The Greatest Books of All Time on Sexuality

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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
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
88 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 1916 Irish English
140 The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir 1949 French French
144 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
167 Giovanni's Room James Baldwin 1956 American English
196 Lady Chatterley's Lover D. H. Lawrence 1928 British English
226 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
241 Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth 1969 American English
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
269 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
296 The Lover Marguerite Duras 1984 French French
360 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
368 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
407 The World According to Garp John Irving 1978 American English
418 Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 American English
487 Rainbow D.H. Lawrence 1915 British English
502 Another Country James Baldwin 1962 American English
516 Season of Migration to the North Al-Tayyib Salih 1966 Sudanese Arabic
554 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
605 Claudine Colette 1900 French French
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
686 Rabbit Is Rich John Updike 1981 American English
717 A Sport and a Pastime James Salter 1967 American English
723 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
747 Blonde Joyce Carol Oates 2000 American English
755 The Well of Loneliness Radclyffe Hall 1928 British English
761 Goodbye to Berlin Christopher Isherwood 1939 British English
772 The Group Mary McCarthy 1963 American English
789 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
827 Fear of Flying Erica Jong 1973 American English
841 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
905 Coming of Age in Samoa Margaret Mead 1928 American English
933 Lives of Girls and Women Alice Munro 1971 Canadian English
945 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male Alfred C. Kinsey 1948 American English
977 Couples John Updike 1968 American English
1015 Justine Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
1046 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
1050 The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi 1990 British English
1060 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
1067 A Boy's Own Story Edmund White 1982 American English
1093 The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera 1979 Czech Czech
1095 The Swimming-Pool Library Alan Hollinghurst 1988 British English
1128 The Price Of Salt Patricia Highsmith 1952 American English
1132 Fanny Hill John Cleland 1748 British English
1160 Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami 1987 Japanese Japanese
1184 Mr Norris Changes Trains Christopher Isherwood 1935 British English
1211 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 Irish English
1212 A General Introduction to Psycho-Analysis Sigmund Freud 1920 Austrian German
1282 The Plum in the Golden Vase Unknown 1610 Chinese Chinese
1294 Peyton Place Grace Metalious 1956 American English
1347 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
1385 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English
1422 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
1461 Oranges are not the only Fruit Jeanette Winterson 1985 British English
1530 Myra Breckinridge Gore Vidal 1968 American English
1536 Rubyfruit Jungle Rita Mae Brown 1973 American English
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1584 A Severed Head Iris Murdoch 1961 British English
1601 Studies in the Psychology of Sex Havelock Ellis 1897 British English
1666 Zami Audre Lorde 1982 American English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1731 Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin 1977 French English
1771 Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinberg 1993 American English
1787 Sexual Politics Kate Millett 1970 American English
1790 The Master Colm Toibin 2004 Irish English
1832 Paradiso José Lezama Lima 1966 Cuban Spanish
1968 Kama Sutra Vātsyāyana -400 Indian Sanskrit
2019 The Berlin Stories Christopher Isherwood 1945 British English
2020 Journals André Gide 1948 French French
2031 Sex And Repression In Savage Society Bronislaw Malinowski 1927 British English
2059 The Passion Of New Eve Angela Carter 1977 British English
2066 The Infernal Desire Machines Of Doctor Hoffman Angela Carter 1972 British English
2103 The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories Angela Carter 1979 British English
2116 Querelle of Brest Jean Genet 1947 French French
2191 The Witches Of Eastwick John Updike 1984 American English
2202 The Kindly Ones Jonathan Littell 2006 French French
2264 Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality Sigmund Freud 1905 Austrian German
2288 Dancer From The Dance Andrew Holleran 1978 American English
2290 Arcadia Tom Stoppard 1993 British English
2334 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
2406 Lust Elfriede Jelinek 1989 Austrian German
2481 Blood and Guts in High School Kathy Acker 1978 American English
2498 Psychopathia Sexualis Richard von Krafft-Ebing 1886 German German
2526 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong 2019 American English
2576 The Diary of Anais Nin, 1931-1934 Anaïs Nin 1966 French English
2595 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson 2011 British English
2609 Whatever Michel Houellebecq 1994 French French
2731 Lost Souls Poppy Z. Brite 1992 American English
2962 The History Man Malcolm Bradbury 1975 British English
2985 Tipping The Velvet Sarah Waters 1998 British English
2991 A Book Of Memories Péter Nádas 1986 Hungarian Hungarian
3120 The Possibility Of An Island Michel Houellebecq 2005 French French
3144 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
3217 Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil John Berendt 1994 American English
3324 Insatiability Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz 1930 Polish Polish
3324 L'Abbé C Georges Bataille 1950 French French
3399 Portrait Of A Marriage Nigel Nicolson 1973 British English
3405 Fifty Shades of Grey: E. L. James 2011 British English
3533 Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo 2019 British English
3542 Her Body and Other Parties Carmen Maria Machado 2017 American English
3550 Gloriana Michael Moorcock 1978 British English
3579 Mercy Of A Rude Stream Henry Roth 1994 American English
3581 Call Me By Your Name André Aciman 2007 Italian English
3591 Do Everything in the Dark Gary Indiana 2003 American English
3623 The Atrocity Exhibition J. G. Ballard 1970 British English
3638 Die Homosexualität Des Mannes Und Des Weibes Magnus Hirschfeld 1920 German German
3638 The Sexual Revolution Wilhelm Reich 1936 German German
3850 The Unlimited Dream Company J. G. Ballard 1979 British English
3857 Closer Dennis Cooper 1989 American English
3912 Salt On Our Skin Benoîte Groult 1988 French French
3920 Collected Poems Allen Ginsberg 1984 American English
3926 Half of Man is Woman Zhang Xianliang 1985 Chinese Chinese
3940 Three Case Histories Sigmund Freud 1963 Austrian German
3953 The Poems Of Dinos Christianopoulos Dinos Christianopoulos 1958 Greek Greek
4057 Bad Behavior Mary Gaitskill 1988 American English
4080 The White Hotel D. M. Thomas 1981 British English
4144 Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe Benjamin Alire Sáenz 2012 American English
4148 Forever... Judy Blume 1975 American English