The Greatest Books of All Time on Human Nature

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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
30 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri 1308 Italian Italian
44 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943 French French
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
75 Essays Michel de Montaigne 1580 French French
96 Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1808 German German
104 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
122 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
128 The Stories of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov 1900 Russian Russian
133 Confessions Augustine 397 Roman Latin
152 The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli 1532 Italian Italian
198 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
205 The Complete Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 1927 British English
274 The Stand Stephen King 1978 American English
341 The Human Comedy Honoré de Balzac 1830 French French
345 Leviathan Thomas Hobbes 1651 British English
350 The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor Flannery O'Connor 1971 American English
412 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
430 The Bridge on the Drina Ivo Andrić 1945 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
491 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
512 The Golden Ass Apuleius 158 Roman Latin
562 Aesop's Fables Aesop -560 Greek Ancient greek
591 Stories of Guy de Maupassant Guy de Maupassant 1880 French French
594 Growth of the Soil Knut Hamsun 1917 Norwegian Norwegian
596 The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides -410 Greek Ancient greek
654 The Praise of Folly Erasmus 1511 Dutch Latin
694 La Fontaine's Fables Jean de La Fontaine 1668 French French
780 Maxims François duc de La Rochefoucauld 1665 French French
781 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
808 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
816 The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia Samuel Johnson, Abraham Raimbach, Robert Smirke 1759 British English
817 Rickshaw Boy Lao She 1936 Chinese Chinese
844 Civilization and Its Discontents Sigmund Freud 1930 Austrian German
846 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
853 Mc Teague Frank Norris 1899 American English
858 The Woman in the Dunes Kobo Abé 1962 Japanese Japanese
889 The 120 Days of Sodom Marquis de Sade 1904 French French
912 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
939 Rameau's Nephew Denis Diderot 1761 French French
945 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male Alfred C. Kinsey 1948 American English
1011 Mere Christianity C. S. Lewis 1952 British English
1072 Gösta Berling's Saga Selma Lagerlöf 1891 Swedish Swedish
1073 The Lottery and Other Stories Shirley Jackson 1948 American English
1088 The Dwarf Par Lagerkvist 1944 Swedish Swedish
1157 Twice-Told Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
1162 Essays Francis Bacon 1597 British English
1223 Jurgen James Branch Cabell 1919 American English
1236 Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Ryunosuke Akutagawa 1915 Japanese Japanese
1248 The Conservative Mind Russell Kirk 1953 American English
1327 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding John Locke 1689 British English
1424 Our Ancestors Italo Calvino 1952 Italian Italian
1429 Aphorisms Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1902 German German
1463 Camera Obscura Nicolaas Beets 1839 Dutch Dutch
1466 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
1498 A King Alone Jean Giono 1947 French French
1527 The Confidence Man Herman Melville 1857 American English
1534 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1572 Nature and Destiny of Man Reinhold Niebuhr 1941 American English
1609 The Drowned World J. G. Ballard 1962 British English
1611 Crome Yellow Aldous Huxley 1921 British English
1657 Essays and Aphorisms Arthur Schopenhauer 1851 German German
1660 The Waste Books Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1770 German German
1673 Penguin Island Anatole France 1908 French French
1705 The Sea-Wolf Jack London 1904 American English
1731 Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin 1977 French English
1742 A Tale Of A Tub Jonathan Swift 1704 British English
1757 Books of Blood Clive Barker 1984 British English
1766 The Man of Feeling Henry Mackenzie 1771 British English
1782 The Wild Ass's Skin Honoré de Balzac 1831 French French
1796 Collected Stories Isaac Bashevis Singer 1982 Polish English
1828 The Mysterious Stranger Mark Twain 1916 American English
1862 On Aggression Konrad Lorenz 1963 Austrian German
1900 Collected Stories Of O. Henry O. Henry 1908 American English
1913 Mencius Mencius -300 Chinese Classical chinese
1915 A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works Jonathan Swift 1729 Irish English
1938 The Spectator Joseph Addison 1711 British English
1963 The Quest Frederik van Eeden 1887 Dutch Dutch
1997 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding David Hume 1748 Scottish English
2103 Someone Like You Roald Dahl 1953 British English
2116 The Treasure Chest Johann Peter Hebel 1811 German German
2116 Stories of Mr. Keuner Bertolt Brecht 1926 German German
2172 Essays Charles Lamb 1823 British English
2181 The Little Demon Fedor Sologub 1907 Russian Russian
2210 Exemplary Stories Miguel de Cervantes 1613 Spanish Spanish
2314 Ship Of Fools Katherine Anne Porter 1962 American English
2372 South Wind Norman Douglas 1917 British English
2419 The Melancholy of Resistance László Krasznahorkai 1989 Hungarian Hungarian
2420 Natural Right and History Leo Strauss 1953 American English
2423 Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer 1997 American English
2474 Essays And Criticism William Hazlitt 1823 British English
2504 Pastoralia George Saunders 2000 American English
2513 Deathbird Stories Harlan Ellison 1975 American English
2517 Rites of Passage William Golding 1980 British English
2623 Collected Writings Ambrose Bierce 1909 American English
2627 Selected Plays of George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw 1976 Irish English
2709 Les Caractères Jean de La Bruyère 1688 French French
2722 Perelandra C. S. Lewis 1943 British English
2769 Unkempt Thoughts Stanislaw Jerzy Lec 1950 Polish Polish
2797 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
2864 Gimpel the Fool Isaac Bashevis Singer 1953 Polish Yiddish
2889 The Traveller Oliver Goldsmith 1764 Irish English
3015 The Old Men At The Zoo Angus Wilson 1961 British English
3126 The Screwtape Letters C. S. Lewis 1942 British English
3243 The Thurber Carnival James Thurber 1945 American English
3282 The Blank Slate Steven Pinker 2002 American English
3324 A Day Off Storm Jameson 1933 British English
3444 Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids Kenzaburō Ōe 1958 Japanese Japanese
3515 Rhinoceros and Other Plays Eugène Ionesco 1959 Romanian French
3551 The Improvement of Human Reason Ibn Tufayl 1170 Arabic Arabic
3567 Mystery and Manners Flannery O'Connor 1969 American English
3638 Religio Medici Sir Thomas Browne 1643 British English
3638 The Devil's Dictionary Ambrose Bierce 1906 American English
3638 Till Eulenspiegel Hermann Bote 1510 German German
3638 The Ship Of Fools Sebastian Brant 1494 German English
3638 Der Gaulschreck Im Rosennetz Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando 1928 Austrian German
3638 The People Of Seldwyla Gottfried Keller 1872 Swiss German
3638 Stopfkuchen Wilhelm Karl Raabe 1891 German German
3638 Die Insel Felsenburg Johann Gottfried Schnabel 1731 German German
3638 A Stroll To Syracuse In The Year 1802 Johann Gottfried Seume 1803 German German
3638 Caspar Hauser Or The Inertia Of The Heart Jakob Wassermann 1908 German German