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
3636 Odes John Keats 1820 British English
3638 Areopagitica John Milton 1644 British English
3638 The Return and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1946 Russian Russian
3638 Homo Ludens Johan Huizinga 1938 Dutch Dutch
3638 The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain Han Shan 600 Chinese Classical chinese
3638 Confessions of an English Opium-Eater Thomas de Quincey 1821 British English
3638 Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial Sir Thomas Browne 1658 British English
3638 The Life of the Bee Maurice Maeterlinck 1901 Belgian French
3638 Why I Am Not a Christian Bertrand Russell 1927 British English
3638 Oh, These Times Catherine the Great 1790 Russian Unknown
3638 The Temptation To Exist Emil Cioran 1956 Romanian French
3638 Religio Medici Sir Thomas Browne 1643 British English
3638 Mr. Fortune's Maggot Sylvia Townsend Warner 1927 British English
3638 The Life Divine Sri Aurobindo 1942 Indian English
3638 Der Großtyrann Und Das Gericht Werner Bergengruen 1935 German German
3638 Laughter Henri Bergson 1900 French French
3638 Cause, Principle, And Unity Giordano Bruno 1584 Italian Italian
3638 New Testament And Mythology Rudolf Bultmann 1941 German German
3638 The Tunnel Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1952 Swiss German
3638 Der Siebente Ring Stefan George 1907 German German
3638 Theory Of Colours Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1810 German German
3638 The Future Has Already Begun Robert Jungk 1952 Austrian German
3638 The Century Of The Child Ellen Key 1900 Swedish Swedish
3638 The Marquise Of O Heinrich von Kleist 1808 German German
3638 The Sexual Revolution Wilhelm Reich 1936 German German
3638 The Seven Lamps Of Architecture John Ruskin 1849 British English
3638 The Questionnaire Ernst von Salomon 1951 German German
3638 The Roads To Freedom Jean Paul Sartre 1945 French French
3638 The Road Into The Open Arthur Schnitzler 1908 Austrian German
3638 Out Of My Life And Thought Albert Schweitzer 1931 German German
3638 Art In Crisis Hans Sedlmayr 1948 Austrian German
3638 Der Moderne Kapitalismus Werner Sombart 1902 German German
3638 An Outline Of Occult Science Rudolf Steiner 1910 Austrian German
3638 Franz Sternbald's Wanderings Ludwig Tieck 1798 German German
3638 Caspar Hauser Or The Inertia Of The Heart Jakob Wassermann 1908 German German
3802 A Imortalidade Milan Kundera 1990 Czech Czech
3807 Critique Of Cynical Reason Peter Sloterdijk 1983 German German
3808 Rousseau and Revolution Will Durant, Ariel Durant 1967 American English
3810 Wittgenstein's Nephew Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German
3810 The Writing Life Annie Dillard 1989 American English
3813 Reflections On Violence Georges Sorel 1908 French French
3833 Stories Of Three Decades Thomas Mann 1936 German German
3834 The Obsolescence Of Man Günther Anders 1956 German German
3834 Invocation Of The Great Bear Ingeborg Bachmann 1956 Austrian German
3840 Gog Andrew Sinclair 1967 British English
3841 Country Of Origin E. du Perron 1935 Dutch Dutch
3853 Of Woman Born Adrienne Rich 1976 American English
3855 Little Johannes Frederik van Eeden 1887 Dutch Dutch
3861 Ethiopia Unbound J. E. Casely Hayford 1911 Ghanaian English
3861 The Soul of the White Ant Eugène N. Marais 1925 South African Afrikaans
3870 Walden Two B. F. Skinner 1948 American English
3870 Sansibar Or The Last Reason Alfred Andersch 1957 German German
3870 Die Skeptische Generation Helmut Schelsky 1957 German German
3891 The Concept Of Law H. L. A. Hart 1961 British English
3908 Homo Sociologicus Ralf Dahrendorf 1958 German German
3916 Zayni Barakat Jamal al- Ghitani 1974 Egyptian Arabic
3937 All The World's Mornings Pascal Quignard 1991 French French
3940 Three Case Histories Sigmund Freud 1963 Austrian German
3943 A Fire on the Moon Norman Mailer 1970 American English
3952 The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama 1992 American English
3953 Το φως που καίει Kostas Varnalis 1922 Greek Greek
3953 Freedom Or Death Nikos Kazantzakis 1953 Greek Greek
3953 Λυρικός Βίος Angelos Sikelianos 1938 Greek Greek
3953 The Poems Of Dinos Christianopoulos Dinos Christianopoulos 1958 Greek Greek
3953 Creanga De Aur Mihail Sadoveanu 1933 Romanian Romanian
3953 The Last Night Of Love, The First Night Of War Camil Petrescu 1930 Romanian Romanian
3953 The Bed Of Procrustes Camil Petrescu 1933 Romanian Romanian
3953 For Two Thousand Years Mihail Sebastian 1934 Romanian Romanian
3953 Bietul Ioanide G. Călinescu 1953 Romanian Romanian
3953 The Life And Opinions Of Zacharias Lichter Matei Călinescu 1969 Romanian Romanian
3953 Căderea în Lume Constantin Țoiu 1968 Romanian Romanian
3953 Solstițiu Tulburat Paul Georgescu 1968 Romanian Romanian
4055 Leaving the Atocha Station Ben Lerner 2011 American English
4056 The Tunnel William H. Gass 1995 American English
4058 Gedichten J.H. Leopold 1912 Dutch Dutch
4058 Awater Martinus Nijhoff 1934 Dutch Dutch
4090 The Little Tragedies Alexander Pushkin 1832 Russian Russian
4099 Четвёртая проза Osip Mandelstam 1930 Russian Russian
4100 Aegypt John Crowley 1987 American English
4105 Lange Schatten Marie Luise Kaschnitz 1960 German German
4112 Art and Illusion Ernest H. Gombrich 1960 British English
4115 For a New Novel Alain Robbe-Grillet 1963 French French
4117 Hekeldichten Joost van den Vondel 1625 Dutch Dutch
4123 Either Or Soren Kierkegaard 1843 Danish Danish
4125 The Black Book Orhan Pamuk 1990 Turkish Turkish
4127 Ideas Multatuli 1862 Dutch Dutch
4127 Het Uur U Martinus Nijhoff 1936 Dutch Dutch
4131 The Three-Arched Bridge Ismail Kadare 1978 Albanian Albanian
4134 The Cathedral Oles Honchar 1968 Ukrainian Ukrainian
4136 The Faraway Nearby Rebecca Solnit 2013 American English
4138 Three plays Paul Claudel 1912 French French
4151 Oxherding Tale Charles R. Johnson 1982 American English
4153 Collected Poems Nils Ferlin 1947 Swedish Swedish
4156 Asymmetry Lisa Halliday 2018 American English
4168 Letters On England Voltaire 1734 French French
4170 Dissipatio H.G. Guido Morselli 1977 Italian Italian
4178 Cheops J.H. Leopold 1936 Dutch Dutch
4178 Prometheus Carry van Bruggen 1919 Dutch Dutch
4178 De Kellner En De Levenden Simon Vestdijk 1949 Dutch Dutch
4192 Oriental Despotism Karl August Wittfogel 1957 German English
4194 The Celestine Prophecy James Redfield 1993 American English
4196 The Master Of Go Yasunari Kawabata 1951 Japanese Japanese
4205 The Colonizer and the Colonized Albert Memmi 1957 French French
4207 The Case Worker György Konrád 1969 Hungarian Hungarian
4221 The Shadow of the Torturer Gene Wolfe 1980 American English
4222 A Pattern Language Christopher Alexander 1977 American English
4227 Introduction To The Sociology Of Music Theodor Adorno 1962 German English
4233 The Mountain Of Light Louis Couperus 1906 Dutch Dutch
4256 Scenes From The Past Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin 1869 Russian Russian
4260 Petals of blood Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1977 Kenyan English
4262 Essays of Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau 1862 American English
4263 The Importance Of Living Lin Yutang 1937 Chinese English
4268 Sevastopol Sketches Leo Tolstoy 1855 Russian Russian
4272 The Noise Of Time Osip Mandelstam 1925 Russian Russian
4274 Journey From St. Petersburg To Moscow Alexander Radishchev 1790 Russian Russian
4278 Fallen Leaves Vasily Rozanov 1913 Russian Russian
4280 Poem Of The Mountain Marina Tsvetayeva 1924 Russian Russian
4290 Finite And Infinite Games James P. Carse 1986 American English
4292 Conversations With Igor Stravinsky Robert Craft 1959 American English
4309 The Polyglots William Gerhardie 1925 British English