The Greatest Books of All Time on Disillusionment

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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
20 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 1857 French French
62 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway 1926 American English
86 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque 1928 German German
116 A Sentimental Education Gustave Flaubert 1869 French French
174 Rabbit, Run John Updike 1960 American English
185 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
256 Babbitt Sinclair Lewis 1922 American English
263 The Tartar Steppe Dino Buzzati 1940 Italian Italian
347 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 1939 American English
380 American Pastoral Philip Roth 1997 American English
410 The Razor's Edge W. Somerset Maugham 1944 British English
491 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
572 Three Sisters Anton Chekhov 1901 Russian Russian
611 Revolutionary Road Richard Yates 1961 American English
651 Manhattan Transfer John Dos Passos 1925 American English
817 Rickshaw Boy Lao She 1936 Chinese Chinese
970 The Maias Eça de Queirós 1888 Portuguese Portuguese
1020 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
1035 Uncle Vanya Anton Chekhov 1897 Russian Russian
1044 A Ghost at Noon Alberto Moravia 1954 Italian Italian
1137 Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West 1933 American English
1219 The Time of Indifference Alberto Moravia 1929 Italian Italian
1341 The Graduate Charles Webb 1963 American English
1432 A Woman's Life Guy de Maupassant 1883 French French
1471 Aurélien Louis Aragon 1944 French French
1502 The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born Ayi K. Armah 1968 Ghanaian English
1592 Niels Lyhne Jens Peter Jacobson 1880 Danish Danish
1621 Good-Bye to All That Robert Graves 1929 British English
1669 The Underdogs Mariano Azuela 1915 Mexican Spanish
1774 The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne Brian Moore 1955 Irish English
1788 Heartbreak House George Bernard Shaw 1919 British English
1857 A Lost Lady Willa Cather 1923 American English
2200 Death Of A Hero Richard Aldington 1929 British English
2261 The Iceman Cometh Eugene O'Neill 1946 American English
2278 One of Ours Willa Cather 1922 American English
2373 The Crack-Up F. Scott Fitzgerald 1945 American English
2680 Generation X Douglas Coupland 1991 Canadian English
2738 Look Back In Anger John Osborne 1956 British English
2752 Fabian Erich Kästner 1931 German German
2769 Amsterdam Stories Nescio 1918 Dutch Dutch
2846 Things Georges Perec 1965 French French
3324 Torrents of Spring Ivan Turgenev 1872 Russian Russian
3579 Flowering Judas and Other Stories Katherine Anne Porter 1930 American English
3637 Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Lord Byron 1812 British English
3637 Child Of The Revolution Wolfgang Leonhard 1955 German German
3858 This Side of Paradise F. Scott Fitzgerald 1920 American English
3872 The Beautiful and Damned F. Scott Fitzgerald 1922 American English
4140 Le Vieux Nègre Et La Médaille Ferdinand Oyono 1956 French French
4259 A Nobleman's Nest Ivan Turgenev 1859 Russian Russian
4309 Afternoon Men Anthony Powell 1931 British English
4309 Three Soldiers John Dos Passos 1921 American English
4436 In Dreams Begin Responsibilities And Other Stories Delmore Schwartz 1938 American English
4947 Les Regrets Joachim Du Bellay 1558 French French
5328 Pushkin Hills Sergei Dovlatov 1983 Russian Russian
5477 Fado Alexandrino António Lobo Antunes 1983 Portuguese Portuguese
5704 The Complete Works of Nathanael West Nathanael West 1957 American English
5713 The Gallery John Horne Burns 1947 American English
5829 The Easter Parade Richard Yates 1976 American English
5892 Antic Hay Aldous Huxley 1923 British English
6004 A Love Affair Dino Buzzati 1963 Italian Italian
6737 My Misspent Youth Meghan Daum 2001 American English
6806 Maudit Manège Philippe Djian 1986 French French
6821 Let It Come Down Paul Bowles 1952 American English
6920 The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid 2007 Pakistani English
6980 We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live Joan Didion 2006 American English
7216 A Cool Million Nathanael West 1934 American English
7216 Lonely Crusade Chester Himes 1947 American English
7616 Dirty Havana Trilogy Pedro Juan Gutierrez 1998 Cuban Spanish
7763 The Collected Stories of Heinrich Boll Heinrich Böll 1972 German German
7967 The Long March William Styron 1952 American English
8107 Weeds Edith Summers Kelley 1923 Canadian English
8578 The Sorrow Of War Dương Thu Hương 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
8902 O Encontro Marcado Fernando Sabino 1956 Brazilian Portuguese
9115 The Heron Giorgio Bassani 1968 Italian Italian
9572 Pigeons On The Grass Wolfgang Koeppen 1951 German German
9857 Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky Patrick Hamilton 1935 British English
11661 The Burning House Ann Beattie 1982 American English
12103 Sword Of Honour Evelyn Waugh 1965 British English
12441 Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? Edward Albee 1962 American English
12449 In The Beginning Was The Sea Tomás González 1983 Colombian Spanish
12656 The Spiral Ascent Edward Upward British English
13555 Almayer's Folly Joseph Conrad 1895 British English
13760 Drop City T. Coraghessan Boyle 2003 American English
13986 The Disenchanted Budd Schulberg 1950 American English
14232 In Custody Anita Desai 1984 Indian English
14389 The Collected Stories Richard Yates 2001 American English
14519 The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald F. Scott Fitzgerald 1989 American English
14938 The Red Pony John Steinbeck 1933 American English
15824 Rabbit Angstrom John Updike 1960 American English
15816 A World I Never Made James T. Farrell 1936 American English
15910 The Wicked Pavilion Dawn Powell 1954 American English
15910 Montage Of A Dream Deferred Langston Hughes 1951 American English
16636 Summerfolk Maxim Gorky 1904 Russian Russian
17151 The Ice Storm Rick Moody 1994 American English
17151 Broken Glass Alain Mabanckou 2005 Congolese French
16917 Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll Ray Lawler 1955 Australian English
16947 The Entertainer John Osborne 1957 British English
17151 Model Home Eric Puchner 2010 American English
16876 Coming Up For Air George Orwell 1939 British English
17000 The Big Rock Candy Mountain Wallace Stegner 1943 American English
17151 Brief Encounters With The Enemy Saïd Sayrafiezadeh 2013 American English
16943 The Dry Heart Natalia Ginzburg 1947 Italian Italian
16998 De Uitvreter / Titaantjes / Dichtertje / Mene Tekel Nescio 1918 Dutch Dutch
17097 A Farewell To Arms Ernest Hemingway 1929 American English
17151 Als Zeuge Der Zeit Arthur Koestler 1983 German Unknown
17052 Rebellion Joseph Roth 1924 Austrian German