The Greatest Drama Books of All Time

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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
1532 Arturo's Island Elsa Morante 1957 Italian Italian
1550 Njal's Saga Iceland 1280 Icelandic Old norse
1553 Beauty and Sadness Yasunari Kawabata 1964 Japanese Japanese
1559 Character F. Bordewijk 1938 Dutch Dutch
1566 Love In A Fallen City Eileen Chang 1943 Chinese Chinese
1568 The Beautiful Summer Cesare Pavese 1949 Italian Italian
1575 Borstal Boy Brendan Behan 1958 Irish English
1577 Deep Rivers José María Arguedas 1958 Peruvian Spanish
1584 A Severed Head Iris Murdoch 1961 British English
1586 Gijsbrecht Van Aemstel Joost van den Vondel 1637 Dutch Dutch
1587 Past Continuous Yaakov Shabtai 1977 Israeli Hebrew
1588 The Guns of August Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1962 American English
1594 The Imaginary Invalid Molière 1673 French French
1604 Phineas Finn Anthony Trollope 1869 British English
1610 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
1623 Corregidora Gayl Jones 1975 American English
1645 Shogun James Clavell 1975 British English
1649 Cat's Eye Margaret Atwood 1988 Canadian English
1653 The Loyal Subject Heinrich Mann 1918 German German
1661 A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare 1595 British English
1664 Eclipse of the Crescent Moon Géza Gárdonyi 1899 Hungarian Hungarian
1667 The Poetry of Alexander Pushkin Alexander Pushkin 1836 Russian Russian
1678 A Time To Be Born Dawn Powell 1942 American English
1684 Train Dreams Denis Johnson 2002 American English
1689 Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk Nikolai Leskov 1865 Russian Russian
1710 The Peasants Władysław Reymont 1904 Polish Polish
1711 Woyzeck Georg Buchner 1879 German German
1717 The Clown Heinrich Böll 1963 German German
1732 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1733 My Childhood Maxim Gorky 1913 Russian Russian
1747 Twenty Four Hours In The Life Of A Woman Stefan Zweig 1927 Austrian German
1748 The Fox Was Ever The Hunter Herta Müller 1992 German German
1761 The Serious Game Hjalmar Soderberg 1912 Swedish Swedish
1767 The Man of Feeling Henry Mackenzie 1771 British English
1769 Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas 1954 British English
1772 Hard Times Charles Dickens 1854 British English
1773 Doctor Glas Hjalmar Soderberg 1905 Swedish Swedish
1781 Juno And The Paycock Sean O'Casey 1924 Irish English
1782 The Wild Ass's Skin Honoré de Balzac 1831 French French
1788 Heartbreak House George Bernard Shaw 1919 British English
1801 A Time To Kill John Grisham 1989 American English
1808 Martin Chuzzlewit Charles Dickens 1843 British English
1815 The Ring And The Book Robert Browning 1868 British English
1828 The Mysterious Stranger Mark Twain 1916 American English
1830 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Anne Tyler 1982 American English
1834 Histories Cornelius Tacitus 100 Roman Latin
1844 The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Kolbert 2014 American English
1852 July's People Nadine Gordimer 1981 South African English
1857 A Lost Lady Willa Cather 1923 American English
1867 The Woodlanders Thomas Hardy 1887 British English
1869 The Recognition of Sakuntala Kālidāsa -400 Indian Sanskrit
1870 The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters Gustave Flaubert 1921 French French
1874 The Proud Tower Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1966 American English
1876 Home Marilynne Robinson 2008 American English
1878 East Goes West Younghill Kang 1937 American English
1904 The Diviners Margaret Laurence 1974 Canadian English
1905 The Road to Klockrike Harry Martinson 1948 Swedish Swedish
1914 Grand Hotel Vicki Baum 1929 German German
1916 Group Portrait with Lady Heinrich Böll 1971 German German
1917 In the Time of the Butterflies Julia Alvarez 1994 Dominican English
1918 The Lady Of The Camellias Alexandre Dumas 1848 French French
1927 Ten Days That Shook the World John Reed 1919 American English
1934 Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières 1994 British English
1935 Autobiography Benvenuto Cellini 1728 Italian Italian
1938 The Spectator Joseph Addison 1711 British English
1956 Lucifer Joost van den Vondel 1654 Dutch Dutch
1957 The Spanish Brabanter G. A. Bredero 1617 Dutch Dutch
1958 Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann 2009 Irish English
1965 A Flag For Sunrise Robert Stone 1981 American English
1990 Le Mariage De Figaro Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais 1784 French French
2003 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs 1861 American English
2009 The War Marguerite Duras 1985 French French
2015 The Greater Hope Ilse Aichinger 1948 Austrian German
2027 Quartet in Autumn Barbara Pym 1977 British English
2031 The Devil's Pool George Sand 1846 French French
2031 Cosmos Alexander von Humboldt 1845 German German
2031 The History Of Rome Theodor Mommsen 1854 German German
2049 The Ripening Seed Colette 1923 French French
2052 The Misanthrope Molière 1666 French French
2071 The Assistant Bernard Malamud 1957 American English
2078 The Major Plays Anton Chekhov 1964 Russian Russian
2080 A Little Princess Frances Hodgson Burnett 1905 British English
2092 Mourning Becomes Electra Eugene O'Neill 1931 American English
2094 Derborence Charles Ferdinand Ramuz 1934 Swiss French
2101 Tree of Smoke Denis Johnson 2007 American English
2105 Chronicle of a Death Foretold Gabriel García Márquez 1981 Colombian Spanish
2114 All Souls' Day Cees Nooteboom 1998 Dutch Dutch
2116 The Treasure Chest Johann Peter Hebel 1811 German German
2121 Julius Caesar William Shakespeare 1623 British English
2124 True Grit Charles Portis 1968 American English
2128 Houtekiet Gerard Walschap 1939 Belgian Dutch
2154 Don Juan Molière 1665 French French
2156 The Green Man Kingsley Amis 1969 British English
2174 Surfacing Margaret Atwood 1972 Canadian English
2177 Old People And The Things That Pass Louis Couperus 1906 Dutch Dutch
2178 The Love Of The Last Tycoon F. Scott Fitzgerald 1941 American English
2211 Swordspoint Ellen Kushner 1987 American English
2212 Collected Stories W. Somerset Maugham 1951 British English
2214 The Threepenny Opera Bertolt Brecht 1928 German German
2222 The Theory And Practice Of Hell Eugen Kogon 1950 German German
2230 The Cathedral Folk Nikolai Leskov 1872 Russian Russian
2233 Resurrection Leo Tolstoy 1899 Russian Russian
2244 The Gathering Anne Enright 2007 Irish English
2260 The Iceman Cometh Eugene O'Neill 1946 American English
2270 The Nun Denis Diderot 1796 French French
2272 The Wretched of the Earth Frantz Fanon 1961 Algerian French
2274 Hedda Gabler Henrik Ibsen 1890 Norwegian Norwegian
2281 Boris Godunov Alexander Pushkin 1831 Russian Russian
2285 The Crossing Cormac McCarthy 1994 American English
2286 The Cloister and the Hearth Charles Reade 1861 British English
2288 Dancer From The Dance Andrew Holleran 1978 American English
2301 Le Roman Inachevé Louis Aragon 1956 French French
2302 Ironweed William Kennedy 1983 American English
2306 The Old Forest Peter Taylor 1985 American English
2317 To The End Of The Land David Grossman 2008 Israeli Hebrew
2329 Romola George Eliot 1863 British English
2342 Mastro Don Gesualdo Giovanni Verga 1889 Italian Italian
2357 The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe 1992 Irish English
2388 Breathing Lessons Anne Tyler 1988 American English
2396 Maurice Guest Henry Handel Richardson 1908 Australian English