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20th century
The 20th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar.
The British Empire, the Russian Empire, the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved in the first half of the century, with all but...
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Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1902 publication, it appeared as a three-part series (1899) in Blackwood's Magazine. It is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of the Western canon....
Copyright date:
- 1902
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The Screwtape Letters
The Screwtape Letters is a Christian apologetics novel written in epistolary style by C. S. Lewis, first published in book form in 1942. The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior tempter...
Copyright date:
- 1942
Date of first publication:
- 1942
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ISFDB ID:
- 4225
Goodbye to All That
Good-bye to All That is the autobiography of Robert Graves. First published in 1929, the work is a landmark anti-war memoir of life in the trenches during World War I. The title expresses Graves' disillusionment in the existence of traditional,...
Date of first publication:
- 1929
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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere) is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and published in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 (see 1798 in poetry...
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Around the World in Eighty Days
Around the World in Eighty Days (French: Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours) is a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet...
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The Gift of the Magi
"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story written by O. Henry (a pen name for William Sydney Porter), allegedly at Pete's Tavern on Irving Place in New York City.
James [Jim] Dillingham Young and his wife Della are a young couple who are very much in...
Date of first publication:
- 1906
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The World According to Garp
The World According to Garp is John Irving's fourth novel. Published in 1978, the book was a bestseller for several years.
A movie adaptation starring Robin Williams was released in 1982, with a screenplay written by Steve Tesich.
The story deals...
Date of first publication:
- 1978
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Down and Out in Paris and London
Down and Out in Paris and London, published in 1933, is the first full-length work by the English author George Orwell. It is a story in two parts on the theme of poverty in the two cities. The first part is a picaresque account of living on the...
Copyright date:
- 1933 ,
- 1961
Date of first publication:
- Jan 9, 1933
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The Forsyte Saga
The Forsyte Saga is a series of three novels and two interludes published between 1906 and 1921 by John Galsworthy. They chronicle the vicissitudes of the leading members of an upper-middle-class British family. Only a few generations removed from...
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On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is an autobiography and writing guide by Stephen King, published in 2000. It is a book about the prolific author's experiences as a writer. Although he discusses several of his books, one doesn't need to have read...
Copyright date:
- 2000
Date of first publication:
- Oct 3, 2000
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ISFDB ID:
- 103198
Hearts in Atlantis
Hearts in Atlantis (1999) is a collection of two novellas and three short stories by Stephen King, all connected to one another by recurring characters and taking place in roughly chronological order.
The stories are subtle conveyances of the Baby...
Copyright date:
- 1998
Date of first publication:
- Sep 14, 1999
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ISFDB ID:
- 20786
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II is a bestselling 1997 non-fiction book written by Iris Chang about the 1937–1938 Nanking Massacre, the massacre and atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army after it captured...
Date of first publication:
- 1997
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Homage to Catalonia
Homage to Catalonia is political journalist and novelist George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War, written in the first person. The first edition was published in 1938.
Orwell served as both a...
Copyright date:
- 1938
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Date of first publication:
- Apr 25, 1938
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Sons and Lovers
Sons and Lovers is a 1913 novel by the English writer D. H. Lawrence.
The third published novel of D. H. Lawrence, taken by many to be his earliest masterpiece, tells the story of Paul Morel, a young man and budding artist. Richard Aldington...
Date of first publication:
- 1913
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The Jungle
The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by author and journalist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote this novel to highlight the plight of the working class and to remove from obscurity the corruption of the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th...
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Date of first publication:
- Feb 28, 1906
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Date written:
- 1906
The Road to Wigan Pier
The Road to Wigan Pier was written by George Orwell and published in 1937. The first half of this work documents his sociological investigations of Lancashire and Yorkshire in the industrial north of England before World War II. The second half is a...
Copyright date:
- 1937
Date of first publication:
- Mar 8, 1937
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The Ghost Road
The Ghost Road is a novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1995 and winner of the Booker Prize. It is the third volume of a trilogy that follows the fortunes of shell-shocked British army officers towards the end of the First World War. The other...
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Clouds of Witness
Clouds of Witness is a 1926 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, the second in her series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.
It was adapted for television in 1972, as part of a series starring Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter. The film adaptation is more or less...
Date of first publication:
- Jun 1926
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Light in August
Light in August is a 1932 novel by the American author William Faulkner.
Light in August is an exploration of racial conflict in the society of the Southern United States. Originally Faulkner planned to call the novel Dark House, which also became...
Date of first publication:
- 1932
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High Fidelity
High Fidelity is a 1995 British novel by Nick Hornby. It was adapted into a 2000 film directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack. It also served as the basis for a 2006 Broadway musical of the same name.
Rob Fleming is a London record store...
Date of first publication:
- 1995
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Equus
Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer written in 1973, telling the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious/sexual fascination with horses.
Shaffer was inspired to write Equus when he heard of a crime...
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Goodbye, Columbus
Goodbye, Columbus (1959) is the title of the first book published by the American novelist Philip Roth, a collection of six stories.
In addition to its title novella, set in New Jersey, Goodbye, Columbus contains the five short stories "The...
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Arrow in the Blue
Arrow In The Blue is the title of an autobiography by Arthur Koestler covering the first twenty-six years of his life (1905-1931). It was published in 1952 by the publishers Collins with Hamish Hamilton Ltd. and has been reprinted several times.
The...
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Date of first publication:
- 1952
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Nine Stories
Nine Stories (1953) is a collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger released in April 1953. It includes two of his most famous short stories, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "For Esmé with Love and Squalor." (Nine...
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Date of first publication:
- May 1, 1953
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Little Lord Fauntleroy
Little Lord Fauntleroy is the first children's novel written by English–American playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was originally published as a serial in the St. Nicholas Magazine between November 1885 and October 1886, then as a...
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A Moveable Feast
A Moveable Feast is a set of memoirs by American author Ernest Hemingway about his years in Paris as part of the American expatriate circle of writers in the 1920s. In addition to painting a picture of Hemingway's time as a struggling young writer,...
Date of first publication:
- Dec 1964
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Testament of Youth
Testament of Youth is the first installment, covering 1900–1925, in the autobiography of Vera Brittain (1893-1970). It was published in 1933. Brittain's autobiography continues with Testament of Experience, published in 1957, and encompassing 1925...
Date of first publication:
- 1933
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Buddenbrooks
Buddenbrooks was Thomas Mann's first novel, published in 1901 when he was twenty-six years old. The publication of the 2nd edition in 1903 confirmed that Buddenbrooks was a major literary success in Germany.
It portrays the downfall (already...
Date of first publication:
- 1901
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Desperation
Desperation is a horror novel by Stephen King. It was published in 1996 at the same time as its "mirror" novel, The Regulators. It was made into a TV movie starring Ron Perlman, Tom Skeritt, and Steven Weber in 2006.
The two novels represent...
Copyright date:
- 1996
Date of first publication:
- Sep 24, 1996
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ISFDB ID:
- 3155
Fever Pitch
Fever Pitch (sometimes titled in the United States as Fever Pitch: A Fan's Life) is the title of a 1992 autobiographical book by British author Nick Hornby. The book is the basis for two films of the same name: a British film was released in 1997,...
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The Scramble for Africa
There are a number of books bearing the title "Scramble for Africa", including:
The Scramble for Africa: The White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912 is a comprehensive and popular history of the Scramble for Africa by Thomas...
Author:
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is a collection of essays by Candace Bushnell based on her and her friends' lifestyles. It was first published in 1997, and re-published in 2001, 2006, and in 2008 as 10th anniversary movie tie-in edition.
The book is an anthology...
Copyright date:
- 2000
Date of first publication:
- Aug 1, 1997
Original language:
Author:
ISFDB ID:
- 30533
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is a satirical book on American politics by left-wing comedian, political commentator and now Senator Al Franken, published in 2003 by Dutton, a subsidiary in the Penguin Group. Franken had a study group of...
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Date of first publication:
- 2003
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History of United States Naval Operations in World War II
The History of United States Naval Operations in World War II is a 15-volume account of the United States Navy in World War II, written by eminent historian Samuel Eliot Morison and published by Little, Brown and Company between 1947 and 1962....
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Crashing the Party: How to Tell the Truth and Still Run for President
Crashing the Party is a 2002 book by Ralph Nader detailing his experiences running in the 2000 US Presidential Election. It is told chronologically and in the first person.
Nader maintains an unapologetic tone throughout the book and tells why he...
Date of first publication:
- 2002
Author:
Vile Bodies
Vile Bodies is a 1930 novel by Evelyn Waugh satirising decadent young London society between World War I and World War II. The title comes from the Epistle to the Philippians 3:21. The book was originally to be called "Bright Young Things" (which...
Copyright date:
- 1930
Next in series:
Date of first publication:
- 1930
Original language:
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ISFDB ID:
- 268771
Maus
Maus: A Survivor's Tale is an autobiography by Art Spiegelman, told using the comics form. Parts of the story were originally published in the magazine RAW between 1980 to 1991. The complete story was published in two volumes: the first in 1986 ("My...
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Diary of an Ordinary Woman
Diary of an Ordinary Woman is the 'edited' diary of fictional woman Millicent King (1901-1995). Written by Margaret Forster.
From the age of thirteen, on the eve of the Great War, Millicent King keeps her journals in a series of exercise books. The...
Date of first publication:
- Mar 6, 2003
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Visions of Cody
Visions of Cody is a novel by Jack Kerouac, perhaps his most stylistically free and varied. It was written in 1951-1952, and though not published in its entirety until 1973, it had by then achieved an underground reputation. Since its first printing...
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Cadillac Desert
Cadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner, is a 1986 book (ISBN 0-14-017824-4) about land development and water policy in the western United States. Subtitled The American West and its Disappearing Water, it gives the history of the Bureau of Reclamation and...
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Black Boy
Black Boy (1945) is an autobiography by Richard Wright. Depicting Wright's life in great detail, the book tells the story of his troubled youth and race relations in the South. It is about the struggles that many of his race had to go through to...
Date of first publication:
- 1945
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Night
Night is a work by Elie Wiesel based on his experience, as a young Orthodox Jew, of being sent with his family to the German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during the Second World War.
Wiesel was 16 years old when Buchenwald was...
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The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was initially published in serial format starting in autumn 1910; the book was first published in its entirety in 1911.
Its working title was Mistress Mary, in reference to the English...
Copyright date:
- 1909
Date of first publication:
- 1909
Original language:
Author:
ISFDB ID:
- 13434
Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo
Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo is the first novel by Oscar Zeta Acosta and it focuses on his own self-discovery in a fictionalized manner. An autobiography, the plot presents an alienated lawyer of Mexican descent, who works in an Oakland,...
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Date of first publication:
- 1972
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Author:
The Dangerous Summer
The Dangerous Summer is a book written by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1985, which describes the rivalry between bullfighters Luis Miguel Dominguín and his brother in law Antonio Ordóñez during the "dangerous summer" of 1959. It has been described...
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The Awakening
The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899 (see 1899 in literature). Set in New Orleans and the Southern Louisiana coast at the end of the nineteenth century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile...
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Bridge to Terabithia
Bridge to Terabithia is a work of children's literature about two lonely children who create a magical forest kingdom. The author is Katherine Paterson, and the book was published in 1977 by HarperCollins. In 1978, it won the Newbery Medal. Paterson...
Copyright date:
- 1977
Date of first publication:
- Oct 21, 1977
Original language:
ISFDB ID:
- 24282
The Fifth Child
The Fifth Child is a novel by Nobel Prize-winner Doris Lessing, first published in the United Kingdom in 1988, and since translated into a number of languages. The book describes the changes in the happy life of a married couple, Harriet and David...
Copyright date:
- 1988
Date of first publication:
- 1988
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ISFDB ID:
- 184917
Subjects:
Night of the Aurochs
Night of the Aurochs is an unfinished novel by Dalton Trumbo (died 1976), published posthumously in 1979.
Aurochs is an attempt by Trumbo to tell the tale of World War II through the eyes of a Nazi by the name of Grieban, commandant of the...
Date of first publication:
- 1979
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Against Interpretation
Against Interpretation and Other Essays is a collection of essays by Susan Sontag which was published in 1966. It includes some of Sontag's best-known works, including "On Style", "Notes on 'Camp'", and the titular essay "Against Interpretation". In...
Date of first publication:
- 1966
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Death in the Afternoon
Death in the Afternoon is a non-fiction book by Ernest Hemingway about the ceremony and traditions of Spanish bullfighting. It was originally published in 1932. The book provides a look at the history and magnificence of bullfighting, while also...
Date of first publication:
- 1932
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Hegemony or Survival
Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, published November 2003, is a book by Noam Chomsky, a macroscopic view of United States foreign policy from World War II to the post-Iraq War reconstruction. The central focus of the book ...
Copyright date:
- 2003
Date of first publication:
- Nov 2003
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National Velvet
National Velvet is a novel by Enid Bagnold (1889 - 1981), first published in 1935.
National Velvet is the story of a 14 year old girl, Velvet Brown, who rides her horse to victory in the Grand National steeplechase. The fictional horse which Velvet...
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The Tao of Pooh
The Tao of Pooh is a book written by Benjamin Hoff. The book is an introduction to Taoism, using the fictional character of Winnie the Pooh. Hoff also wrote The Te of Piglet, a companion book.
Hoff uses Winnie the Pooh and the other characters from...
Date of first publication:
- 1982
Author:
The Magic Mountain
The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg) is a novel by Thomas Mann, first published in November 1924. It is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of 20th century German literature.
Mann started writing what was to become The Magic...
Date of first publication:
- 1924
Author:
The End of the Affair
The End of the Affair (1951) is a novel by British author Graham Greene, as well as the title of two feature films (released in 1955 and 1999) that were adapted for the screen based on the novel.
Set in London during and just after World War II, the...
Copyright date:
- 1951
Original language:
Author:
ISFDB ID:
- 185374
The Faces of Janus
The Faces of Janus is a book by A. James Gregor which asserts that there are fundamental errors in Marxist analyses of fascism. He argues that the political spectrum identifying the Left as progressive and the Right as reactionary was (in the words...
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Palestine
Palestine is a graphic novel written and drawn by Joe Sacco about his experiences in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in December 1991 and January 1992. Sacco gives a portrayal which emphasizes the history and plight of the Palestinian people, as a...
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Dubliners
Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. The fifteen stories were meant to be a naturalistic depiction of the Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century.
The...
Date of first publication:
- 1914
Original language:
Author:
Previous in series:
The Drowned and the Saved
The Drowned and the Saved is a book of essays on life in the Nazi Vernichtungslager (extermination camps) by Italian-Jewish author and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi, drawing on his personal experience as an inmate of Auschwitz. Whereas If This is a...
Date of first publication:
- 1988
