The Greatest Books of All Time on Morality

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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
1046 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
1049 Works and Days Hesiod -700 Greek Ancient greek
1072 Gösta Berling's Saga Selma Lagerlöf 1891 Swedish Swedish
1084 Mother Courage and Her Children Bertolt Brecht 1941 German German
1090 The Kreutzer Sonata Leo Tolstoy 1889 Russian Russian
1114 Andersonville MacKinlay Kantor 1955 American English
1132 Fanny Hill John Cleland 1748 British English
1131 Ashes and Diamonds Jerzy Andrzejewski 1948 Polish Polish
1140 Nana Émile Zola 1880 French French
1157 Twice-Told Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
1162 Essays Francis Bacon 1597 British English
1175 The Demons Heimito von Doderer 1956 Austrian German
1180 Annals Cornelius Tacitus 109 Roman Latin
1199 This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen Tadeusz Borowski 1947 Polish Polish
1219 The Time of Indifference Alberto Moravia 1929 Italian Italian
1223 Jurgen James Branch Cabell 1919 American English
1226 The History Of Gil Blas Of Santillana Alain-René Lesage 1715 French French
1230 Songs of Innocence and Experience William Blake 1789 British English
1236 Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Ryunosuke Akutagawa 1915 Japanese Japanese
1240 Strangers On A Train Patricia Highsmith 1950 American English
1248 The Conservative Mind Russell Kirk 1953 American English
1267 Billy Budd Herman Melville 1924 American English
1273 Robert Browning's Poetry Robert Browning 1833 British English
1277 A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes 1929 British English
1282 The Plum in the Golden Vase Unknown 1610 Chinese Chinese
1284 The Faerie Queene Edmund Spenser 1590 British English
1287 Odessa Stories Isaac Babel 1923 Ukrainian Russian
1300 The Guide R. K. Narayan 1958 Indian English
1362 The Heart Of Midlothian Sir Walter Scott 1818 Scottish English
1363 The Liberal Imagination Lionel Trilling 1950 American English
1377 Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl 1964 British English
1407 The Golovlyov Family Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin 1880 Russian Russian
1424 Our Ancestors Italo Calvino 1952 Italian Italian
1429 Aphorisms Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1902 German German
1440 The Virginian Owen Wister 1902 American English
1455 Antigone Jean Anouilh 1944 French French
1459 The City of God Augustine 413 Roman Latin
1466 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
1501 The Magician of Lublin Isaac Bashevis Singer 1960 Polish Yiddish
1502 The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born Ayi K. Armah 1968 Ghanaian English
1523 Guzmán de Alfarache Mateo Alemán 1599 Spanish Spanish
1527 The Confidence Man Herman Melville 1857 American English
1539 On the Genealogy of Morality Friedrich Nietzsche 1887 German German
1547 What Maisie Knew Henry James 1897 American English
1556 The Poems of Francois Villon François Villon 1489 French Middle french
1558 Marius the Epicurean Walter Pater 1885 British English
1570 The Young Lions Irwin Shaw 1948 American English
1579 The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel Isaac Babel 1934 Russian Russian
1600 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1599 On the Edge of Reason Miroslav Krleža 1938 Croatian Croatian
1629 Point Counter Point Aldous Huxley 1928 British English
1640 The Asphalt Jungle W. R. Burnett 1949 American English
1660 The Waste Books Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1770 German German
1671 The Ordeal Of Richard Feverel George Meredith 1859 British English
1673 Penguin Island Anatole France 1908 French French
1705 The Sea-Wolf Jack London 1904 American English
1732 A Harlot High And Low Honoré de Balzac 1839 French French
1749 First Circle Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1968 Russian Russian
1772 Hard Times Charles Dickens 1854 British English
1773 Doctor Glas Hjalmar Soderberg 1905 Swedish Swedish
1796 Collected Stories Isaac Bashevis Singer 1982 Polish English
1801 A Time To Kill John Grisham 1989 American English
1808 Martin Chuzzlewit Charles Dickens 1843 British English
1828 The Mysterious Stranger Mark Twain 1916 American English
1856 Under Western Eyes Joseph Conrad 1911 British English
1857 A Lost Lady Willa Cather 1923 American English
1865 Elmer Gantry Sinclair Lewis 1927 American English
1898 Tenth of December George Saunders 2013 American English
1900 Collected Stories Of O. Henry O. Henry 1908 American English
1907 Consider The Lobster David Foster Wallace 2005 American English
1915 A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works Jonathan Swift 1729 Irish English
1926 The Spectator Joseph Addison 1711 British English
1939 The Marble Faun Nathaniel Hawthorne 1860 American English
1960 The Provincial Letters Blaise Pascal 1656 French French
1965 A Flag For Sunrise Robert Stone 1981 American English
2021 Journals André Gide 1948 French French
2053 The Misanthrope Molière 1666 French French
2102 Tree of Smoke Denis Johnson 2007 American English
2105 Someone Like You Roald Dahl 1953 British English
2113 House On The Embankment Yuri Trifonov 1976 Russian Russian
2117 The Treasure Chest Johann Peter Hebel 1811 German German
2117 Stories of Mr. Keuner Bertolt Brecht 1926 German German
2125 True Grit Charles Portis 1968 American English
2152 Conversations Of Goethe With Johann Peter Eckermann Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann 1836 German German
2155 Don Juan Molière 1665 French French
2173 Italian Folktales Italo Calvino 1956 Italian Italian
2182 The Little Demon Fedor Sologub 1907 Russian Russian
2189 No Country for Old Men Cormac McCarthy 2005 American English
2203 The Kindly Ones Jonathan Littell 2006 French French
2211 Exemplary Stories Miguel de Cervantes 1613 Spanish Spanish
2215 The Threepenny Opera Bertolt Brecht 1928 German German
2231 The Cathedral Folk Nikolai Leskov 1872 Russian Russian
2237 Billiards at Half-Past Nine Heinrich Böll 1959 German German
2240 A Treatise of Human Nature David Hume 1739 British English
2266 The Murderess Alexandros Papadiamantis 1903 Greek Greek
2286 The Crossing Cormac McCarthy 1994 American English
2305 Giles Goat-Boy John Barth 1966 American English
2315 Ship Of Fools Katherine Anne Porter 1962 American English
2329 Tom Brown's School Days Thomas Hughes 1857 British English
2333 The Complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault Charles Perrault 1697 French French
2345 Small Things Like These Claire Keegan 2021 Irish English
2350 Bulfinch's Mythology Thomas Bulfinch 1855 British English
2367 Little Big Man Thomas Berger 1964 American English
2382 The Will To Power Friedrich Nietzsche 1901 German German
2374 Put Out More Flags Evelyn Waugh 1942 British English
2374 South Wind Norman Douglas 1917 British English
2374 Roxana Daniel Defoe 1724 British English
2374 The Vatican Cellars André Gide 1914 French French
2398 The Drowned and the Saved Primo Levi 1986 Italian Italian
2450 Bostan Saadi 1257 Persian Persian
2476 Essays And Criticism William Hazlitt 1823 British English
2511 Curial e Güelfa Unknown 1450 Spanish Catalan
2519 Rites of Passage William Golding 1980 British English
2534 Young Goodman Brown & Other Short Stories Nathaniel Hawthorne 1835 American English
2544 Camilla Fanny Burney 1796 British English
2549 The Thinking Reed Rebecca West 1936 British English
2550 Death in Rome Wolfgang Koeppen 1954 German German
2590 Sir Charles Grandison Samuel Richardson 1753 British English
2606 Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 1985 American English
2616 The Rise Of Silas Lapham William Dean Howells 1885 American English