The Greatest Tragedy 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
14759 The Nazarene Sholem Asch 1939 Polish Yiddish
14784 White Nights Fyodor Dostoevsky 1848 Russian Russian
14823 The Wild Duck Henrik Ibsen 1884 Norwegian Norwegian
14897 Maggie Stephen Crane 1893 American English
14897 The Third Life Of Grange Copeland Alice Walker 1970 American English
14897 Before The Fact Francis Iles 1932 British English
14950 Blood Wedding Federico García Lorca 1933 Spanish Spanish
14942 If Winter Comes A. S. M. Hutchinson 1921 British English
14984 If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things Jon McGregor 2002 British English
14984 Tales from Ovid Ted Hughes 1997 British English
14984 The Forgotten Waltz Anne Enright 2011 Irish English
14967 Strange Interlude Eugene O'Neill 1928 American English
14984 Shelley Richard Holmes 1974 British English
14984 Stalingrad Antony Beevor 1998 British English
15707 Early Plays Eugene O'Neill 1932 American English
15741 The Three Theban Plays Sophocles -441 Greek Ancient greek
15756 Punishment Without Revenge Lope de Vega 1631 Spanish Spanish
15762 The Oedipus Plays Of Sophocles Sophocles -429 Greek Ancient greek
15769 King's Row Henry Bellamann 1940 American English
15826 Laughter In The Dark Vladimir Nabokov 1932 Russian Russian
15844 Anna Karanina Leo Tolstoy 1873 Russian Russian
15858 The Ill Made Knight T.H. White 1940 British English
15898 Hollywood Babylon Kenneth Anger 1959 American English
15898 Rienzi Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1835 British English
16497 The Love Suicides At Sonezaki Chikamatsu Monzaemon 1703 Japanese Japanese
15898 Chu Yuan Guo Moruo 1942 Chinese Chinese
15898 The Greek Myths Robert Graves 1955 British English
15898 Elias Portolu Grazia Deledda 1903 Italian Italian
15898 A Season In The Life Of Emmanuel Marie-Claire Blais, Derek Coltman 1965 Canadian French
15898 La Femme De Gilles Madeleine Bourdouxhe 1937 Belgian French
15898 Doctor Faustus And Other Plays Christopher Marlowe 1604 English English
15898 Above The Dark Circus Hugh Walpole 1931 British English
15898 A Pin To See The Peepshow F. Tennyson Jesse 1934 British English
16491 William Shakespeare Complete Works William Shakespeare 1623 English English
16562 K2 The Savage Mountain Charles Houston, Robert Bates 1954 American English
16561 The Fall Of The King Johannes V. Jensen 1900 Danish Danish
16531 Letter From An Unknown Woman Stefan Zweig 1922 Austrian German
16711 Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex Owen Chase 1821 American English
16650 The Seven Who Were Hanged Leonid Andreyev 1908 Russian Russian
16715 Balladyna Juliusz Słowacki 1839 Polish Polish
16636 Khosrow And Shirin Nezami Ganjavi 1180 Persian Persian
16713 Os Miseráveis 1 Victor Hugo 1862 French French
16602 The Brothers Karamazov Fedor Dostoyevsky 1880 Russian Russian
16806 Flotsam Erich Maria Remarque 1939 German German
16850 War Music Christopher Logue 1959 British English
17120 What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted? Alan Duff 1996 New Zealander English
17120 Darkness Visible William Golding 1979 British English
17120 Justine Alice Thompson 1996 British English
17120 The Ground Beneath Her Feet Salman Rushdie 1999 British English
17120 Demon Slayer Koyoharu Gotouge 2016 Japanese Japanese
17120 Faith Healer Brian Friel 1979 Irish English
16946 Journey’s End R. C. Sherriff 1929 British English
17120 Model Home Eric Puchner 2010 American English
17120 The Recollections Of Geoffrey Hamlyn Henry Kingsley 1859 British English
17120 The Choice Nicholas Sparks 2007 American English
17120 The Hostage Brendan Behan 1958 Irish English
17120 Lost Memory Of Skin Russell Banks 2011 American English
17120 The Fishermen Chigozie Obioma 2015 Nigerian English
16994 Les Miserables (New Edition) (Paperback Blue Bird Kodansha) Les Miserables Unknown 1862 French French
17004 The Woman Destroyed Simone de Beauvoir 1967 French French
17120 If We Were Villains M. L. Rio 2017 American English
16760 Caligula Albert Camus 1944 French French
17059 Pierre Or The Ambiguities Herman Melville 1852 American English
17120 They Both Die At The End Adam Silvera 2017 American English
17120 The Children Of Húrin J. R. R. Tolkien 2007 British English
16877 The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare, Volume 2 William Shakespeare 1623 British English
17099 Roméo Et Juliette / Macbeth William Shakespeare 1597 British English
16911 Patriotism Yukio Mishima 1961 Japanese Japanese
17120 Brokeback Mountain Annie Proulx 2005 American English
17120 Three Elegies For Kosovo Ismail Kadare 1998 Albanian Albanian
17120 Heavier Than Heaven Charles R. Cross 2001 American English
17120 جای خالی سلوچ Mahmoud Dowlatabadi 1979 Iranian Persian
17102 Victoria Knut Hamsun 1898 Norwegian Norwegian
17120 Morrer Na Primavera Ralf Rothmann 2015 German German
16959 The Gentle Spirit Fyodor Dostoevsky 1876 Russian Russian
17120 The Fall Of Gondolin J. R. R. Tolkien 2018 British English
16904 The Dry Heart Natalia Ginzburg 1947 Italian Italian
17120 The Flowers Of Adonis Rosemary Sutcliff 1969 British English
17120 The Wicked Day Mary Stewart 1983 British English
17120 The House Is On Fire Rachel Beanland 2023 Unknown English
17120 Waco Jeff Guinn 2023 American English
17120 The Best Minds Jonathan Rosen 2023 Unknown English
17120 We Were Once A Family Roxanna Asgarian 2023 Unknown English
17120 Up With The Sun Thomas Mallon 2023 American English
17120 Voyage Of The Damned Frances White 2024 Unknown English
16852 The Theban Plays Sophocles -442 Greek Ancient greek
17033 The Saga Of The Volsungs Anonymous 1270 Unknown Old norse
17120 Sea Wall / A Life John Stephens Unknown Unknown
17120 James Dean Paul Alexander 1994 Unknown English
17084 Maria Stuart Stefan Zweig 1935 Austrian German
17120 Райский сад первой любви Линь Ихань 2017 Chinese Chinese (traditional)
17029 A Horseman In The Sky Ambrose Bierce 1898 American English
17120 रश्मिरथी Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' 1981 Indian Hindi
17120 The Sarah Book Scott McClanahan 2015 American English
17120 In This Corner Of The World Fumiyo Kouno 2007 Japanese Japanese
16917 The Sorrows Of A Young Werther Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1774 German German
17120 Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 American English
17087 A Farewell To Arms Ernest Hemingway 1929 American English
17120 Christ Is Recrucified Kazantzakis Greek Greek
17120 Palmares Gayl Jones 1994 American English
17120 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
17120 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
17120 The Dovekeepers Alice Hoffman 2011 American English
16971 My Theodosia Anya Seton 1941 American English