The Greatest Psychological 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
6 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
13 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
18 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
20 The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky 1880 Russian Russian
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
32 The Trial Franz Kafka 1925 Czech German
36 Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
41 The Red and the Black Stendhal 1830 French French
46 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
61 In Cold Blood Truman Capote 1966 American English
63 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
68 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
78 The Idiot Fyodor Dostoevsky 1869 Russian Russian
82 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
88 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 1844 French French
91 Native Son Richard Wright 1940 American English
97 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
98 Demons Fyodor Dostoevsky 1872 Russian Russian
101 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
122 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
125 Doctor Faustus Thomas Mann 1947 German German
140 The Interpretation of Dreams Sigmund Freud 1899 Austrian German
141 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
152 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 1962 American English
156 And Then There Were None Agatha Christie 1939 British English
160 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark 1961 British, Scottish English
176 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
183 The Turn of the Screw Henry James 1898 American English
185 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
187 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson 1959 American English
196 The End of the Affair Graham Greene 1951 British English
197 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor 1953 American English
202 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
205 Brighton Rock Graham Greene 1938 British English
213 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler 1940 British German
221 Bonjour Tristesse Francoise Sagan 1954 French French
224 The Shining Stephen King 1977 American English
225 Hunger Knut Hamsun 1890 Norwegian Norwegian
241 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
244 Women in Love D. H. Lawrence 1920 British English
251 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 1989 British English
262 Life and Fate Vasily Grossman 1980 Russian Russian
265 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
272 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
281 The Tartar Steppe Dino Buzzati 1940 Italian Italian
284 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
292 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
294 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
298 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
302 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
308 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
312 The Sea, The Sea Iris Murdoch 1978 British English
322 The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey 1951 British English
325 Wings of the Dove Henry James 1902 American English
348 A Hero of Our Time Mikhail Lermontov 1840 Russian Russian
361 The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain 1934 American English
362 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005 American English
373 Parade's End Ford Madox Ford 1924 British English
375 The Confusions of Young Törless Robert Musil 1906 Austrian German
395 Nine Stories J. D. Salinger 1953 American English
405 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
406 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
423 The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad 1907 British English
431 The Silence of the Lambs Thomas Harris 1988 American English
436 The Varieties of Religious Experience William James 1902 American English
446 The Death of the Heart Elizabeth Bowen 1938 British, Irish English
449 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
465 Rabbit Redux John Updike 1971 American English
469 Perfume Patrick Suskind 1985 German German
476 So Long, See You Tomorrow William Maxwell 1980 American English
478 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
494 Sanctuary William Faulkner 1931 American English
513 The Golden Bowl Henry James 1904 American English
523 The Monk Matthew Lewis 1796 British English
534 Uncle Silas Sheridan Le Fanu 1864 Irish English
535 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
536 Gaudy Night Dorothy L. Sayers 1935 British English
540 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
542 We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson 1962 American English
549 Rosemary's Baby Ira Levin 1967 American English
561 The Immoralist André Gide 1902 French French
570 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
574 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003 American English
575 The Lady with the Dog Anton Chekhov 1899 Russian Russian
576 The Blind Owl Ṣādiq Hidāyat 1937 Iranian Persian
586 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
601 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
605 Regeneration Pat Barker 1991 British English
612 Drunkard Émile Zola 1877 French Unknown
614 Embers Sandor Marai 1942 Hungarian Hungarian
625 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
641 Thérèse Raquin Émile Zola 1867 French French
647 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
658 The Adventures of Caleb Williams William Godwin 1794 British English
665 Beast In View Margaret Millar 1955 Canadian English
666 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
687 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 2012 American English
696 Conversation in the Cathedral Mario Vargas Llosa 1969 Peruvian Spanish
699 Dom Casmurro Machado de Assis 1899 Brazilian Portuguese
710 The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene 1948 British English
714 In A Lonely Place Dorothy B. Hughes 1947 American English
722 Daniel Deronda George Eliot 1876 British English
724 The Lottery and Other Stories Shirley Jackson 1948 American English
728 The Temple of the Golden Pavilion Yukio Mishima 1956 Japanese Japanese
729 The Go-Between L. P. Hartley 1953 British English
737 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
747 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
749 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
750 Les Enfants Terribles Jean Cocteau 1929 French French
755 Rabbit at Rest John Updike 1990 American English
756 Nada Carmen Laforet 1944 Spanish Spanish
768 Anton Reiser Karl Philipp Moritz 1785 German German
773 The Tunnel Ernesto Sábato 1948 Argentinian Spanish
789 Sophie's Choice William Styron 1979 American English
794 A Kiss Before Dying Ira Levin 1953 American English
799 Thousand Cranes Yasunari Kawabata 1952 Japanese Japanese
805 The Dwarf Par Lagerkvist 1944 Swedish Swedish
807 Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee 1980 South African English
808 The Shipyard Juan Carlos Onetti 1961 Uruguayan Spanish
811 A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams 1947 American English