The Greatest Books of All Time on Society

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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
2 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
10 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 1877 Russian Russian
12 War and Peace Leo Tolstoy 1869 Russian Russian
22 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884 American English
23 The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 French French
32 Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
42 The Red and the Black Stendhal 1830 French French
57 The Idiot Fyodor Dostoevsky 1869 Russian Russian
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
73 The Portrait of a Lady Henry James 1881 American English
75 Essays Michel de Montaigne 1580 French French
82 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
92 The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton 1920 American English
95 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
104 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
105 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 1847 British English
116 A Sentimental Education Gustave Flaubert 1869 French French
171 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
173 A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf 1929 British English
194 Oblomov Ivan Goncharov 1859 Russian Russian
203 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
217 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 1905 American English
220 The Republic Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
235 The Ambassadors Henry James 1903 American English
271 The Awakening Kate Chopin 1899 American English
275 The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 French French
277 The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens 1836 British English
280 The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow 1953 American English
289 A Room With a View E. M. Forster 1908 British English
300 The Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell 1791 British English
325 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
330 Dubliners James Joyce 1914 Irish English
336 Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser 1900 American English
338 Effi Briest Theodor Fontane 1895 German German
341 The Human Comedy Honoré de Balzac 1830 French French
348 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
365 Eugene Onegin Alexander Pushkin 1833 Russian Russian
368 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
371 History of My Life Giacomo Casanova 1822 Italian French
377 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
384 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
388 The Complete Works of Plato Plato -387 Greek Ancient greek
390 The Old Wives' Tale Arnold Bennett 1908 British English
424 A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen 1879 Norwegian Norwegian
425 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 1811 British English
429 The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino 1957 Italian Italian
431 Memoirs From Beyond the Grave François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand 1849 French French
432 Lost Illusions Honoré de Balzac 1837 French French
444 The Man Who Was Thursday G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
483 The Civil War Shelby Foote 1958 American English
484 Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin 1754 Chinese Chinese
491 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
530 The Red Room August Strindberg 1879 Swedish Swedish
553 The Dispossessed Ursula K. Le Guin 1974 American English
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
590 Northanger Abbey Jane Austen 1817 British English
592 The Sleepwalkers Hermann Broch 1932 Austrian German
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
605 Claudine Colette 1900 French French
612 Green Henry Gottfried Keller 1855 Swiss German
614 Facundo Domingo Faustino Sarmiento 1845 Argentinian Spanish
618 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
639 Reflections on the Revolution in France Edmund Burke 1790 British English
645 A Study of History Arnold J. Toynbee 1934 British English
647 Lolly Willowes Sylvia Townsend Warner 1926 British English
651 Manhattan Transfer John Dos Passos 1925 American English
659 Mythologies Roland Barthes 1957 French French
677 Lud-in-the-Mist Hope Mirrlees 1926 British English
682 The Open Society and Its Enemies Karl Popper 1945 British English
700 Tales of the City Armistead Maupin 1978 American English
704 Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1958 American English
709 The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan 1963 American English
715 The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Washington Irving 1819 American English
721 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1795 German German
728 Erewhon Samuel Butler 1872 British English
737 The Custom of the Country Edith Wharton 1913 American English
744 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
755 The Well of Loneliness Radclyffe Hall 1928 British English
761 Goodbye to Berlin Christopher Isherwood 1939 British English
766 Adolphe Benjamin Constant 1816 Swiss French
779 The Outsiders S. E. Hinton 1967 American English
785 The Stechlin Theodor Fontane 1898 German German
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
813 Cranford Elizabeth Gaskell 1851 British English
817 Rickshaw Boy Lao She 1936 Chinese Chinese
837 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
844 Civilization and Its Discontents Sigmund Freud 1930 Austrian German
845 Evelina Fanny Burney 1778 British English
846 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
851 Essays, First And Second Series Ralph Waldo Emerson 1841 American English
869 Woodcutters Thomas Bernhard 1984 Austrian German
881 Utopia Thomas More 1516 British Latin
887 Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1915 American English
904 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
912 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
917 The Day of the Triffids John Wyndham 1951 British English
930 The Seven Madmen Roberto Arlt 1929 Argentinian Spanish
933 Lives of Girls and Women Alice Munro 1971 Canadian English
935 Martin Eden Jack London 1909 American English
939 Rameau's Nephew Denis Diderot 1761 French French
939 Émile Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762 French French
941 Collected Essays of George Orwell George Orwell 1968 British English
945 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male Alfred C. Kinsey 1948 American English
954 Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 1913 British English
964 Paroles Jacques Prévert 1946 French French
970 The Maias Eça de Queirós 1888 Portuguese Portuguese
982 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
993 Essays of E. B. White E. B. White 1977 American English
994 Blindness José Saramago 1995 Portuguese Portuguese
1008 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1027 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
1036 The Fortunes Of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson 1917 Australian English
1056 Maurice E. M. Forster 1971 British English
1078 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
1081 The War of the End of the World Mario Vargas Llosa 1981 Peruvian Spanish
1128 The Price Of Salt Patricia Highsmith 1952 American English
1147 Dialectic Of Enlightenment Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer 1944 German German
1166 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
1175 The Demons Heimito von Doderer 1956 Austrian German
1187 Jean Christophe Romain Rolland 1904 French French