The Greatest American Novels
List of some of the best American novels from classic writers, like Nathaniel Hawthorne, to more modern names, like Stephen King, with room for the list to grow. There is an option to add your favorite American novels to the list if yours is not already on there.
The list asks the question, "What is the best American novel?" with novels from William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Philip Roth and Nathaniel Hawthorne, plus many more that have written great American novels since then. More modern American novels are included, such as The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The Stand by Stephen King, which may be more familiar.
American novels can represent the spirit of the age in the United States during the time it was written or the time it was set in. The American novel is written by those who are knowledgeable about the state, culture and even the perspective of those during that time.
Some of these best American novels may have also been on the reading curriculum in school, like Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien or To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Be sure to vote not just on your favorite authors, but on your favorite novel of all time, as some authors may be listed twice for other novels that are considered the best.- 1Mark Twain
- First Published: 1884-12
- Subjects: Popular literature, Education, 19th century, Slavery, Mississippi River
- Genres (Book): Humour, Satire, Children's literature, Fiction, Adventure fiction
- Original Language: English Language
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain, first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. Commonly named among the Great American ...more - 2Harper Lee
- First Published: 1960-07-11
- Subjects: Monarch, Literary, Literature, Classics, Drama
- Genres (Book): Fiction
- Original Language: English Language
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and ...more - 3John Steinbeck
- First Published: 1939
- Subjects: California, Great Depression in the United States, Dust Bowl, Oklahoma
- Genres (Book): Novel
- Original Language: English Language
The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently ...more - 4John Steinbeck
- First Published: 1937
- Subjects: California, Drama
- Genres (Book): Novella
- Original Language: English Language
Of Mice and Men is a novella written by Nobel Prize–winning author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it tells the story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who ...more - 5F. Scott Fitzgerald
- First Published: 1925-04-10
- Subjects: Music, Literary, Education, Revenge, Jazz Age
- Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
- Original Language: English Language
The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of ...more - 6Herman Melville
- First Published: 1851-10-18
- Subjects: Whaling, Popular literature, Literary, Education, Literature
- Genres (Book): Fiction, Sea story, Adventure fiction
- Original Language: English Language
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a novel by Herman Melville considered an outstanding work of Romanticism and the American Renaissance. Ishmael narrates the monomaniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the ...more
