The Greatest Books of All Time on Deception

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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
24 The Odyssey Homer -740 Greek Ancient greek
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
83 Emma Jane Austen 1815 British English
85 The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford 1915 British English
87 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 1844 French French
104 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
105 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 1847 British English
110 The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer 1400 British Middle english
119 The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas 1844 French French
120 The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler 1939 American English
122 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
139 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 1860 British English
142 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
143 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
152 The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli 1532 Italian Italian
161 The Long Goodbye Raymond Chandler 1953 American English
164 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle 1902 British English
191 And Then There Were None Agatha Christie 1939 British English
205 The Complete Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 1927 British English
210 Dangerous Liaison Pierre Choderlos de Laclos 1782 French French
213 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
233 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carré 1963 British English
251 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
261 Wings of the Dove Henry James 1902 American English
318 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
344 The Thirty-Nine Steps John Buchan 1915 British English
351 Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
352 The Vicar of Wakefield Oliver Goldsmith 1766 British English
376 The Golden Bowl Henry James 1904 American English
387 Our Mutual Friend Charles Dickens 1864 British English
401 Celestina Or The Tragic-Comedy Of Calisto And Melibea Fernando de Rojas 1499 Spanish Spanish
423 Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie 1934 British English
424 A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen 1879 Norwegian Norwegian
432 Lost Illusions Honoré de Balzac 1837 French French
437 Passing Nella Larsen 1929 American English
442 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
444 The Man Who Was Thursday G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
445 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
453 I, Claudius Robert Graves 1934 British English
457 The Hollow Man John Dickson Carr 1935 British English
469 The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain 1934 American English
497 Murder Must Advertise Dorothy L. Sayers 1933 British English
510 Eugenie Grandet Honoré de Balzac 1833 French French
533 Cousin Bette Honoré de Balzac 1846 French French
536 Red Harvest Dashiell Hammett 1929 American English
542 Uncle Silas Sheridan Le Fanu 1864 Irish English
544 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
545 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
556 The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse 1938 British English
561 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
562 Aesop's Fables Aesop -560 Greek Ancient greek
563 Panchatantra Unknown -300 Multiple Sanskrit
581 The Innocence of Father Brown G. K. Chesterton 1911 British English
586 The Third Man Graham Greene 1949 British English
590 Northanger Abbey Jane Austen 1817 British English
595 Farewell, My Lovely Raymond Chandler 1940 American English
602 The Go-Between L. P. Hartley 1953 British English
625 The Nine Tailors Dorothy L. Sayers 1934 British English
630 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
633 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John le Carré 1974 British English
684 The Adventures Of Pinocchio Carlo Collodi 1883 Italian Italian
694 La Fontaine's Fables Jean de La Fontaine 1668 French French
703 The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 1875 British English
734 Loving Henry Green 1945 British English
775 Cheese Willem Elsschot 1933 Belgian Dutch
780 Maxims François duc de La Rochefoucauld 1665 French French
781 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
790 The Mask of Dimitrios Eric Ambler 1939 British English
791 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 2012 American English
801 The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie 1920 British English
802 Romance of the Three Kingdoms Guanzhong Luo 1400 Chinese Chinese
811 The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux 1909 French French
835 The Art of War Sun Tzu -500 Chinese Classical chinese
864 Reynard the Fox Unknown 1479 Multiple Middle dutch
871 Wieland Charles Brockden Brown 1798 American English
916 Malice Aforethought Francis Iles 1931 British English
948 The Poisoned Chocolates Case Anthony Berkeley 1929 British English
950 Richard III William Shakespeare 1592 British English
953 Trent's Last Case E. C. Bentley 1913 British English
966 The Ipcress File Len Deighton 1962 British English
984 Tartuffe Molière 1664 French French
986 Electra Sophocles -409 Greek Ancient greek
997 The Judge and His Hangman Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1950 Swiss German
1008 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1010 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
1061 Fantômas Marcel Allain, Pierre Souvestre 1911 French French
1088 The Dwarf Par Lagerkvist 1944 Swedish Swedish
1105 The Chill Ross Macdonald 1964 American English
1109 Othello William Shakespeare 1603 British English
1125 Philoctetes Sophocles -409 Greek Ancient greek
1126 Women of Trachis Sophocles -450 Greek Ancient greek
1153 Beast In View Margaret Millar 1955 Canadian English
1161 The Twelve Chairs Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1928 Russian Russian
1183 Mr Norris Changes Trains Christopher Isherwood 1935 British English
1184 In A Lonely Place Dorothy B. Hughes 1947 American English
1193 Double Indemnity James M. Cain 1943 American English
1203 Nine Coaches Waiting Mary Stewart 1958 British English
1214 The Moving Toyshop Edmund Crispin 1946 British English
1216 Billy Liar Keith Waterhouse 1959 British English
1217 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
1233 The History Of Gil Blas Of Santillana Alain-René Lesage 1715 French French
1237 Jacob the Liar Jurek Becker 1969 German German
1240 Strangers On A Train Patricia Highsmith 1950 American English
1249 The White Devil John Webster 1612 British English
1268 A Kiss Before Dying Ira Levin 1953 American English
1279 Psycho Robert Bloch 1959 American English
1296 The Works of Moliere Molière 1666 French French
1300 The Guide R. K. Narayan 1958 Indian English
1308 Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand 1897 French French
1310 Our Man In Havana Graham Greene 1958 British English
1334 Hangover Square Patrick Hamilton 1941 British English
1343 The Hamlet William Faulkner 1940 American English
1366 The Adversary Emmanuel Carrère 2000 French French
1382 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde 1895 Irish English
1383 The Birds Aristophanes -414 Greek Ancient greek
1422 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
1483 Tono Bungay H. G. Wells 1909 British English
1485 A Perfect Spy John le Carré 1986 British English
1491 Presumed Innocent Scott Turow 1987 American English
1492 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Vladimir Nabokov 1941 Russian English