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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 — 5,778,486 ratings
score: 551,
and
6 people voted
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| 2 |
|
A Clockwork Orange
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 757,746 ratings
score: 485,
and
5 people voted
|
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| 3 |
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Invisible Man
by
3.92 avg rating — 199,626 ratings
score: 483,
and
5 people voted
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| 4 |
|
Tender Is The Night
by
3.77 avg rating — 147,599 ratings
score: 440,
and
5 people voted
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| 5 |
|
Dubliners
by
3.84 avg rating — 171,618 ratings
score: 418,
and
5 people voted
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| 6 |
|
The Man in the High Castle
by
3.59 avg rating — 230,991 ratings
score: 406,
and
5 people voted
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| 7 |
|
Lolita
by
3.87 avg rating — 926,179 ratings
score: 392,
and
4 people voted
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| 8 |
|
A Room with a View
by
3.89 avg rating — 198,851 ratings
score: 379,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 9 |
|
The Day of the Triffids
by
4.01 avg rating — 115,798 ratings
score: 376,
and
5 people voted
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| 10 |
|
Breakfast at Tiffany's
by
3.83 avg rating — 288,264 ratings
score: 370,
and
4 people voted
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| 10 |
|
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
by
4.04 avg rating — 536,278 ratings
score: 370,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 12 |
|
The Thin Man
by
3.90 avg rating — 37,640 ratings
score: 368,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 13 |
|
On the Road
by
3.61 avg rating — 441,471 ratings
score: 349,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 14 |
|
Cold Comfort Farm
by
3.88 avg rating — 54,151 ratings
score: 346,
and
4 people voted
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| 15 |
|
Hideous Kinky
by
3.52 avg rating — 4,066 ratings
score: 345,
and
4 people voted
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| 16 |
|
The Diary of a Nobody
by
3.69 avg rating — 17,802 ratings
score: 344,
and
4 people voted
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| 17 |
|
The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)
by
3.94 avg rating — 166,273 ratings
score: 341,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 18 |
|
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by
3.70 avg rating — 59,787 ratings
score: 334,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 19 |
|
Wide Sargasso Sea
by
3.59 avg rating — 104,338 ratings
score: 323,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 20 |
|
Steppenwolf
by
4.13 avg rating — 209,121 ratings
score: 319,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 21 |
|
Brideshead Revisited
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 124,555 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 — 78,841 ratings
score: 308,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 23 |
|
Lucky Jim
by
3.75 avg rating — 31,647 ratings
score: 303,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 24 |
|
Love in the Time of Cholera
by
3.94 avg rating — 539,027 ratings
score: 302,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 25 |
|
A Passage to India
by
3.68 avg rating — 84,780 ratings
score: 277,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 26 |
|
Mrs. Dalloway
by
3.78 avg rating — 346,373 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 — 62,290 ratings
score: 258,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 28 |
|
In the Country of Men
by
3.75 avg rating — 7,427 ratings
score: 245,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 29 |
|
Cat's Cradle
by
4.15 avg rating — 430,799 ratings
score: 240,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 30 |
|
I'm the King of the Castle
by
3.49 avg rating — 3,685 ratings
score: 238,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 31 |
|
A Handful of Dust
by
3.89 avg rating — 28,459 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 — 33,208 ratings
score: 225,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 34 |
|
Out of Africa
by
Isak Dinesen (Pseudonym)
3.91 avg rating — 47,306 ratings
score: 223,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 35 |
|
Heart of Darkness
by
3.43 avg rating — 549,119 ratings
score: 221,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 36 |
|
In Cold Blood
by
4.09 avg rating — 715,248 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 — 183,136 ratings
score: 214,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 38 |
|
Moon Tiger
by
3.91 avg rating — 18,631 ratings
score: 184,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 39 |
|
A Month in the Country
by
4.09 avg rating — 24,809 ratings
score: 176,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 40 |
|
Bonjour Tristesse
by
3.74 avg rating — 69,038 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 — 293,490 ratings
score: 162,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 43 |
|
The History of Love
by
3.92 avg rating — 139,718 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 — 58,118 ratings
score: 157,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 45 |
|
Goodbye to All That
by
3.93 avg rating — 15,380 ratings
score: 152,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 46 |
|
Lady Chatterley's Lover
by
3.50 avg rating — 135,632 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 — 123,354 ratings
score: 144,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 48 |
|
The Millstone
by
3.90 avg rating — 3,886 ratings
score: 129,
and
2 people voted
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| 49 |
|
Foe
by
3.42 avg rating — 12,298 ratings
score: 128,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 50 |
|
Junky
by
3.85 avg rating — 70,338 ratings
score: 123,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 51 |
|
Embers
by
3.99 avg rating — 42,015 ratings
score: 113,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 52 |
|
The Help
by
Kathryn Stockett (Goodreads Author)
4.47 avg rating — 2,977,210 ratings
score: 108,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 53 |
|
Asylum
by
3.97 avg rating — 39,609 ratings
score: 91,
and
1 person voted
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| 54 |
|
Hell's Angels
by
3.98 avg rating — 53,961 ratings
score: 82,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 55 |
|
The Mosquito Coast
by
3.81 avg rating — 13,719 ratings
score: 76,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 56 |
|
An Ice-cream War
by
3.92 avg rating — 4,419 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 — 12,869 ratings
score: 55,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 58 |
|
The Periodic Table
by
4.14 avg rating — 18,953 ratings
score: 48,
and
1 person voted
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| 59 |
|
How Many Miles to Babylon?
by
3.63 avg rating — 2,091 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
10657 books
82 friends
82 friends
Phillip
5728 books
139 friends
139 friends
Maria
5495 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
2148 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.
Anyone can add books to this list.
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