1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

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

About this list

The Book, 1001 Books

A book edited by Peter Boxall, and written by over 100 hundred international critics.

This list was originally published in 2006 and was added to this site about 7 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
46 One Thousand and One Nights Unknown 800 Multiple Arabic
2006 The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter Unknown 900 Japanese Japanese
130 The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu 1001 Japanese Classical japanese
802 Romance of the Three Kingdoms Guanzhong Luo 1400 Chinese Chinese
1151 The Water Margin Shi Naian 1370 Chinese Chinese
512 The Golden Ass Apuleius 158 Roman Latin
3324 Tirant Lo Blanc Joanot Martorell 1490 Spanish Catalan
401 Celestina Or The Tragic-Comedy Of Calisto And Melibea Fernando de Rojas 1499 Spanish Spanish
810 Amadis of Gaul Garci R. de Montalvo 1508 Spanish Spanish
544 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
145 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
481 The Lusiad Luís Vaz Camões 1572 Portuguese Portuguese
367 Journey to the West Wu Cheng'en 1592 Chinese Chinese
1599 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
3324 Thomas of Reading, Or, The Sixe Worthie Yeomen of the West Thomas Deloney 1599 British English
8 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
3324 The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda Miguel de Cervantes 1617 Spanish Spanish
1059 The True History of the Conquest of New Spain Bernal Díaz del Castillo 1632 Spanish Spanish
781 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
284 The Princess of Cleves Madame de La Fayette 1678 French French
705 Oroonoko Aphra Behn 1688 British English
69 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 1719 British English
3324 Love in Excess; or, The Fatal Enquiry Eliza Haywood 1719 British English
351 Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
1915 A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works Jonathan Swift 1729 Irish English
992 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
3324 Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus Scriblerus Club 1741 British English
503 Pamela Samuel Richardson 1740 British English
332 Clarissa Samuel Richardson 1748 British English
134 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
1132 Fanny Hill John Cleland 1748 British English
1226 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett 1751 British English
3324 The Female Quixote Charlotte Lennox 1752 British English
80 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
816 The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia Samuel Johnson, Abraham Raimbach, Robert Smirke 1759 British English
997 Julie, or the New Heloise Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1761 French French
939 Émile Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762 French French
346 The Castle of Otranto Horace Walpole 1764 British English
352 The Vicar of Wakefield Oliver Goldsmith 1766 British English
51 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
846 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
1767 The Man of Feeling Henry Mackenzie 1771 British English
679 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
282 The Sorrows of Young Werther Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1774 German German
845 Evelina Fanny Burney 1778 British English
3324 Reveries of a Solitary Walker Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 French French
210 Dangerous Liaison Pierre Choderlos de Laclos 1782 French French
275 The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 French French
889 The 120 Days of Sodom Marquis de Sade 1904 French French
689 Anton Reiser Karl Philipp Moritz 1785 German German
702 Vathek William Beckford 1786 British French
1046 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
484 Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin 1754 Chinese Chinese
757 The Adventures of Caleb Williams William Godwin 1794 British English
1925 The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano 1789 African English
731 The Mysteries of Udolpho Ann Radcliffe 1794 British English
721 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1795 German German
476 The Monk Matthew Lewis 1796 British English
2543 Camilla Fanny Burney 1796 British English
412 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
2270 The Nun Denis Diderot 1796 French French
907 Hyperion Friedrich Holderlin 1797 German German
821 Castle Rackrent Maria Edgeworth 1800 British English
1516 Heinrich of Ofterdingen Novalis 1802 German German
939 Rameau's Nephew Denis Diderot 1761 French French
622 Elective Affinities Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1809 German German
724 Michael Kohlhaas Heinrich von Kleist 1810 German German
425 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 1811 British English
13 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
520 Mansfield Park Jane Austen 1814 British English
83 Emma Jane Austen 1815 British English
1779 Rob Roy Sir Walter Scott 1817 British English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
297 Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott 1819 British English
378 Melmoth the Wanderer Charles Robert Maturin 1820 British English
1534 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
258 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
908 The Life of a Good-For-Nothing Joseph von Eichendorff 1826 German German
507 The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper 1826 American English
273 The Betrothed Alessandro Manzoni 1827 Italian Italian
42 The Red and the Black Stendhal 1830 French French
366 The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Victor Hugo 1831 French French
365 Eugene Onegin Alexander Pushkin 1833 Russian Russian
510 Eugenie Grandet Honoré de Balzac 1833 French French
228 Father Goriot Honoré de Balzac 1835 French French
1164 The Nose Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
339 The Adventures of Oliver Twist Charles Dickens 1837 British English
1866 The Lion of Flanders Hendrik Conscience 1838 Belgian Dutch
138 The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal 1839 French French
671 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe 1839 American English
1463 Camera Obscura Nicolaas Beets 1839 Dutch Dutch
249 A Hero of Our Time Mikhail Lermontov 1840 Russian Russian
104 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
432 Lost Illusions Honoré de Balzac 1837 French French
2545 The Pit and the Pendulum Edgar Allan Poe 1842 American English
119 The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas 1844 French French
614 Facundo Domingo Faustino Sarmiento 1845 Argentinian Spanish
2031 The Devil's Pool George Sand 1846 French French
87 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 1844 French French
29 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
105 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 1847 British English
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
1103 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Anne Brontë 1848 British English
47 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 1849 British English
74 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 1850 American English
7 Moby-Dick Herman Melville 1851 American English
601 The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne 1851 American English
184 Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1852 American English
813 Cranford Elizabeth Gaskell 1851 British English
121 Bleak House Charles Dickens 1852 British English
108 Walden Henry David Thoreau 1854 American English
612 Green Henry Gottfried Keller 1855 Swiss German
439 North and South Elizabeth Gaskell 1855 British English
20 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 1857 French French
944 Indian Summer Adalbert Stifter 1857 Austrian German
486 Adam Bede George Eliot 1859 British English
194 Oblomov Ivan Goncharov 1859 Russian Russian
139 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 1860 British English
414 The Mill on the Floss George Eliot 1860 British English