The Greatest Fiction 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
414 The Mill on the Floss George Eliot 1860 British English
415 The Day of the Jackal Frederick Forsyth 1971 British English
418 Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 American English
419 The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey 1951 British English
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
421 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
422 Ramayana Valmiki -200 Indian Sanskrit
423 Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie 1934 British English
424 A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen 1879 Norwegian Norwegian
425 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 1811 British English
426 The Moon and the Bonfires Cesare Pavese 1950 Italian Italian
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
428 Death Of A Salesman Arthur Miller 1949 American English
429 The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino 1957 Italian Italian
430 The Bridge on the Drina Ivo Andrić 1945 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
432 Lost Illusions Honoré de Balzac 1837 French French
433 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
434 The Fountainhead Ayn Rand 1943 American English
435 Scoop Evelyn Waugh 1938 British English
436 El Aleph Jorge Luis Borges 1949 Argentinian Spanish
437 Passing Nella Larsen 1929 American English
439 North and South Elizabeth Gaskell 1855 British English
441 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
442 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
443 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
444 The Man Who Was Thursday G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
445 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
446 Joseph and His Brothers Thomas Mann 1933 German German
447 Gypsy Ballads Federico García Lorca 1928 Spanish Spanish
449 Les Enfants Terribles Jean Cocteau 1929 French French
450 Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler 1903 British English
452 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
453 I, Claudius Robert Graves 1934 British English
454 The Sea, The Sea Iris Murdoch 1978 British English
455 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
457 The Hollow Man John Dickson Carr 1935 British English
459 The Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells 1896 British English
460 Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853 American English
461 Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand 1957 American English
462 The Prophet Kahlil Gibran 1923 Lebanese English
463 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
464 Petrarch's Songbook Francesco Petrarca 1341 Italian Italian
466 A Death in the Family James Agee 1957 American English
467 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh 1934 British English
468 Daniel Deronda George Eliot 1876 British English
469 The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain 1934 American English
470 The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad 1907 British English
471 Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee 1980 South African English
472 The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead 1940 Australian English
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
474 Embers Sandor Marai 1942 Hungarian Hungarian
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
476 The Monk Matthew Lewis 1796 British English
477 Fateless or Fatelessness Imre Kertész 1975 Hungarian Hungarian
478 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
480 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 1932 British English
481 The Lusiad Luís Vaz Camões 1572 Portuguese Portuguese
482 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
484 Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin 1754 Chinese Chinese
486 Adam Bede George Eliot 1859 British English
487 Rainbow D.H. Lawrence 1915 British English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
489 Manon Lescaut Abbe Prevost 1731 French French
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
491 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
492 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressell, Peter Miles 1914 British English
493 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
494 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
495 Casino Royale Ian Fleming 1953 British English
496 Froth on the daydream Boris Vian 1947 French French
497 Murder Must Advertise Dorothy L. Sayers 1933 British English
498 The Immoralist André Gide 1902 French French
499 Platero Juan Ramón Jiménez 1914 Spanish Spanish
500 Everything That Rises Must Converge Flannery O'Connor 1965 American English
501 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
502 Another Country James Baldwin 1962 American English
503 Pamela Samuel Richardson 1740 British English
504 Her Lover Albert Cohen 1968 Swiss French
507 The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper 1826 American English
508 Black Beauty Anna Sewell 1877 British English
509 Sanctuary William Faulkner 1931 American English
510 Eugenie Grandet Honoré de Balzac 1833 French French
511 Perfume Patrick Suskind 1985 German German
512 The Golden Ass Apuleius 158 Roman Latin
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
516 Season of Migration to the North Al-Tayyib Salih 1966 Sudanese Arabic
518 The Odes Horace 23 Roman Latin
519 Call It Sleep Henry Roth 1934 American English
520 Mansfield Park Jane Austen 1814 British English
522 The Phantom Tollbooth Norton Juster 1961 American English
523 Fortunata and Jacinta Benito Pérez Galdós 1887 Spanish Spanish
524 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving 1989 American English
526 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
528 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick 1968 American English
529 Life Is a Dream Pedro Calderón de la Barca 1635 Spanish Spanish
530 The Red Room August Strindberg 1879 Swedish Swedish
532 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
533 Cousin Bette Honoré de Balzac 1846 French French
534 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
535 Red Cavalry Isaac Babel 1926 Russian Russian
536 Red Harvest Dashiell Hammett 1929 American English
538 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
539 So Long, See You Tomorrow William Maxwell 1980 American English
542 Uncle Silas Sheridan Le Fanu 1864 Irish English
544 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
545 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
546 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
547 Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll 1871 British English
548 Le Morte d'Arthur Thomas Malory 1485 British Middle english
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
550 Max Havelaar Multatuli 1860 Dutch Dutch
551 Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 1678 British English
552 The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane 1895 American English
553 The Dispossessed Ursula K. Le Guin 1974 American English
554 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
555 The Lady with the Dog Anton Chekhov 1899 Russian Russian
556 The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse 1938 British English
560 Sula Toni Morrison 1973 American English
561 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
562 Aesop's Fables Aesop -560 Greek Ancient greek