The Greatest Western Modernist 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
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
2 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
3 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 American English
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
25 The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann 1924 German German
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
32 Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
43 Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner 1936 American English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
62 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway 1926 American English
63 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
79 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
82 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
85 The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford 1915 British English
88 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 1916 Irish English
95 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
111 The Waste Land T. S. Eliot 1922 British English
135 Doctor Faustus Thomas Mann 1947 German German
137 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad 1900 British English
144 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
147 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
156 Poems of Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson 1890 American English
168 Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald 1934 American English
173 A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf 1929 British English
178 The Flowers of Evil Charles Baudelaire 1857 French French
185 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
201 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
226 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
227 Women in Love D. H. Lawrence 1920 British English
235 The Ambassadors Henry James 1903 American English
240 Death in Venice Thomas Mann 1912 German German
257 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
269 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
283 Nostromo Joseph Conrad 1904 British English
311 Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson 1919 American English
321 We Yevgeny Zamyatin 1924 Russian Russian
325 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
330 Dubliners James Joyce 1914 Irish English
341 The Human Comedy Honoré de Balzac 1830 French French
360 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
369 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein 1921 Austrian German
373 The Duino Elegies Rainer Maria Rilke 1923 German German
376 The Golden Bowl Henry James 1904 American English
382 Parade's End Ford Madox Ford 1924 British English
395 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
398 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke 1910 German German
429 The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino 1957 Italian Italian
452 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
465 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
470 The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad 1907 British English
472 The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead 1940 Australian English
478 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
479 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
487 Rainbow D.H. Lawrence 1915 British English
519 Call It Sleep Henry Roth 1934 American English
530 The Red Room August Strindberg 1879 Swedish Swedish
535 Red Cavalry Isaac Babel 1926 Russian Russian
554 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
564 Main Street Sinclair Lewis 1920 American English
565 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
583 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
592 The Sleepwalkers Hermann Broch 1932 Austrian German
593 Complete Poems of Giacomo Leopardi Giacomo Leopardi 1831 Italian Italian
609 The Opposing Shore Julien Gracq 1951 French French
617 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
618 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
651 Manhattan Transfer John Dos Passos 1925 American English
680 The Stories of John Cheever John Cheever 1978 American English
695 Boys Alive Pier Paolo Pasolini 1955 Italian Italian
730 Petersburg Andrei Bely 1913 Russian Russian
734 Loving Henry Green 1945 British English
752 Poems Of Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy 1898 British English
754 If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem William Faulkner 1939 American English
761 Goodbye to Berlin Christopher Isherwood 1939 British English
775 Cheese Willem Elsschot 1933 Belgian Dutch
798 The Life Of Arseniev Ivan Bunin 1930 Russian Russian
812 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
816 The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia Samuel Johnson, Abraham Raimbach, Robert Smirke 1759 British English
825 In Our Time Ernest Hemingway 1925 American English
854 Cane Jean Toomer 1923 American English
868 Henry James Leon Edel 1953 American English
893 Neuromancer William Gibson 1984 American, Canadian English
912 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
915 Malina Ingeborg Bachmann 1971 Austrian German
919 The Poems Of Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerald Manley Hopkins 1918 British English
927 Cat and Mouse Günter Grass 1961 German German
939 Émile Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762 French French
994 Blindness José Saramago 1995 Portuguese Portuguese
999 Chevengur Andrey Platonov 1928 Russian Russian
1020 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
1045 Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1932 British English
1061 The Hothouse Wolfgang Koeppen 1953 German German
1078 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
1084 Mother Courage and Her Children Bertolt Brecht 1941 German German
1093 The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera 1979 Czech Czech
1099 The Blue Flower Penelope Fitzgerald 1995 British English
1100 Collected Poems Of Edward Thomas Edward Thomas 1920 British English
1120 The Sorrow of Belgium Hugo Claus 1983 Belgian Dutch
1137 Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West 1933 American English
1155 Three Lives Gertrude Stein 1909 American English
1165 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
1169 The History of Mr. Polly H. G. Wells 1910 British English
1175 The Demons Heimito von Doderer 1956 Austrian German
1179 Living Henry Green 1929 British English
1189 A Writer's Diary Virginia Woolf 1953 British English
1219 The Time of Indifference Alberto Moravia 1929 Italian Italian
1228 Strait is the Gate André Gide 1909 French French
1238 The Age of Anxiety W. H. Auden 1947 British English
1251 The Last Gentleman Walker Percy 1966 American English
1271 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1292 Two Serious Ladies Jane Bowles 1943 American English
1298 The Days of His Grace Eyvind Johnson 1960 Swedish Swedish
1304 Collected Poems Stéphane Mallarmé 1887 French French
1311 Boredom Alberto Moravia 1960 Italian Italian
1316 The Fountain Overflows Rebecca West 1956 British English
1339 The Artificial Silk Girl Irmgard Keun 1932 German German
1343 The Hamlet William Faulkner 1940 American English
1355 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1358 The Principle Of Hope Ernst Bloch 1954 German German