The Greatest Books of All Time on Essays

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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
316 Pensées Blaise Pascal 1670 French French
408 The Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus 1942 French French
993 Essays of E. B. White E. B. White 1977 American English
1045 Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1932 British English
1363 The Liberal Imagination Lionel Trilling 1950 American English
1436 Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke 1929 Austrian German
1565 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1841 Kafka's Other Trial Elias Canetti 1969 Bulgarian German
1861 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
1895 Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris 2000 American English
2013 The Habit of Being Flannery O'Connor 1979 American English
2021 Journals André Gide 1948 French French
2161 The Immense Journey Loren Eiseley 1957 American English
2260 Advertisements for Myself Norman Mailer 1959 American English
2522 Waiting For God Simone Weil 1950 French French
2576 Patriotic Gore Edmund Wilson 1962 American English
2714 The Narrow Road to the Deep North Matsuo Bashō 1684 Japanese Japanese
2737 Philosophical Writings Novalis 1798 German German
2875 The Moral Essays Giacomo Leopardi 1832 Italian Italian
3155 Notes of a Native Son James Baldwin 1955 American English
3192 The Age of Reason Thomas Paine 1794 British English
3238 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 2000 American English
3245 Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau 1849 American English
3251 Lost in the Cosmos Walker Percy 1983 American English
3439 The Needle's Eye Fanny Howe 1970 American English
3528 Poetry and the Age Randall Jarrell 1953 American English
3548 Samuel Johnson Walter Jackson Bate 1977 American English
3567 Mystery and Manners Flannery O'Connor 1969 American English
3574 Notes from No Man's Land Eula Biss 2009 American English
3638 Letters from an American Farmer J. Crevecoeur 1782 American English
3638 Laughter Henri Bergson 1900 French French
3638 From Caligari To Hitler Siegfried Kracauer 1947 German German
3638 The Papalagi Erich Scheurmann 1920 German German
3942 The Sweet Science A. J. Liebling 1956 American English
4137 The Faraway Nearby Rebecca Solnit 2013 American English
4688 Christianity And Culture T. S. Eliot 1939 British English
4719 I'll Take My Stand Twelve Southerners 1930 American English
4737 Shadow and ACT Ralph Ellison 1964 American English
4765 400 Million Customers Carl Crow 1937 American English
5042 The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out Richard P. Feynman 1999 American English
5344 White Girls Hilton Als 2013 American English
5362 On Suicide Jean Améry 1976 Unknown German
5600 Changing My Mind Zadie Smith 2009 British English
5720 Manhood For Amateurs Michael Chabon 2009 American English
5729 My Kind of Place Susan Orlean 2004 American English
5750 The Message In the Bottle Walker Percy 1975 American English
5783 Il Mare Non Bagna Napoli Anna Maria Ortese 1953 Italian Italian
5994 Writing Degree Zero Roland Barthes 1953 French French
6005 Divagations Stéphane Mallarmé 1897 French French
6005 Marginalia On Casanova Miklós Szentkuthy 1939 Hungarian Hungarian
6005 Van Gogh Antonin Artaud 1947 French French
6175 Philosophy and Civilization John Dewey 1931 American English
6186 The Second Tree From The Corner E. B. White 1954 American English
6349 Nineteen Ways Of Looking At Wang Wei Eliot Weinberger 1987 American English
6517 Ghost Image Hervé Guibert 1981 French French
6537 The Empathy Exams Leslie Jamison 2014 American English
6637 The Ruin Of Kasch Roberto Calasso 1983 Italian Italian
6714 Diccionario De Autores Latinoamericanos César Aira 2001 Argentinian Spanish
6737 My Misspent Youth Meghan Daum 2001 American English
6737 The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup Susan Orlean 2001 American English
6903 Selected Poems II Margaret Atwood 1987 Canadian English
7129 Knife Salman Rushdie 2024 British English
7216 The Reason Why Cecil Woodham-Smith 1953 British English
7216 The Works Of Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson 1787 British English
7566 There's Always This Year Hanif Abdurraqib 2024 American English
7606 Writing Marguerite Duras 1993 French French
7616 Don't Get Too Comfortable David Rakoff 2005 Canadian English
7622 Dropbear Evelyn Araluen 2021 Australian English
7664 Against Interpretation Susan Sontag 1966 American English
7683 Sophie Calle Sophie Calle 1994 French French
7915 How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read Pierre Bayard 2007 French French
7967 The Shores Of Light Edmund Wilson 1952 American English
8008 A Woman Speaks Evelyn Hinz 1975 Unknown English
8233 The Unabomber Manifesto Theodore Kaczynski 1995 American English
8384 Outrageous Acts And Everyday Rebellions Gloria Steinem 1983 American English
8419 One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This Omar El Akkad 2025 Unknown English
8445 Generation Golf Florian Illies 2000 German German
8466 The Fiddler In The Subway Gene Weingarten 2010 American English
8508 The Art Of Eating M. F. K. Fisher 1954 American English
8542 Life Studies Robert Lowell 1967 American English
8575 Deviations Gayle Rubin 2011 American English
8607 Lyrical And Critical Essays Albert Camus 1968 French French
8618 Sidewalks Valeria Luiselli 2013 Mexican Spanish
8626 Things In Nature Merely Grow Yiyun Li 2025 Unknown English
8655 Domestic Manners of the Americans Fanny Trollope 1832 British English
8681 In Defense Of Sanity G. K. Chesterton 2011 British English
8709 Journey To The Land Of Flies And Other Travels Aldo Buzzi 1996 Italian Italian
8720 Prejudices H. L. Mencken 1919 American English
8820 China In Ten Words Yu Hua 2011 Chinese Chinese
8887 Monsters Claire Dederer 2023 American English
8927 Hidden America Jeanne Marie Laskas 2012 American English
9019 The Message Ta-Nehisi Coates 2024 Unknown Unknown
9091 Pluto's Republic Peter B. Medawar 1982 British English
9143 Can You Tolerate This? Ashleigh Young 2016 New Zealand English
9192 Violation Sallie Tisdale 2016 American English
9192 Love And Ruin Evan Ratliff, Susan Orlean 2016 Unknown English
9192 But What If We're Wrong? Chuck Klosterman 2016 American English
9192 Future Sex Emily Witt 2015 American English
9259 Moving Beyond Words Gloria Steinem 1993 American English
9582 Sweet Home Wendy Erskine 2018 Irish English
9883 Basin And Range John McPhee 1981 American English
10027 The Iambics Of Newfoundland Robert Finch 2007 Canadian English
10209 Peripathetic Cher Tan 2020 Unknown English
10226 Grief Is For People Sloane Crosley 2024 Unknown English
10384 Another Day In The Colony Chelsea Watego 2021 Unknown English
10391 Girl On Girl Sophie Gilbert 2025 Unknown English
10525 Splinters Leslie Jamison 2024 Unknown English
10537 Colonize This! Daisy Hernandez, Bushra Rehman 2002 Multiple English
10577 The Half Known Life Pico Iyer 2023 British English
10586 Ordinary Notes Christina Sharpe 2023 Unknown English
10592 Salvage Dionne Brand 2024 Canadian English
10604 All Things Are Too Small Becca Rothfeld 2024 Unknown English
10642 Bottoms Up And The Devil Laughs Kerry Howley 2023 Unknown English
10642 Black In Blues Imani Perry 2025 Unknown English
10649 Bread Of Angels Patti Smith 2025 American English
10680 The Use Of Photography Annie Ernaux, Marc Marie 2024 French English
10686 The Black Box Henry Louis Gates Jr. 2024 Unknown English
10794 Jane Sexes It Up Merri Lisa Johnson 2002 Unknown English
10828 This Bridge We Call Home Gloria Anzaldúa, AnaLouise Keating 2002 Multiple English
10884 Somebody Is Walking On Your Grave Mariana Enriquez 2013 Argentine Spanish