The Greatest Books of All Time on Suffering

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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
48 Journey to the End of The Night Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1932 French French
70 The Aeneid Virgil -19 Roman Latin
76 The Plague Albert Camus 1947 French French
79 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
80 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
101 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
106 Oedipus the King Sophocles -429 Greek Ancient greek
126 If This Is a Man Primo Levi 1947 Italian Italian
131 King Lear William Shakespeare 1608 British English
163 Siddhartha Hermann Hesse 1922 German German
178 The Flowers of Evil Charles Baudelaire 1857 French French
184 Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1852 American English
206 The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1973 Russian Russian
214 Life and Fate Vasily Grossman 1980 Russian Russian
225 Fairy Tales and Stories Hans Christian Andersen 1835 Danish Danish
238 A Season in Hell Arthur Rimbaud 1873 French French
292 Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham 1915 British English
349 The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy 1886 Russian Russian
373 The Duino Elegies Rainer Maria Rilke 1923 German German
383 Oedipus at Colonus Sophocles -401 Greek Ancient greek
398 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke 1910 German German
408 The Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus 1942 French French
451 Hiroshima John Hersey 1946 American English
477 Fateless or Fatelessness Imre Kertész 1975 Hungarian Hungarian
479 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
535 Red Cavalry Isaac Babel 1926 Russian Russian
558 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Dee Alexander Brown 1970 American English
582 Man's Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl 1946 Austrian German
598 Night Elie Wiesel 1958 French French
603 Barabbas Par Lagerkvist 1950 Swedish Swedish
610 Requiem Anna Akhmatova 1963 Russian Russian
613 The Persians Aeschylus -471 Greek Ancient greek
661 Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice 1976 American English
667 The Book of Job Unknown -600 Israeli Hebrew
706 The Skin Curzio Malaparte 1949 Italian Italian
740 Silence Shūsaku Endō 1966 Japanese Japanese
799 Kaputt Curzio Malaparte 1944 Italian Italian
832 The Last Of The Just André Schwarz-Bart 1959 French French
919 The Poems Of Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerald Manley Hopkins 1918 British English
962 The Diary of a Country Priest Georges Bernanos 1936 French French
1046 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
1114 Andersonville MacKinlay Kantor 1955 American English
1125 Philoctetes Sophocles -409 Greek Ancient greek
1126 Women of Trachis Sophocles -450 Greek Ancient greek
1199 This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen Tadeusz Borowski 1947 Polish Polish
1205 The Enchanted Wanderer Nikolai Leskov 1873 Russian Russian
1228 Strait is the Gate André Gide 1909 French French
1256 Prometheus Bound Aeschylus -455 Greek Ancient greek
1301 The Road Less Traveled M. Scott Peck 1978 American English
1302 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1314 Under Satan's Sun Georges Bernanos 1926 French French
1349 Gitanjali Rabindranath Tagore 1910 Indian Bengali
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
1409 No Exit Jean Paul Sartre 1944 French French
1426 Mars Fritz Zorn 1977 Swiss German
1436 Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke 1929 Austrian German
1515 The World as Will and Idea Arthur Schopenhauer 1818 German German
1528 The Consolation of Philosophy Boethius 524 Roman Latin
1591 Wry-Blue Loves Tristan Corbière 1873 French French
1652 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
1657 Essays and Aphorisms Arthur Schopenhauer 1851 German German
1683 The Life Written By Himself the Archpriest Avvakum 1666 Russian Russian
1724 Logbook George Seferis 1940 Greek Greek
1898 Tenth of December George Saunders 2013 American English
1906 Red Sorghum Yan Mo 1986 Chinese Chinese
1979 Furor and Mystery René Char 1948 French French
2008 Job Joseph Roth 1930 Austrian German
2009 The War Marguerite Duras 1985 French French
2013 Poems Of César Vallejo César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
2053 Spain, Take This Chalice from Me César Vallejo 1939 Peruvian Spanish
2155 The Flame Of Life Gabriele D'Annunzio 1900 Italian Italian
2190 Les Tragiques Agrippa d'Aubigné 1616 French French
2199 Trojan Women Euripides -415 Greek Ancient greek
2245 Poems Of Gottfried Benn Gottfried Benn 1948 German German
2265 The Murderess Alexandros Papadiamantis 1903 Greek Greek
2279 Poems of Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale 1925 Italian Italian
2298 Poems Of George Seferis George Seferis 1931 Greek Greek
2347 Poems Of Louis Aragon Louis Aragon 1920 French French
2360 On the Heights of Despair Emil Cioran 1934 Romanian Romanian
2415 Lyrical Ballads William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
2439 Poems Of Anna Akhmatova Anna Akhmatova 1912 Russian Russian
2527 Life of Christ Giovanni Papini 1921 Italian Italian
2564 The Family Of Pascual Duarte Camilo José Cela 1942 Spanish Spanish
2601 Darkness Visible William Styron 1990 American English
2602 Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag 2003 American English
2619 To Live Yu Hua 1993 Chinese Chinese
2691 The Book Of Margery Kempe Margery Kempe 1436 British Middle english
2728 La légende des siècles Victor Hugo 1859 French French
2739 Dark Night of the Soul St. John of the Cross 1578 Spanish Spanish
2747 Poor Henry Hartmann von Aue 1190 German Middle high german
2779 Lay Down Your Arms! Bertha von Suttner 1889 Austrian German
2812 La Débâcle Émile Zola 1892 French French
2863 Endgame Samuel Beckett 1957 Irish French
2886 John Keats Walter Jackson Bate 1963 American English
2911 Délie Maurice Scève 1544 French French
2928 The Waiting Years Fumiko Enchi 1957 Japanese Japanese
2958 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2967 A Dream Play August Strindberg 1902 Swedish Swedish
2977 The Demon Mikhail Lermontov 1829 Russian Russian
3085 Summer in Baden-Baden Leonid Tsypkin 1980 Russian Russian
3089 The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross St. John of the Cross 1578 Spanish Spanish
3151 The Complete Poems Of San Juan De La Cruz San Juan de la Cruz 1618 Spanish Spanish
3190 Trilce César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
3223 Forever Flowing Vasily Grossman 1970 Russian Russian
3324 Compassion Benito Pérez Galdós 1897 Spanish Spanish
3324 Hell Henri Barbusse 1908 French French
3383 Poems Miguel de Unamuno 1907 Spanish Spanish
3519 Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin Friedrich Holderlin 1800 German German
3638 And where Were You, Adam? Heinrich Böll 1951 German German
3638 Renascence and Other Poems Edna St. Vincent Millay 1917 American English
3638 War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Sassoon 1919 British English
3638 Notes From The Blockade Lydia Ginzburg 1960 Russian Russian
3638 The Temptation To Exist Emil Cioran 1956 Romanian French
3638 Das Unauslöschliche Siegel Elisabeth Langgässer 1946 German German
3638 The Veil Of Veronica Gertrud von le Fort 1928 German German
3953 Νηπενθή Kostas Karyotakis 1921 Greek Greek
3953 Life In The Tomb Stratis Myrivilis 1924 Greek Greek
3953 Η Γυναίκα της Ζακύνθου Dionysios Solomos 1829 Greek Greek
4215 Andromache Euripides -425 Greek Ancient greek
4218 Heracles Euripides -416 Greek Ancient greek