500 Must Read Books

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

The Daily Telegraph, 497 Books

500 'must-read' books of all time as selected by The Telegraph's team of literary experts.

This list was originally published in 2013 and was added to this site about 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
557 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
358 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
484 Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin 1754 Chinese Chinese
17010 An Insular Possession Timothy Mo 1986 British English
5228 Holder of the World Bharati Mukherjee 1993 Indian English
748 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
1085 Home and the World Rabindranath Tagore 1916 Indian Bengali
11520 A Madman's Diary 狂人日記 Lu Xun 1918 Chinese Chinese
512 The Golden Ass Apuleius 158 Roman Latin
623 The Histories of Herodotus Herodotus -450 Greek Ancient greek
1047 Works and Days Hesiod -700 Greek Ancient greek
37 The Iliad Homer -750 Greek Ancient greek
24 The Odyssey Homer -740 Greek Ancient greek
405 De Rerum Natura Lucretius 55 Roman Latin
175 Metamorphoses Ovid 8 Roman Latin
4773 The Art Of Love Ovid 2 Roman Latin
1645 Phaedo Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
1121 The Symposium Plato -385 Greek Ancient greek
332 Parallel Lives Plutarch 100 Greek Greek
133 Confessions Augustine 397 Roman Latin
897 The Poems of Sappho Sappho -569 Greek Ancient greek
70 The Aeneid Virgil -19 Roman Latin
2254 Georgics Virgil 29 Latin Latin
14683 The Symposium Xenophon 361 Greek Ancient greek
1190 The Politics Aristotle -350 Greek Ancient greek
14663 On Behalf Of Caelius Cicero -56 Roman Latin
3308 Satires Juvenal 100 Roman Latin
6089 The History of Rome Livy -27 Roman Latin
3541 Daphnis and Chloe Longus -200 Greek Ancient greek
4772 Pharsalia Lucan 61 Roman Latin
4771 Odes Pindar -518 Greek Ancient greek
1155 Apology Plato -389 Greek Ancient greek
14641 Apocolocyntosis Seneca 54 Roman Latin
909 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
108 In Cold Blood Truman Capote 1966 American English
1153 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
120 The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler 1939 American English
251 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
138 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 1860 British English
205 The Complete Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 1927 British English
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
114 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
14901 La Confidential James Ellroy 1990 American English
659 The Thin Man Dashiell Hammett 1934 American English
2635 Fatherland Robert Harris 1992 British English
1237 Strangers On A Train Patricia Highsmith 1950 American English
862 Smilla's Sense of Snow Peter Høeg 1992 Danish Danish
1084 Misery Stephen King 1987 American English
1109 Get Shorty Elmore Leonard 1990 American English
5404 Nineteen Seventy Four David Peace 1999 British English
624 The Nine Tailors Dorothy L. Sayers 1934 British English
3014 The Madman Of Bergerac Georges Simenon 1932 Belgian French
10527 The Suspicions of Mr Whicher Kate Summerscale 2008 British English
416 The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey 1951 British English
1007 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
456 The Hollow Man John Dickson Carr 1935 British English
581 The Innocence of Father Brown G. K. Chesterton 1911 British English
5313 The Remorseful Day Colin Dexter 1999 British English
8945 Devices And Desires P. D. James 1989 British English
8147 The Girl Who Played With Fire Stieg Larsson 2006 Swedish Swedish
3504 The Journalist and the Murderer Janet Malcolm 1990 American English
4607 The Fifth Woman Henning Mankell 1996 Swedish Swedish
808 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
1299 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
3262 Tales Of Mystery And Imagination Edgar Allan Poe 1908 American English
2116 True Grit Charles Portis 1968 American English
240 The Godfather Mario Puzo 1969 American English
1887 A Dark Adapted Eye Barbara Vine 1986 British English
1836 Jaws Peter Benchley 1974 American English
1071 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 American English
343 The Thirty-Nine Steps John Buchan 1915 British English
1927 Killing Floor Lee Child 1997 British English
1045 The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy 1984 American English
961 The Manchurian Candidate Richard Condon 1959 American English
469 The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad 1907 British English
1365 The Andromeda Strain Michael Crichton 1969 American English
15787 On Her Majesty's Secret Service Ian Fleming 1963 British English
14901 The World At Night Alan Furst 1996 American English
5919 Marathon Man William Goldman 1974 American English
1686 Carrie Stephen King 1974 American English
234 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carré 1963 British English
1499 The Bourne Identity Robert Ludlum 1980 American English
17010 Where Eagles Dare Alistair MacLean 1967 British English
831 Riddle of the Sands Erskine Childers 1903 British English
5518 Not After Midnight Daphne du Maurier 1971 British English
87 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 1844 French French
790 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 2012 American English
412 The Day of the Jackal Frederick Forsyth 1971 British English
17010 The Third Man And Other Stories Graham Greene 2011 British English
1800 A Time To Kill John Grisham 1989 American English
17010 Los Alamos Joseph Kanon 1997 American English
2428 The Scarlet Pimpernel Baroness Emmuska Orczy 1905 British English
1092 Gorky Park Martin Cruz Smith 1981 American English
822 I, Robot Isaac Asimov 1950 American English
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
14140 High-Rise J. G. Ballard 1975 British English
4629 Darkmans Nicola Barker 2007 British English
35 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1865 British English
627 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
2181 American Gods Neil Gaiman 2001 British English
50 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
51 Brave New World Aldous Huxley 1932 British English
432 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
3878 Mother London Michael Moorcock 1988 British English
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
628 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
1624 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
217 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
53 Dracula Bram Stoker 1897 British English
375 War of the Worlds H. G. Wells 1898 British English
916 The Day of the Triffids John Wyndham 1951 British English
546 Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll 1871 British English
1772 Childhood's End Arthur C. Clarke 1953 British English
2228 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick 1962 American English
347 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
291 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English