The Greatest Books of All Time on Longing

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 743 '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
462 Petrarch's Songbook Francesco Petrarca 1341 Italian Italian
897 The Poems of Sappho Sappho -569 Greek Ancient greek
2907 Délie Maurice Scève 1544 French French
3139 Poems Hayyim Nahman Bialik 1901 Israeli Hebrew
3576 Call Me By Your Name André Aciman 2007 Italian English
4083 Silk Alessandro Baricco 1996 Italian Italian
4624 Christina Rossetti Christina Georgina Rossetti 2001 British English
5382 The Poems of Emily Bronte Emily Brontë 1846 British English
5715 Simple Passion Annie Ernaux 1991 French French
5851 Twenty Love Poems And A Song Of Despair Pablo Neruda 1924 Chilean Spanish
5995 Mes Heures Perdues Félix Arvers 1833 French French
5995 Sonnets Louise Labé 1556 French French
6830 Rapture Carol Ann Duffy 2005 British English
7199 Rime Gaspara Stampa 1554 Italian Italian
7199 Astrophel And Stella Philip Sidney 1591 British English
7199 Selected Poems Freidrich Hölderlin 1800 German German
7199 Hymns To The Night Novalis 1800 German German
7199 Selected Poems Of Eduard Mörike Eduard Mörike 1838 German German
7199 Poems Of Theodor Storm Theodor Storm 1852 German German
7199 Shirot Bialik Hayyim Nahman Bialik 1901 Israeli Hebrew
7994 100 Love Sonnets Pablo Neruda 1959 Chilean Spanish
9028 L'amour, La Mer Pascal Quignard 2002 French French
9841 Meghadūta Kālidāsa -400 Indian Sanskrit
10020 Poems Of Eugénio De Andrade Eugénio de Andrade 1977 Portuguese Portuguese
11334 La Fin D'amor Jean-Claude Marol French Unknown
11334 My Love Ishikawa Takuboku Japanese Japanese
11334 Rien Que L'amour Lucien Becker French French
12626 Record Of A Night Too Brief Kawakami Hiromi Japanese Japanese
13327 Sonnets from the Portuguese Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1850 British English
13327 The Spice Box Of Earth Leonard Cohen 1961 Canadian English
14701 The Three Hundred Tang Poems China 1763 Chinese Chinese
14796 Poems of Rumi Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi 1207 Persian Persian
15787 Days Of Longing Nirmal Verma, Krishna Baldev Vaid 1964 Unknown Hindi
15787 At Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept Elizabeth Smart 1945 Canadian English
16442 Letter From An Unknown Woman Stefan Zweig 1922 Austrian German
17010 Love And Longing In Bombay Vikram Chandra 1997 Indian English
17010 Eros The Bittersweet Anne Carson 1986 Canadian English
17001 Victoria Knut Hamsun 1898 Norwegian Norwegian
16682 The Biography Of Ying Ying Yuan Zhen 820 Chinese Classical chinese
17010 Poems Of Sextus Propertius Propertius -29 Roman Latin
17010 Couplets Maggie Millner 2023 Unknown English
17010 Eine Leidenschaft Annie Ernaux Unknown French
17010 Райский сад первой любви Линь Ихань 2017 Chinese Chinese (traditional)
17010 The Magpie At Night Li Qingzhao Chinese Chinese