The 999 Greatest Works of Literature
This is our flagship list, presenting the greatest works of literature from ancient to recent times, covering all literary forms, genres, cultures and eras.
It's based on more than two decades of research with readers, writers, critics and scholars, as well as the assimilation of titles from hundreds of other best-of lists, anthologies, collections, school curricula and literary awards.
This list focuses on major creative—mainly fictional—works, although some shorter or nonfiction writing of exceptional literary value may also be included.
How were these titles chosen? Why "999"? How has the list evolved? For a complete report, see "Creating the Greatest Literature of All Time".
Latest update: September 8, 2024
Ancient • Medieval • Renaissance • 18th-century • 19th-century • 20th-century • 21st-century
c.2100–1200 BCE
Gilgamesh
by Anonymous, Babylon
Poem also known as The Epic of Gilgamesh or He Who Saw the Deep
c.1990 BCE
"The Shipwrecked Sailor"
by Anonymous, Egypt
Story also known as "The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor", "The Sailor and the Serpent", or "The Island of Enchantment"
"The Eloquent Peasant"
by Anonymous, Egypt
Story also known as "The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant", "The Plea of the Eloquent Peasant" or "The Tale of the Peasant and the Workman"
c.1200 BCE–100 CE
The Hebrew Bible (The Old Testament)
by various authors, Israel
Prose and poetry anthology, includes "Genesis", "Exodus", "Leviticus", "Numbers", "Deuteronomy", "Job", "Psalms", "Song of Songs", and others.
c.1000–600 BCE
Classic of Poetry
by various authors, China
Poetry anthology
c.600 BCE–200 CE
Ramayana
by Valmiki, India
Poem
c.610–580 BCE
Sappho's Poems
by Sappho, Greece
Poetry collection
c.600–500 BCE
Aesop's Fables
by Aesop, Greece
Story collection includes "The Fox and the Grapes", "The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs", "The Tortoise and the Hare", and others.
c.520–440 BCE
Epinician Odes
by Pindar, Greece
Poetry collection
475 BCE
Olympian
by Pindar, Greece
Poetry collection
472 BCE
The Persians
by Aeschylus, Greece
Play
458 BCE
The Oresteia
by Aeschylus, Greece
Play trilogy includes Agamemnon, The Eumenides, and The Libation Bearers.
c.450–425 BCE
Prometheus Bound
by Aeschylus, Greece
Play
431 BCE
Medea
by Euripides, Greece
Play
429 BCE
Oedipus Rex
by Sophocles, Greece
Play also known as Oedipus, Oedipus Tyrannus, or Oedipus the King
428 BCE
Hippolytus
by Euripides, Greece
Play
Andromache
by Euripides, Greece
Play
423 BCE
The Clouds
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
422 BCE
The Wasps
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
c.420–410 BCE
Electra
by Sophocles, Greece
Play
418 BCE
Electra
by Euripides, Greece
Play
415 BCE
The Trojan Women
by Euripides, Greece
Play
414 BCE
The Birds
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
411 BCE
Lysistrata
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
406 BCE
The Bacchae
by Euripides, Greece
Play
405 BCE
The Frogs
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
401 BCE
Oedipus at Colonus
by Sophocles, Greece
Play
c.400 BCE–400 CE
Mahābhārata
by Anonymous, India
Poem
c.380 BCE
The Republic
by Plato, Greece
Dialogue, also known as Plato's Republic
c.270 BCE
Idylls
by Theocritus, Greece
Poetry collection
c.250 BCE
Voyage of the Argonauts
by Appollonius of Rhodes, Greece
Poem
c.200 BCE
The Twin Brothers
by Plautus, Rome
Play
c.50 BCE
On the Nature of Things
by Lucretius, Rome
Poem
c.41–37 BCE
Eclogues
by Virgil, Rome
Poetry collection
c.35–30 BCE
Satires
by Horace, Rome
Poetry collection
29 BCE
Georgics
by Virgil, Rome
Poetry collection
c.29–19 BCE
Aeneid
by Virgil, Rome
Poem
c.29–16 BCE
Elegies
by Sextus Propertius, Rome
Poetry collection
23–13 BCE
Odes
by Horace, Rome
Poetry collection
c.48–110 CE
The New Testament
anthology, Middle East
Prose and poetry collection
c.60-70 CE
Satyricon
by Gaius Petronius Arbiter, Rome
Novel
c.86–103 CE
Epigrams
by Martial, Rome
Poetry collection
c.100 CE
Parallel Lives
by Plutarch, Greece
Biography collection, also known as Plutarch's Lives and The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
c.100–127 CE
Satires
by Juvenal, Rome
Poetry collection
c.150 CE
The Golden Ass
by Lucius Apuleius, Numidia
Novel, also known as The Metamorphoses of Apuleius
c.300 CE
The Vision of Vasavadatta
by Bhāsa, India
Play
c.400 CE
Shakuntala
by Kalidasa, India
Play, also known as The Recognition of Shakuntalaand The Sign of Shakuntala
c.759
Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves
by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro and others, Japan
Poetry collection
c.800–1200
Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor
by Anonymous, Persia
Story collection
c.800–1400
One Thousand and One Nights
by Anonymous, Persia
Story collection, also known as Arabian Nights, includes "Tale of the Fisherman and the Jinni", "The Tale of the Three Apples", "The Barber's Tale of Himself", and others.
977–1010
The Book of Kings
by Ferdowsi, Persia
Poem
c.1000
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
by Sei Shonagon, Japan
Diary
c.1000–1300
The Poetic Edda
by Anonymous, Iceland
Poem
c.1100
Song of Roland
by Anonymous, France
Poem
Rubaiyat
by Omar Khayyám, Persia
Poetry collection
c.1140
The Poem of the Cid
by Anonymous, Spain
Poem
1177
The Conference of the Birds
by Farid od-Din Attar, Persia
Poem
c.1177–1181
Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart
by Chrétien de Troyes, France
Poem
c.1180
Lais of Marie de France
by Marie de France, England
Poetry collection
c.1200
Nibelungenlied
by Anonymous, Germany
Poem, also known as The Song of the Nibelungs
1210
Tristan und Isolde
by Gottfied von Strassburg, Germany
Poem
c.1220
The Tale of the Heike
by Anonymous, Japan
Epic prose narrative
1230–1275
Romance of the Rose
by Guillaume de Lorris, Jean de Meun, France
Poem
c.1250
The Saga of Burnt Njal
by Anonymous, Iceland
Poem
1257
The Orchard
by Saadi Shirazi, Persia
Poetry collection
1258
The Garden
by Saadi Shirazi, Persia
Poetry collection
1258–1273
Masnavi
by Rumi, Persia
Poem
1307
The Divine Comedy
by Alighieri Dante, Italy
Poem
1327–1368
Il Canzoniere
by Francesco Petrarch, Italy
Poetry collection
1348
The Decameron
by Giovanni Boccaccio, Italy
Story collection
c.1350
The Divān of Hafez
by Hafez, Persia
Poem
1352
The Triumphs
by Giovanni Boccaccio, Italy
Poem
c.1360–1400
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong, China
Novel
c.1360–1589
Water Margin
by Shi Nai'an, Luo Guanzhong, China
Novel
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 collection
1405
The Book of the City of Ladies
by Christine de Pizan, Italy
Novel
1483–1495
Orlando Innamorato
by Matteo Maria Boiardo, Italy
Poem
1485
Le Morte d'Arthur
by Thomas Malory, England
Novel
1494
Ship of Fools
by Sebastian Brant, Germany
Poetry collection
1499
The Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea
by Fernando de Rojas, Spain
Novel
1516
Utopia
by Thomas More, England
Novella
1516–1532
Orlando Furioso
by Ludovico Ariosto, Italy
Poem
1528
The Book of the Courtier
by Baldasarre Castiglione, Italy
Nonfiction
1532–1564
The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel
by Francois Rabelais, France
Novel series includes Pantagruel, Gargantua, The Third Book of Pantagruel, The Fourth Book of Pantagruel, The Fifth Book of Pantagruel
1558
The Heptaméron
by Marguerite de Navarre, France
Story collection
1572
The Lusiads
by Luís de Camões, Portugal
Poem
1580–1593
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia
by Philip Sidney, England
Novel
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
c.1590
The Golden Lotus
by Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng, China
Novel
c.1590–1599
Satires
by John Donne, England
Poetry collection
Elegies
by John Donne, England
Poetry collection
1591
Richard III
by William Shakespeare, England
Play
1592
Journey to the West
by Wu Cheng'en, China
Novel
1594
Doctor Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe, England
Play
The Unfortunate Traveller
by Thomas Nashe, England
Novel
1598
The Peony Pavilion
by Tang Xianzu, China
Play
1605
Investiture of the Gods
by Xu Zhonglin, China
Novel
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
Solitudes
by Luis de Góngora, Spain
Poem
1622
The Changeling
by Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, England
Play
The Temple
by George Herbert, England
Poetry collection
1635
Life Is a Dream
by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spain
Play
1636
Le Cid
by Pierre Corneille, France
Play
1643
The Mayor of Zalamea
by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spain
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
Andromaque
by Jean Racine, France
Play
1668–1694
La Fontaine's Fables
by Jean de La Fontaine, France
Poetry collection includes "The Fox and the Crow", "The Tortoise and the Hare", "The Ant and the Grasshopper", and others
1670
The Bourgeois Gentleman
by Molière, France
Play also known as The Would-Be Gentleman; The Middle-Class Gentleman; The Tradesman; The Shopkeeper Turned Gentleman
1671
Samson Agonistes
by John Milton, England
Poem
Phèdre
by Jean Racine, France
Play
1678
The Pilgrim's Progress
by John Bunyan, England
Novel
La Princesse de Clèves
by Madame de La Fayette, France
Novella
1697
Tales of Mother Goose
by Charles Perrault, France
Story collection includes "Cinderella", "Puss in Boots", "Sleeping Beauty", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Bluebeard", and others
1700
The Way of the World
by William Congreve, England
Play
1702
The Narrow Road to the Interior
by Matsuo Bashō, Japan
Prose and poetry collection
1719–1720
Love in Excess
by Eliza Haywood, England
Novel
1722
Moll Flanders
by Daniel Defoe, England
Novel
1726
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, Ireland
Novel
1728
The Beggar's Opera
by John Gay, England
Play
1730
The Game of Love and Chance
by Marivaux, France
Play
1731
Manon Lescaut
by Antoine François Prévost, France
Novel
1740
Pamela
by Samuel Richardson, England
Novel
1742
Joseph Andrews
by Henry Fielding, England
Novel
1748
Clarissa
by Samuel Richardson, England
Novel
1749
Tom Jones
by Henry Fielding, England
Novel
1750
The Scholars
by Wu Jingzi, China
Novel
1751
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
by Tobias Smollett, England
Novel
1759
Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia
by Samuel Johnson, England
Novella
Candide
by Voltaire, England
Novella
1759–1767
Tristram Shandy
by Laurence Sterne, England
Novel
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
1761
Julie; or, The New Heloise
by Jean Jacques Rousseau, England
Novel
c. 1763
Three Hundred Tang Poems
by Du Fu, Li Bai and others, China
Poetry collection
1771
Humphrey Clinker
by Tobias Smollett, England
Novel
1774
The Sorrows of Young Werther
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany
Novel
1775
The Rivals
by Richard Sheridan, England
Play
The Barber of Seville
by Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, France
Play
1777
The School for Scandal
by Richard Sheridan, England
Play
1778
Evelina
by Fanny Burney, England
Novel
1779
Nathan the Wise
by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Germany
Play
Fables and Parables
by Ignacy Krasicki, Poland
Play
1782
Dangerous Liaisons
by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, France
Novel
1784
The Marriage of Figaro
by Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, France
Play
1785
The Task
by William, Cowper
Play
1789–1794
Songs of Innocence and Experience
by William Blake, England
Poetry collection
1791
Life of Samuel Johnson
by James Boswell, England
Biography
Justine
by Marquis de Sade, France
Novel
1791–1792
Dream of the Red Chamber
by Cao Zhan, China
Novel
1792
The Nun
by Denis Diderot, France
Novel
1794
The Mysteries of Udolpho
by Ann Radcliffe, England
Novel
1795–1796
William Meister's Apprenticeship
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany
Novel
1796
Camilla
by Fanny Burney, England
Novel
The Monk
by Matthew Lewis, England
Novel
Jacques the Fatalist and His Master
by Denis Diderot, France
Novel
1797
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, England
Poem
1797–1799
Hyperion
by Friedrich Hölderlin, Germany
Novel
1797–1806
Hymns and Fragments
by Friedrich Hölderlin, Germany
Poetry collection
1798–1800
Lyrical Ballads
by William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, England
Poetry collection
1807
Corinne
by Germaine de Stael, France
Novel
1808–1832
Faust
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany
Play
1810
The Lady of the Lake
by Walter Scott, Scotland
Poem
Michael Kohlhaas
by Heinrich von Kleist, Germany
Novella
1812
Poems
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany
Poetry collection
Swiss Family Robinson
by Johann David Wyss, Switzerland
Novel
1812–1818
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
by George Gordon Byron, England
Poem
1812–1857
Grimm's Fairy Tales
by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Germany
Story collection also known as Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales; Children's and Household Tales. Includes stories "Cinderella", "Little Red Cap", "Hansel and Gretel", "Rapunzel", "Snow White", "Rumpelstiltskin", "Tom Thumb", and others.
Waverley
by Walter Scott, Scotland
Novel
1816
Adolphe
by Benjamin Constant, Switzerland
Novel
1817
Rob Roy
by Walter Scott, Scotland
Novel
1818
Endymion
by John Keats, England
Poem
Nightmare Abbey
by Thomas Love Peacock, England
Novella
1819
Ivanhoe
by Walter Scott, Scotland
Novel
1819–1824
Don Juan
by George Gordon Byron, England
Poem
1820
Odes
by John Keats, England
Poetry collection
Prometheus Unbound
by Percy Byssche Shelley, England
Poem
Melmoth the Wanderer
by Charles Maturin, Ireland
Novel
1821
The Prince of Homburg
by Heinrich von Kleist, Germany
Play
1825
Boris Godunov
by Alexander Pushkin, Russia
Poem
1825–1832
Eugene Onegin
by Alexander Pushkin, Russia
Poem
1826
The Last of the Mohicans
by James Fenimore Cooper, United States
Novel
1827
Book of Songs
by Heinrich Heine, Germany
Poetry collection
1827–1842
The Betrothed
by Alessandro Manzoni, Italy
Novel
1831
Queen Margot
by Alexandre Dumas, France
Play
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
by Victor-Marie Hugo, France
Novel also known as Notre-Dame de Paris
The Red and the Black
by Stendhal, France
Novel
1833
Eugénie Grandet
by Honoré de Balzac, France
Novel
Old Goriot
by Honoré de Balzac, France
Novel
1835
Canti
by Giacomo Leopardi, Italy
Poetry collection
1836
The Government Inspector
by Nikolai Gogol, Ukraine
Play
1837
The Bronze Horseman
by Alexander Pushkin, Russia
Poem
1837–1843
Lost Illusions
by Honoré de Balzac, France
Novel
1839
The Charterhouse of Parma
by Stendhal, France
Novel
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
by Edgar Allan Poe, United States
Story collection includes "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall", "MS. Found in a Bottle", and others
1840
A Hero of Our Time
by Mikhail Lermontov, Russia
Novel
1841
The Deerslayer
by James Fenimore Cooper, United States
Novel
1842
The Demon
by Mikhail Lermontov, Russia
Poem
Dead Souls
by Nikolai Gogol, Ukraine
Novel
1843–1847
A Harlot High and Low
by Honoré de Balzac, France
Novel
1844
Poems
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, England
Poetry collection
The Luck of Barry Lyndon
by William Makepeace Thackeray, England
Novel
The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas, France
Novel
1844–1846
The Count of Monte-Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas, France
Novel
1845
Carmen
by Prosper Mérimée, France
Novella
1846
Cousin Bette
by Honoré de Balzac, France
Novel
The Devil's Pool
by George Sand, France
Novel
Evangeline
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, United States
Poem
1848
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
by Anne Brontë, England
Novel
Vanity Fair
by William Makepeace Thackeray, England
Novel
The Lady of the Camellias
by Alexandre Dumas, fils, France
Novel
1850
Sonnets from the Portuguese
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, England
Poetry collection
In Memoriam
by Alfred Lord Tennyson, England
Poem
The Prelude
by William Woodsworth, England
Poem
1851
The House of Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, United States
Novel
Moby Dick
by Herman Melville, United States
Novel
1852
Enamels and Cameos
by Théophile Gautier, France
Poetry collection
A Sportsman's Sketches
by Ivan Turgenev, Russia
Story collection
Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe, United States
Novel
Cranford
by Elizabeth Gaskell, 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
1855–1892
Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman, United States
Poetry collection includes "Song of Myself"; "I Sing the Body Electric"; "O Captain! My Captain!"; "Pioneers! O Pioneers!"; and others
Barchester Towers
by Anthony Trollope, England
Novel
The Flowers of Evil
by Charles Baudelaire, France
Poetry collection
The Virginians
by William Makepeace Thackeray, England
Novel
Oblomov
by Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov, Russia
Novel
1859–1883
The Legend of the Ages
by Victor Hugo, France
Poetry collection
1859–1885
Idylls of the King
by Alfred Lord Tennyson, England
Poetry collection
by George Eliot, England
Novel
Max Havelaar
by Multatuli, Netherlands
Novel
The Storm
by Alexander Ostrovsky, Russia
Play
1862
Goblin Market and Other Poems
by Christina Rossetti, England
Poetry collection
Fathers and Sons
by Ivan Turgenev, Russia
Novel
1864
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth
by Jules Verne, France
Novel
Notes from Underground
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russia
Novella
1865
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, England
Novella
1866
Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russia
Novel
1867
Peer Gynt
by Henrik Ibsen, Norway
Play
Therese Raquin
by Émile Zola, France
Novel
1868–1869
The Songs of Maldoror
by Comte de Lautréamont, France
Poem
1869
Collected Poems
by Matthew Arnold, England
Poetry collection
Lorna Doone
by Richard Blackmore, England
Novel
Phineas Finn
by Anthony Trollope, England
Novel
A Sentimental Education
by Gustave Flaubert, France
Novel
1870
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, France
Novel
King Lear of the Steppes
by Ivan Turgenev, Ruissia
Novella
1871
Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll, England
Novella
Rimas
by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spain
Poetry collection
1872
Fairy Tales and Stories
by Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark
Story collection
The Possessed
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russia
Novel
1872–1879
Martín Fierro
by José Hernández, Argentina
Poem
1873
A Season in Hell
by Arthur Rimbaud, France
Poem
Around the World in Eighty Days
by Jules Verne, France
Novel
The Idiot
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russia
Novel
Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy, Russia
Novel
1875
The Way We Live Now
by Anthony Trollope, England
Novel
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain, United States
Novel
1877
Black Beauty
by Anna Sewell, England
Novel
The Drunkard
by Émile Zola, France
Novel
1879
A Doll's House
by Henrik Ibsen, Norway
Play
The Red Room
by August Strindberg, Sweden
Novel
1880
Nana
by Émile Zola, France
Novel
The Brothers Karamazov
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russia
Novel
Ben-Hur
by Lew Wallace, United States
Novel
1881
The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cuba
by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazil
Novel
The Portrait of a Lady
by Henry James, United States
Novel
1883
A Woman's Life
by Guy de Maupassant, France
Novel
The Adventures of Pinocchio
by Carlo Collodi, Italy
Novel
1884
Against Nature
by Joris-Karl Huysman, France
Novel
1884
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain, United States
Novel
1885
King Solomon's Mines
by H. Rider Haggard, England
Novel
Bel Ami
by Guy de Maupassant, France
Novel
Germinal
by Émile Zola, France
Novel
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
by Leo Tolstoy, Russia
Novella
Compassion
by Benito Pérez Galdós, Spain
Novel
1887
At Dusk
by Anton Chekhov, Russia
Story collection includes "Dreams", "A Trivial Occurrence", "A Bad Business", "At Home", "A Restless Guest", "On the Road", "Agafya", and others
The Father
by August Strindberg, Sweden
Play
1888
The Maias
by José Maria Eça de Queirós, Portugal
Novel
1889
Three Men in a Boat
by Jerome K. Jerome, England
Novel
The Kreutzer Sonata
by Leo Tolstoy, Russia
Novella
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
by Mark Twain, United States
Novel
News from Nowhere
by William Morris, England
Novel
The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde, Ireland
Novel
Hedda Gabler
by Henrik Ibsen, Norway
Play
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
Tales of Soldiers and Civilians
by Ambrose Bierce, United States
Story collection
1893
The Master Builder
by Henrik Ibsen, Norway
Play
1894
Arms and the Man
by George Bernard Shaw, Ireland
Play
Tevye Stories
by Sholom Aleichem, Ukraine
Story collection
1895
The Time Machine
by H.G. Wells, England
Novel
Effi Briest
by Theodor Fontane, Germany
Novel
The Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde, Ireland
Play
The Island of Doctor Moreau
by H.G. Wells, England
Novel
The Seagull
by Anton Chekhov, Russia
Play
The Bostonians
by Henry James, United States
Novel
Pharoah
by Bolesław Prus, Poland
Novel
1898
The War of the Worlds
by H.G. Wells, England
Novel
Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand, France
Play
The Turn of the Screw
by Henry James, United States
Novella
1899
Hunger
by Knut Hamsun, Norway
Novel
The Awakening
by Kate Chopin, United States
Novel
Uncle Vanya
by Anton Chekhov, Russia
Play
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum, United States
Novella
Sister Carrie
by Theodore Dreiser, United States
Novel
Three Sisters
by Anton Chekhov, Russia
Play
Resurrection
by Leo Tolstoy, Russia
Novel
The Wings of the Dove
by Henry James, United States
Novel
The Riddle of the Sands
by Erskine Childers, England
Novel
Man and Superman
by George Bernard Shaw, Ireland
Play
The Cherry Orchard
by Anton Chekhov, Russia
Play
The Ambassadors
by Henry James, United States
Novel
The Call of the Wild
by Jack London, United States
Novella
Riders to the Sea
by John Millington Synge, Ireland
Play
The Golden Bowl
by Henry James, United States
Novel
1905
Major Barbara
by George Bernard Shaw, Ireland
Play
The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton, United States
Novel
1906
The Jungle
by Upton Sinclair, United States
Novel
1906–1921
The Forsyte Saga
by John Galsworthy, England
Novel series includes The Man of Property, In Chancery, To Let, and two interludes
1907
Songs of a Sourdough
by Robert Service, Canada
Poetry collection
The Travels of Lao Can
by Liu E, China
Novel
The Playboy of the Western World
by John Millington Synge, Ireland
Play
Mother
by Maxim Gorky, Russia
Novel
1908
Anne of Green Gables
by L.M. Montgomery, Canada
Novel
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 Innocence of Father Brown
by G.K. Chesterton, England
Story collection includes "The Blue Cross", "The Invisible Man", "The Hammer of God", and others
Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton, United States
Novella
1912
Song Offerings
by Rabindranath Tagore, Bengal
Poetry collection
Zuleika Dobson
by Max Beerbohm, England
Novel
Poetical Works
by Robert Bridges, England
Poetry collection
1913
Sons and Lovers
by D.H. Lawrence, England
Novel
Le Grand Meaulnes
by Alain-Fournier, France
Novel
Alcohols
by Guillaume Apollinaire, France
Poetry collection
Petersburg
by Andrei Bely, Russia
Memoir
My Childhood
by Maxim Gorky, Russia
Memoir
1913–1927
In Search of Lost Time
by Marcel Proust, France
Novel in seven volumes including Swann's Way, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, The Guermantes Way, Time Regained, and others
1914
Dubliners
by James Joyce, Ireland
Story collection includes "The Sisters", "Araby", "Eveline", "Two Gallants", "Ivy Day in the Committee Room", "The Dead", and others
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists
by Robert Tressell, Ireland
Novel
Kokoro
by Sōseki Natsume, Japan
Novel
Platero and I
by Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spain
Poem
Tarzan of the Apes
by Edgar Rice Burroughs, United States
Novel
1914–1917
Bunch of Stories
by Rabindranath Tagore, Bengal
Story collection
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
A Cloud in Trousers
by Vladimir Mayakovsky, Russia
Poem
Spoon River Anthology
by Edgar Lee Masters, United States
Poetry collection
1916
The Home and the World
by Rabindranath Tagore, Bengal
Novel
The Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka, Bohemia
Novella
Pygmalion
by George Bernard Shaw, Ireland
Play
The Underdogs
by Mariano Azuela, Mexico
Novel
1918
Poems
by Gerard Manley Hopkins, England
Poetry collection
1919
Winesburg, Ohio
by Sherwood Anderson, United States
Story collection
1920
Women in Love
by D.H. Lawrence, England
Novel
The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton, United States
Novel
1920–1922
Kristin Lavransdatter
by Sigrid Undset, Norway
Novel series includes The Wreath, The Wife, The Cross
1920–1923
The Good Soldier Schweik
by Jaroslav Hasek, Czechoslovakia
Novel
1921
Six Characters in Search of an Author
by Luigi Pirandello, Italy
Play
1922
The Worm Ouroboros
by E.R. Eddison, England
Novel
Rashōmon and Other Stories
by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Japan
Story collection
The Garden Party and Other Stories
by Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand
Story collection includes "At the Bay", "The Garden Party", "The Daughters of the Late Colonel", "Miss Brill", and others
Siddhartha
by Herman Hesse, Switzerland
Novel
Tales of the Jazz Age
by F. Scott Fitzgerald, United States
Story collection includes "May Day", "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", and others
Babbitt
by Sinclair Lewis, United States
Novel
1923
Duino Elegies
by Rainer Maria Rilke, Germany
Poetry collection
Saint Joan
by George Bernard Shaw, Ireland
Play
The Confessions of Zeno
by Italo Svevo, Italy
Novel
Chapayev
by Dmitry Furmanov, Russia
Novel
New Hampshire
by Robert Frost, United States
Poetry collection includes "Fire and Ice", "Nothing Gold Can Stay", "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", and others
The Prophet
by Kahlil Gibran, United States
Prose poetry collection
1924
A Passage to India
by E.M. Forster, England
Novel
Juno and the Paycock
by Sean O'Casey, Ireland
Play
We
by Yevgeny Zamyatin, Russia
Novel
Billy Budd, Foretopman
by Herman Melville, United States
Novel
1925
The Trial
by Franz Kafka, Bohemia
Novel
Residence on Earth and Other Poems
by Pablo Neruda, Chile
Poetry collection
Parade's End
by Ford Maddox Ford, England
Novel
The Counterfeiters
by André Gide, France
Novel
Heart of a Dog
by Mikhail Bulgakov, Russia
Novella
An American Tragedy
by Theodore Dreiser, United States
Novel
In Our Time
by Ernest Hemingway, United States
Story collection includes "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife", "The Three-Day Blow", "The Big Two-Hearted River", and others
1926
The Castle
by Franz Kafka, Bohemia
Novel
Winnie-the-Pooh
by A.A. Milne, England
Story collection
The Plough and the Stars
by Sean O'Casey, Ireland
Play
Envy
by Yuri Olesha, FRussia
Novel
Steppenwolf
by Herman Hesse, Switzerland
Novel
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
by Thornton Wilder, United States
Novella
Lady Chatterley's Lover
by D.H. Lawrence, England
Novel
Orlando
by Virginia Woolf, France
Biography
Nadja
by André Breton, France
Novel
The Three-Penny Opera
by Bertolt Brecht, Germany
Play
And Quiet Flows the Don
by Mikhail Sholokov, Russia
Novel
Gypsy Ballads
by Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain
Poetry collection
1929
A High Wind in Jamaica
by Richard Hughes, England
Novel
Berlin Alexanderplatz
by Alfred Döblin, Germany
Novel
The Time of Indifference
by Alberto Moravia, Italy
Novel
Some Prefer Nettles
by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Japan
Novel
The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner, United States
Novel
Look Homeward, Angel
by Thomas Wolfe, United States
Novel
1930
As I Lay Dying
by William Faulkner, United States
Novel
1930–1936
U.S.A.
by John Dos Passos, United States
Novel series includes The 42nd Parallel, 1919, The Big Money
1930–1943
The Man Without Qualities
by Robert Musil, Austria
Novel
The Good Earth
by Pearl S. Buck, United States
Novel
At the Mountains of Madness
by H.P. Lovecraft, United States
Novel
Guys and Dolls
by Damon Runyon, United States
Story collection
Journey to the End of the Night
by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, France
Novel
Viper's Tangle
by Francois Mauriac, France
Novel
Tobacco Road
by Erskine Caldwell, United States
Novel
Light in August
by William Faulkner, United States
Novel
1932–1935
Studs Lonigan
by James T. Farrell, United States
Novel series includes Young Lonigan, The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, Judgment Day
1933
Man's Fate
by André Malraux, France
Novel
The Tower
by W.B. Yeats, Ireland
Poetry collection
Blood Wedding
by Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain
Play
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
by Gertrude Stein, United States
Novel
Miss Lonelyhearts
by Nathanael West, United States
Novella
The Nine Tailors
by Dorothy L. Sayers, England
Novel
A Handful of Dust
by Evelyn Waugh, England
Novel
Tropic of Cancer
by Henry Miller, United States
Novel
1934–1935
Independent People
by Halldór Laxness, Iceland
Novel
1935
Auto-da-Fé
by Elias Canetti, Austria
Novel
Untouchable
by Mulk Raj Anand, India
Novel
Call It Sleep
by Henry Roth, United States
Novel
Awake and Sing!
by Clifford Odets, United States
Play
Invitation to a Beheading
by Vladimir Nabokov, Russia
Novel
Absalom, Absalom!
by William Faulkner, United States
Novel
Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell, United States
Novel
1937
Rickshaw Boy
by Lao She, China
Novel
Out of Africa
by Karen Blixen, Denmark
Memoir
The Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolkien, England
Novel
The Blind Owl
by Sadegh Hedayat, Iran
Novel
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston, United States
Novel
1938
Rebecca
by Daphne du Maurier, England
Novel
Brighton Rock
by Graham Greene, England
Novel
Scoop
by Evelyn Waugh, England
Novel
Nausea
by Jean-Paul Sartre, France
Novel
The Death of the Heart
by Elizabeth Bowen, Ireland
Novel
Mother Courage and Her Children
by Bertolt Brecht, Germany
Play
At Swim-Two-Birds
by Flann O'Brien, Ireland
Novel
The Little Foxes
by Lillian Hellman, United States
Play
Pale Horse, Pale Rider
by Katherine Anne Porter, United States
Story collection
The Day of the Locust
by Nathanael West, United States
Novel
1940
The Invention of Morel
by Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentina
Novel
The Man Who Loved Children
by Christina Stead, Australia
Novel
The Power and the Glory
by Graham Greene, England
Novel
The Tartar Steppe
by Dino Buzzati, Italy
Novel
Poet in New York
by Federico García Lorca, Spain
Poetry collection
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
by Carson McCullers, United States
Novel
Native Son
by Richard Wright, United States
Novel
1941
Blithe Spirit
by Noel Coward, England
Play
1941–1956
Fictions
by Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina
Story collection
1942
The Outsider
by Albert Camus, Algeria
Novella
The Fountainhead
by Ayn Rand, United States
Novel
1944
The Horse's Mouth
by Joyce Cary, England
Novel
Aurélien
by Louis Aragon, France
Novel
Our Lady of the Flowers
by Jean Genet, France
Novel
No Exit
by Jean-Paul Sartre, France
Play
The Makioka Sisters
by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Japan
Novel
1945
The Tin Flute
by Gabrielle Roy, Canada
Novel
Loving
by Henry Green, England
Novel
Brideshead Revisited
by Evelyn Waugh, England
Novel
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
by Bertolt Brecht, Germany
Play
The Glass Bead Game
by Herman Hesse, Switzerland
Novel
The Glass Menagerie
by Tennessee Williams, United States
Play
1945–1948
Pippi Longstocking
by Astrid Lindgren, Sweden
Novella series includes Pippi Longstocking, Pippi Goes on Board, Pippi in the South Seas
1946
Zorba the Greek
by Nikos Kazantzakis, Greece
Novel
The Iceman Cometh
by Eugene O'Neill, United States
Play
All the King's Men
by Robert Penn Warren, United States
Novel
1947
The Plague
by Albert Camus, Algeria
Novella
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
Froth on the Daydream
by Boris Vian, France
Novel
The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank, Germany
Memoir
Doctor Faustus
by Thomas Mann, Germany
Novel
If This Is a Man
by Primo Levy, Italy
Memoir
A Streetcar Named Desire
by Tennessee Williams, United States
Play
1948
All About H. Haterr
by G.V. Desani, England
Novel
Snow Country
by Yasunari Kawabata, Japan
Novel
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton, South Africa
Novel
1949
The Kingdom of This World
by Allejo Carpentier, Cuba
Novel
The Man with the Golden Arm
by Nelson Algren, United States
Novel
The Sheltering Sky
by Paul Bowles, United States
Novel
Death of a Salesman
by Arthur Miller, United States
Play
1949–1959
The Emigrants
by Vilhlem Moberg, Sweden
Novel series includes The Emigrants, Unto a Good Land, The Settlers, The Last Letter Home
The Bald Soporano
by Eugène Ionesco, France
Play
I, Robot
by Isaac Asimov, United States
Story collection includes "Robbie", "Runaround", "Reason", "Catch that Rabbit", "Liar!", "Little Lost Robot", and others
1950–1956
The Chronicles of Narnia
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
Memoirs of Hadrian
by Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgium
Novel
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
1951–1953
The Trilogy
by Samuel Beckett, Ireland
Novel series includes Molly, Malone Dies, The Unnamable
The Foundation Trilogy
by Isaac Asimov, United States
Novel series includes Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation
1951–1975
A Dance to the Music of Time
by Anthony Powell, England
Novel series
1952
The Chairs
by Eugene Ionesco, France
Play
Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett, Ireland
Play
Thousand Cranes
by Yasunari Kawabata, Japan
Novel
Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison, United States
Novel
Wise Blood
by Flannery O'Connor, United States
Novel
Charlotte's Web
by E.B. White, United States
Novel
A Child's Christmas in Wales
by Dylan Thomas, Wales
Story
1953
Childhood's End
by Arthur C. Clarke, England
Novel
The Go-Between
by L.P. Hartley, England
Novel
The Burning Plain and Other Stories
by Juan Rulfo, Mexico
Story collection
The Adventures of Augie March
by Saul Bellow, United States
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
The Mandarins
by Simone de Beauvoir, France
Novel
Hello Sadness
by Francoise Sagan, France
Novel
Nectar in a Sieve
by Kamala Markandaya, India
Novel
Go Tell It on the Mountain
by James Baldwin, United States
Novel
1954–1955
Lord of the Rings
by J.R.R. Tolkien, England
Novel
Pedro Paramo
by Juan Rulfo, Mexico
Novella
The Complete Poems
by Emily Dickinson, United States
Poetry collection
The Recognitions
by William Gaddis, United States
Novel
The Talented Mr. Ripley
by Patricia Highsmith, United States
Novel
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
by Flannery O'Connor, United States
Story collection
1956
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands
by João Guimarães Rosa, Brazil
Novel
Look Back in Anger
by John Osburn, England
Play
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
by Yukio Mishima, Japan
Novel
The Visit
by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Switzerland
Play
Giovanni's Room
by James Baldwin, United States
Novel
Howl
by Allen Ginsberg, United States
Poem
Long Day's Journey into Night
by Eugene O'Neill, United States
Play
Night
by Elie Wiesel, United States
Memoir
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
by Tennessee Williams, United States
Play
1956–1957
Cairo trilogy
by Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt
Novel series
1957
Voss
by Patrick White, Australia
Novel
The Midwich Cuckoos
by John Wyndham, England
Novel
Jealousy
by Alain Robbe-Grillet, France
Novel
Endgame
by Samuel Beckett, Ireland
Play
Pnin
by Vladimir Nabokov, Russia
Novel
Doctor Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak, Russia
Novel
The Wapshot Chronicle
by John Cheever, United States
Novel
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand, United States
Novel
1957–1960
The Alexandria Quartet
by Laurence Durrell, England
Novel series
1958
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon
by Jorge Amado, Brazil
Novel
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
The Guide
by R.K. Narayan, India
Novel
The Leopard
by Giusseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Italy
Novel
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe, Nigeria
Novel
Breakfast at Tiffany's
by Truman Capote, United States
Novella
1959
Morley Callaghan's Stories
by Morley Callaghan, Canada
Story collection includes All the Years of Her Life, A Sick Call, Now That April's Here, Ancient Lineage, Two Fishermen, and others
The Golden Notebook
by Doris Lessing, England
Novel
The Tin Drum
by Günter Grass, Germany
Novel
Henderson the Rain King
by Saul Bellow, United States
Novel
Naked Lunch
by William S. Burroughs, United States
Novel
A Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberrry, United States
Play
A Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller, United States
Novel
1961
Solaris
by Stanislaw Lem, Poland
Novel
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by Muriel Spark, Scotland
Novel
A House for Mr Biswas
by V.S. Naipaul, Trinidad
Novel
The Moviegoer
by Walker Percy, United States
Novel
Franny and Zooey
by J.D. Salinger, United States
Novel
Revolutionary Road
by Richard Yates, United States
Novel
1962
A Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess, England
Novel
The Death of Artemio Cruz
by Carlos Fuentes, Mexico
Novel
Pale Fire
by Vladimir Nabokov, Russia
Novel
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia
Novella
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
by Edward Albee, United States
Play
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
by Shirley Jackson, United States
Novel
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
by Ken Kesey, United States
Novel
Ship of Fools
by Katherine Anne Porter, United States
Novel
1962–1983
Labyrinths
by Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina
Story collection
1963
The General of the Dead Army
by Ismail Kadare, Albania
Novel
Hopscotch
by Julio Cortazar, Argentina
Novel
The Garden Party
by Vaclav Havel, Czechoslovakia
Play
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
by John le Carré, England
Novel
The Crucible
by Arthur Miller, United States
Play
Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut, United States
Novel
1964
The Ravishing of Lol Stein
by Marguerite Duras, France
Novel
Arrow of God
by Chinua Achebe, Nigeria
Novel
Herzog
by Saul Bellow, United States
Novel
1965–1971
The Sea of Fertility
by Yukio Mishima, Japan
Novel series includes Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, The Decay of the Angel
The Magus
by John Fowles, England
Novel
Black Sheep
by Georgette Heyer, England
Novel
Wide Sargasso Sea
by Jean Rhys, England
Novel
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
by Tom Stoppard, England
Play
Silence
by Shūsaku Endō, Japan
Novel
Season of Migration to the North
by Tayeb Salih, Sudan
Novel
In Cold Blood
by Truman Capote, United States
Novel
Flowers for Algernon
by Daniel Keyes, United States
Novel
The Crying of Lot 49
by Thomas Pynchon, United States
Novel
1966–1969
Song of Lawino
by Okot p'Bitek, Uganda
Poem
1967
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel García Márquez, Colombia
Novel
Children of Gebelawi
by Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt
Novel
The Third Policeman
by Flann O'Brien, Ireland
Novel
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov, Russia
Novel
The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton, United States
Novel
The Confessions of Nat Turner
by William Styron, United States
Novel
1968
2001: A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C. Clarke, England
Novel
Cancer Ward
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia
Novel
The First Circle
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia
Novel
Belle du Seigneur
by Albert Cohen, Switzerland
Novel
The Lion in Winter
by James Goldman, United States
Play
Myra Breckinridge
by Gore Vidal, United States
Novel
1968–2001
The Earthsea Cycle
by Ursula K. Le Guin, United States
Novel series also known as Earthsea; The Earthsea Trilogy
1969
Heartbreak Tango
by Manuel Puig, Argentina
Novel
The French Lieutenant's Woman
by John Fowles, England
Novel
Master and Commander
by Patrick O'Brian, England
Novel
A Void
by Georges Perec, France
Novel
them
by Joyce Carol Oates, United States
Novel
The Godfather
by Mario Puzo, United States
Novel
Slaughterhouse Five
by Kurt Vonnegut, United States
Novel
1970
Fifth Business
by Robertson Davies, Canada
Novel
Crow
by Ted Hughes, England
Poetry collection
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou, United States
Memoir
Deliverance
by James Dickey, United States
Novel
1970–1983
Anniversaries
by Uwe Johnson, Germany
Novel
1971
The Complete Stories
by Franz Kafka, Bohemia
Story collection
Lives of Girls and Women
by Alice Munro, Canada
Story collection
The Day of the Jackal
by Frederick Forsyth, England
Novel
In a Free State
by V.S. Naipaul, Trinidad
Novel
The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath, United States
Novel
Angle of Repose
by Wallace Stegner, United States
Novel
1971–1983
Riverworld
by Philip José Farmer, United States
Novel series includes To Your Scattered Bodies Go, The Fabulous Riverboat, The Dark Design, and others
1972
Watership Down
by Richard Adams, England
Novel
Invisible Cities
by Italo Calvino, Italy
Novella
The Twilight Years
by Sawako Ariyoshi, Japan
Novel
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
by Hunter S. Thompson, United States
Novel
1973
The Siege of Krishnapur
by J.G. Farrell, England
Novel
Gravity's Rainbow
by Thomas Pynchon, United States
Novel
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
by John le Carré, England
Novel
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
by Heinrich Böll, Germany
Novella
History
by Elsa Morante, Italy
Novel
The Forever War
by Joe Haldeman, United States
Novel
1975
W, or the Memory of Childhood
by Georges Perec, France
Novel
The Periodic Table
by Primo Levi, Italy
Memoir
Humboldt's Gift
by Saul Bellow, United States
Novel
Ragtime
by E.L. Doctorow, United States
Novel
1977
The Hour of the Star
by Clarice Lispector, Brazil
Novel
The Wars
by Timothy Findley, Canada
Novel
Aunt Julia and the Script-Writer
by Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru
Novel
A Part of Speech
by Joseph Brodsky, Russia
Poetry collection
The Shining
by Stephen King, United States
Novel
Song of Solomon
by Toni Morrison, United States
Novel
1978
The Sea, the Sea
by Iris Murdoch, England
Novel
Life, a User's Manual
by Georges Perecs, France
Novel
The Stories of John Cheever
by John Cheever, United States
Story collection
The Stand
Stephen King, United States
Novel
1979
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
by Italo Calvino, Italy
Novel
A Bend in the River
by V.S. Naipaul, Trinidad
Novel
Burger's Daughter
by Nadine Gordimer, South Africa
Novel
Sophie's Choice
by William Styron, United States
Novel
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
1980
The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco, Italy
Novel
Waiting for the Barbarians
by J.M. Coetzee, South Africa
Novel
Life and Fate
by Vasily Grossman, Ukraine
Novel
1981
Obasan
by Joy Kogawa, Canada
Novel
Chronicle of a Death Foretoold
by Gabriel García Marquez, Colombia
Novella
Midnight's Children
by Salman Rushdie, India
Novel
The War of the End of the World
by Mario Vargas Llosa, India
Novel
July's People
by Nadine Gordimer, South Africa
Novel
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
by Raymond Carver, United States
Story collection
Red Dragon
by Thomas Harris, United States
Novel
Rabbit Is Rich
by John Updike, United States
Novel
1982
Schindler's List
by Thomas Keneally, Australia
Novel
Wittgenstein's Nephew
by Thomas Bernhard, Austria
Novel
The House of the Spirits
by Isabel Allende, Chile
Novel
Noises Off
by Michael Frayn, England
Play
"Master Harold"...and the Boys
by Athol Fugard, South Africa
Play
The Color Purple
by Alice Walker, United States
Novel
1982–1984
The Belgariad
by David Eddings, United States
Novel series
1983
The Piano Teacher
by Elfriede Jelinek, Austria
Novel
The Life and Times of Michael K
by J.M. Coetzee, South Africa
Novel
1984
Neuromancer
by William Gibson, Canada
Novel
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
by Milan Kundera, Czechoslovakia
Novel
Money
by Martin Amis, England
Novel
Hotel du Lac
by Anita Brookner, England
Novel
The Lover
by Marguerite Duras, France
Novella
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis
by José Saramago, Portugal
Novel
Glengarry Glen Ross
by David Mamet, United States
Play
Bright Lights, Big City
by Jay McInerney, United States
Novel
1985
Annie John
by Jamaica Kincaid, Antigua
Novel
Love in the Time of Cholera
by Gabriel García Márquez, Colombia
Novel
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
by Patrick Suskind, Germany
Novel
White Noise
by Don DeLillo, United States
Novel
Blood Meridian
by Cormac McCarthy, United States
Novel
Lonesome Dove
by Larry McMurtry, United States
Novel
The Accidental Tourist
by Anne Tyler, United States
Novel
1985–1986
New York trilogy
by Paul Auster, United States
Novel series
1987
In the Skin of A Lion
by Michael Ondaatje, Canada
Novel
The Stone Diaries
by Carol Shields, Canada
Novel
The Radiant Way
by Margaret Drabble, England
Novel
Norwegian Wood
by Haruki Murakami, Japan
Novel
Misery
by Stephen King, United States
Novel
Beloved
by Toni Morrison, United States
Novel
1988
Oscar and Lucinda
by Peter Carey, Australia
Novel
The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho, Brazil
Novel
The Shadow Lines
by Amitav Ghosh, India
Novel
The Satanic Verses
by Salman Rushdie, India
Novel
Kitchen
by Banana Yoshimoto, Japan
Novel
The Joy Luck Club
by Amy Tan, United States
Novel
Breathing Lessons
by Anne Tyler, United States
Novel
Nervous Conditions
by Dangarembga Tsitsi, Zimbabwe
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
The Great Indian Novel
by Shashi Tharoor, India
Novel
Like Water for Chocolate
by Laura Esquivel, Mexico
Novel
The Storyteller
by Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru
Novel
1990
Possession
by A.S. Byatt, England
Novel
Vertigo
by W.G. Sebald, Germany
Novel
Amongst Women
by John McGahern, Ireland
Poem
Omeros
by Derek Walcott, St. Lucia
Poem
Get Shorty
by Elmore Leonard, United States
Novel
The Things They Carried
by Tim O'Brien, United States
Story collection
1991
Cloudstreet
by Tim Winton, Australia
Novel
Generation X
by Douglas Coupland, Canada
Novel
Wild Swans
by Jung Chang, China
Nonfiction novel
The Book of Disquiet
by Fernando Pessoa, Portugal
Novel
1991–1995
The Regeneration Trilogy
by Pat Barker, England
Novel trilogy includes Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, and The Ghost Road.
1991–
Outlander
by Diana Gabaldon, United States
Novel series includes Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, and others.
1992
The English Patient
by Michael Ondaatje, Canada
Novel
Smilla's Sense of Snow
by Peter Høeg, Denmark
Novel
Children of Men
by P.D. James, England
Novel
The Triple Mirror of the Self
by Zulfikar Ghose, Pakistan
Novel
The Crow Road
by Iain Banks, Scotland
Novel
Angels in America
by Tony Kushner, United States
Play
All the Pretty Horses
by Cormac McCarthy, United States
Novel
The Secret History
by Donna Tartt, United States
Novel
Birdsong
by Sebastian Faulks, England
Novel
Arcadia
by Tom Stoppard, England
Play
A Suitable Boy
by Vikram Seth, India
Novel
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
by Roddy Doyle, Ireland
Novel
The Shipping News
by Annie Proulx, United States
Novel
1994
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
by Louis de Bernieres, England
Novel
1994–1995
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
by Haruki Murakami, Japan
Novel
1995
A Fine Balance
by Rohinton Mistry, Canada
Novel
1995–2000
His Dark Materials
by Philip Pullman, England
Novel series includes Northern Lights (The Golden Compass), The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass
Fall on Your Knees
by Ann-Marie MacDonald, Canada
Novel
Chapayev and Pustota
by Victor Pelevin, Russia
Novel
Infinite Jest
by David Foster Wallace, United States
Novel
1996–2023
A Song of Fire and Ice
by George R.R. Martin, United States
Novel series includes A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, A Dance with Dragons, and others
1997
The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy, India
Novel
Underworld
by Don DeLillo, United States
Novel
Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier, United States
Novel
Mason and Dixon
by Thomas Pynchon, United States
Novel
1997–2007
Harry Potter
by J.K. Rowling, England
Novel series includes Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, ...the Chamber of Secrets, ...and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and others
1998
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
by Wayne Johnston, Canada
Novel
The Savage Detectives
by Roberto Bolaño, Chile
Novel
My Name Is Red
by Orhan Pamuk, Turkey
Novel
The Hours
by Michael Cunningham, United States
Novel
The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver, United States
Novel
1999
Disgrace
by J.M. Coetzee, South Africa
Novel
Waiting
by Ha Jin, United States
Novel
Interpreter of Maladies
by Jhumpa Lahiri, United States
Story collection
2000
True History of the Kelly Gang
by Peter Carey, Australia
Novel
White Teeth
by Zadie Smith, England
Novel
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
by Dai Sijie, France
Novel
The Feast of the Goat
by Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru
Novel
Selected Prose and Poems
by Paul Celan, Romania
Prose and poetry collection
Bartleby and Co
by Enrique Vila-Matas, Spain
Novel
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
by Michael Chabon, United States
Novel
2000–2003
Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi, Iran
Graphic novel series includes Persepolis, Persepolis 2
2001
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
by Alice Munro, Canada
Story collection includes "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage"; "The Bear Came Over the Mountain"; and others
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman, England
Novel
Austerlitz
by W.G. Sebald, Germany
Novel
The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen, United States
Novel
2002
Life of Pi
by Yann Martel, Canada
Novel
Middlesex
by Jeffrey Eugenides, United States
Novel
Fingersmith
by Sarah Waters, Wales
Novel
2003
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon, England
Novel
The Housekeeper and the Professor
by Yoko Ogawa, Japan
Novel
The DaVinci Code
by Dan Brown, United States
Novel
The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini, United States
Novel
The Known World
by Edward P. Jones, United States
Novel
Vernon God Little
by DBC Pierre, United States
Novel
2004
A Complicated Kindness
by Mariam Toews, Canada
Novel
2666
by Roberto Bolaño, Chile
Novel
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke, England
Novel
Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell, England
Novel
Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson, United States
Novel
2005
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak, Australia
Novel
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro, England
Novel
Measuring the World
by Daniel Kehlmann, Germany
Novel
The Sea
by John Banville, Ireland
Novel
2005–2007
Millennium trilogy
by Stieg Larsson, Sweden
Novel series includes The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
2006
The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran desai, India
Novella
Half of a Yellow Sun
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigeria
Novel
What Is the What
by Dave Eggers, United States
Memoir
The Road
by Cormac McCarthy, United States
Novel
2007
The Book of Negroes
by Lawrence Hill, Canada
Novel
The Gathering
by Anne Enright, Ireland
Novel
The Great Man
by Kate Christenson, United States
Novel
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Díaz, United States
Novel
A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hosseini, United States
Novel
2008
White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga, India
Novel
The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins, United States
Novel
2009
Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel, England
Novel
Brooklyn
by Colm Tóibín, Ireland
Novel
Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead
by Olga Tokarczuk, Poland
Novel
Let the Great World Spin
by Colum McCann, United States
Novel
2009–2010
IQ84
by Haruki Murakami, Japan
Novel
2010
A Visit from the Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan, United States
Novel
2011
Half-Blood Blues
by Esi Edugyan, Canada
Novel
My Brilliant Friend
by Elena Ferrante, Italy
Novel
2012
Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn, United States
Novel
2013
The Luminaries
by Eleanor Catton, New Zealand
Novel
Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigeria
Novel
2015–2017
Broken Earth trilogy
by N.K. Jemisin, United States
Novel series includes The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky
2016
The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead, United States
Novel
2018
Too Much Lip
by Melissa Lucashenko, Australia
Novel
Normal People
by Sally Rooney, Ireland
Novel
See also:
Creating the Greatest Literature of All Time list
Does it matter which translation you read?
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