What are the world's greatest literary works?

Editor Eric's flagship list presents the world's greatest works from ancient to recent times—from all countries, cultures and genres.

Also offered are comprehensive lists of the greatest novels, stories, poems, plays and other literary forms, plus the top works in the most popular genres of fiction, such as historical, crime and mystery, science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, horror, romance and alternative history.

Those who have asked for a more concise guide to the greatest literature get their wish with the ranked Top 99 Works of Literature. Meanwhile, for those aiming to explore the world's literature in greater depth, The Really Long List of Great Literature has been created.

If you're interested in great literature from different parts of the world, you may also consult our growing number of Greatest lists for specific countries and regions—twenty-four so far.

How was it done?

More than a quarter century of research among readers, writers, critics and scholars has gone into creating—and continually updating—Editor Eric's lists of great literature.

What makes these lists so authoritative? See "Creating the Greatest Literature of All Time" about the painstaking process of handcrafting the lists from among the world's most revered literary works.

Plus, click the links to the more than 600 critiques and other information on books, authors and movie adaptations of the world's greatest literature.

And keep reading.

Recent book and author critiques

Selling the good book for fun and profit

When they got around to making the movie of Elmer Gantry—more than three decades after the novel came out—they still felt compelled to preface it with a warning: We believe that certain aspects of Revivalism can bear examination—that the conduct of some revivalists makes a mockery of the traditional..... Elmer Gantry

Another not-so-different world

What is this? You could waste a lot of time trying to figure out what kind of novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union is. Some people have clearly decided. The science fiction community has claimed Michael Chabon's 2007 novel as one of its own, conferring on it a slew of accolades, including the prestigious..... The Yiddish Policeman's Union

Becoming more than human

The superman concept has had a steady run in science fiction. Since the genre's early days, great and mediocre writers have produced narratives around characters surpassing the natural limits constricting humanity—with or without the disturbing Nietzchean or fascist undertones. Readers have long been fascinated by.... A.E. van Vogt

Then and now in middling America

A century after its first publication, the story of George Babbitt can elicit reactions of both "This is so dated!" and "Just like today!" And often from the same readers. Sinclair Lewis's most influential novel, Babbitt, deftly satirizes the middle-class customs, political fashions and cultural artefacts of its time and place—namely.... Babbitt

What might have happened

A superior espionage novel can engage your sympathy with opposing characters. Although at the fantasy end of the thriller spectrum one can dreamily identify with a super-heroic agent, like James Bond, while cheering for the demise of a villainous mastermind out to destroy the world, the more sophisticated thriller.... Eye of the Needle

From Russia with love and death

After spending a good part of a summer living in and out of War and Peace, I was astounded to read that in his latter years Leo Tolstoy disdained it. The novel, whose title has become shorthand for monumentally great literature, was elitist, the author is supposed to have said. It presented a romantic.... War and Peace

In praise of running away—and back

John Updike is most known for Rabbit, Run but it's not his best or best-reviewed novel. It's not even his best or best-reviewed novel in the book series it kicks off. That would be the sequel, Rabbit Redux, the one critics have called a masterpiece. Or possibly the third or fourth book in the series, Rabbit Is Rich and.... Rabbit, Run

Rockin' the coming of age story

D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner" is one of those stories frequently found in school anthologies and taught to English literature students. Or at least it used to be. For educators, part of the story's classroom appeal may be that it features a child in a quasi-supernatural tale—unlike Lawrence's mainstream.... The Rocking-Horse Winner

Disbelief happily suspended

The great thing about Jules Verne's stories of fantastic voyages is that they don't come across as fantastic. At least while we're reading, we believe we could—if we dared—fly across the world in a balloon, fire a rocket at the moon, travel under the seas...or plumb the depths of volcanoes toward the centre of.... A Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Full-blown birth of the Austen novel

In the dichotomy suggested in the title, Jane Austen in her first published work comes down conclusively on the side of sense over sensibility. It's supposed to be a study of two marriageable sisters with the eldest, Elinor, presenting her case for calm common sense in relationships, while the other, Marianne, flaunts.... Sense and Sensibility

Tales from the big Anglo-Irish house

It's to the credit of Castle Rackrent that it's usually taken to be a novel. By its meagre word count, the text constitutes a novella and—shorn of its introduction, footnotes and glossary—it is barely that. It verges on being a long story. But Maria Edgeworth's work reads like an old-style historical novel, perhaps the first.... Castle Rackrent

All recent critiques >

Extras: Features of note

How works were selected

Wondering what makes this list of great literature the most accurate and most comprehensive? What makes these books the best? Read Editor Eric's account of how the Greatest Literature of All Time list was researched, created, revised and recreated repeatedly over more than twenty years.

What's so great about these books?

Readers and critics can have widely diverging ideas about what makes a certain book good and another one not-so. How can we find agreement on which works are the greatest? What does "greatest" even mean? Can popular genre books be compared with literary masterpieces? How is a Greatest Literature of All Time list even possible?

Science fiction, scifi, speculative fiction or SF?—what is it?

The story of the continuing struggle to define this genre and distinguish it from others. How Editor Eric settled on the criterion used for his greatest science fiction list.