BBC Culture recently asked writers and critics from around the globe to pick the stories that have endured across generations and continents – and changed society. Lead CI Larissa McLean Davies and other experts provided their top 5 books (fiction only!) to the BBC for this research.
The top 5:
1. The Odyssey (Homer, 8th Century BC)
2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852)
3. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818)
4. Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell, 1949)
5. Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe, 1958)
Larissa’s top 5:
1. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)
2. My Brilliant Career (Miles Franklin, 1901)
3. Monkey Grip (Helen Garner, 1977)
4. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood, 1985)
5. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1861)
For more information visit the BBC website by clicking here.
