20 Novels that Changed the World

In the relatively short history of the Novel many have changed the lives of individuals, but (in my opinion) few have changed the world, or at least helped shape and change Society’s attitudes and values.  These are the novels that have, for the most part stood against persecution, de-humanisation and the exploitation of the many by the few. They have perhaps helped us evolve a little and remain as relevant today as when they were written.

I have drawn up a list of 20 novels. They are largely of my own choosing though I must thank Reine and Dovegreyreader for their valuable suggestions of titles I would otherwise have missed.

 

• “Robinson Crusoe” (1719) –  Daniel Defoe – Many books can lay claim to being the first novel and for shaping what came after, but “Robinson Crusoe” certainly popularised the form. By the end of the 19th century, no book in the history of western literature had been so widely translated or been printed in so many different versions, and the adaptations  still continue today. The novel also had a moral compass which challenged many of the commonly held values of the day.

• “A Christmas Carol” (1843) – Charles Dickens – Collectively Dickens’ novels had an undoubted impact on Victorian society by giving faces and voices to the poor. He perhaps more than any other writer changed his world and helped shape the future. Many of his novels could be included here, but I have chosen this novella because it is here that Dickens’ overall message is expressed most succinctly, at least for me, particularly when the Ghost of Christmas Present  reveals the two children and says, – “This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.“

• “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1851) –  Harriett Beecher Stowe  –  This book was the best-selling novel of the 19^th Century. It increased awareness of, and help change attitudes to slavery, eventually helping to bring about the abolition of slavery.

• “Ulysses” (1922) – James |Joyce – Probably the most definitive work of modernist fiction, not least for its use of stream of consciousness writing. It may not have changed the world, but it certainly changed the world of literature.

•  “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” (1928) – D.H. Lawrence – The novel that changed the laws of censorship. Penguin second edition, published in 1961 carried the following dedication,  “This edition is dedicated to the twelve jurors, three women and nine men, who returned a verdict of ‘Not Guilty’ and thus made D. H. Lawrence’s last novel available for the first time to the public in the United Kingdom.”

• “Brave New World” (1931) – Aldous Huxley – The novel demonstrates the loss of individual identity that can come through assembly line production, indoctrination and the abuse of technological “advancement.”

• “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1929) –  Eric Maria Remarque – One of the major themes of the novel is the difficulty of soldiers to revert to civilian life. Commenting in the preface Remarque says that  he,  “will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.” The book was banned and burned by the Nazis prior to the Second World War.

• “Testament of Youth” (1933) – Vera Brittain – Not strictly speaking a novel, but “Testament of Youth” was a biography that gave whole generations of “civilians” a new understanding of the impact of War. Up until its publication many still viewed war as a wholly heroic enterprise, without contemplating its effects on those who went through it, nor the suffering undergone by their families and loved ones.

• “The Grapes of Wrath” (1939) – John Steinbeck – The book was subject to many  public book-burnings,  but Steinbeck changed attitudes on the plight of the poor and migrants following the great depression. Steinbeck wrote, before writing the book: “I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this the Great Depression and its effects.”

• “The Citadel” (1937) – A.J. Cronin –  Exposed the inequity and incompetence of medical practice at the time. In the novel, Cronin advocated a free public health service in order to defeat the wiles of those doctors who he said “raised guinea-snatching and the bamboozling of patients to an art form.” It played a major role in the development of the National Health Service in the UK.

•  “The Little Prince” (1943) – Antoine de St Exupery – There are many novels which could be cited as providing guidance on a way of living or “spiritual” awareness. I chose this one because it is my favourite and because it communicates across generations and age groups.

• “Diary of a Young Girl” (1944) – Anne Frank – Ann Frank’s Diary stands as a symbol and reminder of the effects of persecution on ordinary lives and still communicates with young readers.

• “If This is a Man” (1948) – Primo Levi – Not just a testimony of suffering and cruelty in the concentration camps – but also a demonstration of how mankind can be dehumanised through degradation.

• “1984″ (1949) – George Orwell –  Gave us the concepts of “Big Brother” and “Doublethink.” Revealed the dangers of Nationalism, Censorship, Surveillance, Manipulation through propaganda and alerted people to the dangers of an over-powerful state and totalitarian government.

• “The Catcher in the Rye”  (1951) – J.D. Salinger – Adopted by generations of youngsters as the book that speaks to them and for them.  The anti-hero, Holden Caulfield, searches for a sense of belonging, and identity, in a Society in which he feels alienated.

• “Atlas Shrugged” (1957) – Ayn Rand – This book is not to my taste, but it has to be included because it helped found and sustain the new economics, which rejects ethical altruism in favour of unfettered capitalism, and  puts the concept of self, before society. Rand termed her philosophy “Objectivism”, describing its essence as “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life.”

• “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1960) – Harper Lee – Deals with issues of race and class discrimination, but in a way which is almost uniquely accessible to younger and older readers alike.

• “Catch 22” (1961) – Joseph Heller –  The novel plays with time-lines and perspectives in a very individual style and demonstrates better than many other books, the insanity of war. It also perhaps shows, that if not for their own absurdity and inefficiency mankind would have wiped themselves out years ago.

• “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” (1962) – by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Never before had an account of Stalinist repression been openly distributed in the Soviet Union. This book also forced Western countries to acknowledge their hypocrisy in ignoring breaches of  human rights behind the “iron-curtain.”

 

• “A Novel” (1962 to Now) – Unspecified because perhaps only time can judge which novel written in the last fifty years will have helped change the world and shape our futures?