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
961 The Manchurian Candidate Richard Condon 1959 American English
962 The Diary of a Country Priest Georges Bernanos 1936 French French
963 Zuleika Dobson Max Beerbohm 1911 British English
964 Paroles Jacques Prévert 1946 French French
965 Eminent Victorians Lytton Strachey 1918 British English
966 The Ipcress File Len Deighton 1962 British English
967 The Heat of the Day Elizabeth Bowen 1949 British English
968 Storm of Steel Ernst Jünger 1920 German German
969 The Maias Eça de Queirós 1888 Portuguese Portuguese
970 The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1992 Dutch Dutch
971 The Orlando Furioso Lodovico Ariosto 1516 Italian Italian
972 The Burning Plain and Other Stories Juan Rulfo 1953 Mexican Spanish
973 The Poems of John Keats John Keats 1817 British English
974 The Reader Bernhard Schlink 1995 German German
975 Rogue Male Geoffrey Household 1939 British English
976 Couples John Updike 1968 American English
977 The History Of Henry Esmond William Makepeace Thackeray 1852 British English
978 The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922 British English
979 News from Nowhere William Morris 1890 British English
980 It Stephen King 1986 American English
981 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
982 A Study In Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle 1887 British English
983 Tartuffe Molière 1664 French French
984 Mythology Edith Hamilton 1942 American English
985 Electra Sophocles -409 Greek Ancient greek
986 Harriet the Spy Louise Fitzhugh 1964 American English
987 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
988 The Grass Is Singing Doris May Lessing 1950 British English
988 The Lonely Londoners Sam Selvon 1956 Trinidadian English
990 Macunaíma Mario de Andrade 1928 Brazilian Portuguese
991 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
992 Essays of E. B. White E. B. White 1977 American English
993 Blindness José Saramago 1995 Portuguese Portuguese
994 Dombey and Son Charles Dickens 1846 British English
995 Journey by Moonlight Antal Szerb 1937 Hungarian Hungarian
996 Julie, or the New Heloise Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1761 French French
996 The Judge and His Hangman Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1950 Swiss German
998 Chevengur Andrey Platonov 1928 Russian Russian
999 A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley 1991 American English
1000 Red Dragon Thomas Harris 1981 American English
1001 A Dry White Season Andre Brink 1979 South African Afrikaans
1002 2001 Arthur C. Clarke 1968 British English
1003 The Dark Is Rising Susan Cooper 1973 British English
1004 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe 1958 British English
1005 The Death and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs 1961 American English
1006 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1007 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
1008 Mere Christianity C. S. Lewis 1952 British English
1009 Invitation To A Beheading Vladimir Nabokov 1935 American Russian
1010 The Tale of Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter 1902 British English
1011 Justine Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
1012 Poems Of C. P. Cavafy C. P. Cavafy 1935 Greek Greek
1013 Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban J. K. Rowling 1999 British English
1014 Love Story Eric Segal 1970 American English
1015 Principia Mathematica Isaac Newton 1687 British Latin
1016 The Interior Castle Teresa of Avila 1588 Spanish Spanish
1017 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
1018 If Not Now, When? Primo Levi 1982 Italian Italian
1019 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
1020 Transit Anna Seghers 1944 German German
1021 Some Prefer Nettles Junichiro Tanizaki 1929 Japanese Japanese
1022 Ambiguous Adventure Cheikh Hamidou Kane 1961 Senegalese French
1023 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
1024 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
1025 Schindler's List Thomas Keneally 1982 Australian English
1026 Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon Jorge Amado 1958 Brazilian Portuguese
1027 Meditations on First Philosophy Rene Descartes 1641 French Latin
1028 The Temple of the Golden Pavilion Yukio Mishima 1956 Japanese Japanese
1029 In The Heart Of The Seas Shmuel Yosef Agnon 1938 Israeli Hebrew
1029 The Epistle To The Romans Karl Barth 1919 Swiss German
1031 The Bostonians Henry James 1886 American English
1032 Uncle Vanya Anton Chekhov 1897 Russian Russian
1033 The Fortunes Of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson 1917 Australian English
1034 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston 1976 American English
1035 Cosmos Carl Sagan 1980 American English
1036 Birds of America Lorrie Moore 1998 American English
1037 The German Lesson Siegfried Lenz 1968 German German
1038 On War Carl Von Clausewitz 1832 German German
1039 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
1040 Danny The Champion Of The World Roald Dahl 1975 British English
1041 A Ghost at Noon Alberto Moravia 1954 Italian Italian
1042 Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1932 British English
1043 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
1044 The Egoist George Meredith 1879 British English
1045 The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy 1984 American English
1046 Green Mansions W. H. Hudson 1904 British English
1047 Works and Days Hesiod -700 Greek Ancient greek
1048 The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi 1990 British English
1049 The Phenomenon Of Man Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1955 French French
1050 Treatise on Radioactivity Marie Curie 1910 French French
1051 The Kalevala Elias Lönnrot 1835 Finnish Finnish
1052 Letters from a Stoic Seneca 64 Roman Latin
1053 Story of Ferdinand Munro Leaf 1936 American English
1054 Maurice E. M. Forster 1971 British English
1055 The Master of Ballantrae Robert Louis Stevenson 1889 British English
1056 Memories, Dreams, Reflections Carl Jung 1963 Swiss German
1057 The True History of the Conquest of New Spain Bernal Díaz del Castillo 1632 Spanish Spanish
1058 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
1059 First Love Ivan Turgenev 1860 Russian Russian
1059 Fantômas Marcel Allain, Pierre Souvestre 1911 French French
1059 The Case of Sergeant Grischa Arnold Zweig 1927 German German
1059 The Hothouse Wolfgang Koeppen 1953 German German
1063 La Bête humaine Émile Zola 1890 French French
1064 Antony And Cleopatra William Shakespeare 1606 British English
1065 A Boy's Own Story Edmund White 1982 American English
1066 The Seven Storey Mountain Thomas Merton 1948 American English
1067 The True Story Of Ah Q Lu Xun 1922 Chinese Chinese
1068 The Midwich Cuckoos John Wyndham 1957 British English
1069 Gösta Berling's Saga Selma Lagerlöf 1891 Swedish Swedish
1070 The Lottery and Other Stories Shirley Jackson 1948 American English
1071 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 American English
1072 Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres Henry Adams 1904 American English
1073 Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee 1959 British English
1074 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
1075 The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe 1980 American English
1076 Mount Analogue René Daumal 1952 French French
1077 The War of the End of the World Mario Vargas Llosa 1981 Peruvian Spanish
1078 The Abolition of Man C. S. Lewis 1943 British English
1079 Upanishads Unknown -799 Indian Sanskrit
1080 Mother Courage and Her Children Bertolt Brecht 1941 German German