Who is on your Top 10 List of Greatest Works of Christian Fiction?

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I’d like to expand and broaden my reading horizons and get back into fiction once again, so i was hoping to compile a list of some of the very best and most meaningful of Christian Fiction. I’m not terribly well-read so I’m not sure I can come up with 10 of my own, but even three ideas if you can muster that or just one would be terribly appreciated. I’m reading (listening to Victor Hugo’s unabridged Les Miserables right now and I think it might deserve a place on the list as well as perhaps Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, but who might you recommend that could enliven and broaden a young or perhaps just young at heart Christian mind and imagination? I’m unsure of Tolstoy or Dostoevsky but considering them. (More contemporary works are also welcome if you feel they merit inclusion.)
 
Thanks, the website looks quite helpful. I began on the Screwtape Letters once early in my reconversion and it gave me the creeps, so to speak. But perhaps now I shall revisit them. They do seem a bit dark to me. Do they not?

I did enjoy Sigrid Undset’s Catherine of Siena, so Kristin Lavansdatter would be a good book to explore.

Thanks again! I’ll look more at this list.
 
The first book that came to my mind is Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ, by Lew Wallace

I read this book in high school, and I literally could not put it down. I remember reading it in class, and when one of the teachers asked me to put the book away, I said, “No, I can’t put this down. It’s so good.” (I didn’t get in trouble.)

Some other books:
  1. No Man In Eden re-titled and re-released as Escape from the Twisted Planet, by Harold Myra.
This is another page turner, and it’s incredibly touching.
  1. C.S. Lewis Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet,* Perelandra*, and That Hideous Strength.
These are my husband’s favorite C.S. Lewis stories, even better than the Narnia series
  1. Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle (There are several other books in this series.)
Amazingly, this book and the others in the series are considered CHILDREN’S literature–don’t believe it. They’re so good.
  1. The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Yes, really. This beautiful epic poem made me cry, and probably has done more than any work of fiction to bring me closest to truly knowing Jesus. It’s incredible. Plan on several hours to read through it, and try to read it with no interruptions.
  1. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
This amazing book is consistently cited in even modern history books as a “cause of the Civil War.” It should be required reading by all high school students.
 
Flannery O’ Connor:
The Collected Stories
Wise Blood
The Violent Bear It Away
The Habit of Being ( Literary essays)

Graham Greene:
The Power and the Glory
Brighton Rock
The End of the Affair
The Heart of the Matter

Evelyn Waugh:
A Handful of Dust
Brideshead Revisited
Helena

Ande Dubus:
The Collected Stories
Meditations from a Moveable Chair ( Literary essays)

Muriel Spark:
The Pride of Miss Jean Brodie
The Girls of Slender Means
The Driver’s Seat
The Only Problem

Walker Percy:
The Moviegoer
The Last Gentleman
The Second Coming
Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self Help Book (Nonfiction)

J.F. Powers:
The Collected Stories
Morte D’Urban
Wheat that Springeth Green

Ron Hansen:
The Collected Stories
Atticus
Mariette in Ecstasy

Let me know if you’d like to know more.
 
Thanks Sheep. I’ve never read Flannery, but if I had to read just one of her stories, which one would you suggest?
 
Thankyou also Cat, maybe I should read Ben Hur, I liked the movie a lot so it seems that spoils the book a bit in a way. Maybe not.

Which of your 5 other recommendations do you think has the most Christian element to it- either directly or indirectly?
 
The Narnian heptology, the Great Divorce, (both CS Lewis) and after that not sure.

ICXC NIKA
 
I’d recommend " A Good Man Is Hard To Find". It’s one of her most popular, which makes sense. It’s a masterpiece.
 
I recommend them all though truthfully. I’d say if you had to choose from that list, choose her stories first. The novels are better to read after them in my opinion, after you get a feel for her work. They aren’t overly long novels, but they are darker and a little more experimental than her stories.
 
Wow, no one has said The Lord of the Rings yet? Start with The Hobbit if you read it (or you could listen to it in your car).

Peace
 
Funny! Good Man was not on your original list, but I shall give it a peruse! I’ve always had an affinity for Flannery for some reason…don’t know why exactly. Perhaps cause she died young, was politically very incorrect, said what she meant, and loved animals…among other things. 🙂

Also, Thanks GEddie. I’ve never taken a peek at The Great Divorce. I should do that.
 
Regarding Flannery, I do enjoy short stories, so I’ll keep that in mind.
 
Estevao said:
Dante’s Divine Comedy would have to be up there.
Click to expand...
I thought that was non-fiction? 😉 Seriously, love Dante’s Divine Comedy. Am still working through Paradiso. Hell and Purgatorio just seemed so much more interesting. Perhaps that reflects my fallen state.
 
I like Michael O’Brien’s books:
Father Elijah
The Island of the World
A Father’s Tale
and others
 
Ahhh, many of Mr. O’Brien’s books have passed through my hands back when I used to work for a book publisher/distributor that shall remain nameless. 🙂

I never have actually opened one up to see what’s inside. He is evidently quite “popular” in any case. hmmm…
 
‘Brideshead Revisited’ is amazing (as is everything that Evelyn Waugh wrote, imo). He was a Catholic convert.
 
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