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
1624 The Mediterranean And The Mediterranean World In The Age Of Philip Ii Fernand Braudel 1949 French French
1625 The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch Philip K. Dick 1965 American English
1626 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
1627 Dora Bruder Patrick Modiano 1997 French French
1628 Romance Of Walewein Penninc, Pieter Vostaert 1260 Dutch Middle dutch
1629 Point Counter Point Aldous Huxley 1928 British English
1630 Halbzeit Martin Walser 1960 German German
1631 Acquainted With Grief Carlo Emilio Gadda 1963 Italian Italian
1632 The Roots of Heaven Romain Gary 1956 French French
1633 In Watermelon Sugar Richard Brautigan 1968 American English
1634 The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros 1984 American English
1636 The Collector John Fowles 1963 British English
1637 The Sportswriter Richard Ford 1986 American English
1638 Postwar Tony Judt 2005 British English
1639 No Orchids for Miss Blandish James Hadley Chase 1939 British English
1640 The Asphalt Jungle W. R. Burnett 1949 American English
1641 Disraeli Robert Blake 1966 British English
1642 Song Of Myself Walt Whitman 1855 American English
1643 Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt 1996 American English
1644 The Nature of Things Francis Ponge 1942 French French
1645 Shogun James Clavell 1975 British English
1646 The Pledge Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1958 Swiss German
1647 Phaedo Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
1649 Cat's Eye Margaret Atwood 1988 Canadian English
1650 Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward 2017 American English
1651 The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1892 American English
1652 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
1653 The Loyal Subject Heinrich Mann 1918 German German
1654 O Pioneers! Willa Cather 1913 American English
1656 Arrowsmith Sinclair Lewis 1925 American English
1655 The Beauty Myth Naomi Wolf 1990 American English
1657 Essays and Aphorisms Arthur Schopenhauer 1851 German German
1658 The Song of Roland Unknown 1100 French Old french
1659 The Americans Robert Frank 1959 American English
1660 The Waste Books Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1770 German German
1661 A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare 1595 British English
1663 The Making of the English Working Class E. P. Thompson 1963 British English
1665 The House of Ulloa Emilia Pardo Bazán 1886 Spanish Spanish
1666 Zami Audre Lorde 1982 American English
1667 The Poetry of Alexander Pushkin Alexander Pushkin 1836 Russian Russian
1668 Solitude Caterina Albert 1905 Spanish Catalan
1670 The Emigrants Vilhelm Moberg 1949 Swedish Swedish
1671 The Ordeal Of Richard Feverel George Meredith 1859 British English
1672 Pulphead John Jeremiah Sullivan 2011 American English
1673 Penguin Island Anatole France 1908 French French
1674 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English
1675 The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger 2003 American English
1676 Time and Again Jack Finney 1970 American English
1677 A Theory of Justice John Rawls 1971 American English
1678 A Time To Be Born Dawn Powell 1942 American English
1679 The Killer Inside Me Jim Thompson 1952 American English
1680 Harold and the Purple Crayon Crockett Johnson 1955 American English
1681 The Teachings Of Don Juan Carlos Castaneda 1968 American English
1682 Asterix the Gaul Rene Goscinny 1959 French French
1683 The Life Written By Himself the Archpriest Avvakum 1666 Russian Russian
1684 Train Dreams Denis Johnson 2002 American English
1685 Burr Gore Vidal 1973 American English
1686 The Lorax Dr. Seuss 1971 American English
1687 The Hearing Trumpet Leonora Carrington 1974 British English
1688 Carrie Stephen King 1974 American English
1689 Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk Nikolai Leskov 1865 Russian Russian
1690 Goldfinger Ian Fleming 1959 British English
1692 Till We Have Faces C. S. Lewis 1956 British English
1693 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 2002 American English
1694 Cassandra Christa Wolf 1983 German German
1695 The Last Good Kiss James Crumley 1978 American English
1696 Evenings On A Farm Near Dikanka Nikolai Gogol 1831 Russian Russian
1697 The Stone Diaries Carol Shields 1993 Canadian English
1698 Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang 2002 American English
1699 That Awful Mess On Via Merulana Carlo Emilio Gadda 1957 Italian Italian
1700 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
1701 The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander 2010 American English
1702 Oreo Fran Ross 1974 American English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1705 The Sea-Wolf Jack London 1904 American English
1706 The Principia Mathematica Alfred North Whitehead, Bertrand Russell 1910 British English
1707 The House at Pooh Corner A. A. Milne 1928 British English
1708 The Guns Of Navarone Alistair MacLean 1957 British English
1709 The Club Dumas Arturo Pérez-Reverte 1993 Spanish Spanish
1711 Woyzeck Georg Buchner 1879 German German
1712 The Great God Pan Arthur Machen 1894 British English
1713 Encyclopédie Denis Diderot 1751 French French
1714 Go Down, Moses William Faulkner 1942 American English
1715 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1717 The Clown Heinrich Böll 1963 German German
1716 Lake Wobegon Days Garrison Keillor 1985 American English
1718 The Fixer Bernard Malamud 1966 American English
1720 The Lady In The Lake Raymond Chandler 1943 American English
1721 Pragmatism William James 1907 American English
1722 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1724 Logbook George Seferis 1940 Greek Greek
1725 A Harlot High And Low Honoré de Balzac 1839 French French
1726 Spring Awakening Frank Wedekind 1891 German German
1727 Down There J. K. Huysmans 1891 French French
1728 The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin 1839 British English
1729 Requiem for a Dream Hubert Selby 1978 American English
1730 The Mouse And His Child Russell Hoban 1967 American English
1731 Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin 1977 French English
1732 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1733 My Childhood Maxim Gorky 1913 Russian Russian
1733 Tender Buttons Gertrude Stein 1914 American English
1733 Zen In The Art Of Archery Eugen Herrigel 1948 German German
1736 Mary Poppins P. L. Travers 1934 British English
1737 Exercises in Style Raymond Queneau 1947 French French
1738 The Bedbug And Selected Poetry Vladimir Mayakovsky 1920 Russian Russian
1739 A Fatal Inversion Barbara Vine 1987 British English
1740 The Forty Days Of Musa Dagh Franz Werfel 1933 Austrian German
1741 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 Sue Townsend 1982 British English
1742 A Tale Of A Tub Jonathan Swift 1704 British English
1744 Haroun and the Sea of Stories Salman Rushdie 1990 British English
1745 Couples, Passersby Botho Strauß 1981 German German
1746 Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion David Hume 1779 British English
1747 Twenty Four Hours In The Life Of A Woman Stefan Zweig 1927 Austrian German
1748 The Fox Was Ever The Hunter Herta Müller 1992 German German
1749 First Circle Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1968 Russian Russian
1750 The Making of the Atomic Bomb Richard Rhodes 1986 American English
1751 NW Zadie Smith 2012 British English
1752 Men We Reaped Jesmyn Ward 2013 American English
1753 The Long Ships Frans G. Bengtsson 1941 Swedish Swedish
1754 Changing Places David Lodge 1975 British English