The Greatest Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1202 The Country Girls Edna O'Brien 1960 Irish English
1203 Nine Coaches Waiting Mary Stewart 1958 British English
1204 Nickel And Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich 2001 American English
1205 The Enchanted Wanderer Nikolai Leskov 1873 Russian Russian
1206 Pachinko Min Jin Lee 2017 American English
1207 How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie 1936 American English
1208 Love in a Cold Climate Nancy Mitford 1949 British English
1209 Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates 2015 American English
1210 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 1984 British English
1211 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 Irish English
1212 A General Introduction to Psycho-Analysis Sigmund Freud 1920 Austrian German
1213 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1214 The Moving Toyshop Edmund Crispin 1946 British English
1215 Explosion In A Cathedral Alejo Carpentier 1962 Cuban Spanish
1216 Billy Liar Keith Waterhouse 1959 British English
1217 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
1218 The Egyptian Mika Waltari 1945 Finnish Finnish
1220 The Return of the Soldier Rebecca West 1918 British English
1219 The Time of Indifference Alberto Moravia 1929 Italian Italian
1221 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
1222 Studs Lonigan James T. Farrell 1932 American English
1223 Jurgen James Branch Cabell 1919 American English
1224 The Snow Leopard Peter Matthiessen 1978 American English
1225 Untouchable Mulk Raj Anand 1935 Indian English
1226 The History Of Gil Blas Of Santillana Alain-René Lesage 1715 French French
1227 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett 1751 British English
1227 What Is To Be Done? Vladimir Il’ich Lenin 1902 Russian Russian
1229 Strait is the Gate André Gide 1909 French French
1230 Songs of Innocence and Experience William Blake 1789 British English
1231 The Magnificent Ambersons Booth Tarkington 1918 American English
1232 Patience And Sarah Isabel Miller 1969 American English
1233 Children of Gebelawi Naguib Mahfouz 1959 Egyptian Arabic
1234 Woman at Point Zero Nawal El Saadawi 1975 Egyptian Arabic
1235 Cheri Colette 1920 French French
1236 Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Ryunosuke Akutagawa 1915 Japanese Japanese
1237 Jacob the Liar Jurek Becker 1969 German German
1238 The Age of Anxiety W. H. Auden 1947 British English
1239 The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne John Donne 1952 British English
1240 Strangers On A Train Patricia Highsmith 1950 American English
1241 The Life Before Us Romain Gary 1975 French French
1242 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis José Saramago 1984 Portuguese Portuguese
1243 Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
1244 The Travels of Marco Polo Marco Polo 1300 Italian Old french
1245 Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell 1933 British English
1246 Danube Claudio Magris 1986 Italian Italian
1247 The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling 1894 British English
1248 The Conservative Mind Russell Kirk 1953 American English
1249 The White Devil John Webster 1612 British English
1250 The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Selma Lagerlöf 1906 Swedish Swedish
1251 The Last Gentleman Walker Percy 1966 American English
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1253 Absolute Beginners Colin MacInnes 1959 British English
1254 Death and the Dervish Meša Selimović 1966 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
1255 Jonathan Livingston Seagull Richard Bach 1970 American English
1256 Prometheus Bound Aeschylus -455 Greek Ancient greek
1257 Lives of the Caesars Suetonius 121 Roman Latin
1258 The General of the Dead Army Ismail Kadare 1963 Albanian Albanian
1259 The Female Eunuch Germaine Greer 1970 Australian English
1260 The President Miguel Angel Asturias 1946 Guatemalan Spanish
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1262 Maud Martha Gwendolyn Brooks 1953 American English
1263 The Summer Book Tove Jansson 1972 Finnish Swedish
1264 The Franchise Affair Josephine Tey 1948 British English
1265 On Writing Stephen King 2000 American English
1266 The Heptameron Marguerite de Navarre 1558 French French
1267 Billy Budd Herman Melville 1924 American English
1268 A Kiss Before Dying Ira Levin 1953 American English
1269 The Unknown Soldier Väinö Linna 1954 Finnish Finnish
1270 Omeros Derek Walcott 1990 Saint Lucian English
1271 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1273 Robert Browning's Poetry Robert Browning 1833 British English
1273 Selected Poems of Lord Byron Lord Byron 1800 British English
1275 The Laughing Policeman Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö 1968 Swedish Swedish
1276 The Feynman Lectures on Physics Richard P. Feynman 1963 American English
1277 A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes 1929 British English
1278 So Long a Letter Mariama Bâ 1980 Senegalese French
1279 Psycho Robert Bloch 1959 American English
1280 The Death of Artemio Cruz Carlos Fuentes 1962 Mexican Spanish
1281 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1282 The Plum in the Golden Vase Unknown 1610 Chinese Chinese
1283 Cybernetics Norbert Wiener 1948 American English
1284 The Faerie Queene Edmund Spenser 1590 British English
1285 Selected Stories of Alice Munro Alice Munro 1996 Canadian English
1286 The Invention Of Morel Adolfo Bioy Casares 1940 Argentinian Spanish
1288 The 13 Clocks James Thurber 1950 American English
1287 Odessa Stories Isaac Babel 1923 Ukrainian Russian
1289 A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin 1996 American English
1290 Lilith George MacDonald 1895 Scottish English
1291 Parzival Wolfram Eschenbach 1200 German Middle high german
1292 Two Serious Ladies Jane Bowles 1943 American English
1293 Salem's Lot Stephen King 1975 American English
1294 Peyton Place Grace Metalious 1956 American English
1295 Phenomenology of Mind G. W. F. Hegel 1807 German German
1296 The Works of Moliere Molière 1666 French French
1298 The Days of His Grace Eyvind Johnson 1960 Swedish Swedish
1297 Poetics Aristotle -322 Greek Greek
1299 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
1300 The Guide R. K. Narayan 1958 Indian English
1301 The Road Less Traveled M. Scott Peck 1978 American English
1302 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1303 The Seventh Cross Anna Seghers 1942 German German
1304 Collected Poems Stéphane Mallarmé 1887 French French
1305 Long Day's Journey Into Night Eugene O'Neill 1956 American English
1306 Widdershins G. Oliver Onions 1911 British English
1307 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred D. Taylor 1976 American English
1308 Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand 1897 French French
1309 The Member Of The Wedding Carson McCullers 1946 American English
1310 Our Man In Havana Graham Greene 1958 British English
1312 The Stories of Raymond Carver Raymond Carver 1981 American English
1311 Boredom Alberto Moravia 1960 Italian Italian
1313 The Optimist's Daughter Eudora Welty 1972 American English
1314 Under Satan's Sun Georges Bernanos 1926 French French
1315 Voices from Chernobyl Svetlana Alexievich 1997 Belarusian Russian
1316 The Fountain Overflows Rebecca West 1956 British English
1317 To Each His Own Leonardo Sciascia 1966 Italian Italian
1318 Love Medicine Louise Erdrich 1984 American English
1319 The Story Of An African Farm Olive Schreiner 1883 South African English
1320 God and Man at Yale William F. Buckley, Jr 1951 American English