'The perfect library': the 196 books selected by 133 personalities

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

About this list

XLSemanal and Zenda, 195 Books

XLSemanal and Zenda asked 133 people who are in one way or another connected to the world of literature what is the "perfect library"

This list was originally published in 2020 and was added to this site almost 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
53 Dracula Bram Stoker 1897 British English
2565 The Family Of Pascual Duarte Camilo José Cela 1942 Spanish Spanish
1458 The Ballad of the Sad Cafe Carson McCullers 1951 American English
216 A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens 1843 British English
47 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 1849 British English
38 Great Expectations Charles Dickens 1860 British English
29 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
142 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
7008 Gente Que Se Fue David Gistau 2010 Spanish Spanish
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
2405 The City Of Marvels Eduardo Mendoza 1986 Spanish Spanish
3391 Napoleon Emil Ludwig 1926 German German
156 Poems of Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson 1890 American English
1135 The Tunnel Ernesto Sábato 1948 Argentinian Spanish
85 The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford 1915 British English
3391 Selected Poetry Of Francisco De Quevedo Francisco de Quevedo 1648 Spanish Spanish
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
55 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
122 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
3391 Los Gozos Y Las Sombras Gonzalo Torrente Ballester 1957 Spanish Spanish
637 The Quiet American Graham Greene 1955 British English
225 Fairy Tales and Stories Hans Christian Andersen 1835 Danish Danish
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
189 The Turn of the Screw Henry James 1898 American English
460 Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853 American English
341 The Human Comedy Honoré de Balzac 1830 French French
8951 Time Without Keys Ida Vitale 2019 Uruguayan Spanish
202 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
1424 Our Ancestors Italo Calvino 1952 Italian Italian
255 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
41 On the Road Jack Kerouac 1957 American English
797 The Manuscript Found in Saragossa Jan Potocki 1805 Polish French
452 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
783 Anabasis Xenophon -390 Greek Ancient greek
193 East of Eden John Steinbeck 1952 American English
899 Stoner John Williams 1965 American English
199 The Radetzky March Joseph Roth 1932 Austrian German
499 Platero Juan Ramón Jiménez 1914 Spanish Spanish
416 Out of Africa Isak Dinesen 1937 Danish Danish
226 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
349 The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy 1886 Russian Russian
1039 Birds of America Lorrie Moore 1998 American English
48 Journey to the End of The Night Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1932 French French
405 De Rerum Natura Lucretius 55 Roman Latin
3391 Bomarzo Manuel Mujica Lainez 1962 Argentinian Spanish
313 Meditations Marcus Aurelius 161 Roman Greek
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
687 The Time of the Hero Mario Vargas Llosa 1963 Peruvian Spanish
22 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884 American English
656 The Time Of The Doves Merce Rodoreda 1962 Spanish Catalan
4094 Los Santos Inocentes Miguel Delibes 1981 Spanish Spanish
130 The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu 1001 Japanese Classical japanese
608 Canto General Pablo Neruda 1950 Chilean Spanish
334 Parallel Lives Plutarch 100 Greek Greek
2232 Mafalda Quino 1978 Argentinian Spanish
373 The Duino Elegies Rainer Maria Rilke 1923 German German
875 Greguerias Ramón Gómez de la Serna 1910 Spanish Spanish
3391 Crónica Del Alba Ramón J. Sender 1942 Spanish Spanish
82 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
900 The Poems of Sappho Sappho -569 Greek Ancient greek
1019 The Interior Castle Teresa of Avila 1588 Spanish Spanish
1054 Letters from a Stoic Seneca 64 Roman Latin
177 The Interpretation of Dreams Sigmund Freud 1899 Austrian German
140 The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir 1949 French French
106 Oedipus the King Sophocles -429 Greek Ancient greek
981 It Stephen King 1986 American English
1257 Lives of the Caesars Suetonius 121 Roman Latin
1271 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
90 Buddenbrooks Thomas Mann 1901 German German
310 Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe 1987 American English
2573 A Longing For The Light Vicente Aleixandre 1979 Spanish Spanish
1543 Eclogues Virgil -37 Latin Latin
950 Richard III William Shakespeare 1592 British English
343 The Sonnets William Shakespeare 1609 British English