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
1681 The Teachings Of Don Juan Carlos Castaneda 1968 American English
1682 Asterix the Gaul Rene Goscinny 1959 French French
1683 The Life Written By Himself the Archpriest Avvakum 1666 Russian Russian
1684 Train Dreams Denis Johnson 2002 American English
1685 Burr Gore Vidal 1973 American English
1686 The Lorax Dr. Seuss 1971 American English
1687 The Hearing Trumpet Leonora Carrington 1974 British English
1688 Carrie Stephen King 1974 American English
1689 Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk Nikolai Leskov 1865 Russian Russian
1690 Goldfinger Ian Fleming 1959 British English
1691 Cat Country Lao She 1932 Chinese Chinese
1692 Till We Have Faces C. S. Lewis 1956 British English
1693 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 2002 American English
1694 Cassandra Christa Wolf 1983 German German
1695 The Last Good Kiss James Crumley 1978 American English
1696 Evenings On A Farm Near Dikanka Nikolai Gogol 1831 Russian Russian
1697 The Stone Diaries Carol Shields 1993 Canadian English
1698 Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang 2002 American English
1699 That Awful Mess On Via Merulana Carlo Emilio Gadda 1957 Italian Italian
1700 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
1701 The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander 2010 American English
1702 Oreo Fran Ross 1974 American English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1704 Celestial Harmonies Peter Esterhazy 2000 Hungarian Hungarian
1705 The Sea-Wolf Jack London 1904 American English
1706 The Principia Mathematica Alfred North Whitehead, Bertrand Russell 1910 British English
1707 The House at Pooh Corner A. A. Milne 1928 British English
1708 The Guns Of Navarone Alistair MacLean 1957 British English
1709 The Club Dumas Arturo Pérez-Reverte 1993 Spanish Spanish
1710 The Peasants Władysław Reymont 1904 Polish Polish
1711 Woyzeck Georg Buchner 1879 German German
1712 The Great God Pan Arthur Machen 1894 British English
1713 Encyclopédie Denis Diderot 1751 French French
1714 Go Down, Moses William Faulkner 1942 American English
1715 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1717 The Clown Heinrich Böll 1963 German German
1716 Lake Wobegon Days Garrison Keillor 1985 American English
1718 The Fixer Bernard Malamud 1966 American English
1719 No Longer Human Osamu Dazai 1948 Japanese Japanese
1720 The Lady In The Lake Raymond Chandler 1943 American English
1721 Pragmatism William James 1907 American English
1722 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1723 1Q84 Haruki Murakami 2009 Japanese Japanese
1724 Logbook George Seferis 1940 Greek Greek
1725 A Harlot High And Low Honoré de Balzac 1839 French French
1726 Spring Awakening Frank Wedekind 1891 German German
1727 Down There J. K. Huysmans 1891 French French
1728 The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin 1839 British English
1729 Requiem for a Dream Hubert Selby 1978 American English
1730 The Mouse And His Child Russell Hoban 1967 American English
1731 Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin 1977 French English
1732 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1733 My Childhood Maxim Gorky 1913 Russian Russian
1733 Tender Buttons Gertrude Stein 1914 American English
1733 Zen In The Art Of Archery Eugen Herrigel 1948 German German
1736 Mary Poppins P. L. Travers 1934 British English
1737 Exercises in Style Raymond Queneau 1947 French French
1738 The Bedbug And Selected Poetry Vladimir Mayakovsky 1920 Russian Russian
1739 A Fatal Inversion Barbara Vine 1987 British English
1740 The Forty Days Of Musa Dagh Franz Werfel 1933 Austrian German
1741 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 Sue Townsend 1982 British English
1742 A Tale Of A Tub Jonathan Swift 1704 British English
1743 Life & Times of Michael K J. M. Coetzee 1983 South African English
1744 Haroun and the Sea of Stories Salman Rushdie 1990 British English
1745 Couples, Passersby Botho Strauß 1981 German German
1746 Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion David Hume 1779 British English
1747 Twenty Four Hours In The Life Of A Woman Stefan Zweig 1927 Austrian German
1748 The Fox Was Ever The Hunter Herta Müller 1992 German German
1749 First Circle Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1968 Russian Russian
1750 The Making of the Atomic Bomb Richard Rhodes 1986 American English
1751 NW Zadie Smith 2012 British English
1752 Men We Reaped Jesmyn Ward 2013 American English
1753 The Long Ships Frans G. Bengtsson 1941 Swedish Swedish
1754 Changing Places David Lodge 1975 British English
1755 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince J. K. Rowling 2005 British English
1756 Strange Fruit Lillian Smith 1944 American English
1757 Books of Blood Clive Barker 1984 British English
1758 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
1759 Bai Ganyo Aleko Konstantinov 1895 Bulgarian Bulgarian
1760 Desperate Characters Paula Fox 1970 American English
1761 The Serious Game Hjalmar Soderberg 1912 Swedish Swedish
1762 Lady into Fox David Garnett 1922 British English
1763 Small Is Beautiful E. F. Schumacher 1973 British English
1764 Tales Of The Hasidim Martin Buber 1949 German German
1765 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
1766 Who Do You Think You Are? Alice Munro 1978 Canadian English
1767 The Man of Feeling Henry Mackenzie 1771 British English
1768 Carmilla Sheridan Le Fanu 1872 Irish English
1769 Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas 1954 British English
1770 The Emperor of Portugallia Selma Lagerlöf 1914 Swedish Swedish
1771 Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinberg 1993 American English
1772 Hard Times Charles Dickens 1854 British English
1773 Doctor Glas Hjalmar Soderberg 1905 Swedish Swedish
1774 The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne Brian Moore 1955 Irish English
1775 Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri 1999 American English
1776 Childhood's End Arthur C. Clarke 1953 British English
1777 Flowering Nettle Harry Martinson 1935 Swedish Swedish
1778 The Strudlhof Steps Heimito von Doderer 1951 German German
1779 Rob Roy Sir Walter Scott 1817 British English
1781 Poems of Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda 1970 Chilean Spanish
1780 Juno And The Paycock Sean O'Casey 1924 Irish English
1782 The Wild Ass's Skin Honoré de Balzac 1831 French French
1783 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
1784 Marks of Identity Juan Goytisolo 1966 Spanish Spanish
1785 The Murders in the Rue Morgue Edgar Allan Poe 1841 American English
1786 Farthest North Fridtjof Nansen 1897 Norwegian Norwegian
1787 Sexual Politics Kate Millett 1970 American English
1788 Heartbreak House George Bernard Shaw 1919 British English
1789 The Mystery Of Edwin Drood Charles Dickens 1870 British English
1790 The Master Colm Toibin 2004 Irish English
1791 Confessions Of Felix Krull, Confidence Man Thomas Mann 1954 German German
1792 The Adventures Of Roderick Random Tobias Smollett 1748 British English
1793 The Last Unicorn Peter S. Beagle 1968 American English
1794 My Past And Thoughts Alexander Herzen 1861 Russian Russian
1795 Victory Joseph Conrad 1915 British English
1796 Collected Stories Isaac Bashevis Singer 1982 Polish English
1797 Texaco Patrick Chamoiseau 1992 Martinican French
1798 Washington Square Henry James 1880 American English
1799 The Giver Lois Lowry 1993 American English
1800 The Deptford Trilogy Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English