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Penguin Essentials Collection
This collection includes the titles of the 20th century considered the most vital to a personal library, all in a beautiful, compact format.
Score
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 1 |
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The Great Gatsby
by
3.93 avg rating — 5,779,314 ratings
score: 551,
and
6 people voted
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| 2 |
|
A Clockwork Orange
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 757,824 ratings
score: 485,
and
5 people voted
|
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| 3 |
|
Invisible Man
by
3.92 avg rating — 199,643 ratings
score: 483,
and
5 people voted
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| 4 |
|
Tender Is The Night
by
3.77 avg rating — 147,619 ratings
score: 440,
and
5 people voted
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| 5 |
|
Dubliners
by
3.84 avg rating — 171,649 ratings
score: 418,
and
5 people voted
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| 6 |
|
The Man in the High Castle
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3.59 avg rating — 231,024 ratings
score: 406,
and
5 people voted
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| 7 |
|
Lolita
by
3.87 avg rating — 926,339 ratings
score: 392,
and
4 people voted
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| 8 |
|
A Room with a View
by
3.89 avg rating — 198,881 ratings
score: 379,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 9 |
|
The Day of the Triffids
by
4.01 avg rating — 115,822 ratings
score: 376,
and
5 people voted
|
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| 10 |
|
Breakfast at Tiffany's
by
3.83 avg rating — 288,309 ratings
score: 370,
and
4 people voted
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| 10 |
|
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
by
4.04 avg rating — 536,391 ratings
score: 370,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 12 |
|
The Thin Man
by
3.90 avg rating — 37,646 ratings
score: 368,
and
4 people voted
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| 13 |
|
On the Road
by
3.61 avg rating — 441,540 ratings
score: 349,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 14 |
|
Cold Comfort Farm
by
3.88 avg rating — 54,154 ratings
score: 346,
and
4 people voted
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| 15 |
|
Hideous Kinky
by
3.52 avg rating — 4,068 ratings
score: 345,
and
4 people voted
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| 16 |
|
The Diary of a Nobody
by
3.69 avg rating — 17,803 ratings
score: 344,
and
4 people voted
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| 17 |
|
The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)
by
3.94 avg rating — 166,288 ratings
score: 341,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 18 |
|
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by
3.70 avg rating — 59,801 ratings
score: 334,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 19 |
|
Wide Sargasso Sea
by
3.59 avg rating — 104,352 ratings
score: 323,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 20 |
|
Steppenwolf
by
4.13 avg rating — 209,168 ratings
score: 319,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 21 |
|
Brideshead Revisited
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 124,575 ratings
score: 318,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 22 |
|
Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog
by
3.83 avg rating — 78,853 ratings
score: 308,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 23 |
|
Lucky Jim
by
3.75 avg rating — 31,649 ratings
score: 303,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 24 |
|
Love in the Time of Cholera
by
3.94 avg rating — 539,082 ratings
score: 302,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 25 |
|
A Passage to India
by
3.68 avg rating — 84,787 ratings
score: 277,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 26 |
|
Mrs. Dalloway
by
3.78 avg rating — 346,456 ratings
score: 264,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 27 |
|
My Family and Other Animals (Corfu Trilogy, #1)
by
4.17 avg rating — 62,311 ratings
score: 258,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 28 |
|
In the Country of Men
by
3.75 avg rating — 7,428 ratings
score: 245,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 29 |
|
Cat's Cradle
by
4.15 avg rating — 430,852 ratings
score: 240,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 30 |
|
I'm the King of the Castle
by
3.49 avg rating — 3,684 ratings
score: 238,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 31 |
|
A Handful of Dust
by
3.89 avg rating — 28,469 ratings
score: 236,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 32 |
|
A Kestrel for a Knave
by
4.07 avg rating — 7,817 ratings
score: 230,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 33 |
|
Regeneration
by
4.02 avg rating — 33,216 ratings
score: 225,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 34 |
|
Out of Africa
by
Isak Dinesen (Pseudonym)
3.91 avg rating — 47,308 ratings
score: 223,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 35 |
|
Heart of Darkness
by
3.43 avg rating — 549,193 ratings
score: 221,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 36 |
|
In Cold Blood
by
4.09 avg rating — 715,337 ratings
score: 218,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 37 |
|
Everything is Illuminated
by
Jonathan Safran Foer (Goodreads Author)
3.89 avg rating — 183,143 ratings
score: 214,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 38 |
|
Moon Tiger
by
3.91 avg rating — 18,639 ratings
score: 184,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 39 |
|
A Month in the Country
by
4.09 avg rating — 24,843 ratings
score: 176,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 40 |
|
Bonjour Tristesse
by
3.74 avg rating — 69,091 ratings
score: 166,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 40 |
|
Billy Liar
by
3.72 avg rating — 2,259 ratings
score: 166,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 42 |
|
A Confederacy of Dunces
by
3.89 avg rating — 293,515 ratings
score: 162,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 43 |
|
The History of Love
by
3.92 avg rating — 139,728 ratings
score: 161,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 44 |
|
Eva Luna
by
Isabel Allende (Goodreads Author)
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 58,124 ratings
score: 157,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 45 |
|
Goodbye to All That
by
3.93 avg rating — 15,382 ratings
score: 152,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 46 |
|
Lady Chatterley's Lover
by
3.50 avg rating — 135,654 ratings
score: 149,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 47 |
|
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
by
4.09 avg rating — 123,381 ratings
score: 144,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 48 |
|
The Millstone
by
3.90 avg rating — 3,888 ratings
score: 129,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 49 |
|
Foe
by
3.42 avg rating — 12,299 ratings
score: 128,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 50 |
|
Junky
by
3.85 avg rating — 70,343 ratings
score: 123,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 51 |
|
Embers
by
3.99 avg rating — 42,034 ratings
score: 113,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 52 |
|
The Help
by
Kathryn Stockett (Goodreads Author)
4.47 avg rating — 2,977,497 ratings
score: 108,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 53 |
|
Asylum
by
3.97 avg rating — 39,630 ratings
score: 91,
and
1 person voted
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| 54 |
|
Hell's Angels
by
3.98 avg rating — 53,969 ratings
score: 82,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 55 |
|
The Mosquito Coast
by
3.81 avg rating — 13,724 ratings
score: 76,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 56 |
|
An Ice-cream War
by
3.92 avg rating — 4,420 ratings
score: 69,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 57 |
|
What a Carve Up!
by
Jonathan Coe (Goodreads Author)
4.11 avg rating — 12,871 ratings
score: 55,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 58 |
|
The Periodic Table
by
4.14 avg rating — 18,955 ratings
score: 48,
and
1 person voted
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| 59 |
|
How Many Miles to Babylon?
by
3.63 avg rating — 2,092 ratings
score: 45,
and
1 person voted
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59 books ·
10 voters ·
list created May 25th, 2016
by Not Well Read (votes) .
Not Well Read
3537 books
98 friends
98 friends
Sue
10658 books
82 friends
82 friends
Phillip
5728 books
139 friends
139 friends
Maria
5489 books
404 friends
404 friends
BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...)
5441 books
64 friends
64 friends
Saturday's
2227 books
67 friends
67 friends
Edmund
2159 books
6 friends
6 friends
Catherine
1185 books
5 friends
5 friends
More voters…
Comments Showing 1-3 of 3 (3 new)
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message 1:
by
BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...)
(new)
Apr 01, 2019 11:13AM
Is this the same as (the later) Penguin Essentials?
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Booklovinglady wrote: "Is this the same as (the later) Penguin Essentials?"It looks like they're the same to me, but the other one has some newer additions.
Erica wrote: "It looks like they're the same to me, but the other one has some newer additions."Thanks! I noticed it had more books on it than this one but I wasn't sure it was the same.
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