I have spoken elsewhere on the political and philosophical importance of lists, but we should not overlook the pleasure aspect: quite simply, lists make happy; they are fun to write and fun to read.
So, here's a list of my thirteen favourite novels - assembled not in order of preference nor following a critical assessment of literary value, but alphabetically by author name. For compiling lists should not be simply another excuse to exercise judgement and construct hierarchies. I love all of these books, not equally, but in any order that one might care to suggest and the only logic that links them is the fact that they have continually given amorous pleasure.
Two final points to note: Firstly, I've selected only a single title by any one author. Obviously I could list several by those writers, such as Lawrence, of whom I am especially fond, but I didn't want to do that. Secondly, I have given the titles of non-English books in translation, but shown the publication date for the original text.
Kobo Abe, The Woman in the Dunes, (1962)
J. G. Ballard, Crash, (1973)
Georges Bataille, The Story of the Eye, (1928)
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, (1847)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, (1850)
Michel Houellebecq, The Possibility of an Island, (2005)
D. H. Lawrence, Women in Love (1920)
Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star, (1977)
Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer, (1934)
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, (1955)
Amélie Nothomb, The Book of Proper Names, (2002)
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Venus in Furs, (1870)
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, (1890)
