30/09/2024
How many of the 100 books that changed the world have you read?
100 literary works that 'changed the world' in a BBC survey
In April 2018, BBC Culture conducted a poll of experts worldwide to nominate five works of fictional literature. Asked to choose literary works that have influenced human psyche or history.
The survey received responses from 108 writers, academics, journalists, critics and translators from 35 countries. Among their favorites were novels, poems, folktales and plays in 33 languages.
Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf and Franz Kafka are the most popular authors in the list of the top 100 literary works from that survey, with 3 works each on the list.
The BBC says this is not a definitive list. This is just a starting point. Check out the list of 100 literary works.
1. The Odyssey (Homer, 8th century BC)
2. Uncle Tom's Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852)
3. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818)
4. Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell, 1949)
5. Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe, 1958)
6. One Thousand and One Nights (various authors, 8thâ18th century)
7. Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes, 1605â1615)
8. Hamlet (William Shakespeare, 1603)
9. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel GarcÃa MÃĄrquez, 1967)
10. The Iliad (Homer, 8th century BC)
11. Beloved (Toni Morrison, 1987)
12. The Divine Comedy (Dante Alighiari, 1308â1320)
13. Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare, 1597)
14. The Epic of Gilgamesh (author unknown, ca. 22ndâ10th century BC)
15. Harry Potter series (JK Rowling, 1997â2007)
16. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood, 1985)
17. Ulysses (James Joyce, 1922)
18. Animal Farm (George Orwell, 1945)
19. Jane Eyre (Charlotte BrontÃĢ, 1847)
20. Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert, 1856)
21. Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Luyo Guanzhong, 1321â1323)
22. Journey to the West (Wu Cheng'en, ca. 1592)
23. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1866)
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