The Greatest Philosophical 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
3635 Odes John Keats 1820 British English
3637 Areopagitica John Milton 1644 British English
3637 The Return and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1946 Russian Russian
3637 Homo Ludens Johan Huizinga 1938 Dutch Dutch
3637 The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain Han Shan 600 Chinese Classical chinese
3637 Confessions of an English Opium-Eater Thomas de Quincey 1821 British English
3637 Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial Sir Thomas Browne 1658 British English
3637 The Life of the Bee Maurice Maeterlinck 1901 Belgian French
3637 Why I Am Not a Christian Bertrand Russell 1927 British English
3637 Oh, These Times Catherine the Great 1790 Russian Unknown
3637 The Temptation To Exist Emil Cioran 1956 Romanian French
3637 Religio Medici Sir Thomas Browne 1643 British English
3637 Mr. Fortune's Maggot Sylvia Townsend Warner 1927 British English
3637 The Life Divine Sri Aurobindo 1942 Indian English
3637 Der Großtyrann Und Das Gericht Werner Bergengruen 1935 German German
3637 Laughter Henri Bergson 1900 French French
3637 Cause, Principle, And Unity Giordano Bruno 1584 Italian Italian
3637 New Testament And Mythology Rudolf Bultmann 1941 German German
3637 The Tunnel Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1952 Swiss German
3637 Der Siebente Ring Stefan George 1907 German German
3637 Theory Of Colours Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1810 German German
3637 The Future Has Already Begun Robert Jungk 1952 Austrian German
3637 The Century Of The Child Ellen Key 1900 Swedish Swedish
3637 The Marquise Of O Heinrich von Kleist 1808 German German
3637 The Sexual Revolution Wilhelm Reich 1936 German German
3637 The Seven Lamps Of Architecture John Ruskin 1849 British English
3637 The Questionnaire Ernst von Salomon 1951 German German
3637 The Roads To Freedom Jean Paul Sartre 1945 French French
3637 The Road Into The Open Arthur Schnitzler 1908 Austrian German
3637 Out Of My Life And Thought Albert Schweitzer 1931 German German
3637 Art In Crisis Hans Sedlmayr 1948 Austrian German
3637 Der Moderne Kapitalismus Werner Sombart 1902 German German
3637 An Outline Of Occult Science Rudolf Steiner 1910 Austrian German
3637 Franz Sternbald's Wanderings Ludwig Tieck 1798 German German
3637 Caspar Hauser Or The Inertia Of The Heart Jakob Wassermann 1908 German German
3801 A Imortalidade Milan Kundera 1990 Czech Czech
3806 Critique Of Cynical Reason Peter Sloterdijk 1983 German German
3807 Rousseau and Revolution Will Durant, Ariel Durant 1967 American English
3809 Wittgenstein's Nephew Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German
3809 The Writing Life Annie Dillard 1989 American English
3812 Reflections On Violence Georges Sorel 1908 French French
3832 Stories Of Three Decades Thomas Mann 1936 German German
3833 The Obsolescence Of Man Günther Anders 1956 German German
3833 Invocation Of The Great Bear Ingeborg Bachmann 1956 Austrian German
3839 Gog Andrew Sinclair 1967 British English
3840 Country Of Origin E. du Perron 1935 Dutch Dutch
3852 Of Woman Born Adrienne Rich 1976 American English
3854 Little Johannes Frederik van Eeden 1887 Dutch Dutch
3860 Ethiopia Unbound J. E. Casely Hayford 1911 Ghanaian English
3860 The Soul of the White Ant Eugène N. Marais 1925 South African Afrikaans
3869 Walden Two B. F. Skinner 1948 American English
3869 Sansibar Or The Last Reason Alfred Andersch 1957 German German
3869 Die Skeptische Generation Helmut Schelsky 1957 German German
3890 The Concept Of Law H. L. A. Hart 1961 British English
3907 Homo Sociologicus Ralf Dahrendorf 1958 German German
3915 Zayni Barakat Jamal al- Ghitani 1974 Egyptian Arabic
3938 All The World's Mornings Pascal Quignard 1991 French French
3941 Three Case Histories Sigmund Freud 1963 Austrian German
3944 A Fire on the Moon Norman Mailer 1970 American English
3953 The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama 1992 American English
3954 Το φως που καίει Kostas Varnalis 1922 Greek Greek
3954 Freedom Or Death Nikos Kazantzakis 1953 Greek Greek
3954 Λυρικός Βίος Angelos Sikelianos 1938 Greek Greek
3954 The Poems Of Dinos Christianopoulos Dinos Christianopoulos 1958 Greek Greek
3954 Creanga De Aur Mihail Sadoveanu 1933 Romanian Romanian
3954 The Last Night Of Love, The First Night Of War Camil Petrescu 1930 Romanian Romanian
3954 The Bed Of Procrustes Camil Petrescu 1933 Romanian Romanian
3954 For Two Thousand Years Mihail Sebastian 1934 Romanian Romanian
3954 Bietul Ioanide G. Călinescu 1953 Romanian Romanian
3954 The Life And Opinions Of Zacharias Lichter Matei Călinescu 1969 Romanian Romanian
3954 Căderea în Lume Constantin Țoiu 1968 Romanian Romanian
3954 Solstițiu Tulburat Paul Georgescu 1968 Romanian Romanian
4056 Leaving the Atocha Station Ben Lerner 2011 American English
4057 The Tunnel William H. Gass 1995 American English
4059 Gedichten J.H. Leopold 1912 Dutch Dutch
4059 Awater Martinus Nijhoff 1934 Dutch Dutch
4091 The Little Tragedies Alexander Pushkin 1832 Russian Russian
4100 Четвёртая проза Osip Mandelstam 1930 Russian Russian
4101 Aegypt John Crowley 1987 American English
4106 Lange Schatten Marie Luise Kaschnitz 1960 German German
4113 Art and Illusion Ernest H. Gombrich 1960 British English
4116 For a New Novel Alain Robbe-Grillet 1963 French French
4118 Hekeldichten Joost van den Vondel 1625 Dutch Dutch
4124 Either Or Soren Kierkegaard 1843 Danish Danish
4126 The Black Book Orhan Pamuk 1990 Turkish Turkish
4128 Ideas Multatuli 1862 Dutch Dutch
4128 Het Uur U Martinus Nijhoff 1936 Dutch Dutch
4132 The Three-Arched Bridge Ismail Kadare 1978 Albanian Albanian
4134 The Cathedral Oles Honchar 1968 Ukrainian Ukrainian
4137 The Faraway Nearby Rebecca Solnit 2013 American English
4139 Three plays Paul Claudel 1912 French French
4152 Oxherding Tale Charles R. Johnson 1982 American English
4154 Collected Poems Nils Ferlin 1947 Swedish Swedish
4157 Asymmetry Lisa Halliday 2018 American English
4169 Letters On England Voltaire 1734 French French
4171 Dissipatio H.G. Guido Morselli 1977 Italian Italian
4179 Cheops J.H. Leopold 1936 Dutch Dutch
4179 Prometheus Carry van Bruggen 1919 Dutch Dutch
4179 De Kellner En De Levenden Simon Vestdijk 1949 Dutch Dutch
4193 Oriental Despotism Karl August Wittfogel 1957 German English
4195 The Celestine Prophecy James Redfield 1993 American English
4197 The Master Of Go Yasunari Kawabata 1951 Japanese Japanese
4206 The Colonizer and the Colonized Albert Memmi 1957 French French
4208 The Case Worker György Konrád 1969 Hungarian Hungarian
4222 The Shadow of the Torturer Gene Wolfe 1980 American English
4223 A Pattern Language Christopher Alexander 1977 American English
4228 Introduction To The Sociology Of Music Theodor Adorno 1962 German English
4234 The Mountain Of Light Louis Couperus 1906 Dutch Dutch
4257 Scenes From The Past Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin 1869 Russian Russian
4261 Petals of blood Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1977 Kenyan English
4263 Essays of Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau 1862 American English
4264 The Importance Of Living Lin Yutang 1937 Chinese English
4269 Sevastopol Sketches Leo Tolstoy 1855 Russian Russian
4273 The Noise Of Time Osip Mandelstam 1925 Russian Russian
4275 Journey From St. Petersburg To Moscow Alexander Radishchev 1790 Russian Russian
4279 Fallen Leaves Vasily Rozanov 1913 Russian Russian
4281 Poem Of The Mountain Marina Tsvetayeva 1924 Russian Russian
4291 Finite And Infinite Games James P. Carse 1986 American English
4293 Conversations With Igor Stravinsky Robert Craft 1959 American English
4310 The Polyglots William Gerhardie 1925 British English