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
14731 The World Within the Word William H. Gass 1978 American English
14788 Mencken Chrestomathy H. L. Mencken 1949 American English
14857 Anatomy Of Criticism Northrop Frye 1957 Canadian English
14872 The Common Reader Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
14985 Let's Talk About Love Carl Wilson 2007 Canadian English
14985 Reliable Essays Clive James 2001 British English
14985 The Devil Finds Work James Baldwin 1976 American English
14985 Old Masters Thomas Bernhard 1985 Austrian German
15594 The Season William Goldman 1969 American English
15606 Steeplejack James Huneker 1920 American English
15660 The Outline Of Literature John Drinkwater 1923 British English
15686 The Paris Review Interviews Paris Review 2006 American English
15800 Critique Of Religion And Philosophy Walter A. Kaufmann 1958 American English
15811 The New Guide To Modern World Literature Martin Seymour-Smith 1973 British English
15916 Looking at Dance Edwin Denby 1949 American English
15916 A Critique of the Theory of Evolution Thomas Hunt Morgan 1916 American English
15916 Masscult and Midcult Dwight Macdonald 1962 American English
15916 The Memoirs Of Hector Berlioz Hector Berlioz 1870 French French
15916 Seven Types Of Ambiguity William Empson 1930 British English
15916 Cézanne Roger Fry 1927 British English
15916 The Air Conditioned Nightmare Henry Miller 1945 American English
15913 The Retreat To Commitment William Warren Bartley 1962 American English
17163 Herman Melville Newton Arvin 1950 American English
17163 Art and Culture Clement Greenberg 1961 American English
17163 Enthusiasms Bernard Levin 1983 British English
17163 Metaphor and Memory Cynthia Ozick 1989 American English
17163 Invisibility Blues Michele Wallace 1990 American English
17163 Playing To The Gallery Grayson Perry 2014 British English
17163 The Good, The Bad, And The Multiplex Mark Kermode 2011 British English
17163 Master Class Terrence McNally 1995 American English
16897 The Wit Of Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde 1900 Irish English
17163 Social Satire And The Modern Novel Paul Rich 1984 Unknown Unknown
17163 Against Method Paul Feyerabend 1975 German English
17163 Ten Years In The Tub Nick Hornby 2013 British English
16808 The Pound Era Hugh Kenner 1971 Canadian English
17163 The Lyttelton Hart Davis Letters George Lyttelton 1978 British English
17163 A Reader's Delight Noel Perrin 1988 American English
17163 Collected Letters George Bernard Shaw 1972 British English
17163 For Keeps Pauline Kael 1994 American English
17163 The Dictionary Of Fashionable Nonsense Ophelia Benson, Jeremy Stangroom 2004 British English
17163 Trillion Year Spree Brian Aldiss 1986 British English
17163 Relativism Refuted Harvey Siegel 1987 American English
17163 Stranger Than Fiction Edwin Frank 2024 Unknown English
17163 It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track Ian Penman 2019 British English
17061 Inquisiciones Jorge Luis Borges 1925 Argentinian Spanish
17163 How The Beatles Destroyed Rock 'N' Roll Elijah Wald 2009 American English
17163 The Great Movies Roger Ebert 2003 American English
17163 On Becoming A Novelist John Gardner 1983 American English
17163 The Bright Book Of Life Harold Bloom 2020 American English
17163 Big Fiction Dan Sinykin 2023 Unknown English
17163 Essays Critical And Clinical Gilles Deleuze 1993 French French
17163 The Upstairs Delicatessen Dwight Garner 2023 American English
17163 The Upstairs Delicatessen Dwight Garner 2023 Unknown Unknown
17163 Professing Criticism John Guillory 2023 American English
17163 The Critic’s Daughter Priscilla Gilman 2023 Unknown English
16908 Attack Upon Christendom Soren Kierkegaard 1944 Danish Danish
17163 Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend M.J. Wassmer Unknown Unknown
17163 A Chance Meeting Cohen, Rachel 2004 American English