The Greatest Books of All Time on Infidelity

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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
10 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 1877 Russian Russian
85 The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford 1915 British English
99 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
147 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
166 Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel García Márquez 1985 Colombian Spanish
168 Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald 1934 American English
174 Rabbit, Run John Updike 1960 American English
176 The End of the Affair Graham Greene 1951 British English
246 The Forsyte Saga John Galsworthy 1906 British English
298 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
307 Medea Euripides -431 Greek Ancient greek
382 Parade's End Ford Madox Ford 1924 British English
407 The World According to Garp John Irving 1978 American English
467 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh 1934 British English
469 The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain 1934 American English
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
504 Her Lover Albert Cohen 1968 Swiss French
523 Fortunata and Jacinta Benito Pérez Galdós 1887 Spanish Spanish
555 The Lady with the Dog Anton Chekhov 1899 Russian Russian
568 The Mandarins Simone de Beauvoir 1954 French French
611 Revolutionary Road Richard Yates 1961 American English
632 Dom Casmurro Machado de Assis 1899 Brazilian Portuguese
668 Rabbit Redux John Updike 1971 American English
680 The Stories of John Cheever John Cheever 1978 American English
686 Rabbit Is Rich John Updike 1981 American English
688 From Here to Eternity James Jones 1951 American English
719 Thousand Cranes Yasunari Kawabata 1952 Japanese Japanese
734 Loving Henry Green 1945 British English
737 The Custom of the Country Edith Wharton 1913 American English
754 If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem William Faulkner 1939 American English
766 Adolphe Benjamin Constant 1816 Swiss French
784 Rabbit at Rest John Updike 1990 American English
791 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 2012 American English
895 The Ravishing of Lol Stein Marguerite Duras 1964 French French
924 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
977 Couples John Updike 1968 American English
1006 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe 1958 British English
1015 Justine Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
1024 Some Prefer Nettles Junichiro Tanizaki 1929 Japanese Japanese
1044 A Ghost at Noon Alberto Moravia 1954 Italian Italian
1065 La Bête humaine Émile Zola 1890 French French
1090 The Kreutzer Sonata Leo Tolstoy 1889 Russian Russian
1127 The Devil in the Flesh Raymond Radiguet 1923 French French
1174 As A Man Grows Older Italo Svevo 1898 Italian Italian
1197 Light Years James Salter 1975 American English
1202 The Country Girls Edna O'Brien 1960 Irish English
1354 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
1432 A Woman's Life Guy de Maupassant 1883 French French
1472 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
1473 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Raymond Carver 1981 American English
1491 Presumed Innocent Scott Turow 1987 American English
1501 The Magician of Lublin Isaac Bashevis Singer 1960 Polish Yiddish
1552 Waterland Graham Swift 1983 British English
1563 Runaway Alice Munro 2004 Canadian English
1584 A Severed Head Iris Murdoch 1961 British English
1674 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English
1711 Woyzeck Georg Buchner 1879 German German
1758 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
1760 Desperate Characters Paula Fox 1970 American English
1761 The Serious Game Hjalmar Soderberg 1912 Swedish Swedish
1775 Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri 1999 American English
1867 The Woodlanders Thomas Hardy 1887 British English
1885 Little Disturbances Grace Paley 1959 American English
1946 A Burnt Child Stig Dagerman 1948 Swedish Swedish
1986 The Sound of the Mountain Yasunari Kawabata 1954 Japanese Japanese
1990 Le Mariage De Figaro Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais 1784 French French
2002 Freedom Jonathan Franzen 2010 American English
2156 The Green Man Kingsley Amis 1969 British English
2207 Waiting Ha Jin 1999 Chinese English
2261 Appointment in Samarra John O'Hara 1934 American English
2312 Room At The Top John Braine 1957 British English
2354 Enemies, A Love Story Isaac Bashevis Singer 1972 American Yiddish
2454 By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept Elizabeth Smart 1945 Canadian English
2467 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
2492 All Souls Javier Marias 1989 Spanish Spanish
2496 Mortals Norman Rush 2003 American English
2675 Deep Water Patricia Highsmith 1957 American English
2692 Near To The Wild Heart Clarice Lispector 1943 Brazilian Portuguese
2693 Waiting to Exhale Terry McMillan 1992 American English
2737 Look Back In Anger John Osborne 1956 British English
2743 Ved Vejen Herman Bang 1886 Danish Danish
2801 The Old Devils Kingsley Amis 1986 British English
2852 The Counterlife Philip Roth 1986 American English
2857 The Dog Of The South Charles Portis 1979 American English
2870 The Information Martin Amis 1995 British English
2922 The Progress of Love Alice Munro 1986 Canadian English
2929 The Waiting Years Fumiko Enchi 1957 Japanese Japanese
2980 The Man of Property John Galsworthy 1906 British English
2981 The Life And Loves Of A She Devil Fay Weldon 1983 British English
3021 The Echoing Grove Rosamond Lehmann 1953 British English
3021 The Tortoise And The Hare Elizabeth Jenkins 1936 British English
3101 Diary Of A Mad Old Man Junichiro Tanizaki 1961 Japanese Japanese
3105 Foreign Affairs Alison Lurie 1984 American English
3136 Mother's Milk Edward St Aubyn 2005 British English
3164 Dept. of Speculation Jenny Offill 2014 American English
3174 Oblivion David Foster Wallace 2004 American English
3265 The Days Of Abandonment Elena Ferrante 2002 Italian Italian
3324 Torrents of Spring Ivan Turgenev 1872 Russian Russian
3324 To the North Elizabeth Bowen 1932 British English
3324 A Day Off Storm Jameson 1933 British English
3537 Amelia Henry Fielding 1751 British English
3577 Behind the Scenes at the Museum Kate Atkinson 1995 British English
3583 Married Life David Vogel 1986 Jewish English
3637 The Tootinameh; Or, Tales of a Parrot India, Iran 1300 Indian Persian
3637 Bolwieser Oskar Maria Graf 1931 German German
3918 Fences August Wilson 1985 American English
3952 The Great Chimera M. Karagatsis 1953 Greek Greek
4055 The Tunnel William H. Gass 1995 American English
4088 Silk Alessandro Baricco 1996 Italian Italian
4131 Dark Avenues Ivan Bunin 1943 Russian Russian
4189 The Bridges Of Madison County Robert James Waller 1992 American English
4206 Heartbreak Tango Manuel Puig 1969 Argentinian Spanish
4286 Gantenbein Max Frisch 1964 Swiss German
4308 The Weather In The Streets Rosamond Lehmann 1936 British English
4308 Darkness Falls From The Air Nigel Balchin 1942 British English
4402 A Kind Of Loving Stan Barstow 1960 British English
4568 The Rules Of Attraction Bret Easton Ellis 1987 American English
4592 Ten North Frederick John O'Hara 1955 American English
4593 Last Night James Salter 2005 American English
4612 Cold Heaven Brian Moore 1983 British English