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
601 The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne 1851 American English
602 The Go-Between L. P. Hartley 1953 British English
603 Barabbas Par Lagerkvist 1950 Swedish Swedish
604 The Blind Owl Ṣādiq Hidāyat 1937 Iranian Persian
605 Claudine Colette 1900 French French
606 New Grub Street George Gissing 1891 British English
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
608 Canto General Pablo Neruda 1950 Chilean Spanish
609 The Opposing Shore Julien Gracq 1951 French French
610 Requiem Anna Akhmatova 1963 Russian Russian
611 Revolutionary Road Richard Yates 1961 American English
612 Green Henry Gottfried Keller 1855 Swiss German
613 The Persians Aeschylus -471 Greek Ancient greek
614 Facundo Domingo Faustino Sarmiento 1845 Argentinian Spanish
615 Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary M. R. James 1904 British English
616 The Rebel Albert Camus 1951 French French
617 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
618 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
619 The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles 1949 American English
620 The Elements of Style E. B. White, William Strunk Jr. 1918 American English
621 Analects Confucius -479 Chinese Classical chinese
622 Elective Affinities Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1809 German German
623 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985 American English
624 The Histories of Herodotus Herodotus -450 Greek Ancient greek
625 The Nine Tailors Dorothy L. Sayers 1934 British English
626 Promise at Dawn Romain Gary 1960 French French
627 The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Christopher Marlowe 1604 British English
628 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
629 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
630 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
631 The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder 1927 American English
632 Dom Casmurro Machado de Assis 1899 Brazilian Portuguese
633 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John le Carré 1974 British English
634 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
635 Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo 1939 American English
636 Goodnight Moon Margaret Wise Brown 1947 American English
637 The Quiet American Graham Greene 1955 British English
638 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
639 Reflections on the Revolution in France Edmund Burke 1790 British English
640 Black Boy Richard Wright 1945 American English
641 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding 1996 British English
642 Testament Of Youth Vera Brittain 1933 British English
643 Silas Marner George Eliot 1861 British English
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
645 A Study of History Arnold J. Toynbee 1934 British English
646 The Varieties of Religious Experience William James 1902 American English
647 Lolly Willowes Sylvia Townsend Warner 1926 British English
648 The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien 1990 American English
649 Villette Charlotte Brontë 1853 British English
650 The Flanders Road Claude Simon 1960 French French
651 Manhattan Transfer John Dos Passos 1925 American English
652 Dispatches Michael Herr 1977 American English
653 Summa Theologica Thomas Aquinas 1274 Italian Latin
654 The Praise of Folly Erasmus 1511 Dutch Latin
655 Stories of Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway 1987 American English
656 The Time Of The Doves Merce Rodoreda 1962 Spanish Catalan
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
658 Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner 1971 American English
659 Mythologies Roland Barthes 1957 French French
660 The Thin Man Dashiell Hammett 1934 American English
661 Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice 1976 American English
662 The House On The Borderland And Other Novels William Hope Hodgson 1908 British English
663 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
664 Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy Joseph A. Schumpeter 1942 Austrian English
665 The Family Moskat Isaac Bashevis Singer 1950 Polish Yiddish
666 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
667 The Book of Job Unknown -600 Israeli Hebrew
668 Rabbit Redux John Updike 1971 American English
669 Beowulf Unknown 1000 Unknown Old english
670 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
671 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe 1839 American English
672 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
673 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne 1870 French French
674 Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy 1874 British English
675 The Joy of Cooking Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker 1931 American English
676 The Princess Bride William Goldman 1973 American English
677 Lud-in-the-Mist Hope Mirrlees 1926 British English
678 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
679 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
680 The Stories of John Cheever John Cheever 1978 American English
681 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
682 The Open Society and Its Enemies Karl Popper 1945 British English
683 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
684 The Adventures Of Pinocchio Carlo Collodi 1883 Italian Italian
685 Them Joyce Carol Oates 1969 American English
686 Rabbit Is Rich John Updike 1981 American English
687 The Time of the Hero Mario Vargas Llosa 1963 Peruvian Spanish
688 From Here to Eternity James Jones 1951 American English
689 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin 1791 American English
690 Anton Reiser Karl Philipp Moritz 1785 German German
691 Excellent Women Barbara Pym 1952 British English
692 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
693 Little House on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder 1935 American English
694 La Fontaine's Fables Jean de La Fontaine 1668 French French
695 Boys Alive Pier Paolo Pasolini 1955 Italian Italian
696 King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard 1885 British English
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
698 The Glass Key Dashiell Hammett 1931 American English
699 The Nibelungenlied Unknown 1200 German Middle high german
700 Tales of the City Armistead Maupin 1978 American English
701 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa 2000 Peruvian Spanish
702 Vathek William Beckford 1786 British French
703 The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 1875 British English
704 Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1958 American English
705 Oroonoko Aphra Behn 1688 British English
706 The Skin Curzio Malaparte 1949 Italian Italian
707 Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson 1830 British English
708 Captain Hornblower R.N. C. S. Forester 1937 British English
709 The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan 1963 American English
710 At the Mountains of Madness H. P. Lovecraft 1936 American English
711 Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes 1959 American English
712 A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court Mark Twain 1889 American English
713 The Killer Angels Michael Shaara 1974 American English
714 Encyclopedia Britannica Encyclopedia Britannica 1768 British English
716 Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler 1925 German German
715 The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Washington Irving 1819 American English
717 A Sport and a Pastime James Salter 1967 American English
718 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
719 Thousand Cranes Yasunari Kawabata 1952 Japanese Japanese
720 The Professor's House Willa Cather 1925 American English