Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939 — A Personal Choice is an essay by British writer Anthony Burgess, published by Allison & Busby in 1984. It covers a 44-year span between 1939 and 1983. Burgess was a prolific reader, in his early career reviewing more than 350 novels in just over two years for The Yorkshire Post. In the course of his career he wrote more than 30 novels. The list represents his choices; in an interview with Don Swaim,[1] Burgess revealed that the book was originally commissioned by a Nigerian publishing company and written in two weeks.
| scope=col | Author | scope=col | Title | scope=col | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row data-sort-value="Achebe" | Chinua Achebe | A Man of the People | 1966 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Aldiss" | Brian Aldiss | Life in the West | 1980 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Amis" | Kingsley Amis | Lucky Jim | 1954 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Amis" | Kingsley Amis | The Anti-Death League | 1966 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Baldwin" | James Baldwin | Another Country | 1962 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Ballard" | J. G. Ballard | The Unlimited Dream Company | 1979 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Barth" | John Barth | Giles Goat-Boy | 1966 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Bellow" | Saul Bellow | The Victim | 1947 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Bellow" | Saul Bellow | Humboldt's Gift | 1975 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Bowen" | Elizabeth Bowen | The Heat of the Day | 1949 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Bradbury" | Malcolm Bradbury | The History Man | 1975 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Braine" | John Braine | Room at the Top | 1957 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Cary" | Joyce Cary | The Horse's Mouth | 1944 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Chandler" | Raymond Chandler | The Long Goodbye | 1953 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Compton-Burnett" | Ivy Compton-Burnett | The Mighty and Their Fall | 1961 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Cooper" | William Cooper | Scenes from Provincial Life | 1950 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Davies" | Robertson Davies | The Rebel Angels | 1982 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Deighton" | Len Deighton | Bomber | 1970 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Durrell" | Lawrence Durrell | The Alexandria Quartet | 1957 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Ellison" | Ralph Ellison | Invisible Man | 1952 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Faulkner" | William Faulkner | The Mansion | 1959 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Fleming" | Ian Fleming | Goldfinger | 1959 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Fowles" | John Fowles | The French Lieutenant's Woman | 1969 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Frayn" | Michael Frayn | Sweet Dreams | 1973 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Golding" | William Golding | The Spire | 1964 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Gordimer" | Nadine Gordimer | The Late Bourgeois World | 1966 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Gray" | Alasdair Gray | Lanark | 1981 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Green" | Henry Green | Party Going | 1939 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Greene" | Graham Greene | The Power and the Glory | 1940 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Greene" | Graham Greene | The Heart of the Matter | 1948 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Harris" | Wilson Harris | Heartland | 1964 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Hartley" | L. P. Hartley | Facial Justice | 1960 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Heller" | Joseph Heller | Catch-22 | 1961 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Hemingway" | Ernest Hemingway | For Whom the Bell Tolls | 1940 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Hemingway" | Ernest Hemingway | The Old Man and the Sea | 1952 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Hoban" | Russell Hoban | Riddley Walker | 1980 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Hughes" | Richard Hughes | The Fox in the Attic | 1961 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Huxley" | Aldous Huxley | After Many a Summer | 1939 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Huxley" | Aldous Huxley | Ape and Essence | 1948 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Huxley" | Aldous Huxley | Island | 1962 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Isherwood" | Christopher Isherwood | A Single Man | 1964 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Johnson" | Pamela Hansford Johnson | An Error of Judgement | 1962 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Jong" | Erica Jong | How to Save Your Own Life | 1977 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Joyce" | James Joyce | Finnegans Wake | 1939 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Lessing" | Doris Lessing | The Golden Notebook | 1962 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Lodge" | David Lodge | How Far Can You Go? | 1980 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Lowry" | Malcolm Lowry | Under the Volcano | 1947 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="MacInnes" | Colin MacInnes | The London Novels | 1957 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Mailer" | Norman Mailer | The Naked and the Dead | 1948 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Mailer" | Norman Mailer | Ancient Evenings | 1983 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Malamud" | Bernard Malamud | The Assistant | 1957 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Malamud" | Bernard Malamud | Dubin's Lives | 1979 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Manning" | Olivia Manning | The Balkan Trilogy | 1960 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Maugham" | W. Somerset Maugham | The Razor's Edge | 1944 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="McCarthy" | Mary McCarthy | The Groves of Academe | 1952 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Moore" | Brian Moore | The Doctor's Wife | 1976 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Murdoch" | Iris Murdoch | The Bell | 1958 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Nabokov" | Vladimir Nabokov | Pale Fire | 1962 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Nabokov" | Vladimir Nabokov | The Defense | 1964 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Naipaul" | V. S. Naipaul | A Bend in the River | 1979 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Narayan" | R. K. Narayan | The Vendor of Sweets | 1967 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Nye" | Robert Nye | Falstaff | 1976 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="O'Brien" | Flann O'Brien | At Swim-Two-Birds | 1939 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="O'Connor" | Flannery O'Connor | Wise Blood | 1952 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="O'Hara" | John O'Hara | The Lockwood Concern | 1965 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Orwell" | George Orwell | Nineteen Eighty-Four | 1949 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Peake" | Mervyn Peake | Titus Groan | 1946 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Percy" | Walker Percy | The Last Gentleman | 1966 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Plunkett" | James Plunkett | Farewell Companions | 1977 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Powell" | Anthony Powell | A Dance to the Music of Time | 1951 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Priestley" | J. B. Priestley | The Image Men | 1968 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Pynchon" | Thomas Pynchon | Gravity's Rainbow | 1973 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Richler" | Mordecai Richler | Cocksure | 1968 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Roberts" | Keith Roberts | Pavane | 1968 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Roth" | Philip Roth | Portnoy's Complaint | 1969 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Salinger" | J. D. Salinger | The Catcher in the Rye | 1951 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Sansom" | William Sansom | The Body | 1949 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Schulberg" | Budd Schulberg | The Disenchanted | 1950 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Scott" | Paul Mark Scott | Staying On | 1977 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Shute" | Nevil Shute | No Highway | 1948 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Sillitoe" | Alan Sillitoe | Saturday Night and Sunday Morning | 1958 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Snow" | C. P. Snow | Strangers and Brothers | 1940 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Spark" | Muriel Spark | The Girls of Slender Means | 1963 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Spark" | Muriel Spark | The Mandelbaum Gate | 1965 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Styron" | William Styron | Sophie's Choice | 1979 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Theroux, A" | Alexander Theroux | Darconville's Cat | 1981 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Theroux, P" | Paul Theroux | The Mosquito Coast | 1981 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Toole" | John Kennedy Toole | A Confederacy of Dunces | 1980 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Updike" | John Updike | The Coup | 1978 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Vidal" | Gore Vidal | Creation | 1981 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Warner" | Rex Warner | The Aerodrome | 1941 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Waugh" | Evelyn Waugh | Brideshead Revisited | 1945 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Waugh" | Evelyn Waugh | Sword of Honour | 1952 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="White, T" | T. H. White | The Once and Future King | 1958 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="White, P" | Patrick White | Riders in the Chariot | 1961 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Williamson" | Henry Williamson | A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight | 1951 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Wilson" | Angus Wilson | The Old Men at the Zoo | 1961 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Wilson" | Angus Wilson | Late Call | 1964 | ||
| scope=row data-sort-value="Wouk" | Herman Wouk | The Caine Mutiny | 1951 |