The Greatest Books of All Time on Control
Click to learn how this list is calculated.
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.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Nineteen Eighty Four | George Orwell | 1949 | British | English | |
| 50 | Brave New World | Aldous Huxley | 1932 | British | English | |
| 81 | The Castle | Franz Kafka | 1926 | Czech | German | |
| 153 | A Clockwork Orange | Anthony Burgess | 1962 | British | English | |
| 259 | Naked Lunch | William S. Burroughs | 1959 | American | English | |
| 442 | The Magus | John Fowles | 1965 | British | English | |
| 789 | The Piano Teacher | Elfriede Jelinek | 1983 | Austrian | German | |
| 1071 | The Midwich Cuckoos | John Wyndham | 1957 | British | English | |
| 1086 | Misery | Stephen King | 1987 | American | English | |
| 1196 | Conjure Wife | Fritz Leiber | 1943 | American | English | |
| 1408 | Amongst Women | John McGahern | 1990 | Irish | English | |
| 1636 | The Collector | John Fowles | 1963 | British | English | |
| 1651 | The Yellow Wallpaper | Charlotte Perkins Gilman | 1892 | American | English | |
| 1723 | 1Q84 | Haruki Murakami | 2009 | Japanese | Japanese | |
| 1799 | The Giver | Lois Lowry | 1993 | American | English | |
| 1802 | Kallocain | Karin Boye | 1940 | Swedish | Swedish | |
| 1959 | Discipline and Punish | Michel Foucault | 1975 | French | French | |
| 2242 | Milkman | Anna Burns | 2018 | Irish | English | |
| 2274 | Hedda Gabler | Henrik Ibsen | 1890 | Norwegian | Norwegian | |
| 2347 | A Summons to Memphis | Peter Taylor | 1986 | American | English | |
| 2557 | Alamut | Vladimir Bartol | 1938 | Slovenian | Slovene | |
| 2642 | The Power | Naomi Alderman | 2016 | British | English | |
| 3040 | Manservant And Maidservant | Ivy Compton-Burnett | 1947 | British | English | |
| 3225 | The Driver's Seat | Muriel Spark | 1970 | British | English | |
| 3405 | Fifty Shades of Grey: | E. L. James | 2011 | British | English | |
| 3409 | The Glass Bees | Ernst Jünger | 1957 | German | German | |
| 3533 | The Birthday Party | Harold Pinter | 1958 | British | English | |
| 3583 | Married Life | David Vogel | 1986 | Jewish | English | |
| 3805 | The Miser | Molière | 1668 | French | French | |
| 3839 | Gog | Andrew Sinclair | 1967 | British | English | |
| 4057 | Bad Behavior | Mary Gaitskill | 1988 | American | English | |
| 4284 | A Rose for Emily | William Faulkner | 1930 | American | English | |
| 4413 | Norma | Vladimir Sorokin | 1970 | Russian | Russian | |
| 4510 | The Palace Of Dreams | Ismail Kadare | 1981 | Albanian | Albanian | |
| 4783 | Ice | Anna Kavan | 1967 | British | English | |
| 5012 | The Hungry Moon | Ramsey Campbell | 1986 | British | English | |
| 5473 | The Unicorn | Iris Murdoch | 1963 | British | English | |
| 5637 | The Alteration | Kingsley Amis | 1976 | British | English | |
| 5862 | The School for Wives | Molière | 1662 | French | French | |
| 5917 | The Magic Toyshop | Angela Carter | 1967 | British | English | |
| 5989 | The Homecoming | Harold Pinter | 1965 | British | English | |
| 6362 | The Restraint Of Beasts | Magnus Mills | 1998 | British | English | |
| 6514 | The Control Revolution | James R. Beniger | 1986 | American | English | |
| 6700 | It's A Good Life | Jerome Bixby | 1953 | American | English | |
| 6936 | Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? | Joyce Carol Oates | 1966 | American | English | |
| 7086 | The Crocodile Bird | Ruth Rendell | 1993 | British | English | |
| 7106 | Technopoly | Neil Postman | 1992 | American | English | |
| 7214 | Prophet Song | Paul Lynch | 2023 | Irish | English | |
| 7216 | School For Husbands | Molière | 1661 | French | French | |
| 7216 | The Woman Of The Pharisees | François Mauriac | 1941 | French | French | |
| 7752 | The Age of Surveillance Capitalism | Shoshana Zuboff | 2019 | American | English | |
| 7853 | L'organisation | Jean Rolin | 1996 | French | French | |
| 8579 | In Thrall | Jane DeLynn | 1982 | Unknown | English | |
| 8618 | The Queue | Basma Abdel Aziz | 2013 | Egyptian | Arabic | |
| 8813 | Feed | M. T. Anderson | 2002 | American | English | |
| 9260 | The Memory Police | Yōko Ogawa | 2024 | Japanese | Japanese | |
| 9961 | Mailman | J. Robert Lennon | 2003 | American | English | |
| 10493 | A Dictator Calls | Ismail Kadare | 2023 | Albanian | Unknown | |
| 10749 | Spanking The Maid | Robert Coover | 1982 | American | English | |
| 10909 | Samedi The Deafness | Jesse Ball | 2007 | American | English | |
| 11043 | Hellfire | Leesa Gazi | 2019 | Bangladeshi | Bengali | |
| 11175 | Foundation's Edge | Isaac Asimov | 1982 | American | English | |
| 11519 | Enchiridion Of Epictetus | Epictetus | 135 | Greek | Greek | |
| 11580 | The Impenetrable Madam X | Griselda Gambaro | 1986 | Argentinian | Spanish | |
| 12225 | Shades Of Grey | Jasper Fforde | 2009 | British | English | |
| 12309 | Pavane | Keith Roberts | 1968 | British | English | |
| 13531 | Wild Seed | Octavia E. Butler | 1980 | American | English | |
| 13543 | Steps | Jerzy Kosinski | 1968 | Polish | English | |
| 13592 | The School For Good Mothers | Jessamine Chan | 2022 | American | English | |
| 13712 | The Aerodrome | Rex Warner | 1941 | British | English | |
| 13766 | Second Foundation | Isaac Asimov | 1953 | American | English | |
| 14093 | Leviathan | Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson | 1981 | American | English | |
| 14138 | The Mule | Isaac Asimov | 1945 | American | English | |
| 14342 | The Circle | Dave Eggers | 2013 | American | English | |
| 14716 | El Supremo | Edward Lucas White | 1916 | American | English | |
| 14819 | The Lathe Of Heaven | Ursula K. Le Guin | 1971 | American | English | |
| 14865 | Donovan's Brain | Curt Siodmak | 1942 | American | English | |
| 14924 | The End Of Eternity | Isaac Asimov | 1955 | American | English | |
| 14984 | Beyond Freedom and Dignity | B. F. Skinner | 1971 | American | English | |
| 14984 | Nova Express | William S. Burroughs | 1964 | American | English | |
| 14976 | Time Out Of Joint | Philip K. Dick | 1959 | American | English | |
| 14984 | The Chimes | Anna Smaill | 2015 | New Zealand | English | |
| 14970 | The Stepford Wives | Ira Levin | 1972 | American | English | |
| 15636 | Planet Magnon | Leif Randt | 2015 | German | German | |
| 15910 | The Protocols of the Elders of Zion | Unknown | 1903 | Multiple | Russian | |
| 16516 | The Machine Stops | E. M. Forster | 1909 | British | English | |
| 15907 | The Dumb Waiter | Harold Pinter | 1957 | British | English | |
| 15910 | Simulacron 3 | Daniel F. Galouye | 1964 | American | English | |
| 15892 | God Emperor Of Dune | Frank Herbert | 1981 | American | English | |
| 15910 | A House And Its Head | Ivy Compton-Burnett | 1935 | British | English | |
| 16617 | Trilby | Charles Lomon | 1894 | British | Unknown | |
| 16614 | Casa De Campo | José Donoso | 1978 | Chilean | Spanish | |
| 17151 | The Ticket That Exploded | William S. Burroughs | 1962 | American | English | |
| 16914 | The Flight from the Enchanter | Iris Murdoch | 1956 | British | English | |
| 16948 | The White Mountains | John Christopher | 1967 | British | English | |
| 17098 | Logan's Run | William F. Nolan | 1967 | American | English | |
| 17151 | Mother And Son | Ivy Compton-Burnett | 1955 | British | English | |
| 17151 | The Physiognomy | Jeffrey Ford | 1997 | American | English | |
| 17151 | Michaelmas | Algis Budrys | 1977 | American | English | |
| 17151 | My Idea Of Fun | Will Self | 1993 | British | English | |
| 17068 | Dulce Ca Mierea E Glonțul Patriei | Petru Popescu | 1974 | Romanian | Romanian | |
| 17151 | Gráinne | Keith Roberts | 1973 | British | English | |
| 17151 | 5150 One Who Flew Into The Cuckoo's Nest | Kathi Stringer | 2007 | American | Unknown | |
| 17151 | Under The Dome | Stephen King | 2009 | American | English | |
| 17151 | Wool Omnibus | Hugh Howey | 2012 | American | English | |
| 17151 | Akira, Vol. 5 | Katsuhiro Otomo | 1990 | Japanese | Japanese | |
| 17151 | Moxyland | Lauren Beukes | 2008 | South African | English | |
| 17151 | Psychopolitics | Byung-Chul Han | 2017 | German | German | |
| 17151 | Silo 1 | Hugh Howey | 2012 | American | English | |
| 17151 | Unravel Me | Tahereh Mafi | 2013 | American | English | |
| 17021 | Discourses And Selected Writings | Epictetus | 108 | Greek | Greek | |
| 17151 | O Tempo Dos Simulacros | Philip K. Dick | American | Unknown | ||
| 16951 | The Gentle Spirit | Fyodor Dostoevsky | 1876 | Russian | Russian | |
| 17151 | The Future | Naomi Alderman | British | Unknown | ||
| 17151 | Restore Me | Tahereh Mafi | 2018 | American | English | |
| 17151 | Siilo | Hugh Howey | 2011 | American | English | |
| 17151 | Beware The Woman | Megan Abbott | 2023 | American | English | |
| 17151 | My Husband | Maud Ventura | 2023 | French | French | |
| 17151 | The Sullivanians | Alexander Stille | 2023 | Unknown | English | |
| 17151 | Owlish | Dorothy Tse | 2023 | Unknown | Chinese |