JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has claimed the top spot in the Guardian’s readers’ poll of the 100 greatest novels published in English, displacing George Eliot’s Middlemarch, which topped the critics’ list. Thousands of votes from around the world placed the hobbits first, with readers from Uruguay to the Isle of Skye, Albuquerque to Sydney championing the epic fantasy.
Andrea Clark from Courtland, Alabama, explained her vote: “It has profound meaning about the importance of life, sacrifice, the natural world, corruption of power, the evils of war, generosity of spirit – and a lot more. I don’t know of any novel that is reread so often by so many as this one.” The trilogy resonated across age groups and professions, from a retired primatologist in New Mexico to a farmer in Hawaii and a violinist in Cardiff. Geri, voting from Paris, described how she “absorbed” English through the book: “Every evening after work I read page after page and was submerged in words, poems, descriptions of a world that still persists in my memory.”
The poll also highlighted the enduring appeal of novels encountered in youth, such as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, and Richard Adams’s Watership Down. Jane Austen emerged as the most nominated author overall, though Emma slipped behind modern works like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, Ian McEwan’s Atonement, and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Film adaptations boosted classics such as Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Tolkien’s own works.
Notable absences from both critics’ and readers’ lists included Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, John Updike, and Don DeLillo, suggesting shifting literary tastes. However, Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove and John Williams’s Stoner have seen renewed popularity. The poll underscores the power of fantasy and childhood reading in shaping literary canons.
