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
563 Panchatantra Unknown -300 Multiple Sanskrit
564 Main Street Sinclair Lewis 1920 American English
565 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
566 I Served The King Of England Bohumil Hrabal 1983 Czech Czech
567 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
568 The Mandarins Simone de Beauvoir 1954 French French
569 The Death of the Heart Elizabeth Bowen 1938 British, Irish English
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
571 And Quiet Flows The Don Mikhail Sholokhov 1928 Russian Russian
572 Three Sisters Anton Chekhov 1901 Russian Russian
573 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume 1970 American English
574 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003 American English
575 I Capture the Castle Dodie Smith 1948 British English
576 Complete Poems Elizabeth Bishop 1969 American English
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
578 The Silence of the Lambs Thomas Harris 1988 American English
579 The Outsider And Others H. P. Lovecraft 1939 American English
581 The Innocence of Father Brown G. K. Chesterton 1911 British English
583 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
584 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
586 The Third Man Graham Greene 1949 British English
587 The Man with the Golden Arm Nelson Algren 1949 American English
588 The Pillars Of The Earth Ken Follett 1989 British English
589 Bel Ami Guy de Maupassant 1885 French French
590 Northanger Abbey Jane Austen 1817 British English
591 Stories of Guy de Maupassant Guy de Maupassant 1880 French French
592 The Sleepwalkers Hermann Broch 1932 Austrian German
593 Complete Poems of Giacomo Leopardi Giacomo Leopardi 1831 Italian Italian
594 Growth of the Soil Knut Hamsun 1917 Norwegian Norwegian
595 Farewell, My Lovely Raymond Chandler 1940 American English
599 A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams 1947 American English
600 Nine Stories J. D. Salinger 1953 American English
601 The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne 1851 American English
602 The Go-Between L. P. Hartley 1953 British English
603 Barabbas Par Lagerkvist 1950 Swedish Swedish
604 The Blind Owl Ṣādiq Hidāyat 1937 Iranian Persian
605 Claudine Colette 1900 French French
606 New Grub Street George Gissing 1891 British English
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
608 Canto General Pablo Neruda 1950 Chilean Spanish
609 The Opposing Shore Julien Gracq 1951 French French
610 Requiem Anna Akhmatova 1963 Russian Russian
611 Revolutionary Road Richard Yates 1961 American English
612 Green Henry Gottfried Keller 1855 Swiss German
613 The Persians Aeschylus -471 Greek Ancient greek
615 Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary M. R. James 1904 British English
617 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
618 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
619 The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles 1949 American English
622 Elective Affinities Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1809 German German
623 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985 American English
625 The Nine Tailors Dorothy L. Sayers 1934 British English
626 Promise at Dawn Romain Gary 1960 French French
627 The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Christopher Marlowe 1604 British English
628 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
629 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
630 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
631 The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder 1927 American English
632 Dom Casmurro Machado de Assis 1899 Brazilian Portuguese
633 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John le Carré 1974 British English
635 Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo 1939 American English
636 Goodnight Moon Margaret Wise Brown 1947 American English
637 The Quiet American Graham Greene 1955 British English
641 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding 1996 British English
643 Silas Marner George Eliot 1861 British English
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
647 Lolly Willowes Sylvia Townsend Warner 1926 British English
648 The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien 1990 American English
649 Villette Charlotte Brontë 1853 British English
650 The Flanders Road Claude Simon 1960 French French
651 Manhattan Transfer John Dos Passos 1925 American English
655 Stories of Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway 1987 American English
656 The Time Of The Doves Merce Rodoreda 1962 Spanish Catalan
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
658 Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner 1971 American English
660 The Thin Man Dashiell Hammett 1934 American English
661 Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice 1976 American English
662 The House On The Borderland And Other Novels William Hope Hodgson 1908 British English
663 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
665 The Family Moskat Isaac Bashevis Singer 1950 Polish Yiddish
666 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
668 Rabbit Redux John Updike 1971 American English
669 Beowulf Unknown 1000 Unknown Old english
671 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe 1839 American English
672 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
673 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne 1870 French French
674 Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy 1874 British English
676 The Princess Bride William Goldman 1973 American English
677 Lud-in-the-Mist Hope Mirrlees 1926 British English
678 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
679 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
680 The Stories of John Cheever John Cheever 1978 American English
681 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
683 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
684 The Adventures Of Pinocchio Carlo Collodi 1883 Italian Italian
685 Them Joyce Carol Oates 1969 American English
686 Rabbit Is Rich John Updike 1981 American English
687 The Time of the Hero Mario Vargas Llosa 1963 Peruvian Spanish
688 From Here to Eternity James Jones 1951 American English
690 Anton Reiser Karl Philipp Moritz 1785 German German
691 Excellent Women Barbara Pym 1952 British English
692 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
693 Little House on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder 1935 American English
694 La Fontaine's Fables Jean de La Fontaine 1668 French French
695 Boys Alive Pier Paolo Pasolini 1955 Italian Italian
696 King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard 1885 British English
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
698 The Glass Key Dashiell Hammett 1931 American English
699 The Nibelungenlied Unknown 1200 German Middle high german
700 Tales of the City Armistead Maupin 1978 American English
701 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa 2000 Peruvian Spanish
702 Vathek William Beckford 1786 British French
703 The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 1875 British English
704 Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1958 American English
705 Oroonoko Aphra Behn 1688 British English
706 The Skin Curzio Malaparte 1949 Italian Italian
707 Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson 1830 British English
708 Captain Hornblower R.N. C. S. Forester 1937 British English
710 At the Mountains of Madness H. P. Lovecraft 1936 American English
711 Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes 1959 American English