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
1321 A Question of Power Bessie Head 1973 Botswanan English
1322 Devil in a Blue Dress Walter Mosley 1990 American English
1323 A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller 1960 American English
1324 A Judgement In Stone Ruth Rendell 1977 British English
1325 A Far Cry From Kensington Muriel Spark 1988 British English
1326 The Compleat Angler Izaak Walton 1653 British English
1327 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding John Locke 1689 British English
1328 Parable Of The Sower Octavia E. Butler 1993 American English
1329 Exodus Leon Uris 1958 American English
1330 The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller 2011 American English
1331 Cathedral Raymond Carver 1983 American English
1332 One, No One and One Hundred Thousand Luigi Pirandello 1926 Italian Italian
1333 Barefoot Zaharia Stancu 1948 Romanian Romanian
1334 Hangover Square Patrick Hamilton 1941 British English
1335 Kiss of the Spider Woman Manuel Puig 1976 Argentinian Spanish
1336 Peter Schlemihl Adalbert von Chamisso 1814 German German
1337 A Legacy Sybille Bedford 1956 German English
1338 Something Wicked This Way Comes Ray Bradbury 1962 American English
1339 The Artificial Silk Girl Irmgard Keun 1932 German German
1340 As You Like it William Shakespeare 1600 British English
1341 The Graduate Charles Webb 1963 American English
1342 The Principles of Psychology William James 1890 American English
1343 The Hamlet William Faulkner 1940 American English
1344 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
1345 The Naked Ape Desmond Morris 1967 British English
1346 Matilda Roald Dahl 1988 British English
1347 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
1348 Sandman Neil Gaiman 1989 British English
1349 Gitanjali Rabindranath Tagore 1910 Indian Bengali
1350 Seven Against Thebes Aeschylus -467 Greek Ancient greek
1351 The Suppliants Aeschylus -463 Greek Ancient greek
1352 The Andromeda Strain Michael Crichton 1969 American English
1353 William Tell Friedrich Schiller 1804 German German
1354 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
1355 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1356 Towards The End Of The Morning Michael Frayn 1967 British English
1357 I and Thou Martin Buber 1923 Austrian German
1358 The Principle Of Hope Ernst Bloch 1954 German German
1359 Illuminations Arthur Rimbaud 1886 French French
1360 The Makioka Sisters Junichiro Tanizaki 1948 Japanese Japanese
1361 The King In Yellow Robert W. Chambers 1895 American English
1362 The Heart Of Midlothian Sir Walter Scott 1818 Scottish English
1363 The Liberal Imagination Lionel Trilling 1950 American English
1364 Fragments Heraclitus -500 Greek Ancient greek
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
1366 The Adversary Emmanuel Carrère 2000 French French
1367 Like Water For Chocolate Laura Esquivel 1989 Mexican Spanish
1368 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward 2011 American English
1369 Veronica Mary Gaitskill 2005 American English
1370 The House Of Souls Arthur Machen 1906 British English
1371 The Devil's Elixir E. T. A. Hoffmann 1815 German German
1372 The Horror Horn And Other Stories E. F. Benson 1931 British English
1373 Winter's Tale Mark Helprin 1983 American English
1374 Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess 1980 British English
1375 The Sea of Fertility Yukio Mishima 1965 Japanese Japanese
1376 Tales of the South Pacific James A. Michener 1947 American English
1377 Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl 1964 British English
1378 The Towers Of Trebizond Rose Macauley 1956 British English
1379 The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty Eudora Welty 1980 American English
1380 The Sword in the Stone T. H. White 1938 British English
1381 Station Eleven Emily St John Mandel 2014 Canadian English
1382 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde 1895 Irish English
1383 The Birds Aristophanes -414 Greek Ancient greek
1384 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
1385 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English
1386 Six Characters in Search of an Author Luigi Pirandello 1921 Italian Italian
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1388 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 2008 American English
1389 On The Orator Marcus Tullius Cicero -55 Roman Latin
1390 A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 2014 Jamaican English
1391 A Separate Peace John Knowles 1959 American English
1392 Evicted Matthew Desmond 2016 American English
1393 The Business of Living Cesare Pavese 1952 Italian Italian
1394 Soldiers of Salamis Javier Cercas 2001 Spanish Spanish
1395 The Mists of Avalon Marion Zimmer Bradley 1983 American English
1396 Pierre et Jean Guy de Maupassant 1888 French French
1397 The BFG Roald Dahl 1982 British English
1398 The Exorcist William Peter Blatty 1971 American English
1399 Star Maker Olaf Stapledon 1937 British English
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
1401 Silence of the Sea Vercors 1942 French French
1402 The Seagull Anton Chekhov 1896 Russian Russian
1403 The Outsider Colin Wilson 1956 British English
1404 The Last Bouquet Marjorie Bowen 1933 British English
1405 The Twits Roald Dahl 1980 British English
1406 The Life of Charlotte Brontë Elizabeth Gaskell 1857 British English
1407 The Golovlyov Family Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin 1880 Russian Russian
1408 Amongst Women John McGahern 1990 Irish English
1409 No Exit Jean Paul Sartre 1944 French French
1410 Poem of the Cid Unknown 1207 Spanish Old spanish
1411 Concrete Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German
1412 The Constitution of Liberty Friedrich von Hayek 1960 Austrian English
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
1414 Something About Eve James Branch Cabell 1927 American English
1415 Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain 1883 American English
1416 Rights of Man Thomas Paine 1791 British English
1417 Karlson On The Roof Astrid Lindgren 1955 Swedish Swedish
1419 The Viceroys Federico De Roberto 1894 Italian Italian
1418 The Path to the Nest of Spiders Italo Calvino 1947 Italian Italian
1420 The October Country Ray Bradbury 1955 American English
1421 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
1422 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
1423 Out Of Space And Time Clark Ashton Smith 1942 American English
1424 Our Ancestors Italo Calvino 1952 Italian Italian
1425 And The Darkness Falls Boris Karloff 1943 British English
1426 Mars Fritz Zorn 1977 Swiss German
1427 Vile Bodies Evelyn Waugh 1930 British English
1428 The Country of the Pointed Firs Sarah Orne Jewett 1896 American English
1429 Aphorisms Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1902 German German
1430 The Wandering Jew Eugène Sue 1844 French French
1431 Cakes And Ale Or, The Skeleton In The Cupboard W. Somerset Maugham 1930 British English
1432 A Woman's Life Guy de Maupassant 1883 French French
1433 Random Family Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 2003 American English
1434 R. E. Lee Douglas Southall Freeman 1934 American English
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
1436 Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke 1929 Austrian German
1437 Bébo's Girl Carlo Cassola 1960 Italian Italian
1438 Masnavi Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi 1258 Persian Persian
1439 Édes Anna Dezső Kosztolányi 1926 Hungarian Hungarian
1440 The Virginian Owen Wister 1902 American English