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
852 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
2074 The Blithedale Romance Nathaniel Hawthorne 1852 American English
2469 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
2534 Young Goodman Brown & Other Short Stories Nathaniel Hawthorne 1835 American English
2616 The Rise Of Silas Lapham William Dean Howells 1885 American English
2660 The Women's Room Marilyn French 1977 American English
2663 Early Autumn Robert B. Parker 1980 American English
2830 Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin 2022 American English
2974 Tuesdays With Morrie Mitch Albom 1997 American English
2977 Johnny Tremain Esther Forbes 1943 American English
2992 Frederick Douglass David W. Blight 2018 American English
3134 Daddy Long Legs Jean Webster 1912 American English
3238 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 2000 American English
3245 Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau 1849 American English
3261 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
4263 Essays of Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau 1862 American English
4292 Mystic River Dennis Lehane 2001 American English
4308 It Ends With Us Colleen Hoover 2016 American English
4507 North Woods Daniel Mason 2023 American English
4646 Friday The Rabbi Slept Late Harry Kemelman 1964 American English
4734 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation M. T. Anderson 2006 American English
4756 Home Fire Kamila Shamsie 2017 British English
4900 The Redeemed Captive John Williams 1707 American English
4900 The Poetry Of Anne Bradstreet Anne Bradstreet 1867 American English
4900 The Autobiography Of Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge 1929 American English
5046 The White Old Maid Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
5231 Whispers Stuart David Schiff 1977 American English
5237 Holder of the World Bharati Mukherjee 1993 Indian English
5269 What I Talk About When I Talk About Running Haruki Murakami 2007 Japanese Japanese
5283 The Complete Notebooks Of Henry James Henry James 1987 American English
5311 The Adams Jefferson Letters Lester J. Cappon 1959 American English
5772 His Majesty's Yankees Thomas H. Raddall 1977 Canadian English
5863 A Modern Instance William Dean Howells 1882 American English
6083 The Lamplighter Maria Susanna Cummins 1854 American English
6223 Justice Michael J. Sandel 2007 American English
6485 Common Ground J. Anthony Lukas 1985 American English
6493 The Story Of Avis Elizabeth Stuart Phelps 1877 American English
6504 Hope Leslie; Or, Early Times In The Massachusetts Catharine Maria Sedgwick 1827 American English
6559 Prep Curtis Sittenfeld 2005 American English
6767 The Bay Psalm Book Stephen Daye 1640 American English
6767 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
7191 The Complete Plays Of Eugene O'neill Eugene O'Neill 1959 American English
7204 The Surgeon Tess Gerritsen 2001 American English
7216 Poems Of John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier 1838 American English
7216 Journals Ralph Waldo Emerson 1820 American English
7216 Tales And Sketches Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
7216 Notebooks Nathaniel Hawthorne 1868 American English
7216 Essays And Poems Jones Very 1839 American English
7216 Poems Of Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau 1895 American English
7216 H. M. Pulham, Esquire John P. Marquand 1941 American English
7577 The Innovator's Dilemma Clayton M. Christensen 1997 American English
7680 Master Slave Husband Wife Ilyon Woo 2023 Unknown English
7714 We Were Not The Savages Daniel N. Paul 1993 Canadian English
7789 Chatham School Affair Thomas Cook 1996 American English
7922 Small Mercies Dennis Lehane 2023 American English
8107 Pembroke Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 1894 American English
8308 A Life In The Twentieth Century Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr 2000 American English
8321 The Living Is Easy Dorothy West 1948 American English
8336 The Rebellion Of Yale Marrat Robert H. Rimmer 1964 American English
8384 Outrageous Acts And Everyday Rebellions Gloria Steinem 1983 American English
8473 Poems Of Charles Olso Charles Olson 1960 American English
8524 The Outermost House Henry Beston 1928 American English
8542 Life Studies Robert Lowell 1967 American English
8574 Let The Trumpet Sound Stephen B. Oates 1982 American English
8632 We All Want Impossible Things Catherine Newman 2022 American English
8770 John Adams David McCullough 2001 American English
8872 Becoming Mrs. Lewis Patti Callahan Henry 2018 American English
8876 April Morning Howard Fast 1961 American English
8927 The End Of Men Hanna Rosin 2012 American English
8985 Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil V. E. Schwab 2025 Unknown English
9001 The Emperor Of Ocean Park Stephen L. Carter 2002 American English
8999 The Deal Elle Kennedy 2015 Canadian English
9057 The Late George Apley John P. Marquand 1937 American English
9126 The Storied Life Of A.J. Fikry Gabrielle Zevin 2014 American English
9145 Boy, Snow, Bird Helen Oyeyemi 2014 British English
9192 The Undoing Project Michael M. Lewis 2016 American English
9262 Malcolm X Manning Marable 2011 American English
9316 Hamlet On The Holodeck Janet H. Murray 1997 American English
9326 The Hacker Crackdown Bruce Sterling 1992 American English
9330 In Search Of Excellence Tom Peters, Robert H. Waterman, Jr. 1982 American English
9351 Eileen Ottessa Moshfegh 2015 American English
9357 Hard Hitter Sarina Bowen 2017 American English
9377 Alice Doane's Appeal Nathaniel Hawthorne 1835 American English
9680 Gone Baby Gone Dennis Lehane 1998 American English
9718 The Crucible Arthur Miller 1953 American English
9767 Call Me Ishmael Charles Olson 1947 American English
9770 The Narrow Land Christine Dwyer Hickey 2019 Irish English
9820 The Forty Rules of Love Elif Shafak 2009 Turkish Turkish
9835 The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley Hannah Tinti 2017 American English