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
14730 The World Within the Word William H. Gass 1978 American English
14787 Mencken Chrestomathy H. L. Mencken 1949 American English
14854 Anatomy Of Criticism Northrop Frye 1957 Canadian English
14870 The Common Reader Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
14983 Let's Talk About Love Carl Wilson 2007 Canadian English
14983 Reliable Essays Clive James 2001 British English
14983 The Devil Finds Work James Baldwin 1976 American English
14983 Old Masters Thomas Bernhard 1985 Austrian German
15586 The Season William Goldman 1969 American English
15598 Steeplejack James Huneker 1920 American English
15652 The Outline Of Literature John Drinkwater 1923 British English
15678 The Paris Review Interviews Paris Review 2006 American English
15785 Critique Of Religion And Philosophy Walter A. Kaufmann 1958 American English
15793 The New Guide To Modern World Literature Martin Seymour-Smith 1973 British English
15897 Looking at Dance Edwin Denby 1949 American English
15897 A Critique of the Theory of Evolution Thomas Hunt Morgan 1916 American English
15897 Masscult and Midcult Dwight Macdonald 1962 American English
15897 The Memoirs Of Hector Berlioz Hector Berlioz 1870 French French
15897 Seven Types Of Ambiguity William Empson 1930 British English
15897 Cézanne Roger Fry 1927 British English
15897 The Air Conditioned Nightmare Henry Miller 1945 American English
15895 The Retreat To Commitment William Warren Bartley 1962 American English
17119 Herman Melville Newton Arvin 1950 American English
17119 Art and Culture Clement Greenberg 1961 American English
17119 Enthusiasms Bernard Levin 1983 British English
17119 Metaphor and Memory Cynthia Ozick 1989 American English
17119 Invisibility Blues Michele Wallace 1990 American English
17119 Playing To The Gallery Grayson Perry 2014 British English
17119 The Good, The Bad, And The Multiplex Mark Kermode 2011 British English
17119 Master Class Terrence McNally 1995 American English
16858 The Wit Of Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde 1900 Irish English
17119 Social Satire And The Modern Novel Paul Rich 1984 Unknown Unknown
17119 Against Method Paul Feyerabend 1975 German English
17119 Ten Years In The Tub Nick Hornby 2013 British English
16769 The Pound Era Hugh Kenner 1971 Canadian English
17119 The Lyttelton Hart Davis Letters George Lyttelton 1978 British English
17119 A Reader's Delight Noel Perrin 1988 American English
17119 Collected Letters George Bernard Shaw 1972 British English
17119 For Keeps Pauline Kael 1994 American English
17119 The Dictionary Of Fashionable Nonsense Ophelia Benson, Jeremy Stangroom 2004 British English
17119 Trillion Year Spree Brian Aldiss 1986 British English
17119 Relativism Refuted Harvey Siegel 1987 American English
17119 Stranger Than Fiction Edwin Frank 2024 Unknown English
17119 It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track Ian Penman 2019 British English
17035 Inquisiciones Jorge Luis Borges 1925 Argentinian Spanish
17119 How The Beatles Destroyed Rock 'N' Roll Elijah Wald 2009 American English
17119 The Great Movies Roger Ebert 2003 American English
17119 On Becoming A Novelist John Gardner 1983 American English
17119 The Bright Book Of Life Harold Bloom 2020 American English
17119 Big Fiction Dan Sinykin 2023 Unknown English
17119 Essays Critical And Clinical Gilles Deleuze 1993 French French
17119 The Upstairs Delicatessen Dwight Garner 2023 American English
17119 The Upstairs Delicatessen Dwight Garner 2023 Unknown Unknown
17119 Professing Criticism John Guillory 2023 American English
17119 The Critic’s Daughter Priscilla Gilman 2023 Unknown English
16855 Attack Upon Christendom Soren Kierkegaard 1944 Danish Danish
17119 Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend M.J. Wassmer Unknown Unknown
17119 A Chance Meeting Cohen, Rachel 2004 American English