Masterpieces of World Literature

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

About this list

Frank N. Magill, 244 Books

Scholar Frank N. Magill’s famous literary studies reference book. A selection of over 200 of the greatest works of literature of all time

This list was originally published in 1991 and was added to this site over 11 years ago.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
46 One Thousand and One Nights Unknown 800 Multiple Arabic
669 Beowulf Unknown 1000 Unknown Old english
264 The Epic Of Gilgamesh Unknown -2100 Multiple Akkadian
1467 Everyman Unknown 1501 Unknown Middle english
11535 The Twelve Labours of Hercules Unknown -100 Multiple Ancient greek
11522 Argonautika Apollonius of Rhodes -250 Ancient greek
544 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
323 Mahabharata Vyasa -400 Indian Sanskrit
699 The Nibelungenlied Unknown 1200 German Middle high german
11527 Orpheus and Eurydice Unknown -28 Unknown Ancient greek
1410 Poem of the Cid Unknown 1207 Spanish Old spanish
864 Reynard the Fox Unknown 1479 Multiple Middle dutch
6159 The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Howard Pyle 1883 American English
7042 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Simon Armitage 2007 British Middle english
1658 The Song of Roland Unknown 1100 French Old french
225 Fairy Tales and Stories Hans Christian Andersen 1835 Danish Danish
1383 The Birds Aristophanes -414 Greek Ancient greek
133 Confessions Augustine 397 Roman Latin
122 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
30 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri 1308 Italian Italian
377 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
83 Emma Jane Austen 1815 British English
876 Lysistrata Aristophanes -411 Greek Ancient greek
313 Meditations Marcus Aurelius 161 Roman Greek
285 Oresteia Aeschylus -458 Greek Ancient greek
972 The Orlando Furioso Lodovico Ariosto 1516 Italian Italian
1297 Poetics Aristotle -322 Greek Greek
13 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
1256 Prometheus Bound Aeschylus -455 Greek Ancient greek
653 Summa Theologica Thomas Aquinas 1274 Italian Latin
1273 Robert Browning's Poetry Robert Browning 1833 British English
510 Eugenie Grandet Honoré de Balzac 1833 French French
178 The Flowers of Evil Charles Baudelaire 1857 French French
281 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 1931 American English
29 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
529 Life Is a Dream Pedro Calderón de la Barca 1635 Spanish Spanish
300 The Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell 1791 British English
1273 Selected Poems of Lord Byron Lord Byron 1800 British English
5392 New Atlantis Francis Bacon 1627 British English
390 The Old Wives' Tale Arnold Bennett 1908 British English
228 Father Goriot Honoré de Balzac 1835 French French
551 Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 1678 British English
11531 Poems of Matsuo Bashō Matsuo Bashō 1601 Japanese Japanese
1112 The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake William Blake 1827 British English
13362 Sonnets from the Portuguese Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1850 British English
101 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
35 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1865 British English
9857 Biographia Literaria Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1817 British English
110 The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer 1400 British Middle english
3376 Le Cid Pierre Corneille 1637 French French
391 Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather 1927 American English
8 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
31 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899 British English
507 The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper 1826 American English
160 My Antonia Willa Cather 1918 American English
283 Nostromo Joseph Conrad 1904 British English
8644 Catiline Orations Marcus Tullius Cicero -63 Roman Latin
13362 The Pioneers James Fenimore Cooper 1823 American English
76 The Plague Albert Camus 1947 French French
552 The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane 1895 American English
1652 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
572 Three Sisters Anton Chekhov 1901 Russian Russian
18 The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky 1880 Russian Russian
87 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 1844 French French
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
47 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 1849 British English
38 Great Expectations Charles Dickens 1860 British English
1146 Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens 1839 British English
180 On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin 1859 British English
277 The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens 1836 British English
156 Poems of Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson 1890 American English
94 Demons Fyodor Dostoevsky 1872 Russian Russian
1239 The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne John Donne 1952 British English
69 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 1719 British English
943 The Bacchae Euripides -405 Greek Ancient greek
986 Electra Sophocles -409 Greek Ancient greek
3238 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 2000 American English
479 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
307 Medea Euripides -431 Greek Ancient greek
28 Middlemarch George Eliot 1871 British English
1291 Parzival Wolfram Eschenbach 1200 German Middle high german
643 Silas Marner George Eliot 1861 British English
2199 Trojan Women Euripides -415 Greek Ancient greek
43 Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner 1936 American English
79 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
689 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin 1791 American English
7166 A Fable William Faulkner 1954 American English
3 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 American English
177 The Interpretation of Dreams Sigmund Freud 1899 Austrian German
20 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 1857 French French
78 A Passage to India E. M. Forster 1924 British English
1673 Penguin Island Anatole France 1908 French French
317 The Poems of Robert Frost Robert Frost 1913 American English
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
134 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
104 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
96 Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1808 German German
830 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon 1776 British English
1927 Stories of Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Gogol 1831 Russian Russian
3921 She Stoops to Conquer Oliver Goldsmith 1773 British English
518 The Odes Horace 23 Roman Latin
484 Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin 1754 Chinese Chinese
1997 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding David Hume 1748 Scottish English
67 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway 1929 American English
97 For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway 1940 American English
624 The Histories of Herodotus Herodotus -450 Greek Ancient greek
601 The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne 1851 American English
366 The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Victor Hugo 1831 French French
209 Hunger Knut Hamsun 1890 Norwegian Norwegian
37 The Iliad Homer -750 Greek Ancient greek
287 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy 1895 British English
345 Leviathan Thomas Hobbes 1651 British English
40 Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1862 French French
24 The Odyssey Homer -740 Greek Ancient greek
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
739 The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy 1878 British English
74 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 1850 American English
117 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy 1891 British English
1049 Works and Days Hesiod -700 Greek Ancient greek