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
523 Fortunata and Jacinta Benito Pérez Galdós 1887 Spanish Spanish
524 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving 1989 American English
525 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
526 Family Sayings Natalia Ginzburg 1963 Italian Italian
527 The Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762 French French
528 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick 1968 American English
529 Life Is a Dream Pedro Calderón de la Barca 1635 Spanish Spanish
530 The Red Room August Strindberg 1879 Swedish Swedish
531 The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith 1776 Scottish English
533 Cousin Bette Honoré de Balzac 1846 French French
534 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
535 Red Cavalry Isaac Babel 1926 Russian Russian
536 Red Harvest Dashiell Hammett 1929 American English
537 The Waning of the Middle Ages Johan Huizinga 1919 Dutch Dutch
538 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
539 So Long, See You Tomorrow William Maxwell 1980 American English
540 The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe 1968 American English
541 The Seven Pillars of Wisdom T. E. Lawrence 1926 British English
542 Uncle Silas Sheridan Le Fanu 1864 Irish English
543 Discourse on Method Rene Descartes 1637 French French
544 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
546 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
547 Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll 1871 British English
548 Le Morte d'Arthur Thomas Malory 1485 British Middle english
550 Max Havelaar Multatuli 1860 Dutch Dutch
551 Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 1678 British English
552 The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane 1895 American English
553 The Dispossessed Ursula K. Le Guin 1974 American English
554 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
555 The Lady with the Dog Anton Chekhov 1899 Russian Russian
556 The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse 1938 British English
557 The Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. Du Bois 1903 American English
558 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Dee Alexander Brown 1970 American English
559 Christ Stopped at Eboli Carlo Levi 1945 Italian Italian
560 Sula Toni Morrison 1973 American English
561 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
562 Aesop's Fables Aesop -560 Greek Ancient greek
564 Main Street Sinclair Lewis 1920 American English
565 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
566 I Served The King Of England Bohumil Hrabal 1983 Czech Czech
567 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
568 The Mandarins Simone de Beauvoir 1954 French French
569 The Death of the Heart Elizabeth Bowen 1938 British, Irish English
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
571 And Quiet Flows The Don Mikhail Sholokhov 1928 Russian Russian
572 Three Sisters Anton Chekhov 1901 Russian Russian
573 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume 1970 American English
574 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003 American English
575 I Capture the Castle Dodie Smith 1948 British English
576 Complete Poems Elizabeth Bishop 1969 American English
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
578 The Silence of the Lambs Thomas Harris 1988 American English
579 The Outsider And Others H. P. Lovecraft 1939 American English
580 Black Lamb and Grey Falcon Rebecca West 1941 British English
581 The Innocence of Father Brown G. K. Chesterton 1911 British English
582 Man's Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl 1946 Austrian German
583 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
584 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
586 The Third Man Graham Greene 1949 British English
587 The Man with the Golden Arm Nelson Algren 1949 American English
588 The Pillars Of The Earth Ken Follett 1989 British English
589 Bel Ami Guy de Maupassant 1885 French French
590 Northanger Abbey Jane Austen 1817 British English
591 Stories of Guy de Maupassant Guy de Maupassant 1880 French French
592 The Sleepwalkers Hermann Broch 1932 Austrian German
593 Complete Poems of Giacomo Leopardi Giacomo Leopardi 1831 Italian Italian
594 Growth of the Soil Knut Hamsun 1917 Norwegian Norwegian
595 Farewell, My Lovely Raymond Chandler 1940 American English
596 The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides -410 Greek Ancient greek
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
598 Night Elie Wiesel 1958 French French
599 A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams 1947 American English
600 Nine Stories J. D. Salinger 1953 American English
601 The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne 1851 American English
602 The Go-Between L. P. Hartley 1953 British English
603 Barabbas Par Lagerkvist 1950 Swedish Swedish
605 Claudine Colette 1900 French French
606 New Grub Street George Gissing 1891 British English
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
609 The Opposing Shore Julien Gracq 1951 French French
610 Requiem Anna Akhmatova 1963 Russian Russian
611 Revolutionary Road Richard Yates 1961 American English
612 Green Henry Gottfried Keller 1855 Swiss German
613 The Persians Aeschylus -471 Greek Ancient greek
615 Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary M. R. James 1904 British English
616 The Rebel Albert Camus 1951 French French
617 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
618 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
619 The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles 1949 American English
620 The Elements of Style E. B. White, William Strunk Jr. 1918 American English
622 Elective Affinities Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1809 German German
623 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985 American English
624 The Histories of Herodotus Herodotus -450 Greek Ancient greek
625 The Nine Tailors Dorothy L. Sayers 1934 British English
626 Promise at Dawn Romain Gary 1960 French French
627 The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Christopher Marlowe 1604 British English
628 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
629 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
630 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
631 The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder 1927 American English
633 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John le Carré 1974 British English
634 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
635 Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo 1939 American English
636 Goodnight Moon Margaret Wise Brown 1947 American English
637 The Quiet American Graham Greene 1955 British English
638 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
639 Reflections on the Revolution in France Edmund Burke 1790 British English
640 Black Boy Richard Wright 1945 American English
641 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding 1996 British English
642 Testament Of Youth Vera Brittain 1933 British English
643 Silas Marner George Eliot 1861 British English
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
645 A Study of History Arnold J. Toynbee 1934 British English
646 The Varieties of Religious Experience William James 1902 American English
647 Lolly Willowes Sylvia Townsend Warner 1926 British English
648 The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien 1990 American English
649 Villette Charlotte Brontë 1853 British English
650 The Flanders Road Claude Simon 1960 French French
651 Manhattan Transfer John Dos Passos 1925 American English
652 Dispatches Michael Herr 1977 American English