The Great Gatsby ranked 2nd on the Modern Library’s list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It appeared directly behind James Joyce’s Ulysses and ahead of Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Modern Library published the editors’ list in 1998 after polling an editorial board that included figures such as A. S. Byatt, Gore Vidal, Edmund Morris, and Daniel J. Boorstin. The list was intended to highlight major books published by Random House and its affiliated imprints, so it was an influential editorial ranking rather than an objective vote representing every reader or critic.
The result helped cement Gatsby’s modern reputation. Fitzgerald’s novel was not an immediate commercial triumph after its 1925 publication, and it sold fewer than 20,000 copies by October of that year. Its reputation grew dramatically during the 1940s, including through wartime editions distributed to American soldiers. The ranking is also distinct from the Modern Library’s separate reader poll, which produced a different order.