The Greatest Books of All Time on Criticism

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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
72 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
300 The Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell 1791 British English
682 The Open Society and Its Enemies Karl Popper 1945 British English
868 Henry James Leon Edel 1953 American English
869 Woodcutters Thomas Bernhard 1984 Austrian German
1045 Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1932 British English
1118 Germany, a Winter Tale Heinrich Heine 1844 German German
1271 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1363 The Liberal Imagination Lionel Trilling 1950 American English
1429 Aphorisms Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1902 German German
1599 On the Edge of Reason Miroslav Krleža 1938 Croatian Croatian
1660 The Waste Books Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1770 German German
1742 A Tale Of A Tub Jonathan Swift 1704 British English
1870 The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters Gustave Flaubert 1921 French French
1924 Pages From The Goncourt Journal Edmond de Goncourt 1887 French French
1960 The Provincial Letters Blaise Pascal 1656 French French
2013 The Habit of Being Flannery O'Connor 1979 American English
2053 The Misanthrope Molière 1666 French French
2260 Advertisements for Myself Norman Mailer 1959 American English
2476 Essays And Criticism William Hazlitt 1823 British English
2648 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
3220 The American Cinema Andrew Sarris 1968 American English
3324 Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus Scriblerus Club 1741 British English
3324 The Apes of God Wyndham Lewis 1930 British English
3503 The Works of Max Beerbohm Max Beerbohm 1902 British English
3512 Scrutiny F. R. Leavis 1932 British English
3528 Poetry and the Age Randall Jarrell 1953 American English
3548 Samuel Johnson Walter Jackson Bate 1977 American English
3638 The Works Of John Dryden John Dryden 1808 British English
3638 Blasting And Bombardiering Wyndham Lewis 1937 British English
3954 Ελεγεία και Σάτιρες Kostas Karyotakis 1927 Greek Greek
4227 The Frogs Aristophanes -405 Greek Ancient greek
4296 Bird By Bird Anne Lamott 1994 American English
4310 The Westminster Alice Saki 1902 British English
4421 The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies James McNeill Whistler 1890 American English
4421 Guide To Kulchur Ezra Pound 1938 American English
4894 Seven Men And Two Others Max Beerbohm 1919 British English
5393 Poems Of Alexander Pope Alexander Pope 1711 British English
5691 Sur La Philosophie Africaine Paulin Hountondji 1976 French French
5804 Illuminations Walter Benjamin 1968 German German
5994 Writing Degree Zero Roland Barthes 1953 French French
6005 The Golden Fruits Nathalie Sarraute 1963 French French
6005 Van Gogh Antonin Artaud 1947 French French
6163 Arguably Christopher Hitchens 2011 British English
6219 The Origin Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
6282 The Mirror and the Lamp Meyer Howard Abrams 1953 American English
6349 Nineteen Ways Of Looking At Wang Wei Eliot Weinberger 1987 American English
6428 Theory And History Of Ideological Production Juan Carlos Rodríguez 1993 Spanish Spanish
6472 The Belles Lettres Papers Charles Simmons 1987 American English
6524 Le Coq Et L'arlequin Jean Cocteau 1918 French French
6683 The Opium Of The Intellectuals Raymond Aron 1955 French French
6714 Diccionario De Autores Latinoamericanos César Aira 2001 Argentinian Spanish
6717 Anti Goeze Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1778 German German
6902 Autobiography Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
7101 The Glenn Gould Reader Glenn Gould 1984 Canadian English
7216 An Apology For Poetry Philip Sidney 1595 British English
7216 The Works Of Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson 1787 British English
7216 The Art Of Poetry Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux 1674 French French
7216 On The Historical Novel Alessandro Manzoni 1800 Italian Italian
7216 Essays Matthew Arnold 1865 British English
7216 Modern Painters John Ruskin 1843 British English
7216 Appreciations Walter Pater 1889 British English
7216 Dialogue On Poetry And Literary Aphorisms Friedrich Schlegel 1800 German German
7216 Essays And Reviews Edgar Allan Poe 1845 American English
7216 Major Critical Essays George Bernard Shaw 1930 Irish English
7216 Studies In Classic American Literature D. H. Lawrence 1923 British English
7216 Counter Statement Kenneth Burke 1931 American English
7664 Against Interpretation Susan Sontag 1966 American English
7665 The Flowering of New England Van Wyck Brooks 1936 American English
7808 Products Of The Perfected Civilization Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort 1969 French French
7915 How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read Pierre Bayard 2007 French French
7926 Letters From The Earth Mark Twain 1962 American English
7967 The Shores Of Light Edmund Wilson 1952 American English
8293 The Author Of Himself Marcel Reich-Ranicki 1999 German German
8607 The Dyer's Hand W. H. Auden 1962 British English
8655 Domestic Manners of the Americans Fanny Trollope 1832 British English
8681 In Defense Of Sanity G. K. Chesterton 2011 British English
8720 Prejudices H. L. Mencken 1919 American English
8757 Russian Thinkers Isaiah Berlin 1978 British English
8887 Monsters Claire Dederer 2023 American English
9091 Pluto's Republic Peter B. Medawar 1982 British English
9294 Findings Richard Howard 1970 American Unknown
9635 The Collected Works of Paul Valéry Paul Valéry 1957 French French
9703 Extra Lives Tom Bissell 2010 American English
9859 Biographia Literaria Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1817 British English
9859 Critical And Historical Essays Thomas Babington Macaulay 1843 British English
10308 Ornament And Crime Adolf Loos 1908 German German
10308 A History Of Russian Literature Dmitry Svyatopolk Mirsky 1926 Russian English
10399 Essays On Music Theodor Adorno 2002 German English
10592 Salvage Dionne Brand 2024 Canadian English
10827 Touching Feeling Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick 2003 American English
10966 The Films In My Life Francois Truffaut 1975 French French
11229 Fargo Rock City Chuck Klosterman 2001 American English
11336 How New York Stole The Idea Of Modern Art Serge Guilbaut 1983 American English
11365 Against Poets Witold Gombrowicz Polish Polish
11546 Enemies of Promise Cyril Connolly 1938 British English
11662 Hugging The Shore John Updike 1983 American English
11662 Dawn To The West Donald Keene 1984 American English
11804 Culture Creep Alice Bolin 2021 American English
11940 Louise Bogan Elizabeth Frank 1985 American English
11940 Sontag Benjamin Moser 2019 American English
12012 What Art Is Arthur C. Danto 2013 American English
12326 Vladimir Nabokov Brian Boyd 1990 British English
12326 Victor Hugo Graham Robb 1997 British English
13031 Tomatoes + Why Doesn't The Far Left Read Literature? Nathalie Quintane French French
13194 Authority Andrea Long Chu 2025 American English
13107 The Right Of The People Osita Nwanevu 2025 American English
13362 The Nude Kenneth Clark 1956 British English
13362 The Great Tradition F. R. Leavis 1948 British English
13362 Culture and Anarchy Matthew Arnold 1869 British English
13362 The Prose Writings Of Heinrich Heine Heinrich Heine 1834 German German
13362 The Lives Of The Poets Samuel Johnson 1779 British English
13362 An Essay On Criticism Alexander Pope 1711 British English
13362 Critic Richard Brinsley Sheridan 1779 British English
13362 Micromégas Voltaire 1752 French French
13924 An Image Of Africa Chinua Achebe 1975 Nigerian English
14435 The Function Of The Poet, And Other Essays James Russell Lowell 1893 American English
14554 Love And Death In The American Novel Leslie Fiedler 1960 American English
14643 The Spirit Of American Literature John Albert Macy 1913 American English
14650 A Homemade World Hugh Kenner 1975 American English