The Greatest Books of All Time on 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
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
2 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
5 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez 1967 Colombian Spanish
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
32 Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
45 Fictions Jorge Luis Borges 1944 Argentinian Spanish
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
95 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
101 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
156 Poems of Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson 1890 American English
202 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
257 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
263 The Tartar Steppe Dino Buzzati 1940 Italian Italian
276 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
312 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
315 Relativity Albert Einstein 1916 German German
343 The Sonnets William Shakespeare 1609 British English
360 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
421 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
436 El Aleph Jorge Luis Borges 1949 Argentinian Spanish
464 Petrarch's Songbook Francesco Petrarca 1341 Italian Italian
478 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
479 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
517 Being and Time Martin Heidegger 1927 German German
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
618 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
707 Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson 1830 British English
736 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Edward FitzGerald 1859 British English
752 Poems Of Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy 1898 British English
809 Poems by Machado Antonio Machado 1907 Spanish Spanish
812 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
815 Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne 1872 French French
833 The Lost Steps Alejo Carpentier 1953 Cuban Spanish
836 Second Thoughts Michel Butor 1957 French French
1016 Poems Of C. P. Cavafy C. P. Cavafy 1935 Greek Greek
1079 The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe 1980 American English
1100 Collected Poems Of Edward Thomas Edward Thomas 1920 British English
1122 A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking 1988 British English
1171 Residence on Earth Pablo Neruda 1933 Chilean Spanish
1191 Blow Up And Other Stories Julio Cortazar 1968 Argentinian Spanish
1273 Robert Browning's Poetry Robert Browning 1833 British English
1288 The 13 Clocks James Thurber 1950 American English
1355 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1373 Winter's Tale Mark Helprin 1983 American English
1421 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
1423 Out Of Space And Time Clark Ashton Smith 1942 American English
1508 The Tower William Butler Yeats 1928 Irish English
1533 Dreamtigers Jorge Luis Borges 1960 Argentinian Spanish
1551 Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd 1985 British English
1557 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 1974 American English
1587 Past Continuous Yaakov Shabtai 1977 Israeli Hebrew
1619 Nostalgia Mircea Cărtărescu 1989 Romanian Romanian
1698 Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang 2002 American English
1781 Poems of Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda 1970 Chilean Spanish
1815 The Collected Poems of A. E. Housman A. E. Housman 1939 British English
1886 Poems, New And Collected, 1957 1997 Wislawa Szymborska 1998 Polish Polish
1999 The Poetry of Luis Cernuda Luis Cernuda 1901 Spanish Spanish
2027 Stanzas about the Death of his Father Jorge Manrique 1476 Spanish Spanish
2052 Momo Michael Ende 1973 German German
2082 Στροφή George Seferis 1931 Greek Greek
2090 Parkinson's Law C. Northcote Parkinson 1957 British English
2170 Terra Nostra Carlos Fuentes 1975 Mexican Spanish
2195 Portrait Of Jennie Robert Nathan 1940 American English
2215 Roman Elegies Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1795 German German
2235 Last And First Men Olaf Stapledon 1930 British English
2263 The Crystal World J. G. Ballard 1966 British English
2280 Poems of Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale 1925 Italian Italian
2291 Arcadia Tom Stoppard 1993 British English
2311 Sexing the Cherry Jeanette Winterson 1989 British English
2366 One Two Three . . . Infinity George Gamow 1947 American English
2464 Poems Of William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant 1821 American English
2497 The Garden Of Forking Paths Jorge Luis Borges 1941 Argentinian Spanish
2573 A Longing For The Light Vicente Aleixandre 1979 Spanish Spanish
2579 Les Contemplations Victor Hugo 1856 French French
2582 Scenes From The Life Of A Faun Arno Schmidt 1953 German German
2588 Red Shift Alan Garner 1973 British English
2593 The Gods Of Pegana Lord Dunsany 1905 Irish English
2640 The Child in Time Ian McEwan 1987 British English
2644 The Complete Poems And Plays T. S. Eliot 1952 British English
2727 Last Poems A. E. Housman 1922 British English
2729 La légende des siècles Victor Hugo 1859 French French
2845 10:04 Ben Lerner 2014 American English
2932 Martian Time Slip Philip K. Dick 1964 American English
2956 Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hourglass Bruno Schulz 1937 Polish Polish
2960 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2965 The Erasers Alain Robbe-Grillet 1953 French French
3052 Our Town Thornton Wilder 1938 American English
3162 Natural Novel Georgi Gospodinov 1999 Bulgarian Bulgarian
3191 Trilce César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
3269 The Girl, The Gold Watch And Everything John D. MacDonald 1962 American English
3295 Sonnets Francisco de Quevedo 1648 Spanish Spanish
3391 Selected Poetry Of Francisco De Quevedo Francisco de Quevedo 1648 Spanish Spanish
3422 Daylight Czesław Miłosz 1975 Polish Polish
3493 Selected Poems Pierre Ronsard 1501 French French
3582 Selected Poems Andrew Marvell 1681 British English
3630 Party Going Henry Green 1939 British English
3638 Renascence and Other Poems Edna St. Vincent Millay 1917 American English
3638 Nuremberg Chronicle Hartmann Schedel 1493 German Latin
3934 One Hundred Poems Kenneth Slessor 1944 Australian English
3940 Landscapes With Absent Figures Philippe Jacottet 1970 French French
3954 Ποιήματα Α' και Β' Miltos Sachtouris 1945 Greek Greek
3954 Mythistorema George Seferis 1935 Greek Greek
4101 Aegypt John Crowley 1987 American English
4154 Collected Poems Nils Ferlin 1947 Swedish Swedish
4596 Man in the Holocene Max Frisch 1979 Swiss German
4598 The Fourth Dimension Yannis Ritsos 1972 Greek Greek
4610 Here Richard McGuire 2014 American English
4611 Las Personas Del Verbo Jaime Gil de Biedma
 1975 Spanish Spanish
4685 The Complete Poems Philip Larkin 1988 British English
4817 The New Oxford Book Of English Verse Helen Gardner 1972 British English
4984 New Poems Rainer Maria Rilke 1907 German German
5009 Against the Day Thomas Pynchon 2006 American English
5046 Selected Poems Of George Sterling George Sterling 1923 American English
5127 Maria Nephele Odysseas Elytis 1979 Greek Greek
5133 Triptych Claude Simon 1973 French English
5393 Personae Ezra Pound 1909 American English
5734 Time And Space Juan Ramón Jiménez 1988 Spanish Spanish
5775 Χαιρε Ποτε Kiki Dimoula 1988 Greek Greek
5903 Poems Of George Darley George Darley 1840 Irish English