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DeutschThe most popular books in English
from 19401 to 19600
What books are currently the most popular and which are the all time classics? Here we present you with a mixture of those two criteria. We update this list once a month.
Théophile Gautier
Romantic provocateur, flamboyant bohemian, precocious novelist, perfect poet—not to mention an inexhaustible journalist, critic, and man-about-town—Théophile Gautier is one of the major figures, and great characters, of French literature. In My Fantoms Richard Holmes, the …
Marcel Proust
In this conclusion to this section of Proust’s classic, we get to understand what he means by budding grove.’ As the summer on the beach winds down, the adolescent Proust is increasingly smitten by the young beauties his age he passes by but never gets to meet... until a …
Olivier Ka
"Peter was a populist priest. He was cool. He was funny. He was no priest, just a regular guy. It’s like I had another uncle. A great one, who laughed, who sang, who tickled. Until he took us for summer camp. Until we were so close, temptation came in the picture." Based on a …
Florian Zeller
The Catcher in the Rye with a French accent. Even if it blows your mind, I want to tell you about this unbelievable thing that happened to me last year. I’m not bragging, but things as unbelievable as the one I’m going to tell you about don’t happen every day, I swear. In fact, …
Frédérick Leboyer
The classic guide to gentle birth that revolutionized the way we welcome our children into the world. • The first book to express what mothers have always known: babies are born complete human beings with the ability to experience a full range of emotions. • Shows how gentle …
Alfred de Musset
Maître Blazius, Dame Pluche, le chœur. Le Choeur Doucement bercé sur sa mule fringante, messer Blazius s’avance dans les bluets fleuris, vêtu de neuf, l’écritoire au côté. Comme un poupon sur l’oreiller, il se ballotte sur son ventre rebondi, et les yeux à demi fermés, il …
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
Paul et Virginie is a novel by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, first published in 1788. The novel's title characters are friends since birth who fall in love. The story is set on the island of Mauritius under French rule, then named Île de France. Written on the eve of …
Tonino Benacquista
Praise for Holy Smoke, the first in the Antoine series:“A terrific black comedy …both a blasphemously funny satire of provincial Italian chicanery and a wry acknowledgment of the ambivalence that ambitious immigrants feel about their roots.”—The New York Times“Unexpected deadly …
Jean-Claude Izzo
"Izzo digs deep into what makes men weep."-Time Out New York In this moving investigation into the human comedy, the men aboard an impounded freighter in the port of Marseilles are divided: Wait for the money owed them, or accept their fate and abandon ship? Captain Abdul Aziz …
Tahar Djaout
This elegant, haunting novel takes us deep into the world of bookstore owner Boualem Yekker. He lives in a country being overtaken by the Vigilant Brothers, a radically conservative party that seeks to control every element of life according to the laws of their stringent moral …
Emile Zola
Doctor Pascal is the twentieth and final novel of the Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola, first published in June 1893 by Charpentier. Zola's plan for the Rougon-Macquart novels was to show how heredity and environment worked on the members of one family over the course of the …
Elfriede Jelinek
Lust is a novel by Austrian author Elfriede Jelinek. Originally published in German in 1989, it was translated into English in 1992 by Michael Hulse.
José Saramago
Manual of Painting and Calligraphy is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago. It was first published in 1977. An English translation by Giovanni Pontiero was published in 1993.
Georges Bernanos
Under the Sun of Satan was the first novel published by Georges Bernanos. It was #45 on Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century.
Dmitri Merezhkovski
The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci is the second novel by Dmitry Merezhkovsky, first published in 1900 by Mir Bozhy magazine, then released as a separate edition 1901. The novel constitutes the second part of the Christ and Antichrist trilogy, started by the writer's debut novel …
Ousmane Sembène
Xala is a 1973 novel by Ousmane Sembène. It is about El Hadji Abdou Kader Beye, a businessman who is struck by impotence on the night of his wedding to his third wife. It was adapted into a movie, also called Xala and directed by Sembene.
James Ellroy
Because the Night is a crime fiction novel written by James Ellroy. Released in 1984, it is the second installment of a trilogy often titled "Lloyd Hopkins Trilogy", after its main character, or "L.A Noir", after the hard-book copy that was released containing all three books in …
Patrick Modiano
La Place de l'étoile is the first novel of the French writer Patrick Modiano. It was published by Gallimard in 1968 and won the Roger Nimier Prize and Fénéon Prize. The novel, which draws on elements of autobiography, recounts the story of Raphael Schlemilovitch, a French Jew …
Peter Schneider
A smartly guided romp, entertaining and enlightening, through Europe's most charismatic and enigmatic cityIt isn't Europe's most beautiful city or its oldest. Its architecture is not more impressive than that of Rome or Paris; its museums do not hold more treasures than those in …
Georges Simenon
Maigret and the Yellow Dog is a detective novel by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon.
Herman Wouk
War and Remembrance is a novel by Herman Wouk, published in October 1978, which is the sequel to The Winds of War. It continues the story of the extended Henry family and the Jastrow family starting on 15 December 1941 and ending on 6 August 1945. This novel was adapted into the …
Jacques Derrida
Limited Inc is a 1988 book by Jacques Derrida, containing two essays and an interview. The first essay, "Signature Event Context," is about J. L. Austin's theory of the illocutionary act outlined in his How To Do Things With Words. The second essay, "Limited Inc a b c...", is …
Richard Brautigan
Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork is Richard Brautigan's ninth poetry publication. Published in 1976, the book includes 127 poems. The four line title poem discusses the effort and interest in undertaking an obviously impossible task, such as loading the liquid metal Mercury …
John Brunner
The Traveller in Black is a collection of short stories, written in a fantasy vein, by John Brunner. The first edition, titled The Traveler in Black, had four stories and was issued in 1971 in the Ace Science Fiction Specials line. Some stories were rewritten for this book. …
E. E. "Doc" Smith
Skylark Three is a science fiction novel by author Edward E. Smith, Ph.D., the second in his Skylark series. Originally serialized through the Amazing Stories magazine in 1930, it was first collected in book form in 1948 by Fantasy Press.
Claude Lévi-Strauss
The Raw and the Cooked is the first volume from Mythologiques, a structural study of Amerindian mythology written by French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. It was originally published in French as Le Cru et le Cuit. Although the book is part of a larger volume Lévi-Strauss …
Mark Behr
The Smell of Apples is a 1993 debut novel by South African Mark Behr, also published in the same year in Afrikaans as Die Reuk van Appels. Mark Behr describes the Afrikaner mentality and in apartheid South Africa as seen through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy called Marnus, the …
John Feinstein
A March to Madness: A View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference is a book written by John Feinstein. It was written about the 1996-97 Atlantic Coast Conference basketball season, chronicling each ACC school's team's season, from the first practice, to the Big Dance. …
Dale Peck
Drift House: The First Voyage is a 2005 children's novel written by Dale Peck. This was Peck's first children's book; he is best known as a polemicist reviewer, and adult novelist. In 2007 and 2008, Chicago Public Schools placed the novel on their recommended reading list for …
Edward Bernays
“Bernays’ honest and practical manual provides much insight into some of the most powerful and influential institutions of contemporary industrial state capitalist democracies.”—Noam Chomsky “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the …
Benito Pérez Galdós
Doña Perfecta is a 19th-century realist novel by Benito Pérez Galdós from what is called the first of Galdós's three epochs in his novels of social analysis.
Chris Ryan
The British Army's Special Air Service is one of the world's premier special operations units. During the Gulf War, deep behind Iraqi lines, an SAS team was compromised. A fierce firefight ensued, and the eight men were forced to run for their lives. Only one, Chris Ryan, …
John Barnes
Earth Made of Glass is a science fiction novel, the second book of the Thousand Cultures series, by John Barnes whose story is told from the perspective of a middle-aged special agent named Giraut. Earth Made of Glass examines religious extremism when two different cultures are …
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Shiloh is a Newbery Medal-winning children's novel by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor published in 1991. The 65th book by Naylor, it is the first in a trilogy about a young boy and the title character, an abused dog. Naylor decided to write Shiloh after an emotionally taxing experience …
George Santayana
The great philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist masterfully offers his fascinating outline of Aesthetics Theory. Drawing on the art, literature, and social sciences involved, Santayana discusses the nature of beauty, form, and expression.
Alfred Tennyson Tennyson
In Memoriam A.H.H. is a poem by the British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, completed in 1849. It is a requiem for the poet's beloved Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage in Vienna in 1833. Because it was written over a period of 17 …
Carole Wilkinson
Dragon Moon is a children's fantasy novel by Carole Wilkinson, first published in 2007. It is the third book of the Dragonkeeper series. The books before it are Dragonkeeper and Garden of the Purple Dragon. The trilogy, based in ancient China, during the Han Dynasty, has won …
Beverly Cleary
Sister of the Bride is a 1963 young adult novel by Beverly Cleary.
John Marsden
Checkers is a young adult novel by Australian author John Marsden. It was published in 1996 and 1998 by Houghton Mifflin and in 2000 by Laurel Leaf. It is Marsden's twelfth book.
Isaac Asimov
This book by Isaac Asimov explains in chronological order important events that happened in our world from the Big Bang until the end of World War II. Each chapter covers a certain time period. The chapter is then broken down into headings for each important empire or country of …
Irwin Shaw
Beggarman, Thief is a 1977 novel written by Irwin Shaw. It was a sequel to his 1970 bestseller Rich Man, Poor Man. The miniseries adapted from the original novel had a 1976-77 sequel entitled Rich Man, Poor Man Book II, broadcast prior to the publication of Beggarman, Thief and …
Jessica Mitford
Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford is 2006 collection of letters by Jessica Mitford. The book was edited by Peter Y. Sussman and the publisher is Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Stuart Woods
Grass Roots is the fourth novel in the Will Lee series by Stuart Woods. It was first published in 1989 by Simon & Schuster. The novel takes place in Delano Georgia, some years after the events of Deep Lie. The story continues the story of the Lee family of Delano, Georgia. …
Brian Jacques
Voyage of Slaves is the third novel in Brian Jacques' Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series. It was released on September 13, 2006 in the UK and September 14, 2006 in the US. Ben is at first separated from Ned, previously known as Den, when their adrift boat is found by slave …
Gordon R. Dickson
The Dragon Knight is the second book of Gordon R. Dickson's Dragon Knight series. The novel begins five months after the battle at Loathly Tower which took place in The Dragon and The George.
Buzz Aldrin
Encounter With Tiber is a 1996 science fiction novel written by former astronaut Buzz Aldrin and science fiction writer John Barnes. A working title, used on some advance covers for the British edition, was The Tides of Tiber.
Mark Chadbourn
World's End is a novel written by British author Mark Chadbourn and is the first in the Age of Misrule trilogy. It was first published in Great Britain by Millennium on 14 September 2000. An edition collecting all three books in The Age of Misrule series was published in Great …
Danielle Steel
Honor Thyself is a novel written by Danielle Steel and published by Random House in February 2008. The book is Steel's 74th best-selling novel.
Earl Derr Biggers
The House Without a Key is a novel that was written in 1925 by Earl Derr Biggers. It is the first of the Charlie Chan mysteries written by Biggers. The novel, which takes place in 1920s Hawaiʻi, spends time acquainting the reader with the look and feel of the islands of that era …
Paul Elliott Russell
The Coming Storm is a 1999 novel by Paul Russell. The Coming Storm is set on the campus of a boys' University-preparatory school in upstate New York. Tracy Parker, a 25-year-old, is hired as an English teacher by the headmaster Louis Tremper. Tracy has a sexual relationship with …
John Stuart Mill
The Subjection of Women is the title of an essay written by John Stuart Mill in 1869, possibly jointly with his wife Harriet Taylor Mill, stating an argument in favour of equality between the sexes. At the time it was published in 1869, this essay was an affront to European …
Francisco Coloane
"These stories, well translated from the Spanish, describe the severe beauty and cruelty of southern Chile—cold, inhospitable, full of craggy, treacherous channels—the end of the world. As in Jack London’s stories, the environment forms a crucible in which man’s true—or perhaps …
Colin Wilson
The Space Vampires is a British science fiction horror novel written by author Colin Wilson, and first published in England and the United States by Random House in 1976. This is Wilson's fifty-first book. It is about the remnants of a race of intergalactic vampires who are …
Joseph Gangemi
Inamorata is a 2004 novel by American novelist and screenwriter Joseph Gangemi. The book was released on January 22, 2004 through Viking Adult and focuses on the investigation of Mina Crandon, a spiritualist from, the 1920s. Film rights for Inamorata were purchased in 2006 by …
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
An educator and writer, Sarmiento was President of Argentina from 1868 to 1874. His Facundo is a study of the Argentine character, a prescription for the modernization of Latin America, and a protest against the tyranny of the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas (1835-1852). The …
Alifa Rifaat
More convincingly than any other woman writing in Arabic today, Alifa Rifaat, an Egyptian, lifts the veil on what it means to be a woman living within a traditional Muslim society. Her writing articulates a subtle revolt against, and a sympathetic insight into, the place of …
Mark Twain
Tom Sawyer Abroad is a novel by Mark Twain published in 1894. It features Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in a parody of adventure stories like those of Jules Verne.
César Aira
New in the New Directions Pearls series: an extremely rich mad scientist attempts to clone a leading genius in a bid to take over the world. César is a translator who’s fallen on very hard times due to the global economic downturn; he is also an author, and a mad scientist …
T. Coraghessan Boyle
Greasy Lake is a collection of short stories by T. Coraghessan Boyle published in 1985 by Viking Press.
Fouad Ajami
The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq is a book by Fouad Ajami.
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
The Healer's War is a 1988 science fiction novel by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1989. Although perhaps best known for her lightly humorous fantasies and collaborations with Anne McCaffrey on the Petaybee series and the Acorna series, …
Cherie Bennett
Searching for David's Heart is a young-adult novel by Cherie Bennett. The author is a screenwriter, novelist, playwright, and columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune and other Copley newspapers.
V. C. Andrews
Eye of the Storm is a book published in 2000 that was written by Andrew Neiderman.
Plato
The collected dialogues of Plato is a book written by Plato.
Ruth Rendell
The Killing Doll is a novel by British writer Ruth Rendell, first published in 1984.
Graham Greene
A Sort of Life is the first volume of autobiography by British novelist Graham Greene, first published in 1971.
Barbara Neely
Blanche on the Lam is a mystery novel by author Barbara Neely. Blanche on the Lam is the first in a series by Barbara Neely. This novel brings to light the intelligence and power of an African-America domestic female worker in the midst of a racist and sexist society. The book …
Karl Popper
The Open Society and Its Enemies is a work on political philosophy by Karl Popper, a critique of theories of teleological historicism in which history unfolds inexorably according to universal laws. Popper criticizes and indicts as totalitarian Plato, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich …
Alisa M. Libby
Drawn from the true story of a seventeenth-century countess who bathed herself in human blood to preserve her looks forever, this chilling novel, combining gothic horror and romance, follows beautiful Erzebet, as she tells the story of her life while waiting to be sentenced for …
Brian Ruckley
Third and concluding book in Brian Ruckley's The Godless World fantasy series.
Patricia Highsmith
This Sweet Sickness is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith, about an insane young man who is obsessed with his ex-lover.
Laura Anne Gilman
Flesh and Fire is the first book in The Vineart War trilogy by Laura Anne Gilman. The story follows a slave named Jerzy, who is taken into an apprenticeship to become a Vineart. In the course of his studies his master becomes concerned by reports of attacks on Vinearts and sends …
John Marco
The Grand Design is a book published in 2000 that was written by John Marco.
David J. Williams
The Mirrored Heavens is a science fiction novel by David J. Williams. This is the author's debut novel, and the first volume in his Autumn Rain trilogy, which continues with The Burning Skies and The Machinery Of Light. The story begins in the year 2110 where global political …
Nawal El Saadawi
Mudhakkirātī fī sijn al-nisāʼ is a book written by Nawal El Saadawi.
William S. Burroughs
Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs is a collection of diary entries made by Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs between November 16, 1996 and July 30, 1997, only a few days before his death on August 2 at the age of 83. The collection was first …
William T. Vollmann
You Bright and Risen Angels is a 1987 novel by William T. Vollmann, detailing a fictional war between insects and the forces of modern civilization. Vollmann described the book, his first, as "an allegory in part", inspired by his experiences with the mujahedeen in Afghanistan. …
Paul J. McAuley
The Quiet War is over. The city states of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, founded by descendants of refugees from Earth’s repressive regimes, the Outers, have fallen to the Three Powers Alliance of Greater Brazil, the European Union, and the Pacific Community. A century of …
Kingsley Amis
Colonel Sun is a novel by Kingsley Amis published by Jonathan Cape on 28 March 1968 under the pseudonym "Robert Markham". Colonel Sun is the first James Bond continuation novel published after Ian Fleming's 1964 death. Before writing the novel, Amis wrote two other Bond related …
Daniel Keys Moran
The Last Dancer is a book published in 1993 that was written by Daniel Keys Moran.
Steph Swainston
The Modern World is a fantasy/science fiction novel by Steph Swainston and is the sequel to the critically acclaimed The Year of Our War and No Present Like Time. The Modern World is published as Dangerous Offspring in the USA. The first chapter of The Modern World is available …
Frank Conroy
Stop-Time, published in 1967, is a memoir by American author Frank Conroy, and tells the story of his poor childhood and early adulthood, growing up in New York City and Florida. Focusing on a series of moments from his life, the book combines traditional fictional devices such …