Zuleika Dobson

As others have said it's a wonderful cultural artifact but it's not necessarily a fun read. The satire is very much embedded in the culture it is taking jabs at which means that without a thorough understanding of the Edwardian period you miss the point of the novel and most of the jokes. There's no underlying theme of revealing some portion of human nature that would make Zuleika Dobson stand the test of time. I'm not sure how it's ended up on both The Guardian's and Modern Library's best novels list.

It's sort of book that's found on a syllabus for an English or History course and leads to great classroom discussions but one no one would recommend to a friend.