The Greatest Books of All Time Set in Massachusetts

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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
7 Moby-Dick Herman Melville 1851 American English
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
74 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 1850 American English
93 Little Women Louisa May Alcott 1868 American English
108 Walden Henry David Thoreau 1854 American English
156 Poems of Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson 1890 American English
193 East of Eden John Steinbeck 1952 American English
298 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
306 The Autobiography of Malcolm X Alex Haley 1965 American English
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
601 The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne 1851 American English
773 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Edgar Allan Poe 1838 American English
784 Rabbit at Rest John Updike 1990 American English
851 Essays, First And Second Series Ralph Waldo Emerson 1841 American English
913 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass 1845 American English
1034 The Bostonians Henry James 1886 American English
1129 The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri 2003 American English
1152 The Wapshot Chronicle John Cheever 1957 American English
1157 Twice-Told Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
1503 The Friends Of Eddie Coyle George V. Higgins 1970 American English
1546 Poems Of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 1847 American English
1893 The Soul of a New Machine Tracy Kidder 1981 American English
2073 The Blithedale Romance Nathaniel Hawthorne 1852 American English
2467 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
2532 Young Goodman Brown & Other Short Stories Nathaniel Hawthorne 1835 American English
2615 The Rise Of Silas Lapham William Dean Howells 1885 American English
2659 The Women's Room Marilyn French 1977 American English
2662 Early Autumn Robert B. Parker 1980 American English
2828 Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin 2022 American English
2972 Tuesdays With Morrie Mitch Albom 1997 American English
2975 Johnny Tremain Esther Forbes 1943 American English
2990 Frederick Douglass David W. Blight 2018 American English
3133 Daddy Long Legs Jean Webster 1912 American English
3237 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 2000 American English
3244 Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau 1849 American English
3260 The Perfect Storm Sebastian Junger 1997 American English
3321 Where Are The Children? Mary Higgins Clark 1975 American English
3638 Architecture Walter Gropius 1935 German German
4262 Essays of Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau 1862 American English
4291 Mystic River Dennis Lehane 2001 American English
4307 It Ends With Us Colleen Hoover 2016 American English
4505 North Woods Daniel Mason 2023 American English
4644 Friday The Rabbi Slept Late Harry Kemelman 1964 American English
4732 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation M. T. Anderson 2006 American English
4754 Home Fire Kamila Shamsie 2017 British English
4898 The Redeemed Captive John Williams 1707 American English
4898 The Poetry Of Anne Bradstreet Anne Bradstreet 1867 American English
4898 The Autobiography Of Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge 1929 American English
5042 The White Old Maid Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
5228 Whispers Stuart David Schiff 1977 American English
5235 Holder of the World Bharati Mukherjee 1993 Indian English
5267 What I Talk About When I Talk About Running Haruki Murakami 2007 Japanese Japanese
5281 The Complete Notebooks Of Henry James Henry James 1987 American English
5309 The Adams Jefferson Letters Lester J. Cappon 1959 American English
5769 His Majesty's Yankees Thomas H. Raddall 1977 Canadian English
5860 A Modern Instance William Dean Howells 1882 American English
6080 The Lamplighter Maria Susanna Cummins 1854 American English
6219 Justice Michael J. Sandel 2007 American English
6483 Common Ground J. Anthony Lukas 1985 American English
6491 The Story Of Avis Elizabeth Stuart Phelps 1877 American English
6502 Hope Leslie; Or, Early Times In The Massachusetts Catharine Maria Sedgwick 1827 American English
6557 Prep Curtis Sittenfeld 2005 American English
6766 The Bay Psalm Book Stephen Daye 1640 American English
6766 A Curious Hieroglyphic Bible Isaiah Thomas 1788 American English
6832 Rights Talk Mary Ann Glendon 1991 American English
6937 Century Of Struggle Eleanor Flexner 1959 American English
6973 Our Bodies, Ourselves Boston Women’s Health Collective 1970 American English
7122 Why We Love Helen Fisher 2004 American English
7127 Blanche Passes Go Barbara Neely 2000 American English
7133 Desolation Angels Jack Kerouac 1965 American English
7147 Captains And The Kings Taylor Caldwell 1972 American English
7190 The Complete Plays Of Eugene O'neill Eugene O'Neill 1959 American English
7203 The Surgeon Tess Gerritsen 2001 American English
7215 Poems Of John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier 1838 American English
7215 Journals Ralph Waldo Emerson 1820 American English
7215 Tales And Sketches Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
7215 Notebooks Nathaniel Hawthorne 1868 American English
7215 Essays And Poems Jones Very 1839 American English
7215 Poems Of Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau 1895 American English
7215 H. M. Pulham, Esquire John P. Marquand 1941 American English
7576 The Innovator's Dilemma Clayton M. Christensen 1997 American English
7679 Master Slave Husband Wife Ilyon Woo 2023 Unknown English
7712 We Were Not The Savages Daniel N. Paul 1993 Canadian English
7787 Chatham School Affair Thomas Cook 1996 American English
7921 Small Mercies Dennis Lehane 2023 American English
8105 Pembroke Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 1894 American English
8306 A Life In The Twentieth Century Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr 2000 American English
8319 The Living Is Easy Dorothy West 1948 American English
8334 The Rebellion Of Yale Marrat Robert H. Rimmer 1964 American English
8381 Outrageous Acts And Everyday Rebellions Gloria Steinem 1983 American English
8468 Poems Of Charles Olso Charles Olson 1960 American English
8520 The Outermost House Henry Beston 1928 American English
8538 Life Studies Robert Lowell 1967 American English
8570 Let The Trumpet Sound Stephen B. Oates 1982 American English
8628 We All Want Impossible Things Catherine Newman 2022 American English
8765 John Adams David McCullough 2001 American English
8868 Becoming Mrs. Lewis Patti Callahan Henry 2018 American English
8872 April Morning Howard Fast 1961 American English
8923 The End Of Men Hanna Rosin 2012 American English
8981 Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil V. E. Schwab 2025 Unknown English
8997 The Emperor Of Ocean Park Stephen L. Carter 2002 American English
8995 The Deal Elle Kennedy 2015 Canadian English
9052 The Late George Apley John P. Marquand 1937 American English
9121 The Storied Life Of A.J. Fikry Gabrielle Zevin 2014 American English
9140 Boy, Snow, Bird Helen Oyeyemi 2014 British English
9188 The Undoing Project Michael M. Lewis 2016 American English
9258 Malcolm X Manning Marable 2011 American English
9311 Hamlet On The Holodeck Janet H. Murray 1997 American English
9321 The Hacker Crackdown Bruce Sterling 1992 American English
9325 In Search Of Excellence Tom Peters, Robert H. Waterman, Jr. 1982 American English
9346 Eileen Ottessa Moshfegh 2015 American English
9352 Hard Hitter Sarina Bowen 2017 American English
9372 Alice Doane's Appeal Nathaniel Hawthorne 1835 American English
9676 Gone Baby Gone Dennis Lehane 1998 American English
9714 The Crucible Arthur Miller 1953 American English
9763 Call Me Ishmael Charles Olson 1947 American English
9766 The Narrow Land Christine Dwyer Hickey 2019 Irish English
9816 The Forty Rules of Love Elif Shafak 2009 Turkish Turkish
9831 The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley Hannah Tinti 2017 American English