' * ''Autumn Journal'' by Louis MacNeice (N Ireland) * ''The Map of Love'' by Dylan Thomas ''Plays'' * ''This Happy Breed'' by
Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...


World War II

1940 * ''Native Son'' by Richard Wright (author), Richard Wright (US, France) * ''Darkness at Noon'' by Arthur Koestler (Hungary, England) * ''The Master and Margarita'' by
Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the fir ...
- published in English 1966 * ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' by
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
* ''The Power and the Glory'' by Graham Greene * ''The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter'' by Carson McCullers (US) * ''Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog'' by Dylan Thomas * ''Owen Glendower'' by
John Cowper Powys John Cowper Powys (; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...
* ''You Can't Go Home Again'' by
Thomas Wolfe Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early 20th century. Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly origi ...
* ''And Quiet Flows the Don'' by Mikhail Sholokhov (Russia) - two volumes, first published in 1934 *The feeling of the world by Carlos Drummond de Andrade (Brazil) ''Genre fiction'' * ''Journey into Fear (novel), Journey into Fear'' by Eric Ambler (England) * ''Farewell, My Lovely'' by Raymond Chandler ''Plays'' * ''The Iceman Cometh'' by
Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earli ...
''Non-fiction'' * ''To the Finland Station'' by
Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...
1941 * ''Hangover Square'' by Patrick Hamilton (writer), Patrick Hamilton * ''Reflections in a Golden Eye (novel), Reflections in a Golden Eye'' by Carson McCullers * ''The Third Policeman'' by Flann O'Brien ''Genre fiction'' * ''Mildred Pierce'' by James M. Cain ''Non-fiction'' * ''Grey Eminence'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
1942 * ''The Stranger (Camus novel), The Stranger'' by Albert Camus (Algeria, France) * ''Our Lady of the Flowers'' by Jean Genet (France) * ''Flight to Arras'' by
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of s ...
''Plays'' * ''The Flies'' by Jean-Paul Sartre 1943 * ''Arrival and Departure'' by Arthur Koestler * ''The Ministry of Fear'' by Graham Greene * ''The Man Without Qualities'' by
Robert Musil Robert Musil (; 6 November 1880 – 15 April 1942) was an Austrian philosophical writer. His unfinished novel, '' The Man Without Qualities'' (german: link=no, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften), is generally considered to be one of the most importan ...
(Austria) - trilogy, first volume published 1930 ''Genre fiction'' * ''Double Indemnity (novel), Double Indemnity'' by James M. Cain * ''
The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...
'' by
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of s ...
(France) ''Poetry'' * Selected Poems by Keith Douglas (England) ''Non-fiction'' * ''Being and Nothingness'' by Jean-Paul Sartre * ''The Myth of Sisyphus'' by Albert Camus 1944 * ''The Horse's Mouth'' by Joyce Cary * ''Ficciones'' by Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina) - short stories * ''The Razor's Edge'' by Somerset Maugham * ''Time Must Have a Stop'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
''Plays'' * ''The Glass Menagerie'' by Tennessee Williams (US) 1945 * ''Black Boy'' by Richard Wright (author) * ''Animal Farm'' by George Orwell * ''Watt (novel), Watt'' by
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...
- published in 1953 * ''Brideshead Revisited'' by
Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
* ''Black Boy'' by Richard Wright (author), Richard Wright * ''Lark Rise to Candleford'' by Flora Thompson (England) - trilogy, first volume in 1939 ''Genre fiction'' * ''If He Hollers Let Him Go'' by Chester Himes (US, France) * ''The Space Trilogy'' by C. S. Lewis (N Ireland) - first volume published in 1938 1946 * ''Cry, the Beloved Country'' by Alan Paton (South Africa) * ''The Miracle of the Rose'' by Jean Genet * El Señor Presidente by Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala) * ''Froth on the Daydream'' by Boris Vian (France) * ''The Member of the Wedding'' by Carson McCullers ''Poetry'' * ''Deaths and Entrances'' by Dylan Thomas ''Plays'' * ''The Winslow Boy'' by Terence Rattigan (England) ''Non-fiction'' * ''Alamein to Zem Zem'' by Keith Douglas * ''Memoirs of Hecate County'' by
Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...
* ''This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen'' by Tadeusz Borowski (Poland) 1947 * ''The Plague (novel), The Plague'' by Albert Camus * ''Under the Volcano'' by Malcolm Lowry (England, Canada) * ''Bend Sinister (novel), Bend Sinister'' by
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
* ''The Victim (novel), The Victim'' by Saul Bellow (Canada, US) * ''The Conformist'' by Alberto Moravia (Italy) * ''The Middle of the Journey'' by Lionel Trilling (US) * ''Slaves of Solitude'' by Patrick Hamilton (writer), Patrick Hamilton * ''Of Love and Hunger'' by Julian MacLaren-Ross (England) * ''Funeral Rites (novel), Funeral Rites'' by Jean Genet * ''Snow Country'' by Yasunari Kawabata ''Plays'' * ''A Streetcar Named Desire (play), A Streetcar Named Desire'' by Tennessee Williams ''Non-fiction'' * ''The Diary of a Young Girl'' by Anne Frank (Netherlands) 1948 * ''The Naked and the Dead'' by Norman Mailer (US) * ''Confessions of a Mask'' by 'Yukio Mishima' (Japan) * ''The Heart of the Matter'' by Graham Greene * El Túnel by Ernesto Sabato (Argentina) * ''The City and the Pillar'' by Gore Vidal (US) * ''Ape and Essence'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
* ''Ashes and Diamonds'' by Jerzy Andrzejewski (Poland) * ''Querelle of Brest'' by Jean Genet ''Genre fiction'' * ''No Orchids for Miss Blandish (novel), No Orchids for Miss Blandish'' by James Hadley Chase (England) ''Plays'' * ''The Browning Version (play), The Browning Version'' by Terence Rattigan ''Non-fiction'' * ''The Second Sex'' by Simone de Beauvoir (France — early feminist study) * ''The Kon-Tiki Expedition'' by Thor Heyerdahl (Norway) 1949 * ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' by George Orwell * ''The Roads to Freedom'' by Jean-Paul Sartre - trilogy, first volume published 1945 * ''The Thief's Journal'' by Jean Genet * ''The Man with the Golden Arm'' by Nelson Algren (US) * ''The Train Was on Time'' by Heinrich Böll (Germany) * ''The Aleph (short story collection), The Aleph'' by Jorge Luis Borges * ''The Kingdom of this World'' by Alejo Carpentier (Mexico) * ''The Heat of the Day'' by Elizabeth Bowen ''Genre fiction'' * ''The Trouble with Harry'' by Jack Trevor Story (England) * ''The Mating Season (novel), The Mating Season'' by P. G. Wodehouse ''Plays'' * ''Death of a Salesman'' by Arthur Miller (US)


Postwar period

The intermediate postwar period separating "Modernism" from "Postmodernism" (1950s literature) is the ''floruit'' of the beat generation and the classical science fiction of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein. This period also saw the publication of Samuel Beckett's trilogy of novels, ''Molloy (novel), Molloy'', ''Malone Dies'', and ''The Unnameable'', which enacted the dissolution of the self-identical human subject and inspired later novelists such as Thomas Bernhard, John Banville, and David Markson. 1950 * ''Scenes from Provincial Life (novel), Scenes from Provincial Life'' by William Cooper (novelist), William Cooper (England) - the first of the British 1950s 'kitchen sink' novels * Canto General by Pablo Neruda ''Plays'' * ''The Bald Soprano'' by Eugène Ionesco (Romania, France) ''Genre fiction'' * ''A Town Like Alice'' by Nevil Shute (England, Australia) * ''Strangers on a Train (novel), Strangers On a Train'' by Patricia Highsmith (US) ''Non-fiction'' * ''The Authoritarian Personality'' by Theodor Adorno (Germany, US) 1951 * ''Molloy (novel), Molloy'' by
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...
(Ireland, France) * ''Malone Dies'' by
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...
(Ireland, France) * ''The Catcher in the Rye'' by J. D. Salinger (US) * The Hive (Cela novel), The Hive by Camilo José Cela (Spain) * ''Porius (A Romance of the Dark Ages)'' by
John Cowper Powys John Cowper Powys (; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...
(England) * ''The Grass Harp'' by Truman Capote (US) * ''Memoirs of Hadrian'' by Marguerite Yourcenar (France) * ''The Opposing Shore'' by Julien Gracq (France) ''Plays'' * ''The Lesson'' by Eugène Ionesco (Romania, France) ''Non-fiction'' * ''The Rebel (book), The Rebel'' by Albert Camus (France) 1952 * ''Invisible Man'' by Ralph Ellison (US) * ''Wise Blood'' by Flannery O'Connor (US) * ''Go (Holmes novel), Go'' by John Clellon Holmes (US) - the first Beat Generation, Beat novel * ''The Natural'' by Bernard Malamud (US) * ''The Old Man and the Sea'' by
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
* ''East of Eden (novel), East of Eden'' by John Steinbeck ''Genre fiction'' * ''The Tiger in the Smoke'' by Margery Allingham (England) * ''The Killer Inside Me'' by Jim Thompson (writer), Jim Thompson (US) ''Plays'' * ''The Chairs'' by Eugène Ionesco (Romania, France) 1953 * ''The Unnameable'' by
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...
(Ireland, France) * ''Junkie (novel), Junkie and Queer (novel), Queer'' by William S. Burroughs (US) * ''Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel), Go Tell It On the Mountain'' by James Baldwin (writer), James Baldwin (US, France) * ''The Outsider (Wright novel), The Outsider'' by Richard Wright (author), Richard Wright * ''The Adventures of Augie March'' by Saul Bellow * ''The Captive Mind'' by Czesław Miłosz (Poland) * ''Hurry on Down'' by John Wain (England) - the first 'angry young man' novel ''Genre fiction'' * ''Casino Royale (novel), Casino Royale'' by Ian Fleming (England, Jamaica) - first James Bond novel * ''The Long Goodbye (novel), The Long Goodbye'' by Raymond Chandler * ''Childhood's End'' by Arthur C. Clarke (England, Sri Lanka) * ''Foundation (Isaac Asimov novel), Foundation'' by Isaac Asimov (US) - trilogy, first volume published in 1951 * ''Prelude to a Certain Midnight'' by Gerald Kersh ''Plays'' * ''Waiting for Godot'' by
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...
1954 * ''Lord of the Flies'' by William Golding (England) * ''Lucky Jim'' by Kingsley Amis (England) - the most famous 'angry young man' novel * ''Under the Net'' by Iris Murdoch (England) * ''Bonjour Tristesse'' by Françoise Sagan (France) ''Genre fiction'' * ''Fahrenheit 451'' by Ray Bradbury (US) * ''Story of O'' by Pauline Réage (France) ''Plays'' * ''Under Milk Wood'' by Dylan Thomas * ''The Quare Fellow'' by Brendan Behan (Ireland) ''Non-fiction'' * ''The Doors of Perception'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
1955 * ''Lolita'' by
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
* ''One (David Karp novel), One'' by David Karp (novelist), David Karp (US) * ''The Quiet American'' by Graham Greene * ''The Bread of Those Early Years'' by Heinrich Böll * ''The Tree of Man'' by Patrick White (Australia) * ''The Inheritors (William Golding), The Inheritors'' by William Golding * Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo (Mexico) * ''The Voyeur (novel), The Voyeur'' by Alain Robbe-Grillet (France) * ''The Genius and the Goddess'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
* ''The Deer Park'' by Norman Mailer * ''The Recognitions'' by William Gaddis (US) * ''Memed, My Hawk'' by Yaşar Kemal (Turkey) ''Genre fiction'' * ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's bo ...
'' by J. R. R. Tolkien, first volume in 1954 * ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' by Patricia Highsmith ''Plays'' * ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' by Tennessee Williams * ''Bus Stop (play), Bus Stop'' by William Inge (US) ''Poetry'' * ''The Less Deceived'' by Philip Larkin (England) 1956 * ''The Fall (Albert Camus novel), The Fall'' by Albert Camus *''The Devil to Pay in the Backlands'' by João Guimarães Rosa * ''Giovanni's Room'' by James Baldwin (writer), James Baldwin * ''The Lonely Londoners'' by Samuel Selvon (Trinidad, England) * ''A Walk on the Wild Side (novel), A Walk on the Wild Side'' by Nelson Algren ''Genre fiction'' * ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' by C. S. Lewis (N Ireland) - seven volumes, first in 1950 * ''Peyton Place (novel), Peyton Place'' by Grace Metalious * ''The Hundred and One Dalmatians'' by Dodie Smith (England) ''Plays'' * ''Look Back In Anger'' by John Osborne (England) - the first 'angry young man' play ''Poetry'' * ''Howl and Other Poems'' by Allen Ginsberg (US) ''Non-fiction'' * ''Heaven and Hell (essay), Heaven and Hell'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
1957 * ''On the Road'' by Jack Kerouac (Canada, US) * ''Young Adam'' by Alexander Trocchi (Scotland) * ''Room at the Top (novel), Room at the Top'' by John Braine (England) * ''Doctor Zhivago (novel), Doctor Zhivago'' by Boris Pasternak (Russia) * ''Voss (novel), Voss'' by Patrick White * ''The Assistant (novel), The Assistant'' by Bernard Malamud * ''Second Thoughts (Michel Butor novel), Second Thoughts'' by Michel Butor (France) * ''Pnin'' by
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
* ''Cairo Trilogy'' by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt) * ''Gimpel the Fool'' by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Poland, US) - short stories, originally published in Yiddish years earlier * ''Atlas Shrugged'' by Ayn Rand (US) ''Genre fiction'' * ''On the Beach (novel), On the Beach'' by Nevil Shute ''Plays'' * ''The Room (play), The Room and The Birthday Party (play), The Birthday Party'' by Harold Pinter (England) * ''Endgame (play), Endgame'' by
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...
* ''The Entertainer (play), The Entertainer'' by John Osborne * ''Orpheus Descending'' by Tennessee Williams * ''The Visit (play), The Visit'' by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Switzerland) ''Poetry'' * ''Calling Out to Yeti'' by Wisława Szymborska (Poland) 1958 * ''If This Is a Man'' by Primo Levi (Italy) * ''Breakfast at Tiffany's (novella), Breakfast At Tiffany's'' by Truman Capote * ''The Dharma Bums'' by Jack Kerouac * ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'' by Alan Sillitoe (England) * ''A Taste of Honey'' by Shelagh Delaney (England) * ''Things Fall Apart'' by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) * ''The Bell (novel), The Bell'' by Iris Murdoch * ''Fowlers End'' by Gerald Kersh * ''Our Man in Havana'' by Graham Greene * ''Candy (Southern and Hoffenberg novel), Candy'' by Terry Southern (US) ''Genre fiction'' * ''Exodus (Uris novel), Exodus'' by Leon Uris (US) * ''Zimiamvian Trilogy'' by E. R. Eddison (England) - first volume in 1935 * ''Nigel Molesworth, Molesworth'' by Geoffrey Willans (England) and Ronald Searle (England, France) - tetrology, first book in 1954 ''Plays'' * ''Krapp's Last Tape'' by
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...
* ''Suddenly, Last Summer'' by Tennessee Williams ''Non-fiction'' * ''The Theatre and Its Double'' by Antonin Artaud (France) * ''Borstal Boy'' by Brendan Behan 1959 * ''A Raisin in the Sun'' by Lorraine Hansberry (United States of America) * ''The Tin Drum'' by Günter Grass (Germany) * ''Naked Lunch'' by William S. Burroughs * ''The Last of the Just'' by André Schwarz-Bart (France) * ''Goodbye, Columbus'' by Philip Roth (US) * ''Zazie dans le Métro (novel), Zazie in the Metro'' by Raymond Queneau (France) * ''In the Labyrinth (novel), In the Labyrinth'' by Alain Robbe-Grillet * ''The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'' by Alan Sillitoe * ''Billy Liar'' by Keith Waterhouse (England) * ''The Long Day Wanes'' by Anthony Burgess (England) - trilogy, first volume published in 1956 * ''The Magic Christian (novel), The Magic Christian'' by Terry Southern ''Genre fiction'' * ''Gormenghast series, The Gormenghast Trilogy'' by Mervyn Peake (England) - first volume in 1946 * ''The Getaway (novel), The Getaway'' by Jim Thompson (writer), Jim Thompson ''Plays'' * ''The Dumb Waiter and The Caretaker'' by Harold Pinter * ''Rhinoceros (play), Rhinoceros'' by Eugène Ionesco


Cold War period 1960–1989

1960 * ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' by Harper Lee (US) * ''The London Trilogy'' by Colin MacInnes (England) - first volume, Absolute Beginners (novel), Absolute Beginners, published in 1957 * ''Cain's Book'' by Alexander Trocchi (UK, France, US) * ''This Sporting Life'' by David Storey (UK) * ''A Burnt-Out Case'' by Graham Greene * ''Hiroshima Mon Amour'' by Marguerite Duras (France) * ''The Ballad of Peckham Rye'' by Muriel Spark (Scotland) * ''The Rosy Crucifixion'' by Henry Miller (US) - trilogy, first volume published 1949 * ''The Sot-Weed Factor (1960 novel), The Sot-Weed Factor'' by John Barth (US) * ''The Magician of Lublin (novel), The Magician of Lublin'' by Isaac Bashevis Singer ''Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction'' * ''The Morning of the Magicians by Louis Pauwels'' and Jacques Bergier (France) - the 1960s obsession with the occult starts here. Published in English 1963 * ''A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.'' (US) 1961 * ''Catch-22'' by Joseph Heller (US) * ''A House for Mr Biswas'' by V. S. Naipaul (Trinidad, England) * ''Riders in the Chariot'' by Patrick White * ''The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (novel), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'' by Muriel Spark * ''A Severed Head'' by Iris Murdoch * ''Sword of Honour'' by
Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
- trilogy, first volume published in 1952 * ''Revolutionary Road'' by Richard Yates (novelist), Richard Yates (US) * ''Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place'' by Malcolm Lowry - posthumous ''Genre fiction'' * ''Solaris (novel), Solaris'' by Stanisław Lem (Poland) * ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' by Robert A. Heinlein (US) * ''The Man in the High Castle'' by Philip K. Dick (US) 1962 * ''One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'' by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russia) * ''A Clockwork Orange (novel), A Clockwork Orange and The Wanting Seed'' by Anthony Burgess (England) * ''Pale Fire'' by
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
* ''Island (Huxley novel), Island'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...
* ''The Time of the Hero'' by Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) * ''The Golden Notebook'' by Doris Lessing (Zimbabwe, England) * ''The Death of Artemio Cruz'' by Carlos Fuentes (Mexico) * ''The Alexandria Quartet'' by Lawrence Durrell - first volume published 1957 * ''Big Sur (novel), Big Sur'' by Jack Kerouac - the last of the Lost Generation at the end of the Beat Generation ''Genre fiction'' * ''The IPCRESS File'' by Len Deighton (England) - first of the Harry Palmer novels ''Non-fiction'' * ''Silent Spring'' by Rachel Carson (US) - the first major popular study on the deterioration of the environment 1963 * ''V.'' by Thomas Pynchon (US) * ''The Bell Jar'' by Sylvia Plath (US, England) * Hopscotch (Cortázar novel), Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar (Argentina) * ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (novel), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' by Ken Kesey (US) * ''The Collector'' by John Fowles (England) * ''The Lowlife'' by Alexander Baron (England) * ''Cat's Cradle'' by Kurt Vonnegut (US) ''Genre fiction'' * ''Planet of the Apes (novel), Planet of the Apes'' by Pierre Boulle (France) * ''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'' by John le Carré (England) * ''The Grifters (novel), The Grifters'' by Jim Thompson (writer), Jim Thompson ''Non-fiction'' * ''The Truce'' by Primo Levi 1964 * ''Herzog (novel), Herzog'' by Saul Bellow * ''A Single Man (novel), A Single Man'' by Christopher Isherwood * ''Last Exit to Brooklyn'' by Hubert Selby (US) * ''The Spire'' by William Golding (England) * ''Nothing Like the Sun'' by Anthony Burgess ''Genre fiction'' * ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' by Roald Dahl (UK) * ''The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch'' by Philip K. Dick (US) * ''Little Big Man (novel), Little Big Man'' by Thomas Berger (novelist), Thomas Berger (US) ''Non-fiction'' * ''Understanding Media'' by Marshall McLuhan (Canada) 1965 * ''The Magus (novel), The Magus'' by John Fowles * ''The Interpreters'' by Wole Soyinka (Nigeria) * ''Cosmicomics'' by Italo Calvino (Italy) * ''The Painted Bird'' by Jerzy Kosinski (Poland, US) * ''Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush'' by Hunter Davies (England) - the kitchen sink novel mutates into the swinging 1960s novel ''Genre fiction'' * ''The Cyberiad'' by Stanisław Lem ''Plays'' * ''Marat/Sade'' by Peter Weiss (Germany, Sweden) * ''Tango (play), Tango'' by Sławomir Mrożek (Poland) ''Poetry'' * ''Briggflatts'' by Basil Bunting ''Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction'' * ''The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby'' by Tom Wolfe (US) * ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X'' by Alex Haley (US) 1966 * ''A Man of the People'' by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) * ''Alfie (play), Alfie'' by Bill Naughton (England) * ''The Comedians (novel), The Comedians'' by Graham Greene * ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' by Jean Rhys * ''Tremor of Intent'' by Anthony Burgess ''Genre fiction'' * ''Pavane (novel), Pavane'' by Keith Roberts (England) * ''The Anti-Death League'' by Kingsley Amis ''Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction'' * ''In Cold Blood'' by Truman Capote * ''Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs'' by Hunter S. Thompson (US) * ''Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me'' by Richard Fariña (US) 1967 * ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' by Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia) * ''The Crying of Lot 49'' by Thomas Pynchon * ''The Vendor of Sweets'' by R. K. Narayan (India) * ''Poor Cow'' by Nell Dunn (England) * ''A Grain of Wheat'' by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o ''Non-fiction'' * ''In the First Circle'' by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn * ''The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan'' and Quentin Fiore 1968 * ''Cocksure'' by Mordecai Richler (Canada) * ''Couples (novel), Couples'' by John Updike (US) * ''The Public Image'' by Muriel Spark * ''Lunar Caustic (novel), Lunar Caustic'' by Malcolm Lowry - posthumous * ''The Abyss (Yourcenar novel), The Abyss'' by Marguerite Yourcenar ''Non-fiction and quasi-fiction'' * ''Cancer Ward'' by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn * ''The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'' by Tom Wolfe * ''The Armies of the Night and Miami and the Siege of Chicago'' by Norman Mailer * ''Bomb Culture'' by Jeff Nuttall (England) * ''Slouching Towards Bethlehem'' by Joan Didion (US) * ''The Teachings of Don Juan'' by Carlos Castaneda (US) 1969 * ''Portnoy's Complaint'' by Philip Roth * ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' by John Fowles * ''A Void'' by Georges Perec (France) * ''Passacaille (novel), Passacaille'' by Robert Pinget (France) * ''Dark as the Grave wherein my Friend is Laid'' by Malcolm Lowry - posthumous ''Genre fiction'' * ''Barefoot in the Head'' by Brian Aldiss * ''The Final Programme'' by Michael Moorcock (England, US) * ''Slaughterhouse-Five'' by Kurt Vonnegut (US) * ''The Godfather'' by Mario Puzo (US) ''Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction'' * ''Papillon (book), Papillon'' by Henri Charrière (France) * ''The View Over Atlantis'' by John Michell (writer), John Michell (England) 1970 * ''Play It as It Lays'' by Joan Didion * ''Mr. Sammler's Planet'' by Saul Bellow * ''Being There (novel), Being There'' by Jerzy Kosiński * ''October Ferry to Gabriola'' by Malcolm Lowry - posthumous ''Genre fiction'' * ''The Hot Rock (novel), The Hot Rock'' by Donald E. Westlake (US) * ''Deliverance (novel), Deliverance'' by James Dickey (US) ''Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction'' * ''The Female Eunuch'' by Germaine Greer (Australia, England) * ''Groupie (book), Groupie'' by Jenny Fabian (England) * ''Playpower'' by Richard Neville (writer), Richard Neville (Australia, England) * ''Revolt into Style'' by George Melly (England) * ''Soledad Brother'' by George Jackson (Black Panther), George Jackson (US) - prison letters * ''Soul on Ice (book), Soul on Ice'' by Eldridge Cleaver (US) 1971 * ''In a Free State'' by V. S. Naipaul (Trinidad, England) * ''M/F'' by Anthony Burgess * ''Our Gang'' by Philip Roth * ''The Dice Man'' by Luke Rhinehart (US) * ''Another Roadside Attraction'' by Tom Robbins (US) ''Genre fiction'' * ''The Day of the Jackal'' by Frederick Forsyth (England) ''Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction'' * ''The Happy Hooker'' by Xaviera Hollander (Indonesia, Netherlands) * ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' by Hunter S. Thompson 1972 * ''The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman'' by Angela Carter (England) * ''Invisible Cities'' by Italo Calvino * ''G. (novel), G'' by John Berger (England, France) * ''Tutunamayanlar, The Good for Nothing'' by Oğuz Atay (Turkey) ''Genre fiction'' * ''The Friends of Eddie Coyle'' by George V. Higgins (US) * ''Jonathan Livingston Seagull'' by Richard Bach (US) * ''The Odessa File'' by Frederick Forsyth ''Poetry'' * ''Crossing the Water and Winter Trees'' by Sylvia Plath 1973 * ''Gravity's Rainbow'' by Thomas Pynchon * ''Crash (J. G. Ballard novel), Crash'' by J. G. Ballard (England) * ''Season of Anomy'' by Wole Soyinka (Nigeria) * ''Life Is Elsewhere'' by Milan Kundera (
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
, France) * ''Sweet Dreams (novel), Sweet Dreams'' by Michael Frayn (England) * ''Fear of Flying (novel), Fear of Flying'' by Erica Jong (US) * '' The Great American Novel'' by Philip Roth ''Genre fiction'' * ''Frankenstein Unbound'' by Brian Aldiss 1974 * ''If Beale Street Could Talk'' by James Baldwin (US) * ''The Conservationist'' by Nadine Gordimer (South Africa) * ''The Fan Man'' by William Kotzwinkle (US) * ''The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum'' by Heinrich Böll * I, the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay) * ''Napoleon Symphony'' by Anthony Burgess * ''Myra Breckinridge and Myron (novel), Myron'' by Gore Vidal - first of pair published in 1968 ''Genre fiction'' * ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' by John le Carré * ''Fletch (novel), Fletch'' by Gregory Mcdonald (US) ''Genre fiction'' * ''Jaws (novel), Jaws'' by Peter Benchley (US) ''Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction'' * ''All the President's Men by Bob Woodward'' and Carl Bernstein (US) ''Poetry'' * ''Mr. Cogito'' by Zbigniew Herbert (Poland) 1975 * ''Humboldt's Gift'' by Saul Bellow * ''The Deptford Trilogy'' by Robertson Davies - first volume published 1970 * ''Dead Babies (novel), Dead Babies'' by Martin Amis (England) * ''The Autumn of the Patriarch'' by Gabriel García Márquez * ''The History Man'' by Malcolm Bradbury (England) * ''The Periodic Table (short story collection), The Periodic Table'' by Primo Levi - short stories ''Genre fiction'' * ''Watership Down'' by Richard Adams (England) * ''The Choirboys (novel), The Choirboys'' by Joseph Wambaugh (US) * ''Shōgun (novel), Shōgun'' by James Clavell (England, US) * '''Salem's Lot'' by Stephen King (US) 1976 * ''Ragtime (novel), Ragtime'' by EL Doctorow (US) ''Genre fiction'' * ''Interview with the Vampire'' by Anne Rice (US) ''Non-fiction and quasi-fiction'' * ''Roots: The Saga of an American Family, Roots'' by Alex Haley *''Another Day of Life'' by Ryszard Kapuściński (Poland) ''Drama'' * ''Death and the King's Horseman'' by Wole Soyinka 1977 * ''The Engineer of Human Souls'' by Josef Škvorecký (
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
) * ''Song of Solomon (novel), Song of Solomon'' by Toni Morrison (US) 1978 * ''Success (novel), Success'' by Martin Amis * ''The Sea, the Sea'' by Iris Murdoch * ''Lanark: A Life in Four Books'' by Alasdair Gray (Scotland) * ''Life A User's Manual'' by Georges Perec * ''The Book of Laughter and Forgetting'' by Milan Kundera * ''Jake's Thing'' by Kingsley Amis * ''The World According to Garp'' by John Irving (US) * ''1985 (Anthony Burgess novel), 1985'' by Anthony Burgess * ''Horatio Stubbs'' by Brian Aldiss - trilogy, first volume published in 1970 ''Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction'' *''The Emperor (book), The Emperor'' by Ryszard Kapuściński ''Genre fiction'' * ''Rumpole of the Bailey'' by John Mortimer (England) 1979 * ''A Bend in the River'' by V. S. Naipaul * ''The Unlimited Dream Company'' by J. G. Ballard * ''Sophie's Choice (novel), Sophie's Choice'' by William Styron (US) ''Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction'' * ''The White Album (book), The White Album'' by Joan Didion * ''The Right Stuff (book), The Right Stuff'' by Tom Wolfe (US) 1980 * ''The Name of the Rose'' by Umberto Eco * ''Pascali's Island (novel), Pascali's Island'' by Barry Unsworth (England) * ''Earthly Powers'' by Anthony Burgess 1981 * ''Midnight's Children'' by Salman Rushdie (India, UK) * ''The Comfort of Strangers'' by Ian McEwan (England) * ''The White Hotel'' by D. M. Thomas (England) * ''Chronicle of a Death Foretold'' by Gabriel García Márquez * ''What We Talk About When We Talk About Love'' by Raymond Carver (US) - short stories ''Genre fiction'' * ''The Red Dragon'' by Thomas Harris (US) * ''Gorky Park (novel), Gorky Park'' by Martin Cruz Smith (England, Russia) ''Non-fiction'' * ''Conversations with an Executioner'' by Kazimierz Moczarski (Poland) 1982 * ''Schindler's Ark'' by Thomas Keneally (Australia) * ''An Ice-Cream War'' by William Boyd (writer), William Boyd (Ghana, Scotland) * ''The Color Purple'' by Alice Walker (US) * ''A Wild Sheep Chase'' by Haruki Murakami ''Genre fiction'' * ''Prizzi's Honor (novel), Prizzi's Honor'' by Richard Condon * ''Limes inferior, Limes Inferior'' by Janusz A. Zajdel (Poland) 1983 * ''Waterland (novel), Waterland'' by Graham Swift (England) * ''Shame (Rushdie novel), Shame'' by Salman Rushdie * ''Erev'' by Eli Schechtman (USSR, Israel) ''Genre fiction'' * ''The Colour of Magic'' by Terry Pratchett (England) - first book of the ''Discworld'' series 1984 * ''Money (novel), Money'' by Martin Amis * ''Bright Lights, Big City (novel), Bright Lights, Big City'' by Jay McInerney (US) * ''The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' by Milan Kundera * ''Flaubert's Parrot'' by Julian Barnes (England) * ''Nights at the Circus'' by Angela Carter * ''Inside Mr. Enderby, Enderby'' by Anthony Burgess - tetrology, first volume published in 1963 * ''The Witches of Eastwick'' by John Updike ''Non-fiction'' * ''Empire of the Sun'' by J. G. Ballard 1985 * ''White Noise (novel), White Noise'' by Don DeLillo (US) * ''Less than Zero (novel), Less than Zero'' by Bret Easton Ellis (US) * ''Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'' by Jeanette Winterson (England) * ''The Accidental Tourist'' by Anne Tyler (US) * ''Hawksmoor (novel), Hawksmoor'' by Peter Ackroyd (England) * ''Illywhacker'' by Peter Carey (novelist), Peter Carey (Australia) * ''The Kingdom of the Wicked'' by Anthony Burgess ''Genre fiction'' * ''L.A. Quartet'' by James Ellroy (US) - tetrology, first volume published 1984 * ''The Handmaid's Tale'' by Margaret Atwood - (US) 1986 * ''Slaves of New York'' by Tama Janowitz (US) * ''The Old Devils'' by Kingsley Amis * ''An Artist of the Floating World'' by Kazuo Ishiguro (Japan, UK) ''Non-fiction'' * ''Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature'' by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o 1987 * ''The Satanic Verses'' by Salman Rushdie * ''The Bonfire of the Vanities'' by Tom Wolfe * ''Anthills of the Savannah'' by Chinua Achebe * ''The Alchemist (novel), The Alchemist'' by Paulo Coelho (Brasil) ''Genre fiction'' * ''Presumed Innocent (novel), Presumed Innocent'' by Scott Turow (US) 1988 * ''Mother London'' by Michael Moorcock * ''Libra (novel), Libra'' by Don DeLillo * ''Oscar and Lucinda'' by Peter Carey (novelist), Peter Carey (Australia) * ''Love in the Time of Cholera'' by Gabriel García Márquez ''Genre fiction'' * ''Sprawl trilogy, Sprawl'' by William Gibson (Canada, US) - trilogy, first volume published 1984 1989 * ''London Fields'' by Martin Amis * ''Foucault's Pendulum'' by Umberto Eco * ''The Remains of the Day'' by Kazuo Ishiguro * ''To the Ends of the Earth'' by William Golding - trilogy, first volume published 1980 * ''The Book of Evidence'' by John Banville (Ireland) * ''The Trick of It'' by Michael Frayn


1990s

*''The English Patient'' by Michael Ondaatje *Slam poetry 1990 * ''The New York Trilogy'' by Paul Auster (US) - first volume published 1985 * ''The Black Book (Pamuk novel), The Black Book'' by Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) * ''Restoration (Tremain novel), Restoration'' by Rose Tremain (England) * ''Possession (Byatt novel), Possession'' by A. S. Byatt (England) * ''The Buddha of Suburbia (novel), The Buddha of Suburbia'' by Hanif Kureishi (England) * ''Dirty Weekend (novel), Dirty Weekend'' by Helen Zahavi (England) ''Genre fiction'' * ''Devil in a Blue Dress'' by Walter Mosley (US) * ''Good Omens'' by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett 1991 * ''Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'' by Douglas Coupland (Canada) 1994 * ''Blood of Elves'' by Andrzej Sapkowski (Poland) 1996 * ''Infinite Jest'' by David Foster Wallace (US) 1997 * ''Underworld (DeLillo novel), Underworld'' by Don DeLillo (US) * ''American Pastoral'' by Philip Roth * ''Nightmare (Topčić novel), Nightmare'' by Zlatko Topčić * ''Into Thin Air'' by Jon Krakauer ''Genre fiction'' * ''Northern Lights (Pullman novel), Northern Lights'' by Philip Pullman (UK) - first in ''His Dark Materials'' trilogy * ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' by J. K. Rowling (UK) - first in series


See also

* American literature * Experimental literature * French literature of the 20th century * List of 20th-century writers * Literary modernism * Twentieth-century English literature * 20th-century music * 20th century in poetry


References


External links


''Discovering Literature: 20th century''
at the British Library {{DEFAULTSORT:20th Century In Literature 20th-century literature,