Embrace Your Inner Anglophile: Top 10 British Novels
What do book critics outside of the United Kingdom consider the greatest British novel of all time? Hint: The book was written by a woman who used a male pen name.
“Middlemarch” by George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans) is at the top of a list of 100 books considered the greatest British novels by 82 book critics from around the world, excluding the U.K. The list was based on a survey conducted by BBC Culture.
Top 10 British Novels
You don’t have to be a “Downton Abbey” or a Kate Middleton fan to be an Anglophile. If you like fiction, there’s an overabundance of excellent British novels to help transform you into an Anglophile.
As for me, here are 10 of my favorite British novels and their rankings on the BBC Culture list. Two of my picks are not on the list.
- “The End of the Affair” by Graham Greene, 1951 (#31 on BBC Culture List)
- “A Room with a View” by E.M. Forster, 1908 (#32)
- “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, 1813, ( #11)
- “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf, 1925, (#3)
- “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë, 1847, (#5)
- “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” by Thomas Hardy, 1891, (#51)
- “Middlemarch” by George Eliot, 1874, (#1)
- “Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens, 1859, (Not on BBC Culture list)
- “The Painted Veil” by W. Somerset Maugham, 1925, (Not on BBC Culture list)
- “Atonement” by Ian McEwan, 2001, (#15)
What are your favorite British novels? View the BBC Culture list here and see if your favorites made it on the list.
Read these fiction-related lists:
Top 10 Underrated Novels You Should Read
Top 9 Female Literary Characters
Top 10 Places in Literature that will Trigger Your Wanderlust