The Greatest Books of All Time on Power

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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
5 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez 1967 Colombian Spanish
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
21 The Trial Franz Kafka 1925 Czech German
34 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
36 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison 1952 American English
42 The Red and the Black Stendhal 1830 French French
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
55 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
60 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 1958 Nigerian English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
71 Hamlet William Shakespeare 1600 British English
81 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
87 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 1844 French French
94 Demons Fyodor Dostoevsky 1872 Russian Russian
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
123 Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar 1951 French French
124 Pedro Páramo Juan Rulfo 1955 Mexican Spanish
129 First Folio William Shakespeare 1623 British English
131 King Lear William Shakespeare 1608 British English
149 All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren 1946 American English
152 The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli 1532 Italian Italian
155 Macbeth William Shakespeare 1606 British English
158 Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys 1966 British English
170 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 1937 American English
175 Metamorphoses Ovid 8 Roman Latin
211 The Tempest William Shakespeare 1623 British English
212 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler 1940 British German
242 The Godfather Mario Puzo 1969 American English
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
255 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
274 The Stand Stephen King 1978 American English
278 A Wizard Of Earthsea Ursula K. Le Guin 1968 American English
283 Nostromo Joseph Conrad 1904 British English
286 The Once and Future King T. H. White 1958 British English
295 Franz Kafka Franz Kafka 1971 Czech Unknown
323 Mahabharata Vyasa -400 Indian Sanskrit
341 The Human Comedy Honoré de Balzac 1830 French French
345 Leviathan Thomas Hobbes 1651 British English
346 The Castle of Otranto Horace Walpole 1764 British English
361 Foundation Isaac Asimov 1951 American English
385 Quo Vadis Henryk Sienkiewicz 1895 Polish Polish
386 La Regenta Clarín 1884 Spanish Spanish
397 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
413 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer 1948 American English
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
434 The Fountainhead Ayn Rand 1943 American English
440 The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt 1951 German English
446 Joseph and His Brothers Thomas Mann 1933 German German
453 I, Claudius Robert Graves 1934 British English
461 Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand 1957 American English
471 Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee 1980 South African English
493 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
509 Sanctuary William Faulkner 1931 American English
510 Eugenie Grandet Honoré de Balzac 1833 French French
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
516 Season of Migration to the North Al-Tayyib Salih 1966 Sudanese Arabic
525 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
529 Life Is a Dream Pedro Calderón de la Barca 1635 Spanish Spanish
566 I Served The King Of England Bohumil Hrabal 1983 Czech Czech
574 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003 American English
588 The Pillars Of The Earth Ken Follett 1989 British English
589 Bel Ami Guy de Maupassant 1885 French French
596 The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides -410 Greek Ancient greek
599 A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams 1947 American English
609 The Opposing Shore Julien Gracq 1951 French French
627 The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Christopher Marlowe 1604 British English
629 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
661 Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice 1976 American English
678 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
687 The Time of the Hero Mario Vargas Llosa 1963 Peruvian Spanish
694 La Fontaine's Fables Jean de La Fontaine 1668 French French
701 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa 2000 Peruvian Spanish
702 Vathek William Beckford 1786 British French
712 A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court Mark Twain 1889 American English
725 The Kingdom of This World Alejo Carpentier 1949 Cuban Spanish
732 A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul 1979 Trinidadian English
733 Arrow of God Chinua Achebe 1964 Nigerian English
745 Memed, My Hawk Yashar Kemal 1955 Turkish Turkish
763 The Case of Comrade Tulayev Victor Serge 1949 French French
789 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
808 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
819 Burmese Days George Orwell 1934 British English
834 Story of O Pauline Reage 1954 French French
856 Conversation in the Cathedral Mario Vargas Llosa 1969 Peruvian Spanish
876 Lysistrata Aristophanes -411 Greek Ancient greek
889 The 120 Days of Sodom Marquis de Sade 1904 French French
943 The Bacchae Euripides -405 Greek Ancient greek
950 Richard III William Shakespeare 1592 British English
954 Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 1913 British English
986 Electra Sophocles -409 Greek Ancient greek
994 Blindness José Saramago 1995 Portuguese Portuguese
1000 A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley 1991 American English
1046 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
1066 Antony And Cleopatra William Shakespeare 1606 British English
1071 The Midwich Cuckoos John Wyndham 1957 British English
1079 The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe 1980 American English
1081 The War of the End of the World Mario Vargas Llosa 1981 Peruvian Spanish
1088 The Dwarf Par Lagerkvist 1944 Swedish Swedish
1108 Chaka Thomas Mofolo 1925 South African Sesotho
1116 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English
1117 The Fifth Season N. K. Jemisin 2015 American English
1140 Nana Émile Zola 1880 French French
1162 Essays Francis Bacon 1597 British English
1180 Annals Cornelius Tacitus 109 Roman Latin
1196 Conjure Wife Fritz Leiber 1943 American English
1215 Explosion In A Cathedral Alejo Carpentier 1962 Cuban Spanish
1217 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
1232 Children of Gebelawi Naguib Mahfouz 1959 Egyptian Arabic
1249 The White Devil John Webster 1612 British English
1254 Death and the Dervish Meša Selimović 1966 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
1256 Prometheus Bound Aeschylus -455 Greek Ancient greek
1257 Lives of the Caesars Suetonius 121 Roman Latin
1260 The President Miguel Angel Asturias 1946 Guatemalan Spanish
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1273 Robert Browning's Poetry Robert Browning 1833 British English
1280 The Death of Artemio Cruz Carlos Fuentes 1962 Mexican Spanish
1282 The Plum in the Golden Vase Unknown 1610 Chinese Chinese
1289 A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin 1996 American English
1298 The Days of His Grace Eyvind Johnson 1960 Swedish Swedish