The Greatest Literary Letters of All Time

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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
210 Dangerous Liaison Pierre Choderlos de Laclos 1782 French French
282 The Sorrows of Young Werther Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1774 German German
332 Clarissa Samuel Richardson 1748 British English
464 Petrarch's Songbook Francesco Petrarca 1341 Italian Italian
503 Pamela Samuel Richardson 1740 British English
679 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
718 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
836 Second Thoughts Michel Butor 1957 French French
907 Hyperion Friedrich Holderlin 1797 German German
997 Julie, or the New Heloise Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1761 French French
1054 Letters from a Stoic Seneca 64 Roman Latin
1168 The Diaries Franz Kafka 1948 Czech German
1189 A Writer's Diary Virginia Woolf 1953 British English
1278 So Long a Letter Mariama Bâ 1980 Senegalese French
1401 Silence of the Sea Vercors 1942 French French
1436 Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke 1929 Austrian German
1475 Lettres de madame de Sévigné Marie de Rabutin-Chantal marquise de Sévigné 1671 French French
1489 Abraham Lincoln, Speeches And Letters Abraham Lincoln 1907 American English
1841 Kafka's Other Trial Elias Canetti 1969 Bulgarian German
1870 The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters Gustave Flaubert 1921 French French
1924 Pages From The Goncourt Journal Edmond de Goncourt 1887 French French
1960 The Provincial Letters Blaise Pascal 1656 French French
1982 The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne Gilbert White 1789 British English
2012 The Habit of Being Flannery O'Connor 1979 American English
2151 Conversations Of Goethe With Johann Peter Eckermann Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann 1836 German German
2370 Happiness, as Such Natalia Ginzburg 1973 Italian Italian
2372 The Crack-Up F. Scott Fitzgerald 1945 American English
2520 Waiting For God Simone Weil 1950 French French
2999 Poor Folk Fyodor Dostoevsky 1846 Russian Russian
3127 The Screwtape Letters C. S. Lewis 1942 British English
3134 Daddy Long Legs Jean Webster 1912 American English
3202 The Pillar And Ground Of The Truth Pavel Florensky 1914 Russian Russian
3561 The History Of Miss Sara Burgerhart Betje Wolff, Aagje Deken 1782 Dutch Dutch
3620 Correspondence Voltaire 1751 French French
3637 Letters from an American Farmer J. Crevecoeur 1782 American English
4076 Birthday Letters Ted Hughes 1998 British English
4206 Heartbreak Tango Manuel Puig 1969 Argentinian Spanish
4215 Epistles Horace 20 Latin Latin
4419 The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies James McNeill Whistler 1890 American English
4493 The Letters Of Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert 1887 French French
4629 De Profundis Oscar Wilde 1905 British English
4668 Beethoven's Letters Ludwig van Beethoven 1866 German German
4686 Letters And Papers From Prison Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1951 German German
4686 Letters And Religion John Jay Chapman 1892 American English
5271 Die Günderode Bettina von Arnim 1840 German German
5310 The Adams Jefferson Letters Lester J. Cappon 1959 American English
5392 Selected Prose Thomas Carlyle 1800 British English
5581 This Is How You Lose The Time War Amal El Mohtar, Max Gladstone 2019 Multiple English
5762 Dear Theo Irving Stone, Jean Stone 1937 American English
6004 The Lord Chandos Letter And Other Writings Hugo von Hofmannsthal 1902 Austrian German
6004 Notebooks Joseph Joubert 1883 French French
6528 Letters To Olga Vaclav Havel 1983 Czech Czech
6717 Anti Goeze Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1778 German German
6717 On The Aesthetic Education Of Man Friedrich Schiller 1794 German German
6878 Lettres Aux Années De Nostalgie Kenzaburō Ōe 1987 Japanese Japanese
7010 Variable Cloud Carmen Martín Gaite 1993 Spanish Spanish
7056 A Passionate Apprentice Virginia Woolf 1990 British English
7215 Satirical Letter Of Censure Francisco de Quevedo 1601 Spanish Spanish
7215 The Journals Of James Boswell James Boswell 1791 British English
7215 The Works Of Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson 1787 British English
7215 Venetian Epigrams Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1790 German German
7215 Imaginary Conversations Walter Savage Landor 1824 British English
7215 The Collected Writings Of Thomas De Quincey Thomas de Quincey 1889 British English
7215 Essays Of Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson 1892 Scottish English
7215 Dialogue On Poetry And Literary Aphorisms Friedrich Schlegel 1800 German German
7215 Journals Ralph Waldo Emerson 1820 American English
7215 Notebooks Nathaniel Hawthorne 1868 American English
7215 Studies In Classic American Literature D. H. Lawrence 1923 British English
7215 Selected Prose Hugo von Hofmannsthal 1900 Austrian German
7215 Reminiscences Of Tolstoy, Chekhov, And Andreev Maxim Gorky 1920 Russian Russian
7675 The Letters Of Vincent Van Gogh Vincent van Gogh 1914 Dutch Dutch
7765 Pavel's Letters Monika Maron 1999 German German
7807 Products Of The Perfected Civilization Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort 1969 French French
7860 Selected Writings Paul Valéry 1950 French French
7966 Complete Poems And Selected Letters And Prose Hart Crane 1952 American English
7966 The Shores Of Light Edmund Wilson 1952 American English
8106 Letters Of A Javanese Princess Raden Adjeng Kartini 1911 Indonesian Dutch
8237 Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters J. D. Salinger 1963 American English
8581 Cartas Cruzadas Darío Jaramillo 1995 Colombian Spanish
8684 Miss Peabody’s Inheritance Elizabeth Jolley 1983 Australian English
8942 Letters From Egypt Florence Nightingale 1987 British English
9035 From A To X John Berger 2008 British English
9159 Correspondance Avec Le Mur Hélène Cixous 2009 French French
9165 84, Charing Cross Road Helene Hanff 1970 American English
9704 Address Unknown Kathrine Kressmann Taylor 1938 American English
9907 The Oxford Book Of Letters Frank Kermode, Anita Kermode 1995 British English
11064 The Complete Works Of Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft 1989 British English
11082 Insomniac City Bill Hayes 2017 American English
11363 La Vie Rêvée Antonia Pozzi Italian Italian
11363 My Love Ishikawa Takuboku Japanese Japanese
11580 The Mixquiahuala Letters Ana Castillo 1986 American English
12656 The Complete Letters Of Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde 2000 Irish English
13360 Writers At Work Malcolm Cowley 1958 American English
13360 The Ayrshire Legatees John Galt 1821 Scottish English
13533 The Writings Of Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson 1903 American English
13533 A Life In Letters Anton Chekhov 1973 Russian Russian
14111 Epistulae Pliny the Younger 100 Roman Latin
14676 The Life And Letters Of John Hay William Roscoe Thayer 1915 American English
14679 Letters To A Young Novelist Mario Vargas Llosa 2002 Peruvian Spanish
14755 Letters To His Children Theodore Roosevelt 1919 American English
14780 Poems, Essays And Letters Of Joyce Kilmer Joyce Kilmer, Robert Cortes Holliday 1918 American English
14984 Galileo's Daughter Dava Sobel 1999 American English
14984 Cultural Amnesia Clive James 2007 Australian English
15682 The Paris Review Interviews Paris Review 2006 American English
15723 You Know Me Al Ring Lardner 1916 American English
15902 A Johnson Reader Samuel Johnson 1964 American English
15902 The Selected Letters Of William James William James 1920 American English
15902 Holmes Laski Letters Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. 1953 American English
15902 Zibaldone Giacomo Leopardi 1898 Zibaldone Italian
15902 Kilverts Diary, 1870 1879 Francis Kilvert 1938 British English
15902 Letters Of John Keats John Keats 1848 British English
15902 Letters And Poems Mary Wortley Montagu 1800 British English
16559 Letter From An Unknown Woman Stefan Zweig 1922 Austrian German
16642 Lettres Portugaises Gabriel de Guilleragues 1668 French French
17126 Night Letters Robert Dessaix 1996 Australian English
17126 Мили бате! ... Писма на един дакел Stanka Pencheva 1971 Bulgarian Bulgarian
17126 The Lyttelton Hart Davis Letters George Lyttelton 1978 British English
17126 Collected Letters George Bernard Shaw 1972 British English
17126 The Element Of Lavishness William Maxwell 2000 American English
17126 Dear Committee Members Julie Schumacher 2014 American English