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 more than 220 popular best-of lists, anthologies, collections, educational curricula and literary awards.
This list is for major creative works. A few significant shorter pieces may be included but are mostly reserved for their own lists. A few nonfiction works 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: March 24, 2024
Ancient • Medieval • Renaissance • 18th-century • 19th-century • 20th-century • 21st-century
c.2100–1200 BCE
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Babylon, poem
c.1200–100
The Hebrew Bible
Various authors,
Middle East, prose and poetry
c.1000–600 BCE
Classic of Poetry
Various authors,
China, poetry collection
c.600 BCE–200 CE
Ramayana
Valmiki,
India, poem
c.610–580 BCE
Sappho's Poems
Sappho,
Greece, poetry collection
c.600–500 BCE
Aesop's Fables
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
Pindar,
Greece, poetry collection
475 BCE
Olympian
Pindar,
Greece, poetry collection
472 BCE
The Persians
Aeschylus,
Greece, play
458 BCE
The Oresteia
Aeschylus,
Greece, play series
Includes Agamemnon, The Eumenides, The Libation Bearers
c.450–425 BCE
Prometheus Bound
Aeschylus,
Greece, play
431 BCE
Medea
Euripides,
Greece, play
428 BCE
Hippolytus
Euripides,
Greece, play
Andromache
Euripides,
Greece, play
423 BCE
The Clouds
Aristophanes,
Greece, play
422 BCE
The Wasps
Aristophanes,
Greece, play
c.420–410 BCE
Electra
Sophocles,
Greece, play
418 BCE
Electra
Euripides,
Greece, play
415 BCE
The Trojan Women
Euripides,
Greece, play
414 BCE
The Birds
Aristophanes,
Greece, play
411 BCE
Lysistrata
Aristophanes,
Greece, play
406 BCE
The Bacchae
Euripides,
Greece, play
405 BCE
The Frogs
Aristophanes,
Greece, play
401 BCE
Oedipus at Colonus
Sophocles,
Greece, play
c.400 BCE–400 CE
Mahābhārata
Anonymous,
India, poem
c.270 BCE
Idylls
Theocritus,
Greece, poetry collection
c.250 BCE
Voyage of the Argonauts
Appollonius of Rhodes,
Greece, poem
c.200 BCE
The Twin Brothers
Plautus,
Rome, play
c.50 BCE
On the Nature of Things
Lucretius,
Rome, poem
c.41–37 BCE
Eclogues
Virgil,
Rome, poetry collection
c.35–30 BCE
Satires
Horace,
Rome, poetry collection
29 BCE
Georgics
Virgil,
Rome, poetry collection
c.29–19 BCE
Aeneid
Virgil,
Rome, poem
c.29–16 BCE
Elegies
Sextus Propertius,
Rome, poetry collection
23–13 BCE
Odes
Horace,
Rome, poetry collection
c.48–110 CE
The New Testament
Various authors,
Middle East, prose and poetry
c.60-70 CE
Satyricon
Gaius Petronius Arbiter,
Rome, novel
c.86–103 CE
Epigrams
Martial,
Rome, poetry collection
c.100 CE
Parallel Lives
Plutarch,
Greece, biography
c.100–127 CE
Satires
Juvenal,
Rome, poetry collection
c.150 CE
The Golden Ass
Lucius Apuleius,
Numidia, novel
c.300 CE
The Vision of Vasavadatta
Bhāsa,
India, play
c.400 CE
The Recognition of Sakuntala
Kalidasa,
India, play
c.700 CE
Beowulf
England, poem
c.759
Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro and others,
Japan, poetry collection
c.800–1200
Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor
Anonymous,
Persia, story collection
c.800–1400
One Thousand and One Nights
Anonymous,
Persia, story collection
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
Ferdowsi,
Persia, poem
c.1000
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
Sei Shonagon,
Japan, diary
c.1000–1300
The Poetic Edda
Anonymous,
Iceland, poem
c.1020
The Tale of Genji
Japan, novel
c.1100
Song of Roland
Anonymous,
France, poem
Rubaiyat
Omar Khayyám,
Persia, poetry collection
c.1140
The Poem of the Cid
Anonymous,
Spain, poem
1177
The Conference of the Birds
Farid od-Din Attar,
Persia, poem
c.1177–1181
Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart
Chrétien de Troyes,
France, poem
c.1180
Lais of Marie de France
Marie de France,
England, poetry collection
c.1200
The Nibelungenlied
Anonymous,
Germany, poem
1210
Tristan und Isolde
Gottfied von Strassburg,
Germany, poem
c.1220
The Tale of the Heike
Anonymous,
Japan, novel
1230–1275
Romance of the Rose
Guillaume de Lorris, Jean de Meun,
France, poem
c.1250
The Saga of Burnt Njal
Anonymous,
Iceland, poem
1257
The Orchard
Saadi Shirazi,
Persia, poetry collection
1258
The Garden
Saadi Shirazi,
Persia, poetry collection
1258–1273
Masnavi
Rumi,
Persia, poem
1307
The Divine Comedy
Alighieri Dante,
Italy, poem
1327–1368
Il Canzoniere
Francesco Petrarch,
Italy, poetry collection
1348
The Decameron
Giovanni Boccaccio,
Italy, story collection
c.1350
The Divān of Hafez
Hafez,
Persia, poem
1352
The Triumphs
Giovanni Boccaccio,
Italy, poem
c.1360–1400
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Luo Guanzhong,
China, novel
c.1360–1589
Water Margin
Shi Nai'an, Luo Guanzhong,
China, novel
1362
The Vision of Piers the Ploughman
William Langland,
England, Poetry
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 collection
1405
The Book of the City of Ladies
Christine de Pizan,
Italy, novel
1483–1495
Orlando Innamorato
Matteo Maria Boiardo,
Italy, poem
1485
Le Morte d'Arthur
Thomas Malory,
England, novel
1494
Ship of Fools
Sebastian Brant,
Germany, poetry collection
1499
La Celestina
Fernando de Rojas,
Spain, novel
1516
Utopia
Thomas More,
England, novella
1516–1532
Orlando Furioso
Ludovico Ariosto,
Italy, poem
1528
The Book of the Courtier
Baldasarre Castiglione,
Italy, nonfiction
1532–1564
The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel
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
Marguerite de Navarre,
France, story collection
1572
The Lusiads
Luis de Camoëns,
Portugal, poem
1580–1593
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia
Philip Sidney,
England, novel
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
The Golden Lotus
Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng,
China, novel
c.1590–1599
Satires
John Donne,
England, poetry collection
Elegies
John Donne,
England, poetry collection
1591
Richard III
William Shakespeare,
England, play
1592
Journey to the West
Wu Cheng'en,
China, novel
1594
Doctor Faustus
Christopher Marlowe,
England, play
The Unfortunate Traveller
Thomas Nashe,
England, novel
1598
The Peony Pavilion
Tang Xianzu,
China, play
1603
A Woman Killed with Kindness
Thomas Heywood,
England, play
1604–1605
The Honest Whore
Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton,
England, play
1605
Investiture of the Gods
Xu Zhonglin,
China, novel
1605–1615
Don Quixote
Spain, novel
1606
Volpone
Ben Jonson,
England, play
1609
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
Ben Jonson,
England, play
Solitudes
Luis de Góngora,
Spain, poem
1622
The Changeling
Thomas Middleton, William Rowley,
England, play
The Temple
George Herbert,
England, poetry collection
1635
Life Is a Dream
Pedro Calderón de la Barca,
Spain, play
1636
Le Cid
Pierre Corneille,
France, play
1643
The Mayor of Zalamea
Pedro Calderón de la Barca,
Spain, play
1648
Hesperides
Robert Herrick,
England, poetry collection
Includes "To the Virgins","To Make Much of Time"; "Upon Julia’s Clothes"; and others
1667
Paradise Lost
John Milton,
England, poem
Andromaque
Jean Racine,
France, play
1668–1694
La Fontaine's Fables
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
1671
Samson Agonistes
John Milton,
England, poem
Phèdre
Jean Racine,
France, play
1678
The Pilgrim's Progress
John Bunyan,
England, novel
La Princesse de Clèves
Madame de La Fayette,
France, novella
1697
Tales of Mother Goose
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
William Congreve,
England, play
1702
The Narrow Road to the Interior
Matsuo Bashō,
Japan, prose and poetry collection
1719–1720
Love in Excess
Eliza Haywood,
England, novel
1722
Moll Flanders
Daniel Defoe,
England, novel
1726
Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift,
Ireland, novel
1728
The Beggar's Opera
John Gay,
England, play
1730
The Game of Love and Chance
Marivaux,
France, play
1731
Manon Lescaut
Antoine François Prévost,
France, novel
1740
Pamela
Samuel Richardson,
England, novel
1742
Joseph Andrews
Henry Fielding,
England, novel
1748
Clarissa
Samuel Richardson,
England, novel
1749
Tom Jones
Henry Fielding,
England, novel
1750
The Scholars
Wu Jingzi ,
China, novel
1751
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
Tobias Smollett,
England, novel
1759
Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia
Samuel Johnson,
England, novella
Candide
Voltaire,
England, novella
1761
Julie; or, The New Heloise
Jean Jacques Rousseau,
England, novel
c. 1763
Three Hundred Tang Poems
Du Fu, Li Bai and others,
China, poetry collection
1771
Humphrey Clinker
Tobias Smollett,
England, novel
1775
The Rivals
Richard Sheridan,
England, play
The Barber of Seville
Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais,
France, play
1777
The School for Scandal
Richard Sheridan,
England, play
1778
Evelina
Fanny Burney,
England, novel
1779
Nathan the Wise
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing,
Germany, play
Fables and Parables
Ignacy Krasicki,
Poland, play
1782
Dangerous Liaisons
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos,
France, novel
1784
The Marriage of Figaro
Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais,
France, play
1785
The Task
William,
Cowper, play
1789–1794
Songs of Innocence and Experience
William Blake,
England, poetry collection
1791
Life of Samuel Johnson
James Boswell,
England, biography
Justine
Marquis de Sade,
France, novel
1791–1792
Dream of the Red Chamber
Cao Zhan,
China, novel
1792
The Nun
Denis Diderot,
France, novel
1794
The Mysteries of Udolpho
Ann Radcliffe,
England, novel
1795–1796
William Meister's Apprenticeship
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Germany, novel
1796
Camilla
Fanny Burney,
England, novel
The Monk
Matthew Lewis,
England, novel
Jacques the Fatalist and His Master
Denis Diderot,
France, novel
1797
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
England, poem
1797–1799
Hyperion
Friedrich Hölderlin,
Germany, novel
1797–1806
Hymns and Fragments
Friedrich Hölderlin,
Germany, poetry collection
1798–1800
Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge,
England, poetry collection
1807
Corinne
Germaine de Stael,
France, novel
1808–1832
Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Germany, play
1810
The Lady of the Lake
Walter Scott,
Scotland, poem
1811
Sense and Sensibility
England, novel
Michael Kohlhaas
Heinrich von Kleist,
Germany, novella
1812
Poems
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Germany, poetry collection
Swiss Family Robinson
Johann David Wyss,
Switzerland, novel
1812–1818
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
George Gordon Byron,
England, poem
1812–1857
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Germany, story collection
Includes "Cinderella", "Little Red Cap", "Hansel and Gretel", "Rapunzel", "Snow White", "Rumpelstiltskin", "Tom Thumb", and others
1813
Pride and Prejudice
England, novel
Waverley
Walter Scott,
Scotland, novel
1816
Adolphe
Benjamin Constant,
Switzerland, novel
1817
Rob Roy
Walter Scott,
Scotland, novel
1818
Endymion
John Keats,
England, poem
Nightmare Abbey
Thomas Love Peacock,
England, novella
1819
Ivanhoe
Walter Scott,
Scotland, novel
1819–1824
Don Juan
George Gordon Byron,
England, poem
1820
Odes
John Keats,
England, poetry collection
Prometheus Unbound
Percy Byssche Shelley,
England, poem
Melmoth the Wanderer
Charles Maturin,
Ireland, novel
1821
The Prince of Homburg
Heinrich von Kleist,
Germany, play
1825
Boris Godunov
Alexander Pushkin,
Russia, poem
1825–1832
Eugene Onegin
Alexander Pushkin,
Russia, poem
1826
The Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper,
United States, novel
1827
Book of Songs
Heinrich Heine,
Germany, poetry collection
1827–1842
The Betrothed
Alessandro Manzoni,
Italy, novel
1831
Queen Margot
Alexandre Dumas,
France, play
The Red and the Black
Stendhal,
France, novel
1833
Eugénie Grandet
Honoré de Balzac,
France, novel
1834
Old Goriot
Honoré de Balzac,
France, novel
1835
Canti
Giacomo Leopardi,
Italy, poetry collection
1836
The Government Inspector
Nikolai Gogol,
Ukraine, play
1837
The Bronze Horseman
Alexander Pushkin,
Russia, poem
1837–1843
Lost Illusions
Honoré de Balzac,
France, novel
1839
The Charterhouse of Parma
Stendhal,
France, novel
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
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
Mikhail Lermontov,
Russia, novel
1841
The Deerslayer
James Fenimore Cooper,
United States, novel
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
United States, story
1842
The Demon
Mikhail Lermontov,
Russia, poem
Dead Souls
Nikolai Gogol,
Ukraine, novel
1843
A Christmas Carol
England, novella
1843–1847
A Harlot High and Low
Honoré de Balzac,
France, novel
1844
Poems
Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
England, poetry collection
The Luck of Barry Lyndon
William Makepeace Thackeray,
England, novel
The Three Musketeers
Alexandre Dumas,
France, novel
1844–1846
The Count of Monte-Cristo
Alexandre Dumas,
France, novel
1845
Carmen
Prosper Mérimée,
France, novella
1846
Cousin Bette
Honoré de Balzac,
France, novel
The Devil's Pool
George Sand,
France, novel
1847
Jane Eyre
England, novel
Wuthering Heights
England, novel
Evangeline
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
United States, poem
1848
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Anne Brontë,
England, novel
Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray,
England, novel
The Lady of the Camellias
Alexandre Dumas, fils,
France, novel
1850
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
England, poetry collection
David Copperfield
England, novel
In Memoriam
Alfred Lord Tennyson,
England, poem
The Prelude
William Woodsworth,
England, poem
1851
Moby Dick
Herman Melville,
United States, novel
The House of Seven Gables
Nathaniel Hawthorne,
United States, novel
1852
Camille
Alexandre Dumas, fils,
France, play
Enamels and Cameos
Théophile Gautier,
France, poetry collection
A Sportsman's Sketches
Ivan Turgenev,
Russia, story collection
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe,
United States, novel
1853
Bleak House
England, novel
Cranford
Elizabeth Gaskell,
England, novel
1855
Men and Women
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
Elizabeth Gaskell,
England, novel
The Warden
Anthony Trollope,
England, novel
1855–1892
Leaves of Grass
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
Anthony Trollope,
England, novel
The Flowers of Evil
Charles Baudelaire,
France, Poetry
The Virginians
William Makepeace Thackeray,
England, novel
Oblomov
Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov,
Russia, novel
1859–1883
The Legend of the Ages
Victor Hugo,
France, poetry collection
1859–1885
Idylls of the King
Alfred Lord Tennyson,
England, poetry collection
Max Havelaar
Multatuli,
Holland, novel
The Storm
Alexander Ostrovsky,
Russia, play
1862
Goblin Market and Other Poems
Christina Rossetti,
England, poetry collection
Fathers and Sons
Ivan Turgenev,
Russia, novel
1864
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Jules Verne,
France, novel
Notes from Underground
Fyodor Dostoevsky,
Russia, novella
1865
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll,
England, novella
1866
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky,
Russia, novel
1867
Peer Gynt
Henrik Ibsen,
Norway, play
Therese Raquin
Émile Zola,
France, novel
The Songs of Maldoror
Comte de Lautréamont,
France, poem
1869
Collected Poems
Matthew Arnold,
England, poetry collection
Lorna Doone
Richard Blackmore,
England, novel
Phineas Finn
Anthony Trollope,
England, novel
A Sentimental Education
Gustave Flaubert,
France, novel
1870
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Jules Verne,
France, novel
King Lear of the Steppes
Ivan Turgenev,
Ruissia, novella
1870–1881
The House of Life
Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
England, poem
1871
Through the Looking-Glass
Lewis Carroll,
England, novella
Rimas
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer,
Spain, poetry collection
1872
Fairy Tales and Stories
Hans Christian Andersen,
Denmark, story collection
The Possessed
Fyodor Dostoevsky,
Russia, novel
1872–1879
Martín Fierro
José Hernández,
Argentina, poem
1873
A Season in Hell
Arthur Rimbaud,
France, poem
Around the World in Eighty Days
Jules Verne,
France, novel
The Idiot
Fyodor Dostoevsky,
Russia, novel
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy,
Russia, novel
1875
The Way We Live Now
Anthony Trollope,
England, novel
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain,
United States, novel
1877
Black Beauty
Anna Sewell,
England, novel
The Drunkard
Émile Zola,
France, novel
1879
A Doll's House
Henrik Ibsen,
Norway, play
The Red Room
August Strindberg,
Sweden, novel
1880
Nana
Émile Zola,
France, novel
The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoevsky,
Russia, novel
Ben-Hur
Lew Wallace,
United States, novel
1881
The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cuba
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis,
Brazil, novel
The Portrait of a Lady
Henry James,
United States, novel
1883
A Woman's Life
Guy de Maupassant,
France, novel
The Adventures of Pinocchio
Carlo Collodi,
Italy, novel
Treasure Island
Scotland, novel
1884
Against Nature
Joris-Karl Huysman,
France, novel
1884
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain,
United States, novel
1885
King Solomon's Mines
H. Rider Haggard,
England, novel
Bel Ami
Guy de Maupassant,
France, novel
Germinal
Émile Zola,
France, novel
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Leo Tolstoy,
Russia, novella
Compassion
Benito Pérez Galdós,
Spain, novel
1887
At Dusk
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
August Strindberg,
Sweden, play
1888
The Maias
José Maria Eça de Queirós,
Portugal, novel
1889
Three Men in a Boat
Jerome K. Jerome,
England, novel
The Kreutzer Sonata
Leo Tolstoy,
Russia, novella
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Mark Twain,
United States, novel
News from Nowhere
William Morris,
England, novel
Hedda Gabler
Henrik Ibsen,
Norway, play
1892
Pelleas and Melisande
Maurice Maeterlinck,
Belgium, play
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
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
George and Weedon Grossmith,
England, novel
Tales of Soldiers and Civilians
Ambrose Bierce,
United States, story collection
1893
The Master Builder
Henrik Ibsen,
Norway, play
1894
Arms and the Man
George Bernard Shaw,
Ireland, play
Tevye Stories
Sholom Aleichem,
Ukraine, story collection
1895
The Time Machine
H.G. Wells,
England, novel
Effi Briest
Theodor Fontane,
Germany, novel
The Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde,
Ireland, play
The Red Badge of Courage
United States, novel
The Island of Doctor Moreau
H.G. Wells,
England, novel
The Seagull
Anton Chekhov,
Russia, play
The Bostonians
Henry James,
United States, novel
Pharoah
Bolesław Prus,
Poland, novel
1898
The War of the Worlds
H.G. Wells,
England, novel
Cyrano de Bergerac
Edmond Rostand,
France, play
The Turn of the Screw
Henry James,
United States, novella
1899
Hunger
Knut Hamsun,
Norway, novel
The Awakening
Kate Chopin,
United States, novel
Uncle Vanya
Anton Chekhov,
Russia, play
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum,
United States, novella
Sister Carrie
Theodore Dreiser,
United States, novel
Three Sisters
Anton Chekhov,
Russia, play
Resurrection
Leo Tolstoy,
Russia, novel
The Wings of the Dove
Henry James,
United States, novel
The Riddle of the Sands
Erskine Childers,
England, novel
Man and Superman
George Bernard Shaw,
Ireland, play
The Cherry Orchard
Anton Chekhov,
Russia, play
The Ambassadors
Henry James,
United States, novel
The Call of the Wild
Jack London,
United States, novella
Riders to the Sea
John Millington Synge,
Ireland, play
The Golden Bowl
Henry James,
United States, novel
1905
Major Barbara
George Bernard Shaw,
Ireland, play
The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton,
United States, novel
1906
The Jungle
Upton Sinclair,
United States, novel
1906–1921
The Forsyte Saga
England, novel series
Includes The Man of Property, In Chancery, To Let, and two interludes
1907
Songs of a Sourdough
Robert Service,
Canada, poetry collection
The Travels of Lao Can
Liu E,
China, novel
The Playboy of the Western World
John Millington Synge,
Ireland, play
Mother
Maxim Gorky,
Russia, novel
1908
Anne of Green Gables
L.M. Montgomery,
Canada, novel
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 Innocence of Father Brown
England, story collection
Includes "The Blue Cross", "The Invisible Man", "The Hammer of God", and others
Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton,
United States, novella
1912
Song Offerings
Rabindranath Tagore,
Bengal, poetry collection
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
Canada, story collection
Zuleika Dobson
Max Beerbohm,
England, novel
Poetical Works
Robert Bridges,
England, poetry collection
Death in Venice
Germany, novel
1913
Sons and Lovers
D.H. Lawrence,
England, novel
Alcohols
Guillaume Apollinaire,
France, poetry collection
Le Grand Meaulnes
Alain-Fournier,
France, novel
Petersburg
Andrei Bely,
Russia, memoir
My Childhood
Maxim Gorky,
Russia, memoir
1913–1927
In Search of Lost Time
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
Ireland
Includes "The Sisters", "Araby", "Eveline", "Two Gallants", "Ivy Day in the Committee Room", "The Dead", and others
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists
Robert Tressell,
Ireland, novel
Kokoro
Sōseki Natsume,
Japan, novel
Platero and I
Juan Ramón Jiménez,
Spain, poem
Tarzan of the Apes
Edgar Rice Burroughs,
United States, novel
1914–1917
Bunch of Stories
Rabindranath Tagore,
Bengal, story collection
The Good Soldier
Ford Maddox Ford,
England, novel
The Rainbow
D.H. Lawrence,
England, novel
Of Human Bondage
W. Somerset Maugham,
England, novel
A Cloud in Trousers
Vladimir Mayakovsky,
Russia, poem
Spoon River Anthology
Edgar Lee Masters,
United States, poetry collection
1916
The Home and the World
Rabindranath Tagore,
Bengal, novel
The Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka,
Bohemia, novella
Pygmalion
George Bernard Shaw,
Ireland, play
The Underdogs
Mariano Azuela,
Mexico, novel
1918
Poems
Gerard Manley Hopkins,
England, poetry collection
1919
Winesburg, Ohio
Sherwood Anderson,
United States, story collection
1920
Women in Love
D.H. Lawrence,
England, novel
The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton,
United States, novel
1920–1922
Kristin Lavransdatter
Sigrid Undset,
Norway, novel series
Includes The Wreath, The Wife, The Cross
1920–1923
The Good Soldier Schweik
Jaroslav Hasek,
Czechoslovakia, novel
1921
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Luigi Pirandello,
Italy, play
1922
The Worm Ouroboros
E.R. Eddison,
England, novel
Rashōmon and Other Stories
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa,
Japan, story collection
The Garden Party and Other Stories
New Zealand, story collection
Includes "At the Bay", "The Garden Party", "The Daughters of the Late Colonel", "Miss Brill", and others
Siddhartha
Herman Hesse,
Switzerland, novel
Tales of the Jazz Age
United States, story collection
Includes "May Day", "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", and others
Babbitt
Sinclair Lewis,
United States, novel
1923
Duino Elegies
Rainer Maria Rilke,
Germany, poetry collection
Saint Joan
George Bernard Shaw,
Ireland, play
The Confessions of Zeno
Italo Svevo,
Italy, novel
Chapayev
Dmitry Furmanov,
Russia, novel
New Hampshire
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
Kahlil Gibran,
United States, Prose poetry
1924
A Passage to India
E.M. Forster,
England, novel
Juno and the Paycock
Sean O'Casey,
Ireland, play
We
Yevgeny Zamyatin,
Russia, novel
Billy Budd, Foretopman
Herman Melville,
United States, novel
1925
Residence on Earth and Other Poems
Pablo Neruda,
Chile, poetry collection
The Trial
Franz Kafka,
Bohemia, novel
Parade's End
Ford Maddox Ford,
England, novel
The Counterfeiters
André Gide,
France, novel
Heart of a Dog
Mikhail Bulgakov,
Russia, novella
An American Tragedy
Theodore Dreiser,
United States, novel
In Our Time
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
Franz Kafka,
Bohemia, novel
Winnie-the-Pooh
A.A. Milne,
England, story collection
The Counterfeiters
André Gide,
France, novel
The Plough and the Stars
Sean O'Casey,
Ireland, play
Steppenwolf
Herman Hesse,
Switzerland, novel
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Thornton Wilder,
United States, novella
Lady Chatterley's Lover
D.H. Lawrence,
England, novel
Orlando
Virginia Woolf,
France, biography
Nadja
André Breton,
France, novel
The Three-Penny Opera
Bertolt Brecht,
Germany, play
And Quiet Flows the Don
Mikhail Sholokov,
Russia, novel
Gypsy Ballads
Federico Garcia Lorca,
Spain, poetry collection
1929
A High Wind in Jamaica
Richard Hughes,
England, novel
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Alfred Döblin,
Germany, novel
The Time of Indifference
Alberto Moravia,
Italy, novel
Some Prefer Nettles
Jun'ichiro Tanizaki,
Japan, novel
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner,
United States, novel
A Farewell to Arms
United States, novel
Look Homeward, Angel
Thomas Wolfe,
United States, novel
1930
The Bridge
Hart Crane,
United States, poem
As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner,
United States, novel
1930–1936
U.S.A.
John Dos Passos,
United States, novel series
Includes The 42nd Parallel, 1919, The Big Money
1930–1943
The Man Without Qualities
Robert Musil,
Austria, novel
At the Mountains of Madness
H.P. Lovecraft,
United States, novel
Guys and Dolls
Damon Runyon,
United States, story collection
Journey to the End of the Night
Louis-Ferdinand Céline,
France, novel
Viper's Tangle
Francois Mauriac,
France, novel
Tobacco Road
Erskine Caldwell,
United States, novel
Light in August
William Faulkner,
United States, novel
1932–1935
Studs Lonigan
James T. Farrell,
United States, novel series
Includes Young Lonigan, The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, Judgment Day
1933
Man's Fate
André Malraux,
France, novel
The Tower
W.B. Yeats,
Ireland, poetry collection
Blood Wedding
Federico Garcia Lorca,
Spain, play
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
Gertrude Stein,
United States, novel
Miss Lonelyhearts
Nathanael West,
United States, novella
1934
Murder on the Orient Express
England, novel
The Nine Tailors
Dorothy L. Sayers,
England, novel
A Handful of Dust
Evelyn Waugh,
England, novel
Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller,
United States, novel
1934–1935
Independent People
Halldór Laxness,
Iceland, novel
1935
Auto-da-Fé
Elias Canetti,
Austria, novel
Untouchable
Mulk Raj Anand,
India, novel
The Doctor's Son and Other Stories
United States, story collection
Call It Sleep
Henry Roth,
United States, novel
Awake and Sing!
Clifford Odets,
United States, play
1936
Rickshaw Boy
Lao She,
China, novel
Invitation to a Beheading
Vladimir Nabokov,
Russia, novel
Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner,
United States, novel
Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell,
United States, novel
1937
Out of Africa
Karen Blixen,
Denmark, memoir
The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien,
England, novel
The Blind Owl
Sadegh Hedayat,
Iran, novel
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston,
United States, novel
1933
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier,
England, novel
Brighton Rock
Graham Greene,
England, novel
Scoop
Evelyn Waugh,
England, novel
Nausea
Jean-Paul Sartre,
France, novel
The Death of the Heart
Elizabeth Bowen,
Ireland, novel
Mother Courage and Her Children
Bertolt Brecht,
Germany, play
At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien,
Ireland, novel
The Big Sleep
United States, novel
Pale Horse, Pale Rider
Katherine Anne Porter,
United States, story collection
The Grapes of Wrath
United States, novel
The Day of the Locust
Nathanael West,
United States, novel
1940
The Invention of Morel
Adolfo Bioy Casares,
Argentina, novel
The Man Who Loved Children
Christina Stead,
Australia, novel
The Power and the Glory
Graham Greene,
England, novel
The Tartar Steppe
Dino Buzzati,
Italy, novel
The Don Flows Home to the Sea
Mikhail Sholokov,
Russia, novel
Poet in New York
Federico García Lorca,
Spain, poetry collection
For Whom the Bell Tolls
United States, novel
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Carson McCullers,
United States, novel
Native Son
Richard Wright,
United States, novel
1941
Blithe Spirit
Noel Coward,
England, play
1941–1956
Fictions
Jorge Luis Borges,
Argentina, story collection
1942
The Outsider
Albert Camus,
Algeria, novella
1943
The Little Prince
France, novella
The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand,
United States, novel
1944
The Horse's Mouth
Joyce Cary,
England, novel
Aurélien
Louis Aragon,
France, novel
Our Lady of the Flowers
Jean Genet,
France, novel
No Exit
Jean-Paul Sartre,
France, play
The Makioka Sisters
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki,
Japan, novel
1945
The Tin Flute
Gabrielle Roy,
Canada, novel
Loving
Henry Green,
England, novel
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Bertolt Brecht,
Germany, play
The Glass Bead Game
Herman Hesse,
Switzerland, novel
The Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams,
United States, play
1945–1948
Pippi Longstocking
Astrid Lindgren,
Sweden, novella series
Includes Pippi Longstocking, Pippi Goes on Board, Pippi in the South Seas
1946
Zorba the Greek
Nikos Kazantzakis,
Greece, novel
The Iceman Cometh
Eugene O'Neill,
United States, play
All the King's Men
Robert Penn Warren,
United States, novel
1947
The Plague
Albert Camus,
Algeria, novella
The Age of Anxiety
W.H. Auden,
England, poem
Under the Volcano
Malcolm Lowry,
England, novel
A Case to Answer
Edgar Lustgarten,
England, novel
The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank,
Germany, memoir
Doctor Faustus
Thomas Mann,
Germany, novel
If This Is a Man
Primo Levy,
Italy, memoir
A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams,
United States, play
1948
All About H. Haterr
G.V. Desani,
England, novel
Snow Country
Yasunari Kawabata,
Japan, novel
Cry, the Beloved Country
Alan Paton,
South Africa, novel
1949
The Kingdom of This World
Allejo Carpentier,
Cuba, novel
The Man with the Golden Arm
Nelson Algren,
United States, novel
The Sheltering Sky
Paul Bowles,
United States, novel
Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller,
United States, play
1949–1959
The Emigrants
Vilhlem Moberg,
Sweden, novel series
Includes The Emigrants, Unto a Good Land, The Settlers, The Last Letter Home
The Bald Soporano
Eugène Ionesco,
France, play
1950–1956
The Chronicles of Narnia
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
Marguerite Yourcenar,
Belgium, novel
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
From Here to Eternity
James Jones,
United States, novel
1951–1953
The Trilogy
Samuel Beckett,
Ireland, novel series
Includes Molly, Malone Dies, The Unnamable
Foundation trilogy
United States, novel series
Includes Foundation; Foundation and Empire; Second Foundation
1951–1975
A Dance to the Music of Time
Anthony Powell,
England, novel series
1952
The Chairs
Eugene Ionesco,
France, play
Waiting for Godot
Samuel Beckett,
Ireland, play
Thousand Cranes
Yasunari Kawabata,
Japan, novel
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison,
United States, novel
The Old Man and the Sea
United States, novella
Wise Blood
Flannery O'Connor,
United States, novel
Charlotte's Web
E.B. White,
United States, novel
A Child's Christmas in Wales
Dylan Thomas,
Wales, story
1953
Childhood's End
Arthur C. Clarke,
England, novel
The Go-Between
L.P. Hartley,
England, novel
The Burning Plain and Other Stories
Juan Rulfo,
Mexico, story collection
The Adventures of Augie March
Saul Bellow,
United States, novel
The Long Goodbye
United States, novel
1954
Lucky Jim
Kingsley Amis,
England, novel
Lord of the Flies
William Golding,
England, novel
Under the Net
Iris Murdoch,
England, novel
The Mandarins
Simone de Beauvoir,
France, novel
Hello Sadness
Francoise Sagan,
France, novel
Nectar in a Sieve
Kamala Markandaya,
India, novel
Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin,
United States, novel
1954–1955
Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien,
England, novel
Pedro Paramo
Juan Rulfo,
Mexico, novella
The Complete Poems
Emily Dickinson,
United States, poetry collection
The Recognitions
William Gaddis,
United States, novel
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Patricia Highsmith,
United States, novel
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Flannery O'Connor,
United States, story collection
1956
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands
João Guimarães Rosa,
Brazil, novel
Look Back in Anger
John Osburn,
England, play
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
Yukio Mishima,
Japan, novel
The Visit
Friedrich Dürrenmatt,
Switzerland, play
Giovanni's Room
James Baldwin,
United States, novel
Howl
Allen Ginsberg,
United States, poem
Long Day's Journey into Night
Eugene O'Neill,
United States, play
Night
Elie Wiesel,
United States, memoir
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Tennessee Williams,
United States, play
1956–1957
Cairo trilogy
Naguib Mahfouz,
Egypt, novel series
1957
Voss
Patrick White,
Australia, novel
The Midwich Cuckoos
John Wyndham,
England, novel
Jealousy
Alain Robbe-Grillet,
France, novel
Endgame
Samuel Beckett,
Ireland, play
Pnin
Vladimir Nabokov,
Russia, novel
Doctor Zhivago
Boris Pasternak,
Russia, novel
The Wapshot Chronicle
John Cheever,
United States, novel
Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand,
United States, novel
1957–1960
The Alexandria Quartet
Laurence Durrell,
England, novel series
1958
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon
Jorge Amado,
Brazil, novel
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
The Guide
R.K. Narayan,
India, novel
The Leopard
Giusseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa,
Italy, novel
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe,
Nigeria, novel
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Truman Capote,
United States, novella
1959
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
Doris Lessing,
England, novel
The Tin Drum
Günter Grass,
Germany, novel
Henderson the Rain King
Saul Bellow,
United States, novel
Naked Lunch
William S. Burroughs,
United States, novel
A Raisin in the Sun
Lorraine Hansberrry,
United States, play
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter M. Miller,
United States, novel
Rabbit, Run
John Updike,
United States, novel
1961
Solaris
Stanislaw Lem,
Poland, novel
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark,
Scotland, novel
A House for Mr Biswas
V.S. Naipaul,
Trinidad, novel
The Moviegoer
Walker Percy,
United States, novel
Franny and Zooey
J.D. Salinger,
United States, novel
Revolutionary Road
Richard Yates,
United States, novel
1962
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess,
England, novel
The Death of Artemio Cruz
Carlos Fuentes,
Mexico, novel
Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokov,
Russia, novel
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Alexander Solzhenitsyn,
Russia, novella
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Edward Albee,
United States, play
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Shirley Jackson,
United States, novel
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey,
United States, novel
Ship of Fools
Katherine Anne Porter,
United States, novel
1962–1983
Labyrinths
Jorge Luis Borges,
Argentina, story collection
1963
The General of the Dead Army
Ismail Kadare,
Albania, novel
Hopscotch
Julio Cortazar,
Argentina, novel
The Garden Party
Vaclav Havel,
Czechoslovakia, play
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
John le Carré,
England, novel
The Crucible
Arthur Miller,
United States, play
Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut,
United States, novel
1964
The Rashiching of Lol Stein
Marguerite Duras,
France, novel
Arrow of God
Chinua Achebe,
Nigeria, novel
Herzog
Saul Bellow,
United States, novel
1965–1971
The Sea of Fertility
Yukio Mishima,
Japan, novel series
Includes Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, The Decay of the Angel
The Magus
John Fowles,
England, novel
Black Sheep
Georgette Heyer,
England, novel
Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys,
England, novel
Silence
Shūsaku Endō,
Japan, novel
Season of Migration to the North
Tayeb Salih,
Sudan, novel
In Cold Blood
Truman Capote,
United States, novel
Flowers for Algernon
Daniel Keyes,
United States, novel
The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon,
United States, novel
1966–1969
Song of Lawino
Okot p'Bitek,
Uganda, poem
1967
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez,
Colombia, novel
Children of Gebelawi
Naguib Mahfouz,
Egypt, novel
1968
2001: A Space Odyssey
Arthur C. Clarke,
England, novel
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Tom Stoppard,
England, play
The Third Policeman
Flann O'Brien,
Ireland, novel
The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov,
Russia, novel
The Outsiders
S.E. Hinton,
United States, novel
The Confessions of Nat Turner
William Styron,
United States, novel
Cancer Ward
Alexander Solzhenitsyn,
Russia, novel
The First Circle
Alexander Solzhenitsyn,
Russia, novel
Belle du Seigneur
Albert Cohen,
Switzerland, novel
The Lion in Winter
James Goldman,
United States, play
Myra Breckinridge
Gore Vidal,
United States, novel
1968–2001
United States, novel series
Includes A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, The Other Wind, and others
1969
Little Painted Mouths
Manuel Puig,
Argentina, novel
Master and Commander
Patrick O'Brian,
England, novel
A Void
Georges Perec,
France, novel
them
Joyce Carol Oates,
United States, novel
The Godfather
Mario Puzo,
United States, novel
Slaughterhouse Five
Kurt Vonnegut,
United States, novel
1970
Fifth Business
Robertson Davies,
Canada, novel
Crow
Ted Hughes,
England, poetry collection
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou,
United States, memoir
Deliverance
James Dickey,
United States, novel
1970–1983
Anniversaries
Uwe Johnson,
Germany, novel
1971
Lives of Girls and Women
Alice Munro,
Canada, story collection
The Complete Stories
Franz Kafka,
Germany, story collection
In a Free State
V.S. Naipaul,
Trinidad, novel
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath,
United States, novel
Angle of Repose
Wallace Stegner,
United States, novel
1971–1983
Riverworld
United States, novel series
Includes To Your Scattered Bodies Go, The Fabulous Riverboat, The Dark Design, and others
1972
Watership Down
Richard Adams,
England, novel
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino,
Italy, novella
The Twilight Years
Sawako Ariyoshi,
Japan, novel
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Hunter S. Thompson,
United States, novel
1973
The Siege of Krishnapur
J.G. Farrell,
England, novel
Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon,
United States, novel
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
John le Carré,
England, novel
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
Heinrich Böll,
Germany, novella
History
Elsa Morante,
Italy, novel
The Forever War
Joe Haldeman,
United States, novel
1975
W, or the Memory of Childhood
Georges Perec,
France, novel
The Periodic Table
Primo Levi,
Italy, memoir
Humboldt's Gift
Saul Bellow,
United States, novel
Ragtime
E.L. Doctorow,
United States, novel
1977
The Hour of the Star
Clarice Lispector,
Brazil, novel
The Wars
Timothy Findley,
Canada, novel
Aunt Julia and the Script-Writer
Mario Vargas Llosa,
Peru, novel
A Part of Speech
Joseph Brodsky,
Russia, poetry collection
Song of Solomon
Toni Morrison,
United States, novel
1978
The Sea, the Sea
Iris Murdoch,
England, novel
Life a User's Manual
Georges Perecs,
France, novel
The Stories of John Cheever
John Cheever,
United States, story collection
1979
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
Italo Calvino,
Italy, novel
A Bend in the River
V.S. Naipaul,
Trinidad, novel
Burger's Daughter
Nadine Gordimer,
South Africa, novel
Sophie's Choice
William Styron,
United States, novel
1979–1992
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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
Umberto Eco,
Italy, novel
Waiting for the Barbarians
J.M. Coetzee,
South Africa, novel
Life and Fate
Vasily Grossman,
Ukraine, novel
1981
Obasan
Joy Kogawa,
Canada, novel
Chronicle of a Death Foretoold
Gabriel García Marquez,
Colombia, novella
Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie,
India, novel
The War of the End of the World
Mario Vargas Llosa,
India, novel
July's People
Nadine Gordimer,
South Africa, novel
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Raymond Carver,
United States, story collection
Red Dragon
Thomas Harris,
United States, novel
Rabbit Is Rich
John Updike,
United States, novel
1982
Schindler's List
Thomas Keneally,
Australia, novel
Wittgenstein's Nephew
Thomas Bernhard,
Austria, novel
The House of the Spirits
Isabel Allende,
Chile, novel
Noises Off
Michael Frayn,
England, play
"Master Harold"...and the Boys
Athol Fugard,
South Africa, play
The Color Purple
Alice Walker,
United States, novel
1982–1984
The Belgariad
David Eddings,
United States, novel series
1983
The Life and Times of Michael K
J.M. Coetzee,
South Africa, novel
1984
Neuromancer
William Gibson,
Canada, novel
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Milan Kundera,
Czechoslovakia, novel
Money
Martin Amis,
England, novel
Hotel du Lac
Anita Brookner,
England, novel
The Lover
Marguerite Duras,
France, novella
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis
José Saramago,
Portugal, novel
Bright Lights, Big City
Jay McInerney,
United States, novel
Glengarry Glen Ross
David Mamet,
United States, play
1985
Annie John
Jamaica Kincaid,
Antigua, novel
Love in the Time of Cholera
Gabriel García Márquez,
Colombia, novel
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Patrick Suskind,
Germany, novel
Ender's Game
United States, novel
White Noise
Don DeLillo,
United States, novel
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy,
United States, novel
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry,
United States, novel
The Accidental Tourist
Anne Tyler,
United States, novel
1985–1986
New York trilogy
Paul Auster,
United States, novel series
1987
In the Skin of A Lion
Michael Ondaatje,
Canada, novel
The Stone Diaries
Carol Shields,
Canada, novel
The Radiant Way
Margaret Drabble,
England, novel
Norwegian Wood
Haruki Murakami,
Japan, novel
Misery
Stephen King,
United States, novel
Beloved
Toni Morrison,
United States, novel
The Bonfire of the Vanities
United States, novel
1988
Oscar and Lucinda
Peter Carey,
Australia, novel
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho,
Brazil, novel
The Shadow Lines
Amitav Ghosh,
India, novel
The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie,
India, novel
Kitchen
Banana Yoshimoto,
Japan, novel
The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan,
United States, novel
Breathing Lessons
Anne Tyler,
United States, novel
Nervous Conditions
Dangarembga Tsitsi,
Zimbabwe, 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
The Great Indian Novelo
Shashi Tharoor,
India, novel
Like Water for Chocolate
Laura Esquivel,
Mexico, novel
The Storyteller
Mario Vargas Llosa,
Peru, novel
1990
Possession
A.S. Byatt,
England, novel
Vertigo
W.G. Sebald,
Germany, novel
Amongst Women
John McGahern,
Ireland, poem
Omeros
Derek Walcott,
St. Lucia, poem
Get Shorty
Elmore Leonard,
United States, novel
The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brien,
United States, story collection
1991
Couldstreet
Tim Winton,
Australia, novel
Generation X
Douglas Coupland,
Canada, novel
The Book of Disquiet
Fernando Pessoa,
Portugal, novel
1991–1995
Regeneration trilogy
Pat Barker,
England, novel series
Includes Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road
1991–
Outlander
Diana Gabaldon,
United States, novel series
1992
The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje,
Canada, novel
Smilla's Sense of Snow
Peter Høeg,
Denmark, novel
The Triple Mirror of the Self
Zulfikar Ghose,
Pakistan, novel
The Crow Road
Iain Banks,
Scotland, novel
Angels in America
Tony Kushner,
United States, play
All the Pretty Horses
Cormac McCarthy,
United States, novel
Birdsong
Sebastian Faulks,
England, novel
A Suitable Boy
Vikram Seth,
India, novel
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Roddy Doyle,
Ireland, novel
The Shipping News
Annie Proulx,
United States, novel
Arcadia
Tom Stoppard,
England, play
1994
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Louis de Bernieres,
England, novel
1994–1995
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Haruki Murakami,
Japan, novel
1995
A Fine Balance
Rohinton Mistry,
Canada, novel
1995–2000
His Dark Materials
Philip Pullman,
England, novel series
Includes Northern Lights (The Golden Compass), The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass
Fall on Your Knees
Ann-Marie MacDonald,
Canada, novel
Chapayev and Pustota
Victor Pelevin,
Russia, novel
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace,
United States, novel
1996–2023
A Song of Fire and Ice
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
Arundhati Roy,
India, novel
Underworld
Don DeLillo,
United States, novel
Cold Mountain
Charles Frazier,
United States, novel
Mason and Dixon
Thomas Pynchon,
United States, novel
1997–2007
Harry Potter
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
Wayne Johnston,
Canada, novel
The Savage Detectives
Roberto Bolaño,
Chile, novel
My Name Is Red
Orhan Pamuk,
Turkey, novel
The Hours
Michael Cunningham,
United States, novel
The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver,
United States, novel
1999
Disgrace
J.M. Coetzee,
South Africa, novel
Waiting
Ha Jin,
United States, novel
Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri,
United States, story collection
2000
True History of the Kelly Gang
Peter Carey,
Australia, novel
White Teeth
Zadie Smith,
England, novel
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Dai Sijie,
France, novel
The Feast of the Goat
Mario Vargas Llosa,
Peru, novel
Selected Prose and Poems
Paul Celan,
Romania, prose and poetry collection
Bartleby and Co
Enrique Vila-Matas,
Spain, novel
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Michael Chabon,
United States, novel
2000–2003
Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi,
Iran, graphic novel series
Includes Persepolis, Persepolis 2
2001
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
Alice Munro,
Canada, story collection
Includes Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage; The Bear Came Over the Mountain; and others
American Gods
Neil Gaiman,
England, novel
Austerlitz
W.G. Sebald,
Germany, novel
The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen,
United States, novel
2002
Life of Pi
Yann Martel,
Canada, novel
Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides,
United States, novel
Fingersmith
Sarah Waters,
Wales, novel
2003
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Mark Haddon,
England, novel
The Housekeeper and the Professor
Yoko Ogawa,
Japan, novel
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini,
United States, novel
The Known World
Edward P. Jones,
United States, novel
Vernon God Little
DBC Pierre,
United States, novel
2004
A Complicated Kindness
Mariam Toews,
Canada, novel
2666
Roberto Bolaño,
Chile, novel
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Susanna Clarke,
England, novel
Cloud Atlas
David Mitchell,
England, novel
Gilead
Marilynne Robinson,
United States, novel
2005
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak,
Australia, novel
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro,
England, novel
Measuring the World
Daniel Kehlmann,
Germany, novel
The Sea
John Banville,
Ireland, novel
2005–2007
Millennium trilogy
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
Kiran desai,
India, novella
Half of a Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,
Nigeria, novel
What Is the What
Dave Eggers,
United States, memoir
The Road
Cormac McCarthy,
United States, novel
2007
The Book of Negroes
Lawrence Hill,
Canada, novel
The Gathering
Anne Enright,
Ireland, novel
The Great Man
Kate Christenson,
United States, novel
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Díaz,
United States, novel
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini,
United States, novel
2008
White Tiger
Aravind Adiga,
India, novel
2009
Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel,
England, novel
Brooklyn
Colm Tóibín,
Ireland, novel
Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead
Olga Tokarczuk,
Poland, novel
Let the Great World Spin
Colum McCann,
United States, novel
2009–2010
IQ84
Haruki Murakami,
Japan, novel
2010
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Jennifer Egan,
United States, novel
2011
Half-Blood Blues
Esi Edugyan,
Canada, novel
My Brilliant Friend
Elena Ferrante,
Italy, novel
2012
Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn,
United States, novel
2013
The Luminaries
Eleanor Catton,
New Zealand, novel
Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,
Nigeria, novel
2015–2017
Broken Earth trilogy
N.K. Jemisin,
United States, novel series
Includes The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky
2016
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead,
United States, novel
2018
Too Much Lip
Melissa Lucashenko,
Australia, novel
Normal People
Sally Rooney,
Ireland, novel
See also:
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EDITOR ERIC'S DISCOVERY
A novel of the counterculture.