The Greatest Tragedy Books of All Time

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
6821 The Lost Weekend Charles Jackson 1944 American English
6846 King Solomon's Carpet Barbara Vine 1991 British English
6870 The Mother Grazia Deledda 1920 Italian Italian
6872 Eustace Chisholm And The Works James Purdy 1967 American English
7029 Il Resto Di Niente Enzo Striano 1986 Italian Italian
7086 Klotsvog Margarita Khemlin 2009 Russian Russian
7109 Ashes Stefan Zeromski 1904 Polish Polish
7122 Margot en de engelen Kristien Hemmerechts 1997 Belgian Dutch
7191 The Complete Plays Of Eugene O'neill Eugene O'Neill 1959 American English
7216 Saul Vittorio Alfieri 1782 Italian Italian
7216 The Spanish Tragedy Thomas Kyd 1587 British English
7216 Poems, Plays, And Masques Ben Jonson 1601 British English
7216 The Revenger's Tragedy Cyril Tourneur 1607 British English
7216 Mark Antony Robert Garnier 1578 French French
7216 Horace Pierre Corneille 1640 French French
7216 Five Plays Heinrich von Kleist 1808 German German
7216 Death's Jest Book Thomas Lovell Beddoes 1850 British English
7216 The Poems And Plays Of Thomas Wade Thomas Wade 1800 British English
7216 Ballads And Songs John Davidson 1894 British English
7216 Weir Of Hermiston Robert Louis Stevenson 1896 Scottish English
7216 Narrative Poems Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov 1830 Russian Russian
7216 The Infernal Machine And Other Works Jean Cocteau 1934 French French
7216 The Wheel Of Fire George Wilson Knight 1930 British English
7216 A Cool Million Nathanael West 1934 American English
7588 Commonwealth Ann Patchett 2016 American English
7623 The Little Red Chairs Edna O'Brien 2015 Irish English
7715 The Desert And Its Seed Jorge Barón Biza 1998 Argentine Spanish
7717 Three Tragedies Federico García Lorca 1947 Spanish Spanish
7910 Bad Day In Blackrock Kevin Power 2008 Irish English
7995 We The Living Ayn Rand 1936 American English
8107 Constance Ring Amalie Skram 1885 Norwegian Norwegian
8107 The Dangerous Age Karin Michaelis 1910 Danish Danish
8107 The Home Maker Dorothy Canfield Fisher 1924 American English
8209 Outer Dark Cormac McCarthy 1968 American English
8352 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
8383 Guard of Honor James Gould Cozzens 1948 American English
8473 The Patrick Melrose Novels Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
8801 The Revenger's Tragedy Thomas Middleton 1606 British English
8835 The Flies Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
8970 The Shack William P. Young 2007 American English
8969 Asking For It Louise O'Neill 2015 Irish English
9088 Toys In The Attic Lillian Hellman 1960 American English
9154 La Brecha Mercedes Valdivieso 1961 Chilean Spanish
9169 Oleanna David Mamet 1992 American English
9230 Foal's Bread Gillian Mears 2011 Australian English
9235 The Natural Way Of Things Charlotte Wood 2015 Australian English
9377 The Passions Charlotte Dacre 1811 British English
9377 Bertram Charles Robert Maturin 1816 Irish English
9377 Zastrozzi Percy Bysshe Shelley 1810 British English
9377 The Mysterious Mother Horace Walpole 1768 British English
9377 The Iron Shroud William Mudford 1830 British English
9377 The Stone Dragon And Other Tragic Romances R. Murray Gilchrist 1894 British English
9544 Sofia Petrovna Lydia Chukovskaya 1965 Russian Russian
9561 Travelling In A Strange Land David Park 2018 Irish English
9574 Beneath The Wheel Hermann Hesse 1906 German German
9593 Alligator Lisa Moore 2005 Canadian English
9685 Broken Glass Arthur Miller 1994 American English
9718 The Crucible Arthur Miller 1953 American English
9793 Cry To Heaven Anne Rice 1982 American English
9965 Winner Of The National Book Award Jincy Willett 2003 American English
10183 B Utterfield 8 John O'Hara 1935 American English
10246 The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone Tennessee Williams 1950 American English
10502 The Fragility Of Goodness Martha C. Nussbaum 1986 American English
10544 Sweeney Todd Stephen Sondheim 1979 American English
10856 American Appetites Joyce Carol Oates 1989 American English
10926 Fools of Fortune William Trevor 1983 Irish English
11093 Heeresbericht Edlef Köppen 1930 German German
11093 Yellow Street Veza Canetti 1934 Unknown German
11093 Layli And Majnun Nezami Ganjavi 1188 Persian Persian
11162 Lie Down In Darkness William Styron 1951 American English
11181 Juletane Myriam Warner-Vieyra 1982 Senegalese French
11206 Ninety Three Victor Hugo 1874 French French
11469 The Real Charlotte Edith Somerville, Violet Florence Martin 1894 Irish English
11497 The Black Prophet William Carleton 1847 Irish English
11528 Orpheus and Eurydice Unknown -28 Unknown Ancient greek
11537 Thyestes Seneca 62 Roman Latin
11544 Humiliated And Insulted Fyodor Dostoevsky 1861 Russian Russian
11611 A Complicated Kindness Miriam Toews 2005 Canadian English
11630 Everyman Philip Roth 2006 American English
11663 The Association Of Small Bombs Karan Mahajan 2016 Indian English
11663 Macbeth Jo Nesbø 2018 Norwegian English
11883 The Barracks John McGahern 1963 Irish English
11901 Loving And Giving Molly Keane 1988 Irish English
11941 Oscar Wilde Richard Ellmann 1987 American English
12408 Slammerkin Emma Donoghue 2000 Irish English
12441 Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? Edward Albee 1962 American English
12718 Drowning Yu Dafu 1921 Chinese Chinese
13019 Fate In Tears And Laughter Chang Hen-shui 1925 Chinese Chinese
13279 Idaho Emily Ruskovich 2017 American English
13259 The Corpse Washer Sinan Antoon 2010 Iraqi Arabic
13307 The Death Of Yuli Xu Zhenya 1912 Chinese Chinese
13312 Threshold Of Spring Rou Shi 1932 Chinese Chinese
13338 Last Orders Graham Swift 1996 British English
13362 The Collegians Gerald Griffin 1829 Irish English
13362 Fardorougha, The Miser William Carleton 1837 Irish English
13362 The First Folio Of Shakespeare William Shakespeare 1623 English Early modern english
13600 The Call Of The Soil Adrien Bertrand 1916 French French
13600 Le Supplice De Phèdre Henri Deberly French French
13600 Captain Conan Roger Vercel 1934 French English
13600 Sang Et Lumières Joseph Peyre French French
13600 The Lost Shore Anna Langfus 1962 French French
13600 The Wedding Yann Queffélec 1985 French French
13600 Alabama Song Gilles Leroy 2007 French French
13712 The Greek Way Edith Hamilton 1930 American English
13716 Age Of Bronze Eric Shanower 2007 American English
13747 I Miss You, I Miss You! Peter Pohl 1992 Swedish Swedish
13879 Love Me Back Merritt Tierce 2014 American English
13941 The Siege Helen Dunmore 2001 British English
14078 Deaf Republic Ilya Kaminsky 2019 American English
14232 Topdog Underdog Suzan-Lori Parks 2001 American English
14232 Sweat Lynn Nottage 2015 American English
14232 The Sweet Hereafter Russell Banks 1991 American English
14411 Greek Tragedies 1 David Grene 1955 Unknown English
14426 The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes Tatiana Țîbuleac 2016 Moldovan Romanian
14435 Train Pete Dexter 2003 American English
14496 Farewell To My Concubine Lilian Lee 1985 Chinese Chinese
14499 The Short Stories Of Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy 1988 British English
14520 The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald F. Scott Fitzgerald 1989 American English
14648 The Woman Thou Gavest Me Hall Caine 1913 British English
14665 Raise The Red Lantern Su Tong 1990 Chinese Chinese