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
388 The Complete Works of Plato Plato -387 Greek Ancient greek
390 The Old Wives' Tale Arnold Bennett 1908 British English
391 Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather 1927 American English
392 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
393 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins 1868 British English
394 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
395 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
397 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
398 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke 1910 German German
399 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman 1995 British English
400 The Shining Stephen King 1977 American English
401 Celestina Or The Tragic-Comedy Of Calisto And Melibea Fernando de Rojas 1499 Spanish Spanish
402 The Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle -334 Greek Ancient greek
403 The Words Jean Paul Sartre 1963 French French
404 The Federalist Papers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay 1787 American English
405 De Rerum Natura Lucretius 55 Roman Latin
406 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
407 The World According to Garp John Irving 1978 American English
408 The Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus 1942 French French
409 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2012 American Italian
410 The Razor's Edge W. Somerset Maugham 1944 British English
411 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
412 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
413 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer 1948 American English
414 The Mill on the Floss George Eliot 1860 British English
415 The Day of the Jackal Frederick Forsyth 1971 British English
416 Out of Africa Isak Dinesen 1937 Danish Danish
417 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas Kuhn 1962 American English
418 Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 American English
419 The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey 1951 British English
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
421 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
423 Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie 1934 British English
424 A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen 1879 Norwegian Norwegian
425 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 1811 British English
426 The Moon and the Bonfires Cesare Pavese 1950 Italian Italian
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
428 Death Of A Salesman Arthur Miller 1949 American English
429 The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino 1957 Italian Italian
431 Memoirs From Beyond the Grave François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand 1849 French French
432 Lost Illusions Honoré de Balzac 1837 French French
433 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
434 The Fountainhead Ayn Rand 1943 American English
435 Scoop Evelyn Waugh 1938 British English
437 Passing Nella Larsen 1929 American English
438 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
439 North and South Elizabeth Gaskell 1855 British English
440 The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt 1951 German English
441 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
442 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
444 The Man Who Was Thursday G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
445 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
446 Joseph and His Brothers Thomas Mann 1933 German German
447 Gypsy Ballads Federico García Lorca 1928 Spanish Spanish
448 Homage to Catalonia George Orwell 1938 British English
449 Les Enfants Terribles Jean Cocteau 1929 French French
450 Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler 1903 British English
451 Hiroshima John Hersey 1946 American English
452 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
453 I, Claudius Robert Graves 1934 British English
454 The Sea, The Sea Iris Murdoch 1978 British English
455 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
456 Let Us Now Praise Famous Men James Agee 1941 American English
457 The Hollow Man John Dickson Carr 1935 British English
458 Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant 1781 German German
459 The Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells 1896 British English
460 Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853 American English
461 Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand 1957 American English
463 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
464 Petrarch's Songbook Francesco Petrarca 1341 Italian Italian
465 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
466 A Death in the Family James Agee 1957 American English
467 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh 1934 British English
468 Daniel Deronda George Eliot 1876 British English
469 The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain 1934 American English
470 The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad 1907 British English
472 The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead 1940 Australian English
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
476 The Monk Matthew Lewis 1796 British English
478 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
479 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
480 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 1932 British English
481 The Lusiad Luís Vaz Camões 1572 Portuguese Portuguese
482 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
483 The Civil War Shelby Foote 1958 American English
485 Tristes Tropiques Claude Lévi-Strauss 1955 French French
486 Adam Bede George Eliot 1859 British English
487 Rainbow D.H. Lawrence 1915 British English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
489 Manon Lescaut Abbe Prevost 1731 French French
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
491 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
492 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressell, Peter Miles 1914 British English
494 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
495 Casino Royale Ian Fleming 1953 British English
496 Froth on the daydream Boris Vian 1947 French French
497 Murder Must Advertise Dorothy L. Sayers 1933 British English
498 The Immoralist André Gide 1902 French French
499 Platero Juan Ramón Jiménez 1914 Spanish Spanish
500 Everything That Rises Must Converge Flannery O'Connor 1965 American English
501 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
502 Another Country James Baldwin 1962 American English
503 Pamela Samuel Richardson 1740 British English
504 Her Lover Albert Cohen 1968 Swiss French
506 The Affluent Society John Kenneth Galbraith 1958 American English
507 The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper 1826 American English
508 Black Beauty Anna Sewell 1877 British English
509 Sanctuary William Faulkner 1931 American English
510 Eugenie Grandet Honoré de Balzac 1833 French French
511 Perfume Patrick Suskind 1985 German German
512 The Golden Ass Apuleius 158 Roman Latin
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
514 Speak, Memory Vladimir Nabokov 1951 American English
515 Lives of the Artists Giorgio Vasari 1550 Italian Italian
517 Being and Time Martin Heidegger 1927 German German
518 The Odes Horace 23 Roman Latin
519 Call It Sleep Henry Roth 1934 American English
520 Mansfield Park Jane Austen 1814 British English
521 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 1969 American English
522 The Phantom Tollbooth Norton Juster 1961 American English