The Greatest Books of All Time Set in England

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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
625 The Nine Tailors Dorothy L. Sayers 1934 British English
633 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John le Carré 1974 British English
639 Reflections on the Revolution in France Edmund Burke 1790 British English
641 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding 1996 British English
642 Testament Of Youth Vera Brittain 1933 British English
643 Silas Marner George Eliot 1861 British English
647 Lolly Willowes Sylvia Townsend Warner 1926 British English
674 Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy 1874 British English
678 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
679 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
691 Excellent Women Barbara Pym 1952 British English
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
703 The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 1875 British English
715 The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Washington Irving 1819 American English
718 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
723 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
734 Loving Henry Green 1945 British English
739 The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy 1878 British English
743 On Liberty John Stuart Mill 1859 British English
750 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
752 Poems Of Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy 1898 British English
755 The Well of Loneliness Radclyffe Hall 1928 British English
757 The Adventures of Caleb Williams William Godwin 1794 British English
760 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
762 Ballet Shoes Noel Streatfeild 1936 British English
768 A Glastonbury Romance John Cowper Powys 1932 British English
774 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft 1792 British English
782 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
792 A Kestrel for a Knave Barry Hines 1968 British English
801 The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie 1920 British English
805 Gaudy Night Dorothy L. Sayers 1935 British English
812 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
813 Cranford Elizabeth Gaskell 1851 British English
814 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett 1911 British English
815 Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne 1872 French French
841 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
845 Evelina Fanny Burney 1778 British English
852 The Last Chronicle of Barset Anthony Trollope 1867 British English
868 Henry James Leon Edel 1953 American English
874 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
879 A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute 1950 British English
880 Orthodoxy G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
881 Utopia Thomas More 1516 British Latin
890 High Fidelity Nick Hornby 1995 British English
902 Under the Net Iris Murdoch 1954 British English
917 The Day of the Triffids John Wyndham 1951 British English
919 The Poems Of Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerald Manley Hopkins 1918 British English
941 Collected Essays of George Orwell George Orwell 1968 British English
946 The Diary of a Nobody George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith 1892 British English
948 The Poisoned Chocolates Case Anthony Berkeley 1929 British English
950 Richard III William Shakespeare 1592 British English
952 Two Treatises of Government John Locke 1689 British English
953 Trent's Last Case E. C. Bentley 1913 British English
954 Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 1913 British English
956 The Girls of Slender Means Muriel Spark 1963 British English
963 Zuleika Dobson Max Beerbohm 1911 British English
965 Eminent Victorians Lytton Strachey 1918 British English
966 The Ipcress File Len Deighton 1962 British English
967 The Heat of the Day Elizabeth Bowen 1949 British English
974 The Poems of John Keats John Keats 1817 British English
976 Rogue Male Geoffrey Household 1939 British English
978 The History Of Henry Esmond William Makepeace Thackeray 1852 British English
979 The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922 British English
983 A Study In Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle 1887 British English
992 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
995 Dombey and Son Charles Dickens 1846 British English
1005 The Dark Is Rising Susan Cooper 1973 British English
1006 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe 1958 British English
1010 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
1017 Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban J. K. Rowling 1999 British English
1018 Principia Mathematica Isaac Newton 1687 British Latin
1026 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
1045 Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1932 British English
1047 The Egoist George Meredith 1879 British English
1050 The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi 1990 British English
1056 Maurice E. M. Forster 1971 British English
1070 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
1074 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 American English
1077 Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee 1959 British English
1095 The Swimming-Pool Library Alan Hollinghurst 1988 British English
1096 The Transit of Venus Shirley Hazzard 1980 Australian English
1100 Collected Poems Of Edward Thomas Edward Thomas 1920 British English
1112 The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake William Blake 1827 British English
1116 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English
1132 Fanny Hill John Cleland 1748 British English
1136 The Black Prince Iris Murdoch 1973 British English
1146 Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens 1839 British English
1162 Essays Francis Bacon 1597 British English
1165 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
1169 The History of Mr. Polly H. G. Wells 1910 British English
1179 Living Henry Green 1929 British English
1185 The Inimitable Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1923 British English
1189 A Writer's Diary Virginia Woolf 1953 British English
1198 Lorna Doone R. D. Blackmore 1869 British English
1208 Love in a Cold Climate Nancy Mitford 1949 British English
1214 The Moving Toyshop Edmund Crispin 1946 British English
1216 Billy Liar Keith Waterhouse 1959 British English
1220 The Return of the Soldier Rebecca West 1918 British English
1221 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
1226 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett 1751 British English
1229 Songs of Innocence and Experience William Blake 1789 British English
1239 The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne John Donne 1952 British English
1245 Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell 1933 British English
1253 Absolute Beginners Colin MacInnes 1959 British English
1264 The Franchise Affair Josephine Tey 1948 British English
1273 Robert Browning's Poetry Robert Browning 1833 British English
1273 Selected Poems of Lord Byron Lord Byron 1800 British English
1284 The Faerie Queene Edmund Spenser 1590 British English
1306 Widdershins G. Oliver Onions 1911 British English
1316 The Fountain Overflows Rebecca West 1956 British English
1324 A Judgement In Stone Ruth Rendell 1977 British English
1325 A Far Cry From Kensington Muriel Spark 1988 British English
1326 The Compleat Angler Izaak Walton 1653 British English
1327 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding John Locke 1689 British English
1337 A Legacy Sybille Bedford 1956 German English
1344 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
1374 Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess 1980 British English
1380 The Sword in the Stone T. H. White 1938 British English
1382 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde 1895 Irish English
1385 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English