The Greatest Western 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
1482 Eline Vere Louis Couperus 1889 Dutch Dutch
1483 Tono Bungay H. G. Wells 1909 British English
1484 Independence Day Richard Ford 1995 American English
1485 A Perfect Spy John le Carré 1986 British English
1486 Locus Solus Raymond Roussel 1914 French French
1488 Beatrijs Unknown 1374 Dutch Middle dutch
1489 Abraham Lincoln, Speeches And Letters Abraham Lincoln 1907 American English
1491 Presumed Innocent Scott Turow 1987 American English
1492 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Vladimir Nabokov 1941 Russian English
1493 Charles And Elegast Unknown 1250 Dutch Middle dutch
1494 Eye Of The Needle Ken Follett 1978 British English
1495 Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo 2012 American English
1496 The Sleeping And The Dead August Derleth 1947 American English
1498 A King Alone Jean Giono 1947 French French
1499 Three Comrades Erich Maria Remarque 1936 German German
1500 The Bourne Identity Robert Ludlum 1980 American English
1503 The Friends Of Eddie Coyle George V. Higgins 1970 American English
1504 Sometimes a Great Notion Ken Kesey 1964 American English
1506 Selected Stories William Trevor 1992 Irish English
1507 Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya 1972 American English
1508 Surrealist Manifesto André Breton 1924 French French
1508 The Tower William Butler Yeats 1928 Irish English
1510 The Duke and I Julia Quinn 2000 American English
1511 The Strange Case of Peter the Lett Georges Simenon 1931 Belgian French
1512 The Beast Must Die Nicholas Blake 1938 British English
1513 The Women of Brewster Place Gloria Naylor 1982 American English
1514 Pelle The Conqueror Martin Andersen Nexø 1906 Danish Danish
1515 The World as Will and Idea Arthur Schopenhauer 1818 German German
1516 The Alberta Trilogy Cora Sandel 1926 Norwegian Norwegian
1516 The People of Hemsö August Strindberg 1887 Swedish Swedish
1516 Heinrich of Ofterdingen Novalis 1802 German German
1516 The Bells of Basel Louis Aragon 1934 French French
1520 The Slaves of Solitude Patrick Hamilton 1947 British English
1521 The Robbers Friedrich Schiller 1781 German German
1522 Cancer Ward Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1967 Russian Russian
1523 Guzmán de Alfarache Mateo Alemán 1599 Spanish Spanish
1524 Greenmantle John Buchan 1916 British English
1525 The Late Mattia Pascal Luigi Pirandello 1904 Italian Italian
1526 A History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1945 British English
1527 The Confidence Man Herman Melville 1857 American English
1528 The Consolation of Philosophy Boethius 524 Roman Latin
1530 Myra Breckinridge Gore Vidal 1968 American English
1531 Jurassic Park Michael Crichton 1990 American English
1532 Arturo's Island Elsa Morante 1957 Italian Italian
1534 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1535 The Sound Of His Horn Sarban 1952 British English
1536 Rubyfruit Jungle Rita Mae Brown 1973 American English
1537 The Owl Service Alan Garner 1967 British English
1539 On the Genealogy of Morality Friedrich Nietzsche 1887 German German
1540 Decline of the West Oswald Spengler 1918 German German
1541 The Confessions of Nat Turner William Styron 1967 American English
1542 The Devil In The White City Erik Larson 2003 American English
1545 Understanding Media Marshall McLuhan 1964 Canadian English
1546 Poems Of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 1847 American English
1547 What Maisie Knew Henry James 1897 American English
1548 Tom's Midnight Garden Philippa Pearce 1958 British English
1549 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont Elizabeth Taylor 1971 British English
1551 Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd 1985 British English
1552 Waterland Graham Swift 1983 British English
1554 The Unconsoled Kazuo Ishiguro 1995 British English
1555 Troilus And Criseyde Geoffrey Chaucer 1385 British Middle english
1556 The Poems of Francois Villon François Villon 1489 French Middle french
1557 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 1974 American English
1558 Marius the Epicurean Walter Pater 1885 British English
1559 Character F. Bordewijk 1938 Dutch Dutch
1561 Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey 1988 Australian English
1562 Burnt Offerings Robert Marasco 1973 American English
1563 Runaway Alice Munro 2004 Canadian English
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1565 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1567 To Build A Fire Jack London 1902 American English
1568 The Beautiful Summer Cesare Pavese 1949 Italian Italian
1569 Empire of the Sun J. G. Ballard 1984 British English
1570 The Young Lions Irwin Shaw 1948 American English
1571 Fifth Business Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
1572 Nature and Destiny of Man Reinhold Niebuhr 1941 American English
1574 Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock 1818 British English
1575 Borstal Boy Brendan Behan 1958 Irish English
1576 The Hidden Persuaders Vance Packard 1957 American English
1578 The Cement Garden Ian McEwan 1978 British English
1579 The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel Isaac Babel 1934 Russian Russian
1580 The Struggle for Europe Chester Wilmot 1952 British English
1581 The Civilizing Process Norbert Elias 1939 German German
1582 Quicksand Nella Larsen 1928 American English
1583 The Civilization Of The Renaissance In Italy Jacob Burckhardt 1860 Swiss German
1584 A Severed Head Iris Murdoch 1961 British English
1585 Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke 2004 British English
1586 Gijsbrecht Van Aemstel Joost van den Vondel 1637 Dutch Dutch
1588 The Guns of August Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1962 American English
1589 Tarka the Otter Henry Williamson 1927 British English
1590 Germania Cornelius Tacitus 98 Roman Latin
1591 Wry-Blue Loves Tristan Corbière 1873 French French
1592 Niels Lyhne Jens Peter Jacobson 1880 Danish Danish
1593 Good Morning, Midnight Jean Rhys 1939 British English
1594 The Imaginary Invalid Molière 1673 French French
1595 The Forbidden Kingdom Jan Jacob Slauerhoff 1932 Dutch Dutch
1595 The Garden Where the Brass Band Played Simon Vestdijk 1950 Dutch Dutch
1597 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson 1992 American English
1598 Ronia, The Robber's Daughter Astrid Lindgren 1981 Swedish Swedish
1599 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1601 The Ego and the Id Sigmund Freud 1923 Austrian German
1601 Three Treatises Martin Luther 1520 German German
1601 Studies in the Psychology of Sex Havelock Ellis 1897 British English
1604 Phineas Finn Anthony Trollope 1869 British English
1605 The Foundation Pit Andrey Platonov 1930 Russian Russian
1606 White Fang Jack London 1906 American English
1607 Pan Knut Hamsun 1894 Norwegian Norwegian
1608 The Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner Alan Sillitoe 1959 British English
1609 The Drowned World J. G. Ballard 1962 British English
1610 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
1611 The Prelude William Wordsworth 1850 British English
1611 The Song of Hiawatha Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1855 American English
1611 Crome Yellow Aldous Huxley 1921 British English
1611 Some Experiences Of An Irish R.M. E.Œ. Somerville, Martin Ross 1899 Irish English
1615 Giants in the Earth Ole Edvart Rolvaag 1927 Norwegian Norwegian
1617 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
1618 The Pursuit Of Love Nancy Mitford 1945 British English
1620 Sister Outsider Audre Lorde 1984 American English
1621 Good-Bye to All That Robert Graves 1929 British English
1623 Corregidora Gayl Jones 1975 American English