< Back to RACHEL

Best Books Ever Listings Bookshelf

In 2002, the editors of The Norwegian Book Clubs asked 100 authors to nominate ten books that, in their opinion, are the ten best and most central works in world literature. This list was reprinted in The Guardian in 2002. Here's the list.

  • A Doll's House. Autor: Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906.
  • An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Autor: Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
  • An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic. Autor: Anonymous.
  • Andersen's Fairy Tales. Autor: Andersen, H. C. (Hans Christian), 1805-1875.
  • Anna Karenina. Autor: Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910.
  • Arabian nights. English-The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01. Autor: Anonymous.
  • Don Quixote. Autor: Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 1547-1616.
  • Education sentimentale. English-Sentimental Education, Volume II - The History of a Young Man. Autor: Flaubert, Gustave, 1821-1880.
  • Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1. Autor: Faraday, Michael, 1791-1867.
  • Father Goriot. Autor: Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850.
  • Gargantua and Pantagruel. Autor: Rabelais, François, 1483-1553.
  • Great Expectations. Autor: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
  • Gulliver's Travels. Autor: Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745.
  • Hamlet. Autor: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.
  • Hindu literature : Comprising The Book of good counsels, Nala and Damayanti, The Ramayana, and Sakoontala. Autor: Valmiki and Anonymous and Kalidasa and Dutt, Toru, 1856-1877.
  • Hunger. Autor: Hamsun, Knut, 1859-1952.
  • Japanese Literature - Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical - Poetry and Drama of Japan. Autor: Various.
  • King Lear. Autor: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.
  • Leaves of Grass. Autor: Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892.
  • Madame Bovary. Autor: Flaubert, Gustave, 1821-1880.
  • Mertvye dushi. English-Dead Souls. Autor: Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich, 1809-1852.
  • Middlemarch. Autor: Eliot, George, 1819-1880.
  • Nostromo, a Tale of the Seaboard. Autor: Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924.
  • Oedipus Trilogy. Autor: Sophocles, 495? BC-406 BC.
  • On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection - or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. (2nd edition). Autor: Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882.
  • Othello. Autor: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.
  • Prestuplenie i nakazanie. English-Crime and Punishment. Autor: Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881.
  • Pride and Prejudice. Autor: Austen, Jane, 1775-1817.
  • Sons and Lovers. Autor: Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert), 1885-1930.
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Autor: Twain, Mark, 1835-1910.
  • The Bible, King James version, Book 18: Job. Autor: Anonymous.
  • The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems. Autor: Chaucer, Geoffrey, 1343?-1400.
  • The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio. Autor: Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375.
  • The Essays of Montaigne — Complete. Autor: Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592.
  • The Idiot. Autor: Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881.
  • The Magna Carta. Autor: Anonymous.
  • The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated into English Prose - Virata Parva. Autor: .
  • The Metamorphoses of Ovid - Vol. I, Books I-VII. Autor: Ovid, 43 BC-18?.
  • The Poems of Giacomo Leopardi. Autor: Leopardi, Giacomo, 1798-1837.
  • The Story of Burnt Njal: the great Icelandic tribune, jurist, and counsellor. Autor: Unknown.
  • The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I.. Autor: Euripides.
  • The Trial. Autor: Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924.
  • Translations of Shakuntala and Other Works. Autor: Kalidasa.
  • Ulysses. Autor: Joyce, James, 1882-1941.
  • Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Autor: Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797.
  • War and Peace. Autor: Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910.
  • Wuthering Heights. Autor: Brontë, Emily, 1818-1848.