Top 100 World Literature Titles

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Perfection Learning, 99 Books

The top 100 titles for the world literature classroom, ranked in order of popularity, chosen by literature teachers from across the country.

Who voted?
it says "literature teachers from across the country" which doesn't give me much to go by. I am just going to pick a conservative number of 25.

This list was originally published in 2017 and was added to this site almost 12 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
60 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 1958 Nigerian English
598 Night Elie Wiesel 1958 French French
892 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
23 The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 French French
265 Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton 1948 South African English
66 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
163 Siddhartha Hermann Hesse 1922 German German
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
106 Oedipus the King Sophocles -429 Greek Ancient greek
24 The Odyssey Homer -740 Greek Ancient greek
424 A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen 1879 Norwegian Norwegian
86 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque 1928 German German
5 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez 1967 Colombian Spanish
80 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
125 Antigone Sophocles -441 Greek Ancient greek
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
30 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri 1308 Italian Italian
37 The Iliad Homer -750 Greek Ancient greek
1142 Life of Pi Yann Martel 2001 Canadian English
1308 Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand 1897 French French
40 Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1862 French French
8 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
1367 Like Water For Chocolate Laura Esquivel 1989 Mexican Spanish
264 The Epic Of Gilgamesh Unknown -2100 Multiple Akkadian
1507 Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya 1972 American English
8335 Three Cups of Tea Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin 2006 American English
20 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 1857 French French
985 Mythology Edith Hamilton 1942 American English
389 The Alchemist Paulo Coelho 1988 Brazilian Portuguese
1917 In the Time of the Butterflies Julia Alvarez 1994 Dominican English
451 Hiroshima John Hersey 1946 American English
6225 Kaffir Boy Mark Mathabane 1986 South African English
291 The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende 1982 Chilean Spanish
5267 A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah 2007 Sierra Leonean English
87 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 1844 French French
148 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1962 Russian Russian
2058 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini 2007 Afghan English
878 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver 1998 American English
2354 Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Dai Sijie 2000 Chinese French
88 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 1916 Irish English
113 The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 1947 Dutch Dutch
670 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
2370 The Power of One Bryce Courtenay 1989 Australian English
7806 First They Killed My Father Loung Ung 2000 Cambodian English
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
10 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 1877 Russian Russian
152 The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli 1532 Italian Italian
3214 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Lisa See 2005 Chinese English
4996 Persepolis Two Marjane Satrapi 2004 Iranian French
70 The Aeneid Virgil -19 Roman Latin
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
166 Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel García Márquez 1985 Colombian Spanish
3102 Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi 2003 Iranian English
1085 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
1889 Annie John Jamaica Kincaid 1985 Antiguan English
2105 Chronicle of a Death Foretold Gabriel García Márquez 1981 Colombian Spanish
1890 Obasan Joy Kogawa 1981 Canadian English
7567 Red Scarf Girl Ji-li Jiang 1997 Chinese English
307 Medea Euripides -431 Greek Ancient greek
7575 I Have Lived a Thousand Years Livia Bitton-Jackson 1997 Hungarian English
6197 Girl in Hyacinth Blue Susan Vreeland 1999 American English
44 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943 French French
6322 Living Up The Street Gary Soto 1985 American English
1129 The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri 2003 American English
8589 Sold Patricia McCormick 2006 American English
3479 The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad 2002 Norwegian Norwegian
2848 What Is the What Dave Eggers 2006 American English
5131 All But My Life Gerda Weissmann Klein 1957 American English
6415 My Forbidden Face Latifa 2001 Afghan French
5148 Before We Were Free Julia Alvarez 2002 American English
6417 The Bonesetter's Daughter Amy Tan 2001 American English
5147 Dawn Elie Wiesel 1961 Romanian French
4937 Dreaming in Cuban Cristina García 1992 Cuban English
5970 Falling Leaves Adeline Yen Mah 1997 Chinese English
366 The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Victor Hugo 1831 French French
7817 In My Hands Irene Opdyke 1999 American English
548 Le Morte d'Arthur Thomas Malory 1485 British Middle english
416 Out of Africa Isak Dinesen 1937 Danish Danish
811 The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux 1909 French French
6622 Purple Hibiscus Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2003 Nigerian English
7818 Ties That Bind, Ties That Break Lensey Namioka 1999 American English
2207 Waiting Ha Jin 1999 Chinese English
8250 Funny in Farsi Firoozeh Dumas 2003 Iranian English
7179 A Book of Luminous Things Czesław Miłosz 1996 Polish English
8617 Enrique's Journey Sonia Nazario 2006 American English
4855 The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Alexander McCall Smith 1998 Scottish English
7181 Retold African American Folktales David Haynes 1996 American Unknown
101 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
6590 American Shaolin Matthew Polly 2007 American English
1156 Apology Plato -389 Greek Ancient greek
128 The Stories of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov 1900 Russian Russian
8162 Born Confused Tanuja Desai Hidier 2002 American English
281 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 1931 American English
8356 Chanda's Secrets Allan Stratton 2004 Canadian English
877 The Cherry Orchard Anton Chekhov 1904 Russian Russian
6522 City of the Beasts Isabel Allende 2002 Chilean Spanish
6522 Crow Lake Mary Lawson 2002 Canadian English