The Greatest Books of All Time Set in Europe

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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
73 The Portrait of a Lady Henry James 1881 American English
98 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
112 Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak 1957 Russian Russian
121 Bleak House Charles Dickens 1852 British English
122 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
199 The Radetzky March Joseph Roth 1932 Austrian German
240 Death in Venice Thomas Mann 1912 German German
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
288 Independent People Halldor Laxness 1934 Icelandic Icelandic
371 History of My Life Giacomo Casanova 1822 Italian French
377 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
379 The Second World War Winston Churchill 1948 British English
408 The Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus 1942 French French
474 Embers Sandor Marai 1942 Hungarian Hungarian
514 Speak, Memory Vladimir Nabokov 1951 American English
537 The Waning of the Middle Ages Johan Huizinga 1919 Dutch Dutch
548 Le Morte d'Arthur Thomas Malory 1485 British Middle english
598 Night Elie Wiesel 1958 French French
635 Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo 1939 American English
653 Summa Theologica Thomas Aquinas 1274 Italian Latin
654 The Praise of Folly Erasmus 1511 Dutch Latin
661 Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice 1976 American English
664 Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy Joseph A. Schumpeter 1942 Austrian English
702 Vathek William Beckford 1786 British French
799 Kaputt Curzio Malaparte 1944 Italian Italian
806 The Story of Art Ernest H. Gombrich 1950 British English
812 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
830 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon 1776 British English
832 The Last Of The Just André Schwarz-Bart 1959 French French
884 Homo Faber Max Frisch 1957 Swiss German
923 The World Of Yesterday Stefan Zweig 1942 Austrian German
938 Burger's Daughter Nadine Gordimer 1979 South African English
955 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
958 The Periodic Table Primo Levi 1975 Italian Italian
983 A Study In Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle 1887 British English
985 Mythology Edith Hamilton 1942 American English
1021 If Not Now, When? Primo Levi 1982 Italian Italian
1032 In The Heart Of The Seas Shmuel Yosef Agnon 1938 Israeli Hebrew
1104 Maus Art Spiegelman 1980 American English
1126 Women of Trachis Sophocles -450 Greek Ancient greek
1159 Eichmann in Jerusalem Hannah Arendt 1963 German English
1245 Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell 1933 British English
1258 The General of the Dead Army Ismail Kadare 1963 Albanian Albanian
1384 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
1386 Six Characters in Search of an Author Luigi Pirandello 1921 Italian Italian
1526 A History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1945 British English
1529 Orientalism Edward W. Said 1978 Palestinian English
1540 Decline of the West Oswald Spengler 1918 German German
1554 The Unconsoled Kazuo Ishiguro 1995 British English
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1580 The Struggle for Europe Chester Wilmot 1952 British English
1581 The Civilizing Process Norbert Elias 1939 German German
1638 Postwar Tony Judt 2005 British English
1643 Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt 1996 American English
1682 Asterix the Gaul Rene Goscinny 1959 French French
1704 Celestial Harmonies Peter Esterhazy 2000 Hungarian Hungarian
1759 Bai Ganyo Aleko Konstantinov 1895 Bulgarian Bulgarian
1811 A Time Of Gifts Patrick Leigh Fermor 1977 British English
1824 The Engineer of Human Souls Josef Škvorecký 1977 Czech Czech
1825 Studies In The History Of The Renaissance Walter Pater 1873 British English
1874 The Proud Tower Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1966 American English
1943 The Pursuit of the Millennium Norman Cohn 1957 British English
1995 Say Nothing Patrick Radden Keefe 2018 American English
2099 From Russia with Love Ian Fleming 1957 British English
2104 Someone Like You Roald Dahl 1953 British English
2108 The Shell Seekers Rosamunde Pilcher 1987 British English
2158 The Clan of the Cave Bear Jean M. Auel 1980 American English
2166 Morvern Callar Alan Warner 1995 Scottish English
2246 The Bald Soprano Eugène Ionesco 1950 French French
2253 A Field Guide to the Birds Roger Tory Peterson 1934 American English
2390 The Face of Battle John Keegan 1976 British English
2479 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich William L. Shirer 1960 American English
2487 Measuring the World Daniel Kehlmann 2005 German German
2563 The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology Edmund Husserl 1936 German German
2574 The Hedgehog and the Fox Isaiah Berlin 1953 British English
2716 The Great War and Modern Memory Paul Fussell 1975 American English
2806 The Art of Memory Frances A. Yates 1966 British English
2846 The Museum of Unconditional Surrender Dubravka Ugrešić 1997 Croatian Croatian
2854 The Bottle Factory Outing Beryl Bainbridge 1974 British English
2985 Friday Michel Tournier 1967 French French
3000 The Rise of the West William H. McNeill 1963 American English
3126 Daisy Miller Henry James 1878 American English
3249 A Distant Mirror Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1978 American English
3275 The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll Alvaro Mutis 1993 Colombian Spanish
3291 On Being And Essence Thomas Aquinas 1256 Italian Latin
3525 Strange Defeat Marc Bloch 1946 French French
3621 Correspondence Voltaire 1751 French French
3808 Rousseau and Revolution Will Durant, Ariel Durant 1967 American English
3816 Nederlandsche Historien P. C. Hooft 1642 Dutch Dutch
3897 The Meaning of Hitler Sebastian Haffner 1978 German German
3922 She Stoops to Conquer Oliver Goldsmith 1773 British English
4233 Het Land Van Rembrand Cd. Busken Huet 1879 Dutch Dutch
4384 Flowers in the Attic V. C. Andrews 1979 American English
4419 The Swerve Stephen Greenblatt 2011 American English
4498 The Rise And Fall Of The Great Powers Paul Kennedy 1987 British English
4579 History Of Art Elie Faure 1919 French French
4612 Civilisation Kenneth Clark 1969 British English
4744 The Christian Tradition Jaroslav Pelikan 1971 American English
4762 Vertigo W. G. Sebald 1990 German German
4776 An Angel At My Table Unknown 1984 New Zealand English
5006 Against the Day Thomas Pynchon 2006 American English
5276 Slave Of The Huns Géza Gárdonyi 1901 Hungarian Hungarian
5426 At Night All Blood Is Black David Diop 2018 French French
5444 Egy polgár vallomásai Sandor Marai 1934 Hungarian Hungarian
5987 Twelfth Night William Shakespeare 1602 British English
6000 The Classical Style Charles Rosen 1971 American English
6330 Religion And The Rise Of Capitalism R. H. Tawney 1926 British English
6352 The Historian’s Craft Marc Bloch 1949 French French
6361 Master Georgie Beryl Bainbridge 1998 British English
6477 Second World War John Keegan 1989 British English
6505 The Origins Of Totalitarian Democracy J. L. Talmon 1952 British English
6618 The Struggle For Mastery In Europe A. J. P. Taylor 1954 British English
6668 Strange Pilgrims Gabriel García Márquez 1992 Colombian Spanish
6717 My Life Leon Trotsky 1930 Russian Russian
6896 Doomsday Book Connie Willis 1992 American English
6907 The Years of Rice and Salt Kim Stanley Robinson 2002 American English
7034 Madness And Civilization Michel Foucault 1961 French French
7034 The Politics Of Cultural Despair Fritz Stern 1961 American English
7215 The Moon is Down John Steinbeck 1942 American English
7215 From The Other Shore Alexander Herzen 1850 Russian Russian