The Book of Great Books: A Guide to 100 World Classics

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

About this list

Book, 105 Books

Editor W. John Campbell provides explanations and summaries for 100 of the world's best books.

This list was originally published in 2001 and was added to this site over 11 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
70 The Aeneid Virgil -19 Roman Latin
86 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque 1928 German German
149 All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren 1946 American English
55 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
79 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
1340 As You Like it William Shakespeare 1600 British English
271 The Awakening Kate Chopin 1899 American English
669 Beowulf Unknown 1000 Unknown Old english
1267 Billy Budd Herman Melville 1924 American English
308 The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison 1970 American English
50 Brave New World Aldous Huxley 1932 British English
230 The Call of the Wild Jack London 1903 American English
80 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
110 The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer 1400 British Middle english
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
157 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
9716 The Crucible Arthur Miller 1953 American English
3126 Daisy Miller Henry James 1878 American English
47 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 1849 British English
428 Death Of A Salesman Arthur Miller 1949 American English
113 The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 1947 Dutch Dutch
30 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri 1308 Italian Italian
627 The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Christopher Marlowe 1604 British English
424 A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen 1879 Norwegian Norwegian
8 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
8510 Euthyphro Plato -399 Greek Ancient greek
1156 Apology Plato -389 Greek Ancient greek
7022 Crito Plato -389 Greek Ancient greek
1647 Phaedo Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
67 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway 1929 American English
96 Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1808 German German
97 For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway 1940 American English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
3458 The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams 1944 American English
281 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 1931 American English
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
38 Great Expectations Charles Dickens 1860 British English
3 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 American English
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
71 Hamlet William Shakespeare 1600 British English
1772 Hard Times Charles Dickens 1854 British English
31 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899 British English
3306 Henry IV, Part I William Shakespeare 1597 British English
2868 House Made of Dawn N. Scott Momaday 1968 American English
601 The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne 1851 American English
22 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884 American English
521 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 1969 American English
37 The Iliad Homer -750 Greek Ancient greek
36 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison 1952 American English
29 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
2121 Julius Caesar William Shakespeare 1623 British English
183 The Jungle Upton Sinclair 1906 American English
131 King Lear William Shakespeare 1608 British English
181 Light in August William Faulkner 1932 American English
137 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad 1900 British English
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
155 Macbeth William Shakespeare 1606 British English
20 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 1857 French French
358 The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy 1886 British English
2615 The Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare 1600 British English
1661 A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare 1595 British English
7 Moby-Dick Herman Melville 1851 American English
107 Native Son Richard Wright 1940 American English
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
24 The Odyssey Homer -740 Greek Ancient greek
106 Oedipus the King Sophocles -429 Greek Ancient greek
383 Oedipus at Colonus Sophocles -401 Greek Ancient greek
125 Antigone Sophocles -441 Greek Ancient greek
170 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 1937 American English
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
339 The Adventures of Oliver Twist Charles Dickens 1837 British English
154 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 1962 American English
1109 Othello William Shakespeare 1603 British English
127 Paradise Lost John Milton 1667 British English
2338 The Pearl John Steinbeck 1947 American English
76 The Plague Albert Camus 1947 French French
88 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 1916 Irish English
13 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
152 The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli 1532 Italian Italian
552 The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane 1895 American English
220 The Republic Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
739 The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy 1878 British English
950 Richard III William Shakespeare 1592 British English
337 Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare 1597 British English
74 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 1850 American English
1391 A Separate Peace John Knowles 1959 American English
643 Silas Marner George Eliot 1861 British English
144 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
171 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
23 The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 French French
62 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway 1926 American English
10601 The Taming of the Shrew William Shakespeare 1590 British English
211 The Tempest William Shakespeare 1623 British English
117 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy 1891 British English
68 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 1937 American English
243 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain 1876 American English
115 Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson 1883 British English
5988 Twelfth Night William Shakespeare 1602 British English
101 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
108 Walden Henry David Thoreau 1854 American English