From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Series of classical books
Bokklubben World Library (Norwegian : Verdensbiblioteket ) is a series of classical books, mostly novels, published by the Norwegian Book Clubs [no ] 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]
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 [ 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.
Breakdown of voters and list [ edit ] 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]
Title
Author
Year
Country
Language
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe Nigeria
English
Fairy Tales Hans Christian Andersen Denmark
Danish
The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri Italy
Italian
Epic of Gilgamesh
Unknown
Sumer / Akkadian Empire
Akkadian
Book of Job
Unknown
Achaemenid Empire
Biblical Hebrew
One Thousand and One Nights Various
Iraq /Iran /India /Syria /Egypt /Tajikistan
Arabic
Njál's Saga Unknown, possibly Sæmundr fróði
Iceland
Old Norse
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen United Kingdom
English
Le Père Goriot Honoré de Balzac France
French
Trilogy: Molloy , Malone Dies The Unnamable Samuel Beckett Republic of Ireland
French, English
The Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio Italy
Italian
Ficciones Jorge Luis Borges Argentina
Spanish
Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë United Kingdom
English
The Stranger Albert Camus Algeria , French Empire
French
Poems
Paul Celan Romania , USSR , France
German
Journey to the End of the Night Louis-Ferdinand Céline France
French
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes Spain
Spanish
The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer England
English
Stories Anton Chekhov Russia
Russian
Nostromo Joseph Conrad United Kingdom
English
Great Expectations Charles Dickens United Kingdom
English
Jacques the Fatalist Denis Diderot France
French
Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin Germany
German
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky Russia
Russian
The Idiot Fyodor Dostoevsky Russia
Russian
Demons Fyodor Dostoevsky Russia
Russian
The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky Russia
Russian
Middlemarch George Eliot United Kingdom
English
Invisible Man Ralph Ellison United States
English
Medea Euripides
Greece
Ancient Greek
Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner United States
English
The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner United States
English
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert France
French
Sentimental Education Gustave Flaubert France
French
Gypsy Ballads Federico García Lorca Spain
Spanish
One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez Colombia
Spanish
Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel García Márquez Colombia
Spanish
Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Saxe-Weimar
German
Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol Russia
Russian
The Tin Drum Günter Grass Germany
German
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands João Guimarães Rosa Brazil
Portuguese
Hunger Knut Hamsun Norway
Norwegian
The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway United States
English
Iliad Homer
Greece
Ancient Greek
Odyssey Homer
Greece
Ancient Greek
A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen Norway
Norwegian
Ulysses James Joyce Irish Free State
English
Stories Franz Kafka Czechoslovakia
German
The Trial Franz Kafka Czechoslovakia
German
The Castle Franz Kafka Czechoslovakia
German
Shakuntala Kālidāsa
India
Sanskrit
The Sound of the Mountain Yasunari Kawabata Japan
Japanese
Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis Greece
Greek
Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence United Kingdom
English
Independent People Halldór Laxness Iceland
Icelandic
Complete Poems
Giacomo Leopardi Italy
Italian
The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing United Kingdom
English
Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren Sweden
Swedish
Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
Lu Xun China
Chinese
Children of Gebelawi Naguib Mahfouz Egypt
Arabic
Buddenbrooks Thomas Mann Germany
German
The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann Germany
German
Moby-Dick Herman Melville United States
English
Essays Michel de Montaigne France
French
History Elsa Morante Italy
Italian
Beloved Toni Morrison United States
English
The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu
Japan
Japanese
The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil Austria
German
Lolita Vladimir Nabokov Russia/United States
English
Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell United Kingdom
English
Metamorphoses Ovid
Roman Empire
Classical Latin
The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa Portugal
Portuguese
Tales Edgar Allan Poe United States
English
In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust France
French
Gargantua and Pantagruel François Rabelais France
French
Pedro Páramo Juan Rulfo Mexico
Spanish
Masnavi Rumi
Sultanate of Rum (Persia )
Persian
Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie United Kingdom, India
English
Bostan Saadi
Persia
Persian
Season of Migration to the North Tayeb Salih Sudan
Arabic
Blindness José Saramago Portugal
Portuguese
Hamlet William Shakespeare England
English
King Lear William Shakespeare England
English
Othello William Shakespeare England
English
Oedipus the King Sophocles
Greece
Ancient Greek
The Red and the Black Stendhal
France
French
Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne Ireland
English
Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo Italy
Italian
Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift Ireland
English
War and Peace Leo Tolstoy Russia
Russian
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy Russia
Russian
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other StoriesLeo Tolstoy Russia
Russian
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain United States
English
Ramayana Valmiki
India
Sanskrit
Aeneid Virgil
Roman Empire
Classical Latin
Mahabharata Vyasa
India
Sanskrit
Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman United States
English
Mrs Dalloway Virginia Woolf United Kingdom
English
To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf United Kingdom
English
Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar France /Belgium
French
List of authors surveyed [ edit ] 
