The 444 Greatest Works of British Literature
This selection of literature from Britain is based on the continuing research carried out for The Greatest Literature of All Time list and is additionally informed by the views of local readers, writers, critics and scholars.
It encompasses the greatest works of British authors in all forms, genres, cultures and periods.
For our purposes here, Britain comprises the countries of England, Scotland and Wales. Ireland, including Northern Ireland, has a separate Greatest list.
This list focuses on major creative—mainly fictional—works, although some shorter or nonfiction writing of literary significance may also be considered.
Latest update: March 18, 2024
c.1000
Mabinogion
by Anonymous, Wales
Story collection
c.1180
Lais of Marie de France
by Marie de France, England
Poetry collection
1362
The Vision of Piers the Ploughman
by William Langland, England
Poem
c.1382–1386
Troilus and Cressida
by Geoffrey Chaucer, England
Poem
1387
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
by Anonymous, England
Poem
c.1387–1400
The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer, England
Prose and poetry coillection
1485
Everyman
by Anonymous, England
Play
Le Morte d'Arthur
by Thomas Malory, England
Novel
1516
Utopia
by Thomas More, England
Novella
1580–1581
Arcadia
by Philip Sidney, England
Novel
1584
Campaspe
by John Lyly, England
Play
1586
The Spanish Tragedy
by Thomas Kyd, England
Play
1587
Tamburlaine the Great
by Christopher Marlowe, England
Play
1589
The Faerie Queen
by Edmund Spenser, England
Poem
Satires
by John Donne, England
Poetry collection
1594
Doctor Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe, England
Play
The Unfortunate Traveller
by Thomas Nashe, England
Novel
Battle of Alcazar
by George Peele, England
Play
1599
"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"
by Christopher Marlowe, England
Poem
1603
A Woman Killed With Kindness
by Thomas Heywood, England
Play
1606
Volpone
by Ben Jonson, England
Play
1609
Sonnets
by William Shakespeare, England
Poetry collection includes "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?"; "When, in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes"; and others
1610
The Alchemist
by Ben Jonson, England
Play
The White Devil
by John Webster, England
Play
The Duchess of Malfi
by John Webster, England
Play
1622
The Changeling
by Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, England
Play
1648
Hesperides
by Robert Herrick, England
Poetry collection includes "To the Virgins", "To Make Much of Time", "Upon Julia's Clothes", and others
1667
Paradise Lost
by John Milton, England
Poem
1671
Samson Agonistes
by John Milton, England
Poem
1673
"On His Blindness"
by John Milton, England
Poem
1677
The Rover
by Aphra Behn, England
Play
1678
The Pilgrim's Progress
by John Bunyan, England, Novel
1700
The Way of the World
by William Congreve, England
Play
1719–1720
Love in Excess
by Eliza Haywood, England
Novel
1722
Moll Flanders
by Daniel Defoe, England
Novel
1724
Roxana
by Daniel Defoe, England
Novel
1728
The Beggar's Opera
by John Gay, England
Play
1740
Pamela
by Samuel Richardson, England
Novel
1741
Shamela
by Henry Fielding, England
Novel
1742
Joseph Andrews
by Henry Fielding, England
Novel
1748
Clarissa
by Samuel Richardson, England
Novel
1748–1749
Fanny Hill
by John Cleland, England
Novel
1749
Tom Jones
by Henry Fielding, England
Novel
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
by Thomas Gray, England
Poem
1751
Amelia
by Henry Fielding, England
Novel
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
by Tobias Smollett, England
Novel
1752
The Female Quixote
by Charlotte Lennox, Scotland
Novel
1753
Sir Charles Grandison
by Samuel Richardson, England
Novel
1759
Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia
by Samuel Johnson, England
Novella
1759–1767
Tristram Shandy
by Laurence Sterne, England
Novel
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
1765
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
by Thomas Percy, England
Poetry collection
1771
Humphrey Clinker
by Tobias Smollett, England
Novel
1775
The Rivals
by Richard Sheridan, England
Play
1777
The School for Scandal
by Richard Sheridan, England
Play
1778
Evelina
by Fanny Burney, England
Novel
1786
Vathek
by William Beckford, England
Novel
1789–1794
Songs of Innocence and Experience
by William Blake, England
Poetry collection
1791
Life of Samuel Johnson
by James Boswell, England, Biography
1794
"The Tyger"
by William Blake, England
Poem
The Mysteries of Udolpho
by Ann Radcliffe, England
Novel
1796
Camilla
by Fanny Burney, England
Novel
The Monk
by Matthew Lewis, England
Novel
1797
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, England
Poem
1798–1800
Lyrical Ballads
by William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, England
Poetry collection
1807
Poems
by William Wordsworth, England
Poetry collection
1812–1818
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
by George Gordon Byron, England
Poem
1816
"Kubla Khan"
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, England
Poem
Rob Roy
by Walter Scott, Scotland
Novel
Endymion
by John Keats, England
Poem
Nightmare Abbey
by Thomas Love Peacock, England
Novel
"Ozymandias"
by Percy Byssche Shelley, England
Poem
1819
Odes
by John Keats, England
Poetry collection
Ivanhoe
by Walter Scott, Scotland
Novel
1819–1824
Don Juan
by George Gordon Byron, England
Poem
1821
Confessions of an English Opium Eater
by Thomas De Quincey, England
Memoir
1822
The Vision of Judgment
by George Gordon Byron, England
Poem
1824
Julian and Maddalo
by Percy Bysshe Shelley, England
Poem
1842
Windsor Castle
by William Harrison Ainsworth, England
Novel
1844
Poems
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, England
Poetry collection
The Luck of Barry Lyndon
by William Makepeace Thackeray, England
Novel
1848
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
by Anne Brontë, England
Novel
Vanity Fair
by William Makepeace Thackeray, England
Novel
1850
Sonnets from the Portuguese
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, England
Poetry collection
Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day
by Robert Browning, England
Poem
In Memoriam
by Alfred Lord Tennyson, England
Poem
The Prelude
by William Wordsworth, England
Poem
Cranford
by Elizabeth Gaskell, England
Novel
1854–1855
The Newcomes
by William Makepeace Thackeray, England
Novel
1855
Men and Women
by Robert Browning, England
Poetry collection includes "Love Among the Ruins", "Evelyn Hope", "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came", "Andrea del Sarto", and others
North and South
by Elizabeth Gaskell, England
Novel
The Warden
by Anthony Trollope, England
Novel
1856
Aurora Leigh
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, England
Poem
Barchester Towers
by Anthony Trollope, England
Novel
The Virginians
by William Makepeace Thackeray, England
Novel
1859–1885
Idylls of the King
by Alfred Lord Tennyson, England
Poetry collection
by George Eliot, England
Novel
1862
Goblin Market and Other Poems
by Christina Rossetti, England
Poetry collection
The Water Babies
by Charles Kingsley, England
Novel
1865
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, England
Novel
1869
Collected Poems
by Matthew Arnold, England
Poetry collection
Lorna Doone
by Richard Blackmore, England
Novel
Phineas Finn
by Anthony Trollope, England
Novel
Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll, England
Novel
1875
The Way We Live Now
by Anthony Trollope, England
Novel
The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs
by William Morris, England
Poem
1877
Black Beauty
by Anna Sewell, England
Novel
1880
Workers in the Dawn
by George Gissing, England
Novel
1885
King Solomon's Mines
by H. Rider Haggard, England
Novel
Marius the Epicurean
by Walter Pater, England
Novel
1887
She
by H. Rider Haggard, England
Novel
"The Man Who Would Be King"
by Rudyard Kipling, England, Story
1889
Three Men in a Boat
by Jerome K. Jerome, England
Novel
1891
New Grub Street
by George Gissing, England
Novel
News From Nowhere
by William Morris, England
Novel
1892
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle, England
Story collection includes "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Red-Headed League", "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", and others
The Diary of a Nobody
by George and Weedon Grossmith, England
Novel
1894
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle, England
Story collection includes "Silver Blaze", "The Greek Interpreter", "The Final Problem", and others
The Jungle Book
by Rudyard Kipling, England
Story collection
The Time Machine
by H.G. Wells, England
Novella
The Well at the World's End
by William Morris, England
Novel
The Island of Doctor Moreau
by H.G. Wells, England
Novel
1897
Captains Courageous
by Rudyard Kipling, England
Novel
The Invisible Man
by H.G. Wells, England
Novel
1898
The War of the Worlds
by H.G. Wells, England
Novel
The Riddle of the Sands
by Erskine Childers, England
Novel
1904
Nostromo
by Joseph Conrad, England
Novel
1905
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle, England
Story collection includes "The Empty House", "The Norwood Builder", "The Dancing Men", "Charles Augustus Milverton", and others
1906–1921
The Forsyte Saga
by John Galsworthy, England
Novel series includes The Man of Property, In Chancery, To Let, and two interludes
1908
The Old Wives' Tale
by Arnold Bennett, England
Novel
A Room With a View
by E.M. Forster, England
Novel
The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame, England
Novel
1910
Howards End
by E.M. Forster, England
Novel
1911
The Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett, England
Novel
The Innocence of Father Brown
by G.K. Chesterton, England
Story collection includes "The Blue Cross", "The Invisible Man", "The Hammer of God", and others
"Casting the Runes"
by M.R. James, England
Story
1912
Zuleika Dobson
by Max Beerbohm, England
Novel
1913
Trent's Last Case
by E.C. Bentley, England
Novel
Sons and Lovers
by D.H. Lawrence, England
Novel
1914
Waverley
by Walter Scott, Scotland
Novel
The Good Soldier
by Ford Maddox Ford, England
Novel
The Rainbow
by D.H. Lawrence, England
Novel
Of Human Bondage
by W. Somerset Maugham, England
Novel
1918
Poems
by Gerard Manley Hopkins, England
Poetry collection
1920
Women in Love
by D.H. Lawrence, England
Novel
1922
The Worm Ouroboros
by E.R. Eddison, England
Novel
Life and Death of Harriett Frean
by May Sinclair, England
Novel
1924
The Vortex
by Noel Coward, England
Play
A Passage to India
by E.M. Forster, England
Novel
Parade's End
by Ford Maddox Ford, England
Novel
1926
Winnie-the-Pooh
by A.A. Milne, England
Story collection
1928
The Machine Stops
by E.M. Forster, England
Novella
The Well of Loneliness
by Radclyffe Hall, England
Novel
Lady Chatterley's Lover
by D.H. Lawrence, England
Novel
Ashenden: Or the British Agent
by W. Somerset Maugham, England
Story collection
1929
Good-Bye to All That
by Robert Graves, England
Memoir
A High Wind in Jamaica
by Richard Hughes, England
Novel
1930
Private Lives
by Noel Coward, England
Play
Strong Poison
by Dorothy L. Sayers, England
Novel
1932
Cold Comfort Farm
by Stella Gibbons, England
Novel
1933
Murder Must Advertise
by Dorothy L. Sayers, England
Novel
The Nine Tailors
by Dorothy L. Sayers, England
Novel
A Handful of Dust
by Evelyn Waugh, England
Novel
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
by George Orwell, England
Novel
1937
Star Maker
by Olaf Stapledon, England
Novel
The Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolkien, England
Novel
1937–1967
Horatio Hornblower
by C.S. Forester, England
Novel series
1938
Cause for Alarm
by Eric Ambler, England
Novel
The Death of the Heart
by Elizabeth Bowen, England
Novel
Rebecca
by Daphne du Maurier, England
Novel
Brighton Rock
by Graham Greene, England
Novel
Scoop
by Evelyn Waugh, England
Novel
The Sword in the Stone
by T.H. White, England
Novel
The Code of the Woosters
by P.G. Wodehouse, England
Novel
1939
The Mask of Dimitrios
by Eric Ambler, England
Novel
Rogue Male
by Geoffrey Household, England
Novel
Goodbye to Berlin
by Christopher Isherwood, England
Novel
1940
The Power and the Glory
by Graham Greene, England
Novel
1941
Blithe Spirit
by Noel Coward, England
Play
1944
Green for Danger
by Christianna Brand, England
Novel
The Horse's Mouth
by Joyce Cary, England
Novel
The Razor's Edge
by W. Somerset Maugham, England
Novel
1945
Loving
by Henry Green, England
Novel
Brideshead Revisited
by Evelyn Waugh, England
Novel
1946
The Moving Toyshop
by Edmund Crispin, England
Novel
1946–1959
Gormenghast
by Mervyn Peake, England
Novel series
1947
The Age of Anxiety
by W.H. Auden, England
Poem
Under the Volcano
by Malcolm Lowry, England
Novel
A Case to Answer
by Edgar Lustgarten, England
Novel
1948
All About H. Hatterr
by G.V. Desani, England
Novel
The Franchise Affair
by Jospehine Tey, England
Novel
1949
The Third Man
by Graham Greene, England
Novella
1950
Smallbone Deceased
by Michael Gilbert, England
Novel
1950–1956
by C.S. Lewis, England
Novel series includes The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; and others
1951
The End of the Affair
by Graham Greene, England
Novel
The Day of the Triffids
by John Wyndham, England
Novel
The Daughter of Time
by Josephine Tey, Scotland
Novel
1951–1975
A Dance to the Music of Time
by Anthony Powell, England
Novel series
1952
The Tiger in the Smoke
by Margery Allingham, England
Novel
1953
Childhood's End
by Arthur C. Clarke, England
Novel
The Go-Between
by L.P. Hartley, England
Novel
1954
Lucky Jim
by Kingsley Amis, England
Novel
Lord of the Flies
by William Golding, England
Novel
Under the Net
by Iris Murdoch, England
Novel
1954–1955
Lord of the Rings
by J.R.R. Tolkien, England
Novel
The Chrysalids
by John Wyndham, England
Novel
1956
The City and the Stars
by Arthur C. Clarke, England
Novel
Look Back in Anger
by John Osburn, England
Play
1957
From Russia With Love
by Ian Fleming, England
Novel
The Birthday Party
by Harold Pinter, England
Play
The Midwich Cuckoos
by John Wyndham, England
Novel
1957–1960
The Alexandria Quartet
by Laurence Durrell, England
Novel series
1958
The Caretaker
by Harold Pinter, England
Play
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
by Alan Sillitoe, England
Novel
The Once and Future King
by T.H. White, England
Novel
1959
Cider With Rosie
by Laurie Lee, England
Novel
The Golden Notebook
by Doris Lessing, England
Novel
1960
A Man for All Seasons
by Robert Bolt, England
Play
1961
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by Muriel Spark, Scotland
Novel
1962
Hothouse
by Brian W. Aldiss, England
Novel
The Drowned World
by J.G. Ballard, England
Novel
A Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess, England
Novel
The IPCRESS File
by Len Deighton, England
Novel
1963
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
by John Le Carré, England
Novel
1964
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Rouald Dahl, Wales
Novel
1965
The Homecoming
by Harold Pinter, England
Play
The Magus
by John Fowles, England
Novel
The Black Sheep
by Georgette Heyer, England
Novel
The Wide Sargasso Sea
by Jean Rhys, England
Novel
1967
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
by Tom Stoppard, England
Play
1968
2001: A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C. Clarke, England
Novel
1969
The French Lieutenant's Woman
by John Fowles, England
Novel
Master and Commander
by Patrick O'Brian, England
Novel
What the Butler Saw
by Joe Orton, England
Play
1970
Troubles
by J.G. Farrell, England
Novel
Crow
by Ted Hughes, England
Poetry collection
1971
The Day of the Jackal
by Frederick Forsyth, England
Novel
1972
Watership Down
by Richard Adams, England
Novel
Rendezvous with Rama
by Arthur C. Clarke, England
Novel
1973
Crash
by J.G. Ballard, England
Novel
The Siege of Krishnapur
by J.G. Farrell, England
Novel
Equus
by Peter Shaffer, England
Play
1974
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
by John le Carré, England
Novel
1975
The Eagle Has Landed
by Jack Higgins, England
Novel
1976
A Demon in My View
by Ruth Rendell, England
Novel
1978
The Bookshop
by Penelope Fitzgerald, England
Novella
Rumpole of the Bailey
by John Mortimer, England
Story collection
The Sea, the Sea
by Iris Murdoch, England
Novel
1979
The Bloody Chamber and other Stories
by Angela Carter, England
Story collection
Cloud 9
by Caryl Churchill, England
Play
Smiley's People
by John le Carré, England
Novel
Amadeus
by Peter Shaffer, England
Play
1979–1992
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams, England
Novel series includes The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and others
1981
Lanark
by Alasdair Graye, Scotland
Novel
1982
Noises Off
by Michael Frayn, England
Play
A Pale View of Hills
by Kazuo Ishiguro, England
Novel
The False Inspector Dew
by Peter Lovesey, England
Novel
1983–2015
Discworld
by Terry Pratchett, England
Novel series
1984
Money
by Martin Amis, England
Novel
Flaubert's Parrot
by Julian Barnes, England
Novel
Hotel du Lac
by Anita Brookner, England
Novel
Fire and Hemlock
by Diana Wynne Jones, England
Novel
1985
The Tenth Man
by Graham Greene, England
Novella
1986
The Old Devils
by Kingsley Amis, England
Novel
An Artist of the Floating World
by Kazuo Ishiguro, England
Novel
A Taste for Death
by P.D. James, England
Novel
Howl's Moving Castle
by Diana Wynne Jones, England
Novel
A Dark-Adopted Eye
by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell), England
Novel
The Radiant Way
by Margaret Drabble, England
Novel
Watchmen
by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, England, Graphic novel
1989
London Fields
by Martin Amis, England
Novel
The Pillars of the Earth
by Ken Follett, England
Novel
The Remains of the Day
by Kazuo Ishiguro, England
Novel
Devices and Desires
by P.D. James, England
Novel
1990
Possession
by A.S. Byatt, England
Novel
1991–1995
The Regeneration Trilogy
by Pat Barker, England
Novel series includes Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road
1992
Memories of Rain
by Sunetra Gupta, England
Novel
Written on the Body
by Jeanette Winterson, England
Novel
1993
A Dead Man in Deptford
by Anthony Burgess, England
Novel
Birdsong
by Sebastian Faulks, England
Novel
Arcadia
by Tom Stoppard, England
Play
1994
What a Carve Up!
by Jonathan Coe, England
Novel
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
by Louis de Bernieres, England
Novel
How Late It Was, How Late
by James Kelman, Scotland
Novel
1995
High Fidelity
by Nick Hornby, England
Novel
1995–2000
His Dark Materials
by Philip Pullman, England
Novel
Includes Northern Lights (The Golden Compass), The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass
1996
Last Orders
by Graham Swift, England
Novel
1997–2007
Harry Potter series
by J.K. Rowling, England
Novel series includes Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, ...and the Chamber of Secrets, ...and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and more
1998
Amsterdam
by Ian McEwan, England
Novel
2000
Emotionally Weird
by Kate Atkinson, England
Novel
Perdido Street Station
by China Miéville, England
Novel
White Teeth
by Zadie Smith, England
Novel
2001
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman, England
Novel
The Other Boleyn Girl
by Phillipa Gregory, England
Novel
2002
Coraline
by Neil Gaiman, England
Novella
Dart
by Alice Oswald, England
Poetry collection
Fingersmith
by Sarah Waters, Wales
Novel
2003
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon, England
Novel
2004
The History Boys
by Alan Bennett, England
Play
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
by Susanna Clarke, England
Novel
Stuff Happens
by David Hare, England
Play
The Line of Beauty
by Alan Hollinghurst, England
Novel
Small Island
by Andrea Levy, England
Novel
Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell, England
Novel
2005
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro, England
Novel
2006
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Disturbances
by Neil Gaiman, England
Story collection
The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield, England
Novel
2006–2015
Cicero Trilogy
by Robert Harris, England
Novel
2007
The Uncommon Reader
by Alan Bennett, England
Novella
2007–2011
Conqueror
by Conn Iggulden, England
Novel series
2007–2017
The Adventures of Hector Lynch
by Tim Severin, England
Novel series
2008
The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman, England
Novel
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
by Kate Summerscale, England, Nonfiction novel
2009
Jerusalem
by Jez Butterworth, England
Play
Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel, United States
Novel
The City & the City
by China Miéville, England
Novel
2010
The Finkler Question
by Howard Jacobson, England
Novel
The Long Song
by Andrea Levy, England
Novel
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet
by David Mitchell, England
Novel
2011
The Sense of an Ending
by Julian Barnes, England
Novella
Family Values
by Wendy Cope, England
Poetry collection
2014
Outline
by Rachel Cusk, England
Novel
2019
Girl, Woman, Other
by Bernardine Evarista, England
Novel
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