The Greatest Books of All Time on Existentialism

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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
2064 Watt Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish English
2079 The Major Plays Anton Chekhov 1964 Russian Russian
2085 Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk 1996 American English
2115 All Souls' Day Cees Nooteboom 1998 Dutch Dutch
2127 Life In The Folds Henri Michaux 1949 French French
2141 The Interrogation J. M. G. Le Clezio 1963 French French
2148 Aniara Harry Martinson 1956 Swedish Swedish
2157 The Green Man Kingsley Amis 1969 British English
2160 Soul and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1999 Russian Russian
2176 Paris Spleen Charles Baudelaire 1869 French French
2181 Blue of Noon Georges Bataille 1957 French French
2198 Veronika Decides to Die Paulo Coelho 1998 Brazilian Portuguese
2205 The Quest for Christa T. Christa Wolf 1968 German German
2294 The Divided Self R. D. Laing 1960 British English
2302 Le Roman Inachevé Louis Aragon 1956 French French
2312 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2322 Rituals Cees Nooteboom 1980 Dutch Dutch
2328 The Three-Body Problem Cixin Liu 2006 Chinese Chinese
2353 The Box Man Kobo Abé 1973 Japanese Japanese
2357 The Fruits of the Earth André Gide 1897 French French
2361 Bartleby & Co Enrique Vila-Matas 2000 Spanish Spanish
2362 On the Heights of Despair Emil Cioran 1934 Romanian Romanian
2394 Satantango László Krasznahorkai 1985 Hungarian Hungarian
2427 Soul Mountain Xingjian Gao 1990 Chinese Chinese
2447 The Map And The Territory Michel Houellebecq 2010 French French
2496 Rogue Moon Algis Budrys 1960 American English
2498 Mortals Norman Rush 2003 American English
2514 Howl, Kaddish And Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
2515 Deathbird Stories Harlan Ellison 1975 American English
2556 Dangling Man Saul Bellow 1944 American English
2555 Disobedience Alberto Moravia 1948 Italian Italian
2559 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
2610 Whatever Michel Houellebecq 1994 French French
2700 Existentialism And Humanism Jean Paul Sartre 1946 French French
2716 Something Happened Joseph Heller 1974 American English
2733 Seize The Day Saul Bellow 1956 American English
2769 Amsterdam Stories Nescio 1918 Dutch Dutch
2770 Unkempt Thoughts Stanislaw Jerzy Lec 1950 Polish Polish
2781 Mist Miguel de Unamuno 1914 Spanish English
2855 The Counterlife Philip Roth 1986 American English
2866 Endgame Samuel Beckett 1957 Irish French
2897 Speculations About Jakob Uwe Johnson 1959 German German
2985 The Vampire Lestat Anne Rice 1985 American English
3080 Los lanzallamas Roberto Arlt 1931 Argentinian Spanish
3108 Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Douglas Adams 1987 British English
3119 Sessanta Racconti Dino Buzzati 1958 Italian Italian
3120 The Mortal Wound Raffaele La Capria 1961 Italian Italian
3121 The Possibility Of An Island Michel Houellebecq 2005 French French
3142 The Shrinking Man Richard Matheson 1956 American English
3182 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Tom Stoppard 1966 British English
3209 Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris May Lessing 1971 British English
3222 Ecce Homo Friedrich Nietzsche 1908 German German
3241 Sweet Dreams Michael Frayn 1973 British English
3263 The Selected Works of Cesare Pavese Cesare Pavese 1968 Italian Italian
3275 The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll Alvaro Mutis 1993 Colombian Spanish
3293 The Subterraneans Jack Kerouac 1958 American English
3324 By the Open Sea August Strindberg 1890 Swedish Swedish
3324 Hell Henri Barbusse 1908 French French
3324 The Return of Philip Latinowicz Miroslav Krleža 1932 Croatian Croatian
3324 The Living and the Dead Patrick White 1941 Australian English
3324 Conversations in Sicily Elio Vittorini 1941 Italian Italian
3324 The Guiltless Hermann Broch 1950 Austrian German
3387 Human Poems César Vallejo 1939 Peruvian Spanish
3409 The deadbeats Ward Ruyslinck 1957 Belgian Dutch
3416 Bécon Les Bruyères Emmanuel Bove 1927 French French
3422 Daylight Czesław Miłosz 1975 Polish Polish
3470 Solar Bones Mike McCormack 2016 Irish English
3477 The Black Obelisk Erich Maria Remarque 1956 German German
3514 Poems, 1913 1956 Bertolt Brecht 1976 German German
3515 Rhinoceros and Other Plays Eugène Ionesco 1959 Romanian French
3534 The Birthday Party Harold Pinter 1958 British English
3553 Divorcing Susan Taubes 1969 American English
3572 The Day After Judgement James Blish 1971 American English
3594 The Day Lasts More Than A Hundred Years Chinghiz Aitmatov 1980 Kyrgyz Russian
3597 Time of Silence Luis Martín-Santos 1962 Spanish Spanish
3637 Goat Song Konstantin Vaginov 1927 Russian Russian
3638 White Shroud Antanas Škėma 1958 Lithuanian Lithuanian
3638 Childe Harold Of Dysna Moyshe Kulbak 1939 Belarusian Yiddish
3638 New Testament And Mythology Rudolf Bultmann 1941 German German
3638 The Tunnel Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1952 Swiss German
3638 Fluss Ohne Ufer Hans Henny Jahnn 1949 German German
3638 The City Beyond The River Hermann Kasack 1947 German German
3638 Das Unauslöschliche Siegel Elisabeth Langgässer 1946 German German
3638 Gallows Songs Christian Morgenstern 1905 German German
3638 Visite D'un Poète Charles Ferdinand Ramuz 1927 Swiss French
3638 Mitte Des Lebens Luise Rinser 1950 German German
3638 The Roads To Freedom Jean Paul Sartre 1945 French French
3638 The Assistant Robert Walser 1908 Swiss German
3638 The Man Outside Wolfgang Borchert 1947 German German
3829 Bacacay Witold Gombrowicz 1957 Polish Polish
3832 Stories Of Three Decades Thomas Mann 1936 German German
3833 Mannen utan väg Erik Lindegren 1942 Swedish Swedish
3833 The Obsolescence Of Man Günther Anders 1956 German German
3833 Invocation Of The Great Bear Ingeborg Bachmann 1956 Austrian German
3869 Sansibar Or The Last Reason Alfred Andersch 1957 German German
3954 Ελεγεία και Σάτιρες Kostas Karyotakis 1927 Greek Greek
3954 Νηπενθή Kostas Karyotakis 1921 Greek Greek
3954 Ο Εξώστης Nikos Kakhtitsis 1963 Greek Greek
3954 The Moonlight Sonata Yannis Ritsos 1956 Greek Greek
3954 Το Σόλο του Φίγκαρο Yiannis Skarimbas 1938 Greek Greek
3954 Το Θείο Τραγί Yiannis Skarimbas 1935 Greek Greek
4056 Leaving the Atocha Station Ben Lerner 2011 American English
4106 Leavetaking Peter Weiss 1960 German German
4114 The Old Woman Daniil Kharms 1939 Russian Russian
4121 Each Man In His Darkness Julien Green 1960 French French
4171 Dissipatio H.G. Guido Morselli 1977 Italian Italian
4176 Peer Gynt Henrik Ibsen 1867 Norwegian Norwegian
4178 Shira S.Y. Agnon 1989 Israeli Hebrew
4208 Luka Antun Šoljan 1969 Croatian Croatian
4224 The Spectre Of Alexander Wolf Gaito Gazdanov 1947 French Russian
4282 The Place Of The Star Patrick Modiano 1968 French French
4372 Frost Thomas Bernhard 1963 Austrian German
4372 Nobodaddy's Children Arno Schmidt 1963 German German
4411 The Pigeon Patrick Suskind 1987 German German
4416 Diary Witold Gombrowicz 1986 Polish Polish
4431 And Really Frau Blum Would Very Much Like To Meet The Milkman Peter Bichsel 1964 Swiss German
4437 The Dream Songs John Berryman 1964 American English
4441 The Thief's Journal Jean Genet 1949 French French
4454 Gogol's Wife Tommaso Landolfi 1953 Italian Italian
4502 How Should a Person Be? Sheila Heti 2010 Canadian English