1. Anne Rice
   Octavia Butler
2. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
   Edgar Allan Poe

American horror pioneer and inventor of the detective story Edgar Allan Poe wrote this iconic short story, which was initially published in 1843. It centers around a murderous protagonist desperate to prove his sanity.

1. William Shakespeare
   Stephen King
2. Dante Alighieri
   Bram Stoker

This 14th-century poetic work has inspired numerous works of art over the years. In it, Dante travels through the afterlife guided by the poet Virgil.

1. J. K. Rowling
   William Shakespeare
2. Chinua Achebe
   John Steinbeck

Published first in 1998, this is the second in Rowling's world-famous Harry Potter series. At the time of its release in 2002, the film adaptation of this book was one of the highest-grossing films ever made.

1. Leo Tolstoy
   Jean-Paul Sartre
2. Oscar Wilde
   Herman Melville

This 19th-century novel is widely considered to be one of the best works of American literature. It tells the tale of Captain Ahab, who is consumed by his pursuit of the white whale Moby Dick.

1. J.D. Salinger
   Jonathan Swift
2. Sylvia Plath
   Rabindranath Tagore

This 20th-century American novel was originally written for adults but has become common reading in high school English classes across America. It follows teenage protagonist and narrator Holden Caulfield as he plays hooky in New York City.

1. Octavia Butler
   J. R. R. Tolkien
2. Salman Rushdie
   Jane Austen

This 19th-century novel is a classic novel of manners. With over 20 million copies sold, it is one of the most popular English literary works ever written.

1. Toni Morrison
   Lord Byron
2. Mary Shelley
   Ayn Rand

Published in 1987, this magical realism novel tells the story of an escaped slave. It takes place after the Civil War.

1. Napoleon Bonaparte
   Thomas Paine
2. Charles Bukowski
   Truman Capote

Published in 1971, this novel is the first written by Charles Bukowski. This autobiographical novel covers Bukowski's years working for the United States Postal Service with his signature cynical flair.

1. Marcel Proust
   J. R. R. Tolkien
2. Miguel de Cervantes
   Stephen King

"Don Quixote" is a 17th-century Spanish novel. It follows the adventures of a mentally ill nobleman out to single-handedly revive the age of knights and chivalry.

1. Ayn Rand
   George Orwell
2. Victor Hugo
   Leo Tolstoy

This 1957 philosophical fiction novel was Ayn Rand's last book. It features a dystopian America in which businesses suffer because of laws and regulations.

1. Anne Rice
   Albert Camus
2. C. S. Lewis
   Sylvia Plath

This 20th-century gothic horror novel was author Anne Rice's first novel. It is the first of a series of popular novels called "The Vampire Chronicles."

1. Homer
   James Joyce
2. Anne Rice
   Anthony Burgess

"Ulysses" is a 20th-century English modernist novel which parallels "The Odyssey." It follows one man over the course of a normal day in Dublin, Ireland.

1. R. K. Narayan
   Oscar Wilde
2. Stephen King
   Truman Capote

Stephen King is one of the most famous and prolific horror novelists of all time. In his well-known novel "Christine," a nerdy young man encounters a possessed car.

1. J. K. Rowling
   Toni Morrison
2. William Shakespeare
   Mark Twain

"Hamlet" was written between 1599 and 1601. This tragedy is one of the most famous and often performed plays of all time.

1. Sylvia Plath
   J. R. R. Tolkien
2. Margaret Atwood
   Junot Diaz

Scholar and author J. R. R. Tolkien wrote these epic high fantasy novels throughout the 1930s and 1940s. With over 150 million copies sold, they are some of the best selling books ever written.

1. Mark Twain
   James Joyce
2. Mary Shelley
   Loe Tolstoy

This 19th-century novel is considered to be one of the Great American Novels. It follows the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a poor child from St. Petersburg, Missouri.

1. Geoffrey Chaucer
   Albert Camus
2. Chinua Achebe
   Anne Rice

Albert Camus wrote this 20th-century French philosophical novel. It follows a seemingly apathetic man who commits a murder after his mother's death.

1. Suzanne Collins
   Rupi Kaur
2. E. L. James
   Margaret Atwood

This novel was published in 1985. It follows the journey of a woman living in an America overthrown by an oppressive Christian dictatorship in which biblical law is interpreted as civil law.

1. Giacomo Casanova
   F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. Homer
   R. L. Stein

This 20th-century American novel defined and encapsulated the excess and emptiness of the Jazz Age. The book is considered to be a warning about and critique of the American Dream.

1. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
   Marquis de Sade
2. Victor Hugo
   Mario Puzo

This 20th-century Colombian novel is a Nobel Prize winner. It uses magical realism to tell the intergenerational story of the Buendia family.

1. W. E. B. du Bois
   Gillian Anderson
2. Virgil
   Sylvia Plath

"The Bell Jar" is a 20th-century semi-autobiographical novel by American poet Sylvia Plath. The novel follows the protagonist's descent into mental illness and is thought to mirror Plath's own experiences, as she committed suicide shortly after the book was published.

1. Thornton Wilder
   William Shakespeare
2. Lord Byron
   Homer

Many scholars think this book was written in the 8th century BC. It is the second oldest work of western literature following the "Illiad."

1. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
   Gustave Flaubert
2. Edgar Allan Poe
   Junot Diaz

This 19th-century Russian novel was written by Dostoyevsky following 5 years of exile in Siberia. It explores a poor ex-student's "morally justifiable" killing gone wrong.

1. Stephenie Meyer
   Oscar Wilde
2. Franz Kafka
   Sophocles

Stephenie Meyer's young adult supernatural romance series "Twilight" has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and been translated into over 30 languages. In it, an everyday teen girl falls in love with a vampire.

1. J. K. Rowling
   George Eliot
2. Rabindranath Tagore
   Stephenie Meyer

In this 20th-century Bengali novel, a woman is torn between her husband and the demands of a radical leader. It takes place in India.

1. George Orwell
   Emily Bronte
2. Confucius
   Vladimir Nabokov

This 20th-century English novel is famous for its controversial subject. In it, protagonist and narrator Humbert Humbert develops a tragic obsession with his step-daughter.

1. Cao Xueqin
   Alexandre Dumas
2. Lewis Carroll
   Victor Hugo

Dumas' 19th-century novel was a huge hit when it was published and has stood the test of time. This tale of revenge was inspired by a real case of wrongful imprisonment.

1. Solomon Northup
   George Orwell
2. Sui Sin Far
   Mark Twain

In this 20th-century English novel, a terrifying totalitarian government crushes its own people while maintaining endless wars. It follows a bland civil servant's uncharacteristic acts of resistance and their consequences.

1. Lewis Carroll
   Virginia Woolf
2. Onoto Watanna
   Giacomo Casanova

This 19th-century novel was written by Oxford mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It is one of the most influential fantasy works ever written.

1. Charles Dickens
   Jean-Paul Sartre
2. Virginia Woolf
   Leo Tolstoy

This 20th-century modernist novel contains almost no dialogue or action, and mostly follows trains of thought. It is widely considered to be one of the best modern English language novels.

1. Mary Shelley
   Edgar Allan Poe
2. Joseph Conrad
   Miguel Angel Asturias

This novella is considered a critique of European attitudes regarding imperialism and colonialism. The novel's narrator and protagonist talks about a life-changing Congo River voyage he took.

1. Junot Diaz
   Danielle Steele
2. Karl Marx
   Joseph Heller

Dominican American author Junot Diaz wrote this award-winning multigenerational novel about a Dominican family which has been plagued by a curse for generations. It was published in 2007.

1. William Shakespeare
   E.L. James
2. Rupi Kaur
   James Joyce

This erotic romance novel was published in 2011. It began as "Twilight" fan fiction.

1. William Shakespeare
   Virginia Woolf
2. Dan Brown
   Octavia Butler

This time-travel and slave narrative novel was published in 1979. It is a popular book read in high school and college courses.

1. Ayn Rand
   Truman Capote
2. Frank Herbert
   Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

This 20th-century epic is the best selling sci-fi novel in the world. It deals with politics of an interstellar futuristic feudal society obsessed with "the spice."