I collected over 30 lists of the best books and best literature of all time and combined them into one meta-list. Here are the results: every book (or body of work) on at least three of the original source lists, organized chronologically.

I have not imposed any artificial restrictions on the list: there are novels and non-fiction books, plays and books of poetry, books of short stories and books of essays, highbrow, middlebrow and lowbrow, and even some books for children. Most of the items are books, which are in boldface type, but some are bodies of work, such as an author’s poems or short stories, which are italicized. There is another version of this list that is organized by rank, that is, with the literary works on the most lists at the top, click here.  If you want to see the list organized by author, click here.

NOTE ON DATES: I have organized this list chronologically by date of publication, or in some cases in which the book was published long after being written, by the date the work was completed (if known). If the work consists of a series of volumes, I have used the the date of the last book. For ancient works with estimated dates, I have provided a range of dates but used the earliest date for purposes of chronological order. An author’s body of work is listed by the date of the earliest work (or the approximate date the author began writing).

2000 BCE-1001 BCE

The Epic of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamia, c. 2000 BCE) (on 11 lists)
– Anonymous (poetry: narrative)

The Tale of Sinhue (Sanehat) (Egypt, c. 2000 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Anonymous (poetry: narrative)

1000 BCE-801 BCE

I Ching (Book of Changes) (China, c. 1000-750 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Anonymous (non-fiction: divination/religious text)

800 BCE-601 BCE

The Iliad (Ancient Greece, c. 800-725 BCE) (on 21 lists)
– Homer (attrib.) (poetry: narrative)

Mukya Upanishads (India, c. 800-400 BCE) (on 5 lists)
– Anonymous (religious texts)

The Odyssey (Ancient Greece, c. 775-700 BCE) (on 23 lists)
– Homer (attrib.) (poetry: narrative)

The Bible: Old Testament (various books) (Palestine/Mesopotamia, c. 750 BCE – 100 CE) (on 12 lists)
– Various Authors (religious texts)

Theogony (Ancient Greece, c. 700 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Hesiod (poetry: narrative)

Poems (esp. Fragment 42 and Fragment 155) (Ancient Greece, c. 630-570 BCE) (on 4 lists)
– Sappho (poetry: lyric)

Tao Te Ching (China, c. 624-604 BCE) (on 6 lists)
– Laozi (Lao Tzu) (attrib.) (non-fiction: philosophy/religious text)

600 BCE-501 BCE

Classic of Poetry (Book of Odes) (China, c. 600 BCE) (on 5 lists)
– Anonymous (poetry: lyric/religious text)

Fables (esp. The Tortoise and the Hare and The Grasshopper and the Ant) (Ancient Greece, c. 600-560 BCE) (on 5 lists)
– Aesop (fiction: stories)

The Book of Job (Palestine, c. 600-400 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Anonymous (religious text)

Avesta (Persia, c. 559-330 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Anonymous (religious text)

The Analects of Confucius (China, c . 551-479 BCE) (on 8 lists)
– Confucius (attrib.) (non-fiction: philosophy/religious text)

500 BCE-401 BCE

The Art of War (China, c. 500-400 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Sun Tzu (trad. attrib.) (nonfiction: military)

Ramayana (India, c. 500-200 BCE) (on 11 lists)
– Valmiki (attrib.) (poetry: narrative/religious text)

The Bhagavad-Gita (India, c. 500-100 BCE) (on 8 lists)
– Anonymous (poetry: narrative/religious text)

Victory Odes (Ancient Greece, c. 490-443 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Pindar (poetry: lyric)

The Persians (Ancient Greece, 472 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Aeschylus (drama)

The Suppliant Women (Ancient Greece, c. 469 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Aeschylus (drama)

Prometheus Bound (Ancient Greece, c. 460-415 BCE) (on 5 lists)
– Aeschylus (attrib.) (drama)

The Oresteia (three plays) (Ancient Greece, 458 BCE) (on 11 lists)
– Aeschylus (drama)

Oedipus the King (Ancient Greece, c. 450 BCE) (on 17 lists)
– Sophocles (drama)

Women of Trachis (Ancient Greece, c. 450 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Sophocles (drama)

Ajax (Ancient Greece, c. 447 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Sophocles (drama)

Antigone (Ancient Greece, 442-441 BCE) (on 11 lists)
– Sophocles (drama)

The Histories (Ancient Greece, 441, BCE) (on 11 lists)
– Herodotus (non-fiction: history)

Alcestis (Ancient Greece, 438 BCE) (on 5 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

Medea (Ancient Greece, c. 431 BCE) (on 13 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

Hippolytus (Ancient Greece, c. 428 BCE) (on 4 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

Andromache (Ancient Greece, c. 425 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Euripides (drama)


The Knights (Ancient Greece, 424 BCE) (on 4 lists)
– Aristophanes (drama)

Hecuba (Ancient Greece, c. 424 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

The Clouds (Ancient Greece, 423 BCE) (on 6 lists)
– Aristophanes (drama)

The Wasps (Ancient Greece, 422 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Aristophanes (drama)

Electra (Ancient Greece, 420 BCE) (on 5 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

Electra (Ancient Greece, c. 418-414 BCE) (on 6 lists)
– Sophocles (drama)

Heracles (Ancient Greece, c. 416 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

Trojan Women (Ancient Greece, 415 BCE) (on 5 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

Iphigenia in Tauris (Ancient Greece, 414 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

Ion (Ancient Greece, 414 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

Helen (Ancient Greece, 412 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

Lysistrata (Ancient Greece, 411 BCE) (on 8 lists)
– Aristophanes (drama)

Philoctetes (Ancient Greece, 409 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Sophocles (drama)

Orestes (Ancient Greece, 408 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

The Bacchae (Ancient Greece, 405 BCE) (on 7 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

The Frogs (Ancient Greece, 405 BCE) (on 5 lists)
– Aristophanes (drama)

Iphigenia at Aulis (Ancient Greece, 405 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

Oedipus at Colonus (Ancient Greece, 401 BCE) (on 5 lists)
– Sophocles (drama)

400-301 BCE

The Peloponnesian War (Ancient Greece, 400 BCE) (on 9 lists)
– Thucydides (non-fiction: history)

The Birds (Ancient Greece, 400 BCE) (on 7 lists)
– Aristophanes (drama)

Cyclops (Ancient Greece, c. 400 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Euripides (drama)

The Assemblywomen (Ancient Greece, 392 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Aristophanes (drama)

Apology (Ancient Greece, c. 399-387 BCE) (on 10 lists)
– Plato (non-fiction: philosophy)

Crito (Ancient Greece, c. 399-387) (on 4 lists)
– Plato (non-fiction: philosophy)

The Republic (Ancient Greece, c. 387-380 BCE) (on 9 lists)
– Plato (non-fiction: philosophy)

Meno (Ancient Greece, c. 387-380) (on 4 lists)
– Plato (non-fiction: philosophy)

The Symposium (Ancient Greece, c. 380-360 BCE) (on 5 lists)
– Plato (non-fiction: philosophy)

Phaedo (Ancient Greece, c. 380-360) (on 5 lists)
– Plato (non-fiction: philosophy)

Poetics (Ancient Greece, c. 335-323 BCE) (on 9 lists)
– Aristotle (non-fiction: philosophy)

Nichomachean Ethics (c. 335-323 BCE) (on 7 lists)
– Aristotle (non-fiction: philosophy)

Physics (Ancient Greece, c. 335-323 BCE) (on 6 lists)
– Aristotle (non-fiction: philosophy/science)

Rhetoric (Ancient Greece, c. 335-323 BCE) (on 4 lists)
– Aristotle (non-fiction: philosophy)

Metaphysics (Ancient Greece, c. 335-323 BCE) (on 4 lists)
– Aristotle (non-fiction: philosophy)

On the Soul (Ancient Greece, c. 335-323 BCE) (on 4 lists)
– Aristotle (non-fiction: philosophy)

The Book of Mencius (China, c. 309-289 BCE) (on 5 lists)
– Mencius (non-fiction: philosophy/religious text)

The Zhuangzi (China, c. 306-286 BCE) (on 4 lists)
– Zhuangzi (non-fiction: philosophy/fiction: stories)

300-201 BCE

The Panchatantra (India, c. 300 BCE) (on 4 lists)
– Vishnu Sharma (attrib.) (fiction: linked stories)

Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali (India, c. 300 BCE-400 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Patañjali (religious text)

Han Feizi (China, c. 281-233 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Han Fei (attrib.) (non-fiction: political philosophy)

Menaechmi (The Brothers Menaechmus) (Roman Republic, c. 254-184 BCE) (on 4 lists)
– Plautus (drama)

Amphitryon (Roman Republic, c. 220-184 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Plautus (drama)

Pseudolus (Roman Republic, c. 220-184 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Plautus (drama)

200-101 BCE

Dhammapada (India, 200-100 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Anonymous (religious text)

Records of the Grand Historian (China, c. 109-91 BCE) (on 5 lists)
– Sima Qian (non-fiction: history)

100-1 BCE

Odes (Ancient Rome, 65-8 BCE) (on 7 lists)
– Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (poetry: lyric)

Poems (esp. Attis) (Roman Republic, c. 65-54 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Catullus (Gaius Valerius Catullus) (poetry: lyric)

De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) (Ancient Rome, 50 BCE) (on 8 lists)
– Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus) (poetry: narrative/non-fiction: philosophy)

Eclogues (Bucolics) (Roman Republic, 39-38 BCE) (on 3 lists)
– Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) (poetry: lyric)

The Aeneid (Roman Empire, 29-19 BCE) (on 17 lists)
– Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) (poetry: narrative)

1-99 CE

Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) (Roman Empire, 2 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (poetry: lyric)

Metamorphoses (Roman Empire, 2-8 CE) (on 8 lists)
– Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (poetry: narrative)

Satyricon (Roman Empire, c. 27-66 CE) (on 5 lists)
– Petronius (Gaius Petronius Arbiter) (attrib.) (poetry: narrative/fiction: novel)

The Bible: New Testament (various books) (Palestine/Roman Empire, c. 50-120 CE) (on 12 lists)
– Various Authors (religious texts)

100-199 CE

Vimalakirti Sutra (India, c. 100 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Anonymous (religious text)

Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans (Roman Empire, 100-125 CE) (on 7 lists)
– Plutarch (Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus) (non-fiction: biography/history)

Annals (Roman Empire, 109 CE) (on 5 lists)
– Tacitus (Publius Cornelius Tacitus) (non-fiction: history)

Satires (esp. True History (A True Story)) (Roman Empire/Syria, c. 125-190 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Lucian of Samosata (fiction: stories)

The Satires (Roman Empire, c. 98-138 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Juvenal (Decimus Iūnius Iuvenālis) (poetry: lyric)

The Golden Ass (Roman Empire, c. 158-180 CE) (on 5 lists)
– Apuleius (Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis) (fiction: novel)


Meditations (Roman Empire, c. 180 CE) (on 7 lists)
– Marcus Aurelius (non-fiction: memoir/philosophy)

200-299 CE

Lotus Sutra (India, c. 200 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Anonymous (religious text)

The Enneads (Egypt/Roman Empire, 270 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Plotinus (non-fiction: philosophy)

300-399 CE

Mahabharata (India, c. 300-400 CE) (on 10 lists)
– Vyasa (attrib.) (poetry: narrative/religious text)

Shakuntala (The Recognition of Sakuntala) (India, c. 350-450 CE) (on 10 lists)
– Kālidāsa (drama)

Returning To Live in the Country (Returning to the Farm to Dwell) (China, c. 380-427 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Tao Yuanming (Tao Qian) (poetry: lyric)

Returning Home (China, c. 380-427 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Tao Yuanming (Tao Qian) (poetry: lyric)

On Moving House (China, c. 380-427 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Tao Yuanming (Tao Qian) (poetry: lyric)

In the Sixth Month of 409, Fire (China, c. 380-427 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Tao Yuanming (Tao Qian) (poetry: lyric)

Twenty Poems After Drinking Wine (China, c. 380-427 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Tao Yuanming (Tao Qian) (poetry: lyric)

On Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas (China, c. 380-427 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Tao Yuanming (Tao Qian) (poetry: lyric)

400-499 CE

Confessions (Algeria/Ancient Rome, c. 400 CE) (on 12 lists)
– Augustine of Hippo (non-fiction: memoir)

The City of God (Algeria/Roman Empire, 426 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Augustine of Hippo (non-fiction: religion)

Satakatraya (The Three Centuries) (India, c. 450-500 CE) (on 4 lists)
– Bhartrihari (attrib.) (poetry: lyric)

500-599 CE

Mu’allaqat (The Hanging Poems) (Arabia, c. 550-630 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Anonymous (poetry: lyric)

600-699 CE

The Qur’an (Arabia, 610-632 CE) (on 10 lists)
– Muhammad (attrib.) (religious text)

700-799 CE

Poems (esp. A Quiet Night Thought, Long Yearning, Farewell to Meng Hao-jan, Drinking Alone in the Moonlight, The Moon at the Fortified Pass, and Chuang Tzu and the Butterfly) (China, c. 715-762 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Li Bai (Li Po) (poetry: lyric)

Poems (esp. Song of an Old Cypress, To My Retired Friend Wei, Thinking of Li Bai at the End of the Sky, Spring Night in the Left Office, Moonlit Night, and Ballad of the Army Carts) (China, c. 725-770) (on 3 lists)
– Du Fu (Tu Fu) (poetry: lyric)

Man’yōshū (Japan, c. 760 CE) (on 5 lists)
– Various Authors (poetry: lyric)

800-899 CE

Jujushinron (Ten Stages of the Development of the Mind) (Japan, 830 CE) (on 3 lists)
– Kukai (religious text)

900-999 CE

1000-1099

Beowulf (England, c. 1000) (on 5 lists)
– Anonymous (poetry: narrative)

The Pillow Book (Japan, c. 1002) (on 5 lists)
– Sei Shonagon (non-fiction: memoir)

The Book of Kings (Shahnameh) (Persia, c. 1010) (on 6 lists)
– Ferdowsi (poetry: narrative)

The Tale of Genji (Japan, c. 1021) (on 14 lists)
– Murasaki Shikibu (fiction: novel)

Kathāsaritsāgara (The Ocean of Rivers of Story) (India, c. 1050-1080) (on 3 lists)
– Somadeva (fiction: stories/poetry: narrative)

1100-1199

The Rubaiyat (Persia, c. 1100) (on 6 lists)
– Omar Khayyam (attrib.) (poetry: lyric)

Deliverance from Error (Persia, c. 1100) (on 3 lists)
– Al-Ghazali (non-fiction: memoir)

The Assemblies of al-Hariri (Iraq, c. 1100-1122) (on 3 lists)
– Al-Hariri of Basra (poetry: lyric)

The Song of Roland (France, c. 1140-1170) (on 6 lists)
– Anonymous (poetry: narrative)

Tristan (Germany, c. 1150-1210) (on 4 lists)
– Gottfried von Strassburg (poetry: narrative)

Lais of Marie de France (France, c. 1155-1170)
– Marie de France (poetry: narrative)

The Conference of the Birds (Persia, 1177) (on 4 lists)
– Attar of Nishapur (poetry: lyric)

Commentary on the Four Books (China, c. 1180-1200) (on 3 lists)
– Zhu Xi (non-fiction: philosophy/religion)

The Nibelungenlied (Song of the NIbelungs) (Germay, c. 118-1210) (on 4 lists)
– Anonymous (poetry: narrative)

Perceval, the Story of the Grail (France, c. 1181-1190) (on 3 lists)
– Chrétien de Troyes (poetry: narrative)

Guide for the Perplexed (Spain/Morocco, c. 1190-1204) (on 3 lists)
– Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) (non-fiction: philosophy/religion)

The Poem of the Cid (Spain, c. 1195-1207) (on 4 lists)
– Anonymous (poetry: narrative)

1200-1299

Gita Govinda (Song of Govinda) (India, c. 1200-1245) (on 4 lists)
– Jayadeva (poetry: narrative)

Parzifal Germany, c. 1200-1220) (on 3 lists)
– Wolfram von Eschenbach (poetry: narrative)

The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (China, c. 1200-1280) (on 3 lists)
– Anonymous (religious text)

The Poetic Edda (Iceland, compiled c. 1200-1300) (on 3 lists)
– Various Unknown Authors (poetry: narrative)

   
The Masnavi (Persia, c. 1258-1273) (on 5 lists)
– Jalalu’l-Din Rumi (poetry: lyric)

Summa Theologica (Italy, 1265-1274) (on 3 lists)
– Thomas Aquinas (non-fiction: religion)

Njal’s Saga (Iceland, c. 1270-1290) (on 4 lists)
– Anonymous (fiction: saga)

Romance of the Rose (France, 1230 [Pt. 1], 1275 [Pt. 2]) (on 3 lists)
– Guillaume de Lorris (Pt. 1) & Jean de Meun (Pt. 2) (poetry: narrative)

The New Life (Italy, 1295) (on 3 lists)
– Dante Alighieri (poetry: narrative)

Water Margin (Outlaws of the Marsh) (China, c. 1296-1372) (on 5 lists)
– Shi Nai’an (attrib.) (fiction: novel)

1300-1399


The Divine Comedy (Italy, c. 1308-1321) (on 24 lists)
– Dante Alighieri (poetry: narrative)

Poems (esp. Sonnets To Laura in Life: 109) (Italy, c. 1326-1374) (on 4 lists)
– Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) (poetry: lyric)

Poems (esp. O beautiful wine bearer, bring forth the cup (Ghazal 1)) (Persia, c. 1330-1390) (on 4 lists)
– Hafez (Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī) (poetry: lyric)

Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness) (Japan, 1330-1332)  (on 3 lists)
– Yoshida Kenko (non-fiction: essays)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (England, c. 1350) (on 3 lists)
– Anonymous (poetry: narrative)

The Decameron (Italy, 1350-1353) (on 8 lists)
– Giovanni Boccaccio (fiction: linked stories)

Muqaddimah (Tunisia, 1377) (on 3 lists)
– Ibn Khaldun (non-fiction: history)

The Canterbury Tales (England, c. 1380-1400) (on 16 lists)
– Geoffrey Chaucer (fiction: linked stories/poetry)

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (China, c. 1380-1400)
– Luo Guanzhong (fiction: novel)

Atsumori (Japan, c. 1380-1443) (on 3 lists)
– Zeami Motokiyo (drama)

Troilus and Criseyde (England, c. 1385) (on 4 lists)
– Geoffrey Chaucer (poetry: narrative)

1400-1499

The Book of the City of Ladies (Italy/France, 1405) (on 3 lists)
– Christine de Pizan (fiction: allegorical)

Poems (esp. Celestial Love and The Doom of Beauty) (Italy, 1475-1564) (on 3 lists)
– Michelangelo (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) (poetry: lyric)

Le Morte d’Arthur (England, 1485) (on 7 lists)
– Thomas Malory (fiction: linked stories)

Everyman (England, c. 1490) (on 4 lists)
– Anonymous (drama)

La Celestine (The Spanish Bawd) (Spain, 1499) (on 4 lists)
– Fernando de Rojas (drama)

1500-1599

The Praise of Folly (In Praise of Folly) (Netherlands, 1511) (on 7 lists)
– Desiderius Erasmus (non-fiction: satire)

The Prince (Italy, 1513) (on 13 lists)
– Niccolò Machiavelli (non-fiction: political philosophy)

Utopia (England, 1516) (on 7 lists)
– Thomas More (fiction: satire)

The Book of the Courtier (Italy, 1528) (on 4 lists)
– Baldassare Castiglione (non-fiction: manners/fiction: dialogue)

Gargantua and Pantagruel (five novels) (France, 1532-1534) (on 14 lists)
– François Rabelais (fiction: novels)

Orlando Furioso (Italy, 1532) (on 4 lists)
– Ludovico Ariosto (poetry: narrative)

Journey to the West (Monkey) (China, c. 1540-1560) (on 6 lists)
– Wu Cheng’en (fiction: novel)

Epic of Layla and Majnun (Turkey/Ottoman Empire, c. 1540-1556) (on 3 lists)
– Fużūlī (poetry: narrative)

Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects (Italy, 1550) (on 4 lists)
– Giorgio Vasari (non-fiction: biography/arts)

The Heptameron (France, 1558) (on 3 lists)
– Marguerite de Navarre (fiction: linked stories)

The Lusiads (Portugal, 1572) (on 3 lists)
– Luís Vaz de Camões (poetry: narrative)

Essays (France, 1580) (on 14 lists)
– Michel de Montaigne (non-fiction: essays)

Astrophel and Stella (England, c. 1580) (on 3 lists)
– Philip Sydney (poetry: narrative)

Jerusalem Delivered (Italy, 1581) (on 3 lists)
– Torquato Tasso (poetry: narrative)

Tamburlaine, Pts. 1 and 2 (England, 1587-1588) (on 3 lists)
– Christopher Marlowe (drama)

Doctor Faustus (England, 1588) (on 5 lists)
– Christopher Marlowe (drama)

A Comedy of Errors (England, 1589) (on 9 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

The Jew of Malta (England, c. 1589) (on 3 lists)
– Christopher Marlowe (drama)

Henry VI, Pts. 1, 2, 3 (England, 1591) (on 5 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Titus Andronicus (England, 1592) (on 5 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

The Spanish Tragedy (England, 1582-1592) (on 3 lists)
– Thomas Kyd (drama)

Edward II (England, 1592) (on 3 lists)
– Christopher Marlowe (drama)

Richard III (England, 1592-1593) (on 11 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Sonnets (esp. Sonnet 18 [“Shall I compare Thee to a summer’s day“]) (England, 1593-1609) (on 7 lists)
– William Shakespeare (poetry: lyric)

Romeo and Juliet (England, 1594) (on 11 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

The Taming of the Shrew (England, 1594) (on 9 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Two Gentlemen of Verona (England, 1594) (on 9 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (England, 1594-1595) (on 13 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Richard II (England, 1595) (on 9 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Love’s Labour’s Lost (England, 1595) (on 6 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Poems (esp. Holy Sonnet X [“Death be not proud…“]) (England, c. 1595-1631) (on 6 lists)
– John Donne (poetry: lyric)

Poems (esp. On my First Son and Song To Celia (“Drink to me only with  thine eyes”)) (England, c. 1595-1637) (on 3 lists)
– Ben Jonson (poetry: lyric)

The Merchant of Venice (England, 1596) (on 11 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

King John (England, 1596) (on 5 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

The Faerie Queen (England, 1590 [Bks. I-III], 1596 [Bks. IV-VI]) (on 3 lists)
– Edmund Spenser (poetry: narrative)

Henry IV, Pts. 1 & 2 (England, 1597) (on 10 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Essays (England, 1597) (on 3 lists)
– Francis Bacon (non-fiction: essays)

Much Ado About Nothing (England, 1598) (on 9 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Henry V (England, 1598) (on 9 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

The Merry Wives of Windsor (England, 1598) (on 6 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Julius Caesar (England, 1599) (on 11 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Twelfth Night (England, 1599) (on 10 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

As You Like It (England, 1599) (on 10 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

1600-1649

Hamlet (England, 1600) (on 21 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

The Plum in the Golden Vase (China, c. 1600) (on 5 lists)
– Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng (fiction: novel)

All’s Well that Ends Well (England, 1602) (on 9 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Troilus and Cressida (England, 1602) (on 5 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

King Lear (England, 1605) (on 15 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Othello (England, 1604) (on 14 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Measure for Measure (England, 1604) (on 10 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Macbeth (England, 1605) (on 11 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

The Advancement of Learning (England, 1605) (on 3 lists)
– Francis Bacon (non-fiction: education/science)

Antony and Cleopatra (England, 1606) (on 10 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Timon of Athens (England, 1606) (on 5 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Volpone (England, 1606) (on 5 lists)
– Ben Jonson (drama)

Coriolanus (England, 1607) (on 8 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

The Winter’s Tale (England, 1610) (on 9 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

The Tempest (England, 1611) (on 10 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

Cymbeline (England, 1611) (on 5 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

The Alchemist (England, 1612) (on 4 lists)
– Ben Jonson (drama)

Henry VIII (England, 1613) (on 5 lists)
– William Shakespeare (drama)

The Duchess of Malfi (England, 1614) (on 3 lists)
– John Webster (drama)


Don Quixote (Spain, 1605 [Pt. 1], 1615 [Pt. 2]) (on 27 lists)
– Miguel de Cervantes (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. Upon Julia’s Clothes) (England, c. 1617-1674) (on 3 lists)
– Robert Herrick (poetry: lyric)

Fuenteovejuna (Lost in a Mirror) (Spain, 1619) (on 5 lists)
– Lope de Vega (drama)

Novum Organum (England, 1620) (on 3 lists)
– Francis Bacon (non-fiction: philosophy)

New Atlantis (England, 1623-1626, pub. 1627) (on 3 lists)
– Francis Bacon (fiction: novel)

Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Italy, 1632) (on 5 lists)
– Galileo Galilei (non-fiction: science/fiction: dialogue)

‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (England, 1633) (on 3 lists)
– John Ford (drama)

Poems (esp. To His Coy Mistress) (England, c. 1634-1678) (on 3 lists)
– Andrew Marvell (poetry: lyric)

Life Is a Dream (Spain, 1629-1635) (on 4 lists)
– Pedro Calderón de la Barca (drama)

The Cid (France, 1637) (on 4 lists)
– Pierre Corneille (drama)

Discourse on Method (France/Netherlands, 1637) (on 6 lists)
– René Descartes (non-fiction: philosophy)

Lycidas (England, 1637) (on 3 lists)
– John Milton (poetry: narrative)

Meditations on First Philosophy (France/Netherlands, 1641) (on 4 lists)
– René Descartes (non-fiction: philosophy)

Areopagitica (England, 1644) (on 4 lists)
– John Milton (non-fiction: political philosophy/arts)

1650-1699

Leviathan (England, 1651) (on 7 lists)
– Thomas Hobbes (non-fiction: political philosophy)

The Would-Be Gentleman (France, 1655) (on 5 lists)
– Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (drama)

Ridiculous Precieuses (France, 1659) (on 3 lists)
– Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (drama)

School for Husbands (France, 1661) (on 3 lists)
– Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (drama)

The School for Wives (France, 1662) (on 5 lists)
– Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (drama)

Don Juan (France, 1665) (on 4 lists)
– Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (drama)

The Misanthrope (France, 1666) (on 6 lists)
– Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (drama)

The Physician in Spite of Himself (France, 1666) (on 3 lists)
– Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (drama)


Paradise Lost (England, 1667) (on 12 lists)
– John Milton (poetry: narrative)

Andromache (France, 1667) (on 3 lists)
– Jean Racine (drama)

The Miser (France, 1668) (on 6 lists)
– Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (drama)

Simplicius Simplicissimus (Germany, 1668) (on 3 lists)
– Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelhausen (fiction: novel)

Tartuffe (France, 1669) (on 9 lists)
– Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (drama)

Pensées (France, 1669) (on 7 lists)
– Blaise Pascal (non-fiction: philosophy/religion)

Paradise Regained (England, 1671) (on 5 lists)
– John Milton (poetry: narrative)

Samson Agonistes (England, 1671) (on 4 lists)
– John Milton (drama)

The Seashell Game (anthology) (Japan, 1672) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho and others (poetry: lyric)

The Learned Ladies (France, 1672) (on 3 lists)
– Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (drama)

The Imaginary Invalid (France, 1673) (on 4 lists)
– Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (drama)

The Country Wife (England, 1675) (on 3 lists)
– William Wycherley (drama)

The Plain Dealer (England, 1676) (on 3 lists)
– William Wycherley (drama)

Phaedra (France, 1677) (on 6 lists)
– Jean Racine (drama)

Ethics (Netherlands, 1677) (on 5 lists)
– Benedict de Spinoza (non-fiction: philosophy)

The Princess of Cleves (France, 1678) (on 5 lists)
– Madame de La Fayette (fiction: novel)

All for Love (England, 1678) (on 3 lists)
– John Dryden (drama)

The Pilgrim’s Progress (England, 1679) (on 9 lists)
– John Bunyan (fiction: novel)

Maxims (France, 1680) (on 3 lists)
– François de la Rochefoucauld (non-fiction: manners/philosophy/politics)

Shriveled Chestnuts (Japan, 1683) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric)

Record of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton (Japan, 1684) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric/non-fiction: travel)

Winter Days (Japan, 1684) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric)

Spring Days (Japan, 1686) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric)

A Visit to Kashima Shrine (Japan, 1687) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric/non-fiction: travel)

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (England, 1687) (on 3 lists)
– Isaac Newton (non-fiction: science)

Record of a Travel-Worn Satchel (Japan, 1688) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric/non-fiction: travel)

Oroonoko (England, 1688) (on 3 lists)
– Aphra Behn (fiction: novel)

Wasteland (Japan, 1689) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric)

Two Treatises of Government (England, 1689) (on 3 lists)
– John Locke (non-fiction: political philosophy)

The Gourd (Japan, 1690) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric)

The Monkey’s Raincoat (Japan, 1691) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric)

Saga Diary (Japan, 1691) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric/non-fiction: travel)

On Transplanting the Banana Tree (Japan, 1691) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric)

On Seclusion (Japan, 1691) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric)

The Narrow Road to the Deep North (The Narrow Road to the Interior) (Japan, 1694) (on 7 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric/non-fiction: travel)

Fables (12 books) (France, 1668-1694) (on 4 lists)
– Jean de La Fontaine (poetry: lyric/narrative)

A Sack of Charcoal (Japan, 1694) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric)

The Detached Room (Japan, 1694) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric)

Love for Love (England, 1695) (on 3 lists)
– William Congreve (drama)

The Monkey’s Raincoat, Continued (Japan, 1698) (on 4 lists)
– Matsuo Basho (poetry: lyric)

1700-1749

The Way of the World (England, 1700) (on 5 lists)
– William Congreve (drama)

The Love Suicides at Sonezaki (Japan, 1703) (on 4 lists)
– Chikamatsu Monzaemon (drama)

Poems (esp. Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot) (GB, c. 1705 -1744) (on 3 lists)
– Alexander Pope (poetry: lyric/narrative)

A Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian Nights) (India/Persia/Arabia, 1704-1717) (on 14 lists)
– Anonymous (fiction: linked stories)
Note: Expanded from Hezār Afsān (Persia, 10th Century CE)

Robinson Crusoe (GB, 1719) (on 10 lists)
– Daniel Defoe (fiction: novel)

Moll Flanders (GB, 1722) (on 5 lists)
– Daniel Defoe (fiction: novel)

Gulliver’s Travels (Ireland/GB, 1726) (on 17 lists)
– Jonathan Swift (fiction: satire)

The Beggar’s Opera (GB, 1728) (on 3 lists)
– John Gay (drama)

Manon Lescaut (France, 1731) (on 4 lists)
– Abbé Prévost (Antoine François Prévost d’Exiles) (fiction: novel)

Pamela (GB, 1740) (on 4 lists)
– Samuel Richardson (fiction: novel)

Joseph Andrews (GB, 1742) (on 5 lists)
– Henry Fielding (fiction: novel)

Clarissa (GB, 1748) (on 6 lists)
– Samuel Richardson (fiction: novel)

Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers) (Japan, c. 1748) (on 3 lists)
– Takeda Izumo II (drama)

Tom Jones (GB, 1749) (on 11 lists)
– Henry Fielding (fiction: novel)

1750-1799

Candide (France, 1759) (on 14 lists)
– Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) (fiction: novel)

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Ireland/GB, 1759) (on 14 lists)
– Laurence Sterne (fiction: novel)

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (GB, 1759) (on 5 lists)
– Samuel Johnson (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. A Red, Red Rose) (GB: Scotland, 1759-1796) (on 4 lists)
– Robert Burns (poetry: lyric)

The Social Contract (Switzerland, 1762) (on 4 lists)
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau (non-fiction: political philosophy)

Émile, or On Education (Switzerland/France, 1762) (on 3 lists)
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau (non-fiction: education/philosophy)

Dream of the Red Chamber (Story of the Stone) (China, 1763-1764 [manuscripts], 1791 [1st printed ed.]) (on 10 lists)
– Cao Xueqin (fiction: novel)

The Castle of Otranto (GB, 1765) (on 3 lists)
– Horace Walpole (fiction: novel)

The Vicar of Wakefield (Ireland/GB, 1766) (on 6 lists)
– Oliver Goldsmith (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. The Erlking and Mignon’s Longing) (Germany, c. 1770-1832) (on 4 lists)
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (poetry: lyric)

The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker (GB, 1771) (on 4 lists)
– Tobias Smollett (fiction: novel)

Rameau’s Nephew (France, 1761-1772) (on 4 lists)
– Denis Diderot (non-fiction: philosophy/fiction: dialogue)

She Stoops to Conquer (Ireland/GB, 1773) (on 6 lists)
– Oliver Goldsmith (drama)

The Sorrows of Young Werther (Germany, 1774) (on 6 lists)
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (fiction: novel)

The Rivals (GB, 1775) (on 3 lists)
– Richard Brinsley Sheridan (drama)

Common Sense (GB/US, 1776) (on 3 lists)
– Thomas Paine (non-fiction: political philosophy)

The Declaration of Independence (US, 1776) (on 3 lists)
– Thomas Jefferson (non-fiction: political philosophy)

The Wealth of Nations (GB, 1776) (on 3 lists)
– Adam Smith (non-fiction: economics)

The School for Scandal (Ireland/GB, 1777) (on 5 lists)
– Richard Brinsley Sheridan (drama)

Evelina (GB, 1778) (on 3 lists)
– Fanny Burney (fiction: novel)

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (GB, 1779) (on 3 lists)
– David Hume (non-fiction: philosophy)


Jacques the Fatalist (France, 1765-1780) (on 7 lists)
– Denis Diderot (fiction: novel)

The Confessions (Switzerland, 1781) (on 8 lists)
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau (non-fiction: memoir)

Critique of Pure Reason (Germany, 1781) (on 4 lists)
– Immanuel Kant (non-fiction: philosophy)

Dangerous Liaisons (France, 1782) (on 7 lists)
– Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (fiction: novel)

Poetical Sketches (GB, 1783) (on 3 lists)
– William Blake (poetry: lyric)

Poems (esp. Bread and Wine and In the Middle of Life) (Germany, c. 1784-1843) (on 4 lists)
– Friedrich Hölderlin (poetry: lyric)

The Marriage of Figaro (France, 1784) (on 3 lists)
– Pierre Beaumarchais (drama)

Poems (esp. Daffodils (“I wandered lonely as a cloud“) (GB/UK, 1787-1850) (on 5 lists)
– William Wordsworth (poetry: lyric/narrative)

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (GB, 1776-1788) (on 8 lists)
– Edward Gibbon (non-fiction: history)

The Federalist Papers (US, 1787-1788) (on 4 lists)
– James Madison, Alexander Hamilton & John Jay (non-fiction: political philosophy)

Songs of Innocence (GB, 1789) (on 8 lists)
– William Blake (poetry: lyric)

Hymns and Fragments (Germany, c. 1790-1843) (on 3 lists)
– Friedrich Hölderlin (poetry: lyric)

The Life of Samuel Johnson (GB, 1791) (on 9 lists)
– James Boswell (non-fiction: biography)

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (US, 1791) (on 3 lists)
– Benjamin Franklin (non-fiction: memoir)

The Rights of Man (GB/US/France, 1791) (on 3 lists)
– Thomas Paine (non-fiction: political philosophy)

Poems (esp. Kubla Khan) (GB/UK, c. 1792-1834) (on 6 lists)
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poetry: lyric)

Essays (GB/UK, c. 1792-1834) (on 4 lists)
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge (non-fiction: essays)

The Vindication of the Rights of Women (GB, 1792) (on 5 lists)
– Mary Wollstonecraft (non-fiction: political philosophy/sociology)

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (GB, 1790-1793) (on 3 lists)
– William Blake (poetry: lyric)

Songs of Experience (GB, 1794) (on 8 lists)
– William Blake (poetry: lyric)

Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (Germany, 1796) (on 4 lists)
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (fiction: novel)

1800-1809

Castle Rackrent (UK, 1800) (on 3 lists)
– Maria Edgeworth (fiction:novel)

Poems (esp. So, We’ll Go No More A Roving and She Walks In Beauty) (UK, c. 1805-1824) (on 3 lists)
– Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron) (poetry: narrative/lyric)

1810-1819

Stories (esp. The Earthquake in Chile) (Germany, 1810-1811) (on 5 lists)
– Heinrich von Kleist (fiction: stories)

The Prince of Homburg (Germany, 1809-1810, pub. 1821) (on 3 lists)
– Heinrich von Kleist (drama)

Poems (esp. Ozymandias) (UK, c. 1810-1822) (on 3 lists)
– Percy Bysshe Shelley (poetry: lyric)

Sense and Sensibility (UK, 1811) (on 5 lists)
– Jane Austen (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. La Belle Dame Sans Merci) (UK, c. 1814-1821) (on 6 lists)
– John Keats (poetry: lyric)

Waverley (UK, 1814) (on 4 lists)
– Walter Scott (fiction: novel)

Mansfield Park (UK, 1814) (on 3 lists)
– Jane Austen (fiction: novel)

Pride and Prejudice (UK, 1815) (on 20 lists)
– Jane Austen (fiction: novel)

Emma (UK, 1815) (on 10 lists)
– Jane Austen (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. The Canti) (Italy, 1816-1837) (on 7 lists)
– Giacomo Leopardi (poetry: lyric)

Frankenstein (UK, 1818) (on 10 lists)
– Mary Shelley (fiction: novel)

Persuasion (UK, 1818) (on 4 lists)
– Jane Austen (fiction: novel)

Nightmare Abbey (UK, 1818) (on 3 lists)
– Thomas Love Peacock (fiction: novel)

1820-1829

Tales (esp. The Queen of Spades) (Russia, c. 1820–1837) (on 4 lists)
– Alexander Pushkin (fiction: stories)

Ivanhoe (UK, 1820) (on 5 lists)
– Walter Scott (fiction: novel)

Melmoth the Wanderer (Ireland, 1820) (on 3 lists)
– Charles Maturin (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. Concord Hymn, Days, The Rhodora, and The Snow-storm) (US, c. 1823-1882) (on 4 lists)
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (poetry: lyric)

Fairy Tales and Stories (esp. The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Little Mermaid) (Denmark, c. 1825-1872) (on 4 lists)
– Hans Christian Andersen (fiction: stories)

Boris Godunov (Russia, 1825) (on 3 lists)
– Alexander Pushkin (drama)

Poems (esp. The Charge of the Light Brigade) (UK, c. 1826-1892) (on 5 lists)
– Alfred, Lord Tennyson (poetry: lyric)

The Last of the Mohicans (US, 1826) (on 4 lists)
– James Fenimore Cooper (fiction: novel)

The Betrothed (Italy, 1827) (on 6 lists)
– Alessandro Manzoni (fiction: novel)

1830-1839

The Red and the Black (France, 1830) (on 15 lists)
– Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) (fiction: novel)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (France, 1831) (on 8 lists)
– Victor Hugo (fiction: novel)

The Wild Ass’s Skin (France, 1831) (on 3 lists)
– Honoré de Balzac (fiction: novel)

Stories (esp. The Overcoat and The Nose) (Russia, c. 1831-1842) (on 3 lists)
– Nikolai Gogol (fiction: stories)

Faust (Germany, 1808 [Pt. 1], 1832 [Pt. 2]) (on 12 lists)
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (drama)

Tales (esp. The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado) (US, 1832-1849) (on 10 lists)
– Edgar Allan Poe (fiction: stories)

Louis Lambert (France, 1832) (on 3 lists)
– Honoré de Balzac (fiction: novel)

On War (Germany, 1832) (on 3 lists)
– Carl von Clausewitz (nonfiction: military)

Eugénie Grandet (France, 1833) (on 7 lists)
– Honoré de Balzac (fiction: novel)

The Girl with the Golden Eyes (France, 1833) (on 3 lists)
– Honoré de Balzac (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. My Last Duchess) (UK, c. 1833-1889) (on 3 lists)
– Robert Browning (poetry: lyric)

Le Père Goriot (France, 1835) (on 10 lists)
– Honoré de Balzac (fiction: novel)

The Inspector General (The Government Inspector) (Russia, 1836) (on 3 lists)
– Nikolai Gogol (drama)

The Pickwick Papers (UK, 1837) (on 6 lists)
– Charles Dickens (fiction: novel)

Tales and Sketches (esp. Young Goodman Brown) (US, 1837-1864) (on 3 lists)
– Nathaniel Hawthorne (fiction: stories)

Poems (esp. Dover Beach and The Scholar Gipsy) (UK, c. 1837-1888) (on 3 lists)
– Matthew Arnold (poetry: lyric)

Oliver Twist (UK, 1838) (on 6 lists)
– Charles Dickens (fiction: novel)

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (US, 1838) (on 3 lists)
– Edgar Allan Poe (fiction: novella)

The Charterhouse of Parma (France, 1839) (on 8 lists)
– Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) (fiction: novel)

1840-1849

Democracy in America (France, 1835-1840) (on 6 lists)
– Alexis de Tocqueville (non-fiction: journalism/travel)

A Hero of Our Time (Russia, pub. 1840, revised 1841) (on 3 lists)
– Mikhail Lermontov (fiction: novel)

Essays, 1st Series (US, 1841) (on 5 lists)
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (non-fiction: essays)

The Deerslayer (US, 1841) (on 3 lists)
– James Fenimore Cooper (fiction: novel)

Ursule Mirouet (France, 1841) (on 3 lists)
– Honoré de Balzac (fiction: novel)

Dead Souls (Russia, 1842) (on 10 lists)
– Nikolai Gogol (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. Remember) (UK, c. 1842-1894) (on 4 lists)
– Christina Rossetti (poetry: lyric)

Lost Illusions (France, 1837-1843) (on 3 lists)
– Honoré de Balzac (fiction: serial novel)

A Christmas Carol (UK, 1843) (on 7 lists)
– Charles Dickens (fiction: novel)

Essays, 2nd Series (US, 1844) (on 5 lists)
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (non-fiction: essays)

The Three Musketeers (France, 1844) (on 7 lists)
– Alexandre Dumas (fiction: novel)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave (US, 1845) (on 5 lists)
– Frederick Douglass (non-fiction: memoir)

Stories (esp. Bartleby the Scrivener) (US, c. 1845-1891) (on 4 lists)
– Herman Melville (fiction: stories)

Cousin Bette (France, 1846) (on 9 lists)
– Honoré de Balzac (fiction: novel)

The Count of Monte-Cristo (France, 1846) (on 10 lists)
– Alexandre Dumas (fiction: novel)

Wuthering Heights (UK, 1847) (on 16 lists)
– Emily Brontë (fiction: novel)

Jane Eyre (UK, 1847) (on 15 lists)
– Charlotte Brontë (fiction: novel)

A Harlot High and Low (France, 1847) (on 4 lists)
– Honoré de Balzac (fiction: novel)

The Communist Manifesto (Germany/UK, 1848) (on 10 lists)
– Karl Marx & Freidrich Engels (non-fiction: political philosophy)

Vanity Fair (UK, 1848) (on 11 lists)
– William Makepeace Thackeray (fiction: novel)

Mary Barton (UK, 1848) (on 3 lists)
– Elizabeth Gaskell (fiction: novel)

Nature (US, 1849) (on 4 lists)
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (non-fiction: essay)

Poems (esp. A Ballad of Death) (UK, c. 1849-1909) (on 3 lists)
– Algernon Charles Swinburne (poetry: lyric)

1850-1859

David Copperfield (UK, 1849-1850) (on 13 lists)
– Charles Dickens (fiction: novel)

The Scarlet Letter (US, 1850) (on 9 lists)
– Nathaniel Hawthorne (fiction: novel)

Representative Men (US, 1850) (on 5 lists)
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (non-fiction: essay)

The Prelude (UK, 1850) (on 4 lists)
– William Wordsworth (poetry: narrative)

Moby-Dick (US, 1851) (on 22 lists)
– Herman Melville (fiction: novel)

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (US, 1851) (on 6 lists)
– Harriet Beecher Stowe (fiction: novel)

Bleak House (UK, 1852-1853) (on 8 lists)
– Charles Dickens (fiction: novel)

Walden, or Life in the Woods (US, 1854) (on 9 lists)
– Henry David Thoreau (non-fiction: memoir/philosophy)

Hard Times (UK, 1854) (on 5 lists)
– Charles Dickens (fiction: novel)

Leaves of Grass (US, 1855 [1st ed.]) (on 11 lists)
– Walt Whitman (poetry: lyric)
Note: Numerous further, expanded editions, 1856-1892.

Poems (esp. “‘Hope’ Is the Thing with feathers“) (US, c. 1855-1886) (on 7 lists)
– Emily Dickinson (poetry: lyric)

North and South (UK, 1854-1855) (on 3 lists)
– Elizabeth Gaskell (fiction: novel)

The Warden (UK, 1855) (on 3 lists)
– Anthony Trollope (fiction: novel)

Children’s and Household Tales (Grimm’s Fairy Tales) (seven editions) (Germany, 1812-1857) (on 4 lists)
– Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm (fiction: stories)

Madame Bovary (France, 1857) (on 21 lists)
– Gustave Flaubert (fiction: novel)

Flowers of Evil (France, 1857) (on 5 lists)
– Charles Baudelaire (poetry: lyric)

Little Dorrit (UK, 1857) (on 4 lists)
– Charles Dickens (fiction: novel)

Barchester Towers (UK, 1857) (on 3 lists)
– Anthony Trollope (fiction: novel)

On the Origin of Species (UK, 1859) (on 12 lists)
– Charles Darwin (non-fiction: science)

On Liberty (UK, 1859) (on 7 lists)
– John Stuart Mill (non-fiction: political philosophy)

A Tale of Two Cities (UK, 1859) (on 8 lists)
– Charles Dickens (fiction: novel)

Oblomov (Russia, 1859) (on 5 lists)
– Ivan Goncharov (fiction: novel)

Adam Bede (UK, 1859) (on 3 lists)
– George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (fiction: novel)

1860-1869

The Woman in White (UK, 1860) (on 6 lists)
– Wilkie Collins (fiction: novel)

The Mill on the Floss (UK, 1860) (on 6 lists)
– George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. The Windhover) (UK, c. 1860-1889) (on 5 lists)
– Gerard Manley Hopkins (poetry: lyric)

First Love (Russia, 1860) (on 3 lists)
– Ivan Turgenev (fiction: novel)

The Storm (Russia, 1860) (on 3 lists)
– Alexander Ostrovsky (drama)

The Conduct of Life (US, 1860) (on 3 lists)
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (nonfiction: essays)

Great Expectations (UK, 1860-1861) (on 12 lists)
– Charles Dickens (fiction: novel)

Silas Marner (UK, 1861) (on 6 lists)
– George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (fiction: novel)

Les Misérables (France, 1862) (on 12 lists)
– Victor Hugo (fiction: novel)

Fathers and Sons (Russia, 1862) (on 8 lists)
– Ivan Turgenev (fiction: novel)

Tales (esp. The Enchanted Wanderer) (Russia, 1862-1895) (on 3 lists)
– Nikolai Leskov (fiction: stories)

Short Novels and Tales (esp. The Turn of the Screw) (US/UK, c. 1864-1910) (on 9 lists)
– Henry James (fiction: stories/novellas)

Notes from the Underground (Russia, 1864) (on 4 lists)
– Fyodor Dostoevsky (fiction: novel)

Our Mutual Friend (UK, 1864) (on 3 lists)
– Charles Dickens (fiction: novel)

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (UK, 1865) (on 15 lists)
– Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) (fiction: novel)

Crime and Punishment (Russia, 1866) (on 19 lists)
– Fyodor Dostoevsky (fiction: novel)

Brand (Norway, 1866) (on 3 lists)
– Henrik Ibsen (drama)

Peer Gynt (Norway, 1867) (on 5 lists)
– Henrik Ibsen (drama)

The Last Chronicle of Barset (UK, 1867) (on 4 lists)
– Anthony Trollope (fiction: novel)

Thérèse Raquin (France, 1867) (on 4 lists)
– Émile Zola (fiction: novel)

Little Women (US, 1868) (on 9 lists)
– Louisa May Alcott (fiction: novel)

The Moonstone (UK, 1868) (on 5 lists)
– Wilkie Collins (fiction: novel)

War and Peace (Russia, 1869) (on 22 lists)
– Leo Tolstoy (fiction: novel)

Sentimental Education (France, 1869) (on 9 lists)
– Gustave Flaubert (fiction: novel)

The Idiot (Russia, 1869) (on 9 lists)
– Fyodor Dostoevsky (fiction: novel)

Phineas Finn (UK, 1869) (on 3 lists)
– Anthony Trollope (fiction: novel)

1870-1879

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (France, 1870) (on 5 lists)
– Jules Verne (fiction: novel)

Through the Looking Glass (UK, 1871) (on 8 lists)
– Lewis Carroll (fiction: novel)

The Drunken Boat (France, 1871) (on 3 lists)
– Arthur Rimbaud (poetry: lyric)

Middlemarch (UK, 1871-1872) (on 16 lists)
– George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (fiction: novel)

The Possessed (The Devils) (Russia, 1872) (on 8 lists)
– Fyodor Dostoevsky (fiction: novel)

Erewhon (UK, 1872) (on 3 lists)
– Samuel Butler (fiction: novel)

A Season in Hell (France, 1873) (on 5 lists)
– Arthur Rimbaud (poetry: lyric)

Around the World in Eighty Days (France, 1873) (on 3 lists)
– Jules Verne (fiction: novel)

Far from the Madding Crowd (UK, 1874) (on 5 lists)
– Thomas Hardy (fiction: novel)

Illuminations (France, 1874) (on 3 lists)
– Arthur Rimbaud (poetry: lyric)

The Way We Live Now (UK, 1875) (on 3 lists)
– Anthony Trollope (fiction: novel)

Stories (esp. The Necklace) (France, c. 1875-1893) (on 5 lists)
– Guy de Maupassant (fiction: stories)

Daniel Deronda (UK, 1876) (on 3 lists)
– George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (fiction: novel)

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (US, 1876) (on 3 lists)
– Mark Twain (fiction: novel)

Anna Karenina (Russia, 1877) (on 24 lists)
– Leo Tolstoy (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. Endless Time (Gitanjali #1); A Moment’s Indulgence (Gitanjali #5); The Lotus (Gitanjali #20); and The Gardener #38 (“My Love Once upon a Time”)
(India, c. 1877-1941) (on 5 lists)
– Rabindranath Tagore (poetry: lyric)

Stories (esp. Kabuliwallah (The Fruitseller from Kabul), Kshudita Pashan (The Hungry Stones), and Nastanirh (The Broken Nest)) (India, c. 1877-1941) (on 3 lists)
– Rabindranath Tagore (fiction: stories)

L’Assommoir (France, 1877) (on 3 lists)
– Émile Zola (fiction: novel)

The Return of the Native (UK, 1878) (on 5 lists)
– Thomas Hardy (fiction: novel)

A Doll’s House (Norway, 1879) (on 11 lists)
– Henrik Ibsen (drama)

1880-1889

The Brothers Karamazov (Russia, 1880) (on 18 lists)
– Fyodor Dostoevsky (fiction: novel)

Tales (esp. The Lady with the Dog) (Russia, 1880-1903) (on 13 lists)
– Anton Chekhov (fiction: stories)


Ben-Hur (US, 1880) (on 3 lists)
– Lew Wallace (fiction: novel)

Nana (France, 1880) (on 3 lists)
– Émile Zola (fiction: novel)

The Red Room (Sweden, 1880) (on 3 lists)
– August Strindberg (fiction: novel)

The Portrait of a Lady (US/UK, 1881) (on 9 lists)
– Henry James (fiction: novel)

Ghosts (Norway, 1881) (on 3 lists)
– Henrik Ibsen (drama)

Poems (esp. When You Are Old and The Second Coming) (Ireland, c. 1882-1939) (on 9 lists)
– William Butler Yeats (poetry: lyric)

Treasure Island (UK, 1883) (on 8 lists)
– Robert Louis Stevenson (fiction: novel)

Thus Spake Zarathustra (Germany, 1883) (on 6 lists)
– Friedrich Nietzsche (non-fiction: philosophy)

Little Novels of Sicily (Italy, 1883) (on 3 lists)
– Giovanni Verga (fiction: stories)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (US, 1884) (on 19 lists)
– Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (fiction: novel)

Germinal (France, 1885) (on 5 lists)
– Émile Zola (fiction: novel)

The Wild Duck (Norway, 1885) (on 3 lists)
– Henrik Ibsen (drama)

The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Russia, 1886) (on 7 lists)
– Leo Tolstoy (fiction: novella)

The Mayor of Casterbridge (UK, 1886) (on 6 lists)
– Thomas Hardy (fiction: novel)

Kidnapped (UK, 1886) (on 4 lists)
– Robert Louis Stevenson (fiction: novel)

The Bostonians (US/UK, 1886) (on 3 lists)
– Henry James (fiction: novel)

Beyond Good and Evil (Germany, 1886) (on 4 lists)
– Friedrich Nietzsche (non-fiction: philosophy)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (UK, 1886) (on 4 lists)
– Robert Louis Stevenson (fiction: novella)

The Father (Sweden, 1887) (on 4 lists)
– August Strindberg (drama)

Fortunata and Jacinta (Spain, 1887) (on 3 lists)
– Benito Pérez Galdós (fiction: novel)

The People of Hemsö (Sweden, 1887) (on 3 lists)
– August Strindberg (fiction: novel)

Miss Julie (Sweden, 1888) (on 5 lists)
– August Strindberg (drama)

The Maias (Portugal, 1888) (on 3 lists)
– José Maria de Eça de Queiroz (fiction: novel)

The Master of Ballantrae (UK, 1889) (on 3 lists)
– Robert Louis Stevenson (fiction: novel)

1890-1899

Hunger (Norway, 1890) (on 9 lists)
– Knut Hamsun (fiction: novel)

Hedda Gabler (Norway, 1890) (on 5 lists)
– Henrik Ibsen (drama)

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Ireland/UK, 1890) (on 8 lists)
– Oscar Wilde (fiction: novel)

News from Nowhere (UK, 1890) (on 3 lists)
– William Morris (fiction: novel)

The House by the Medlar Tree (Italy, 1890) (on 3 lists)
– Giovanni Verga (fiction: novel)

The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (UK, 1890) (on 4 lists)
– James George Frazer (non-fiction: religion/mythology)

The Principles of Psychology (US, 1890) (on 3 lists)
– William James (nonfiction: psychology)

Tess of the D’Urbervilles (UK, 1891) (on 8 lists)
– Thomas Hardy (fiction: novel)

Billy Budd (US, c. 1891, pub. 1924) (on 5 lists)
– Herman Melville (fiction: novella)

The Master Builder (Norway, 1892) (on 4 lists)
– Henrik Ibsen (drama)

Diary of a Nobody (UK, 1892) (on 3 lists)
– George & Weedon Grossmith (fiction: novel)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (UK, 1892) (on 4 lists)
– Arthur Conan Doyle (fiction: stories)

   
Das Kapital (Capital) (three volumes) (Germany/UK, 1867-1894) (on 5 lists)
– Karl Marx (non-fiction: economics/political philosophy)
Note: Volume I published by Marx in 1867. Friedrich Engels wrote Volumes II (1885) and III (1894) based on notes left by Marx.

Arms and the Man (Ireland/UK, 1894) (on 3 lists)
– George Bernard Shaw (drama)

Poems (incl. Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening) (c. 1894-1963)
– Robert Frost (poetry)

Jude the Obscure (UK, 1895) (on 7 lists)
– Thomas Hardy (fiction: novel)

The Time Machine (UK, 1895) (on 6 lists)
– H.G. Wells (fiction: novel)

The Red Badge of Courage (US, 1895) (on 6 lists)
– Stephen Crane (fiction: novel)

Effi Briest (Germany, 1896) (on 4 lists)
– Theodor Fontane (fiction: novel)

The Seagull (Russia, 1896) (on 3 lists)
– Anton Chekhov (drama)

Cyrano de Bergerac (France, 1897) (on 6 lists)
– Edmond Rostand (drama)

Dracula (Ireland, 1897) (on 9 lists)
– Bram Stoker (fiction: novel)

Misericordia (Spain, 1897) (on 3 lists)
– Benito Pérez Galdós (fiction: novel)

The Invisible Man (UK, 1897) (on 3 lists)
– H.G. Wells (fiction: novel)

The War of the Worlds (UK, 1898) (on 7 lists)
– H.G. Wells (fiction: novel)

Heart of Darkness (Poland/UK, 1899 [serial], 1902 [book]) (on 16 lists)
– Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) (fiction: novella)

The Interpretation of Dreams (Austria, 1899) (on 11 lists)
– Sigmund Freud (non-fiction: psychology)

The Importance of Being Earnest (Ireland/UK, 1899) (on 6 lists)
– Oscar Wilde (drama)

The Way of All Flesh (UK, c. 1899) (on 4 lists)
– Samuel Butler (fiction: novel)

The Kreutzer Sonata (Russia, 1899) (on 4 lists)
– Leo Tolstoy (fiction: novella)

The Awakening (US, 1899) (on 5 lists)
– Kate Chopin (fiction: novel)

1900-1909

Lord Jim (Poland/UK, 1900) (on 8 lists)
– Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) (fiction: novel)

Uncle Vanya (Russia, 1899-1900) (on 5 lists)
– Anton Chekhov (drama)

Sister Carrie (US, 1900) (on 6 lists)
– Theodore Dreiser (fiction: novel)

Stories (esp. Idgah and Kafan) (India, c. 1900-1936) (on 3 lists)
– Premchand (Dhanpat Rai) (fiction: stories)

Buddenbrooks (Germany, 1901) (on 9 lists)
– Thomas Mann (fiction: novel)

Kim (India/UK, 1901) (on 7 lists)
– Rudyard Kipling (fiction: novel)

Three Sisters (Russia, 1901) (on 4 lists)
– Anton Chekhov (drama)

A Dream Play (Sweden, 1901) (on 3 lists)
– August Strindberg (drama)

The Dance of Death (Sweden, 1901) (on 3 lists)
– August Strindberg (drama)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (UK, 1902) (on 5 lists)
– Arthur Conan Doyle (fiction: novel)

The Wings of the Dove (US/UK, 1902) (on 4 lists)
– Henry James (fiction: novel)

The Varieties of Religious Experience (US, 1902) (on 6 lists)
– William James (non-fiction: religion/psychology)

The Ambassadors (US/UK, 1903) (on 7 lists)
– Henry James (fiction: novel)

Man and Superman (Ireland/UK, 1902-1903) (on 5 lists)
– George Bernard Shaw (drama)

The Call of the Wild (US, 1903) (on 8 lists)
– Jack London (fiction: novel)

The Souls of Black Folk (US, 1903) (on 6 lists)
– W.E.B. Du Bois (non-fiction: sociology)

Poems (esp. Dulce et Decorum Est) (UK, c. 1903-1918) (on 3 lists)
– Wilfred Owen (poetry: lyric)

Stories (esp. The Metamorphosis) (Czechoslovakia, 1904-1924) (on 17 lists)
– Franz Kafka (fiction: stories)

The Cherry Orchard (Russia, 1904) (on 11 lists)
– Anton Chekhov (drama)

Nostromo (Poland/UK, 1904) (on 10 lists)
– Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) (fiction: novel)

The Golden Bowl (US/UK, 1904) (on 4 lists)
– Henry James (fiction: novel)

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Germany, 1904) (on 3 lists)
– Max Weber (non-fiction: economics/history)

Riders to the Sea (Ireland, 1904) (on 3 lists)
– John Millington Synge (drama)

The House of Mirth (US, 1905) (on 8 lists)
– Edith Wharton (fiction: novel)

Major Barbara (Ireland/UK, 1905) (on 5 lists)
– George Bernard Shaw (drama)

Poems (esp. Poetry and The Fish) (US, c. 1905-1972) (on 5 lists)
– Marianne Moore (poetry: lyric)

Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (Austria, 1905) (on 5 lists)
– Sigmund Freud (non-fiction: psychology)

De Profundis (Ireland, 1897, pub. 1905) (on 3 lists)
– Oscar Wilde (nonfiction: memoir/essay)

The Jungle (US, 1906) (on 4 lists)
– Upton Sinclair (fiction: novel)

The Confusions of Young Törless (Germany, 1906) (on 3 lists)
– Robert Musil (fiction: novel)

The Secret Agent (Poland/UK, 1907) (on 5 lists)
– Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) (fiction: novel)

The Ghost Sonata (Sweden, 1907) (on 4 lists)
– August Strindberg (drama)

Pragmatism (US, 1907) (on 5 lists)
– William James (non-fiction: philosophy)

The Playboy of the Western World (Ireland, 1907) (on 4 lists)
– John Millington Synge (drama)

New Poems: First Part and Other Part (Austria, 1907) (on 3 lists)
– Rainer Maria Rilke (poetry: lyric)

A Wind in the Willows (UK, 1908) (on 5 lists)
– Kenneth Grahame (fiction: novel)

The Old Wive’s Tale (UK, 1908) (on 4 lists)
– Arnold Bennett (fiction: novel)

A Room with a View (UK, 1908) (on 4 lists)
– E.M. Forster (fiction: novel)

Anne of Green Gables (Canada, 1908) (on 3 lists)
– Lucy Maud Montgomery (fiction: novel)

Stories (esp. A Madman’s Diary) (China, 1909-1936) (on 8 lists)
– Lu Xun (fiction: stories)

Poems (esp. The Waste Land) (US/UK, c. 1909-1965) (on 8 lists)
– T.S. Eliot (poetry: lyric)

Poems (esp. The Red Wheelbarrow) (US, 1909-1963) (on 3 lists)
– William Carlos Williams (poetry: lyric/narrative)

1910-1919

Howards End (UK, 1910) (on 7 lists)
– E.M. Forster (fiction: novel)

Ethan Frome (US, 1911) (on 4 lists)
– Edith Wharton (fiction: novel)

Under Western Eyes (Poland/UK, 1911) (on 3 lists)
– Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) (fiction: novel)

Zuleika Dobson (UK, 1911) (on 3 lists)
– Max Beerbohm (fiction: novel)

Death in Venice (Germany, 1912) (on 7 lists)
– Thomas Mann (fiction: novella)

Poems (esp. A Cloud in Trousers and Past One O’Clock) (Georgia/Russia/USSR, c. 1912-1930) (on 4 lists)
– Vladimir Mayakovsky (poetry: lyric)

Poems (esp. Requiem) (Russia/USSR, c. 1912-1966) (on 4 lists)
– Anna Akhmatova (poetry: lyric)

Short Stories (esp. The Garden Party) (New Zealand, 1912-1923) (on 3 lists)
– Katherine Mansfield (fiction: stories)

Sons and Lovers (UK, 1913) (on 13 lists)
– D.H. Lawrence (fiction: novel)

Pygmalion (Ireland/UK, 1912-1913) (on 4 lists)
– George Bernard Shaw (drama)

Le Grand Meaulnes (France, 1913) (on 3 lists)
– Alain-Fournier (Henri-Alban Fournier) (fiction: novel)

Stories (esp. Rashomon) (Japan, c. 1913-1927) (on 3 lists)
– Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (fiction: stories)

Dubliners (Ireland, 1914) (on 6 lists)
– James Joyce (fiction: stories)

Kokoro (Japan, 1914) (on 6 lists)
– Natsume Soseki (fiction: novel)

The Trial (Czechoslovakia, 1914-1915, pub. 1925) (on 18 lists)
– Franz Kafka (fiction: novel)

The Rainbow (UK, 1915) (on 7 lists)
– D.H. Lawrence (fiction: novel)

The Good Soldier (UK, 1915) (on 4 lists)
– Ford Madox Ford (fiction: novel)

Of Human Bondage (UK, 1915) (on 6 lists)
– W. Somerset Maugham (fiction: novel)

Stories (esp. The Story of My Dovecot and My First Goose) (Ukraine/USSR, c. 1915-1940) (on 4 lists)
– Isaak Babel (fiction: stories)

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Ireland, 1916) (on 12 lists)
– James Joyce (fiction: novel)

Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (Germany, 1917) (on 4 lists)
– Albert Einstein (non-fiction: science)

The Education of Henry Adams (US, 1918) (on 8 lists)
– Henry Adams (non-fiction: memoir)

My Ántonia (US, 1918) (on 7 lists)
– Willa Cather (fiction: novel)

The Elements of Style (US, 1918) (on 4 lists)
– William Strunk & E.B. White (non-fiction: reference)

The Magnificent Ambersons (US, 1918) (on 3 lists)
– Booth Tarkington (fiction: novel)

Eminent Victorians (UK, 1918) (on 3 lists)
– Lytton Strachey (non-fiction: biography)

Winesburg, Ohio (US, 1919) (on 6 lists)
– Sherwood Anderson (fiction: linked stories)

Heartbreak House (Ireland/UK, 1919) (on 3 lists)
– George Bernard Shaw (drama)

1920-1929

The Age of Innocence (US, 1920) (on 12 lists)
– Edith Wharton (fiction: novel)

Women in Love (UK, 1920) (on 7 lists)
– D.H. Lawrence (fiction: novel)

Main Street (US, 1920) (on 5 lists)
– Sinclair Lewis (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. Harlem (Dream Deferred)) (US, c. 1920-1967) (on 3 lists)
– Langston Hughes (poetry: lyric)

Six Characters in Search of an Author (Italy, 1921) (on 7 lists)
– Luigi Pirandello (drama)

The Forsyte Saga (three novels and two stories) (UK, 1906-1921) (on 5 lists)
– John Galsworthy (fiction: novels/stories)

The True Story of Ah Q (China, 1921-1922) (on 4 lists)
– Lu Xun (Lu Hsun) (fiction: novella)

Ulysses (Ireland/France, 1922) (on 22 lists)
– James Joyce (fiction: novel)

Siddhartha (Germany/Switzerland, 1922) (on 4 lists)
– Hermann Hesse (fiction: novel)

Seven Pillars of Wisdom (UK, 1922) (on 3 lists)
– T.E. Lawrence (nonfiction: memoir)

Babbitt (US, 1922) (on 7 lists)
– Sinclair Lewis (fiction: novel)

Zeno’s Conscience (The Confessions of Zeno) (Italy, 1923) (on 7 lists)
– Italo Svevo (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. Lullaby) (US, 1923-1973) (on 4 lists)
– W.H. Auden (poetry: lyric)

A Lost Lady (US, 1923) (on 3 lists)
– Willa Cather (fiction: novel)

The Magic Mountain (Germany, 1924) (on 14 lists)
– Thomas Mann (fiction: novel)

The Castle (Czechoslovakia, 1922-1924, pub. 1926) (on 8 lists)
– Franz Kafka (fiction: novel)

A Passage to India (UK, 1924) (on 11 lists)
– E.M. Forster (fiction: novel)

Saint Joan (Ireland/UK, 1924) (on 8 lists)
– George Bernard Shaw (drama)

Juno and the Paycock (Ireland, 1924) (on 5 lists)
– Sean O’Casey (drama)

The Great Gatsby (US, 1925) (on 20 lists)
– F. Scott Fitzgerald (fiction: novel)

Mrs. Dalloway (UK, 1925) (on 11 lists)
– Virginia Woolf (fiction: novel)

An American Tragedy (US, 1925) (on 7 lists)
– Theodore Dreiser (fiction: novel)

The Counterfeiters (France, 1925) (on 5 lists)
– André Gide (fiction: novel)

Stories (esp. A Rose for Emily and That Evening Sun Go Down) (US, c. 1925-1962) (on 5 lists)
– William Faulkner (fiction: stories)

Orpheus (France, 1925) (on 3 lists)
– Jean Cocteau (drama)

The Sun Also Rises (US, 1926) (on 14 lists)
– Ernest Hemingway (fiction: novel)

Winnie-the-Pooh (UK, 1926) (on 6 lists)
– A.A. Milne (fiction: novel)

The Plough and the Stars (Ireland, 1926) (on 4 lists)
– Sean O’Casey (drama)

The Good Soldier Švejk (Czechoslovakia, 1926) (on 5 lists)
– Jaroslav Hašek (fiction: novel)

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (UK, 1926) (on 3 lists)
– Agatha Christie (fiction: novel)

In Search of Lost Time (seven novels) (France, 1913-1927) (on 23 lists)
– Marcel Proust (fiction: novels)

To the Lighthouse (UK, 1927) (on 14 lists)
– Virginia Woolf (fiction: novel)

Death Comes for the Archbishop (US, 1927) (on 4 lists)
– Willa Cather (fiction: novel)

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (US, 1927) (on 4 lists)
– Thornton Wilder (fiction: novel)

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (UK, 1927) (on 3 lists)
– Arthur Conan Doyle (fiction: stories)

Amerika (Czechoslovakia, 1911-1914, pub. 1927) (on 3 lists)
– Franz Kafka (fiction: novel)

Steppenwolf (Germany/Switzerland, 1927) (on 4 lists)
– Hermann Hesse (fiction: novel)

Gypsy Ballads (Spain, 1928) (on 5 lists)
– Federico García Lorca (poetry: lyric)

Lady Chatterley’s Lover (UK, 1928) (on 5 lists)
– D.H. Lawrence (fiction: novel)

Nadja (France, 1928) (on 5 lists)
– André Breton (fiction: novel)

Parade’s End (UK, 1924-1928) (on 4 lists)
– Ford Madox Ford (fiction: novel)

Orlando: A Biography (UK, 1928) (on 5 lists)
– Virginia Woolf (fiction: novel)

Point Counter Point (UK, 1928) (on 3 lists)
– Aldous Huxley (fiction: novel)

The Threepenny Opera (Germany, 1928) (on 3 lists)
– Bertolt Brecht (with music by Kurt Weill) (drama)

The Sound and the Fury (US, 1929) (on 17 lists)
– William Faulkner (fiction: novel)

All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany, 1929) (on 8 lists)
– Erich Maria Remarqué (fiction: novel)

A Room of One’s Own (UK, 1929) (on 8 lists)
– Virginia Woolf (non-fiction: essay)

A Farewell to Arms (US, 1929) (on 7 lists)
– Ernest Hemingway (fiction: novel)

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (India, 1929) (on 5 lists)
– Mohandas K. Gandhi (non-fiction: memoir)

The Maltese Falcon (US, 1929) (on 6 lists)
– Dashiell Hammett (fiction: novel)

Berlin Alexanderplatz (Germany, 1929) (on 4 lists)
– Alfred Döblin (fiction: novel)

Les Enfants Terribles (Frances, 1929) (on 4 lists)
– Jean Cocteau (fiction: novel)

Look Homeward, Angel (US, 1929) (on 5 lists)
– Thomas Wolfe (fiction: novel)

The Bedbug (USSR, 1929) (on 3 lists)
– Vladimir Mayakovsky (drama)

Goodbye to All That (UK, 1929) (on 3 lists)
– Robert Graves (non-fiction: memoir)

1930-1939

As I Lay Dying (US, 1930) (on 8 lists)
– William Faulkner (fiction: novel)

Civilization and its Discontents (Austria, 1930) (on 5 lists)
– Sigmund Freud (non-fiction: psychology/sociology)

Stories (esp. The Doctor’s Son) (US, c. 1930-1970) (on 3 lists)
– John O’Hara (fiction: stories)

The Good Earth (US, 1931) (on 5 lists)
– Pearl Buck (fiction: novel)

The Waves (UK, 1931) (on 4 lists)
– Virginia Woolf (fiction: novel)

Mourning Becomes Electra (US, 1931) (on 3 lists)
– Eugene O’Neill (drama)

Journey to the End of the Night (France, 1932) (on 10 lists)
– Louis-Ferdinand Céline (fiction: novel)

Brave New World (UK, 1932) (on 14 lists)
– Aldous Huxley (fiction: novel)

Light in August (US, 1932) (on 7 lists)
– William Faulkner (fiction: novel)

Blood Wedding (Spain, 1932) (on 4 lists)
– Federico García Lorca (drama)

The Radetzky March (Austria, 1932) (on 3 lists)
– Joseph Roth (fiction: novel)

Tobacco Road (US, 1932) (on 3 lists)
– Erskine Caldwell (fiction: novel)

Young Lonigan (US, 1932) (on 3 lists)
– James T. Farrell (fiction)

Cold Comfort Farm (UK, 1932) (on 3 lists)
– Stella Gibbons (fiction: novel)

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (US/France, 1933) (on 9 lists)
– Gertrude Stein (non-fiction: biography)

Man’s Fate (France, 1933) (on 5 lists)
– André Malraux (fiction: novel)

Miss Lonelyhearts (US, 1933) (on 3 lists)
– Nathanael West (fiction: novel)

Tender Is the Night (US, 1934) (on 7 lists)
– F. Scott Fitzgerald (fiction: novel)

Tropic of Cancer (US, 1934) (on 8 lists)
– Henry Miller (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. Death Fugue) (Romania/France, c. 1934 -1970) (on 5 lists)
– Paul Celan (poetry: lyric)

The Postman Always Rings Twice (US, 1934) (on 4 lists)
– James M. Cain (fiction: novel)

A Handful of Dust (UK, 1934) (on 4 lists)
– Evelyn Waugh (fiction: novel)

Appointment in Samarra (US, 1934) (on 4 lists)
– John O’Hara (fiction: novel)

I, Claudius (UK, 1934) (on 4 lists)
– Robert Graves (fiction: novel)

The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (US, 1934) (on 3 lists)
– James T. Farrell (fiction: novel)

Call It Sleep (US, 1934) (on 3 lists)
– Henry Roth (fiction: novel)

Independent People (Iceland, 1935) (on 6 lists)
– Halldór Laxness (fiction: novel)

Murder in the Cathedral (US/UK, 1935) (on 6 lists)
– T.S. Eliot (drama)

The Book of Disquiet (Portugal, 1935) (on 5 lists)
– Fernando Pessoa (fiction: novel)

Residence on Earth (Chile, 1933-1935) (on 3 lists)
– Pablo Neruda (Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto) (poetry: lyric)

Judgment Day (US, 1935) (on 3 lists)
– James T. Farrell (fiction: novel)

Poems (esp. My Last Afternoon with Uncle Devereaux Winslow) (US, c. 1935-1977) (on 3 lists)
– Robert Lowell (poetry: lyric)

Absalom, Absalom! (US, 1936) (on 12 lists)
– William Faulkner (fiction: novel)

Gone with the Wind (US, 1936) (on 11 lists)
– Margaret Mitchell (fiction: novel)

U.S.A. (three novels) (US, 1930-1936) (on 8 lists)
– John Dos Passos (fiction: novels)

The General Theory of Employment, Interest & Money (UK, 1936) (on 7 lists)
– John Maynard Keynes (non-fiction: economics)

The House of Bernarda Alba (Spain, 1936) (on 3 lists)
– Federico García Lorca (drama)

Out of Africa (Denmark, 1937) (on 10 lists)
– Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) (non-fiction: memoir)

Of Mice and Men (US, 1937) (on 5 lists)
– John Steinbeck (fiction: novella)

Their Eyes Were Watching God (US, 1937) (on 8 lists)
– Zora Neale Hurston (fiction: novel)

The Hobbit (UK, 1937) (on 3 lists)
– J.R.R. Tolkien (fiction: novel)

In Parenthesis (UK, 1937) (on 3 lists)
– David Jones (poetry: lyric)

Rickshaw Boy (China, 1937) (on 3 lists)
– Lao She (fiction: novel)

Rebecca (UK, 1938) (on 8 lists)
– Daphne du Maurier (fiction: novel)

Our Town (US, 1938) (on 6 lists)
– Thornton Wilder (drama)

Nausea (France, 1938) (on 6 lists)
– Jean-Paul Sartre (fiction: novel)

Brighton Rock (UK, 1938) (on 4 lists)
– Graham Greene (fiction: novel)

Homage to Catalonia (UK, 1938) (on 4 lists)
– George Orwell (non-fiction: memoir)

Scoop (UK, 1938) (on 5 lists)
– Evelyn Waugh (fiction: novel)

Murphy (Ireland, 1938) (on 3 lists)
– Samuel Beckett (fiction: novel)

The Master and Margarita (USSR, 1929-1939, pub. 1966) (on 9 lists)
– Mikhail Bulgakov (fiction: novel)

Finnegan’s Wake (Ireland/France, 1939) (on 7 lists)
– James Joyce (fiction: novel)

Mother Courage and Her Children (Germany, 1938-1939) (on 5 lists)
– Bertolt Brecht (drama)

The Big Sleep (US, 1939) (on 7 lists)
– Raymond Chandler (fiction: novel)

The Iceman Cometh (US, 1939) (on 4 lists)
– Eugene O’Neill (drama)

The Day of the Locust (US, 1939) (on 3 lists)
– Nathanael West (fiction: novel)

The Little Foxes (US, 1939) (on 3 lists)
– Lillian Hellman (drama)

The Time of Your Life (US, 1939) (on 3 lists)
– William Saroyan (drama)

At Swim-Two-Birds (Ireland, 1939) (on 3 lists)
– Flann O’Brien (Brian O’Nolan) (fiction: novel)

And Then There Were None (UK, 1939) (on 4 lists)
– Agatha Christie (fiction: novel)

1940-1949

And Quiet Flows the Don (USSR, 1928-1940) (on 3 lists)
– Mikhail Sholokhov (fiction: novel)

The Grapes of Wrath (US, 1940) (on 17 lists)
– John Steinbeck (fiction: novel)

Native Son (US, 1940) (on 10 lists)
– Richard Wright (fiction: novel)

Long Day’s Journey Into Night (US, 1940) (on 8 lists)
– Eugene O’Neill (drama)

For Whom The Bell Tolls (US, 1940) (on 8 lists)
– Ernest Hemingway (fiction: novel)

The Power and the Glory (UK, 1940) (on 5 lists)
– Graham Greene (fiction: novel)

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (US, 1940) (on 6 lists)
– Carson McCullers (fiction: novel)

The Third Policeman (Ireland, 1939-1940) (on 3 lists)
– Flann O’Brien (fiction: novel)

Darkness at Noon (Hungary/UK, 1940) (on 4 lists)
– Arthur Koestler (fiction: novel)

The Tartar Steppe (Italy, 1940) (on 3 lists)
– Dino Buzzati (fiction: novel)

Poems (US, c. 1940-1963) (on 4 lists)
– Sylvia Plath (poetry: lyric)

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (US, 1941) (on 5 lists)
– James Agee (with photos by Walker Evans) (non-fiction: journalism/essay)

The Good Person of Szechwan (The Good Woman of Setzuan) (Germany/US, 1941) (on 4 lists)
– Bertolt Brecht (drama)

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (UK, 1941) (on 4 lists)
– Rebecca West (nonfiction: travel/history)

The Stranger (Algeria/France, 1942) (on 22 lists)
– Albert Camus (fiction: novel)

The Skin of Our Teeth (US, 1942) (on 4 lists)
– Thornton Wilder (drama)

Mythology (Germany/US, 1942) (on 4 lists)
– Edith Hamilton (non-fiction: mythology)

The Little Prince (France, 1943) (on 12 lists)
–  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (fiction: novel)

The Man Without Qualities (Austria, 1930-1943) (on 8 lists)
– Robert Musil (fiction: novel)

The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi) (Germany/Switzerland, 1943) (on 4 lists)
– Herman Hesse

Our Lady of the Flowers (France, 1942-1943) (on 3 lists)
– Jean Genet (fiction: novel)

  
The Nature and Destiny of Man (US, 1943) (on 3 lists)
– Reinhold Niebuhr (non-fiction: religion)

Poems (esp. Howl) (US, c. 1943-1997) (on 3 lists)
– Allen Ginsberg (poetry: lyric)

Ficciones (Argentina, 1944) (on 13 lists)
– Jorge Luis Borges (fiction: stories)

No Exit (France, 1944) (on 4 lists)
– Jean-Paul Sartre (drama)

The Glass Menagerie (US, 1944) (on 4 lists)
– Tennessee Williams (drama)

Animal Farm (UK, 1945) (on 11 lists)
– George Orwell (fiction: novel)

The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Germany, 1943-1945) (on 5 lists)
– Bertolt Brecht (drama)

Loving (UK, 1945) (on 5 lists)
– Henry Green (fiction: novel)

Brideshead Revisited (UK, 1945) (on 5 lists)
– Evelyn Waugh (fiction: novel)

The Madwoman of Chaillot (France, 1945) (on 4 lists)
– Jean Giraudoux (drama)

The Bridge on the Drina (Yugoslavia, 1945) (on 3 lists)
– Ivo Andrić (fiction: novel)

The Berlin Stories (two novellas) (UK, 1945) (on 3 lists)
– Christopher Isherwood (fiction: novellas)

The Death of Virgil (Austria, 1945) (on 3 lists)
– Hermann Broch (fiction: novel)

Pippi Longstocking (Sweden, 1945) (on 3 lists)
– Astrid Lindgren (fiction: novel)

Black Boy (US, 1945) (on 3 lists)
– Richard Wright (nonfiction: memoir)

All the King’s Men (US, 1946) (on 8 lists)
– Robert Penn Warren (fiction: novel)

Zorba the Greek (Greece, 1946) (on 5 lists)
– Nikos Kazantzakis (fiction: novel)

Titus Groan (UK, 1946) (on 4 lists)
– Mervyn Peake (fiction: novel)

The Palm-Wine Drinkard (Nigeria, 1946) (on 4 lists)
– Amos Tutola (fiction: novel)

Hiroshima (US, 1946) (on 5 lists)
– John Hersey (non-fiction: journalism)

Under the Volcano (UK, 1947) (on 8 lists)
– Malcolm Lowry (fiction: novel)

The Plague (Algeria/France, 1947) (on 7 lists)
– Albert Camus (fiction: novel)

A Streetcar Named Desire (US, 1947) (on 6 lists)
– Tennessee Williams (drama)

The Diary of a Young Girl (Netherlands, pub. 1947) (on 9 lists)
– Anne Frank (non-fiction: diary)

If This Is a Man (Survival in Auschwitz) (Italy, 1947) (on 6 lists)
– Primo Levi (non-fiction: memoir)

Doctor Faustus (Germany, 1947) (on 5 lists)
– Thomas Mann (fiction: novel)

Snow Country (Japan, 1948) (on 5 lists)
– Yasunari Kawabata (fiction: novel)

Cry, the Beloved Country (South Africa, 1948) (on 5 lists)
– Alan Paton (fiction: novel)

The Heart of the Matter (UK, 1948) (on 5 lists)
– Graham Greene (fiction: novel)

The Naked and the Dead (US, 1948) (on 4 lists)
– Norman Mailer (fiction: novel)

The Makioka Sisters (Japan, 1948) (on 3 lists)
– Jun’ichirō Tanizaki (fiction: novel)

Nineteen Eighty-Four (UK, 1949) (on 21 lists)
– George Orwell (fiction: novel)

The Second Sex (France, 1949) (on 9 lists)
– Simone de Beauvoir (non-fiction: sociology)

The Aleph and Other Stories (Argentina, 1949) (on 8 lists)
– Jorge Luis Borges (fiction: stories)


Death of a Salesman (US, 1949) (on 6 lists)
– Arthur Miller (drama)

The Cocktail Party (US/UK, 1949) (on 3 lists)
– T.S. Eliot (drama)

The Kingdom of This World (Cuba, 1949) (on 3 lists)
– Alejo Carpentier (fiction: novel)

The Man with the Golden Arm (US, 1949) (on 3 lists)
– Nelson Algren (fiction: novel)

The Sheltering Sky (US, 1949) (on 3 lists)
– Paul Bowles (fiction: novel)

1950-1959

The Bald Soprano (Romania/France, 1950) (on 4 lists)
– Eugène Ionesco (drama)

Gormenghast (UK, 1950) (on 4 lists)
– Mervyn Peake (fiction: novel)

Canto General (Chile, 1938-1950) (on 3 lists)
– Pablo Neruda (Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto) (poetry: lyric)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia I) (UK, 1950) (on 5 lists)
– C.S. Lewis (fiction: novel)

A Town Like Alice (UK, 1950) (on 3 lists)
– Nevil Shute (fiction: novel)

The Family Moskat (Poland/US, 1950) (on 3 lists)
– Isaac Bashevis Singer (fiction: novel)

Essays (UK, c. 1923-1950) (on 3 lists)
– George Orwell (nonfiction: essays)

The Story of Art (Austria/UK, 1950) (on 3 lists)
– Ernst Gombrich (non-fiction: art history)

The Catcher in the Rye (US, 1951) (on 16 lists)
– J.D. Salinger (fiction: novel)

Memoirs of Hadrian (France, 1951) (on 5 lists)
– Marguerite Yourcenar (fiction: novel)

Speak, Memory (USSR/US, 1951) (on 5 lists)
– Vladimir Nabokov (non-fiction: memoir)

Day of the Triffids (UK, 1951) (on 4 lists)
– John Wyndham (fiction: novel)

The Opposing Shore (France, 1951) (on 3 lists)
– Julien Gracq (fiction: novel)

Foundation (USSR/US, 1951) (on 3 lists)
– Isaac Asimov (fiction: novel)

From Here to Eternity (US, 1951) (on 3 lists)
– James Jones (fiction: novel)

The End of the Affair (UK, 1951) (on 3 lists)
– Graham Greene (fiction: novel)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Germany/US, 1951) (on 3 lists)
– Hannah Arendt (nonfiction: political philosophy)

Invisible Man (US, 1952) (on 18 lists)
– Ralph Ellison (fiction: novel)

The Old Man and the Sea (US, 1952) (on 12 lists)
– Ernest Hemingway (fiction: novella)

The Chairs (Romania/France, 1952) (on 3 lists)
– Eugène Ionesco (drama)

Collected Poems: 1934-1952 (UK, 1952) (on 3 lists)
– Dylan Thomas (poetry: lyric)

The Crucible (US, 1952) (on 3 lists)
– Arthur Miller (drama)

Wise Blood (US, 1952) (on 3 lists)
– Flannery O’Connor (fiction: novel)

Charlotte’s Web (US, 1952) (on 5 lists)
– E.B. White (fiction: novel)

East of Eden (US, 1952) (on 5 lists)
– John Steinbeck (fiction: novella

Waiting for Godot (Ireland/France, 1953) (on 11 lists)
– Samuel Beckett (drama)

The Adventures of Augie March (US, 1953) (on 6 lists)
– Saul Bellow (fiction: novel)

Molloy; Molone Dies; The Unnameable (three novels) (Ireland/France, 1951-1953) (on 6 lists)
– Samuel Beckett (fiction: novels)

Go Tell It on the Mountain (US, 1953) (on 5 lists)
– James Baldwin (fiction: novel)

The Lost Steps (Cuba, 1953) (on 4 lists)
– Alejo Carpentier (fiction: novel)

Lucky Jim (UK, 1953) (on 3 lists)
– Kingsley Amis (fiction: novel)

The Long Goodbye (US, 1953) (on 3 lists)
– Raymond Chandler (fiction: novel)

Philosophical Investigations (Austria/UK, 1953) (on 3 lists)
– Ludwig Wittgenstein (nonfiction: philosophy)

Fahrenheit 451 (US, 1953) (on 5 lists)
– Ray Bradbury (fiction: novel)

Collected Poems (US, 1954) (on 6 lists)
– Wallace Stevens (poetry: lyric)

Lord of the Flies (UK, 1954) (on 7 lists)
– William Golding (fiction: novel)

I’m Not Stiller (Switzerland, 1954) (on 4 lists)
– Max Frisch (fiction: novel)

Under the Net (UK, 1954) (on 3 lists)
– Iris Murdoch (fiction: novel)

Bonjour Tristesse (France, 1954) (on 3 lists)
– Françoise Sagan (fiction: novel)

Lolita (USSR/US, 1955) (on 16 lists)
– Vladimir Nabokov (fiction: novel)

The Selected Poems of Federico García Lorca (Spain, 1918-1936, pub. 1955) (on 4 lists)
– Federico García Lorca (poetry: lyric)

Pedro Páramo (Mexico, 1955) (on 4 lists)
– Juan Rulfo (fiction: novel)

The Quiet American (UK, 1955) (on 3 lists)
– Graham Greene (fiction: novel)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (US, 1955) (on 3 lists)
– Tennessee Williams (drama)

The Talented Mr. Ripley (UK, 1955) (on 3 lists)
– Patricia Highsmith (fiction: novel)

The Recognitions (US, 1955) (on 3 lists)
– William Gaddis (fiction: novel)

Notes of a Native Son (US, 1955) (on 5 lists)
– James Baldwin (non-fiction: essays)

Tristes Tropiques (France, 1955) (on 3 lists)
– Claude Lévi-Strauss (nonfiction: anthropology/memoir)

The Lord of the Rings (three novels) (UK, 1956) (on 12 lists)
– J.R.R. Tolkien (fiction: novels)

The Visit (Germany, 1956) (on 5 lists)
– Friedrich Dürrenmatt (drama)

The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (Brazil, 1956) (on 4 lists)
– João Guimarães Rosa (fiction: novel)

Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy, Vol. 1) (Egypt, 1956) (on 4 lists)
– Naguib Mahfouz (fiction: novel)

The Fall (France, 1956) (on 3 lists)
– Albert Camus (fiction: novel)

Seize the Day (US, 1956) (on 3 lists)
– Saul Bellow (fiction: novel)

Things of This World (US, 1956) (on 3 lists)
– Richard Wilbur (poetry: lyric)

Doctor Zhivago (USSR, 1957) (on 9 lists)
– Boris Pasternak (fiction: novel)

On the Road (US, 1957) (on 11 lists)
– Jack Kerouac (fiction: novel)

Endgame (Ireland/France, 1957) (on 5 lists)
– Samuel Beckett (drama)

Voss (Australia, 1957) (on 4 lists)
– Patrick White (fiction: novel)

Jealousy (France, 1957) (on 4 lists)
– Alain Robbe-Grillet (fiction: novel)

The Baron in the Trees (Italy, 1957) (on 4 lists)
– Italo Calvino (fiction: novel)

Palace of Desire (Cairo Trilogy, Vol. 2) (Egypt, 1957) (on 3 lists)
– Naguib Mahfouz (fiction: novel)

Sugar Street (Cairo Trilogy, Vol. 3) (Egypt, 1957) (on 3 lists)
– Naguib Mahfouz (fiction: novel)

The Wapshot Chronicle (US, 1957) (on 3 lists)
– John Cheever (fiction: novel)

A Death in the Family (US, 1957) (on 3 lists)
– James Agee (fiction: novel)

Things Fall Apart (Nigeria, 1958) (on 15 lists)
– Chinua Achebe (fiction: novel)

The Leopard (Italy, 1958) (on 6 lists)
– Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (fiction: novel)

The Once and Future King (UK, 1958) (on 3 lists)
– T.H. White (fiction: novel)

Krapp’s Last Tape (Ireland/France, 1958) (on 3 lists)
– Samuel Beckett (drama)

The Affluent Society (US, 1958) (on 3 lists)
– John Kenneth Galbraith (nonfiction: economics)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (US, 1958) (on 3 lists)
– Truman Capote (fiction: novel)

Night (Romania/US, 1958) (on 3 lists)
– Elie Wiesel (nonfiction: memoir)

The Tin Drum (Germany, 1959) (on 9 lists)
– Günter Grass (fiction: novel)

The Caretaker (UK, 1959) (on 4 lists)
– Harold Pinter (drama)

Henderson the Rain King (US, 1959) (on 4 lists)
– Saul Bellow (fiction: novel)

Titus Alone (UK, 1959) (on 3 lists)
– Mervyn Peake (fiction: novel)

Naked Lunch (US, 1959) (on 3 lists)
– William Burroughs (fiction: novel)

1960-1969

Rabbit, Run (US, 1960) (on 8 lists)
– John Updike (fiction: novel)

Dreamtigers (El Hacedor) (Argentina, 1960) (on 7 lists)
– Jorge Luis Borges (fiction: stories/poetry/non-fiction: essays)

To Kill a Mockingbird (US, 1960) (on 15 lists)
– Harper Lee (fiction: novel)

The Alexandria Quartet (four novels) (UK, 1957-1960) (on 4 lists)
– Lawrence Durrell (fiction: novels)

Catch-22 (US, 1961) (on 12 lists)
–  Joseph Heller (fiction: novel)

The Moviegoer (US, 1961) (on 5 lists)
– Walker Percy (fiction: novel)

Selected Poems (Chile, c. 1921-1959, pub. 1961) (on 4 lists)
– Pablo Neruda (Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto) (poetry: lyric)

A House for Mr. Biswas (Trinidad & Tobago/UK, 1961) (on 4 lists)
– V.S. Naipaul (fiction: novel)

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (UK, 1961) (on 5 lists)
– Muriel Spark (fiction: novel)

The Wretched of the Earth (France, 1961) (on 4 lists)
– Franz Fanon (non-fiction: psychology/political philosophy)

The City in History (US, 1961) (on 3 lists)
– Lewis Mumford (nonfiction: history/urban studies)

Solaris (Poland, 1961)
– Stanislaw Lem (fiction: novel)

Labyrinths (Argentina, 1962) (on 13 lists)
– Jorge Luis Borges (fiction: stories/poetry/non-fiction: essays)

Pale Fire (USSR/US, 1962) (on 8 lists)
– Vladimir Nabokov (fiction: novel)

The Golden Notebook (Zimbabwe/UK, 1962) (on 8 lists)
– Doris Lessing (fiction: novel)

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (USSR, 1962) (on 6 lists)
– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (fiction: novel)

A Clockwork Orange (UK, 1962) (on 7 lists)
– Anthony Burgess (fiction: novel)

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (US, 1962) (on 7 lists)
– Thomas Kuhn (non-fiction: science)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (US, 1962) (on 6 lists)
– Ken Kesey (fiction: novel)

Silent Spring (US, 1962) (on 9 lists)
– Rachel Carson (non-fiction: science)

The Woman in the Dunes (Japan, 1962) (on 3 lists)
– Kobo Abe (fiction: novel)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (US, 1962) (on 3 lists)
– Edward Albee (drama)

The Guns of August (US, 1962) (on 3 lists)
– Barbara Tuchman (nonfiction: history)

The Labyrinth of Solitude (Mexico, 1963) (on 4 lists)
– Octavio Paz (non-fiction: essays)

The Feminine Mystique (US, 1963) (on 5 lists)
– Betty Friedan (non-fiction: sociology)

Paterson (US, 1946-1963) (on 3 lists)
– William Carlos Williams (poetry: narrative)

Cat’s Cradle (US, 1963) (on 3 lists)
– Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (fiction: novel)

The Making of the English Working Class (UK, 1963) (on 3 lists)
– E.P. Thompson (nonfiction: social history)

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (US, 1963) (on 3 lists)
– John Le Carré (fiction: novel)

The Bell Jar (US, 1963) (on 5 lists)
– Sylvia Plath (fiction: novel)

V. (US, 1963) (on 3 lists)
– Thomas Pynchon (fiction: novel)

Herzog (US, 1964) (on 6 lists)
– Saul Bellow (fiction: novel)

Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (China, 1964) (on 6 lists)
– Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-Tung) (non-fiction: political philosophy)

A Moveable Feast (1960, pub. 1964) (on 3 lists)
– Ernest Hemingway (nonfiction: memoir)

Arrow of God (Nigeria, 1964) (on 3 lists)
– Chinua Achebe (fiction: novel)

Essays (US/UK, c. 1917-1965) (on 3 lists)
– T.S. Eliot (nonfiction: essays)

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (US, 1922-1960, pub. 1965) (on 4 lists)
– Katherine Anne Porter (fiction: stories)

The Autobiography of Malcolm X (US, 1965) (on 7 lists)
– Malcolm X (as told to Alex Haley) (non-fiction: memoir)

Dune (US, 1965) (on 4 lists)
– Frank Herbert (fiction: novel)

In Cold Blood (US, 1966) (on 10 lists)
– Truman Capote (non-fiction: journalism)

Wide Sargasso Sea (Dominica/UK, 1966) (on 5 lists)
– Jean Rhys (fiction: novel)

The Fixer (US, 1966) (on 4 lists)
– Bernard Malamud (fiction: novel)

Cancer Ward (USSR, 1966) (on 4 lists)
– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (fiction: novel)

The Magus (UK, 1966) (on 3 lists)
– John Fowles (fiction: novel)

The Crying of Lot 49 (US, 1966) (on 3 lists)
– Thomas Pynchon (fiction: novel)

Against Interpretation (US, 1966) (on 3 lists)
– Susan Sontag (nonfiction: essays/criticism)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Colombia, 1967) (on 26 lists)
– Gabriel García Márquez (fiction: novel)

Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead (UK, 1967) (on 3 lists)
– Tom Stoppard (drama)

The First Circle (USSR, 1968) (on 3 lists)
– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (fiction: novel)

The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel/The Novel as History (US, 1968) (on 3 lists)
– Norman Mailer (non-fiction: journalism)

Myra Breckenridge (US, 1968) (on 3 lists)
– Gore Vidal (fiction: novel)

The Double Helix (US, 1968) (on 4 lists)
– James Watson (non-fiction: science)

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (US, 1968) (on 4 lists)
– Tom Wolfe (non-fiction: journalism/memoir)

Slouching Towards Bethlehem (US, 1968)
– Joan Didion (nonfiction: essays)

Stories (Canada, 1968- ) (on 3 lists)
– Alice Munro (fiction: stories)

The Cantos (US/Italy, 1917-1969) (on 4 lists)
– Ezra Pound (poetry: lyric)

Slaughterhouse-five (US, 1969) (on 10 lists)
– Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (fiction: novel)

Portnoy’s Complaint (US, 1969) (on 5 lists)
– Philip Roth (fiction: novel)

Them (US, 1969) (on 4 lists)
– Joyce Carol Oates (fiction: novel)

The Godfather (US, 1969) (on 3 lists)
– Mario Puzo (fiction: novel)

The French Lieutenant’s Woman (UK, 1969) (on 3 lists)
– John Fowles (fiction: novel)

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (US, 1969) (on 4 lists)
– Maya Angelou (nonfiction: memoir)

The Left Hand of Darkness (US, 1969) (on 4 lists)
– Ursula K. Le Guin (fiction: novel)

1970-1979

The Sea of Fertility (four novels) (Japan, 1964-1970, pub. 1969-1971) (on 3 lists)
– Yukio Mishima (fiction: novels)

Deliverance (US, 1970) (on 3 lists)
– James Dickey (fiction: novel)

The Ogre (France, 1970) (on 3 lists)
– Michel Tournier (fiction: novel)

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (US, 1970) (on 3 lists)
– Dee Brown (nonfiction: history)

The Complete Stories (US, 1971) (on 9 lists)
– Flannery O’Connor (fiction: stories)

Angle of Repose (US, 1971) (on 5 lists)
– Wallace Stegner (fiction: novel)

Rabbit Redux (US, 1971) (on 3 lists)
– John Updike (fiction: novel)

In a Free State (Trinidad & Tobago/UK, 1971) (on 3 lists)
– V.S. Naipaul (fiction: novel)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (US, 1971) (on 4 lists)
– Hunter S. Thompson (nonfiction: journalism/memoir)

Henry James: A Biography (five volumes) (US, 1953-1972) (on 3 lists)
– Leon Edel (non-fiction: biography)

Invisible Cities (Italy, 1972) (on 6 lists)
– Italo Calvino (fiction: novel)

Watership Down (US, 1972) (on 3 lists)
– Richard Adams (fiction: novel)

Mythologies (France, 1972) (on 3 lists)
– Roland Barthes (nonfiction: essays)

Gravity’s Rainbow (US, 1973) (on 6 lists)
– Thomas Pynchon (fiction: novel)

The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 (USSR, 1973) (on 6 lists)
– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (non-fiction: history)

The Siege of Krishnapur (UK, 1973) (on 3 lists)
– J.G. Farrell (fiction: novel)

The Civil War (US, 1958-1974) (on 3 lists)
– Shelby Foote (nonfiction: history)

The Lives of a Cell (US, 1974) (on 6 lists)
– Lewis Thomas (non-fiction: science/essays)

The Conservationist (South Africa, 1974) (on 3 lists)
– Nadine Gordimer (fiction: novel)

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (US, 1974) (on 3 lists)
– Robert Pirsig (non-fiction: philosophy)

Dog Soldiers (US, 1974) (on 3 lists)
– Robert Stone (fiction: novel)

Working (US, 1974) (on 3 lists)
– Studs Terkel (nonfiction: oral history)

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (US, 1974) (on 3 lists)
– Robert Caro (nonfiction: biography)

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (US, 1974) (on 3 lists)
– Annie Dillard (nonfiction: nature/memoir)

All the President’s Men (US, 1974) (on 4 lists)
– Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (non-fiction: journalism)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (UK, 1974)
– John Le Carré (fiction: novel)

The Great War and Modern Memory (US, 1975) (on 5 lists)
– Paul Fussell (non-fiction: criticism)

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (US, 1975) (on 4 lists)
– John Ashbery (poetry: lyric)

Ragtime (US, 1975) (on 5 lists)
– E.L. Doctorow (fiction: novel)

A Dance to the Music of Time (12 novels) (UK, 1951-1975) (on 3 lists)
– Anthony Powell (fiction: novels)

Humboldt’s Gift (US, 1975) (on 3 lists)
– Saul Bellow (fiction: novel)

The Periodic Table (Italy, 1975) (on 4 lists)
– Primo Levi (fiction: novel)

The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (US, 1976) (on 4 lists)
– Bruno Bettelheim (non-fiction: psychology/criticism)

Song of Solomon (US, 1977) (on 8 lists)
– Toni Morrison (fiction: novel)

Dispatches (US, 1977) (on 5 lists)
– Michael Herr (non-fiction: journalism)

Samuel Johnson (US, 1977) (on 4 lists)
– Walter Jackson Bate (non-fiction: biography)

The Shining (US, 1977) (on 3 lists)
– Stephen King (fiction: novel)

The Stories of John Cheever (US, 1978) (on 8 lists)
– John Cheever (fiction: stories)

The World According to Garp (US, 1978) (on 6 lists)
– John Irving (fiction: novel)

The Sea, the Sea (UK, 1978) (on 3 lists)
– Iris Murdoch (fiction: novel)

Orientalism (Palestine/US, 1978) (on 5 lists)
– Edward Said (non-fiction: cultural studies)

Life: A User’s Manual (France, 1978) (on 3 lists)
– Georges Perec (fiction: novel)

Buried Child (US, 1978) (on 3 lists)
– Sam Shepard (drama)

The Snow Leopard (US, 1978) (on 3 lists)
– Peter Matthiessen (nonfiction: nature/travel)

The Stand (US, 1978) (on 3 lists)
– Stephen King (fiction: novel)

Sophie’s Choice (US, 1979) (on 6 lists)
– William Styron (fiction: novel)

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (Italy, 1979) (on 5 lists)
– Italo Calvino (fiction: novel)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (UK, 1979) (on 7 lists)
– Douglas Adams (fiction: novel)

A Bend in the River (Trinidad & Tobago/UK, 1979) (on 4 lists)
– V.S. Naipaul (fiction: novel)

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (UK, 1979) (on 5 lists)
– Douglas Hofstadter (non-fiction: science/arts)

The Right Stuff (US, 1979) (on 6 lists)
– Tom Wolfe (non-fiction: journalism)

The Ghost Writer (US, 1979) (on 3 lists)
– Philip Roth (fiction: novel)

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (US, 1979) (on 3 lists)
– Edmund Morris (non-fiction: biography)

1980-1989

A Confederacy of Dunces (US, 1980) (on 5 lists)
– John Kennedy Toole (fiction: novel)

So Long, See You Tomorrow (US, 1980) (on 4 lists)
– William Maxwell (fiction: novel)

The Executioner’s Song (US, 1980) (on 3 lists)
– Norman Mailer (fiction: novel/non-fiction: biography)

The Name of the Rose (Italy, 1980) (on 3 lists)
– Umberto Eco (fiction: novel)

True West (US, 1980) (on 3 lists)
– Sam Shepard (drama)

A People’s History of the United States (US, 1980) (on 3 lists)
– Howard Zinn (nonfiction: history)

Midnight’s Children (India/UK, 1981) (on 21 lists)
– Salman Rushdie (fiction: novel)

Rabbit Is Rich (US, 1981) (on 6 lists)
– John Updike (fiction: novel)

Obasan (Canada, 1981) (on 3 lists)
– Joy Kogawa (fiction: novel)

So Long A Letter (Senegal, 1981) (on 3 lists)
– Mariama Bâ (fiction: novel)

The Mismeasure of Man (US, 1981) (on 3 lists)
– Stephen Jay Gould (nonfiction: science/history)

Schindler’s List (Schindler’s Ark) (Australia, 1982) (on 5 lists)
– Thomas Keneally (fiction: novel)

The House of the Spirits (Chile, 1982) (on 5 lists)
– Isabel Allende (fiction: novel)

The Changing Light at Sandover (US, 1982) (on 3 lists)
– James Merrill (poetry: lyric)

Selected Poems (US, 1982) (on 3 lists)
– Galway Kinnell (poetry: lyric)

‘Master Harold’ … and the Boys (South Africa, 1982) (on 3 lists)
– Athol Fugard (drama)

The Color Purple (US, 1982) (on 8 lists)
– Alice Walker (fiction: novel)

The Women of Brewster Place (US, 1982) (on 3 lists)
– Gloria Naylor (fiction: novel)

The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (Bohemia/Austria, c. 1897-1926, pub. 1982) (on 3 lists)
– Rainer Maria Rilke (poetry: lyric)

Ironweed (US, 1983) (on 5 lists)
– William Kennedy (fiction: novel)

The Life and Times of Michael K. (South Africa, 1983) (on 4 lists)
– J.M. Coetzee (fiction: novel)

The Complete Poems: 1927-1979 (US, 1983) (on 3 lists)
– Elizabeth Bishop (poetry: lyric)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Czechoslovakia, 1984) (on 7 lists)
– Milan Kundera (fiction: novel)

The Lover (France, 1984) (on 4 lists)
– Marguerite Duras (fiction: novel)

Glengarry Glen Ross (US, 1984) (on 3 lists)
– David Mamet (drama)

Neuromancer (US, 1984) (on 3 lists)
– William Gibson (fiction: novel)

Love in the Time of Cholera (Colombia, 1985) (on 12 lists)
– Gabriel García Márquez (fiction: novel)

White Noise (US, 1985) (on 6 lists)
– Don DeLillo (fiction: novel)

The Handmaid’s Tale (Canada, 1985) (on 9 lists)
– Margaret Atwood (fiction: novel)

Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families (US, 1985) (on 3 lists)
– J. Anthony Lukas (non-fiction: journalism)

The Accidental Tourist (US, 1985) (on 3 lists)
– Anne Tyler (fiction: novel)

Lonesome Dove (US, 1985) (on 3 lists)
– Larry McMurtry (fiction: novel)

Blood Meridian (US, 1985) (on 4 lists)
– Cormac McCarthy (fiction: novel)

Beloved (US, 1987) (on 13 lists)
– Toni Morrison (fiction: novel)

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway (US, 1923-1961, pub. 1987) (on 5 lists)
– Ernest Hemingway (fiction: stories)

The Making of the Atomic Bomb (US, 1987) (on 6 lists)
– Richard Rhodes (non-fiction: science/history)

The Bonfire of the Vanities (US, 1987) (on 3 lists)
– Tom Wolfe (fiction: novel)

Fences (US, 1987) (on 3 lists)
– August Wilson (drama)

Where I’m Calling From (US, 1988) (on 5 lists)
– Raymond Carver (fiction: stories)

Oscar and Lucinda (Australia, 1988) (on 4 lists)
– Peter Carey (fiction: novel)

The Alchemist (Brazil, 1988) (on 6 lists)
– Paulo Coelho (fiction: novel)

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (US, 1988) (on 3 lists)
– James M. McPherson (non-fiction: history)

A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and American in Vietnam (US, 1988) (on 3 lists)
– Neil Sheehan (non-fiction: journalism/history)

The Satanic Verses (India/UK, 1988) (on 3 lists)
– Salman Rushdie (fiction: novel)

Nervous Conditions (Zimbabwe, 1988) (on 3 lists)
– Tsitsi Dangaremba (fiction: novel)

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963 (US, 1988) (on 3 lists)
– Taylor Branch (nonfiction: bigoraphy/history)

A Brief History of Time (UK, 1988) (on 7 lists)
– Stephen Hawking (nonfiction: science)

A Prayer for Owen Meany (US, 1989) (on 3 lists)
– John Irving (fiction: novel)

The Gnostic Gospels (US, 1989) (on 3 lists)
– Elaine Pagels (non-fiction: religion)

The Remains of the Day (UK, 1989) (on 6 lists)
– Kazuo Ishiguro (fiction: novel)

The Power of One (South Africa/Australia, 1989) (on 3 lists)
– Bryce Courtenay (fiction: novel)

Like Water for Chocolate (Mexico, 1989) (on 3 lists)
– Laura Esquivel (fiction: novel)

The Joy Luck Club (US, 1989) (on 5 lists)
– Amy Tan (fiction: novel)

Billy Bathgate (US, 1989) (on 4 lists)
– E.L. Doctorow (fiction: novel)

1990-1999

Possession (UK, 1990) (on 5 lists)
– A.S. Byatt (fiction: novel)

Rabbit at Rest (US, 1990) (on 4 lists)
– John Updike (fiction: novel)

The Things They Carried (US, 1990) (on 6 lists)
– Tim O’Brien (fiction: linked stories)

New Selected Poems: 1966-1987 (Ireland, 1990) (on 3 lists)
– Seamus Heaney (poetry: lyric)

Get Shorty (US, 1990) (on 3 lists)
– Elmore Leonard (fiction: novel)

A Thousand Acres (US, 1991) (on 3 lists)
– Jane Smley (fiction: novel)

Mao II (US, 1991) (on 4 lists)
– Don DeLillo (fiction: novel)

Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (US, 1992) (on 5 lists)
– Tony Kushner (drama)

The English Patient (Canada, 1992) (on 3 lists)
– Michael Ondaatje (fiction: novel)

The Secret History (US, 1992) (on 3 lists)
– Donna Tartt (fiction: novel)

Operation Shylock (US, 1993) (on 4 lists)
– Philip Roth (fiction: novel)

The Stone Diaries (US/Canada, 1993) (on 4 lists)
– Carol Shields (fiction: novel)

The Shipping News (US, 1993) (on 4 lists)
– E. Annie Proulx (fiction: novel)

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles (Japan, 1994) (on 5 lists)
– Haruki Murakami (fiction: novel)

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (UK, 1994) (on 3 lists)
– Louis De Bernières (fiction: novel)

The Rings of Saturn (Germany, 1995) (on 4 lists)
– W.G. Sebald (fiction: novel/non-fiction: essay)

A Fine Balance (India/Canada, 1995) (on 5 lists)
– Rohinton Mistry (fiction: novel)

Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) (His Dark Materials I) (UK, 1995) (on 4 lists)
– Philip Pullman (fiction: novel)

Angela’s Ashes (US/Ireland, 1996) (on 3 lists)
– Frank McCourt (nonfiction: memoir)

Infinite Jest (US, 1996) (on 3 lists)
– David Foster Wallace (fiction: novel)

American Pastoral (US, 1997) (on 6 lists)
– Philip Roth (fiction: novel)

The God of Small Things (India, 1997) (on 6 lists)
– Arundhati Roy (fiction: novel)

Underworld (US, 1997) (on 5 lists)
– Don DeLillo (fiction: novel)

Mason & Dixon (US, 1997) (on 3 lists)
– Thomas Pynchon (fiction: novel)

Guns, Germs, and Steel (US,1997) (on 3 lists)
– Jared Diamond (nonfiction: history)

The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials II) (UK, 1997) (on 3 lists)
– Philip Pullman (fiction: novel)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (UK, 1997) (on 6 lists)
– J.K. Rowling (fiction: novel)

Annals of the Former World (US, 1998) (on 3 lists)
– John McPhee (nonfiction: science)

The Poisonwood Bible (US, 1998) (on 5 lists)
– Barbara Kingsolver (fiction: novel)

The Hours (US, 1998) (on 3 lists)
– Michael Cunningham (fiction: novel)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (UK, 1998) (on 6 lists)
– J.K. Rowling (fiction: novel)

Disgrace (South Africa/Australia, 1999) (on 3 lists)
– J.M. Coetzee (fiction: novel)

Waiting (China/US, 1999) (on 6 lists)
– Ha Jin (fiction: novel)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (UK, 1999) (on 6 lists)
– J.K. Rowling (fiction: novel)

2000-2009

The Human Stain (US, 2000) (on 3 lists)
– Philip Roth (fiction: novel)

The Blind Assassin (Canada, 2000) (on 4 lists)
– Margaret Atwood (fiction: novel)

Blonde (US, 2000) (on 3 lists)
– Joyce Carol Oates (fiction: novel)

The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials III) (UK, 2000) (on 3 lists)
– Philip Pullman (fiction: novel)

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (US, 2000) (on 3 lists)
– Michael Chabon (fiction: novel)

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Iran/France, 2000) (on 3 lists)
– Marjane Satrapi (nonfiction: graphic memoir)

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (US, 2000) (on 3 lists)
– Dave Eggers (nonfiction: memoir)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (UK, 2000) (on 6 lists)
– J.K. Rowling (fiction: novel)

White Teeth (UK, 2000) (on 5 lists)
– Zadie Smith (fiction: novel)

The Corrections (US, 2001) (on 5 lists)
– Jonathan Franzen (fiction: novel)

Life of Pi (Canada, 2001) (on 4 lists)
– Yann Martel (fiction: novel)

Austerlitz (Germany, 2001) (on 3 lists)
– W.G. Sebald (fiction: novel)

Atonement (UK, 2001) (on 5 lists)
– Ian McEwan (fiction: novel)

Middlesex (US, 2002) (on 4 lists)
– Jeffrey Eugenides (fiction: novel)

The Known World (US, 2003) (on 4 lists)
– Edward P. Jones (fiction: novel)

The Namesake (India/US, 2003) (on 3 lists)
– Jhumpa Lahiri (fiction: novel)

The Kite Runner (Afghanistan/US, 2003) (on 6 lists)
– Khaled Hosseini (fiction: novel)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (UK, 2003) (on 6 lists)
– J.K. Rowling (fiction: novel)

Gilead (US, 2004) (on 3 lists)
– Marilynne Robinson (fiction: novel)

The Year of Magical Thinking (US, 2005) (on 3 lists)
– Joan Didion (nonfiction: memoir)

Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (UK/US, 2005) (on 3 lists)
– Tony Judt (nonfiction: history)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (UK, 2005) (on 6 lists)
– J.K. Rowling (fiction: novel)

The Book Thief (Australia, 2005) (on 6 lists)
– Markus Zusak (fiction: novel)

The Omnivore’s Dilemma (US, 2006) (on 3 lists)
– Michael Pollan (nonfiction: food/science)

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (US, 2006) (on 4 lists)
– Lawrence Wright (nonfiction: journalism)

A Long Way Gone (Sierra Leone, 2007) (on 3 lists)
– Ishmael Beah (nonfiction: memoir)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (UK, 2007) (on 6 lists)
– J.K. Rowling (fiction: novel)

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Dominican Republic/US, 2007) (on 5 lists)
– Junot Diaz (fiction: novel)

Wolf Hall (UK, 2009) (on 3 lists)
– Hilary Mantel (fiction: novel)

2010-Present

The Emperor of All Maladies (India/US, 2010) (on 4 lists)
– Siddhartha Mukherjee (nonfiction: medicine)

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (US, 2010) (on 3 lists)
– Michelle Alexander (nonfiction: journalism/sociology)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (US, 2010) (on 3 lists)
– Rebecca Skloot (nonfiction: biography/science)

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Israel, 2014) (on 3 lists)
– Yuval Noah Harari (nonfiction: history)

Station Eleven (Canada, 2014) (on 3 lists)
– Emily St. John Mandel (fiction: novel)

Between the World and Me (US, 2015) (on 3 lists)
– Ta-Nehisi Coates (nonfiction: memoir/history)

The Underground Railroad (US, 2016) (on 3 lists)
– Colson Whitehead (fiction: novel)