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
4673 The Witness For The Prosecution Agatha Christie 1925 British English
4674 The Time of Our Singing Richard Powers 2003 American English
4675 Our Bodies, Ourselves Unknown 1970 American English
4676 Each Man's Son Hugh MacLennan 1951 Canadian English
4679 Skippy Dies Pauli Murray 2010 Irish English
4680 The Autobiography of Mark Twain Mark Twain 1924 American English
4682 Green Eggs and Ham Dr. Seuss 1960 American English
4683 The Complete Poems Philip Larkin 1988 British English
4686 The Sabbath Abraham Joshua Heschel 1951 American English
4686 The Cost Of Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1937 German German
4686 Letters And Papers From Prison Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1951 German German
4686 Letters And Religion John Jay Chapman 1892 American English
4686 Christianity And Culture T. S. Eliot 1939 British English
4686 The Lord Romano Guardini 1934 German German
4686 The Reign Of Quantity & The Signs Of The Times René Guénon 1945 French French
4686 Testament Of Devotion Thomas R. Kelly 1941 American English
4686 Enthusiasm Ronald Knox 1950 British English
4686 Christ And Culture H. Richard Niebuhr 1951 American English
4686 The Idea Of The Holy Rudolf Otto 1917 German English
4686 In Search Of The Miraculous P.D. Ouspensky 1947 Russian English
4686 Major Trends In Jewish Mysticism Gershom Scholem 1929 German German
4686 Centuries Of Meditations Thomas Traherne 1665 British English
4686 Practical Mysticism Evelyn Underhill 1914 British English
4704 The Red Redmaynes Eden Phillpotts 1922 British English
4705 The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter Katherine Anne Porter 1965 American English
4706 Faserland Christian Kracht 1995 German German
4707 Six Of Crows Leigh Bardugo 2015 American English
4708 Roots Arnold Wesker 1959 British English
4709 Grimus Salman Rushdie 1975 British English
4710 Flesh Brigid Brophy 1962 British English
4710 Pigeon Feathers And Other Stories John Updike 1962 American English
4710 Umgang Mit Der Angst Horst-Eberhard Richter 1968 German German
4714 Jumping Jenny Anthony Berkeley 1933 British English
4715 Office Politics Wilfrid Sheed 1965 British English
4716 A Life of Picasso John Richardson 1991 British English
4717 I'll Take My Stand Twelve Southerners 1930 American English
4719 The Sword of the Lictor Gene Wolfe 1982 American English
4720 A History Of Religious Ideas, Volume 3 Mircea Eliade 1985 French French
4722 Death of a Lake Arthur William Upfield 1954 Australian English
4722 My Book House Olive Beaupré Miller 1920 American English
4722 The Negro Caravan Sterling Allen Brown, Arthur Paul Davis, Ulysses Lee 1941 American English
4722 Of Time and the River Thomas Wolfe 1935 American English
4722 The Bone is Pointed Arthur William Upfield 1938 Australian English
4722 Venus in Furs Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch 1870 Austrian German
4722 Mission Box Aris Alexandrou 1974 Greek Greek
4730 Don Carlos Friedrich Schiller 1787 German German
4731 The Making of Homeric Verse Milman Parry 1971 American English
4732 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation M. T. Anderson 2006 American English
4733 Woman Of Straw Catherine Arley 1956 French French
4735 Shadow and ACT Ralph Ellison 1964 American English
4734 The Headless Horseman Thomas Mayne Reid 1865 Irish English
4737 When A Scot Ties The Knot Tessa Dare 2015 American English
4738 At Play in the Fields of the Lord Peter Matthiessen 1965 American English
4741 The Commandant Jessica Anderson 1975 Australian English
4741 Willard and His Bowling Trophies Richard Brautigan 1975 American English
4743 The Christian Tradition Jaroslav Pelikan 1971 American English
4747 Blood Oranges John Hawkes 1971 American English
4748 The Glamour Christopher Priest 1984 British English
4749 The Wycherly Woman Ross Macdonald 1961 American English
4750 The Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan 2006 American English
4751 Origins of the New South C. Vann Woodward 1951 American English
4753 Angels And Demons Dan Brown 2000 American English
4754 Home Fire Kamila Shamsie 2017 British English
4755 The Second Shot Anthony Berkeley 1930 British English
4756 The Faculty of Useless Knowledge Yuri Dombrovsky 1976 Russian Russian
4757 Claros Del Bosque María Zambrano 1977 Spanish Spanish
4760 For Kicks Dick Francis 1965 British English
4761 Vertigo W. G. Sebald 1990 German German
4763 400 Million Customers Carl Crow 1937 American English
4764 The Abc Murders Agatha Christie 1936 British English
4765 The Soldier's Art Anthony Powell 1966 British English
4766 The Yiddish Policemen's Union Michael Chabon 2007 American English
4767 The Incomplete Enchanter L. Sprague de Camp 1940 American English
4767 Dark Carnival Ray Bradbury 1947 American English
4767 Works Of Fancy And Imagination George MacDonald 1867 British English
4767 The Supernatural Tales Of Fitz James O'brien Fitz-James O'Brien 1908 British English
4767 The Bee Man Of Orn Frank R. Stockton 1887 American English
4767 The White Deer James Thurber 1945 American English
4767 Turnabout Thorne Smith 1931 American English
4767 The Ship Of Ishtar A. Merritt 1924 American English
4777 Odes Pindar -518 Greek Ancient greek
4780 Pharsalia Lucan 61 Roman Latin
4781 The Art Of Love Ovid 2 Roman Latin
4784 Amphitryon Plautus -184 Roman Latin
4783 The Princess Casamassima Henry James 1886 British English
4782 Ice Anna Kavan 1967 British English
4785 Sarah, Plain and Tall Patricia MacLachlan 1985 American English
4787 Two Years Before the Mast Richard Henry Dana 1840 American English
4786 The Way Of The World William Congreve 1700 British English
4788 The Master Builder Henrik Ibsen 1892 Norwegian Norwegian
4789 Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes Robert Louis Stevenson 1879 British English
4789 Memento Mori Muriel Spark 1959 British English
4791 Corporale Paolo Volponi 1974 Italian Italian
4793 Yvain Chrétien de Troyes 1177 French Old french
4792 The Birth Of Tragedy Friedrich Nietzsche 1872 German German
4794 The Good Person of Szechwan Bertolt Brecht 1943 German German
4795 The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle Hugh Lofting 1922 British English
4797 If Beale Street Could Talk James Baldwin 1974 American English
4799 Home to Harlem Claude McKay 1928 American English
4798 Nature Ralph Waldo Emerson 1836 American English
4801 Brand Henrik Ibsen 1866 Norwegian Norwegian
4802 Dictee Theresa Hak Kyung Cha 1982 American English
4804 The Dybbuk S. Ansky 1914 Russian Yiddish
4805 Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay Elena Ferrante 2013 Italian Italian
4806 The Burden of Southern History C. Vann Woodward 1960 American English
4807 Oktana Andreas Embiricos 1975 Greek Greek
4809 Slow Days, Fast Company Eve Babitz 1977 American English
4810 Gaia James Lovelock 1979 British English
4811 Slave Old Man Patrick Chamoiseau 1997 French French
4812 Happy Moscow Andrey Platonov 1991 Russian Russian
4813 Dreamland Sam Quinones 2015 American English
4814 A Dram Of Poison Charlotte Armstrong 1956 American English
4815 The New Oxford Book Of English Verse Helen Gardner 1972 British English
4817 Cat Of Many Tails Ellery Queen 1949 American English
4816 Ozma Of Oz L. Frank Baum 1907 American English
4818 The Malacia Tapestry Brian Aldiss 1976 British English
4818 Hotel De Dream Emma Tennant 1976 British English
4820 The Poet And The Lunatics G. K. Chesterton 1929 British English
4822 He, She and It Marge Piercy 1991 American English
4821 Thirteen Years After; A Great War Veteran Returns To The Old Battlefields Will R. Bird 1931 Canadian English