The 10 best international novels agreed upon by writers and critics
10 best international novels

We feel the rapid passage of time more than ever before, we always have to set our priorities in everything we do, life is very short, the choices are many, and we have to decide what we really want to do. And when we remember the dozens of books we want to read, it occurs to us that even if we lived another life on our own, it would not be enough to read all these books. But despite the existence of millions of old books and thousands of good new books, the great books that opened new horizons for human awareness and understanding are really few, even rare. There are many lists in which you will find the most influential books in history, the most famous of which are the Le Monde list, the Telegraph list, and the Time magazine list. These lists contain different types of books: literary, intellectual, and scientific. Here we present our list of the most important classic literary works that writers and critics have agreed upon throughout history.

The works that will be mentioned in this list are the most important literary works, specifically novels. Our list does not include the great plays of Shakespeare or the poems of Homer, and most of the novels we have chosen here are the most frequently repeated in the lists of the best literary works that writers and critics from all over the world have participated in. We also took into account when choosing that the novels mentioned should be by writers whose literary works were considered to be exceptional or who had more than one. In her article on how to read and enjoy classic works, Amy X. Wang says: “Classic literary works; the masterpiece of literary works, which you have always heard and hear that they are elegant, charming and great works, but in reality you have never picked up any of them to try to read them, or even tried in our digital age to read them on your tablet. Despite that, you still feel a desire inside you to read at least one classic novel at some point in your life.” Perhaps the time has come.


Search of Lost Time Book by Marcel Proust 1908

The longest novel in the world, at 1200000 words. Published over fourteen years in seven volumes, it was immediately considered one of the great novels. In a style of extreme sensitivity, Proust wrote the story of a man searching for the meaning and purpose of his life in a constant contemplation of all that he has experienced. Critics have suggested that this man is a thinly veiled version of Proust himself.

Ulysses - James Joyce 1922

Many consider the Irish writer James Joyce's novel Ulysses to be a real challenge for the reader and one of the most difficult literary works to read. This novel has its own language, which is written in a complex and unique way, so that its chapters are read in a special order. The best translation of the novel into Arabic is by Taha Mahmoud Taha, an academic researcher specializing in everything related to James Joyce and Ulysses. What is this novel about? This question cannot be answered simply, but one of the things that makes this novel interesting is that each chapter is written in a different way. There is a chapter written in the form of a play, a chapter in the form of a trivial romantic novel, and so on.

Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes 1615

Some critics consider the novel Don Quixote by the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes to be the first modern novel. The novel tells the story of a man who wanted to be a knight like the knights he read about in books, so he put on armor and called himself Don Quixote. When he found no villains or dragons to fight, he imagined windmills to be giant monsters. This novel is often used as an example when someone fights people in the wrong direction or imaginary enemies, and his war becomes meaningless and futile, as if he were fighting windmills.

The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 1880

His works have been translated into all languages ​​and have been widely adapted into films and dramas, and they had a great influence on Freud, who used to say that every idea he had in psychology had been preceded by Dostoyevsky.

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 1867

A massive novel by the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, so much so that you probably won’t be able to read it while sitting in bed holding it. This incredibly long novel is a provocative examination of history. In War and Peace, Tolstoy portrays some of the most realistic characters you will ever read. Anna Karenina has also topped many best-of lists and is recommended by critics as an enjoyable and excellent introduction to the classics for beginners. William Faulkner considered it the single greatest novel in history.

Selected Works – Anton Chekhov

Russian writer and physician Anton Chekhov is one of the best short story writers and pioneers in history, and he is also a great playwright. He practiced literature and medicine throughout his life, and he used to say that medicine is my wife and literature is my lover. The Selected Works of Chekhov is a volume of a collection of stories that have been placed on the best-selling lists in the world.

100 Years of Solitude Book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1967)

Set over six generations in a fictional village called Macindo, the novel is full of strange and magical events.

The Trial - Franz Kafka 1925

Kafka is one of the greatest Czech writers. Many of his works are listed as the best literary works, especially "The Trial", which he wrote in just one night. It is well known that Kafka's worlds are never pleasant, but often resemble nightmares from which one cannot escape. Perhaps Kafka's influence by his father's cruelty and tyranny, the psychological terror he caused him, and his weak mother's inability to protect her son from him, contributed to creating his nightmarish worlds.

Sound & the Fury - William Faulkner 1929

This novel by the American writer William Faulkner is characterized as a literary work that is not easy to digest and has different levels of consciousness and its characters are complex and complicated. Critics believe that the intense violence in this novel was aimed at rejecting violence. The time of this novel is not a traditional time, which made Sartre say: "What made Faulkner divide time in his novel and mix these parts in an unorganized manner, and why was the first window that opened to the fictional world in it narrated by an insane person?"

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf 1927

Virginia Woolf expressed in words the excitement, pain, beauty, and horror of what she called the modern age. Inspired by Proust and James Joyce, Woolf was constantly searching for new ways of expression that suited the complexities of modern consciousness, and was one of the first stream-of-consciousness writers. Most of her novels are philosophical contemplations devoid of action and dialogue. Her novel To the Lighthouse is a fictionalized version of the Woolf family's upbringing.

In fact, most lists of the greatest literary works included 100 great novels. The position of each novel on different lists varies, but there is a group of novels that no list is without. In addition to the previous ten novels, no list can be without novels such as: "1984" by George Orwell, "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov, "The Stranger" by Albert Camus, "Madame "The Great Gatsby" by Fitzgerald, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë, "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë, "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens, and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Hemingway. Perhaps in the coming years these classic books will be joined by works by contemporary writers such as José Saramago, Milan Kundera and other exceptional writers.