Great Books of the Western World
Walter Graves Compiled by Encyclopedia Britannica, this is a list of the great books of the western world. It is our western canon gathered into a single package of 60 volumes. Initially compiled in the 50's, the Great Books of the Western World was updated in the 90's with a second edition. While the first three volumes of the compendium feature a dissertation on liberal education, Volume 4 and beyond contain various books that we have listed here. Both fiction and non-fiction have been included, as well as all genres. Encyclopedia Britannica did a fantastic job putting together this list of Great Books of the Western World. If you're looking for a great, timeless book, then this is the place to start.
Be sure to check out Ranker's other lists like the Best Opening Lines in Fiction.
Be sure to check out Ranker's other lists like the Best Opening Lines in Fiction.
rerank this list your way
- 1Up 28Down 7
George Orwell“ Volume: 60 „ - 2Up 26Down 7
F. Scott Fitzgerald“ Volume: 60 „ - 3Up 21Down 3
Leo Tolstoy“ Volume: 51 „ - 4Up 22Down 4
Herman Melville - 5Up 19Down 2
Dante Alighieri“ Volume: 21 „ - 6Up 20Down 3
James Joyce“ Volume: 59 „ - 7Up 21Down 4 Fyodor Dostoyevsky“ Volume: 52 „
- 8Up 22Down 5 Joseph Conrad“ Volume: 59 „
- 9Up 20Down 4 Miguel de Cervantes
- 10Up 20Down 6 Niccolò Machiavelli“ Volume: 23 „
- 11Up 15Down 2 Geoffrey Chaucer“ Volume: 22 „
- 12Up 16Down 3
Henry V
William Shakespeare - 13Up 16Down 3
The Waste Land
T. S. Eliot“ Volume: 60 „ - 14Up 17Down 4 Jonathan Swift“ Volume: 36 „
- 15Up 18Down 5 Samuel Beckett“ Volume: 60 „
- 16Up 19Down 6
Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 26 „ - 17Up 19Down 6 “ Volume: 60 „
- 18Up 15Down 3
King Lear
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 27 „ - 19Up 15Down 3
Othello, the moor of Venice
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 27 „ - 20Up 16Down 4 Virginia Woolf“ Volume: 60 „
- 21Up 17Down 5 Jane Austen“ Volume: 46 „
- 22Up 13Down 2
Macbeth
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 27 „ - 23Up 13Down 2
Uncle Vanya
Anton Chekhov“ Volume: 59 „ - 24Up 14Down 3 Thomas Mann“ Volume: 59 „
- 25Up 14Down 3
The Merchant of Venice
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 26 „ - 26Up 15Down 4
The Taming of the Shrew
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 26 „ - 27Up 17Down 6 William Shakespeare
- 28Up 13Down 3
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
William Shakespeare - 29Up 16Down 6 John Milton“ Volume: 32 „
- 30Up 11Down 2
Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 26 „ - 31Up 11Down 2 Friedrich Nietzsche“ Volume: 43 „
- 32Up 12Down 3
The Iliad
Harold Bloom“ Volume: 4 „ - 33Up 12Down 3 Sigmund Freud“ Volume: 54 „
- 34Up 12Down 3 Euclid“ Volume: 11 „
- 35Up 13Down 4 Jack N. Rakove“ Volume: 43 „
- 36Up 13Down 4
As You Like It
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 26 „ - 37Up 14Down 5
Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe“ Volume: 47 „ - 38Up 10Down 2 John Stuart Mill“ Volume: 43 „
- 39Up 11Down 3
Gorgias
Plato“ Volume: 7 „ - 40Up 11Down 3 Euripides“ Volume: 5 „
- 41Up 12Down 4
The Tempest
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 27 „ - 42Up 8Down 1
Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain“ Volume: 48 „ - 43Up 10Down 3
Metaphysics
Aristotle“ Volume: 8 „ - 44Up 10Down 3
The Comedy of Errors
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 26 „ - 45Up 11Down 4 John Stuart Mill“ Volume: 43 „
- 46Up 7Down 1
The tragedy of Richard the Third
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 26 „ - 47Up 8Down 2
Poetics
Aristotle“ Volume: 9 „ - 48Up 8Down 2
Love's Labour's Lost
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 26 „ - 49Up 9Down 3
A Lost Lady
Willa Cather“ Volume: 59 „ - 50Up 9Down 3
All's Well That Ends Well
William Shakespeare“ Volume: 27 „
items 1 - 50 of 317
rerank this list your way embed list
what's a rerank? today on Ranker
start a list with results
close sorting window
Rank Name
use the search box to filter your list
leave a comment