Is there a (fiction) novel that is universally acclaimed and loved?

@JaneyGee isn’t Tom Jones about 800 pages long?

I threw it away about 3/4 in and I only persisted that long because I was travelling and had no other book. Did not enjoy.

I hated the Bee Sting and stopped reading it and gave it away. It was the rambling of one of the characters, the way it was written stressed me out.

I love this thread so much and am making a list. Thank you.

John Irving Books - A Prayer for Owen Meany?

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? When I've recommended it, everybody has loved it.

Haven't read the full thread so might have been recommended already.

Dictionary of lost words by Pip Williams or its companion novel, Bookbinder of Jericho.

Also second Month in the country. Beautiful.

I know, how did the author make it so believable! Just brilliant.

I loved Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Also a huge fan of The Age of Innocence!

Much better than the miniaturist but set at a similar time in the Netherlands was ‘the words in my hand’ by Guinevere Galsfurd - this was universally loved by our book club. Not super well known, should be more so.

More recently, we all very much enjoyed Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake.

We don’t generally all agree!

enjoy the book club, OP.

Thank you for this thread, I am saving all of these titles for future reference. Finally getting back into reading after finally coming out of the brain dead fog of babies and toddlers!

Any of the following are truly great works:

Henry Fielding: Tom Jones
Daniel Defoe: Moll Flanders
Jane Austen (anything)
Thackeray: Vanity Fair
Dickens: Bleak House
Wilde: Dorian Gray
Bronte: Jane Eyre
D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers
Ford Madox Ford: Parade's End
Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited

How about suggesting Powell's Dance to the Music of Time? McEwan's Atonement, Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5, Capote's In Cold Blood, Edward St Aubyn's Melrose novels, Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.

How about some French or German classics? Proust might be a bit too much. Maybe Madame Bovary or The Magic Mountain? Or an Italian classic like Lampedusa's The Leopard?

I do think you need to go for something quite contemporary as I would imagine an English Teacher will have read a lot of the suggestions. I second:

Pirenesi
Trespasses
The Bee Sting
and maybe Demon Copperhead which is newer than Poisonwood Bible so maybe less well read? Still Kingsolver at her best and is a modern take on David Copperfield so lots to discuss.

For a less recent suggestion, how about Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. An absolutely beautiful (though devastating) book.

Or local book shops. Two of those closest to me run them.

I recently discovered O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker - recommended by Maggie O'Farrell - and couldn't put it down. It would be great for a book group I think, and not long either as a bonus.

Cecelia Ahern writes books that are like modern fairy tales. They will never win literary prises but always cheer me up.

I love Du Maurier too. Our book group really enjoyed her "House on the Strand".

The Mermaid of Black Conch was brilliant @hazandduck and not what I was expecting. I really liked Still Life but a couple of people at book club weren't impressed.

If we going to try French books - not sure of all the English titles btw.
1.Herve Bazin
Le Matrimoine. (A description of a marriage.)

2.Honore de Balzac.
Le Lys dans la Vallée. (The Lily in the Valley - a good mother.)
Le Pere Goriot ( Old Goriot - a father's relationship with 2 selfish, social climbing daughters.)

or any of his books.

3.Andre Malraux
La Condition Humaine ( Man's Fate - the failed 1927 insurrection in Shanghai. and its aftermath.)
Gripping. I'm not sure you'd want to reread it too often. It's haunted me for years.

4.Colette
Claudine a l'ecole. (Claudine at school or any of the Claudine stories).
Les Vrilles de la Vigne ( the Tendrils of the Vine ) Collection of short stories. Based on her life in the theatre etc. She was the first woman to appear nude on stage btw.

Yes to Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers. The ending reminded me of Villette. Heartbreaking! I loved that book so much. It’s just beautiful.

I second Still Life as a conversation starter and ideal for a book club but it is long. I liked it but it got repetitive and should’ve been 200 pages shorter imo.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever read. I closed it and said to myself “that is a perfect book.” Not a single unnecessary word in it. Ah so good! It’s a novella, you could read it in one sitting easily!

I recently read The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey which I thought was excellent. Got totally lost in that world. Not long either.

Autumn by Ali Smith. Lots to unpick and discuss and a pretty short book.

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. Cried like a baby!

I will always recommend Summer Sisters by Judy Blume to everyone and anyone who will listen. It’s my favourite book of all time and I feel every girl/woman should read it once. It’s like a hug for me, I read it whenever I am sad and it’s like seeing old friends.

Just realised all these books are by women 😂 I do read male authors sometimes 😄

Ok hmm…a man recommendation - sorry it’s a classic, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. I feel like D H Lawrence is often dismissed for being smutty and yeah he drops the c-bomb a lot but having picked it up recently my mind was blown by how wonderfully he writes and encapsulates the pain and damage of his generation, and that feeling of needing to really live. It’s a shame the sex side of things took away attention somewhat from his talent as a writer.

Glad you love that one OP! It's easily one of my top 3 favourite even so many years later

Have you read The Shack? I've never fancied it but seen lots of people raving about that one

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
Any of the Morse books by Colin Dexter

Thanks JIMSA I'll ask there 😊

Flowers for Algernon

I found Circe rather dull 😬

Sorry to derail a bit but how do you join a reading group?