About the Book

The Top Ten" is the ultimate guide to the world's greatest books. It's contents include:

1. Introduction by J. Peder Zane
2. The Top Top Ten List, identifying the ten greatest works of fiction of all time as named by the 125 top ten lists included in the book.
3. The critic and author Sven Birkerts examines the Top Top Ten list, asking what those books tell us about the nature of great literature.
4. Contributing author Mary Gaitskill describes the difficulties of naming just ten books.
5. The critic David Orr "reads" the list submitted by Judy Budnitz to suggest how we might learn about our favorite writers by considering their favorite books.
6. * The writer's picks - all 125 top ten lists, from Lee K. Abbott to Meg Wolitzer.
7. Summaries of all 544 books named on those lists.
8. Appendix, featuring Top Ten Lists based on those 125 lists - we awarded ten points for a first place pick, one point for a tenth place pick:

   Top Ten Works of the Twentieth Century
   Top Ten Works of the Nineteenth Century
   Top Ten Works of the Eighteenth Century
   Top Ten Works of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
   Top Ten Works of the Fifteenth Century and Earlier
   Top Ten Authors by Number of Works Selected
   Top Ten Authors by Points Earned Top Ten Works
   Top Ten Works by American Authors
   Top Ten Works by British Authors
   Top Ten Works by Russian Authors
   Top Ten Works by French Authors
   Top Ten Works by Living Writers
   Top Ten Comic Works
   Top Ten Works of Fantasy and Science Fiction
   Top Ten Mysteries and Thrillers

* The lists are punctuated by Appreciations of 18 titles by the contributors. They are:

• Appreciation of Francois Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel by Fred Chappell
• Appreciation of Elena Poniatowska's La "Flor de Lis" by Sandra Cisneros
• Appreciation of Jacques Roumain's Masters of the Dew by Edwidge Danticat
• Appreciation of Mario Vargas Llosa's The Green House by David Anthony Durham
• Appreciation of Heinrich von Kleist's The Marquise von O - and other stories by Paula Fox
• Appreciation of Joaquim Machado de Assis's Dom Casmurro by Michael Griffith
• Appreciation of Kobo Abe's The Woman in the Dunes by Kathryn Harrison
• Appreciation of The Bible by Andrew Hudgins
• Appreciation of Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman by A.L. Kennedy
• Appreciation of The Golden Argosy by Stephen King
• Appreciation of Sybille Bedford's A Legacy by David Leavitt
• Appreciation of Rebecca West's The Fountain Overflows by Margot Livesey
• Appreciation of Gilbert Sorrentino's Red the Fiend by Lydia Millet
• Appreciation of Georges Simenon's Maigret detective novels by Iain Pears
• Appreciation of Georges Perec's Life: A User's Manual by Arthur Phillips
• Appreciation of Stendahl's The Charterhouse of Parma by Francine Prose
• Appreciation of The Stories of Eudora Welty by Louis D. Rubin Jr.
• Appreciation of James T. Farrell's Studs Lonigan Trilogy by Tom Wolfe

Complete Listing of Contributors to The Top Ten