The Greatest Books of All Time on Love

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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
1070 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
1072 Gösta Berling's Saga Selma Lagerlöf 1891 Swedish Swedish
1087 Home and the World Rabindranath Tagore 1916 Indian Bengali
1090 The Kreutzer Sonata Leo Tolstoy 1889 Russian Russian
1093 The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera 1979 Czech Czech
1096 The Transit of Venus Shirley Hazzard 1980 Australian English
1099 The Blue Flower Penelope Fitzgerald 1995 British English
1100 Collected Poems Of Edward Thomas Edward Thomas 1920 British English
1106 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
1113 The Christmas Oratorio Göran Tunström 1983 Swedish Swedish
1115 The Cairo Trilogy Naguib Mahfouz 1956 Egyptian Arabic
1123 The Symposium Plato -385 Greek Ancient greek
1126 Women of Trachis Sophocles -450 Greek Ancient greek
1127 The Devil in the Flesh Raymond Radiguet 1923 French French
1128 The Price Of Salt Patricia Highsmith 1952 American English
1132 Fanny Hill John Cleland 1748 British English
1136 The Black Prince Iris Murdoch 1973 British English
1135 The Tunnel Ernesto Sábato 1948 Argentinian Spanish
1139 The Unquiet Grave Cyril Connolly 1944 British English
1144 A Month In The Country J. L. Carr 1980 British English
1148 The Werewolf Of Paris Guy Endore 1933 American English
1152 The Wapshot Chronicle John Cheever 1957 American English
1155 Three Lives Gertrude Stein 1909 American English
1158 Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2006 Nigerian English
1160 Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami 1987 Japanese Japanese
1171 Residence on Earth Pablo Neruda 1933 Chilean Spanish
1173 Little, Big John Crowley 1981 American English
1174 As A Man Grows Older Italo Svevo 1898 Italian Italian
1175 The Demons Heimito von Doderer 1956 Austrian German
1176 Carmen Prosper Mérimée 1845 French French
1177 Phèdre Jean Racine 1677 French French
1182 Poems of Federico García Lorca Federico García Lorca 1921 Spanish Spanish
1186 Tristan Gottfried von Strassburg 1210 German Middle high german
1187 Jean Christophe Romain Rolland 1904 French French
1198 Lorna Doone R. D. Blackmore 1869 British English
1200 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1202 The Country Girls Edna O'Brien 1960 Irish English
1208 Love in a Cold Climate Nancy Mitford 1949 British English
1211 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 Irish English
1218 The Egyptian Mika Waltari 1945 Finnish Finnish
1220 The Return of the Soldier Rebecca West 1918 British English
1223 Jurgen James Branch Cabell 1919 American English
1228 Strait is the Gate André Gide 1909 French French
1231 Patience And Sarah Isabel Miller 1969 American English
1235 Cheri Colette 1920 French French
1239 The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne John Donne 1952 British English
1241 The Life Before Us Romain Gary 1975 French French
1242 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis José Saramago 1984 Portuguese Portuguese
1251 The Last Gentleman Walker Percy 1966 American English
1253 Absolute Beginners Colin MacInnes 1959 British English
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1262 Maud Martha Gwendolyn Brooks 1953 American English
1266 The Heptameron Marguerite de Navarre 1558 French French
1273 Robert Browning's Poetry Robert Browning 1833 British English
1273 Selected Poems of Lord Byron Lord Byron 1800 British English
1286 The Invention Of Morel Adolfo Bioy Casares 1940 Argentinian Spanish
1299 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
1301 The Road Less Traveled M. Scott Peck 1978 American English
1308 Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand 1897 French French
1319 The Story Of An African Farm Olive Schreiner 1883 South African English
1329 Exodus Leon Uris 1958 American English
1330 The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller 2011 American English
1340 As You Like it William Shakespeare 1600 British English
1341 The Graduate Charles Webb 1963 American English
1349 Gitanjali Rabindranath Tagore 1910 Indian Bengali
1355 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1359 Illuminations Arthur Rimbaud 1886 French French
1367 Like Water For Chocolate Laura Esquivel 1989 Mexican Spanish
1371 The Devil's Elixir E. T. A. Hoffmann 1815 German German
1373 Winter's Tale Mark Helprin 1983 American English
1375 The Sea of Fertility Yukio Mishima 1965 Japanese Japanese
1376 Tales of the South Pacific James A. Michener 1947 American English
1378 The Towers Of Trebizond Rose Macauley 1956 British English
1382 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde 1895 Irish English
1385 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English
1402 The Seagull Anton Chekhov 1896 Russian Russian
1404 The Last Bouquet Marjorie Bowen 1933 British English
1410 Poem of the Cid Unknown 1207 Spanish Old spanish
1414 Something About Eve James Branch Cabell 1927 American English
1432 A Woman's Life Guy de Maupassant 1883 French French
1436 Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke 1929 Austrian German
1437 Bébo's Girl Carlo Cassola 1960 Italian Italian
1438 Masnavi Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi 1258 Persian Persian
1448 Suite Française Irène Némirovsky 2004 French French
1450 Mary Barton Elizabeth Gaskell 1848 British English
1458 The Ballad of the Sad Cafe Carson McCullers 1951 American English
1464 Little Dorrit Charles Dickens 1855 British English
1466 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
1469 Last Afternoons With Teresa Juan Marsé 1966 Spanish Spanish
1471 Aurélien Louis Aragon 1944 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
1475 Lettres de madame de Sévigné Marie de Rabutin-Chantal marquise de Sévigné 1671 French French
1482 Eline Vere Louis Couperus 1889 Dutch Dutch
1494 Eye Of The Needle Ken Follett 1978 British English
1499 Three Comrades Erich Maria Remarque 1936 German German
1506 Selected Stories William Trevor 1992 Irish English
1508 The Tower William Butler Yeats 1928 Irish English
1516 The Alberta Trilogy Cora Sandel 1926 Norwegian Norwegian
1516 The People of Hemsö August Strindberg 1887 Swedish Swedish
1516 The Bells of Basel Louis Aragon 1934 French French
1532 Arturo's Island Elsa Morante 1957 Italian Italian
1538 Snow Orhan Pamuk 2002 Turkish Turkish
1543 Eclogues Virgil -37 Latin Latin
1553 Beauty and Sadness Yasunari Kawabata 1964 Japanese Japanese
1555 Troilus And Criseyde Geoffrey Chaucer 1385 British Middle english
1556 The Poems of Francois Villon François Villon 1489 French Middle french
1560 Forest of the Hanged Liviu Rebreanu 1922 Romanian Romanian
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1566 Love In A Fallen City Eileen Chang 1943 Chinese Chinese
1568 The Beautiful Summer Cesare Pavese 1949 Italian Italian
1584 A Severed Head Iris Murdoch 1961 British English
1587 Past Continuous Yaakov Shabtai 1977 Israeli Hebrew
1591 Wry-Blue Loves Tristan Corbière 1873 French French
1592 Niels Lyhne Jens Peter Jacobson 1880 Danish Danish
1595 The Garden Where the Brass Band Played Simon Vestdijk 1950 Dutch Dutch
1604 Phineas Finn Anthony Trollope 1869 British English
1607 Pan Knut Hamsun 1894 Norwegian Norwegian
1611 The Song of Hiawatha Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1855 American English