The Greatest Social & Cultural Fiction 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
270 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
271 The Awakening Kate Chopin 1899 American English
272 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands Joao Guimaraes Rosa 1956 Brazilian Portuguese
273 The Betrothed Alessandro Manzoni 1827 Italian Italian
277 The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens 1836 British English
280 The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow 1953 American English
281 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 1931 American English
282 The Sorrows of Young Werther Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1774 German German
287 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy 1895 British English
288 Independent People Halldor Laxness 1934 Icelandic Icelandic
289 A Room With a View E. M. Forster 1908 British English
291 The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende 1982 Chilean Spanish
292 Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham 1915 British English
296 The Lover Marguerite Duras 1984 French French
298 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
302 The Lost Estate Henri Alain-Fournier 1913 French French
308 The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison 1970 American English
309 Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs 1912 American English
310 Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe 1987 American English
311 Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson 1919 American English
317 The Poems of Robert Frost Robert Frost 1913 American English
324 Communist Manifesto Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels 1848 German German
325 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
329 History Elsa Morante 1974 Italian Italian
330 Dubliners James Joyce 1914 Irish English
332 Clarissa Samuel Richardson 1748 British English
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
335 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis Giorgio Bassani 1962 Italian Italian
336 Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser 1900 American English
338 Effi Briest Theodor Fontane 1895 German German
339 The Adventures of Oliver Twist Charles Dickens 1837 British English
341 The Human Comedy Honoré de Balzac 1830 French French
347 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 1939 American English
349 The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy 1886 Russian Russian
350 The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor Flannery O'Connor 1971 American English
351 Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
352 The Vicar of Wakefield Oliver Goldsmith 1766 British English
353 Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin 1953 American English
355 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
356 Germinal Émile Zola 1885 French French
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
364 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
365 Eugene Onegin Alexander Pushkin 1833 Russian Russian
366 The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Victor Hugo 1831 French French
368 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
375 Kolyma Stories Varlam Shalamov 1954 Russian Russian
380 American Pastoral Philip Roth 1997 American English
382 Parade's End Ford Madox Ford 1924 British English
386 La Regenta Clarín 1884 Spanish Spanish
387 Our Mutual Friend Charles Dickens 1864 British English
390 The Old Wives' Tale Arnold Bennett 1908 British English
391 Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather 1927 American English
392 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
395 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
397 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
401 Celestina Or The Tragic-Comedy Of Calisto And Melibea Fernando de Rojas 1499 Spanish Spanish
406 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
407 The World According to Garp John Irving 1978 American English
409 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2012 American Italian
410 The Razor's Edge W. Somerset Maugham 1944 British English
411 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
413 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer 1948 American English
414 The Mill on the Floss George Eliot 1860 British English
416 Out of Africa Isak Dinesen 1937 Danish Danish
417 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas Kuhn 1962 American English
418 Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 American English
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
421 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
424 A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen 1879 Norwegian Norwegian
426 The Moon and the Bonfires Cesare Pavese 1950 Italian Italian
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
428 Death Of A Salesman Arthur Miller 1949 American English
429 The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino 1957 Italian Italian
430 The Bridge on the Drina Ivo Andrić 1945 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
432 Lost Illusions Honoré de Balzac 1837 French French
433 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
434 The Fountainhead Ayn Rand 1943 American English
435 Scoop Evelyn Waugh 1938 British English
437 Passing Nella Larsen 1929 American English
439 North and South Elizabeth Gaskell 1855 British English
443 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
447 Gypsy Ballads Federico García Lorca 1928 Spanish Spanish
450 Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler 1903 British English
453 I, Claudius Robert Graves 1934 British English
454 The Sea, The Sea Iris Murdoch 1978 British English
460 Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853 American English
468 Daniel Deronda George Eliot 1876 British English
472 The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead 1940 Australian English
477 Fateless or Fatelessness Imre Kertész 1975 Hungarian Hungarian
480 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 1932 British English
484 Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin 1754 Chinese Chinese
486 Adam Bede George Eliot 1859 British English
487 Rainbow D.H. Lawrence 1915 British English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
492 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressell, Peter Miles 1914 British English
500 Everything That Rises Must Converge Flannery O'Connor 1965 American English
502 Another Country James Baldwin 1962 American English
503 Pamela Samuel Richardson 1740 British English
510 Eugenie Grandet Honoré de Balzac 1833 French French
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
514 Speak, Memory Vladimir Nabokov 1951 American English
516 Season of Migration to the North Al-Tayyib Salih 1966 Sudanese Arabic
519 Call It Sleep Henry Roth 1934 American English
520 Mansfield Park Jane Austen 1814 British English
521 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 1969 American English
523 Fortunata and Jacinta Benito Pérez Galdós 1887 Spanish Spanish
524 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving 1989 American English
525 Family Sayings Natalia Ginzburg 1963 Italian Italian
530 The Red Room August Strindberg 1879 Swedish Swedish
533 Cousin Bette Honoré de Balzac 1846 French French
538 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
544 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
550 Max Havelaar Multatuli 1860 Dutch Dutch
555 The Lady with the Dog Anton Chekhov 1899 Russian Russian
556 The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse 1938 British English
560 Sula Toni Morrison 1973 American English
564 Main Street Sinclair Lewis 1920 American English
566 I Served The King Of England Bohumil Hrabal 1983 Czech Czech