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
4481 The Duchess Of Malfi John Webster 1623 British English
4486 The Sugarbag Years Tony Simpson 1974 New Zealand English
4514 The Channel Shore Charles Bruce 1954 Canadian English
4538 Affliction Russell Banks 1989 American English
4547 Forever Amber Kathleen Winsor 1944 American English
4555 The Blood Knot Athol Fugard 1961 South African English
4555 Inkinnsela Yase Mgungundlovu Sibusiso Nyembezi 1961 South African Zulu
4559 The Lady's Not For Burning Christopher Fry 1948 British English
4579 Papillon Henri Charrière 1969 French French
4580 Five Plays Goran Stefanovski 1982 Macedonian Macedonian
4592 Ten North Frederick John O'Hara 1955 American English
4593 Last Night James Salter 2005 American English
4596 The Fourth Dimension Yannis Ritsos 1972 Greek Greek
4617 Deacon King Kong James McBride 2020 American English
4621 The Bride Of Lammermoor Sir Walter Scott 1819 Scottish English
4624 Blue Bird Maurice Maeterlinck 1908 Belgian French
4644 The Valley Of Bones Anthony Powell 1964 British English
4652 True West Sam Shepard 1980 American English
4653 Tomorrow In The Battle Think On Me Javier Marias 1994 Spanish Spanish
4657 Lanterns on the Levee William Alexander Percy 1941 American English
4666 Saint Joan George Bernard Shaw 1923 Irish English
4673 The Witness For The Prosecution Agatha Christie 1925 British English
4676 Each Man's Son Hugh MacLennan 1951 Canadian English
4684 Extracts From Notes On The Bulgarian Uprisings Zahari Stoyanov 1884 Bulgarian Bulgarian
4686 Enthusiasm Ronald Knox 1950 British English
4708 Roots Arnold Wesker 1959 British English
4722 Of Time and the River Thomas Wolfe 1935 American English
4730 Don Carlos Friedrich Schiller 1787 German German
4758 Baptism Yang Jiang 1988 Chinese Chinese
4763 400 Million Customers Carl Crow 1937 American English
4765 The Soldier's Art Anthony Powell 1966 British English
4784 Amphitryon Plautus -184 Roman Latin
4786 The Way Of The World William Congreve 1700 British English
4788 The Master Builder Henrik Ibsen 1892 Norwegian Norwegian
4789 Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes Robert Louis Stevenson 1879 British English
4789 Memento Mori Muriel Spark 1959 British English
4794 The Good Person of Szechwan Bertolt Brecht 1943 German German
4801 Brand Henrik Ibsen 1866 Norwegian Norwegian
4803 The Wolf Of Masada John Fredman 1978 Unknown English
4804 The Dybbuk S. Ansky 1914 Russian Yiddish
4828 Blaming Elizabeth Taylor 1976 British English
4846 A Season In Sinji J. L. Carr 1967 British English
4865 The Love Songs Of W.E.B. Dubois Honorée Fanonne Jeffers 2021 American English
4872 Βιοτεχνία Υαλικών Menis Koumandareas 1976 Greek Greek
4877 Heroes And Tombs Ernesto Sábato 1961 Argentinian Spanish
4877 The Cat Colette 1933 French French
4877 The Wound Malick Fall 1967 Senegalese French
4898 Titus Andronicus William Shakespeare 1594 British English
4898 The Tragedy Of Mariam Elizabeth Cary 1613 British English
4898 The Jew Of Malta Christopher Marlowe 1590 English English
4898 The Memorandum Vaclav Havel 1965 Czech Czech
4898 King John William Shakespeare 1700 British English
4928 Dreaming Of You Lisa Kleypas 1994 American English
4929 The Poorhouse Fair John Updike 1959 American English
4945 The Breast Philip Roth 1972 American English
4953 The Trickster of Seville and His Guest of Stone Tirso de Molina 1630 Spanish Spanish
4954 Lorenzaccio Alfred de Musset 1834 French French
4984 The Norman Conquests Alan Ayckbourn 1973 British English
5022 The City And The Mountains Eça de Queirós 1901 Portuguese Portuguese
5036 Highland Velvet Jude Deveraux 1982 American English
5101 Where Angels Fear to Tread E. M. Forster 1905 British English
5110 The Winter Of Our Discontent John Steinbeck 1961 American English
5113 Дъщерята на Калояна Fani Popova-Mutafova 1943 Bulgarian Bulgarian
5118 Нощем с белите коне Pavel Vezhinov 1957 Bulgarian Bulgarian
5120 In The Night Of Time Antonio Muñoz Molina 2012 Spanish Spanish
5125 Αντιποίησις Αρχής Alexandros Kotzias 1979 Greek Greek
5136 Before The Law Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
5136 Toba Tek Singh Saadat Hasan Manto 1955 Pakistani Urdu
5146 Dawn Elie Wiesel 1961 Romanian French
5163 Forgotten Kingdom Peter Goullart 1955 Russian English
5168 Edith's Diary Patricia Highsmith 1977 American English
5186 Kincskereső Kisködmön Ferenc Móra 1918 Hungarian Hungarian
5188 The Lady, Or The Tiger? Frank R. Stockton 1882 American English
5188 Pause To Wonder Marjorie Fischer 1944 American Unknown
5223 Riders Jilly Cooper 1985 British English
5233 Mouth Full Of Earth Branimir Scepanovic 1975 Montenegrin Serbo-croatian
5249 The Art of Fielding Chad Harbach 2011 American English
5256 The Collected Stories Grace Paley 1994 American English
5265 Anowa Ama Ata Aidoo 1970 Ghanaian English
5274 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Tennessee Williams 1955 American English
5278 The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling Angus Wilson 1977 British English
5288 A Nap Szerelmese Sándor Dallos 1931 Hungarian Hungarian
5316 Faithless Joyce Carol Oates 2001 American English
5334 Jernigan David Gates 1991 American English
5354 New Hampshire Robert Frost 1923 American English
5358 Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin 2005 American English
5360 The Portable Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker 1944 American English
5389 St. Urbain's Horseman Mordecai Richler 1971 Canadian English
5391 The Horse Whisperer Nicholas Evans 1995 British English
5408 Melancholy Jon Fosse 1995 Norwegian Norwegian
5410 The Prince of Tides Pat Conroy 1986 American English
5412 Reflections In A Golden Eye Carson McCullers 1941 American English
5418 După-amiaza de sîmbătă Valeriu Cristea 1988 Romanian Romanian
5441 Marivaux Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux 1968 French Unknown
5444 Egy polgár vallomásai Sandor Marai 1934 Hungarian Hungarian
5447 The bells of Bicêtre Georges Simenon 1963 Belgian French
5458 Forgotten Ally Rana Mitter 2013 British English
5460 The Yellow House Sarah M. Broom 2019 American English
5461 Giving up the Ghost Hilary Mantel 2003 British English
5466 In The Solitude Of Cotton Fields Bernard-Marie Koltès 1986 French French
5501 The Crowned Wanderer Rahim Esenov 1994 Turkmen Unknown
5511 The Visit Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1956 Swiss German
5530 Podivné Přátelství Herce Jesenia Ivan Olbracht 1962 Czech Czech
5530 Caesar Jan Werich, Jiří Voskovec 1932 Czech Czech
5530 Balada Z Hadrů Jan Werich, Jiří Voskovec 1935 Czech Czech
5530 Petrolejové Lampy Jaroslav Havlíček 1944 Czech Czech
5530 Dědeček Automobil Adolf Branald 1955 Czech Czech
5530 Divadlo Járy Cimrmana Zdeněk Svěrák, Ladislav Smoljak, Jára Cimrman 1967 Czech Czech
5569 A Whale For The Killing Farley Mowat 1972 Canadian English
5621 The Thing About December Donal Ryan 2013 Irish English
5625 The Richard Trilogy Paul Horgan 1970 American Unknown
5649 Ucho Jan Procházka 1970 Czech Czech
5660 Oracles And Miracles Stevan Eldred-Grigg 1988 New Zealand English
5667 Medea And Her Children Lyudmila Ulitskaya 1996 Russian Russian
5700 Fear And Trembling Amélie Nothomb 1999 Belgian French
5702 A Place of Greater Safety Hilary Mantel 1992 British English
5734 Anne Of The Thousand Days Maxwell Anderson 1950 American English
5746 Summer In Prague Zdena Salivarová 1972 Czech English
5752 Shadows On The Tundra Dalia Grinkevičiutė 1997 Lithuanian Lithuanian
5778 My Happy Days In Hell György Faludy 1962 Hungarian Hungarian