The Greatest Books of All Time on Gender

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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
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
29 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
68 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 1937 American English
95 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
140 The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir 1949 French French
158 Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys 1966 British English
173 A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf 1929 British English
244 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith 1943 American English
269 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
291 The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende 1982 Chilean Spanish
363 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin 1969 American English
418 Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 American English
484 Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin 1754 Chinese Chinese
560 Sula Toni Morrison 1973 American English
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
599 A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams 1947 American English
746 Nervous Conditions Tsitsi Dangarembga 1988 Zimbabwean English
755 The Well of Loneliness Radclyffe Hall 1928 British English
771 God's Bits of Wood Ousmane Sembène 1960 Senegalese French
805 Gaudy Night Dorothy L. Sayers 1935 British English
813 Cranford Elizabeth Gaskell 1851 British English
876 Lysistrata Aristophanes -411 Greek Ancient greek
887 Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1915 American English
903 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
943 The Bacchae Euripides -405 Greek Ancient greek
945 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male Alfred C. Kinsey 1948 American English
954 Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 1913 British English
1037 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston 1976 American English
1106 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
1189 A Writer's Diary Virginia Woolf 1953 British English
1200 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
1231 Patience And Sarah Isabel Miller 1969 American English
1309 The Member Of The Wedding Carson McCullers 1946 American English
1319 The Story Of An African Farm Olive Schreiner 1883 South African English
1406 The Life of Charlotte Brontë Elizabeth Gaskell 1857 British English
1497 How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Julia Alvarez 1991 Dominican English
1530 Myra Breckinridge Gore Vidal 1968 American English
1582 Quicksand Nella Larsen 1928 American English
1601 Studies in the Psychology of Sex Havelock Ellis 1897 British English
1617 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
1634 The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros 1984 American English
1666 Zami Audre Lorde 1982 American English
1694 Cassandra Christa Wolf 1983 German German
1697 The Stone Diaries Carol Shields 1993 Canadian English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1771 Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinberg 1993 American English
1787 Sexual Politics Kate Millett 1970 American English
2059 The Passion Of New Eve Angela Carter 1977 British English
2220 Against Our Will Susan Brownmiller 1975 American English
2310 Sexing the Cherry Jeanette Winterson 1989 British English
2334 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
2372 Roxana Daniel Defoe 1724 British English
2398 The Blazing World Margaret Cavendish 1666 British English
2617 The Neapolitan Novels Elena Ferrante 2011 Italian Italian
2750 Dust Tracks on a Road Zora Neale Hurston 1942 American English
2973 The Female Man Joanna Russ 1975 American English
2985 Tipping The Velvet Sarah Waters 1998 British English
3039 South Riding Winifred Holtby 1936 British English
3064 Three Guineas Virginia Woolf 1938 British English
3101 Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi 2003 Iranian English
3287 Savushun Simin Daneshvar 1969 Iranian Persian
3324 Summer Will Show Sylvia Townsend Warner 1936 British English
3437 So Far From God Ana Castillo 1993 American English
3505 Heavy Wings Jie Zhang 1981 Chinese Chinese
3513 Mary Chesnut's Civil War Mary Boykin Chesnut 1981 American English
3533 Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo 2019 British English
3595 Thick Tressie McMillan Cottom 2019 American English
3614 The Vanishing Half Brit Bennett 2020 American English
3638 The Queen's Tiara Carl Jonas Love Almqvist 1834 Swedish Swedish
3638 Woman Suffrage and Politics Carrie Chapman Catt 1923 American English
3638 Die Homosexualität Des Mannes Und Des Weibes Magnus Hirschfeld 1920 German German
3853 Of Woman Born Adrienne Rich 1976 American English
3944 Doña Bárbara Rómulo Gallegos 1929 Venezuelan Spanish
3949 Top Girls Caryl Churchill 1982 British English
3953 The Papess Joanne Emmanuel Rhoides 1866 Greek Greek
4088 Love and Rockets Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Mario Hernandez 1982 American English
4135 Fieldwork In Ukrainian Sex Oksana Zabuzhko 1996 Ukrainian Ukrainian
4167 Miss Julie August Strindberg 1888 Swedish Swedish
4213 Miss Sophie's Diary And Other Stories Ding Ling 1928 Chinese Chinese
4296 The Emperor's Babe Bernardine Evaristo 2001 British English
4472 Alias Grace Margaret Atwood 1996 Canadian English
4488 Voyage In The Dark Jean Rhys 1934 British English
4575 Alanna Tamora Pierce 1983 American English
4637 The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse Louise Erdrich 2001 American English
4666 Saint Joan George Bernard Shaw 1923 Irish English
4794 The Good Person of Szechwan Bertolt Brecht 1943 German German
4822 He, She and It Marge Piercy 1991 American English
4933 Exile And Pride Eli Clare 1999 American English
4942 Mama Day Gloria Naylor 1988 American English
5003 In A Different Voice Carol Gilligan 1982 American English
5038 Life is a Carawanserai Has Two Doors I Went in One I Came out the Other Emine Sevgi Özdamar 1992 Turkish German
5038 Woman Natalie Angier 1999 American English
5166 Bad Feminist Roxane Gay 2014 American English
5272 Uncanny Valley Anna Wiener 2020 American English
5338 Days Without End Sebastian Barry 2016 Irish English
5342 White Girls Hilton Als 2013 American English
5360 The Hite Report Shere Hite 1976 American English
5390 Poems Of Juana Inés De La Cruz Juana Inés de la Cruz 1689 Mexican Spanish
5686 The Friendly Young Ladies Mary Renault 1943 British English
5717 Manhood For Amateurs Michael Chabon 2009 American English
5822 Conundrum Jan Morris 1974 British English
5929 King Kong Theory Virginie Despentes 2006 French French
5947 Talk Dirty To Me Sallie Tisdale 1994 American English
5979 The Open Door Latifa Zayyat 1960 Egyptian Arabic
5985 Twelfth Night William Shakespeare 1602 British English
5995 The Dialectic Of Sex Shulamith Firestone 1970 American English
6002 My Feminine Brother Marina Tsvetaeva 1923 Russian Russian
6125 Selected Poems, 1965-1975 Margaret Atwood 1976 Canadian English
6146 My Tender Matador Pedro Lemebel 2001 Chilean Spanish
6491 A Voice From The South Anna Julia Cooper 1892 American English
6567 Nice Work David Lodge 1988 British English
6635 The Opoponax Monique Wittig 1983 French French
6756 Breasts And Eggs Mieko Kawakami 2008 Japanese Japanese
6764 Odd Girls And Twilight Lovers Lillian Faderman 1991 American English
6786 Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments Saidiya Hartman 2019 American English
6792 Men Explain Things To Me Rebecca Solnit 2014 American English
6857 Hell Has No Limits José Donoso 1965 Chilean Spanish
6903 Selected Poems II Margaret Atwood 1987 Canadian English
6919 S.C.U.M. Manifesto Valerie Solanas 1967 American English
6937 Century Of Struggle Eleanor Flexner 1959 American English