The Greatest Books of All Time on Mortality

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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
3638 Fluss Ohne Ufer Hans Henny Jahnn 1949 German German
3638 Gallows Songs Christian Morgenstern 1905 German German
3638 The Large Testament And The Small Testament François Villon 1461 French French
3638 Everyman Hugo von Hofmannsthal 1911 Austrian German
3834 Invocation Of The Great Bear Ingeborg Bachmann 1956 Austrian German
3920 Collected Poems Allen Ginsberg 1984 American English
4162 No One Is Talking About This Patricia Lockwood 2021 American English
4371 Frost Thomas Bernhard 1963 Austrian German
4420 Poems Of George Herbert George Herbert 1633 British English
4436 The Dream Songs John Berryman 1964 American English
4461 Collected Works of Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay 1956 American English
4491 All The Little Live Things Wallace Stegner 1967 American English
4594 Man in the Holocene Max Frisch 1979 Swiss German
4609 Las Personas Del Verbo Jaime Gil de Biedma
 1975 Spanish Spanish
4631 Christina Rossetti Christina Georgina Rossetti 2001 British English
4638 The Vintner's Luck Elizabeth Knox 1998 New Zealand English
4659 Poets Of The English Language W. H. Auden, Norman Holmes Pearson 1950 American English
4683 The Complete Poems Philip Larkin 1988 British English
4705 The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter Katherine Anne Porter 1965 American English
4719 The Sword of the Lictor Gene Wolfe 1982 American English
4779 Odes Pindar -518 Greek Ancient greek
4815 The New Oxford Book Of English Verse Helen Gardner 1972 British English
4887 Natura Morta Josef Winkler 2001 Unknown German
4891 The Short Stories Of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov 1886 Russian Russian
4943 A Short History Of Decay Emil Cioran 1949 French French
4976 Klara And The Sun Kazuo Ishiguro 2021 British English
5018 Hourglass Danilo Kiš 1972 Serbian Serbo-croatian
5032 I Feel Bad About My Neck Nora Ephron 2006 American English
5353 New Hampshire Robert Frost 1923 American English
5360 On Suicide Jean Améry 1976 Unknown German
5390 Devotions upon Emergent Occasions John Donne 1624 British English
5390 Lycidas, Comus, And The Minor Poems John Milton 1637 British English
5390 Holy Dying Jeremy Taylor 1651 British English
5820 Hymns And Epigrams Callimachus -239 Greek Ancient greek
5830 Poems Archilochos -650 Greek Ancient greek
5856 Selections Francesco Petrarca 1340 Italian Italian
5860 Poems And Prose Gerald Manley Hopkins 1918 British English
5935 Spätestens Im November Hans Erich Nossack 1982 German German
6002 The Oxford Book Of English Verse Arthur Quiller-Couch 1900 British English
6002 Chekhov's Selected Stories Anton Chekhov 1903 Russian Russian
6002 Die Niederschrift Des Gustav Anias Horn Hans Henny Jahnn 1949 German German
6002 Dire I–Ii Danielle Collobert 1972 French French
6002 Madame Edwarda Unknown 1941 Unknown French
6002 Master And Man Leo Tolstoy 1895 Russian Russian
6002 Poem Of The End Marina Tsvetaeva 1923 Russian Russian
6002 The Motorcycle André Pieyre de Mandiargues 1963 French French
6175 Notebooks Albert Camus 1935 French French
6430 La Jeune Parque Paul Valéry 1917 French French
6474 War & War László Krasznahorkai 1999 Hungarian Hungarian
6515 Ghost Image Hervé Guibert 1981 French French
6578 Zuckerman Bound Philip Roth 1985 American English
6747 Psalm At Journey's End Erik Fosnes Hansen 1990 Norwegian Norwegian
6873 Love's Work Gillian Rose 1995 British English
6873 Povedal Mi Veštec Tiziano Terzani 2002 Italian Italian
6929 Jayber Crow Wendell Berry 2000 American English
6931 Duck, Death And The Tulip Wolf Erlbruch 2007 German German
6980 We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live Joan Didion 2006 American English
7001 Collected Poems Jack Gilbert 2012 American English
7056 Just The End Of The World Jean-Luc Lagarce 1990 French French
7153 Poems Adrienne Rich 1975 American English
7178 A Book of Luminous Things Czesław Miłosz 1996 Polish English
7189 Close To The Knives David Wojnarowicz 1991 American English
7215 Poetry Antònio Ferreira 1558 Portuguese Portuguese
7215 Poems Of Fray Luis De León Fray Luis de León 1582 Spanish Spanish
7215 Sonnets Luis de Góngora 1601 Spanish Spanish
7215 Poems Of Lord Brooke Fulke Greville Lord Brooke Fulke Greville 1601 British English
7215 The Poems Of Sir Walter Raleigh Walter Ralegh 1600 British English
7215 Poems Of Michael Drayton Michael Drayton 1605 British English
7215 The Complete Works In Verse And Prose Of Samuel Daniel Samuel Daniel 1601 British English
7215 The Works Of Thomas Campion Thomas Campion 1909 British English
7215 The Poetical Works Of Robert Herrick Robert Herrick 1648 British English
7215 The Poems Of Thomas Carew Thomas Carew 1640 British English
7215 Silex Scintillans, Etc Henry Vaughan 1650 British English
7215 The Complete Works Of Richard Crashaw Richard Crashaw 1652 British English
7215 Poems Of William Cowper William Cowper 1782 British English
7215 Odes, Elegies, Sonnets Pierre Ronsard 1550 French French
7215 Oraisons funèbres Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet 1689 French French
7215 Poems Of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1789 German German
7215 Selected Poems Freidrich Hölderlin 1800 German German
7215 Odes And The Graces Ugo Foscolo 1822 Italian Italian
7215 Poems Of Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold 1853 British English
7215 Odes Coventry Patmore 1868 British English
7215 The City Of The Dreadful Night James Thomson 1880 British English
7215 Complete Poems Ernest Dowson 1905 British English
7215 The Earthly Paradise William Morris 1868 British English
7215 Essays And Poems Jones Very 1839 American English
7215 Poems Of Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau 1895 American English
7215 Collected Poems Walter de la Mare 1920 British English
7215 Reminiscences Of Tolstoy, Chekhov, And Andreev Maxim Gorky 1920 Russian Russian
7215 Poems Of Moshe Leib Halpern Moshe-Leib Halpern 1919 Yiddish Yiddish
7215 Poems Of Robinson Jeffers Robinson Jeffers 1920 American English
7215 Poems Of John Crowe Ransom John Crowe Ransom 1923 American English
7215 Permit Me Voyage James Agee 1934 American English
7611 The Short Stories Katherine Mansfield 1945 New Zealander English
7683 Looking for Alaska John Green 2005 American English
7808 Twilight of the Superheroes Deborah Eisenberg 2006 American English
7876 Baumgartner Paul Auster 2023 American English
8075 The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead David Shields 2008 American English
8141 Mort Terry Pratchett 1987 British English
8176 Three Novels Samuel Beckett 1955 Irish French
8274 Tennyson Christopher Ricks 1972 British English
8278 Three Plays Thornton Wilder 1957 American English
8437 Heaven And Hell Jón Kalman Stefánsson 2007 Icelandic Icelandic
8439 Diaries 1959 1971 Alejandra Pizarnik 2003 Argentinian Spanish
8538 Any Human Heart William Boyd 2002 British English
8538 Life Studies Robert Lowell 1967 American English
8620 The Storm And Other Things Eugenio Montale 1978 Italian Italian
8627 Vanishing Point David Markson 2004 American English
8644 Treatises On Friendship And Old Age Marcus Tullius Cicero -44 Latin Latin
8648 Three Days With My Mother François Weyergans 2005 Belgian French
8727 Hymns And Fragments Freidrich Hölderlin 1984 German German
8745 Reaper Man Terry Pratchett 1991 British English
8796 Time Regained Marcel Proust 1927 French French
8948 Eu Augusto Dos Anjos 1912 Brazilian Portuguese
8999 Circe's Mountain Marie Luise Kaschnitz 1959 German Unknown
9032 Yama Loka Terminus Léo Henry, Jacques Mucchielli 2008 French French
9068 Stone Upon Stone Wiesław Myśliwski 1984 Polish Polish
9188 The Death Class Erika Hayasaki 2014 American English
9242 The Complete Dramatic Works Of Samuel Beckett Samuel Beckett 1986 Irish English
9324 René’S Flesh Virgilio Piñera 1988 Cuban Spanish