And then there were 32.
After a brutal round of upsets, blowouts, and close calls we have narrowed our list of 64 in half.
Here’s some highlights from Round 1 :
The Upsets: It was Bloomsday to Doomsday for Ulysses . The Irish giant, often called the Greatest Novel of All Time, was felled by the preppie American Gatsby . Another American, Huckleberry Finn , outwitted theSpanish Don Quixote , often considered the first novel. But while individual Americans triumphed, Passos’ U.S.A got sucked into a slough of despond and lost the race to the humble Pilgrim’ s Progress .
The Blowouts: Atlas Shrugged must have “gone Galt” because it barely showed up in the competition against powerhouse Lord of the Rings . And the The Stand proved it wasn’t able to withstand The Plague of existential angst; King made a horrific showing against Camus.
The Nail-biters: Alice made a wonderful effort but wasn’t swift enough to outpace Gulliver’s Travels . In the second closest match-up of the round, Lewis Carroll’s fantastic tale lost by 14 votes. The closest match-up? That very last bracket: Although Fahrenheit 451 kept the heat on, the book got caught up in Charlotte’s Web and lost by a mere 12 votes.
So who will make it into the Sweet 16? Decide now by casting a vote for your favorites. Each round of voting, one round per day for the next six weekdays, will begin at 9:00 am and end at midnight.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
