The 444 Greatest Works of British Literature
British writers have dominated literature in the modern era until relatively recently. We have many more works from Britain contending for the status of "great literature" than from any other part of the world.
Whether this assessment is fair and whether it will stand the test of more diverse times is a question readers, writers, critics and scholars are questioning today. Meanwhile, this list reflects the existing consensus, as far as we can determine, about the greatest literature from Britain. It is an extension of the comprehensive research and surveys carried out over the past two decades for our Greatest Literature of All Time list.
For the purposes of this list, Britain comprises England, Scotland and Wales. (Ireland, including Northern Ireland, now has its own greatest list.)
Preference is given to major works of creative literature—such as novels, novellas, plays, epic poems and collections—although a few historically significant short works may also be included.
Latest update: December 24, 2022
Click linked titles and authors for details, critiques, text and other information.
c.1180
Lais of Marie de France
Marie de France
England
Poetry collection
1362
The Vision of Piers the Ploughman
William Langland
England
Poem
c.1380
Pearl
Anonymous
England
Poem
c.1382–1386
Troilus and Cressida
Geoffrey Chaucer
England
Poem
1387
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Anonymous
England
Poem
c.1387–1400
The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer
England
Prose and poetry
1485
Everyman
Anonymous
England
Play
Le Morte d'Arthur
Thomas Malory
England
Prose narrative
1516
Utopia
Thomas More
England
Novella
1580–1581
Arcadia
Philip Sidney
England
Prose narrative
1584
Campaspe
John Lyly
England
Play
1586
The Spanish Tragedy
Thomas Kyd
England
Play
1587
Tamburlaine the Great
Christopher Marlowe
England
Play
1589
The Faerie Queen
Edmund Spenser
England
Poem
c.1590–1591
Elegies
John Donne
England
Poetry collection
Satires
John Donne
England
Poetry collection
1591
Richard III
England
Play
c.1591
The Taming of the Shrew
England
Play
1592
Christopher Marlowe
England
Play
1594
Doctor Faustus
Christopher Marlowe
England
Play
The Unfortunate Traveller
Thomas Nashe
England
Novel
Battle of Alcazar
George Peele
England
Play
A Midsummer Night's Dream
England
Play
c.1595
Richard II
England
Play
1597
Love's Labour's Lost
England
Play
Henry IV, Part 2
England
Play
1599
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Christopher Marlowe
England
Poem
As You Like It
England
Play
Much Ado About Nothing
England
Play
c.1599
Henry V
England
Play
1601–1602
Twelfth Night
England
Play
1603
A Woman Killed With Kindness
Thomas Heywood
England
Play
1604
Measure for Measure
England
Play
1606
Volpone
Ben Jonson
England
Play
c.1607
Antony and Cleopatra
England
Play
c.1608
Coriolanus
England
Play
1609
England
Poetry collection
1610
The Alchemist
Ben Jonson
England
Play
The Winter's Tale
England
Play
The White Devil
John Webster
England
Play
1613
Henry VIII
England
Play
The Duchess of Malfi
John Webster
England
Play
1622
The Changeling
Thomas Middleton, William Rowley
England
Play
1633
Tis Pity She's a Whore
John Ford
England
Play
1648
Hesperides
Robert Herrick
England
Poetry collection
including To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time; Upon Julia's Clothes; and others
1667
Paradise Lost
John Milton
England
Poem
1671
Samson Agonistes
John Milton
England
Poem
1673
On His Blindness
John Milton
England
Poem
1675
William Wycherley
England
Play
1677
The Rover
Aphra Behn
England
Play
1678
The Pilgrim's Progress
John Bunyan
England
Prose narrative
1688
Aphra Behn
England
Novella
1700
The Way of the World
William Congreve
England
Play
1711
An Essay on Criticism
England
Poem
1719
Daniel Defoe
England
Novel
1719–1720
Love in Excess
Eliza Haywood
England
Novel
1722
Moll Flanders
Daniel Defoe
England
Novel
1724
Roxana
Daniel Defoe
England
Novel
1728
The Beggar's Opera
John Gay
England
Play
1728–1742
The Dunciad
England
Poem
1740
Pamela
Samuel Richardson
England
Novel
1741
Shamela
Henry Fielding
England
Novel
1742
Joseph Andrews
Henry Fielding
England
Novel
1748
Clarissa
Samuel Richardson
England
Novel
1748–1749
Fanny Hill
John Cleland
England
Novel
1749
Tom Jones
Henry Fielding
England
Novel
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Thomas Gray
England
Poem
1751
Amelia
Henry Fielding
England
Novel
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
Tobias Smollett
England
Novel
1752
The Female Quixote
Charlotte Lennox
Scotland
Novel
1753
Sir Charles Grandison
Samuel Richardson
England
Novel
1759
Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia
Samuel Johnson
England
Novella
1764
Horace Walpole
England
Novella
1765
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
Thomas Percy
England
Poetry collection
1771
Humphrey Clinker
Tobias Smollett
England
Novel
1775
The Rivals
Richard Sheridan
England
Play
1777
The School for Scandal
Richard Sheridan
England
Play
1778
Evelina
Fanny Burney
England
Novel
1785
The Task
William Cowper
England
Poem
1786
Vathek
William Beckford
England
Novel
Scotland
Poetry collection
1789–1794
Songs of Innocence and Experience
William Blake
England
Poetry collection
1791
Life of Samuel Johnson
James Boswell
England
Biography
1794
The Tyger
William Blake
England
Poem
The Mysteries of Udolpho
Ann Radcliffe
England
Novel
1796
Camilla
Fanny Burney
England
Novel
The Monk
Matthew Lewis
England
Novel
1797
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
England
Poem
1798
Speed the Plough
Thomas Morton
England
Play
1798–1800
Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge
England
Poetry collection
1807
Poems
William Wordsworth
England
Poetry collection
1812–1818
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
George Gordon Byron
England
Poem
1816
Kubla Khan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
England
Poem
1817
Persuasion
England
Novel
Rob Roy
Walter Scott
Scotland
Novel
Endymion
John Keats
England
Poem
Nightmare Abbey
Thomas Love Peacock
England
Novel
Ozymandias
Percy Byssche Shelley
England
Poem
1819
Odes
John Keats
England
Poetry collection
Ivanhoe
Walter Scott
Scotland
Novel
1819–1824
Don Juan
George Gordon Byron
England
Poem
1821
Confessions of an English Opium Eater
Thomas De Quincey
England
Memoir
1822
The Vision of Judgment
George Gordon Byron
England
Poem
1824
Julian and Maddalo
Percy Bysshe Shelley
England
Poem
1837
The Pickwick Papers
England
Novel
1842
Windsor Castle
William Harrison Ainsworth
England
Novel
The Nursery Rhymes of England
James Orchard Halliwell
England
Poetry collection
1844
Poems
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
England
Poetry collection
The Luck of Barry Lyndon
William Makepeace Thackeray
England
Novel
1846–1863
The Book of Nonsense
Edward Lear
England
Poetry collection
1848
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Anne Brontë
England
Novel
Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray
England
Novel
1850
How Do I Love Thee?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
England
Poem
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
England
Poetry collection
Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day
Robert Browning
England
Poem
In Memoriam
Alfred Lord Tennyson
England
Poem
The Prelude
William Wordsworth
England
Poem
1853
Villette
England
Novel
Cranford
Elizabeth Gaskell
England
Novel
1854–1855
The Newcomes
William Makepeace Thackeray
England
Novel
1855
Men and Women
Robert Browning
England
Poetry collection
North and South
Elizabeth Gaskell
England
Novel
1856
Aurora Leigh
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
England
Poem
Barchester Towers
Anthony Trollope
England
Novel
The Virginians
William Makepeace Thackeray
England
Novel
1859–1885
Idylls of the King
Alfred Lord Tennyson
England
Poetry collection
Silas Marner
England
Novel
1862
Goblin Market and Other Poems
Christina Rossetti
England
Poetry collection
1863
Romola
England
Novel
The Water Babies
Charles Kingsley
England
Novel
1865
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll
England
Novel
Our Mutual Friend
England
Novel
1869
Collected Poems
Matthew Arnold
England
Poetry collection
Lorna Doone
Richard Blackmore
England
Novel
Phineas Finn
Anthony Trollope
England
Novel
Through the Looking-Glass
Lewis Carroll
England
Novel
1875
The Way We Live Now
Anthony Trollope
England
Novel
1876
Daniel Deronda
England
Novel
The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs
William Morris
England
Poem
1878
The Return of the Native
England
Novel
1880
Workers in the Dawn
George Gissing
England
Novel
1881
The Black Robe
England
Novel
1885
King Solomon's Mines
H. Rider Haggard
England
Novel
Marius the Epicurean
Walter Pater
England
Novel
1886
The Mayor of Casterbridge
England
Novel
1887
A Study in Scarlet
England
Novel
She
H. Rider Haggard
England
Novel
1888
Rudyard Kipling
England
Story
1889
Three Men in a Boat
Jerome K. Jerome
England
Novel
1890
The Sign of Four
England
Novel
1891
New Grub Street
George Gissing
England
Novel
News From Nowhere
William Morris
England
Novel
1892
England
Story collection
including A Scandal in Bohemia, The Red-Headed League, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, and others
The Diary of a Nobody
George and Weedon Grossmith
England
Novel
1894
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
England
Story collection
including Silver Blaze, The Greek Interpreter, The Final Problem, and others
The Jungle Book
Rudyard Kipling
England
Story collection
1895
Almayer's Folly
England
Novel
The Time Machine
H.G. Wells
England
Novella
1896
Jude the Obscure
England
Novel
A Shropshire Lad
Alfred E. Housman
England
Poetry collection
The Well at the World's End
William Morris
England
Novel
The Island of Doctor Moreau
H.G. Wells
England
Novel
1897
Captains Courageous
Rudyard Kipling
England
Novel
The Invisible Man
H.G. Wells
England
Novel
The War of the Worlds
H.G. Wells
England
Novel
1901
Rudyard Kipling
England
Novel
W.W. Jacobs
England
Story
The Riddle of the Sands
Erskine Childers
England
Novel
1904
Nostromo
Joseph Conrad
England
Novel
1905
England
Story collection
including The Empty House, The Norwood Builder, The Dancing Men, Charles Augustus Milverton, and others
1906–1921
John Galsworthy
England
Novel series
including The Man of Property, In Chancery, To Let, and two interludes
1907
Algernon Blackwood
England
Story
1908
The Old Wives' Tale
Arnold Bennett
England
Novel
A Room With a View
E.M. Forster
England
Novel
The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame
England
Novel
1910
Howards End
E.M. Forster
England
Novel
1911
The Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett
England
Novel
England
Story collection
including The Blue Cross, The Invisible Man, The Hammer of God, and others
Casting the Runes
M.R. James
England
Story
1912
Zuleika Dobson
Max Beerbohm
England
Novel
The Lost World
England
Novel
1913
Trent's Last Case
E.C. Bentley
England
Novel
Sons and Lovers
D.H. Lawrence
England
Novel
1914
Waverley
Walter Scott
Scotland
Novel
The Good Soldier
Ford Maddox Ford
England
Novel
The Rainbow
D.H. Lawrence
England
Novel
Of Human Bondage
W. Somerset Maugham
England
Novel
1918
Poems
Gerard Manley Hopkins
England
Poetry collection
1920
Women in Love
D.H. Lawrence
England
Novel
1922
The Worm Ouroboros
E.R. Eddison
England
Novel
Life and Death of Harriett Frean
May Sinclair
England
Novel
1924
The Vortex
Noel Coward
England
Play
A Passage to India
E.M. Forster
England
Novel
1925
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
England
Novel
Parade's End
Ford Maddox Ford
England
Novel
1926
Winnie-the-Pooh
A.A. Milne
England
Story collection
1928
The Machine Stops
E.M. Forster
England
Novella
The Well of Loneliness
Radclyffe Hall
England
Novel
Lady Chatterley's Lover
D.H. Lawrence
England
Novel
Ashenden: Or the British Agent
W. Somerset Maugham
England
Story collection
1929
Good-Bye to All That
Robert Graves
England
Memoir
A High Wind in Jamaica
Richard Hughes
England
Novel
1930
Private Lives
Noel Coward
England
Play
Strong Poison
Dorothy L. Sayers
England
Novel
1931
The Waves
England
Novel
1932
Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons
England
Novel
1933
Murder Must Advertise
Dorothy L. Sayers
England
Novel
Robert Graves
England
Novel
The Nine Tailors
Dorothy L. Sayers
England
Novel
A Handful of Dust
Evelyn Waugh
England
Novel
1935
Dorothy L. Sayers
England
Novel
1936
Aldous Huxley
England
Novel
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
George Orwell
England
Novel
1937
Star Maker
Olaf Stapledon
England
Novel
The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien
England
Novel
1937–1967
Hornblower
C.S. Forester
England
Novel series
1938
Cause for Alarm
Eric Ambler
England
Novel
The Death of the Heart
Elizabeth Bowen
England
Novel
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier
England
Novel
Brighton Rock
Graham Greene
England
Novel
Scoop
Evelyn Waugh
England
Novel
The Sword in the Stone
T.H. White
England
Novel
The Code of the Woosters
P.G. Wodehouse
England
Novel
1939
The Mask of Dimitrios
Eric Ambler
England
Novel
Rogue Male
Geoffrey Household
England
Novel
1940
The Power and the Glory
Graham Greene
England
Novel
1941
Blithe Spirit
Noel Coward
England
Play
1944
Green for Danger
Christianna Brand
England
Novel
The Horse's Mouth
Joyce Cary
England
Novel
The Razor's Edge
W. Somerset Maugham
England
Novel
1945
Loving
Henry Green
England
Novel
Evelyn Waugh
England
Novel
1946
The Moving Toyshop
Edmund Crispin
England
Novel
1946–1959
Gormenghast
Mervyn Peake
England
Novel series
1947
The Age of Anxiety
W.H. Auden
England
Poem
Under the Volcano
Malcolm Lowry
England
Novel
A Case to Answer
Edgar Lustgarten
England
Novel
1948
All About H. Hatterr
G.V. Desani
England
Novel
The Heart of the Matter
Graham Greene
England
Novel
1949
The Third Man
Graham Greene
England
Novella
1950
Smallbone Deceased
Michael Gilbert
England
Novel
1950–1956
C.S. Lewis
England
Novel series
including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; and others
1951
The End of the Affair
Graham Greene
England
Novel
The Day of the Triffids
John Wyndham
England
Novel
The Daughter of Time
Josephine Tey
Scotland
Novel
1951–1975
A Dance to the Music of Time
Anthony Powell
England
Novel series
1952
The Tiger in the Smoke
Margery Allingham
England
Novel
1953
Childhood's End
Arthur C. Clarke
England
Novel
The Go-Between
L.P. Hartley
England
Novel
1954
Lucky Jim
Kingsley Amis
England
Novel
Lord of the Flies
William Golding
England
Novel
Under the Net
Iris Murdoch
England
Novel
1954–1955
Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien
England
Novel
1955
Graham Greene
England
Novel
The Chrysalids
John Wyndham
England
Novel
1956
The City and the Stars
Arthur C. Clarke
England
Novel
Look Back in Anger
John Osburn
England
Play
1957
From Russia With Love
Ian Fleming
England
Novel
The Birthday Party
Harold Pinter
England
Play
The Midwich Cuckoos
John Wyndham
England
Novel
1957–1960
The Alexandria Quartet
Laurence Durrell
England
Novel series
1958
The Caretaker
Harold Pinter
England
Play
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Alan Sillitoe
England
Novel
The Once and Future King
T.H. White
England
Novel
1959
Cider With Rosie
Laurie Lee
England
Novel
The Golden Notebook
Doris Lessing
England
Novel
1960
A Man for All Seasons
Robert Bolt
England
Play
1961
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark
Scotland
Novel
1962
Hothouse
Brian W. Aldiss
England
Novel
The Drowned World
J.G. Ballard
England
Novel
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess
England
Novel
The IPCRESS File
Len Deighton
England
Novel
1963
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
John Le Carré
England
Novel
1964
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Rouald Dahl
Wales
Novel
1965
The Homecoming
Harold Pinter
England
Play
1966
The Crystal World
J.G. Ballard
England
Novel
The Magus
John Fowles
England
Novel
The Black Sheep
Georgette Heyer
England
Novel
The Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys
England
Novel
1967
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Tom Stoppard
England
Play
1968
2001: A Space Odyssey
Arthur C. Clarke
England
Novel
1969
John Fowles
England
Novel
Master and Commander
Patrick O'Brian
England
Novel
What the Butler Saw
Joe Orton
England
Play
1970
Troubles
J.G. Farrell
England
Novel
Crow
Ted Hughes
England
Poetry collection
1971
The Day of the Jackal
Frederick Forsyth
England
Novel
1972
Watership Down
Richard Adams
England
Novel
Rendezvous with Rama
Arthur C. Clarke
England
Novel
1973
Crash
J.G. Ballard
England
Novel
The Siege of Krishnapur
J.G. Farrell
England
Novel
Equus
Peter Shaffer
England
Play
1974
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
John le Carré
England
Novel
1976
A Demon in My View
Ruth Rendell
England
Novel
1978
The Bookshop
Penelope Fitzgerald
England
Novella
Rumpole of the Bailey
John Mortimer
England
Story collection
The Sea, the Sea
Iris Murdoch
England
Novel
1979
The Bloody Chamber and other Stories
Angela Carter
England
Story collection
Cloud 9
Caryl Churchill
England
Play
Smiley's People
John le Carré
England
Novel
Amadeus
Peter Shaffer
England
Play
1979–1992
England
Novel series
including The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and more
1981
Lanark
Alasdair Graye
Scotland
Novel
1982
Noises Off
Michael Frayn
England
Play
A Pale View of Hills
Kazuo Ishiguro
England
Novel
The False Inspector Dew
Peter Lovesey
England
Novel
1984
Money
Martin Amis
England
Novel
J.G. Ballard
England
Novel
Flaubert's Parrot
Julian Barnes
England
Novel
Hotel du Lac
Anita Brookner
England
Novel
Fire and Hemlock
Diana Wynne Jones
England
Novel
1985
The Tenth Man
Graham Greene
England
Novella
1986
The Old Devils
Kingsley Amis
England
Novel
An Artist of the Floating World
Kazuo Ishiguro
England
Novel
Howl's Moving Castle
Diana Wynne Jones
England
Novel
A Dark-Adopted Eye
Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell)
England
Novel
1987
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
England
Novel
The Radiant Way
Margaret Drabble
England
Novel
Watchmen
Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons
England
Graphic novel
1988
A Taste for Death
P.D. James
England
Novel
1989
London Fields
Martin Amis
England
Novel
The Pillars of the Earth
Ken Follett
England
Novel
The Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro
England
Novel
Devices and Desires
P.D. James
England
Novel
1990
Possession
A.S. Byatt
England
Novel
1991–1995
Pat Barker
England
Novel series
including Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road
1992
Memories of Rain
Sunetra Gupta
England
Novel
Written on the Body
Jeanette Winterson
England
Novel
1993
A Dead Man in Deptford
Anthony Burgess
England
Novel
Birdsong
Sebastian Faulks
England
Novel
Arcadia
Tom Stoppard
England
Play
1994
What a Carve Up!
Jonathan Coe
England
Novel
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Louis de Bernieres
England
Novel
How Late It Was, How Late
James Kelman
Scotland
Novel
1995
High Fidelity
Nick Hornby
England
Novel
1995–2000
His Dark Materials
Philip Pullman
England
Novel series
including Northern Lights (The Golden Compass), The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass
1996
Last Orders
Graham Swift
England
Novel
1997–2007
Harry Potter series
J.K. Rowling
England
Novel series
including Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, ...and the Chamber of Secrets, ...and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and more
1998
Amsterdam
Ian McEwan
England
Novel
2000
Emotionally Weird
Kate Atkinson
England
Novel
Perdido Street Station
China Miéville
England
Novel
White Teeth
Zadie Smith
England
Novel
2001
American Gods
Neil Gaiman
England
Novel
The Other Boleyn Girl
Phillipa Gregory
England
Novel
2002
Coraline
Neil Gaiman
England
Novella
Dart
Alice Oswald
England
Poetry collection
Fingersmith
Sarah Waters
Wales
Novel
2003
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Mark Haddon
England
Novel
2004
The History Boys
Alan Bennett
England
Play
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Susanna Clarke
England
Novel
Stuff Happens
David Hare
England
Play
The Line of Beauty
Alan Hollinghurst
England
Novel
Small Island
Andrea Levy
England
Novel
Cloud Atlas
David Mitchell
England
Novel
2005
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro
England
Novel
2006
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Disturbances
Neil Gaiman
England
Story collection
The Thirteenth Tale
Diane Setterfield
England
Novel
2006–2015
Cicero Trilogy
Robert Harris
England
Novel
2007
The Uncommon Reader
Alan Bennett
England
Novella
2007–2011
Conqueror
Conn Iggulden
England
Novel series
2007–2017
The Adventures of Hector Lynch
Tim Severin
England
Novel series
2008
The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman
England
Novel
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
Kate Summerscale
England
Nonfiction novel
2009
Jerusalem
Jez Butterworth
England
Play
2010
The Finkler Question
Howard Jacobson
England
Novel
The Long Song
Andrea Levy
England
Novel
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet
David Mitchell
England
Novel
2011
The Sense of an Ending
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