The Greatest Books of All Time on Guilt

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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
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
18 The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky 1880 Russian Russian
21 The Trial Franz Kafka 1925 Czech German
43 Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner 1936 American English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
63 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
66 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
74 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 1850 American English
88 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 1916 Irish English
89 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde 1890 Irish English
98 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
106 Oedipus the King Sophocles -429 Greek Ancient greek
124 Pedro Páramo Juan Rulfo 1955 Mexican Spanish
137 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad 1900 British English
149 All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren 1946 American English
155 Macbeth William Shakespeare 1606 British English
176 The End of the Affair Graham Greene 1951 British English
181 Light in August William Faulkner 1932 American English
186 Bonjour Tristesse Francoise Sagan 1954 French French
191 And Then There Were None Agatha Christie 1939 British English
193 East of Eden John Steinbeck 1952 American English
195 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser 1925 American English
208 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor 1953 American English
212 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler 1940 British German
218 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
219 Brighton Rock Graham Greene 1938 British English
241 Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth 1969 American English
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
258 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
279 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
285 Oresteia Aeschylus -458 Greek Ancient greek
327 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
338 Effi Briest Theodor Fontane 1895 German German
353 Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin 1953 American English
358 The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy 1886 British English
378 Melmoth the Wanderer Charles Robert Maturin 1820 British English
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
445 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
452 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
476 The Monk Matthew Lewis 1796 British English
494 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
500 Everything That Rises Must Converge Flannery O'Connor 1965 American English
539 So Long, See You Tomorrow William Maxwell 1980 American English
561 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
601 The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne 1851 American English
603 Barabbas Par Lagerkvist 1950 Swedish Swedish
648 The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien 1990 American English
719 Thousand Cranes Yasunari Kawabata 1952 Japanese Japanese
729 Thérèse Desqueyroux François Mauriac 1927 French French
742 The Crime of Father Amaro Eça de Queirós 1875 Portuguese Portuguese
759 Thérèse Raquin Émile Zola 1867 French French
766 Adolphe Benjamin Constant 1816 Swiss French
796 The Fall Albert Camus 1956 French French
803 Sophie's Choice William Styron 1979 American English
844 Civilization and Its Discontents Sigmund Freud 1930 Austrian German
871 Wieland Charles Brockden Brown 1798 American English
878 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver 1998 American English
884 Homo Faber Max Frisch 1957 Swiss German
892 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
916 Malice Aforethought Francis Iles 1931 British English
927 Cat and Mouse Günter Grass 1961 German German
950 Richard III William Shakespeare 1592 British English
973 The Burning Plain and Other Stories Juan Rulfo 1953 Mexican Spanish
975 The Reader Bernhard Schlink 1995 German German
986 Electra Sophocles -409 Greek Ancient greek
997 The Judge and His Hangman Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1950 Swiss German
1031 The Temple of the Golden Pavilion Yukio Mishima 1956 Japanese Japanese
1040 The German Lesson Siegfried Lenz 1968 German German
1089 Suttree Cormac McCarthy 1979 American English
1090 The Kreutzer Sonata Leo Tolstoy 1889 Russian Russian
1105 The Chill Ross Macdonald 1964 American English
1107 The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene 1948 British English
1148 The Werewolf Of Paris Guy Endore 1933 American English
1157 Twice-Told Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
1177 Phèdre Jean Racine 1677 French French
1228 Strait is the Gate André Gide 1909 French French
1236 Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Ryunosuke Akutagawa 1915 Japanese Japanese
1240 Strangers On A Train Patricia Highsmith 1950 American English
1280 The Death of Artemio Cruz Carlos Fuentes 1962 Mexican Spanish
1305 Long Day's Journey Into Night Eugene O'Neill 1956 American English
1371 The Devil's Elixir E. T. A. Hoffmann 1815 German German
1385 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English
1391 A Separate Peace John Knowles 1959 American English
1409 No Exit Jean Paul Sartre 1944 French French
1487 Kokoro Natsume Sōseki 1914 Japanese Japanese
1501 The Magician of Lublin Isaac Bashevis Singer 1960 Polish Yiddish
1512 The Beast Must Die Nicholas Blake 1938 British English
1539 On the Genealogy of Morality Friedrich Nietzsche 1887 German German
1541 The Confessions of Nat Turner William Styron 1967 American English
1551 Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd 1985 British English
1553 Beauty and Sadness Yasunari Kawabata 1964 Japanese Japanese
1560 Forest of the Hanged Liviu Rebreanu 1922 Romanian Romanian
1571 Fifth Business Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
1646 The Pledge Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1958 Swiss German
1652 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
1679 The Killer Inside Me Jim Thompson 1952 American English
1689 Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk Nikolai Leskov 1865 Russian Russian
1714 Go Down, Moses William Faulkner 1942 American English
1739 A Fatal Inversion Barbara Vine 1987 British English
1758 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
1800 The Deptford Trilogy Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
1807 Beware Of Pity Stefan Zweig 1939 Austrian German
1815 The Ring And The Book Robert Browning 1868 British English
1856 Under Western Eyes Joseph Conrad 1911 British English
1876 Home Marilynne Robinson 2008 American English
1921 Anglo Saxon Attitudes Angus Wilson 1956 British English
1938 The Marble Faun Nathaniel Hawthorne 1860 American English
1946 A Burnt Child Stig Dagerman 1948 Swedish Swedish
2011 Pincher Martin William Golding 1956 British English
2060 Ghost Story Peter Straub 1979 American English
2071 The Assistant Bernard Malamud 1957 American English
2074 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson 1994 American English
2092 Mourning Becomes Electra Eugene O'Neill 1931 American English
2104 Chronicle of a Death Foretold Gabriel García Márquez 1981 Colombian Spanish
2112 House On The Embankment Yuri Trifonov 1976 Russian Russian
2163 A Personal Matter Kenzaburō Ōe 1964 Japanese Japanese
2174 Surfacing Margaret Atwood 1972 Canadian English