The Really Long List of Great Literature
If the nearly one thousand books of The Greatest Literature of All Time are not enough to keep you reading, how about twice as many? And then some?
Not to worry. You're not expected to read all the works listed here. No one could.
So why present this really, really long list?
To give you more great reading choices. More amazing works you might never have heard of or considered. More diversity in your reading, pushing you to stray from the narrower established canon.
Each title is on this list because at least some subset of readers, writers, critics or scholars thinks it's great.
Like our flagship Greatest Literature list, the Really Long List of Great Literature focuses on major creative works, although it may additionally include a few significant short works or nonfiction works.
Even more than our other lists, this one is a work in endless progress. It is continually being updated and upgraded.
Latest update: March 17, 2024
2,222 works of great literature...and counting
In chronological order
Ancient | Medieval & Renaissance | 18th & 19th century | 20th century | 21st century
Ancient Literature (BCE)
c.2100–2000
The Descent of Inanna
Anonymous
Sumer
Poetry
c.2030
A Love Song of Shu-Suen
Anonymous
Sumer
poem
c.1800
Enuma Elish
Anonymous
Babylon
poem
c.1200
Tale of Two Brothers
Anonymous
Egypt
story
c.1100
Story of Wenamun
Anonymous
Egypt
story
c.1200–100
Various
MIddle East
Prose and poetry
c.1000
Dialogue of Pessimism
Anonymous
Assyria
poem
c.1000–600
Classic of Poetry
Various
China
Poetry
c.600–200
Ramayana
Valmiki
India
poem
c.610–580
Sappho's Poems
Sappho
Greece
poetry collection
c.600–500
Aesop's Fables
Aesop
Greece
story collection
including The Fox and the Grapes, The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs, The Tortoise and the Hare, and more
c.520–440
Epinician Odes
Pindar
Greece
poetry collection
c.500
The Art of War
Sun Tzu
China
nonfiction
Hero and Leander
Musaeus Grammaticus
Greece
poem
475
Olympian
Pindar
Greece
play
472
The Persians
Aeschylus
Greece
play
467
Seven Against Thebes
Aeschylus
Greece
play
c.462
The Suppliant Maidens
Aeschylus
Greece
play
458
The Oresteia
Aeschylus
Greece
play series
including Agamemnon, The Eumenides, The Libation Bearers
c.450–425
Prometheus Bound
Aeschylus
Greece
play
The Women of Trachis
Sophocles
Greece
play
442–441
Ajax
Sophocles
Greece
play
438
Alcestis
Euripides
Greece
play
431
Medea
Euripides
Greece
play
431–404
Histories
Herodotus
History
play
c.430
Children of Heracles
Euripides
Greece
play
429
Sophocles
Greece
play
428
Hippolytus
Euripides
Greece
play
Andromache
Euripides
Greece
play
c.427
Hecuba
Euripides
Greece
play
425
The Acharnians
Aristophanes
Greece
play
424
The Knights
Aristophanes
Greece
play
423
The Clouds
Aristophanes
Greece
play
The Suppliants
Euripides
Greece
play
422
The Wasps
Aristophanes
Greece
play
c.420–410
Electra
Sophocles
Greece
play
418
Electra
Euripides
Greece
play
c.416
Herakles
Euripides
Greece
play
415
The Trojan Women
Euripides
Greece
play
414
The Birds
Aristophanes
Greece
play
414–412
Ion
Euripides
Greece
play
411
Women at the Thesmophoria
Aristophanes
Greece
play
412
Helen
Euripides
Greece
play
c.412
Iphigenia Tauris
Euripides
Greece
play
411
Lysistrata
Aristophanes
Greece
play
409
Philoctetes
Sophocles
Greece
play
406
The Bacchae
Euripides
Greece
play
c.405
Cyclops
Euripides
Greece
play
405
The Frogs
Aristophanes
Greece
play
401
Oedipus at Colonus
Sophocles
Greece
play
c.400
Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu
China
nonfiction
c.400–400CE
Mahābhārata
Anonymous
India
poem
c.385–370
The Symposium
Plato
Greece
nonfiction
c.380
Plato
Greece
nonfiction
History of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides
Greece
nonfiction
c.380
Meno
Plato
Greece
nonfiction
c.370
Phaedrus
Plato
Greece
nonfiction
Anabasis
Xenophon
Greece
nonfiction
Cryopedia
Xenophon
Greece
biography
317–316
Dyskolos
Menander
Greece
play
c.300
Zhuangzi
Zhuang Zhou
China
story collection
c.270
Epigrams
Asclepiades of Samos
Greece
poetry collection
Idylls
Theocritus
Greece
poetry collection
c.270–240
Aetia
Callimachus
Greece
poem
c.250
Voyage of the Argonauts
Appollonius of Rhodes
Greece
poem
c.200–300
Panchatantra (Five Treatises)
Anonymous
India
story collection
c.200
The Analects
Confucious
China
Sayings
The Twin Brothers
Plautus
Rome
play
Miles Gloriosus
Plautus
Rome
play
191
Pseudolus
Plautus
Rome
play
166
The Girl from Andros
Terence
Rome
play
163
The Self-Tormenter
Terence
Rome
play
161
Eunuchus
Terence
Rome
play
c.50
On the Nature of Things
Lucretius
Rome
Poetry
c.46
Commentaries on the Civil War
Julius Caesar
Rome
History
c.41–37
Eclogues
Virgil
Rome
poetry collection
c.35–30
Satires
Horace
Rome
poetry collection
30–26
Marathus cycle
Tibullus
Rome
Poetry
29
Georgics
Virgil
Rome
poem
c.29–16
Elegies
Sextus Propertius
Rome
poetry collection
c.29–19
Aeneid
Virgil
Rome
poem
23–13
Odes
Horace
Rome
poem
c.19
The Art of Poetry
Horace
Rome
poem
c.10
The Art of Love
Rome
poem
Ancient Literature (1 to 400 CE)
The Book of Days
Rome
poem
c.48–110
Various
Middle East
Prose and poetry
c.50
Callirhoe
Chariton
Greece
novel
Medea
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Rome
play
Hercules Furens
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Rome
play
c.54
Phaedra
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Rome
play
c.55
Thyestes
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Rome
play
c.60-70
Satyricon
Gaius Petronius Arbiter
Rome
novel
61–65
Pharsalia
Lucan
Rome
Poetry
c.79
Argonautica
Valerius Flaccus
Rome
poem
c.86–103
Epigrams
Martial
Rome
poetry collection
c.92
Thebaid
Statius
Rome
poem
c.93–96
Silvae
Statius
Rome
poetry collection
c.100
Parallel Lives
Plutarch
Greece
Biographies
c.100–127
Satires
Juvenal
Rome
poetry collection
121
The Twelve Caesars
Suetonis
Rome
biography
c.150
Daphnis and Chloe
Longus
Greece
novel
The Golden Ass
Lucius Apuleius
Numidia
novel
c.290
Records of Diverse Matters
Zhang Hua
China
story collection
c.300
The Vision of Vasavadatta
Bhāsa
India
play
397–400
Confessions
Augustine of Hippo
Numidia
memoir
c.400
The Recognition of Sakuntala
Kalidasa
India
play
Ancient | Medieval & Renaissance | 18th & 19th century | 20th century | 21st century
