The 100 Best Books of All Time

The World Library is a list of the 100 best books, as proposed by 100 writers from 54 different countries, compiled and organized in 2002 by the Norwegian Book Club. This list endeavours to reflect world literature, with books from all countries, cultures, and time periods. Eleven of the books included on the list are written by women, eighty-five are written by men and four have no known author.

Each writer had to select his own list of ten books

The 100 books selected by this process and listed here are not ranked or categorized in any way; the organizers have stated that "they are all on an equal footing", with the exception of Don Quixote which was given the distinction "best literary work ever written". The following list organizes the works alphabetically by author.[1]

List of the 100 Best Books of All Time

Title Author Year Country Language
Things Fall Apart Achebe, ChinuaChinua Achebe 1958 Nigeria English
Fairy tales Andersen, Hans ChristianHans Christian Andersen 1835–1837 Denmark Danish
The Divine Comedy Alighieri, DanteDante Alighieri 1265-1321 Florence Italian
Epic of Gilgamesh Anonymous BC 18th or 17th century Sumer and Akkadian Empire Akkadian
Book of Job Anonymous BC 6th — 4th century Achaemenid Empire Hebrew
One Thousand and One Nights Anonymous 700 - 1500 India/Iran/Iraq/Egypt Arabic
Njál's Saga Anonymous 13th century Iceland Old Norse
Pride and Prejudice Austen, JaneJane Austen 1813 United Kingdom English
Le Père Goriot de Balzac, HonoréHonoré de Balzac 1835 France French
Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, a trilogy Beckett, SamuelSamuel Beckett 1951–1953 Republic of Ireland French, English
The Decameron Boccaccio, GiovanniGiovanni Boccaccio 1349–1353 Ravenna Italian
Ficciones Borges, Jorge LuisJorge Luis Borges 1944-1986 Argentina Spanish
Wuthering Heights Brontë, EmilyEmily Brontë 1847 United Kingdom English
The Stranger Camus, AlbertAlbert Camus 1942 Algeria, French Empire French
Poems Celan, PaulPaul Celan 1952 Romania, France German
Journey to the End of the Night Céline, Louis-FerdinandLouis-Ferdinand Céline 1932 France French
Don Quixote Cervantes, Miguel deMiguel de Cervantes 1605–1615 Spanish Empire Spanish
The Canterbury Tales Chaucer, GeoffreyGeoffrey Chaucer 14th century England English
Stories Chekhov, AntonAnton Chekhov 1886 Russia Russian
Nostromo Conrad, JosephJoseph Conrad 1904 United Kingdom English
Great Expectations Dickens, CharlesCharles Dickens 1861 United Kingdom English
Jacques the Fatalist Diderot, DenisDenis Diderot 1796 France French
Berlin Alexanderplatz Döblin, AlfredAlfred Döblin 1929 Germany German
Crime and Punishment Dostoyevsky, FyodorFyodor Dostoyevsky 1866 Russia Russian
The Idiot Dostoyevsky, FyodorFyodor Dostoyevsky 1869 Russia Russian
The Possessed Dostoyevsky, FyodorFyodor Dostoyevsky 1872 Russia Russian
The Brothers Karamazov Dostoyevsky, FyodorFyodor Dostoyevsky 1880 Russia Russian
Middlemarch Eliot, GeorgeGeorge Eliot 1871 United Kingdom English
Invisible Man Ellison, RalphRalph Ellison 1952 United States English
Medea Euripides 431 BC Athens Classical Greek
Absalom, Absalom! Faulkner, WilliamWilliam Faulkner 1936 United States English
The Sound and the Fury Faulkner, WilliamWilliam Faulkner 1929 United States English
Madame Bovary Flaubert, GustaveGustave Flaubert 1857 France French
Sentimental Education Flaubert, GustaveGustave Flaubert 1869 France French
Gypsy Ballads Lorca, Federico GarcíaFederico García Lorca 1928 Spain Spanish
One Hundred Years of Solitude Márquez, Gabriel GarcíaGabriel García Márquez 1967 Colombia Spanish
Love in the Time of Cholera Márquez, Gabriel GarcíaGabriel García Márquez 1985 Colombia Spanish
Faust Goethe, Johann Wolfgang vonJohann Wolfgang von Goethe 1832 Saxe-Weimar, Germany German
Dead Souls Gogol, NikolaiNikolai Gogol 1842 Russia Russian
The Tin Drum Grass, GünterGünter Grass 1959 West Germany German
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands Guimarães Rosa, JoãoJoão Guimarães Rosa 1956 Brazil Portuguese
Hunger Hamsun, KnutKnut Hamsun 1890 Norway Norwegian
The Old Man and the Sea Hemingway, ErnestErnest Hemingway 1952 United States English
Iliad Homer 850 – 750 BC Possibly Smyrna Classical Greek
Odyssey Homer 8th century BC Possibly Smyrna Classical Greek
A Doll's House Ibsen, HenrikHenrik Ibsen 1879 Norway Norwegian
Ulysses Joyce, JamesJames Joyce 1922 Irish Free State English
Stories Kafka, FranzFranz Kafka 1924 Austria German
The Trial Kafka, FranzFranz Kafka 1925 Austria German
The Castle Kafka, FranzFranz Kafka 1926 Austria German
Shakuntala Kālidāsa 1st century BC – 4th century AD India Sanskrit
The Sound of the Mountain Kawabata, YasunariYasunari Kawabata 1954 Japan Japanese
Zorba the Greek Kazantzakis, NikosNikos Kazantzakis 1946 Greece Greek
Sons and Lovers Lawrence, D. H.D. H. Lawrence 1913 United Kingdom English
Independent People Laxness, HalldórHalldór Laxness 1934–1935 Iceland Icelandic
Poems Leopardi, GiacomoGiacomo Leopardi 1818 Italy Italian
The Golden Notebook Lessing, DorisDoris Lessing 1962 United Kingdom English
Pippi Longstocking Lindgren, AstridAstrid Lindgren 1945 Sweden Swedish
A Madman's Diary Xun, LuLu Xun 1918 China Chinese
Children of Gebelawi Mahfouz, NaguibNaguib Mahfouz 1959 Egypt Arabic
Buddenbrooks Mann, ThomasThomas Mann 1901 Germany German
The Magic Mountain Mann, ThomasThomas Mann 1924 Germany German
Moby-Dick Melville, HermanHerman Melville 1851 United States English
Essays Montaigne, Michel deMichel de Montaigne 1595 France French
History Morante, ElsaElsa Morante 1974 Italy Italian
Beloved Morrison, ToniToni Morrison 1987 United States English
The Tale of Genji Shikibu, MurasakiMurasaki Shikibu 11th century Japan Japanese
The Man Without Qualities Musil, RobertRobert Musil 1930–1932 Austria German
Lolita Nabokov, VladimirVladimir Nabokov 1955 United States English
Nineteen Eighty-Four Orwell, GeorgeGeorge Orwell 1949 United Kingdom English
Metamorphoses Ovid 1st century AD Roman Empire Classical Latin
The Book of Disquiet Pessoa, FernandoFernando Pessoa 1928 Portugal Portuguese
Tales Poe, Edgar AllanEdgar Allan Poe 19th century United States English
In Search of Lost Time Proust, MarcelMarcel Proust 1913–1927 France French
The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel Rabelais, FrançoisFrançois Rabelais 1532–1534 France French
Pedro Páramo Rulfo, JuanJuan Rulfo 1955 Mexico Spanish
Masnavi Rumi 1258–73 Persia, Mongol Empire Persian
Midnight's Children Rushdie, SalmanSalman Rushdie 1981 India English
Bostan Saadi 1257 Persia, Mongol Empire Persian
Season of Migration to the North Salih, TayebTayeb Salih 1971 Sudan Arabic
Blindness Saramago, JoséJosé Saramago 1995 Portugal Portuguese
Hamlet Shakespeare, WilliamWilliam Shakespeare 1603 England English
King Lear Shakespeare, WilliamWilliam Shakespeare 1608 England English
Othello Shakespeare, WilliamWilliam Shakespeare 1622 England English
Oedipus the King Sophocles 430 BC Athens Classical Greek
The Red and the Black Stendhal 1830 France French
Tristram Shandy Sterne, LaurenceLaurence Sterne 1760 England English
Confessions of Zeno Svevo, ItaloItalo Svevo 1923 Italy Italian
Gulliver's Travels Swift, JonathanJonathan Swift 1726 Ireland English
War and Peace Tolstoy, LeoLeo Tolstoy 1865–1869 Russia Russian
Anna Karenina Tolstoy, LeoLeo Tolstoy 1877 Russia Russian
The Death of Ivan Ilyich Tolstoy, LeoLeo Tolstoy 1886 Russia Russian
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain, MarkMark Twain 1884 United States English
Ramayana Valmiki 3rd century BC – 3rd century AD India Sanskrit
Aeneid Virgil 29–19 BC Roman Empire Classical Latin
Mahabharata Vyasa 4th century BC — 4th century AD India Sanskrit
Leaves of Grass Whitman, WaltWalt Whitman 1855 United States English
Mrs Dalloway Woolf, VirginiaVirginia Woolf 1925 United Kingdom English
To the Lighthouse Woolf, VirginiaVirginia Woolf 1927 United Kingdom English
Memoirs of Hadrian Yourcenar, MargueriteMarguerite Yourcenar 1951 France French

See also

References

  1. ^ "Les 100 meilleurs livres de tous les temps". http://www.evene.fr/livres/selection/les-100-meilleurs-livres-de-tous-les-temps.php?. Retrieved 4 November 2010. 

External links