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
3637 The History Of The Abderites Christoph Martin Wieland 1774 German German
3807 Rousseau and Revolution Will Durant, Ariel Durant 1967 American English
3817 The Beach Alex Garland 1996 British English
3828 Bacacay Witold Gombrowicz 1957 Polish Polish
3832 Stories Of Three Decades Thomas Mann 1936 German German
3951 The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama 1992 American English
3952 The Beggar Andreas Karkavitsas 1896 Greek Greek
3952 Το Θείο Τραγί Yiannis Skarimbas 1935 Greek Greek
4060 The Ice Wall Yasushi Inoue 1959 Japanese Japanese
4119 Each Man In His Darkness Julien Green 1960 French French
4131 Dark Avenues Ivan Bunin 1943 Russian Russian
4272 The Blue Book Mikhail Zoshchenko 1923 Russian Russian
4308 Williwaw Gore Vidal 1946 American English
4368 More Die Of Heartbreak Saul Bellow 1987 American English
4419 Selections From The Tatler And The Spectator Joseph Addison, Richard Steele 1804 British English
4580 The Zone Sergei Dovlatov 1982 Russian Russian
4616 Sociobiology E. O. Wilson 1975 American English
4656 Man And Superman George Bernard Shaw 1903 British English
4680 The Autobiography of Mark Twain Mark Twain 1924 American English
4758 Baptism Yang Jiang 1988 Chinese Chinese
4778 Look Back, Mrs. Lot! Ephraim Kishon 1969 Israeli Hebrew
4820 The Poet And The Lunatics G. K. Chesterton 1929 British English
4888 The MaddAddam Trilogy Margaret Atwood 2003 Canadian English
4891 The Short Stories Of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov 1886 Russian Russian
4898 The Theory Of Moral Sentiments Adam Smith 1759 Scottish English
5027 Theophilus North Thornton Wilder 1973 American English
5043 The Wonderful Visit H. G. Wells 1895 British English
5084 Short Friday Isaac Bashevis Singer 1964 Polish Yiddish
5102 Антихрист Emilian Stanev 1939 Bulgarian Bulgarian
5152 Quarantine Jim Crace 1997 British English
5169 Anecdotes of Destiny Isak Dinesen 1958 Danish Danish
5233 Mouth Full Of Earth Branimir Scepanovic 1975 Montenegrin Serbo-croatian
5361 To Have Or To Be? The Nature Of The Psyche Erich Fromm 1976 German English
5481 The Inferno Dante Alighieri 1308 Italian Italian
5511 The Visit Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1956 Swiss German
5594 World War Z Max Brooks 2006 American English
5630 Ego Monster Sayd Bahodine Majrouh 1985 Afghan French
5708 Διηγήματα Michail Mitsakis 1987 Greek Greek
5816 Epigrams Martial 86 Latin Latin
5826 Satires Lucian -160 Greek Ancient greek
5862 The New Science Giambattista Vico 1725 Italian Italian
5862 Winter's Tales Isak Dinesen 1942 Danish Danish
5891 Sartor Resartus Thomas Carlyle 1836 British English
5908 Complete Prose Tales Alexander Pushkin 1831 Russian Russian
5904 Notes From Underground & Other Stories Fyodor Dostoevsky 1864 Russian Russian
6004 Chekhov's Selected Stories Anton Chekhov 1903 Russian Russian
6004 Marginalia On Casanova Miklós Szentkuthy 1939 Hungarian Hungarian
6004 Master And Man Leo Tolstoy 1895 Russian Russian
6004 Notebooks Joseph Joubert 1883 French French
6004 The Flood Yevgeny Zamyatin 1929 Russian Russian
6004 The Ratcatcher Marina Tsvetaeva 1926 Russian Russian
6004 The Return Of Münchausen Sigismund Krzyzanowski 1927 Russian Russian
6123 Monster Naoki Urasawa 1994 Japanese Japanese
6669 Complete Short Stories Mark Twain 1957 American English
6717 Human, All Too Human Friedrich Nietzsche 1878 German German
6939 A Reckless Character and Other Stories Ivan Turgenev 1883 Russian Russian
6996 You Don't Love Yourself Nathalie Sarraute 1989 French French
7165 A Fable William Faulkner 1954 American English
7215 Poems Of Lord Brooke Fulke Greville Lord Brooke Fulke Greville 1601 British English
7215 Poems, Plays, And Masques Ben Jonson 1601 British English
7215 Hudibras Samuel Butler (poet) 1663 British English
7215 The Prose Works Of Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift 1701 Irish English
7215 Poems Of Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift 1701 Irish English
7215 The Works Of Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson 1787 British English
7215 An Essay On The Dramatic Character Of Sir John Falstaff Maurice Morgann 1777 British English
7215 Poems Of George Crabbe George Crabbe 1807 British English
7215 Venetian Epigrams Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1790 German German
7215 Roman Sonnets Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli 1830 Italian Italian
7215 Imaginary Conversations Walter Savage Landor 1824 British English
7215 Tales Gottfried Keller 1856 Swiss German
7215 Short Novels Fyodor Dostoevsky 1846 Russian Russian
7215 Short Novels Leo Tolstoy 1900 Russian Russian
7215 Tales And Sketches Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
7215 Stories And Poems Of Stephen Crane Stephen Crane 1900 American English
7215 The Wheel Of Fire George Wilson Knight 1930 British English
7215 Selected Tales Leonid Andreyev 1900 Russian Russian
7215 Reminiscences Of Tolstoy, Chekhov, And Andreev Maxim Gorky 1920 Russian Russian
7215 Death In The Woods And Other Stories Sherwood Anderson 1933 American English
7215 Lazarus Laughed Eugene O'Neill 1927 American English
7215 Orient Express Graham Greene 1932 British English
7568 All Fires The Fire Julio Cortazar 1966 Argentinian Spanish
7605 Les Praticiens De L'infernal Pierre La Police 1993 French French
7752 Another Marvelous Thing Laurie Colwin 1986 American English
7794 The Rebel Angels Robertson Davies 1981 Canadian English
7807 Products Of The Perfected Civilization Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort 1969 French French
7914 The Devil and Miss Prym Paulo Coelho 2000 Brazilian Portuguese
7944 The Dark Tower And Other Stories C. S. Lewis 1977 British English
8284 The Other Side Of Desire Daniel Bergner 2009 American English
8335 Three Short Novels Kay Boyle 1958 American English
8362 Moral Man And Immoral Society Reinhold Niebuhr 1932 American English
8472 Three Novels Witold Gombrowicz 1960 Polish Polish
8465 The Fiddler In The Subway Gene Weingarten 2010 American English
8465 Being Wrong Kathryn Schulz 2010 American English
8541 Milton's God William Empson 1961 British English
8680 In Defense Of Sanity G. K. Chesterton 2011 British English
8774 Eroticism Georges Bataille 1957 French French
8922 The Devil's Racetrack Mark Twain 1966 American Unknown
9002 Floreana: A Woman's Pilgrimage to the Galapagos Margret Wittmer 1959 German German
9008 Four Plays Jean Giraudoux 1967 French French
9050 The Romantic Comedians Ellen Glasgow 1926 American English
9645 Living Together Edgar Bowers 1973 American English
9676 Eros Invincible Ricarda Huch 1931 German German
9682 The Oxford Book Of Comic Verse John Gross 1994 British English
9739 Crime Ferdinand Von Schirach 2009 German German
9833 Poems Of Stevie Smith Stevie Smith 1975 British English
9857 The Delicate Prey Paul Bowles 1950 American English
10136 Dinner Along The Amazon Timothy Findley 1984 Canadian English
10207 The Little Hotel Christina Stead 1973 Australian English
10305 Shakespeare Our Contemporary Jan Kott 1961 Polish Polish
10367 Sweet Land Stories E. L. Doctorow 2004 American English
10765 Close Quarters William Golding 1987 British English
10896 After Many A Summer Dies The Swan Aldous Huxley 1939 British English
10973 World Of Sex Henry Miller 1941 American English
10984 The Proper Study of Mankind Isaiah Berlin 1997 British English
11017 The Story Of San Michele Axel Munthe 1929 Swedish English
11064 Fire Down Below William Golding 1989 British English
11109 The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton John Milton 2007 British English
11089 Der Herr Karl Carl Merz, Helmut Qualtinger 1961 Austrian German
11246 The Island Of Slaves Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux 1725 French French
11249 The Man Who Walked Through Walls Marcel Aymé 1943 French French