The Greatest Psychological Books Since 1900

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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
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
21 The Trial Franz Kafka 1925 Czech German
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
32 Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
63 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
98 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
107 Native Son Richard Wright 1940 American English
109 In Cold Blood Truman Capote 1966 American English
135 Doctor Faustus Thomas Mann 1947 German German
143 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
147 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
154 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 1962 American English
169 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark 1961 British, Scottish English
171 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
176 The End of the Affair Graham Greene 1951 British English
186 Bonjour Tristesse Francoise Sagan 1954 French French
191 And Then There Were None Agatha Christie 1939 British English
201 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
204 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 1989 British English
208 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor 1953 American English
212 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler 1940 British German
214 Life and Fate Vasily Grossman 1980 Russian Russian
215 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson 1959 American English
219 Brighton Rock Graham Greene 1938 British English
227 Women in Love D. H. Lawrence 1920 British English
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
251 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
261 Wings of the Dove Henry James 1902 American English
263 The Tartar Steppe Dino Buzzati 1940 Italian Italian
279 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
298 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
305 The Confusions of Young Törless Robert Musil 1906 Austrian German
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
360 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
370 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005 American English
376 The Golden Bowl Henry James 1904 American English
382 Parade's End Ford Madox Ford 1924 British English
400 The Shining Stephen King 1977 American English
419 The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey 1951 British English
433 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
442 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
445 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
449 Les Enfants Terribles Jean Cocteau 1929 French French
452 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
454 The Sea, The Sea Iris Murdoch 1978 British English
469 The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain 1934 American English
470 The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad 1907 British English
471 Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee 1980 South African English
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
474 Embers Sandor Marai 1942 Hungarian Hungarian
493 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
498 The Immoralist André Gide 1902 French French
509 Sanctuary William Faulkner 1931 American English
511 Perfume Patrick Suskind 1985 German German
532 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
539 So Long, See You Tomorrow William Maxwell 1980 American English
545 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
546 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
569 The Death of the Heart Elizabeth Bowen 1938 British, Irish English
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
574 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003 American English
578 The Silence of the Lambs Thomas Harris 1988 American English
587 The Man with the Golden Arm Nelson Algren 1949 American English
599 A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams 1947 American English
600 Nine Stories J. D. Salinger 1953 American English
602 The Go-Between L. P. Hartley 1953 British English
604 The Blind Owl Ṣādiq Hidāyat 1937 Iranian Persian
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
635 Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo 1939 American English
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
646 The Varieties of Religious Experience William James 1902 American English
647 Lolly Willowes Sylvia Townsend Warner 1926 British English
668 Rabbit Redux John Updike 1971 American English
701 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa 2000 Peruvian Spanish
711 Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes 1959 American English
719 Thousand Cranes Yasunari Kawabata 1952 Japanese Japanese
720 The Professor's House Willa Cather 1925 American English
729 Thérèse Desqueyroux François Mauriac 1927 French French
730 Petersburg Andrei Bely 1913 Russian Russian
740 Silence Shūsaku Endō 1966 Japanese Japanese
741 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 2013 American English
747 Blonde Joyce Carol Oates 2000 American English
784 Rabbit at Rest John Updike 1990 American English
789 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
791 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 2012 American English
803 Sophie's Choice William Styron 1979 American English
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
805 Gaudy Night Dorothy L. Sayers 1935 British English
834 Story of O Pauline Reage 1954 French French
836 Second Thoughts Michel Butor 1957 French French
840 Confessions of a Mask Yukio Mishima 1949 Japanese Japanese
844 Civilization and Its Discontents Sigmund Freud 1930 Austrian German
849 Regeneration Pat Barker 1991 British English
856 Conversation in the Cathedral Mario Vargas Llosa 1969 Peruvian Spanish
858 The Woman in the Dunes Kobo Abé 1962 Japanese Japanese
861 We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson 1962 American English
862 Smilla's Sense of Snow Peter Høeg 1992 Danish Danish
869 Woodcutters Thomas Bernhard 1984 Austrian German
882 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
884 Homo Faber Max Frisch 1957 Swiss German
894 Rosemary's Baby Ira Levin 1967 American English
895 The Ravishing of Lol Stein Marguerite Duras 1964 French French
897 The Darkroom Of Damocles W.F. Hermans 1958 Dutch Dutch
910 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
916 Malice Aforethought Francis Iles 1931 British English
922 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
925 Deliverance James Dickey 1970 American English
949 Nada Carmen Laforet 1944 Spanish Spanish
956 The Girls of Slender Means Muriel Spark 1963 British English
962 The Diary of a Country Priest Georges Bernanos 1936 French French
967 The Heat of the Day Elizabeth Bowen 1949 British English
975 The Reader Bernhard Schlink 1995 German German
976 Rogue Male Geoffrey Household 1939 British English