The Greatest Books of All Time Set in Italy

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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
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
67 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway 1929 American English
70 The Aeneid Virgil -19 Roman Latin
73 The Portrait of a Lady Henry James 1881 American English
80 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
114 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
122 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
123 Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar 1951 French French
126 If This Is a Man Primo Levi 1947 Italian Italian
129 First Folio William Shakespeare 1623 British English
133 Confessions Augustine 397 Roman Latin
138 The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal 1839 French French
143 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
147 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
152 The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli 1532 Italian Italian
211 The Tempest William Shakespeare 1623 British English
231 Death of Virgil Hermann Broch 1945 Austrian German
240 Death in Venice Thomas Mann 1912 German German
261 Wings of the Dove Henry James 1902 American English
273 The Betrothed Alessandro Manzoni 1827 Italian Italian
289 A Room With a View E. M. Forster 1908 British English
313 Meditations Marcus Aurelius 161 Roman Greek
334 Parallel Lives Plutarch 100 Greek Greek
335 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis Giorgio Bassani 1962 Italian Italian
337 Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare 1597 British English
343 The Sonnets William Shakespeare 1609 British English
371 History of My Life Giacomo Casanova 1822 Italian French
379 The Second World War Winston Churchill 1948 British English
385 Quo Vadis Henryk Sienkiewicz 1895 Polish Polish
405 De Rerum Natura Lucretius 55 Roman Latin
409 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2012 American Italian
423 Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie 1934 British English
426 The Moon and the Bonfires Cesare Pavese 1950 Italian Italian
453 I, Claudius Robert Graves 1934 British English
464 Petrarch's Songbook Francesco Petrarca 1341 Italian Italian
515 Lives of the Artists Giorgio Vasari 1550 Italian Italian
518 The Odes Horace 23 Roman Latin
525 Family Sayings Natalia Ginzburg 1963 Italian Italian
554 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
559 Christ Stopped at Eboli Carlo Levi 1945 Italian Italian
593 Complete Poems of Giacomo Leopardi Giacomo Leopardi 1831 Italian Italian
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
653 Summa Theologica Thomas Aquinas 1274 Italian Latin
655 Stories of Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway 1987 American English
661 Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice 1976 American English
684 The Adventures Of Pinocchio Carlo Collodi 1883 Italian Italian
695 Boys Alive Pier Paolo Pasolini 1955 Italian Italian
706 The Skin Curzio Malaparte 1949 Italian Italian
731 The Mysteries of Udolpho Ann Radcliffe 1794 British English
799 Kaputt Curzio Malaparte 1944 Italian Italian
825 In Our Time Ernest Hemingway 1925 American English
830 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon 1776 British English
846 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
863 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems Galileo 1632 Italian Italian
884 Homo Faber Max Frisch 1957 Swiss German
908 The Life of a Good-For-Nothing Joseph von Eichendorff 1826 German German
931 The House by the Medlar Tree Giovanni Verga 1881 Italian Italian
957 The Little World Of Don Camillo Giovanni Guareschi 1948 Italian Italian
958 The Periodic Table Primo Levi 1975 Italian Italian
971 The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1992 Dutch Dutch
985 Mythology Edith Hamilton 1942 American English
996 Journey by Moonlight Antal Szerb 1937 Hungarian Hungarian
1021 If Not Now, When? Primo Levi 1982 Italian Italian
1044 A Ghost at Noon Alberto Moravia 1954 Italian Italian
1054 Letters from a Stoic Seneca 64 Roman Latin
1066 Antony And Cleopatra William Shakespeare 1606 British English
1068 The Seven Storey Mountain Thomas Merton 1948 American English
1074 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 American English
1106 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
1109 Othello William Shakespeare 1603 British English
1174 As A Man Grows Older Italo Svevo 1898 Italian Italian
1180 Annals Cornelius Tacitus 109 Roman Latin
1217 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
1219 The Time of Indifference Alberto Moravia 1929 Italian Italian
1244 The Travels of Marco Polo Marco Polo 1300 Italian Old french
1249 The White Devil John Webster 1612 British English
1257 Lives of the Caesars Suetonius 121 Roman Latin
1258 The General of the Dead Army Ismail Kadare 1963 Albanian Albanian
1311 Boredom Alberto Moravia 1960 Italian Italian
1317 To Each His Own Leonardo Sciascia 1966 Italian Italian
1332 One, No One and One Hundred Thousand Luigi Pirandello 1926 Italian Italian
1337 A Legacy Sybille Bedford 1956 German English
1374 Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess 1980 British English
1389 On The Orator Marcus Tullius Cicero -55 Roman Latin
1393 The Business of Living Cesare Pavese 1952 Italian Italian
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
1419 The Viceroys Federico De Roberto 1894 Italian Italian
1418 The Path to the Nest of Spiders Italo Calvino 1947 Italian Italian
1437 Bébo's Girl Carlo Cassola 1960 Italian Italian
1441 The Cantos Ezra Pound 1933 American English
1457 Deliver Us Luigi Meneghello 1963 Italian Italian
1526 A History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1945 British English
1528 The Consolation of Philosophy Boethius 524 Roman Latin
1543 Eclogues Virgil -37 Latin Latin
1558 Marius the Epicurean Walter Pater 1885 British English
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1580 The Struggle for Europe Chester Wilmot 1952 British English
1583 The Civilization Of The Renaissance In Italy Jacob Burckhardt 1860 Swiss German
1590 Germania Cornelius Tacitus 98 Roman Latin
1599 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1624 The Mediterranean And The Mediterranean World In The Age Of Philip Ii Fernand Braudel 1949 French French
1699 That Awful Mess On Via Merulana Carlo Emilio Gadda 1957 Italian Italian
1790 The Master Colm Toibin 2004 Irish English
1794 My Past And Thoughts Alexander Herzen 1861 Russian Russian
1815 The Ring And The Book Robert Browning 1868 British English
1820 Fontamara Ignazio Silone 1933 Italian Italian
1825 Studies In The History Of The Renaissance Walter Pater 1873 British English
1834 Histories Cornelius Tacitus 100 Roman Latin
1839 The Child Of Pleasure Gabriele D'Annunzio 1889 Italian Italian
1864 The Jewish War Flavius Josephus 75 Jewish Greek
1923 The Conquest Of Gaul Gaius Julius Caesar -51 Roman Latin
1935 Autobiography Benvenuto Cellini 1728 Italian Italian
1938 The Marble Faun Nathaniel Hawthorne 1860 American English
1955 The Mill On The Po Riccardo Bacchelli 1938 Italian Italian
1998 Ben-Hur Lew Wallace 1880 American English
2001 The Flamethrowers Rachel Kushner 2013 American English
2031 History Of The Reformation In Germany Leopold von Ranke 1834 German German
2031 The History Of Rome Theodor Mommsen 1854 German German
2031 Gedanken Und Erinnerungen Otto von Bismarck 1898 German German
2121 Julius Caesar William Shakespeare 1623 British English