The 10 best-loved novels chosen by Saga Magazine readers
The books we return to, treasure and recommend to friends – from Pride and Prejudice to Birdsong.
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The books we return to, treasure and recommend to friends – from Pride and Prejudice to Birdsong.
Some books entertain us for a few days. Others stay with us for a lifetime.
To mark the National Year of Reading, we asked Saga Magazine readers to vote for their favourite novels – the ones they love, read again and share with friends and family – and thousands of you took the time to have your say.
Our new poll reveals a clear love of enduring classics. Pride and Prejudice takes the top spot, while To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lord of the Rings, Jane Eyre and Rebecca all feature in the top five.
The list is dominated by the books that readers return to throughout their lives. As for the winning novel Pride & Prejudice: “It’s one of those rare books that you can read again and again and always find something new to enjoy,” says Saga Magazine editor-in-chief Louise Robinson.
These are the top 10 books as voted by Saga Magazine readers with our literary editor, Rose Shepherd giving her analysis of why the top five books are held so dear.
“Too light, and bright and sparkling,” was Austen’s own review of Pride and Prejudice her second novel, published in 1813.
“But it is that very sparkle – the gentle satire, the misunderstandings, the gradual kindling of romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, with the insights into Regency society – that makes this so gratifying a read two centuries later,” says literary editor Rose Shepherd.
Saga Magazine's Louise Robinson is of one mind with readers, also declaring this her favourite book of all time. “It’s the ultimate love story and so beautifully written,” she says.
“It was Lee’s genius to choose the six-year-old Scout Finch, rather than a hectoring adult, to narrate To Kill a Mockingbird, a harrowing tale of racial injustice and class in 1930s Alabama,” says Shepherd.
“With Scout’s innocence and her dawning awareness, she and brother Jem learn life lessons – some comic, some redemptive, some so woeful.”
“I first read Tolkien’s epic work at the age of 12, simply as an enthralling adventure, but it is something far deeper and so much more complex,” says Shepherd, suggesting this is why so many readers think about The Lord of the Rings long after finishing the final page.
“With its medievalism, its erudition and enchantment, its adventures in language, its themes of friendship and of good versus evil, written against the backdrop of WW2, it holds layer upon layer of richness.”
Another work that’s inspired multiple adaptions on both the small and silver screen, Jane Eyre came in as Saga readers’ fourth-favourite novel.
“With plain but independent-minded heroine Jane, raised in brutal hardship, the brooding, Byronic Mr Rochester, the chilling atmosphere of Thornfield Hall, a cast of goodies and baddies, and a shocking secret to bring the house down, Brontë’s first published novel is shot through with ramrod morality and as bracing as a moorland gale,” says Shepherd.
Our fifth-placed novel Rebecca is also much loved by Saga’s editor-in-chief Louise Robinson. “I’ll never forget first reading this as a teenager,” she says.
“It was the first proper grown-up book I lost myself in – my coming-of-age novel – and it blew me away with the story telling and incredible quality of the writing.”
Shepherd agrees it’s well worth its top five placing by Saga Magazine readers.
“Du Maurier was the mistress of horror (The Birds, Don’t Look Now) and of ambiguity (My Cousin Rachel),” she says. “But it is the Gothic creepiness, the slow-drip poison, the gaslighting that makes this, her finest work – often and justly compared with Jane Eyre – so quietly devastating.”
It may not have made it into the top five best-loved books, but Birdsong, Faulks’ deeply moving story of Stephen Wraysford, his passionate love affair in pre-First World War France and his subsequent experiences on the Western Front, is the only work by a living writer to make it into Saga readers’ top 10.
Occupying the tenth slot, 1984 is the tale of Winston Smith, a man living under the oppressive rule of a totalitarian regime that monitors every aspect of its citizens’ lives.
As Smith begins to question the Party’s control over truth and freedom, he risks everything in an attempt to resist.
It’s thanks to this book that terms such as “Big Brother” and “thought crime” are still used today.
It may bring back memories of O level English lessons, but Great Expectations, Charles Dickens’ tale of orphan Pip is the top of his many works in Saga Magazine readers’ minds, making it to number eight in the league table of best books.
Pip embarks upon a journey of self-discovery and maturity, meeting colourful characters and learning valuable life lessons along the way.
Mary Ann Evans’ decision to write under the male pseudonym George Eliot in order to be taken seriously certainly paid off as her mid 19th century novel was a huge success then and continues to touch the hearts of many readers today.
The story in Middlemarch follows the lives of residents of a provincial English town and explores their relationships, beliefs and the consequences of their decisions.
This may be a children’s book, typically recommended for ages eight to 12, but CS Lewis’ 1950 fantasy novel The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe has had a lasting impact on many Saga Magazine readers, who clearly love the vivid storytelling and colourful cast of characters.
Four siblings discover the magical land of Narnia through the back of an old wardrobe and join the lion Aslan in battling the White Witch and restoring peace to the kingdom.
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