What do you consider "The Great British Novel"?

The "Great American Novel" thread has been one of the better ones in this forum in quite a while. There, it has been pointed out that the phrase has a specialized meaning, promulgated about 150 years ago, in an effort to separate American fiction from the European tradition.

But, some fair questions were asked there about "The Great" novel from other nationalities, so I thought a stab at what would be considered "The Great British Novel" might be fun. My suggested criteria would be that the novel have clear identity with the nation of origin, be hugely original, and have unmistakable and continuing influence over subsequent work.

After some thinking, I'll nominate:

Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding

Other contenders would, of course, be:

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens (or three or four others by Dickens)
Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray

Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne, may also be suggested, but I think that falls into the same category as Moby Dick in the American milieu, a unique work, influential, but something of an outlier. Similarly, Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift.

caw

crunchyblanket said:

Brighton Rock.

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Great novel, by any standard, one of Greene's finest, no doubt. You could put The Ministry of Fear and The Human Factor high on his list, as well.

But, this being my thread, harken back to the criteria set up in the OP. It isn't about "my favorite" British novel. It's about the really seminal works, those that established something new and lasting for subsequent writers.

And I never expected unanimity. I am mainly curious to see what works get thought of, and WHY.

I selected an early work as my nominee, mainly for that reason. I think Tom Jones represents a huge milestone in the literary history of Britain, meeting those criteria about as well as any other work.

This tends, I realize, to downplay the role of novels written in the past century or so, many of which are unquestionably great works. A couple have been mentioned, which merit some further comment.

Notably 1984, which was hugely influential. But it had two major predecessors, the Russian We, by Evgeny Zamyatin, and Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.

However, just for grins, I'll suggest several somewhat later British works that merit notice for the criteria I first suggested:

Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad
To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
Howards End, by E.M. Forster

I'm tempted to add The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells, as the genesis of modern SF writing, but that influence is more narrow and specialized to the genre, rather than broadly influencing a wider spectrum of later work.

caw

little_e said:

Shakespeare.

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Shakespeare wrote zero novels.

caw