Novels

 The Guardian is giving us a list of the 100 greatest novels,  starting at the bottom and counting up. What I've seen so far doesn't greatly please me. There's too much recent stuff,  too much anglophone stuff.

The golden age of the novel ended round about the time the golden age of cinema began. Anything published after Ulysses is an afterthought. Graham Greene is fun but what does he add to Dostoevsky and Conrad? 

I predict that future readers of the list, if there are any, will run their eyes down it, going, "What's this? What's this?" Most novels have a very short shelf life- and great novels are rare. 

What am I reading at the moment? I'm rereading Ishiguro's The Buried Giant. I like Ishiguro a lot but will he still be read in 50 years? I wouldn't count on it. 

If it were my list what would come in at number one?  In certain moods I'd be inclined to say Wuthering Heights. I'm not even sure I like it, but it packs one hell of a punch.

Still Emily isn't my favourite Bronte; that would be Charlotte- and my favourite Bronte novel is Villette

So, I'll stick with a book I actually love as well as admire- and say Alice in Wonderland.