Bokklubben World Library (Norwegian: Verdensbiblioteket) is a series of classical books, mostly novels, published by the since 2002. It is based on a list of the hundred best books, as proposed by one hundred writers from fifty-four countries, compiled and organized in 2002 by the Book Club.[1] This list endeavors to reflect world literature, with books from all countries, cultures, and time periods.
Each writer had to select his or her own list of ten books. The books selected by this process and listed here are not ranked or categorized in any way; the organizers have stated that "they are all on an equal footing," with the exception of Don Quixote which was given the distinction "best literary work ever written."[2]
Fyodor Dostoevsky is the author with the most books on the list, with four. William Shakespeare, Franz Kafka, and Leo Tolstoy each have three.
The writers surveyed included 69 men and 31 women. 85 of the books included on the list are written by men, 11 are written by women, and four have unknown authors. 26 of the 100 voting writers had English as their first language,[3] which may be a factor in the list having so many (29) books written in English.
| Title | Author | Year | Country | Language | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Things Fall Apart | 1958 | Nigeria | English | ||
| Fairy Tales | 1835–37 | Denmark | Danish | ||
| The Divine Comedy | 1308–21 | Italy | Italian | ||
| Epic of Gilgamesh | Unknown | 18th – 17th century BCE | Sumer / Akkadian Empire | Akkadian | |
| Book of Job | Unknown | 7th – 4th century BCE | Achaemenid Empire | Biblical Hebrew | |
| One Thousand and One Nights | Various | 700–1500 | Iraq/Iran/India/Syria/Egypt/Tajikistan | Arabic | |
| Njál's Saga | Unknown, possibly Sæmundr fróði | 13th century | Iceland | Old Norse | |
| Pride and Prejudice | 1813 | United Kingdom | English | ||
| Le Père Goriot | 1835 | France | French | ||
| Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable | 1951–53 | Republic of Ireland | French, English | ||
| The Decameron | 1349–53 | Italy | Italian | ||
| Ficciones | 1944–86 | Argentina | Spanish | ||
| Wuthering Heights | 1847 | United Kingdom | English | ||
| The Stranger | 1942 | Algeria, French Empire | French | ||
| Poems | 1952 | Romania, USSR, France | German | ||
| Journey to the End of the Night | 1932 | France | French | ||
| Don Quixote | 1605 (part 1), 1615 (part 2) | Spain | Spanish | ||
| The Canterbury Tales | 1380s–1400 | England | English | ||
| Stories | 1886 | Russia | Russian | ||
| Nostromo | 1904 | United Kingdom | English | ||
| Great Expectations | 1861 | United Kingdom | English | ||
| Jacques the Fatalist | 1796 | France | French | ||
| Berlin Alexanderplatz | 1929 | Germany | German | ||
| Crime and Punishment | 1866 | Russia | Russian | ||
| The Idiot | 1869 | Russia | Russian | ||
| Demons | 1872 | Russia | Russian | ||
| The Brothers Karamazov | 1880 | Russia | Russian | ||
| Middlemarch | 1871 | United Kingdom | English | ||
| Invisible Man | 1952 | United States | English | ||
| Medea | Euripides | 431 BCE | Greece | Ancient Greek | |
| Absalom, Absalom! | 1936 | United States | English | ||
| The Sound and the Fury | 1929 | United States | English | ||
| Madame Bovary | 1857 | France | French | ||
| Sentimental Education | 1869 | France | French | ||
| Gypsy Ballads | 1928 | Spain | Spanish | ||
| One Hundred Years of Solitude | 1967 | Colombia | Spanish | ||
| Love in the Time of Cholera | 1985 | Colombia | Spanish | ||
| Faust | 1832 | Saxe-Weimar | German | ||
| Dead Souls | 1842 | Russia | Russian | ||
| The Tin Drum | 1959 | Germany | German | ||
| The Devil to Pay in the Backlands | 1956 | Brazil | Portuguese | ||
| Hunger | 1890 | Norway | Norwegian | ||
| The Old Man and the Sea | 1952 | United States | English | ||
| Iliad | Homer | 760–710 BCE | Greece | Ancient Greek | |
| Odyssey | Homer | 8th century BCE | Greece | Ancient Greek | |
| A Doll's House | 1879 | Norway | Norwegian | ||
| Ulysses | 1922 | Irish Free State | English | ||
| Stories | 1924 | Czechoslovakia | German | ||
| The Trial | 1925 | Czechoslovakia | German | ||
| The Castle | 1926 | Czechoslovakia | German | ||
| Shakuntala | Kālidāsa | 1st century BCE – 4th century CE | India | Sanskrit | |
| The Sound of the Mountain | 1954 | Japan | Japanese | ||
| Zorba the Greek | 1946 | Greece | Greek | ||
| Sons and Lovers | 1913 | United Kingdom | English | ||
| Independent People | 1934–35 | Iceland | Icelandic | ||
| Complete Poems | 1818-1835 | Italy | Italian | ||
| The Golden Notebook | 1962 | United Kingdom | English | ||
| Pippi Longstocking | 1945 | Sweden | Swedish | ||
| Diary of a Madman and Other Stories | 1918 | China | Chinese | ||
| Children of Gebelawi | 1959 | Egypt | Arabic | ||
| Buddenbrooks | 1901 | Germany | German | ||
| The Magic Mountain | 1924 | Germany | German | ||
| Moby-Dick | 1851 | United States | English | ||
| Essays | 1595 | France | French | ||
| History | 1974 | Italy | Italian | ||
| Beloved | 1987 | United States | English | ||
| The Tale of Genji | Murasaki Shikibu | 1000–12 | Japan | Japanese | |
| The Man Without Qualities | 1930–32 | Austria | German | ||
| Lolita | 1955 | Russia/United States | English | ||
| Nineteen Eighty-Four | 1949 | United Kingdom | English | ||
| Metamorphoses | Ovid | 1st century CE | Roman Empire | Classical Latin | |
| The Book of Disquiet | 1928 | Portugal | Portuguese | ||
| Tales | 1832–49 | United States | English | ||
| In Search of Lost Time | 1913–27 | France | French | ||
| Gargantua and Pantagruel | 1532–34 | France | French | ||
| Pedro Páramo | 1955 | Mexico | Spanish | ||
| Masnavi | Rumi | 1258–73 | Sultanate of Rum (Persia) | Persian | |
| Midnight's Children | 1981 | United Kingdom, India | English | ||
| Bostan | Saadi | 1257 | Persia | Persian | |
| Season of Migration to the North | 1966 | Sudan | Arabic | ||
| Blindness | 1995 | Portugal | Portuguese | ||
| Hamlet | 1603 | England | English | ||
| King Lear | 1608 | England | English | ||
| Othello | 1609 | England | English | ||
| Oedipus the King | Sophocles | 430 BCE | Greece | Ancient Greek | |
| The Red and the Black | Stendhal | 1830 | France | French | |
| Tristram Shandy | 1760 | Ireland | English | ||
| Confessions of Zeno | 1923 | Italy | Italian | ||
| Gulliver's Travels | 1726 | Ireland | English | ||
| War and Peace | 1865–69 | Russia | Russian | ||
| Anna Karenina | 1877 | Russia | Russian | ||
| The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories | 1886 | Russia | Russian | ||
| Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | 1884 | United States | English | ||
| Ramayana | Valmiki | 5th – 4th century BCE | India | Sanskrit | |
| Aeneid | Virgil | 29–19 BCE | Roman Empire | Classical Latin | |
| Mahabharata | Vyasa | 9th – 5th century BCE | India | Sanskrit | |
| Leaves of Grass | 1855 | United States | English | ||
| Mrs Dalloway | 1925 | United Kingdom | English | ||
| To the Lighthouse | 1927 | United Kingdom | English | ||
| Memoirs of Hadrian | 1951 | France/Belgium | French |
| Name | Country | |
|---|---|---|
| Kyrgyzstan | ||
| Turkey | ||
| Israel | ||
| United States | ||
| Spain | ||
| United Kingdom | ||
| Iran | ||
| United States | ||
| South Africa | ||
| Denmark | ||
| United Kingdom | ||
| Australia | ||
| Mexico | ||
| China/United Kingdom | ||
| France | ||
| Mozambique | ||
| United Kingdom | ||
| Haiti | ||
| China | ||
| Algeria | ||
| Iran | ||
| France | ||
| Sweden | ||
| United States | ||
| Germany | ||
| Cuba | ||
| Somalia | ||
| Norway | ||
| Norway | ||
| New Zealand | ||
| United States | ||
| Mexico | ||
| Palestine | ||
| India | ||
| Spain | ||
| South Africa | ||
| Israel | ||
| Iceland | ||
| Ireland | ||
| Germany | ||
| Bosnia-Herzegovina | ||
| United States | ||
| Zimbabwe | ||
| Egypt | ||
| United States | ||
| Sweden | ||
| Turkey | ||
| Norway | ||
| Czech Republic/France | ||
| Finland | ||
| United Kingdom | ||
| Germany | ||
| United Kingdom | ||
| Sweden | ||
| Estonia | ||
| Lebanon/France | ||
| Italy | ||
| United States | ||
| Argentina | ||
| Ireland/United States | ||
| India | ||
| Brazil | ||
| India/Canada | ||
| Saudi Arabia | ||
| Romania | ||
| Trinidad/United Kingdom | ||
| Netherlands | ||
| Nigeria/United Kingdom | ||
| Turkey | ||
| United States | ||
| United States | ||
| Russia | ||
| Brazil | ||
| France | ||
| India/United Kingdom | ||
| Egypt | ||
| Lebanon | ||
| Syria | ||
| Sweden | ||
| United States | ||
| Nigeria | ||
| Switzerland | ||
| United Kingdom | ||
| Italy | ||
| Iraq | ||
| United Kingdom | ||
| United Kingdom | ||
| Denmark | ||
| Russia | ||
| Indonesia | ||
| Poland | ||
| France | ||
| Belgium | ||
| Turkey | ||
| Sápmi | ||
| Greece | ||
| Zimbabwe | ||
| United Kingdom | ||
| Germany | ||
| Israel | ||
| Afghanistan |