Greatest Novels: Top Picks Revealed!

A global poll of over 170 authors, critics, and academics has determined George Eliot's Middlemarch as the greatest novel ever written. This comprehensive list, compiled by The Guardian, showcases a notable rise in female authors, with 36 out of 100 novels attributed to women, a marked increase from previous iterations. The initiative aims to address a concerning decline in reading for pleasure, with half of UK adults reporting they never read.

Middlemarch is lauded for its exploration of love, faith, and power, while Toni Morrison's Beloved secures the second position for its profound depiction of enslaved people's experiences. Virginia Woolf is the most featured author, with five novels on the list, including To the Lighthouse at No. 4. The list acknowledges literary leviathans like War and Peace and Ulysses but also celebrates concise masterpieces such as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.