The Complete 500

Note: Many novels fall into multiple genres or no clear category. There are also several different standards for classifying genres, and WorldCat allows libraries to use each if or when it considers it helpful. As a result, titles below may not appear in a genre you consider appropriate.

Rank Title Author
1. Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
2. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
4. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain
5. Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson
6. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
7. Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
8. Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
9. Moby Dick Herman Melville
10. The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
11. Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
12. The Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan
13. A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens
14. David Copperfield Charles Dickens
15. A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
16. Little Women Louisa May Alcott
17. Great Expectations Charles Dickens
18. The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again J.R.R. Tolkien
19. Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley
20. Oliver Twist Charles Dickens
21. Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe
22. Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
23. Madame Bovary: Patterns of Provincial life Gustave Flaubert
24. The Return of the King J.R.R. Tolkien
25. Dracula Bram Stoker
26. The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas
27. Brave New World Aldous Huxley
28. War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
29. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
30. The Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum
31. Les Misérables Victor Hugo
32. The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett
33. Animal Farm George Orwell
34. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
35. The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
36. The Call of the Wild Jack London
37. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne
38. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
39. The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
40. The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
41. The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
42. Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
43. The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper
44. Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy
45. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone J.K. Rowling
46. Heidi Johanna Spyri
47. Ulysses James Joyce
48. The Complete Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
49. The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
50. The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway
51. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis
52. The Hunchback of Notre Dame Victor Hugo
53. Pinocchio Carlo Collodi
54. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez
55. Ivanhoe Walter Scott
56. The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane
57. Anne of Green Gables L.M. Montgomery
58. Black Beauty Anna Sewell
59. Peter Pan J.M. Barrie
60. A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway
61. The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne
62. Lord of the Flies William Golding
63. The Prince and the Pauper Mark Twain
64. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce
65. Lord Jim Joseph Conrad
66. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J.K. Rowling
67. The Red & the Black Stendhal
68. The Stranger Albert Camus
69. The Trial Franz Kafka
70. Lady Chatterley's Lover D.H. Lawrence
71. Kidnapped: The Adventures of David Balfour Robert Louis Stevenson
72. The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
73. Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
74. A Journey to the Center of the Earth Jules Verne
75. Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray
76. All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque
77. Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell
78. My Ántonia Willa Cather
79. Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
80. The Vicar of Wakefield Oliver Goldsmith
81. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain
82. White Fang Jack London
83. Fathers and Sons Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
84. Doctor Zhivago Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
85. The Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio
86. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
87. The Jungle Upton Sinclair
88. The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
89. Persuasion Jane Austen
90. Mansfield Park Jane Austen
91. Candide Voltaire
92. For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway
93. Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
94. The Fellowship of the Ring J.R.R. Tolkien
95. The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy
96. Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence
97. Charlotte's Web E.B. White
98. The Swiss Family Robinson Johann David Wyss
99. Bleak House Charles Dickens
100. Père Goriot Honoré de Balzac
101. Utopia Thomas More
102. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling Henry Fielding
103. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban J.K. Rowling
104. Kim Rudyard Kipling
105. The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
106. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J.K. Rowling
107. The Mill on the Floss George Eliot
108. A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle
109. The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle
110. The Two Towers J.R.R. Tolkien
111. The War of the Worlds H.G. Wells
112. Middlemarch George Eliot
113. The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
114. The Color Purple Alice Walker
115. Northanger Abbey Jane Austen
116. East of Eden John Steinbeck
117. On the Road Jack Kerouac
118. Catch-22 Joseph Heller
119. Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne
120. Hard Times Charles Dickens
121. Beloved Toni Morrison
122. Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf
123. To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
124. The Magician's Nephew C.S. Lewis
125. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J.K. Rowling
126. The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
127. The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck
128. Silas Marner George Eliot
129. Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel García Márquez
130. Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier
131. Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
132. Twilight Stephenie Meyer
133. A Passage to India E.M. Forster
134. The Plague Albert Camus
135. Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens
136. The Pearl John Steinbeck
137. Ethan Frome Edith Wharton
138. The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu
139. The Giver Lois Lowry
140. The Alchemist Paulo Coelho
141. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
142. Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe
143. Tender is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald
144. The Idiot Fyodor Dostoyevsky
145. Hatchet Gary Paulsen
146. The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
147. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey
148. The Portrait of a Lady Henry James
149. The Outsiders S.E. Hinton
150. Ben-Hur Lew Wallace
151. The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy
152. Cry, The Beloved Country Alan Paton
153. The Last Battle C.S. Lewis
154. Captains Courageous Rudyard Kipling
155. The Castle Franz Kafka
156. The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka
157. The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg) Thomas Mann
158. James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl
159. The Horse and His Boy C.S. Lewis
160. Angels & Demons Dan Brown
161. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader C.S. Lewis
162. The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
163. Women in Love D.H. Lawrence
164. The Yearling Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
165. O Pioneers! Willa Cather
166. The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
167. The Moonstone Wilkie Collins
168. The Old Curiosity Shop Charles Dickens
169. Little Dorrit Charles Dickens
170. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia C.S. Lewis
171. Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser
172. The Silver Chair C.S. Lewis
173. The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins
174. This Side of Paradise F. Scott Fitzgerald
175. Eugénie Grandet Honoré de Balzac
176. Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham
177. Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin
178. Life of Pi Yann Martel
179. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J.K. Rowling
180. Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
181. Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse
182. The Sorrows of Young Werther Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
183. Bridge to Terabithia Katherine Paterson
184. The Invisible Man H.G. Wells
185. Holes Louis Sachar
186. Siddhartha Hermann Hesse
187. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith
188. Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There Lewis Carroll
189. In Cold Blood Truman Capote
190. The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende
191. Adam Bede George Eliot
192. The Betrothed Alessandro Manzoni
193. The Book Thief Markus Zusak
194. Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
195. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn
196. The Sea Wolf Jack London
197. Catching Fire Suzanne Collins
198. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred D. Taylor
199. Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather
200. The House of Mirth Edith Wharton
201. Light in August William Faulkner
202. The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens
203. Remembrance of Things Past Marcel Proust
204. Barchester Towers and the Warden Anthony Trollope
205. The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
206. The Help Kathryn Stockett
207. Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie
208. The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold
209. The Appeal John Grisham
210. Dombey And Son Charles Dickens
211. Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
212. An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser
213. The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison
214. Little House In the Big Woods Laura Ingalls Wilder
215. Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren
216. Germinal Émile Zola
217. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
218. The Woman In White Wilkie Collins
219. Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner
220. A Painted House John Grisham
221. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson
222. A Room With a View E.M. Forster
223. Watership Down Richard Adams
224. Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
225. Our Mutual Friend Charles Dickens
226. Babbitt Sinclair Lewis
227. The Red Pony John Steinbeck
228. All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren
229. Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
230. Lorna Doone R.D. Blackmore
231. Johnny Tremain Esther Forbes
232. Anne of Avonlea L.M. Montgomery
233. Tuck Everlasting Natalie Babbitt
234. The BFG Roald Dahl
235. Cannery Row John Steinbeck
236. The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan
237. The Silmarillion J.R.R. Tolkien
238. Roots Alex Haley
239. Little House on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder
240. Native Son Richard Wright
241. Stuart Little E.B. White
242. Cross Fire James Patterson
243. The Power and the Glory Graham Greene
244. A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
245. The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux
246. The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury
247. The Road Cormac McCarthy
248. The Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler
249. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul Jeff Kinney
250. Villette Charlotte Brontë
251. The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time Mark Haddon
252. The Mysterious Island Jules Verne
253. Song of Solomon Toni Morrison
254. Nana Émile Zola
255. Quo Vadis Henryk Sienkiewicz
256. Main Street Sinclair Lewis
257. Matilda Roald Dahl
258. Lolita Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov
259. Paper Towns John Green
260. Sounder William H. Armstrong
261. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume
262. The Notebook Nicholas Sparks
263. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler E.L. Konigsburg
264. Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
265. The Fountainhead Ayn Rand
266. Number the Stars Lois Lowry
267. The Firm John Grisham
268. Swann's Way Marcel Proust
269. Ender's Game Orson Scott Card
270. The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco
271. A Time to Kill John Grisham
272. Water for Elephants Sara Gruen
273. The Time Machine H.G. Wells
274. Eragon Christopher Paolini
275. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
276. Buddenbrooks Thomas Mann
277. A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini
278. The Witch of Blackbird Pond Elizabeth George Speare
279. And Then There Were None Agatha Christie
280. A Separate Peace John Knowles
281. Breaking Dawn Stephenie Meyer
282. As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
283. The Girl Who Played With Fire Stieg Larsson
284. Where the Red Fern Grows Wilson Rawls
285. Le Morte D'Arthur Thomas Malory
286. Mockingjay Suzanne Collins
287. The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett
288. Persian Letters Montesquieu
289. The Client John Grisham
290. Sula Toni Morrison
291. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Judy Blume
292. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown In Nottinghamshire Howard Pyle
293. Tortilla Flat John Steinbeck
294. Look Homeward, Angel Thomas Wolfe
295. The Mystery of Edwin Drood Charles Dickens
296. Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
297. The Pelican Brief John Grisham
298. Atonement Ian McEwan
299. Washington Square Henry James
300. Like Water for Chocolate Laura Esquivel
301. The Golden Compass Philip Pullman
302. The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd
303. The Fault In Our Stars John Green
304. Nostromo Joseph Conrad
305. Finnegans Wake James Joyce
306. The Brethren John Grisham
307. Coraline Neil Gaiman
308. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
309. On the Banks of Plum Creek Laura Ingalls Wilder
310. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
311. The Ambassadors Henry James
312. The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad
313. The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros
314. Go Tell It on the Mountain James Baldwin
315. The Testament John Grisham
316. The Clan of the Cave Bear Jean M. Auel
317. Cranford Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
318. Because of Winn-Dixie Kate DiCamillo
319. My Side of the Mountain Jean Craighead George
320. The Runaway Jury John Grisham
321. The Mouse and the Motorcycle Beverly Cleary
322. The Lost Symbol Dan Brown
323. The Forsyte Saga John Galsworthy
324. Gone Girl Gillian Flynn
325. The Lightning Thief Rick Riordan
326. The Last Days of Pompeii Edward Bulwer Lytton
327. The Reader Bernhard Schlink
328. Caddie Woodlawn Carol Ryrie Brink
329. The Tale of Despereaux Kate DiCamillo
330. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest Stieg Larsson
331. Dear Mr. Henshaw Beverly Cleary
332. The Killer Angels Michael Shaara
333. Chronicle of a Death Foretold Gabriel García Márquez
334. The Five People You Meet In Heaven Mitch Albom
335. The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov
336. Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson
337. "P" Is for Peril Sue Grafton
338. My Sister's Keeper Jodi Picoult
339. Barnaby Rudge Charles Dickens
340. Howards End E.M. Forster
341. The Broker John Grisham
342. The Camel Club David Baldacci
343. The Rainbow D.H. Lawrence
344. The Man In the Iron Mask Alexandre Dumas
345. Mary Poppins P.L. Travers
346. Artemis Fowl Eoin Colfer
347. Dear John Nicholas Sparks
348. Cold Mountain Charles Frazier
349. Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes
350. The Dark Is Rising Susan Cooper
351. Resurrection Leo Tolstoy
352. Fearless Fourteen Janet Evanovich
353. A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne
354. The King of Torts John Grisham
355. The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman
356. The Quiet American Graham Greene
357. The Chamber John Grisham
358. The English Patient Michael Ondaatje
359. Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson
360. The Long Winter Laura Ingalls Wilder
361. Sarah, Plain and Tall Patricia MacLachlan
362. Cross Country James Patterson
363. The Spy Who Came In from the Cold John Le Carré
364. A Game of Thrones George R.R. Martin
365. The Thorn Birds Colleen McCullough
366. Old Yeller Fred Gipson
367. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 Beverly Cleary
368. Death In Venice Thomas Mann
369. By the Shores of Silver Lake Laura Ingalls Wilder
370. Inferno Dan Brown
371. Schindler's List Thomas Keneally
372. Jonathan Livingston Seagull Richard Bach
373. The Stand Stephen King
374. The Last Juror John Grisham
375. Shiloh Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
376. Girl With a Pearl Earring Tracy Chevalier
377. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie
378. It Stephen King
379. The Rainmaker John Grisham
380. The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
381. The Indian in the Cupboard Lynne Reid Banks
382. The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
383. The Warden Anthony Trollope
384. The Summons John Grisham
385. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective Donald J. Sobol
386. The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger
387. The Incredible Journey Sheila Burnford
388. Daughter of Fortune Isabel Allende
389. Shirley Charlotte Brontë
390. Bud, Not Buddy Christopher Paul Curtis
391. The Horse Whisperer Nicholas Evans
392. The Street Lawyer John Grisham
393. Nausea Jean-Paul Sartre
394. To Have and Have Not Ernest Hemingway
395. The Bridges of Madison County Robert James Waller
396. Anne of the Island L.M. Montgomery
397. The Winter of Our Discontent John Steinbeck
398. The Shining Stephen King
399. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Anne Brontë
400. First Family David Baldacci
401. The Partner John Grisham
402. The Girl on the Train Paula Hawkins
403. The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses Robert Louis Stevenson
404. The Rise of Silas Lapham William Dea Howells
405. The Choice Nicholas Sparks
406. The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains Owen Wister
407. A Walk to Remember Nicholas Sparks
408. The Maze Runner James Dashner
409. The Westing Game Ellen Raskin
410. Misty of Chincoteague Marguerite Henry
411. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw Jeff Kinney
412. King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard
413. The Princess of Cleves Madame de (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne) La Fayett
414. Jacob Have I Loved Katherine Paterson
415. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Robert C. O'Brien
416. Misery Stephen King
417. The Cider House Rules John Irving
418. King of the Wind Marguerite Henry
419. The Once and Future King T. H. White
420. The Witches Roald Dahl
421. The Subtle Knife Philip Pullman
422. When You Reach Me Rebecca Stead
423. Carrie Stephen King
424. The Moon and Sixpence W. Somerset Maugham
425. The Higher Power of Lucky Susan Patron
426. Looking Backward, 2000-1887 Edward Bellamy
427. The Wings of the Dove Henry James
428. The Summer of the Swans Betsy Cromer Byars
429. Dangerous Liaisons Choderlos de Laclos
430. Jurassic Park Michael Crichton
431. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian Sherman Alexie
432. The Grey King Susan Cooper
433. The Leopard Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
434. The Mammoth Hunters Jean M. Auel
435. The Trumpet of the Swan E.B. White
436. The Lucky One Nicholas Sparks
437. These Happy Golden Years Laura Ingalls Wilder
438. Arrowsmith Sinclair Lewis
439. Julie of the Wolves Jean Craighead George
440. The Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis
441. The Fall Albert Camus
442. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Alexander McCall Smith
443. Worst Case James Patterson
444. Lost Horizon James Hilton
445. The Gunslinger Stephen King
446. The Slave Dancer Paula Fox
447. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince J.K. Rowling
448. Inkheart Cornelia Funke
449. Ramona and her Father Beverly Cleary
450. Inkspell Cornelia Funke
451. Ramona the Pest Beverly Cleary
452. Walk Two Moons Sharon Creech
453. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Ransom Riggs
454. The Chocolate War Robert Cormier
455. Sophie's Choice William Styron
456. Looking for Alaska John Green
457. Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote
458. The Razor's Edge W. Somerset Maugham
459. Dreamcatcher Stephen King
460. Orlando Virginia Woolf
461. The Things they Carried Tim O'Brien
462. Little Town on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder
463. Nights in Rodanthe Nicholas Sparks
464. The Amber Spyglass Philip Pullman
465. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane Kate DiCamillo
466. Flatland Edwin A. Abbott
467. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Jeff Kinney
468. The Memory Keeper's Daughter Kim Edwards
469. The Wedding Nicholas Sparks
470. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe Fannie Flagg
471. The Cricket in Times Square George Selden
472. The Phantom Tollbooth Norton Juster
473. Rob Roy Walter Scott
474. The Death of Ivan Ilych Leo Tolstoy
475. Alex Cross's Trial James Patterson
476. Kenilworth Walter Scott
477. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne
478. The Remains of theDay Kazuo Ishiguro
479. M.C. Higgins, The Great Virginia Hamilton
480. Call It Courage Armstrong Sperry
481. Go Set a Watchman Harper Lee
482. Bleachers John Grisham
483. Elijah of Buxton Christopher Paul Curtis
484. Swimsuit James Patterson
485. Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut
486. The Caine Mutiny Herman Wouk
487. The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene
488. Harriet, the Spy Louise Fitzhugh
489. Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler
490. A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving
491. The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy
492. The Associate John Grisham
493. The Shack William P. Young
494. The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer
495. The Sea of Monsters Rick Riordan
496. Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein
497. Vision in White Nora Roberts
498. The Whipping Boy Sid Fleischman
499. Room Emma Donoghue
500. Deception Point Dan Brown