The 100 Books of the Century (French: Les cent livres du siècle) is a list of the one hundred best books of the 20th century, according to a poll conducted in the spring of 1999 by the French retailer Fnac and the Paris newspaper Le Monde.
Starting from a preliminary list of 200 titles created by bookshops and journalists, 17,000 French voters responded to the question, "Which books have remained in your memory?" (Quels livres sont restés dans votre mémoire?).
The list of acclaimed titles mixes great novels with poetry and theatre, as well as the comic strip. The list includes more French novels because of the demographics of the surveyed group. However, similar lists by English language sources include US and UK authors only (for example, the Modern Library 100 Best Novels published in 1998, with two lists, one by the Board of the Modern Library and the other by readers who responded).
List
Note: Classified by the language of the book's first publication, which may not be the author's principal language.