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 743 '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
1921 The Conquest Of Gaul Gaius Julius Caesar -51 Roman Latin
1922 Pages From The Goncourt Journal Edmond de Goncourt 1887 French French
1923 The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano 1789 African English
1924 Stories of Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Gogol 1831 Russian Russian
1925 Ten Days That Shook the World John Reed 1919 American English
1926 The Frontier in American History Frederick J. Turner 1920 American English
1927 Killing Floor Lee Child 1997 British English
1928 The Way Of The World Nicolas Bouvier 1963 French French
1929 The Witches Roald Dahl 1983 British English
1930 On Self Reliance Ralph Waldo Emerson 1841 American English
1931 Capital of Pain Paul Éluard 1926 French French
1932 Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières 1994 British English
1933 Autobiography Benvenuto Cellini 1728 Italian Italian
1934 Ask The Dust John Fante 1939 American English
1935 Geek Love Katherine Dunn 1989 American English
1936 The Spectator Joseph Addison 1711 British English
1936 The Marble Faun Nathaniel Hawthorne 1860 American English
1938 The Four Just Men Edgar Wallace 1905 British English
1939 From The Mixed Up Files Of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler EL Konigsburg 1967 American English
1940 The Pursuit of the Millennium Norman Cohn 1957 British English
1942 Medusa E. H. Visiak 1929 British English
1941 My Name Is Asher Lev Chaim Potok 1972 American English
1943 A Burnt Child Stig Dagerman 1948 Swedish Swedish
1944 Shame Salman Rushdie 1983 British English
1949 The Idea of History R. G. Collingwood 1946 British English
1945 The Jewel Of Seven Stars Bram Stoker 1903 British English
1945 The Cadaver Of Gideon Wyck Alexander Laing 1934 American English
1945 The Second Century Of Creepy Stories Hugh Walpole 1937 British English
1945 Topper Takes A Trip Thorne Smith 1932 American English
1950 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 1959 British English
1951 The Mill On The Po Riccardo Bacchelli 1938 Italian Italian
1952 Lucifer Joost van den Vondel 1654 Dutch Dutch
1953 The Spanish Brabanter G. A. Bredero 1617 Dutch Dutch
1954 Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault 1975 French French
1955 The Provincial Letters Blaise Pascal 1656 French French
1956 Demian Hermann Hesse 1919 German German
1957 The Prose Of The Trans Siberian Blaise Cendrars 1913 French French
1958 The Quest Frederik van Eeden 1887 Dutch Dutch
1959 The Löwensköld Ring Selma Lagerlöf 1925 Swedish Swedish
1960 A Flag For Sunrise Robert Stone 1981 American English
1961 Truth And Method Hans-Georg Gadamer 1960 German German
1962 Leviathan Arno Schmidt 1949 German German
1963 Kama Sutra Vātsyāyana -400 Indian Sanskrit
1964 Poppy And Memory Paul Celan 1950 German German
1965 The Freeloader Nescio 1916 Dutch Dutch
1966 Parable of the Talents Octavia E. Butler 1998 American English
1967 The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 1993 American English
1968 The Invisible Man H. G. Wells 1897 British English
1969 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
1970 Peace Gene Wolfe 1975 American English
1972 House with the Blind Glass Windows Herbjørg Wassmo 1981 Norwegian Norwegian
1971 Towards A New Architecture Le Corbusier 1923 French French
1973 Great Tales Of Terror And The Supernatural Herbert A. Wise 1944 American English
1974 Furor and Mystery René Char 1948 French French
1975 Chapel Road Louis-Paul Boon 1953 Belgian Dutch
1976 West With the Night Beryl Markham 1942 British English
1977 The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne Gilbert White 1789 British English
1978 Little Titans Nescio 1918 Dutch Dutch
1979 Black Elk Speaks John G. Neihardt 1932 American English
1980 The Sound of the Mountain Yasunari Kawabata 1954 Japanese Japanese
1981 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
1982 Seven Gothic Tales Isak Dinesen 1934 Danish English
1983 Your Face Tomorrow Javier Marias 2002 Spanish Spanish
1984 Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann 2009 Irish English
1985 Le Mariage De Figaro Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais 1784 French French
1986 All about H. Hatterr G. V. Desani 1948 Indian English
1987 Headlong Hall Thomas Love Peacock 1816 British English
1988 The Queen Of Spades Alexander Pushkin 1834 Russian Russian
1989 Fancies And Goodnights John Collier 1951 British English
1990 Say Nothing Patrick Radden Keefe 2018 American English
1991 A Childhood Harry Crews 1978 American English
1992 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding David Hume 1748 Scottish English
1993 Ben-Hur Lew Wallace 1880 American English
1994 The Poetry of Luis Cernuda Luis Cernuda 1901 Spanish Spanish
1995 Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter Mario Vargas Llosa 1977 Peruvian Spanish
1996 The Flamethrowers Rachel Kushner 2013 American English
1997 Freedom Jonathan Franzen 2010 American English
1998 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs 1861 American English
1999 A School For Fools Sasha Sokolov 1976 Russian Russian
2000 Baltasar and Blimunda José Saramago 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
2001 The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter Unknown 900 Japanese Japanese
2002 King Ubu Alfred Jarry 1896 French French
2003 Job Joseph Roth 1930 Austrian German
2004 The War Marguerite Duras 1985 French French
2005 The Notebook Nicholas Sparks 1996 American English
2006 Pincher Martin William Golding 1956 British English
2007 The Habit of Being Flannery O'Connor 1979 American English
2008 Poems Of César Vallejo César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
2009 A Journal Of The Plague Year Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
2010 The Greater Hope Ilse Aichinger 1948 Austrian German
2011 The Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley 1810 British English
2012 Riddley Walker Russell Hoban 1980 British English
2013 The Death Ship B. Traven 1926 German German
2014 The Berlin Stories Christopher Isherwood 1945 British English
2015 Journals André Gide 1948 French French
2016 Little Poet Nescio 1918 Dutch Unknown
2017 The Color of Water James McBride 1995 American English
2018 Elizabeth Costello J. M. Coetzee 2003 South African English
2019 The Chosen Chaim Potok 1967 American English
2020 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 1997 American English
2021 Stanzas about the Death of his Father Jorge Manrique 1476 Spanish Spanish
2022 Quartet in Autumn Barbara Pym 1977 British English
2023 The Land Of Laughs Jonathan Carroll 1980 American English
2024 Nobody's Boy Hector Malot 1878 French French
2025 On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres Nicolaus Copernicus 1543 Polish Latin
2026 The Devil's Pool George Sand 1846 French French
2026 In Parenthesis David Jones 1937 British English
2026 The Crowd Gustave Le Bon 1895 French French
2026 History Of The Reformation In Germany Leopold von Ranke 1834 German German
2026 Cosmos Alexander von Humboldt 1845 German German
2026 Sex And Repression In Savage Society Bronislaw Malinowski 1927 British English
2026 Theodicy Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1710 German French
2026 über Den Umgang Mit Menschen Adolph Freiherr von Knigge 1788 German German
2026 The Concept Of Anxiety Soren Kierkegaard 1844 Danish Danish
2026 The History Of Rome Theodor Mommsen 1854 German German
2026 Gedanken Und Erinnerungen Otto von Bismarck 1898 German German
2026 The Riddle Of The Universe Ernst Haeckel 1899 German German
2026 Introduction To Mathematical Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1919 British English
2026 Ideal Marriage, Its Physiology And Technique Theodoor H. van de Velde 1926 Dutch Dutch
2026 Man In The Modern Age Karl Jaspers 1931 German German