The Greatest Books of All Time on Isolation

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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
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
7 Moby-Dick Herman Melville 1851 American English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
53 Dracula Bram Stoker 1897 British English
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
66 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
69 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 1719 British English
74 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 1850 American English
76 The Plague Albert Camus 1947 French French
79 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
81 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
98 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
113 The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 1947 Dutch Dutch
118 The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers 1940 American English
128 The Stories of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov 1900 Russian Russian
135 Doctor Faustus Thomas Mann 1947 German German
137 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad 1900 British English
148 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1962 Russian Russian
151 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
156 Poems of Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson 1890 American English
158 Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys 1966 British English
167 Giovanni's Room James Baldwin 1956 American English
170 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 1937 American English
181 Light in August William Faulkner 1932 American English
187 The Power and the Glory Graham Greene 1940 British English
189 The Turn of the Screw Henry James 1898 American English
198 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
201 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
203 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
209 Hunger Knut Hamsun 1890 Norwegian Norwegian
215 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson 1959 American English
240 Death in Venice Thomas Mann 1912 German German
263 The Tartar Steppe Dino Buzzati 1940 Italian Italian
270 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
271 The Awakening Kate Chopin 1899 American English
274 The Stand Stephen King 1978 American English
276 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
279 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
287 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy 1895 British English
288 Independent People Halldor Laxness 1934 Icelandic Icelandic
290 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
295 Franz Kafka Franz Kafka 1971 Czech Unknown
311 Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson 1919 American English
317 The Poems of Robert Frost Robert Frost 1913 American English
327 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
330 Dubliners James Joyce 1914 Irish English
331 Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson 1980 American English
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
335 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis Giorgio Bassani 1962 Italian Italian
350 The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor Flannery O'Connor 1971 American English
362 Wise Blood Flannery O'Connor 1952 American English
363 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin 1969 American English
375 Kolyma Stories Varlam Shalamov 1954 Russian Russian
378 Melmoth the Wanderer Charles Robert Maturin 1820 British English
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
400 The Shining Stephen King 1977 American English
416 Out of Africa Isak Dinesen 1937 Danish Danish
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
441 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
449 Les Enfants Terribles Jean Cocteau 1929 French French
454 The Sea, The Sea Iris Murdoch 1978 British English
459 The Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells 1896 British English
460 Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853 American English
467 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh 1934 British English
472 The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead 1940 Australian English
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
482 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
493 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
511 Perfume Patrick Suskind 1985 German German
519 Call It Sleep Henry Roth 1934 American English
526 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
532 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
542 Uncle Silas Sheridan Le Fanu 1864 Irish English
545 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
553 The Dispossessed Ursula K. Le Guin 1974 American English
559 Christ Stopped at Eboli Carlo Levi 1945 Italian Italian
561 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
564 Main Street Sinclair Lewis 1920 American English
565 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
576 Complete Poems Elizabeth Bishop 1969 American English
579 The Outsider And Others H. P. Lovecraft 1939 American English
583 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
584 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
591 Stories of Guy de Maupassant Guy de Maupassant 1880 French French
594 Growth of the Soil Knut Hamsun 1917 Norwegian Norwegian
600 Nine Stories J. D. Salinger 1953 American English
603 Barabbas Par Lagerkvist 1950 Swedish Swedish
604 The Blind Owl Ṣādiq Hidāyat 1937 Iranian Persian
609 The Opposing Shore Julien Gracq 1951 French French
619 The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles 1949 American English
623 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985 American English
629 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
635 Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo 1939 American English
640 Black Boy Richard Wright 1945 American English
643 Silas Marner George Eliot 1861 British English
655 Stories of Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway 1987 American English
662 The House On The Borderland And Other Novels William Hope Hodgson 1908 British English
671 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe 1839 American English
673 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne 1870 French French
692 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
704 Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1958 American English
720 The Professor's House Willa Cather 1925 American English
727 The Street of Crocodiles Bruno Schulz 1934 Polish Polish
729 Thérèse Desqueyroux François Mauriac 1927 French French
732 A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul 1979 Trinidadian English
739 The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy 1878 British English
744 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
752 Poems Of Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy 1898 British English
754 If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem William Faulkner 1939 American English
767 The Tree of Man Patrick White 1955 Australian English
773 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Edgar Allan Poe 1838 American English
777 I Am Legend Richard Matheson 1954 American English
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
811 The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux 1909 French French
819 Burmese Days George Orwell 1934 British English