The Greatest Modernist Books of All Time

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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
7215 Poems Of Hugh Mac Diarmid Hugh MacDiarmid 1925 Scottish Scots
7215 The King Of Time Velimir Khlebnikov 1920 Russian Russian
7215 Znamení Moci Jan Zahradníček 1993 Czech Czech
7215 The Years Virginia Woolf 1937 British English
7215 The Journal Of Albion Moonlight Kenneth Patchen 1941 American English
7215 A Mind At Peace Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar 1949 Turkish Turkish
7564 Selected Poems Frank O'Hara 1974 American English
7605 Writing Marguerite Duras 1993 French French
7611 Selected Poetry And Prose Stéphane Mallarmé 1945 French French
7644 Fantasy And Mimesis Kathryn Hume 1984 American English
7655 Collected Poetry Aimé Césaire 1946 French French
7655 Paterson William Carlos Williams 1946 American English
7716 Selected Writings Antonin Artaud 1947 French French
7729 Verzameld Werk: Gedichten Martinus Nijhoff 1990 Dutch Dutch
7748 Geography Iii Elizabeth Bishop 1976 American English
7755 One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine Paul Verlaine 1948 French French
7762 The Collected Stories of Heinrich Boll Heinrich Böll 1972 German German
7765 In Search of Klingsor Jorge Volpi Escalante 1999 Mexican Spanish
7790 Weetzie Bat Francesca Lia Block 1989 American English
7793 The Gay Science Friedrich Nietzsche 1882 German German
7808 Twilight of the Superheroes Deborah Eisenberg 2006 American English
7819 Selected Writings Henri Michaux 1949 French French
7819 Five Novels Ronald Firbank 1949 British English
7819 Men Of Maize Miguel Angel Asturias 1949 Guatemalan Spanish
7827 Noci, Po Nichž Nepřichází Ráno J. H. Krchovský 1996 Czech Czech
7829 Purple America Rick Moody 1997 American English
7914 Spring Flowers, Spring Frost Ismail Kadare 2000 Albanian Albanian
7949 My Story Kamala Das 1976 Indian English
7966 Selected Writings Guillaume Apollinaire 1952 French French
7966 The Anathemata David Jones 1952 British English
8000 Fragmentos De Un Libro Futuro José Ángel Valente 2000 Spanish Spanish
8031 Sea And Sardinia D. H. Lawrence 1921 British English
8075 Clea Lawrence Durrell 1960 British English
8089 Approaching The End Gerard Reve 1993 Dutch Dutch
8106 After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie Jean Rhys 1930 British English
8106 Hermione Hilda Doolittle 1927 American English
8106 New Islands And Other Stories María Luisa Bombal 1939 Chilean Spanish
8143 Walker On Water Kristiina Ehin 2014 Estonian Estonian
8143 Alindarka’s Children Alhierld Bakharevich 2014 Belarusian Belarusian
8176 Cuando Ya No Importe Juan Carlos Onetti 1993 Uruguayan Spanish
8177 Three Novels Samuel Beckett 1955 Irish French
8189 Experience And Nature John Dewey 1925 American English
8199 Acasă, pe Cîmpia Armaghedonului Marta Petreu 2011 Romanian Romanian
8207 89 Poems Zbigniew Herbert 1956 Polish Polish
8214 Stories In An Almost Classical Mode Harold Brodkey 1989 American English
8279 Opus Posthumous Wallace Stevens 1957 American English
8279 Selected Poems Hilda Doolittle 1957 American English
8354 Libertinagem Manuel Bandeira 1930 Brazilian Portuguese
8358 The Literary Conference César Aira 1997 Argentinian Spanish
8442 Journal Mireille Havet 2003 French French
8472 Selected Writings Salvatore Quasimodo 1960 Italian Italian
8472 Three Novels Witold Gombrowicz 1960 Polish Polish
8472 The Maximus Poems Charles Olson 1960 American English
8498 Serafim Ponte Grande Oswald De Andrade 1923 Brazilian Portuguese
8511 From A Logical Point Of View Willard Van Orman Quine 1953 American English
8553 Our Evenings Alan Hollinghurst 2024 Unknown English
8664 The Bridge Hart Crane 1930 American English
8716 La Cuadratura Del Círculo Álvaro Pombo 1995 Spanish Spanish
8727 The History of Silence Pedro Zarraluki 1995 Spanish Spanish
8737 Second Skin John Hawkes 1964 American English
8799 Time Regained Marcel Proust 1927 French French
8825 The Baphomet Pierre Klossowski 1965 French French
8833 Memórias Sentimentais De João Miramar Oswald De Andrade 1924 Brazilian Portuguese
8879 Philosophy And The Mirror Of Nature Richard Rorty 1979 American English
8899 The Art Of Flight Sergio Pitol 1997 Mexican Spanish
8896 I Have Not Seen Mandu Swadesh Deepak 2003 Indian Hindi
8950 Time Without Keys Ida Vitale 2019 Uruguayan Spanish
8951 Eu Augusto Dos Anjos 1912 Brazilian Portuguese
8994 Delirious Damien Wilkins 2012 New Zealand English
9039 Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here Jonathan Blitzer 2024 Unknown English
9065 A Million Windows Gerald Murnane 2014 Australian English
9078 Event Factory Renee Gladman 2010 American English
9167 Stars Outside Nathan Alterman Israeli Hebrew
9170 Memories Of The Body Lisa Tuttle 1992 American English
9224 Burning Your Boats Angela Carter 1995 British English
9225 Han Hinkon Makoto Yuasa 2008 Japanese Unknown
9245 The Complete Dramatic Works Of Samuel Beckett Samuel Beckett 1986 Irish English
9247 Viva Vaia Augusto De Campos 1979 Brazilian Portuguese
9248 Cities Of Salt Abd al-Rahman Munif 1984 Arabic Arabic
9255 Portrait Of A Man Unknown Nathalie Sarraute 1948 French French
9261 The Candy House Jennifer Egan 2022 American English
9278 The Alternatives Caoilinn Hughes 2024 Irish English
9292 The Double Dream Of Spring John Ashbery 1970 American English
9315 Memory Rose Into Threshold Speech Paul Celan 2020 German German
9340 Rails Under My Back Jeffery Renard Allen 2000 American English
9346 Ellipse Of Uncertainty Lance Olsen 1993 American English
9350 That Smell Sonallah Ibrahim 1966 Egyptian Arabic
9375 The Sense Of The Past Henry James 1917 American English
9535 Love's End Pascal Rambert 2011 French French
9572 Pigeons On The Grass Wolfgang Koeppen 1951 German German
9633 The Collected Works of Paul Valéry Paul Valéry 1957 French French
9645 Forgetting Elena Edmund White 1973 American English
9657 Sebastian Dreaming Georg Trakl Austrian German
9691 Year Of The Sex Olympics Nigel Kneale 1968 British English
9741 Tatlin! Guy Davenport 1974 American English
9774 The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams 1986 American English
9793 Crossings Chuang Hua 1968 American English
9857 Biographia Literaria Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1817 British English
9857 The Delicate Prey Paul Bowles 1950 American English
9883 The Wall Jean Paul Sartre 1939 French French
9919 Hail And Farewell George Moore 1911 British English
10037 Poems Of John Ashbery John Ashbery 1977 American English
10052 Tragic Sense Of Life Miguel de Unamuno 1912 Spanish Spanish
10072 Prufrock and Other Observations T. S. Eliot 1917 British English
10136 Nocturnes For The King Of Naples Edmund White 1978 American English
10179 Insane Rainald Goetz 1983 German German
10207 The Little Hotel Christina Stead 1973 Australian English
10305 Mimesis Erich Auerbach 1946 German German
10305 Brecht On Theatre Bertolt Brecht 1964 German German
10305 Film Form Sergei Eisenstein 1949 Russian Russian
10305 Shakespeare Our Contemporary Jan Kott 1961 Polish Polish
10305 Russia El Lissitsky 1930 Russian Russian
10305 Ornament And Crime Adolf Loos 1908 German German
10305 Sense And Non Sense Maurice Merleau-Ponty 1948 French French
10356 The Colony Audrey Magee 2022 Irish English
10397 For Marx Louis Althusser 1965 French French
10450 Why Does The World Exist? An Existential Detective Story Jim Holt 2012 American English
10493 A Dictator Calls Ismail Kadare 2023 Albanian Unknown
10503 Signs Preceding the End of the World Yuri Herrera 2009 Mexican Spanish
10507 Skin Kathe Koja 1993 American English