The Greatest Books of All Time on Medicine

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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
28 Middlemarch George Eliot 1871 British English
48 Journey to the End of The Night Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1932 French French
51 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
67 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway 1929 American English
112 Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak 1957 Russian Russian
218 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
564 Main Street Sinclair Lewis 1920 American English
663 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
760 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
819 Burmese Days George Orwell 1934 British English
842 Outlander Diana Gabaldon 1991 American English
965 Eminent Victorians Lytton Strachey 1918 British English
983 A Study In Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle 1887 British English
1036 The Fortunes Of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson 1917 Australian English
1078 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
1104 Maus Art Spiegelman 1980 American English
1218 The Egyptian Mika Waltari 1945 Finnish Finnish
1483 Tono Bungay H. G. Wells 1909 British English
1594 The Imaginary Invalid Molière 1673 French French
1656 Arrowsmith Sinclair Lewis 1925 American English
1726 Down There J. K. Huysmans 1891 French French
1773 Doctor Glas Hjalmar Soderberg 1905 Swedish Swedish
1792 The Adventures Of Roderick Random Tobias Smollett 1748 British English
1817 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 2010 American English
1871 Brief Lives John Aubrey 1898 British English
1873 And the Band Played On Randy Shilts 1987 American English
1880 The Complete John Silence Stories Algernon Blackwood 1908 British English
1896 Smoking and Health Surgeon General 1964 American English
1902 The Physician Noah Gordon 1986 American English
1942 The Land At The End Of The World António Lobo Antunes 1979 Portuguese Portuguese
1948 The Cadaver Of Gideon Wyck Alexander Laing 1934 American English
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
1987 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
2128 Restoration Rose Tremain 1989 British English
2140 Shadows on the Rock Willa Cather 1931 American English
2202 Arch Of Triumph Erich Maria Remarque 1945 German German
2208 Waiting Ha Jin 1999 Chinese English
2246 Poems Of Gottfried Benn Gottfried Benn 1948 German German
2326 Being Mortal Atul Gawande 2014 American English
2484 The Cider House Rules John Irving 1985 American English
2500 Psychopathia Sexualis Richard von Krafft-Ebing 1886 German German
2509 The Abyss Marguerite Yourcenar 1968 French French
2532 The Anatomy Lesson Philip Roth 1983 American English
2548 Amok Stefan Zweig 1922 Austrian German
2674 Microbe Hunters Paul de Kruif 1926 American English
2704 Natural History Pliny the Elder 77 Roman Latin
2749 Physica Hildegard of Bingen 1150 German Latin
2798 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
3021 Captain Blood Rafael Sabatini 1922 British English
3194 The Lives of a Cell Lewis Thomas 1974 American English
3234 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
3307 Camp Concentration Thomas M. Disch 1968 American English
3323 Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus Scriblerus Club 1741 British English
3522 Bad Blood John Carreyrou 2018 American English
3596 Time of Silence Luis Martín-Santos 1962 Spanish Spanish
3622 The Atrocity Exhibition J. G. Ballard 1970 British English
3628 Green For Danger Christianna Brand 1944 British English
3637 Religio Medici Sir Thomas Browne 1643 British English
3637 The Invisible Flag Peter Bamm 1952 German German
3637 The Art Of Prolonging Life Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland 1842 German German
3637 Doctors Of Infamy Unknown 1947 Unknown English
3637 Out Of My Life And Thought Albert Schweitzer 1931 German German
3833 The Doctor Of Stalingrad Heinz G. Konsalik 1956 German German
4205 The Arabian Nightmare Robert Irwin 1983 British English
4289 On the Fabric of the Human Body Andreas Vesalius 1543 Belgian Latin
4456 Mountains Beyond Mountains Tracy Kidder 2003 American English
4463 The Royal Physician's Visit Per Olov Enquist 1999 Swedish Swedish
4505 Osadeni Dushi Dimitar Dimov 1945 Bulgarian Bulgarian
4509 The Book about Blanche and Marie Per Olov Enquist 2004 Swedish Swedish
4534 Mend The Living Maylis de Kerangal 2014 French French
4539 Stiff Mary Roach 2003 American English
4544 Ingenious Pain Andrew Miller 1997 British English
4679 Of Love And Other Demons Gabriel García Márquez 1994 Colombian Spanish
4687 The Tiger's Wife Téa Obreht 2011 Serbian English
4797 The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle Hugh Lofting 1922 British English
4814 Happy Moscow Andrey Platonov 1991 Russian Russian
4830 Cataract Mykhaylo Osadchy 1976 Ukrainian Ukrainian
4830 Blaming Elizabeth Taylor 1976 British English
5101 Cutting for Stone Abraham Verghese 2009 American English
5102 The Doctor Stories William Carlos Williams 1984 American English
5264 The Great Influenza John Barry 2004 American English
5326 The Patient In Room 18 Mignon G. Eberhart 1929 American English
5345 Epileptic David B 1996 French French
5408 A Constellation of Vital Phenomena Anthony Marra 2013 American English
5414 Bad Science Ben Goldacre 2008 British English
5429 Squire Haggard's Journal Michael Green 1975 British English
5435 A Journey Round My Skull Frigyes Karinthy 1939 Hungarian Hungarian
5448 The bells of Bicêtre Georges Simenon 1963 Belgian French
5531 Velbloud Uchem Jehl František Langer 1923 Czech Czech
5531 The White Disease Karel Čapek 1937 Czech Czech
5653 The Unfortunate Experiment Sandra Coney 1988 New Zealand English
5680 The Covenant Of Water Abraham Verghese 2023 American English
5738 The Ghost Road Pat Barker 1995 British English
5740 Anil's Ghost Michael Ondaatje 2000 Canadian English
5807 Five Days at Memorial Sheri Fink 2013 American English
5836 Miss Susie Slagle's Augusta Tucker 1939 American English
5855 Works Empedocles -439 Greek Ancient greek
5918 Reveille in Washington Margaret Leech 1941 American English
5972 Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands Mary Seacole 1857 Jamaican English
6121 The Web That Has No Weaver Ted J. Kaptchuk 1983 American English
6152 The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet David Mitchell 2010 British English
6169 The Tower Uwe Tellkamp 2008 German German
6363 Master Georgie Beryl Bainbridge 1998 British English
6417 Florence Nightingale Cecil Woodham-Smith 1950 British English
6435 On Immunity Eula Biss 2014 American English
6459 Science and Civilisation in China Joseph Needham 1954 British English
6537 The Empathy Exams Leslie Jamison 2014 American English
6612 Hidden Valley Road Robert Kolker 2020 American English
6651 Tratado das Paixões da Alma António Lobo Antunes 1990 Portuguese Portuguese
6657 Organon Of The Rational Art Of Healing Samuel Hahnemann 1989 German German
6699 The Little Stranger Sarah Waters 2009 British English
6716 How To Change Your Mind Michael Pollan 2018 American English
6730 Saturday Ian McEwan 2005 British English
6896 Doomsday Book Connie Willis 1992 American English
6939 The Talisman Sir Walter Scott 1825 Scottish English
6973 Our Bodies, Ourselves Boston Women’s Health Collective 1970 American English
7204 The Surgeon Tess Gerritsen 2001 American English
7216 Doctor Thorne Anthony Trollope 1858 British English
7216 Specimen Days Walt Whitman 1882 American English
7570 Brain On Fire Susannah Cahalan 2012 American English