The Guardian’s new list of 100 greatest novels of all time

I’m currently taking a break from the hellsite still known as Twitter, though I’m aware people have been arguing about this list. I don’t care all that much, to be honest. The list is mainly useful for tracking what I have and haven’t read: here the strikethrough is for the books I have read; the tick is for when I have seen a screen adaptation. 

100 My Ántonia

99 The Go-Between

98 The Road ✔

97 Catch-22

96 Pedro Páramo

95 The Return of the Native

94 The Known World

93 Invisible Cities

92 Sentimental Education

91 Life and Fate

90 Jacob's Room

89 The Left Hand of Darkness

88 Ragtime

87 The Line of Beauty

86 The Turn of the Screw ✔

85 The Vegetarian

84 The Talented Mr Ripley

83 A Farewell to Arms

82 The End of the Affair ✔

81 Buddenbrooks

80 Rebecca ✔

79 Go Tell It on the Mountain

78 A House for Mr Biswas

77 The Rainbow

76 Dracula ✔

75 The Bluest Eye

74 Nervous Conditions

73 Austerlitz

72 Our Mutual Friend

71 Kindred

70 Jude the Obscure ✔

69 Crime and Punishment

68 Blood Meridian

67 The Man Without Qualities

66 The Master and Margarita

65 The Color Purple ✔

64 The Good Soldier

63 White Teeth

62 Half of a Yellow Sun

61 The Rings of Saturn

60 Howards End ✔

59 Never Let Me Go ✔

58 Disgrace

57 The Sound and the Fury

56 Mansfield Park ✔

55 The Waves

54 Orlando ✔

53 The Transit of Venus

52 The Golden Bowl

51 My Brilliant Friend

50 Wide Sargasso Sea

49 A Fine Balance

48 The Metamorphosis

47 Vanity Fair

46 The Leopard

45 The Golden Notebook

44 Giovanni's Room

43 Housekeeping

42 The Magic Mountain

41 Heart of Darkness

40 Song of Solomon

39 Their Eyes Were Watching God

38 The Age of Innocence ✔

37 Invisible Man

36 The Handmaid's Tale

35 Great Expectations ✔

34 Wolf Hall

33 David Copperfield ✔

32 The God of Small Things

31 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ✔

30 Frankenstein ✔

29 Pale Fire

28 The Brothers Karamazov ✔

27 The Trial ✔

26 Don Quixote

25 Lolita ✔

24 The Remains of the Day

23 Midnight's Children

22 Things Fall Apart

21 The Portrait of a Lady ✔

20 Wuthering Heights ✔

19 The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

18 Persuasion ✔

17 One Hundred Years of Solitude

16 Nineteen Eighty-Four

15 Moby-Dick ✔

14 Mrs Dalloway

13 Emma ✔

12 Bleak House 

11 The Great Gatsby ✔

10 Madame Bovary 

9 Pride and Prejudice ✔

8 Jane Eyre ✔

7 War and Peace ✔

6 Anna Karenina ✔

5 In Search of Lost Time

4 To the Lighthouse

3 Ulysses

2 Beloved ✔

1 Middlemarch ✔

You know how I feel about Middlemarch. It is undoubtedly a masterpiece, but in the English language alone, there are 3 novels I’m placing above it: Moby-Dick, Bleak House, Wuthering Heights. In terms of greatness, I mean. On a personal level, I also have more love for Mansfield Park, David Copperfield, Tom Jones, the Alice books, and a few others. Beyond the English language, we also have Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Don Quixote. 

My list—if I’m ever shameless enough to make such a list—would be very different. But who cares. This is a reminder that there are lots of novels out there I need to read (once I’m done exploring the ancient Greece and ancient Rome).  

My 10 favourite literary works

A list of the 10 literary works I think about, or revisit, most often: 

• The Iliad 
• The Odyssey 
• King Lear 
• Othello 
• Shakespeare’s Sonnets 
• Don Quixote 
• War and Peace
• Anna Karenina 
• Moby-Dick 
• Mansfield Park

This looks quite basic, does it? But the central figures of my personal canon do happen to be Homer, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy, so I can’t pretend they’re not, just to avoid being called pretentious. 

I refuse to choose between the Iliad and the Odyssey, the same way I refuse to choose between War and Peace and Anna Karenina. 

2 epic poems, 2 plays, 1 sonnet sequence, 5 novels (4 of which are over 700 pages). 2 in ancient Greek, 5 in the English language (4 English and 1 American), 1 in Spanish, 2 in Russian. 2 from the 8th century BC, 4 from the 17th century, 4 from the 19th century. All Western. 9 written by men.

If you have been reading my blog and/or my tweets, I’m sure I’ve been annoying enough about these works for any choices to be a surprise. Maybe the Sonnets, as I don’t blog about them, but I do revisit them often—there’s a Shakespeare sonnet for every mood (I went out yesterday and on the way home thought of Sonnet 34—guess what happened). The only surprises, I guess, are the exclusions of Greek tragedies (couldn’t pick one) and Chekhov’s stories (what do you do with short stories on such a list?)—a longer list of my personal canon would include Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, The Tale of Genji, all of Shakespeare, Molière, the (dirty) poems of Hồ Xuân Hương, Tom Jones, Hong lou meng (better known as Dream of the Red Chamber or Story of the Stone), Wuthering Heights, Charles Dickens, John Keats, Madame Bovary, The Brothers Karamazov, the plays of Henrik Ibsen (especially The Wild Duck and Rosmersholm), the short stories of Akutagawa, the short stories of Flannery O’Connor, The Metamorphosis (Kafka), Invisible Man, Lolita, Pnin, the poems of Hàn Mặc Tử (especially Đau thương), etc. 

The only thing that bothers me, which is perhaps irrational, is that my literary tastes are strongly Western. I am Vietnamese, I can read well two languages (my Norwegian isn’t on the same level), I spent years promoting East Asian classics, but in the end, my favourite 18th century novel is still Tom Jones, not Hong lou meng; my favourite female writer is still Jane Austen, not Murasaki Shikibu; the central figures of my personal canon are still Homer, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy, not Nguyễn Du… Japanese cinema may be the one I know and love the best after English-language cinema, but in literature, my tastes are markedly Western. 

Does this mean I have lost my roots? Mất gốc? (The Vietnamese phrase carries much harsher overtones). 

I suppose the main thing is that I’m most fascinated by human nature and the human mind, and most interested in characters, which is probably also why I much prefer the Greeks to the Romans (you probably have noticed, with horror, the absence of Virgil and Ovid on my personal canon). Generally, Japanese writers—at least the ones I have read—don’t seem to explore the complexities and contradictions and irrationalities of people as we see in Western literature. Their characters are more opaque, even impressionistic; on the one hand, Japanese novels convey that sense of human mystery, the sense that we can never truly know another human being, which I like; but on the other hand, the characters also feel less alive, and don’t leave deep impressions on my mind like Akhilleus, Cleopatra, or Andrei Bolkonsky. The characters in Hong lou meng in comparison are alive, especially Shi Xiangyun (Sử Tương Vân) and Weng Xifeng (Vương Hy Phượng), but they don’t have the depth and complexity of Elektra, Hamlet, or Anna Karenina, and frankly I think Cao Xueqin takes a lot more pages to give life to a character (which Shakespeare can do in five words: “I was adored once too”). 

I’m also not much of a poetry person, despite liking the little I have read of Donne, Keats, Bùi Giáng, etc. I have The Oxford Book of English Verse, and lately have been slowly getting through The Oxford Book of Sonnets, trying to be less of a philistine, but unfortunately still have a strong taste for narratives and characters. My favourite poet (restricting to only those I can read in the original) is therefore a dramatic poet (and before you ask, I read Shakespeare’s sonnets as dramatic monologues, not autobiographical pieces). 

(If I were pretentious, as some people might call me, I would pretend to love poetry, but I acknowledge my failing).  

My tastes are also predominantly classic. When I first got into literature properly, I was mostly reading the 20th century, then slowly went further back, and further back. Over the years, those 20th century novels for some reason haven’t had a lasting impression, haven’t been part of my mental furniture—I barely remember much of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or Toni Morrison. But it’s not just because I read them in my late teens and early 20s, not just because I read them before finding my favourite writers—since my discovery of Tolstoy, Shakespeare, and others, I have read and enjoyed modern books only for them to have caused nothing but a few ripples in my mind—I haven’t found myself thinking about Muriel Spark, R. K. Narayan, or Soseki, for example. Even Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, which I read only last September and considered highly, has left no imprints. Shouldn’t they resonate more, being more recent? But they don’t, and I don’t know why. My favourite 20th century writer right now is possibly Primo Levi, but that’s non-fiction. 

It’s curious which works of literature speak to us and haunt our minds. 

What makes a good screen adaptation?

I have seen 7 screen adaptations of Anna Karenina. That probably tells you I’m a bit mad. But as a lover of literature and cinema, I’m also fascinated by adaptations—what makes a good one? 

Let’s start with Anna Karenina. Among the 7 versions I have seen, the best is without doubt the 1977 series by the BBC, with Nicola Pagett. We all know filmmakers have to make cuts, we all know filmmakers have to simplify the story, but the problem with most adaptations of Anna Karenina is that they don’t convey the complexity of the characters—Karenin in early adaptations tends to be portrayed as a monster whereas Karenin in some later adaptations is portrayed more sympathetically, with Anna and Vronsky presented as shallow and selfish—the 1977 series is the only one which depicts the complexity and self-contradictions and multiple facets of Anna, Karenin, and Vronsky; the only one which reminds me of the qualities for which I love Tolstoy’s novel. 

If we talk about War and Peace, Bondarchuk’s film series from 1966-1967 is popular, but I would argue that it only focuses on the epic-ness of the book. It is technically spectacular but shallow and hollow, stripping the story of depth and complexity, removing Tolstoy’s philosophical and religious ideas, reducing Pierre’s search for meaning, simplifying the “thinking characters” (Pierre and Andrei), paying little attention to emotional conflicts between characters, etc. The 1972 series by the BBC, though imperfect, shows a much better understanding of Tolstoy’s characters and ideas, and respect for the text. 

This doesn’t mean I think only faithful adaptations are worthwhile, doesn’t mean I think filmmakers have to be slaves to the sources. When I complain about film adaptations, people sometimes accuse me of being a purist, but I’m not. I find it fascinating when a classic story is moved to a different setting, a different culture: the story of Dangerous Liaisons for instance is moved from 18th century France to feudal Korea in Untold Scandal, and modern-day America in Cruel Intentions; Fingersmith, set in the Victorian era, is adapted into South Korean film The Handmaiden. 

Sometimes it doesn’t work quite well: Bride and Prejudice does a few clever things, moving the story of Pride and Prejudice to modern-day India and making Mr Darcy American, and it’s fun enough, but it doesn’t have the sense of urgency of Jane Austen’s novel, either in the sisters getting married or in the Wickham sub-plot; the Mrs Bennet character is therefore just vulgar and annoying; and Lalita (the equivalent of Elizabeth Bennet) comes across as nationalistic and more confrontational than witty, which gets tiresome after a while. But sometimes it works wonders: in Ran and Arashi ga oka, Kurosawa and Yoshida take King Lear and Wuthering Heights respectively as a starting point, and create something different, something very Japanese, something that stands on their own. As I wrote in a recent blog post about Wuthering Heights, Arashi ga oka is its own thing—Onimaru is not Heathcliff; Kinu is not Catherine; Hidemaru is not Hindley; Mitsuhiko is not Edgar Linton; Tae is not Isabella; Yoshimaru is not Hareton; young Kinu is not Cathy—the characters can be mapped onto Emily Bronte’s characters but they are different and their relationships are different. And yet it captures the violence, savagery, eroticism, and strangeness of Emily Bronte’s novel, which the supposedly faithful adaptations of Wuthering Heights don’t do, as most adaptations only focus on the love story, reduce the malice and brutality, and often cut the second generation.

A similar example is Clueless: loosely based on Emma and set in an American high school, it is its own thing, loved by both Jane Austen’s fans and people who have no idea it’s inspired by a 19th century novel; yet at the same time, Amy Heckerling captures the essence of Austen’s novel much better than some supposedly faithful adaptations do. What I mean is that Emma might be snobbish, she might misperceive everything, she might make a mess of people’s lives, but she means well and wants to do good and has self-reflection—we also see this in Cher in Clueless, whereas Anya Taylor-Joy and especially Gwyneth Paltrow portray Emma as bitchy, catty, even two-faced, nothing like Austen’s character. 

The trouble is that most screen adaptations are not faithful adaptations which take the text seriously and show great understanding of the source story (such as the 1995 Pride and Prejudice); but they are also not interesting adaptations which take the novel as a starting point and become their own work of art (such as Jan Švankmajer’s Alice). Most adaptations are usually somewhere in the middle. 

Take for example the 2005 Pride and Prejudice: it doesn’t transcend its source material and become its own thing; what we have instead is a film which focuses on the attraction and romance but neglects the theme of pride and prejudice, and the development of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy; Matthew Macfadyen’s Darcy doesn’t show much change throughout the story; and Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth often behaves out of character (can you imagine Jane Austen’s Elizabeth eavesdropping on her family members then bursting in on them? Or watching Georgina behind a door then running away like an intruder, with no manners? Or snatching a letter from her father’s hand?).

Or, take the 1999 Mansfield Park: it takes liberties but doesn’t become an original work of art; it’s just an awkward adaptation by someone who doesn’t accept Fanny Price as written by Jane Austen and turns her into something else, and has her accepting Henry Crawford at first, going against the text.

The 2022 Persuasion also seems to be an odd thing that is neither approach: perhaps I shouldn’t comment as I haven’t seen the whole film, but from what I have seen, it is neither a faithful adaptation, depicting the Regency era, nor an independent film with the story moved to the modern era; instead, Carrie Cracknell has characters of different skin colours wearing Regency costumes but speaking modern slang, and changes the character of Anne Elliot beyond recognition (it is perhaps aimed at the audience of Bridgerton).

And this is something lots of people don’t seem to understand: whenever someone criticises a film adaptation for misrepresenting or betraying the text, some people just say fidelity is unimportant and the film is its own work of art, but most of the time it isn’t—most of the time it doesn’t have enough strengths and originality, most of the time it doesn’t transcend its source material—all we’ve got is just a poor film that doesn’t quite transfer a great work of art onto the screen. 

10 favourite adaptations of literary works (in chronological order): 

• Rebecca (1940) 
• The Innocents (1961), from The Turn of the Screw 
• Tom Jones (1963) 
• Woman in the Dunes (1964) 
• Anna Karenina (1977) 
• Ran (1985), from King Lear 
• Arashi ga oka (1988), from Wuthering Heights 
• Alice (1988), from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 
• The Age of Innocence (1993)
• Pride and Prejudice (1995) 

Oscars 2026 [updated]

I guess my interest in the Oscars waxes and wanes.

Even now, I have seen only 2 of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture last year, and have little inclination to see the rest any time soon. This time the nominees are better. 

This is possibly how I would rank them: 

Train Dreams: visually interesting, poetic, and moving. This is a great film about an ordinary man, about life and loss, about grief. Probably not the kind of films that would win an Oscar for Best Picture—it’s quiet and subtle—but Adolpho Veloso should win Best Cinematography. Can I hope? I still can’t believe that Best Cinematography went to Roma and Mank. 

Sentimental Value: possibly a tie with Train Dreams. Train Dreams is more visually interesting but Sentimental Value has a more complex narrative—it’s about life and art, about a man’s estranged relationship with his two daughters, about his attempt to reconcile with them and create together a personal film. Joachim Trier gets us to see, more or less, the lives of four characters—the father/ film director, the two daughters, and the actress—and the film has quite a few strong performances, particularly Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas. The Oscar for Best International Feature Film might end up going to The Voice of Hind Rajab (for political reasons), but I would be happy if Sentimental Value wins. 

The Secret Agent: this is in a way a messy film—where is the story going?—but it’s constantly changing and the messiness is part of the charm. Amusingly, the most bizarre—even surreal—part of the film is based on a real thing in Brazilian history. The only thing I don’t like about it is the gore. If Best International Feature Film doesn’t go to Sentimental Value, which I think is a more sophisticated film, I wouldn’t mind if it goes to The Secret Agent. 

Blue Moon: this one is not nominated for Best Picture, but for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor. Visually there isn’t much; it’s a dialogue-driven film. Part of my fondness for it is because I love the song “Blue Moon” (who doesn’t?) and Lorenz Hart—at least the Lorenz Hart in the film—loves Casablanca. If Sentimental Value doesn’t win Best Original Screenplay, I would be happy if it goes to Blue Moon.  

Marty Supreme: I know everyone finds Timothée Chalamet irritating now, but I’m sorry to say that he is good in Marty Supreme—he carries the whole film. The strongest performances this year are possibly Ethan Hawke and Timothée Chalamet, though they’re nowhere near the same level as Anthony Hopkins in The Father—if we’re talking about the past 10 years—and Wagner Moura and Leonardo DiCaprio are also very good (I don’t mind anyone winning as long as it’s not Michael B. Jordan). The film as a whole is all right. 

F1: this is a formulaic film, not as good as Ford v Ferrari, and not the kind of things one watches more than once. But I place it above Sinners and Bugonia because it’s well-paced, coherent, and entertaining. 

Sinners: you don’t even have to watch Sinners to know it doesn’t deserve 16 Oscar nominations—more than anything else in history. I loved the music, I enjoyed some individual sequences, I liked the first 40 minutes (the film is 2 hours 17 minutes), but it’s a mess of a film. Some people are going to get offended, but I would say that Sentimental Value and Train Dreams are films for adults and Sinners is a film for children, not because it has vampires but because Ryan Coogler constantly spoonfeeds the audience with exposition and unnecessary flashbacks, and because the film pretends to be deep and serious by bringing in the race issue and creating a forced metaphor. The only Oscars it deserves to win are for Original Score, Original Song, maybe Makeup and Hairstyling, maybe Visual Effects. The reason the messiness of The Secret Agent works but Sinners doesn’t is that The Secret Agent constantly changes direction and yet there’s a centre (the main character), whereas Sinners confusingly moves between the black-gangsters-opening-a-juke-joint plot, the vampire plot, and the KKK plot. 

One Battle After Another: I don’t dislike it the way I dislike Sinners, but my problem with One Battle After Another is that I don’t really know what it’s doing and what it’s meant to say. Why does it get 13 nominations? I have no idea. The only thing I’d like it to win is Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Sean Penn, who is the best part of the film (though I dislike him personally). The second best part of the film is the road—and the chasing scene—that is the Best Road in Cinema. 

Bugonia: my problem with Bugonia, as with other films by Yorgos Lanthimos (especially Poor Things), is that he has style and I was (more or less) enjoying it whilst watching, but came to dislike its vision and ideas after thinking about it. This is a film of a misanthrope. One positive thing I can say is that I generally don’t like Emma Stone as an actress, but she’s good in this one. Do I think she’s going to win an Oscar? No, my guess is that Best Actress will go to Jessie Buckley, but I’ve only seen 2 of the nominated performances.  

Frankenstein: there isn’t much I can say about it, as I only lasted about 30 minutes. All I’m going to say is that Guillermo del Toro is one of the worst directors working today and I still think it’s a joke that The Shape of Water won Best Picture several years ago. 

Not ranked: 

Hamnet: I haven’t seen it, as I’ve got the impression it’s made for a certain kind of audience that doesn’t include me. Judging by conversations online, I suppose Jessie Buckley is going to win an Oscar for Best Actress. 

Update on 15/3:

Best Actor: 

My wish: Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon or Timothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme 

My prediction: Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent

Winner: Michael B. Jordan in Sinners

Best Supporting Actor:

My wish: Sean Penn in One Battle After Another

My prediction: Sean Penn in One Battle After Another

Winner: Sean Penn in One Battle After Another

Best Actress: 

My wish: None 

My prediction: Jessie Buckley in Hamnet 

Winner: Jessie Buckley in Hamnet 

Best Supporting Actress:

My wish: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in Sentimental Value 

My prediction: Wunmi Mosaku in Sinners 

Winner: Amy Madigan in Weapons 

Best Cinematography: 

My wish: Adolpho Veloso for Train Dreams 

My prediction: Adolpho Veloso for Train Dreams

Winner: Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Sinners

Best Editing: 

My wish: None 

My prediction: Stephen Mirrione for F1 or Andy Jurgensen for One Battle After Another 

Winner: Andy Jurgensen for One Battle After Another 

Best Original Song: 

My wish: Sinners

My prediction: Sinners

Winner: KPop Demon Hunters

Best Score: 

My wish: Sinners

My prediction: Sinners

Winner: Sinners

Best Original Screenplay: 

My wish: Sentimental Value 

My prediction: Marty Supreme 

Winner: Sinners

Best Adapted Screenplay: 

My wish: None 

My prediction: Hamnet 

Winner: One Battle After Another 

Best International Film: 

My wish: Sentimental Value

My prediction: The Secret Agent

Winner: Sentimental Value

Best Director: 

My wish: Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value 

My prediction: Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another 

Winner: Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another 

Best Picture: 

My wish: Train Dreams or Sentimental Value 

My prediction: One Battle After Another 

Winner: One Battle After Another 

Generally speaking, I think the films that dominate the Oscars this year are going to be One Battle After Another and then Sinners. 

Reading and viewing plans for 2026

 

Two Pride and Prejudice series are coming up: a Netflix straight adaptation (top) and The Other Bennet Sister by the BBC (bottom). 

1/ I wrote in December 2024: 

“Even if there is little impact, I can’t help feeling an urge to fight against anti-intellectualism and inverted snobbery, against identity politics and Critical Race Theory, against philistinism and the School of Resentment. 

One of the ways to fight is reading and analysing and promoting classic books.

[…] Even if the philistines and authoritarians win, even if the public becomes increasingly ignorant of classic works because of tiktoks and a million other distractions, I will not lose—because these books I read are mine.” 

That still stands. 

Compare the reading ideas in that blog post and the recent post about my reading in 2025, I’ve done quite well, haven’t I? So for next year, I intend to: 

• Continue getting to know ancient Greek literature and culture. 
• Explore the ancient Rome. 
• Start on the King James Bible. 

These are the main reading projects. Why the Bible? some of you might ask. It’s one of the most important texts in the world, and one of the texts that shaped Western civilisation. I read Western literature not knowing any of the Biblical stories; I wander through the National Gallery not catching any of the religious references; that has to change. Shakespeare is going to look very different once I have read Ovid and the Bible.

As my interest in the Bible is literary rather than religious, I guess I don’t need to explain why I’m going for the King James version rather than something more modern.

Some other reading ideas scattering around: 

• Read more Dickens, possibly Our Mutual Friend. 
• Explore more of the 18th century. 
• Read some non-Western books (such as the Akutagawa book I recently bought on impulse in Jakarta). 
• Possibly reread Wuthering Heights.

2/ There are quite a few adaptations of classics that are currently out or soon appearing: 

• Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein: you don’t expect me to watch this one, do you? This is by one of the worst directors working today. 
• Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights: all the promos I have seen—the trailer especially—tell me that the writer-director has not read the novel. I might however watch it for a laugh. 
• Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet: no, I don’t intend to watch a film about Shakespeare when the director says she understands about a third of Shakespeare’s language and has to rely on the actor—not a Shakespearean actor and not an expert—for interpretation. 
• Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey: everything tells me I’m going to hate this film—why is Hollywood scared of colours?—but bring it on, I’m ready to yell at Nolan. 
• Euros Lyn’s Pride and Prejudice (Netflix): do we really need another version of Pride and Prejudice? The perfect version exists (1995). I don’t really like Jack Lowden and Emma Corrin as Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, and don’t have any positive feelings towards Netflix—the only appeal is Olivia Colman as Mrs Bennet. I might still see it though, unless it turns out to be like Netflix’s Persuasion. 
• Jennifer Sheridan’s The Other Bennet Sister (BBC): we have another Pride and Prejudice series coming up, but this one looks more interesting as it does something different—focuses on Mary Bennet—and seems to have more colours. 
• Georgia Oakley’s Sense and Sensibility: there isn’t much to say as I haven’t seen anything about this upcoming film except the cast. Would it be as good as the Ang Lee film? Most likely not. But I don’t think anyone’s going to disagree that, much as we love Emma Thompson, she’s a bit too old for Elinor. 
• Emma Frost’s The Age of Innocence (Netflix): look, can this possibly match the perfection that is the Martin Scorsese film? Daniel Day-Lewis? Michelle Pfeiffer? Winona Ryder? We don’t need another adaptation.   

What did I miss? 

3/ I don’t really have any plans for film watching, other than that I’d like to watch more films from the 1930s. 

2025: an exciting year in reading, viewing, travelling

Me wearing a Thai traditional dress. 

Literature 

In terms of reading, this has been a fantastic year. The main highlight was my discovery of ancient Greek literature: I read the Iliad and the Odyssey (and became a Homer obsessive), 4 plays by Aeschylus (5 if you count Prometheus Bound), 6 plays by Sophocles (1 left), 10 plays by Euripides, 5 by Aristophanes. Is there a more glorious period for theatre than 5th century BC in Athens? Elizabethan/ Jacobean England had Shakespeare, but here were four great writers working around the same time, and I was glad to discover that they did certain things that Shakespeare didn’t do. My favourite is Sophocles.

An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn is also a very good book, not only as a companion for Homer but as a memoir on its own. 

In 2025, I also discovered Molière (funnier than Shakespeare); read David Copperfield; explored more of the 18th century with Tom Jones and Gulliver’s Travels; had my first encounter with Goethe; read Elizabethan and Jacobean revenge plays; reread a few Shakespeare plays and read part of Shakespeare After All, an excellent book by Marjorie Garber; read 4 plays by Seneca (whom I did not like) and the Aeneid (which is nowhere near as great as the Iliad and the Odyssey, come on); read more Ibsen (cold and uncompromising) and Flannery O’Connor (cold and uncompromising); read Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, a living writer (shocking, I know). So many great books in a year! 

The highlight in nonfiction is The Drowned and the Saved—my favourite nonfiction writer might actually be Primo Levi. 

The main disappointment of this year—unless I forget anything else more disappointing—is about Oliver Sacks. 

Cinema and theatre 

Let’s start with Shakespeare. I saw 4 great productions: Coriolanus (2024, dir. Lyndsey Turner, with David Oyelowo in the main role), Othello (2013, dir. Nicholas Hytner, with Adrian Lester in the main role), Othello (onstage at Theatre Royal Haymarket, dir. Tom Morris, with David Harewood in the titular role), and Julius Caesar (2018, dir. Nicholas Hytner, with Ben Whishaw as Brutus). Watch them you must, especially the first three. David Harewood’s Othello is still at Theatre Royal Haymarket in London till some time in January. That one and Coriolanus make me glad that there are still great Shakespeare productions (just not at the Globe), that there are still brilliant directors who take Shakespeare seriously and understand the plays, that there are wonderful Shakespearean actors. 

I also saw King Lear (2018, with Ian McKellen), Hamlet (2009, with David Tennant), and Macbeth (the Roman Polanski film from 1971). Not great, but all have something interesting in them. 

Apart from Shakespeare, the main highlight of 2025 was the 1977 series Anna Karenina, the 7th and best adaptation I’ve seen of Tolstoy’s novel. Yes, I’ve seen 7—I’m insane—and would probably watch more though I don’t think anything can be as good as the 1977 series, as Nicola Pagett is the best Anna Karenina and the entire cast is perfect. If you don’t know what to watch for the Christmas and New Year season, go for this—it’s 10 episodes. 

Another highlight is that I watched more films from the 1930s, which I hadn’t known as well as the 40s-70s. 

The 10 best films of 2025 (in chronological order and not counting revisits): 

• Frankenstein (1931) 
• It Happened One Night (1934) 
• My Darling Clementine (1946) 
• Harakiri (1962) 
• Tom Jones (1963) 
• The Servant (1963) 
• Young Frankenstein (1974)
• Perfect Blue (1997) 
• Spirited Away (2001) 
• In Bruges (2008)

The list might be slightly different tomorrow (which I guess is the way things usually go with these lists). 

The best documentary I’ve seen this year is Groomed: A National Scandal (released earlier this year), which everyone should see. 

Travelling 

I’ve only just realised that I did 6 work trips this year: to Washington, DC (February); Geneva (March and July); Prague (November); Jakarta (November); Bangkok (November – December). No wonder I’m now burnt out and ill. 

More excitingly, my Washington, DC trip was my first time in the US; and my trips to Jakarta and Bangkok were my first return to Southeast Asia since I left Vietnam 16 years ago.  

This has been fun. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone! 

Update on 22/12: I forgot that in 2025, I also read Judi Dench’s Shakespeare, a delightful book that not only tells behind-the-scenes stories but also offers lots of interesting insight into Shakespeare’s plays and characters; I also discovered Hayao Miyazaki. 

100 latest films and plays I've watched

From December 2024 to October 2025 

In bold: films and plays I think are good 

1/ Až přijde kocour (When the Cat Comes/ The Cassandra Cat - Czechoslovakia - 1963) 

2/ Lekce Faust (Faust - Czech Republic, France, UK, US, Germany - 1994) 

3/ Cléo de 5 à 7 (Cléo from 5 to 7 - France, Italy - 1962)

4/ To Be or Not to Be (1942)

5/ Kedi (Turkey - 2016) 

6/ A Midsummer Night's Dream (2024, Royal Shakespeare Company, dir. Eleanor Rhode, starring Mathew Baynton as Bottom) - onstage 

7/ I Slept with 100 Men in One Day (2024)

8/ The Wizard of Oz (1939) 

9/ Burning Sun: Exposing the Secret K-pop Chat Groups (2024) 

10/ The Ladykillers (1955) 

___________________________________

11/ Cien Años de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude - Colombia - 2024) - Series 1, 8 episodes

12/ Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror - Germany - 1922) 

13/ Daughters of Darkness (Belgium, France, West Germany - 1971) 

14/ In Bruges (2008)

15/ PinkNews: Behind Closed Doors (2024) 

16/ The Man in the White Suit (1951)

17/ Nosferatu (2024) 

18/ Dispatches: Beneath the Veil (2001) 

19/ The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

20/ A Real Pain (2024) 

21/ Wonka (2023)

22/ It Happened One Night (1934) 

23/ The Palm Beach Story (1942)

24/ Midnight (1939) 

25/ Cleopatra (1934) 

26/ A Star Is Born (2018) 

27/ The Flame of New Orleans (1941)

28/ Coriolanus (2024, National Theatre, dir. Lyndsey Turner, with David Oyelowo as Coriolanus) 

29/ King Lear (2018, National Theatre, dir. Jonathan Munby, with Ian McKellen as Lear) 

30/ The Brutalist (2024) 

31/ Othello (2013, National Theatre, dir. Nicholas Hytner, with Adrian Lester as Othello) 

32/ Julius Caesar (2018, National Theatre. dir. Nicholas Hytner, with Ben Whishaw as Brutus) 

33/ Mahanagar, aka The Big City (India - 1963) 

34/ Anora (2024)

35/ L'Amour l'après-midi (Love in the Afternoon - France - 1972) 

36/ Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang (2023) 

37/ Panorama - My Online Stalker (2025) 

38/ Eye Investigations: Liked, Lured, Livestreamed (2025) 

39/ Moonstruck (1987)

40/ Le ballon rouge (The Red Balloon - France - 1956) 

41/ Heathers (1988) 

42/ Tom Jones (1963) 

43/ The Big Clock (1948) 

44/ Groomed: A National Scandal (2025) 

45/ Eye Investigations: Make Me Perfect: Manufacturing Beauty in China (2025) 

46/ 晩菊 (Late Chrysanthemums - Japan - 1954) 

47/ Macbeth (1971) 

48/ 龍門客棧 (Dragon Inn - Taiwan - 1967) 

49/ Cyrano de Bergerac (France, Hungary - 1990) 

50/ Hamlet (2009, RSC, ft. David Tennant) 

51/ Paper Moon (1973)

52/ タンポポ (Tampopo - Japan - 1985) 

53/ Diddy in Plain Sight: UNTOLD (2025) 

54/ Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) 

55/ Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) 

56/ Stacey Dooley: Meet the Shoplifters (2025) 

57/ Anna Karenina (1977) - 10 episodes 

58/ Mansfield Park (1983) - 6 episodes 

59/ Pride and Prejudice (2005) - again 

60/ North and South (2004) - 4 episodes 

61/ Братья Карамазовы (The Brothers Karamazov - Soviet Union - 1969) 

62/ Straume (Flow - Latvia, France, Belgium - 2024)

62/ The Apartment (1960) - again

63/ The Servant (1963) 

64/ Some Like It Hot (1959) - again 

65/ Ball of Fire (1941) 

66/ The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) 

67/ Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) 

68/ Citizen Kane (1941) - again 

69/ Sound of Metal (2019)

70/ My Man Godfrey (1936) 

71/ The Naked Gun (2025) 

72/ Odd Man Out (1947) 

78/ 12 Angry Men (1957) - again 

79/ Ninotchka (1939)

80/ Frankenstein (1931) 

81/ Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

82/ 千と千尋の神隠し (Spirited Away - Japan - 2001)

83/ Casablanca (1942) - again 

84/ The Plot Against Harry (1971)

85/ The Three Faces of Eve (1957) 

86/ Poor Things (2023) 

87/ Young Frankenstein (1974) 

88/ High Anxiety (1977) 

89/ Dark Waters (2019) 

90/ Dracula (1931, English-language version) 

91/ Son of Frankenstein (1939) 

92/ Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931) 

93/ The Invisible Man (1933) 

94/ The Black Cat (1934) 

95/ The Return (2024)

96/ The Public Enemy (1931) 

97/ Steve Jobs (2015)

98/ パーフェクトブルー (Perfect Blue - Japan - 1997)

99/ ハウルの動く城 (Howl's Moving Castle - Japan - 2004) 

100/ となりのトトロ (My Neighbour Totoro - Japan - 1988) 

Ranking Shakespeare [updated]

On 6/4/2023, after reading all of Shakespeare’s plays, I created this blog post ranking the plays and characters. All the lists are now updated. 

My 5 favourite plays:

King Lear

Macbeth 

Othello

The Winter’s Tale 

Antony and Cleopatra 

My 15 favourite plays: 

Macbeth 

Othello

King Lear

Antony and Cleopatra

The Winter’s Tale 

Hamlet 

Measure for Measure 

Henry IV, Part 1 

Henry IV, Part 2 

Twelfth Night 

The Merchant of Venice 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream 

Richard II

Julius Caesar 

Coriolanus 

5 greatest male characters:

Macbeth in Macbeth 

Hamlet in Hamlet

Iago in Othello

Falstaff in Henry IV plays (not The Merry Wives of Windsor) 

Shylock in The Merchant of Venice 

5 favourite male characters:

Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet 

Falstaff in Henry IV plays (not The Merry Wives of Windsor) 

Barnardine in Measure for Measure 

Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing 

The Fool in King Lear 

5 greatest female characters:

Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra 

Lady Macbeth in Macbeth 

Rosalind in As You Like It

Viola in Twelfth Night 

Isabella in Measure for Measure 

5 favourite female characters: 

Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing

Emilia in Othello 

Hermione in The Winter’s Tale

Rosalind in As You Like It  

Margaret in Henry VI Part 2, Henry VI Part 3, and Richard III (not Henry VI Part 1)

Favourite couple:

Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing

Favourite non-speaking character: 

Crab the dog in The Two Gentlemen of Verona 

5 most evil characters: 

Iago in Othello 

Goneril in King Lear 

Regan in King Lear

Leontes in The Winter’s Tale 

Richard III in Richard III 

10 favourite Shakespeare productions and films: 

Macbeth (1979), dir. Trevor Nunn, with Ian McKellen as Macbeth and Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth 

King Lear (2016), dir. Michael Buffong, with Don Warrington as Lear 

The Winter’s Tale (1999), dir. Gregory Doran, with Antony Sher as Leontes 

Hamlet (1990), dir. Kevin Kline, with Kevin Kline as Hamlet 

Coriolanus (2024), dir. Lyndsey Turner, with David Oyelowo as Coriolanus 

Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2 (1979), dir. David Giles, with David Gwillim as Hal and Anthony Quayle as Falstaff 

Twelfth Night (1988), dir. Kenneth Branagh, with Frances Barber as Viola and Richard Briers as Malvolio 

Measure for Measure (1979), dir. Desmond Davis, with Kate Nelligan as Isabella 

Othello (2013), dir. Nicholas Hytner, with Adrian Lester as Othello and Rory Kinnear as Iago 

Antony and Cleopatra (1974), dir. Trevor Nunn and Jon Scoffield, with Richard Johnson as Antony and Janet Suzman as Cleopatra 

Bonus: 

Ran (1985), dir. Akira Kurosawa 

+10 favourite books about Shakespeare: 

Prefaces to Shakespeare by Tony Tanner

Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth by A. C. Bradley

The Wheel of Fire by G. Wilson Knight 

The Crown of Life by G. Wilson Knight 

The Imperial Theme by G. Wilson Knight  

What Happens in Hamlet by John Dover Wilson 

Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber 

The Genius of Shakespeare by Jonathan Bate

Soul of the Age by Jonathan Bate 

Shakespeare: The World As Stage by Bill Bryson 

Shakespeare by Anthony Burgess 

Now give me your lists. 

My 20 favourite plays not by Shakespeare [updated]

There was a time when pretty much all I read was novels and short stories; the plays I knew were those assigned at school or university. Then I got into Shakespeare and my favourite plays a couple of years ago were all by Shakespeare. 

But now I have got a better grasp of drama, especially classical drama, so here’s a list of favourites that aren’t by Shakespeare (listed chronologically by the dramatist’s birth year, and grouped by country): 

• The Oresteia by Aeschylus, which is actually three plays: Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, and Eumenides 
• Prometheus Bound, attributed to Aeschylus 
• Oedipus the King 
• Antigone 
• Electra by Sophocles 
• Hippolytus 
• Hecabe 
• The Bacchae by Euripides 
• Lysistrata 
• The Frogs by Aristophanes 
• Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe 
• The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster 
• The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley 
• The Revenger’s Tragedy by Thomas Middleton or Cyril Tourneur 
• Life Is a Dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca 
• Tartuffe 
• Don Juan 
• The Misanthrope by Molière 
• Phèdre by Jean Racine 
• The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen 

______________________________________

What can we see here? My tastes are predominantly Greek (and Shakespearean): 10 out of 20 plays are by the Athenian playwrights (or 12 out of 22 if you don’t count the Oresteia as one). Molière is another favourite. 

Only one play from the 19th century. No Goethe. No Chekhov—is that a surprise?—I struggled with his plays, having read only two, and much prefer him as a short story writer. No Oscar Wilde, simply because I haven’t read him—if “allowed” to include plays I’ve seen onscreen, I would name The Importance of Being Earnest (though it’s hard to say which play I would remove to make place for it). 

No Tennessee Williams, whom I liked at university. No one contemporary, but then the only one I know is Tom Stoppard—one day I’m going to read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which I would probably like. 

Now this list is a bit of a cheat—a list of favourite plays, by Shakespeare and other dramatists, would be much, much harder. 

Name your favourite plays. 

Update on 19/3/2026:

I would probably replace The Revenger’s Tragedy or The Changeling with Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen. Now this is a great, psychologically complex, haunting play. 

Some Shakespearean performances I wish to have seen

As I have been reading Judi Dench’s Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent (a very enjoyable read) and just updated my list of favourite Shakespearean performances, here’s a shortlist of performances I wish to have seen:

• 17th century: 

Richard Burbage as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth (obviously, he worked directly with our man) 

• 18th century: 

Sarah Siddons as Lady Macbeth (because William Hazlitt calls her “Tragedy personified” and this is her most famous role) 

• 19th century: 

Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (I mean, have you seen Sargent’s painting? I’ve also seen the dress in person) 

Sarah Siddons as Hermione (because of some commentaries I’ve read in The Winter’s Tale Casebook)  

• 20th century: 

Vivien Leigh as Lady Macbeth (I’m curious about her performance) and Cleopatra (come on, she must have been great in the role) 

Diana Rigg as Lady Macbeth (the best Regan I have seen, she would have been great as Lady Macbeth) 

Ralph Richardson as Falstaff (he’s part of the trinity, and extraordinary in everything I’ve seen) 

Judi Dench as Gertrude with Daniel Day-Lewis as Hamlet (come on, that sounds amazing, I also like Judi Dench’s analysis of Gertrude and the play) 

Judi Dench as Isabella (I like her comments on the character) 

• 21st century: 

Frances Barber as Cleopatra (she is Cleopatra, I have heard her on audio and wish I had seen her onstage) 

Give me your list. 

My 50 favourite Shakespearean performances onscreen and onstage

The 30 list was first published on 29/12/2023. It is now updated. 

In chronological order. 

Robert Shaw as Claudius in Hamlet at Elsinor (1964)  

Michael Aldridge as Pistol in Chimes at Midnight (1965) 

Olivia Hussey as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (1968) 

Leonard Whiting as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (1968)

Diana Rigg as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968) 

Laurence Olivier as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1973) 

Jeremy Brett as Berowne in Love’s Labour’s Lost (1975) 

Marc Singer as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew (1976) 

Ian McKellen as Macbeth in Macbeth (1979) 

Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (1979)

David Gwillim as Hal/ Henry V in the Henry IV plays and Henry V (1979) 

Anthony Quayle as Falstaff in the Henry IV plays (1979) 

Jon Finch as Henry IV in the Henry IV plays (1979)  

Tim Pigott-Smith as Hotspur in Henry IV, Part 1 (1979) 

Kate Nelligan as Isabella in Measure for Measure (1979) 

Anthony Hopkins as Othello in Othello (1981) 

Bob Hoskins as Iago in Othello (1981) 

Michael Hordern as Lear in King Lear (1982) 

Anton Lesser as Edgar in King Lear (1982) 

Penelope Wilton as Regan in King Lear (1982) 

Michael Pennington as Posthumus in Cymbeline (1982) 

Robert Lindsay as Iachimo in Cymbeline (1982) 

Robert Lindsay as Edmund in King Lear (1983) 

Diana Rigg as Regan in King Lear (1983)

Cherie Lunghi as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (1984) 

Robert Lindsay as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (1984)

Richard Briers as Malvolio in Twelfth Night (1988) 

Frances Barber as Viola in Twelfth Night (1988)  

Kevin Kline as Hamlet in Hamlet (1990) 

Ian McKellen as Iago in Othello (1990) 

Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona in Othello (1990)

Helena Bonham Carter as Olivia in Twelfth Night (1990) 

Antony Sher as Leontes in The Winter’s Tale (1999) 

Ian Hughes as Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale (1999) 

Ralph Fiennes as Coriolanus in Coriolanus (2011) 

Vanessa Redgrave as Volumnia in Coriolanus (2011)

Amy Acker as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (2012) 

Adrian Lester as Othello in Othello (2013) 

Don Warrington as Lear in King Lear (2016) 

Miltos Yerolemou as the Fool in King Lear (2016)

Thomas Coombes as Oswald in King Lear (2016)

Ian McKellen as Lear in King Lear (2018) 

Ben Whishaw as Brutus in Julius Caesar (2018) 

Kathryn Hunter as the Witches in Macbeth (2021) 

David Oyelowo as Coriolanus in Coriolanus (2024) 

Mathew Baynton as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2024) 

.

.

. 

.

The 10 best films of every decade from the 1940s to the 2010s (2025 list)

My personal list, maybe idiosyncratic. Some are firm choices, some may be different tomorrow.

- The 40s:

The Great Dictator (1940)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Casablanca (1942)

To Be or Not to Be (1942) 

Gaslight (1944)

Brief Encounter (1945)

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

The Heiress (1949)

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) 

- The 50s:

All about Eve (1950)

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

In a Lonely Place (1950)

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Ace in the Hole (1951) 

The Flavour of Green Tea over Rice (1952) 

A Star Is Born (1954) 

12 Angry Men (1957)

Wild Strawberries (1957)

Room at the Top (1959)

- The 60s:

The Apartment (1960)

The Innocents (1961) 

Yojimbo (1961)

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

8 ½ (1963)

Woman in the Dunes (1964) 

Charulata (1964) 

Kwaidan (1965) 

Persona (1966)

La piscine (1969) 

- The 70s:

Cries and Whispers (1972) 

The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974) 

Love in the Afternoon (1972) 

Amarcord (1973) 

The Conversation (1974)

Chinatown (1974) 

The Phantom of Liberty (1974) 

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Taxi Driver (1976)

Stalker (1979) 

- The 80s:

The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)

Fanny and Alexander (1982) 

Ran (1985)

My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (1987)

Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

Alice (1988)  

A Fish Called Wanda (1988) 

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) 

Cinema Paradiso (1989) 

- The 90s:

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)

Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

The Double Life of Veronique (1991)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Thelma & Louise (1991)

Farewell my Concubine (1993) 

To Live (1994)

Happy Together (1997)

L. A. Confidential (1997) 

Run Lola Run (1998)

- The 2000s:

Memento (2000)

The Pianist (2002)

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)

Memories of Murder (2003) 

The Aviator (2004)

Sideways (2004) 

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Babel (2006) 

The Lives of Others (2006) 

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)

- The 2010s:

The Dance of Reality (2013) 

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) 

Our Little Sister (2015) 

The Handmaiden (2016) 

Phantom Thread (2017) 

The Square (2017) 

Shoplifters (2018) 

Parasite (2019) 

Pain and Glory (2019) 

Little Women (2019)