Remarkable Omissions

Mar 5 2012: Naturally this group requires a topic devoted to moans and groans about what didn't get included. I'm surprised To Kill a Mockingbird and Uncle Tom's Cabin aren't present.

Edited Oct 2013: Now that I've read Uncle Tom's Cabin, its absence doesn't surprise anymore. Historically significant yes, but well written - no.

Others I've thought of are Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front for Modern Fiction, and Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy for Classics. In fact I was sure Sterne was on the list when I bought my copy ... guess I'll be reading it anyway!

Obviously the list is focused on novels, because the absence of Shakespeare is striking. I suppose The Iliad made the list because of its alternative prose form.

Under the Volcano has been brought to my attention and looks as though it could have been worthy. Of course there will be several titles on the 1001 list that didn't make the 501 list which will suggest themselves.

Finished reading The Call of the Wild and reflected again on Jack London's absence from the list in fiction; he only appears in the Travel section for The Cruise of the Snark, a fairly low profile work but at least it gets his name onto the 501. CotW isn't universally praised, criticized for being episodic, but it wouldn't have looked out of place under Children's Lit.

The Decameron was somehow excluded, which seems like an oversight, Chaucer is there but not the work he drew inspiration from.

The Little Engine that Could I think could deserve mention in the child's section.

I was feeling fairly confident in making a case for The Forever War belonging on this list in the science fiction section. After all, it won a Hugo and a Nebula, a rare combination. Then I read the ending and thought "Oh. That's why not."

I was sure Watership Down was on the list, maybe under children's literature, but no such luck. That one was deserving.

I've not read Ford Madox Ford, but perhaps something like his Parade's End should have made the list.

EDIT: However, his The Good Soldier did, so he's covered; never mind.

Nothing by Thomas Pynchon; took me a while to notice, I confuse him with Kurt Vonnegut for some reason.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Prince by Machiavelli

Edit: actually with regards to Machiavelli, there's a whole non-fiction category not being covered that might be called "Essays and Treatises". There's no Adam Smith, no Sun Tzu, Darwin's On the Origin of Species didn't make it, etc.

Nothing by Sinclair Lewis (e.g. Babbitt, Arrowsmith, It Can't Happen Here).

Nothing by Anthony Powell (e.g. Dance to the Music of Time)

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan didn't make it into the Thrillers.

If you've any North America association, Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is feeling like essential must-read history to me. It's the best (so far) native American perspective on how the west was "won".

Joyce Carol Oates is frequently cited as an noteworthy author, but didn't make the 501 list.

E.L. Doctorow, renowned for works like Ragtime, isn't on the list either.

Even now I can be surprised by a false assumption about what's on the list. I was sure The Velveteen Rabbit was there under children's literature, but, missing.

I've read nothing by Samuel Delaney but surely he ought to be in the Science Fiction section for perhaps Triton or Babel-17 or Dhalgren.