The Greatest Western Books of All Time

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
5830 Poems Alkman -650 Greek Ancient greek
5833 Pseudolus Plautus -191 Roman Latin
5836 The Braggart Soldier Plautus -204 Roman Latin
5835 Six Tragedies Seneca 54 Roman Latin
5831 Fuente Ovejuna Lope de Vega 1619 Spanish Spanish
5829 The Easter Parade Richard Yates 1976 American English
5839 Miss Susie Slagle's Augusta Tucker 1939 American English
5842 The Girl From Samos Menander -342 Greek Ancient greek
5841 The Girl From Andros Terence -166 Roman Latin
5837 Paradise Regained John Milton 1671 British English
5838 The Grotesque Patrick McGrath 1989 British English
5846 Revolution in the Head Ian MacDonald 1994 British English
5846 The Last Shot Darcy Frey 1994 American English
5848 The Rope Plautus -204 Roman Latin
5844 The Mother In Law Terence -160 Roman Latin
5849 Venice Preserv'd Thomas Otway 1682 British English
5845 Andromache Jean Racine 1667 French French
5843 A Month In The Country Ivan Turgenev 1855 Russian Russian
5854 Works Empedocles -439 Greek Ancient greek
5850 Love For Love William Congreve 1695 British English
5851 The Recruiting Officer George Farquhar 1706 Irish English
5852 Chatterton Alfred de Vigny 1835 French French
5853 Major Barbara George Bernard Shaw 1905 British English
5856 The Oregon Trail Francis Parkman 1849 American English
5857 The New Life Dante Alighieri 1295 Italian Italian
5858 Selections Francesco Petrarca 1340 Italian Italian
5855 The Servant Of Two Masters Carlo Goldoni 1746 Italian Italian
5862 The School for Wives Molière 1662 French French
5862 The New Science Giambattista Vico 1725 Italian Italian
5862 The Big Sea Langston Hughes 1940 American English
5862 My Life and Hard Times James Thurber 1933 American English
5862 The Last Days of Mankind Karl Kraus 1919 Austrian German
5862 The Book Of The Courtier Baldassare Castiglione 1528 Italian Italian
5862 The Poems Of William Dunbar William Dunbar 1501 Scottish Middle scots
5862 Centuries, Poems, And Thanksgivings Thomas Traherne 1903 British English
5862 The Changeling Thomas, William Rowley Middleton 1622 British English
5862 Italian Journey Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1816 German German
5861 Mary Stuart Friedrich Schiller 1800 German German
5862 The Grasmere Journal Dorothy Wordsworth 1897 British English
5862 Poems Of John Clare John Clare 1820 British English
5862 Poems And Prose Gerald Manley Hopkins 1918 British English
5862 The Stones Of Venice John Ruskin 1851 British English
5862 The New Arabian Nights Robert Louis Stevenson 1882 Scottish English
5862 The Well At The World's End William Morris 1896 British English
5862 At The Back Of The North Wind George MacDonald 1871 Scottish English
5862 The Piazza Tales Herman Melville 1856 American English
5862 France And England In North America Francis Parkman 1865 American English
5862 A Modern Instance William Dean Howells 1882 American English
5862 Selected Poetry Rainer Maria Rilke 1902 German German
5862 Winter's Tales Isak Dinesen 1942 Danish Danish
5862 Barren Ground Ellen Glasgow 1925 American English
5862 Elders And Betters Ivy Compton-Burnett 1944 British English
5860 Jack’s Return Home Ted Lewis 1970 British English
5862 After Midnight Irmgard Keun 1937 German German
5859 Wasteland Jo Sinclair 1946 American English
5889 The Girl With The Golden Eyes Honoré de Balzac 1835 French French
5888 House With The Green Shutters George Douglas Brown 1901 Scottish English
5891 Louis Lambert Honoré de Balzac 1832 French French
5890 Sartor Resartus Thomas Carlyle 1836 British English
5893 The Power Of Darkness Leo Tolstoy 1886 Russian Russian
5892 Antic Hay Aldous Huxley 1923 British English
5895 A Confession Leo Tolstoy 1882 Russian Russian
5896 The Plough And The Stars Sean O'Casey 1926 Irish English
5897 Caught Henry Green 1943 British English
5901 The Beggar's Opera John Gay 1728 British English
5899 Complete Works Arthur Rimbaud 1895 French French
5898 The Ghost Sonata August Strindberg 1907 Swedish Swedish
5900 Parables, Fragments, Aphorisms Franz Kafka 1935 Czech German
5917 Reveille in Washington Margaret Leech 1941 American English
5917 The Magic Toyshop Angela Carter 1967 British English
5908 The Warlord of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs 1914 American English
5905 The First Men In The Moon H. G. Wells 1901 British English
5903 The Country Wife William Wycherley 1675 British English
5902 Poems Of George Darley George Darley 1840 Irish English
5917 Orley Farm Anthony Trollope 1862 British English
5906 The Ring Of The Nibelung Richard Wagner 1876 German German
5910 Complete Prose Tales Alexander Pushkin 1831 Russian Russian
5913 The Cossacks Leo Tolstoy 1863 Russian Russian
5917 The Damnation Of Theron Ware Harold Frederic 1896 American English
5917 Hard Labor Cesare Pavese 1938 Italian Italian
5916 Our Lord Don Quixote Miguel de Unamuno 1935 Spanish Spanish
5911 Poems Of Fernando Pessoa Fernando Pessoa 1942 Portuguese Portuguese
5909 Thomas The Obscure Maurice Blanchot 1941 French French
5915 The Caucasian Chalk Circle Bertolt Brecht 1944 German German
5912 The Third Ghost Book Cynthia Asquith 1955 British English
5917 The Valley Of Fear Arthur Conan Doyle 1915 British English
5904 Notes From Underground & Other Stories Fyodor Dostoevsky 1864 Russian Russian
5907 Death In The Afternoon Ernest Hemingway 1932 American English
5917 The Tale Of The 1002nd Night Joseph Roth 1938 Austrian German
5925 In Search Of Our Mother’s Gardens Alice Walker 1983 American English
5926 Sylvester And The Magic Pebble William Steig 1969 American English
5927 Hope in the Dark Rebecca Solnit 2004 American English
5928 Go Went Gone Jenny Erpenbeck 2015 German German
5929 Marathon Man William Goldman 1974 American English
5930 Light M. John Harrison 2002 British English
5931 King Kong Theory Virginie Despentes 2006 French French
5932 King Jonathan Eig 2023 American English
5933 Small Fry Lisa Brennan-Jobs 2018 American English
5934 A Promise Of Fire Amanda Bouchet 2016 American English
5937 Rendezvous with Rama Arthur C. Clarke 1973 British English
5935 Look At Me Now And Here I Am Gertrude Stein 1967 American Unknown
5938 Hurramabad Andrei Volos 1998 Russian Russian
5938 Jesus Menschensohn Rudolf Augstein 1982 German German
5938 The Turning Point Fritjof Capra 1982 American English
5938 Music As Speech Nikolaus Harnoncourt 1982 Austrian German
5938 The Spiral Of Silence Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann 1982 German German
5938 Spätestens Im November Hans Erich Nossack 1982 German German
5938 Der Bedrohte Friede Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker 1982 German German
5938 Die Bertinis Ralph Giordano 1982 German German
5938 The Old Fox Deceiv'd Martha Grimes 1982 American English
5948 The Wandering Fire Guy Gavriel Kay 1986 Canadian English
5947 Separate Rooms Pier Vittorio Tondelli 1989 Italian Italian
5949 Inherent Vice Thomas Pynchon 2009 American English
5950 The Afternoon of a Writer Peter Handke 1987 Austrian German
5950 Cigarettes Harry Mathews 1987 American English
5954 A Good Man In Africa William Boyd 1981 British English
5950 Talk Dirty To Me Sallie Tisdale 1994 American English
5956 The Education Of Everett Richardson Silver Donald Cameron 1977 Canadian English
5959 The Time Ships Stephen Baxter 1995 British English
5959 Microserfs Douglas Coupland 1995 Canadian English