What's on this list and what isn't
Each of the literary lists on this site has requirements for membership. That is, there are rules to determine which books are eligible to be included on any given list. Some rules are quite strict. Some are little more than rules of thumb, allowing what appear to be reasonable exceptions. The aim is to sort titles onto lists where most readers, writers, critics and scholars would expect to find them, although a consensus is not always clear.
The Greatest Literature
The Greatest Literature is based on three decades of research with readers, writers, critics and scholars, as well as the assimilation of titles from hundreds of "best" lists, polls, anthologies, collections, curricula, reading guides, literary awards, and many other sources both in print and online.
This list aims to comprise the greatest creative works of literature from all times, places, cultures and genres.
What's on the Greatest Literature list:
• novels (such as Great Expectations)
• nonfiction novels (In Cold Blood)
• novellas (Death in Venice)
• plays (Romeo and Juliet)
• epic or other long poems (Iliad, The Waste Land)
• story collections (One Thousand and One Nights)
• poetry collections (Leaves of Grass)
• novel series (The Forsyte Saga)
What isn't:
• nonfiction works (except nonfiction novels)
• short stories, which have a separate list
• short poems, which have a separate list
Back to The Greatest Literature list
The Greatest Nonfiction
This list comprises the greatest nonfictional works of all times, places, cultures and genres.
What's on the Greatest Nonfiction list:
• major nonfiction works (such as The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)
• nonfiction collections (Against Interpretation and Other Essays)
What isn't:
• short nonfiction works, like short essays, articles or letters
• nonfiction novels
Back to The Greatest Nonfiction list
The Really Long List of Great Literature
This list comprises the major individual works—both fictional and nonfictional—of all times, places, cultures and genres that are considered great by at least some faction of readers and experts.
What's on the Really Long List:
• novels (such as Pride and Prejudice)
• novellas (The Old Man and the Sea)
• plays (Waiting for Godot)
• epic or other long poems (The Idylls of the King)
• story collections (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
• poetry collections (Residence on Earth and Other Poems)
• major nonfiction works (A Brief History of Time)
• nonfiction collections (Against Interpretation and Other Essays)
What isn't:
• short stories
• short poems
• short nonfiction works, like short essays, articles or letters
• novel series
The Greatest Adventure
Adventure can be found in a wide range of literature, arguably in all literature. But for this list adventure is defined as fiction with the adventurous elements—action, exploration, conflict, danger—central to a quickly moving story.
This list comprises the greatest creative works of adventure from all times, places and cultures.
What's on the Greatest Adventure list:
• novels (such as Treasure Island)
• novellas (The Call of the Wild)
• epic poems (The Odyssey)
• novel series (The Hunger Games)
What isn't:
• nonfiction adventures
• short stories
• short poems
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The Greatest Alternate History
Alternate history—also called alternative or just plain alt history—was once considered a category of science fiction. But the subgenre's "what if" feature, speculating on what life would be like if events in history had transpired differently, has appeared in works also classed as literary fiction, mysteries, thrillers, romances, historical fiction and even westerns. So many alt history titles also appear on greatest lists for other genres.
This particular list comprises the greatest creative works of alternative history from all times, places and cultures.
What's on the Greatest Alternate History list:
• novels (such as The Man in the High Castle)
• novellas (Jerusalem Commands)
• novel series (The Baroque Cycle)
What isn't:
• short stories
Back to The Greatest Alternate History list
The Greatest Crime and Mystery
This popular genre of writing today goes under several names, including crime thrillers, detective fiction, mysteries, police procedurals, and whodunits. It overlaps every other publishing category, including literary fiction, espionage, horror, romance and speculative fiction and sometimes distinctions are difficult to make. So many crime and mystery titles also appear on greatest lists for other genres.
This particular list comprises the greatest creative works of crime and mystery from all times, places and cultures.
What's on the Greatest Crime and Mystery list:
• novels (such as And Then There Were None)
• novellas (The Third Man)
• nonfiction novels
• story collections (The Innocence of Father Brown)
• plays (The Mousetrap)
What isn't:
• nonfiction works (except nonfiction novels)
• short stories, which have a separate list
• novel series, which have a separate list
Back to The Greatest Crime and Mystery list
The Greatest Fantasy
Fantasy is sometimes considered the less reputable sister of science or speculative fiction. But fantastic fiction has had an honourable place in literature since the first stories were written, long before the invention of science fiction. For this list fantasy is differentiated from other speculative fiction by having at its heart a supernatural, magic or non-scientific element.
This list comprises the greatest creative works of fantasy literature from all times, places and cultures.
What's on the Greatest Fantasy list:
• novels (such as The Picture of Dorian Gray)
• novellas (Through the Looking-Glass)
• epic poems (Beowulf)
• plays (Peter Pan)
What isn't:
• nonfiction works
• short stories, which have a separate list
• novel series, which have a separate list
Back to The Greatest Fantasy list
The Greatest Historical Fiction
The definition of historical fiction is elastic. Everyone agrees it is set in the past, but how far in the past is debated. At least sixty years before the time of writing, say some. Thirty years, say others. Anytime before the writer's lifetime, say still others. For this list, we have sought titles that a consensus of readers seem to consider historical fiction, selected from among works of all times, places and cultures.
What's on the Greatest Historical Fiction list:
• novels (such as I, Claudius)
• novellas (Castle Rackrent)
• epic poem (Sir Thaddeus)
What isn't:
• nonfiction works
• short stories
• novel series, which have a separate list
Back to The Greatest Historical Fiction list
The Greatest Horror
The hallmarks of horror—arousing terror, repulsion or other psychological disturbance—are found to some degree in all literature. But a work falls into the horror genre when these fearsome features are central to it.
This list comprises the greatest creative works of horror literature from all times, places and cultures.
What's on the Greatest Horror list:
• horror novels (such as The Picture of Dorian Gray)
• horror novellas (The Turn of the Screw)
• horror novel series (Gormenghast)
• horror story collections (Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque)
What isn't:
• short horror stories, which have a separate list
Back to The Greatest Horror list
The Greatest Humour and Satire
Humor and satire are here considered to belong to the same literary genre. If you have to differentiate them, you might say humour makes funny while satire makes fun of. But it can be argued all humour has some satirical target, however big or small, and all satire has some humorous content.
This list comprises the greatest creative works of humour and satire from all times, places and cultures.
What's on the Humour and Satire list:
• novels (such as Catch-22)
• novellas (Candide)
• novel series (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series)
• story collections (Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town)
• long poems (The Rape of the Lock)
• plays (The Importance of Being Earnest)
What isn't:
• short stories
• short poems
Back to The Greatest Humour and Satire list
The Greatest Literary Fiction
Fantasy is sometimes considered the less reputable sister of science or speculative fiction. But fantastic fiction has had an honourable place in literature since the first stories were written, long before the invention of science fiction. For this list fantasy is differentiated from other speculative fiction by having at its heart a supernatural, magic or nonscientific element.
This list comprises the greatest creative works of literary fiction from all times, places and cultures.
What's on the Greatest Literary Fiction list:
• novels (such as To Kill A Mockingbird)
• novellas (Through the Looking-Glass)
• long poem (Metamorphoses)
• play (Long Day's Journey into Night)
• novel series (The Regeneration Trilogy)
What isn't:
• nonfiction works
• short stories
Back to The Greatest Literary Fiction list
The Greatest Philosophical Fiction
Fiction that addresses philosophical themes may seem to be a narrow field of literature—until you consider how wide-ranging philosophical themes can be, taking up issues of morality, science, religion, politics, aesthetics, metaphysics, law, language, education and almost every other human concern. You can put the words "philosophy of" before the name of almost any human endeavour and find a field of study someone would find worth writing or reading about.
This list comprises the greatest works of philosophical literature from all times, places and cultures..
What's on the Philosophical Fiction list:
• novels (such as Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)
• novellas (The Outsider)
• play (No Exit)
• novel series (The Space Trilogy)
What isn't:
• nonfiction works
• short stories
Back to The Greatest Philosophical Fiction list
The Greatest Romance
In some literary traditions a romance is a novel, plain and simple. Or it's a kind of novel about a fabulous adventure in an historical context. But for this list the common modern sense of a romance as a a love story is adopted. A romantic relationship has to be at the heart of what the work is about. So Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace with amorous affairs as subplots does not qualify for this list, while his Anna Karenina, centred on a love affair, does.
This list focuses on major works of romance literature.
What's on the Romance list:
• novels (such as Jane Eyre)
• novellas (The Graduate)
• plays (Romeo and Juliet)
What isn't:
• nonfiction works
• short stories
Back to The Greatest Romance list
The Greatest Science Fiction
Science fiction works are often scorned as "space operas"—with starships zipping around the galaxy battling bug-eyed aliens. But serious science fiction readers appreciate the genre as exploring all possibilities of human experience. This speculative literature may be as psychologically, philosophically, politically or sexually charged as so-called mainstream literature. (See the article "What is science fiction?")
This list comprises the greatest works of science fiction from all times, places and cultures.
What's on the Science Fiction list:
• novels (such as Ender's Game)
• novellas (The Left Hand of Darkness)
• story collections (I, Robot)
• plays (R.U.R.)
What isn't:
• nonfiction works
• short stories, which have a separate list
• novel series, which have a separate list
Back to The Greatest Science Fiction list
The Greatest Thrillers
For many a fan, thrillers are stories of espionage, narrating the escapades of spies. But it can mean any fiction with an intriguing, exciting, suspenseful or otherwise "thrilling" plot. Works considered thrillers can cut across almost all other genres, including crime, mystery, romance, science fiction, horror, historical fiction and mainstream "literary" writing.
This list comprises the greatest creative thrillers from all times, places and cultures.
What's on the Greatest Thrillers list:
• novels (such as Eye of the Needle)
• novellas (Who Goes There?)
• novel series (The Millennium Trilogy)
What isn't:
• short stories, which have a separate list
Back to The Greatest Thrillers list
The Greatest Utopias and Dystopias
A utopia (literally "no place") is a society imagined as much better than the one we live in—close to perfect perhaps. A dystopia ("bad place") is one imagined as much worse, providing a difficult existence for its inhabitants.
This list comprises the greatest creative works of utopian and dystopian literature from all times, places and cultures.
What's on the Utopias and Dystopias list:
• novels (such as Erewhon or Nineteen Eighty-Four)
• novellas (Utopia)
• plays (R.U.R.)
• novel series (The MaddAddam Trilogy)
What isn't:
• short stories, which have a separate list
