The Greatest Books of All Time on Humanities

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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
88 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 1916 Irish English
106 Oedipus the King Sophocles -429 Greek Ancient greek
229 Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville 1835 French French
281 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 1931 American English
358 The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy 1886 British English
369 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein 1921 Austrian German
516 Season of Migration to the North Al-Tayyib Salih 1966 Sudanese Arabic
613 The Persians Aeschylus -471 Greek Ancient greek
641 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding 1996 British English
908 The Life of a Good-For-Nothing Joseph von Eichendorff 1826 German German
932 The Clouds Aristophanes -423 Greek Ancient greek
943 The Bacchae Euripides -405 Greek Ancient greek
954 Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 1913 British English
989 The Lonely Londoners Sam Selvon 1956 Trinidadian English
1065 La Bête humaine Émile Zola 1890 French French
1125 Philoctetes Sophocles -409 Greek Ancient greek
1278 So Long a Letter Mariama Bâ 1980 Senegalese French
1304 Collected Poems Stéphane Mallarmé 1887 French French
1412 The Constitution of Liberty Friedrich von Hayek 1960 Austrian English
1441 The Cantos Ezra Pound 1933 American English
1611 The Prelude William Wordsworth 1850 British English
1647 Phaedo Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
1856 Under Western Eyes Joseph Conrad 1911 British English
2109 Oxford English Dictionary Oxford University Press 1884 British English
2381 Battle Cry of Freedom James M. McPherson 1988 American English
2514 The New Sorrows of Young W. Ulrich Plenzdorf 1972 German German
2516 Hippolytus Euripides -428 Greek Ancient greek
2547 Death in Rome Wolfgang Koeppen 1954 German German
2565 Poetry Quintus Lutatius Catulus -89 Roman Latin
2574 The Hedgehog and the Fox Isaiah Berlin 1953 British English
2672 Autobiographies William Butler Yeats 1926 Irish English
2935 The Two Cultures And The Scientific Revolution C. P. Snow 1959 British English
3440 Ideas Have Consequences Richard M. Weaver 1948 American English
3491 Democracy and Leadership Irving Babbitt 1924 American English
3503 The Works of Max Beerbohm Max Beerbohm 1902 British English
3512 Scrutiny F. R. Leavis 1932 British English
3525 Strange Defeat Marc Bloch 1946 French French
3922 She Stoops to Conquer Oliver Goldsmith 1773 British English
4105 Renaissance And Renascences In Western Art Erwin Panofsky 1960 Unknown English
5997 After Virtue Alasdair MacIntyre 1981 British English
8509 Euthyphro Plato -399 Greek Ancient greek
10115 The Taming of Chance Ian Hacking 1990 Canadian English
11534 Thyestes Seneca 62 Roman Latin
11939 The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas Charles Edward Russell 1927 American English
11939 Pedlar's Progress Odell Shepard 1937 American English
11939 Henry Adams Ernest Samuels 1948 American English
14713 The Iron Heel Jack London 1908 American English
14724 Catiline's War, The Jugurthine War, Histories Sallust -40 Roman Latin
14823 The Wild Duck Henrik Ibsen 1884 Norwegian Norwegian
14984 Gotham Edwin G. Burrows 1998 American English
17120 Walter Lippmann and the American Century Ronald Steel 1980 American English
17120 A Constitutional History of the United States Andrew C. McLaughlin 1935 American English
17120 Banks and Politics in America Bray Hammond 1957 American English
17120 The Dred Scott Case Don E. Fehrenbacher 1978 American English
17120 Sweet Taste of Liberty W. Caleb McDaniel 2019 American English
17120 Free Speech Jacob Mchangama 2024 Unknown English
17120 Professing Criticism John Guillory 2023 American English