The Really Long List:
2,222 Great Works of Literature
So the nearly one thousand books of the Greatest Literature of All Time list are not enough to keep you reading? How about twice as many—and then some?
This wider selection probably introduces you more great works you've probably never heard of or considered reading. It can also help you explore further in eras or genres you become interested in. And it encourages diversity in your reading by straying from the established canon.
Like the Greatest Literature list, the Really Long List focuses on major works, although it does feature a greater number of historically significant shorter works (such as short stories and poems) that are not already represented on the list as part of longer works (like story or poetry collections).
This list is necessarily a work in progress. We'll be updating and upgrading it continually.
It is already so long, however, we have to spread it over several pages, as you can see below.
Latest update: January 17, 2023
Ancient | Medieval & Renaissance | 18th & 19th century | 20th century | 21st century
Ancient Literature (BCE)
c.2100–2000
The Descent of Inanna
Anonymous
Sumer
Poetry
c.2100–1200
Babylon
Epic poem
c.2030 BCE
A Love Song of Shu-Suen
Anonymous
Sumer
Poem
c.1800
Enuma Elish
Anonymous
Babylon
Epic poem
c.1200
Tale of Two Brothers
Anonymous
Egypt
Story
c.1100
Story of Wenamun
Anonymous
Egypt
Story
c.1000
Dialogue of Pessimism
Anonymous
Assyria
Poem
c.1000–600
Classic of Poetry
Various
China
Poetry
c.1000–100
Various
Israel
Prose, poetry
c.600–200
Ramayana
Valmiki
India
Epic 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
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 trilogy
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
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
411
Women at the Thesmophoria
Aristophanes
Greece
Play
412
Helen
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.400–400CE
Mahābhārata
Anonymous
India
Epic poem
c.385–370
The Symposium
Plato
Greece
Dialogue
c.380
Plato
Greece
Dialogue
c.380
Meno
Plato
Greece
Dialogue
c.370
Anabis
Xenophon
Greece
Poetry
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
Epic poetry
c.200–300
Panchatantra (Five Treatises)
Anonymous
India
Story collection
c.200
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.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
Epic poem
23–13
Odes
Horace
Rome
Poetry collection
c.10
The Art of Love
Rome
Poem
Ancient Literature (1 to 400 CE)
c.48–110
The New Testament
Various
Middle East
Prose, poetry
c.50
Callirhoe
Chariton
Greece
Prose narrative
Media
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
Prose, poetry
61–65
Pharsalia
Lucan
Rome
Poetry
c.79
Argonautica
Valerius Flaccus
Rome
Poem
c.86–103
Epigrams
Martial
Rome
Poetry collection
c.93–96
Silvae
Statius
Rome
Poetry collection
c.100
Parallel Lives
Plutarch
Greece
Biographies
c.100–127
Satires
Juvenal
Rome
Poetry collection
c.150
Daphnis and Chloe
Longus
Greece
Prose narrative
The Golden Ass
Lucius Apuleius
Rome
Prose narrative
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
Algeria
Memoir
c.400
The Recognition of Sakuntala
Kalidasa
India
Play
Ancient | Medieval & Renaissance | 18th & 19th century | 20th century | 21st century
