The Greatest Books of All Time RANKED

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The internet has compiled what the people believe to be the 23 greatest pieces of literature ever written. Since, unlike the internet, I've actually read a lot of literature, I will be the ultimate judge of these works.
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[@lucacerasuolo6606]

The Brothers Karamazov is conspicuously absent.

[@MikeDindu]

Safe to assume he didn’t rate every book he thinks highly of. Also, this a list of books he was given to rate anyway.

[@Dude0000]

​@@MikeDinduyeah, they're from a list on the internet. As he said...

[@esar71]

Was coming here to say the same thing

[@esar71]

@@MikeDinduyes, it's still absent

[@BourbonandBullets600]

@@esar71 We all had the same thought, I guess, when he raved about Crime and Punishment, with Brothers K being such a far superior novel (yes, I know he’s reading from a list, but still…)

[@Keverember]

Don’t get me wrong, I love Klavan’s political insight, but I’d be thrilled if we just got an hour of his cultural commentary every week. His opinions on literature, art, film, and Christianity are primary reasons why I tune in every week. Well, that and to remember how to spell Klavan.

[@Meyer-gp7nq]

There are no Es in Klavan

[@Keverember]

@@Meyer-gp7nq he just makes it look this easy

[@jedwards0730]

Same, I feel like he’d be able to reach a larger audience as well. I watch a lot of book KZbinrs, and klavan could easily be the best if he focused more on the arts. Also be away to help more subtlety influence people into the ideals of conservatism

[@calebklingerman7902]

To be honest, I could do without his political opinions. His cultural insights are 10/10

[@samm8190]

AND SO SAY ALL OF US!!!!

[@randalwon]

The list with timestamps 0:59 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 1:21 1984 by George Orwell 1:57 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes 2:20 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 2:45 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 3:16 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 3:47 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 4:23 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 4:38 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 6:18 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 6:45 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 7:12 Moby-dick by Herman Melville 7:54 The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 8:31 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 8:44 Beloved by Toni Morrison 8:56 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 9:17 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger 9:31 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas 9:52 The Odyssey by Homer 10:00 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 10:16 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 10:37 The Iliad by Homer 10:48 Ulysses by James Joyce

[@skysurfer5cva]

I've read not quite half of the books on this list. The three that stand out for me as the best are 1984, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Of those that I have read, I rank The Great Gatsby at the bottom. I didn't like it all. That being said, I very much prefer non-fiction to fiction and some of the best are written as well as or better than the best fiction pieces. Among my favorites are: -- The Guns of August, A Distant Mirror (Barbare Tuchman) -- Nine April Days (Burke Davis) -- Iron Men and Saints, The Flame of Islam (Harold Lamb) -- The Last Lion (William Manchester) and most of his other works, -- Mr. Lincoln's Army, Glory Road, and A Stillness at Appomattox (Bruce Catton) -- The Storm Before the Storm (Mike Duncan) -- Seeing in the Dark (Timothy Ferris) -- The Messier Objects (Stephen James O'Meara) and the rest of this series -- The Physicist (C.P. Snow) -- The Pinball Effect (James Burke) I have many other non-fiction favorites, but they aren't within reach of my home computer. 🙂

[@michaeltellurian825]

Thanks!

[@EdwardPigg-ji4yy]

I really don’t enjoy this list or most of the “classics”. I think a lot them are overrated. As far as I’m concerned, the list needs to be updated. What is the youngest book on the list? Did “classics” stopped being written in the late twentieth century?

[@michaeltellurian825]

@@EdwardPigg-ji4yy The term "classics" refers to older works, so something written 10 years ago is not a classic...at least not yet. Maybe 50 or a hundred years from now it will be. But your take on these books is fair, in my opinion. For instance, The Great Gatsby is not an enjoyable book to read. All of the characters are despicable and the story isn't uplifting or ennobling. However, the technical skill by which it was written is remarkable. Doubly true for Nabokov's work. Pure genius with the language, which btw, English is not his first language. I can't stand Catcher in the Rye and many of the stories from that era reflect a social existence that I find extremely self-centered. My point is, you're not wrong! I have enjoyed the books on this list quite a bit overall, but I get where you're coming from.

[@Chadinaa]

Nixorus - where secret books await (you can thank me later).

[@milanberghout9854]

Care to explain why its worth my money?

[@Naruto_Uzumaki315]

@@milanberghout9854 There are a few things that are not mainstream, if it's not expensive for you, I recommend it.

[@epistemictumor]

@@milanberghout9854because it’s free! hope that helps ❤

[@epistemictumor]

@@milanberghout9854because it’s free! hope that helps ❤

[@alanrichardson1816]

No...

[@polvoazul]

War and Peace is so, so, so good. It seems more real than reality itself. Tolstoi is on another level

[@TheRealRenAmamiya]

That's right, Russian authors are some of the best

[@polvoazul]

@@TheRealRenAmamiya Curiously, I've read Dostoyevski (borthers karamazov, crime and punishment, the gambler), and I just couldn't like it. You can't say I haven't tried! To be fair, The Gambler was fun.

[@TheRealRenAmamiya]

@@polvoazul oh, you should try the Idiot. That's a nice book

[@pattube]

The Count of Monte Cristo is underrated! It's like a 1000 pages long but it moves so fast. Beware abridged editions which are everywhere (and even though they're still like 500-600 pages), especially in the older translations. Unless you can read French, get the Robin Buss translation. It's the best in English. Interestingly there's both a miniseries and a film coming out this year. 😊 Edit. If you love The Count of Monte Cristo and you also love science fiction, see Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination which is a fun sci-fi version of The Count of Monte Cristo.

[@Alicthewriter]

I'm so happy somebody said it. Such a great novel.

[@Dude0000]

William S Burroughs 'Junky' is in my top ten, but that's relatability the rest of his and his contemporaries did nothing for me, . C&P is above everything I've read, but I have Brother's Karimozov to read as well as The Grand Inquisitor. Notes from underground' blew me away, and that is considered lesser of his works. Edit never been more disappointed by a writer than Hunter S Thompson, and his end proved my intuition based on the books I read, correct

[@johanponken]

The Stars My Destination - I know it as 'Tiger! Tiger!' Oh, man, I have to read it again. Thanks for reminding me.

[@-M05]

Agreed. I feel like it is relatively unknown by a lot of people nowadays, but it became my personal favorite book.

[@patricklewis9787]

I remember being in like 7th grade reading it. Not even as well read as I’d like to be but it was just that easy to get into

[@trevornewman4942]

This should be a series so that we get a definitive Andrew Klavan ranking over time.

[@heatherclifton6543]

We need a Klavan book club. Maybe monthly for all of us slow readers.

[@Video81501]

I "read" audio books because I'm a slow reader.

[@-M05]

Agreed. I remember Ben did a book club (not sure how that went since I wasn’t a part of it), but a Klavan book club seems like a no-brainer.

[@Art-is-craft]

@@Video81501 If you are a slow reader start with small light novel. But pick those that are of a very high quality. Audiobooks are really no different from tv,film or games. Books are unique and very few people get to experience them. Also finding good quality short stories is a way to learn reading.

[@warribe]

Yes, id like that

[@branrx]

On that note, does anyone know of a Conservative Book Club or person to follow on new books? Everything, I mean everything out there from Oprah to NYT is so heavily liberal biased.

[@thejohnsonshomeschooljohns7815]

My husband appreciates you rereading The Lord of the Rings. He looks forward to your retraction and apology as it takes its rightful place in the S tier.

[@brookeanderson9211]

This made me chuckle

[@kierankehoe2275]

Totally agree, I’ve tried reading that book at least 3 times now and just can’t figure out what people see in it. I’ve read most of the books on this list and GG would definitely be in last of what I’ve read. Other than that, really good list. I would have had The Brothers K and Blood Meridian on it, but no list is perfect

[@mrp4242]

S Tier for sure, with The Count of Monte Cristo. Meanwhile, I put the Great Gatsby in the C tier down by Moby Dick.

[@johnrusche8256]

I thoroughly enjoyed the first 5 minutes of each and every Lord of the Rings Movies. I tried to read the Hobbit. Who are these creatures and does anybody care what happens to them?

[@MCharlesPainting]

@@johnrusche8256 Everybody cares, if you're into a more personalised Jungian story. It's the hero's journey done perfectly. He literally comes back with new wisdom and gold to revitalise the state (village) (the beginning, you know, is that he ventures from the safety of his green valley into the unknown). The Lord of the Rings has driven me towards Christianity more than any other thing. Its greatest piece of single insight, for me, was the notion that 'despair is a sin' (the line is, 'despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.').

[@johnhenryweber665]

I want a Klavan book club and discussion group.

[@anutaNYC]

Excellent idea

[@Disastatron]

Absolutely. They gave Walsh a judge show ffs, they should definitely give Drew a book show!

[@NMemone]

​@@DisastatronShapiro had (has?) a book club. Klavan deserves that 1000% more.

[@wwpjd28]

Knowles still does his book club each month. So there is always that one. Would be fun if Daily Wire did an actual interactive one though on the Daily Wire app. Maybe a focused video to kick it off (like Knowles does with a different guest for each book) and then a chat conversation with him or someone else to discuss the books as a group.

[@Will_GM_for_Food]

So, three of his S-tier are by Russian authors. He put the Lord of the Rings in the A-tier. Therefore, Klavan is clearly a spreader of Russian misinformation. Heck, he probably even knows how to spell Klavan.

[@kierankehoe2275]

Lol, and the amazing thing is he doesn’t even have the greatest Russian novel of all time, the Brothers K, as an option to choose from

[@franciscomap75]

@@kierankehoe2275disagree, crime and punishment is the better novel

[@hajime6908]

love Russian classic literature. The best tbh

[@hegeliankid1226]

@@franciscomap75Discipline and punish even better

[@kierankehoe2275]

@@franciscomap75 love that book too. I reckon we can just agree to disagree

[@et99366]

The instant dismissal of Morrison's Beloved is drenched in irony. Every other piece gets its time or rationalization where she is just an overrated black woman. As someone who has read all the novels mentioned (barring War and Peace), I wholeheartedly disagree, but at the end of the day, it's just 1 guy's opinion equal to mine.

[@mbb--]

Yeah, that was not a good look on Klavan's part. That's impressive that you've read all but one. What's your favorite?

[@et99366]

@@mbb-- Don Quixote, I love the work and de Cervantes' story

[@zacharywoltanski4285]

Aside from having read the books listed, this guy has basically no good judgement as for literature. His takes are consistently terrible and he knows very little about the writers of which he talks. Gertrude Stein was actually a prolific novelist (“I don’t think she ever wrote a novel”) and was a fundamental influence on virtually all of our greatest modern novelists (Hemingway and Beckett wouldn’t exist without her). How can you dismiss Moby Dick and love Ulysses? How can you miss the fact that the adventure story is the least important part of the novel? How is The Count of Monte Cristo, a notoriously terrible dime novel, besides Tolstoy? Why isn’t Invisible Man in S or A tier, when it is the quintessential American postmodern novel?

[@jpm5205]

He put Count of Monte Cristo written by Alexandre Dumas, a black man, and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, in the S Tier. He's calling balls and strikes and he's right.

[@mbb--]

@@jpm5205 What does the placement of those two books have to do with the fact that he didn't give reasons for Beloved's placement like he did for the others?

[@calebklingerman7902]

Dostoyevsky, Dickens, Tolkien. That’s the peak of literature. Specifically, “The Brothers Karamazov,” “A Christmas Carol,” and “The Lord of the Rings.” “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson gets the honorable mention

[@mcco0717]

Correct authors but you got the wrong book for Dickens. David Copperfield or Nicholas Nickleby run circles around Christmas Carol.

[@calebklingerman7902]

I love Nicholas Nickelby. True to Dicken’s form, it is absolutely hilarious without seeming to try. But A Christmas Carol is extremely packed with meaning, yet is a very short read. When you say Nicholas Nickelby runs circles around it, that is because it takes ten times longer to have as much of an impact.

[@TheTastefulThickness]

i hated treasure island. read it for summer reading as a child.

[@matthewgallant3622]

I love Tolkien but I think Mark Twain is superior. Tolkien to me is probably the greatest storyteller at least of the 20th century, but not the greatest novelist.

[@zacharywoltanski4285]

Proust, Joyce, Melville, Beckett and Sterne I’d put above them.

[@AdamSappenfield]

I was waiting for Aldous Huxley to appear on there but I was left unfulfilled. "Brave New World" was the first book to ever peak my interest, therefore, I believe it totally rules.

[@Scottlp2]

It is a great book. However I was in a book club and the people who choose that book to read had trouble getting through it. I suspect because it was written long time ago and the first 50 pgs are exposition which can be hard to get through. This Perfect Day by Ira Levin is 90% as good and written more recently so an easier read.

[@tgpeeler]

pique

[@carlosimotti3933]

@@Scottlp2 nah it's a very smooth read. Maybe they weren't interested enough on the subject to put that little effort in abstraction to visualize its world into their minds. Not that it's so hard, given that it's one inch away from today's reality...

[@livinginsidegemses]

I find Aldous Huxley to be overrated by people with a certain specific ideology who almost always hate george orwell books.... Yeah i get the fact that it's a good book, but isn't even close to 1984 and much less popular to be on this tierlist anyway.

[@tgpeeler]

@@AdamSappenfield pique

[@willieluncheonette5843]

"Just a single man, Fyodor Dostoevsky, is enough to defeat all the creative novelists of the world. If one has to decide on 10 great novels in all the languages of the world, one will have to choose at least 3 novels of Dostoevsky in those 10. Dostoevsky’s insight into human beings and their problems is greater than your so-called psychoanalysts, and there are moments where he reaches the heights of great mystics. His book BROTHERS KARAMAZOV is so great in its insights that no BIBLE or KORAN or GITA comes close. In another masterpiece of Dostoevsky, THE IDIOT, the main character is called ‘idiot’ by the people because they can’t understand his simplicity, his humbleness, his purity, his trust, his love. You can cheat him, you can deceive him, and he will still trust you. He is really one of the most beautiful characters ever created by any novelist. The idiot is a sage. The novel could just as well have been called THE SAGE. Dostoevsky’s idiot is not an idiot; he is one of the sanest men amongst an insane humanity. If you can become the idiot of Fyodor Dostoevsky, it is perfectly beautiful. It is better than being cunning priest or politician. Humbleness has such a blessing. Simplicity has such benediction."

[@williamredding4448]

I have a fondness for "A Tale of Two Cities" because it was the first novel I ever read. Thank you Mrs. Faye!

[@luthersmen]

Gone with the Wind I think is one of the best novels ever, but the Count of monte Cristo is the best.

[@tristanhallmark2724]

Thank you for correctly categorizing the count of monte cristo

[@whofan129]

Surprised Middlemarch didn't get a mention. It is often referred to as "the greatest English novel."

[@LarryKnipfing]

Adam Bede is a great book.

[@briancox9357]

Middlemarch is such a great novel. I've read it several times.

[@rogerpropes7129]

"Silas Marner' (along with 'David Copperfield') is a perfect novel, which is different from being a great novel.

[@mesenteria]

The Plays and Tragedies of Sophocles, The Aeneid, The Peloponnesian War, The Bible, and The Comedia Divina.

[@KissellMissile]

I've never quite understood why the Aeneid is considered such a classic.

[@alexm8859]

@@KissellMissilebecause it’s a foundational piece of literature regardless of your opinion on it.

[@eskybakzu712]

@@KissellMissile Because it literally provided the foundational myth of the Roman empire.

[@KisekiGamer1]

Kinda surprised not to see Brothers Karamazov there.

[@gainednevadastab9439]

Yeah, very surprised. For me, if Crime & Punishment is an S, Brothers Karamazov is an easy S+.

[@CB-fz3li]

Ulysses is the definition of a book that is universally lauded but barely read.

[@Tolstoy111]

It's fantastic. Very much worth the effort.

[@miguel.a.d.6078]

Because it's booooring 🥱

[@Tolstoy111]

@@miguel.a.d.6078 it’s hilarious. And in the end moving.

[@miguel.a.d.6078]

@@Tolstoy111 It's a great book...but boring 😉

[@Tolstoy111]

@@miguel.a.d.6078 I did not find it boring

[@soap7737]

The dismissal of Beloved by saying that it’s only praised because she’s black is such a gross reduction of Morrisons writing. Terrible.

[@soap7737]

Oh wow. Daily wire. It all makes sense now. Fuck this guy.

[@Disastatron]

I have been reading books consistently since I was 17 and the only one of these I have read is 1984. I am going to take the initiative and make this a book bucket list. Thank you Drew! ETA, 1984 is my S tier novel. I read in different stages of my life and it always hits just little bit different each time.

[@polvoazul]

Man. Read Tolstoi. It is insanelly good.

[@polvoazul]

Also: If This Is a Man, by primo levi.

[@Le_Samourai]

How old are you? What have you been reading?

[@Disastatron]

@@Le_Samourai Old and everything else. Sometimes fiction sometimes non. I went through some of Dawkins, all of Hitchens, some Hume, all pre 2000's King books. Many Koontz. Huxley. I read a lot apocalypse and zombie books because they are just entertaining. Many many individual books.

[@Le_Samourai]

@@Disastatron well I’m glad ur diving into the western canon. Some of my favs are War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, Pride and Prejudice, and Moby-Dick. If you want a bucket list, look into Harold Bloom’s western canon list (the short version, it’s 28 authors I think)

[@thorsong1]

I hate the Great Gatsby. I cannot understand why people love it so much.

[@lawdogwales5921]

Agreed.

[@jimluebke3869]

Is it the words, or the message?

[@Frankincensedjb123]

I can understand why, but only from a purely intellectual POV. I read it in college, or, I should say, slugged through it. Glad I read it but won't be reading it again or writing home about it.

[@brookeanderson9211]

Same

[@everydaffodil5344]

This hurts my soul to read. Fitzgerald’s prose are normally sensational, but in Gatsby they are off the freaking charts. To me it is the best American novel.

[@KissellMissile]

Tolkien I believe is one of the greatest late modern philosophers. The LOTR is a critique of Modernity from the perspective of a Medievalist, which Tolkien was. It's not a postmodern critique though, which is why they hate it.

[@matthewgallant3622]

While it’s subtly true, Tolkien did come out and say the books were not meant to be topical, but just enjoyed as a great story. Many questioned if they were satirical of WW2, which you could make that argument, but it wasn’t his intent.

[@AntillesFilms]

The Scouring of the Shire chapter is probably his most explicit cultural critique, denouncing the destruction inherent in centralized power structures like communism.

[@susancole6793]

I agree that Andrew should do more book and movie reviews. I really want him to do a writers conference with Spencer and Faith( I would be Ok with an appearance by Ben)

[@jimluebke3869]

Bishop Barron got his start online doing movie reviews.

[@hiramnoone]

Wish Klavan would rank books by category and genre, like Thrillers, Westerns, Classics, Horror, Mystery etc.

[@EricusXIV]

Brothers Karamazov is the best book ever written.

[@mattaardsma8245]

My favorite book is "The Silmarillion". I devoured that book. That's the kind of freak I am.

[@linathorn6462]

SAMMMEEE! I read it three times in one week, I could hardly put it down. Even now after like 8 full read throughs I still discover so much new information in it.

[@marvin_meza]

Oh you FREAKY freaky

[@DoctorFabio23]

LOTR is S, always.

[@Disastatron]

I hope it is. I tried reading the Hobbit once and didn't like it.

[@johnny12022]

Yeah, it's "wordy" because it's written to be read aloud, almost like an epic poem.

[@NMemone]

​@@DisastatronI tried reading The Hobbit many years ago and found it so dull it was practically unreadable. I decided to give LOTR a try before the movies came out and could hardly put the books down. Absolutely fantastic, enthralling storytelling. Don't let The Hobbit get between you and Tolkien's masterpiece! Btw after loving LOTR so much I thought maybe I should try The Hobbit again but nope. Still ha ted it.

[@Art-is-craft]

@@johnny12022 It is wordy because it is a complex deep story.

[@s1nn1ck]

Yes, and don't forget about Harry Potter.

[@pattube]

As he says in the video, this list was given to Andrew Klavan, it's not his own list. If this was his own list, it's absolutely certain at least one Shakespeare play would be on it. 😊

[@mikwcas5110]

"A Tale of Two Cities" is the most wonderful novel I've ever read. IT is the perfect story.

[@jimluebke3869]

It's the most over-the-top sentimental presentation of Peterson's emphasis on sacrifice.

[@pattube]

I love Crime and Punishment (C&P) too! 😊 One of my all time favorites! 1. I only read a bit of Russian, really at the level of a tiny human, aka child, in fact, so I have had to read Dostoevsky in translation. I first read C&P in the Oliver Ready translation, which was amazing, but the Michael Katz translation is also awesome. Generally speaking, I think Katz is better if you prefer American English, Ready if British English. But both are excellent translations. 2. Personally, I find both Ready and Katz far better than the more popular Pevear and Volokhonsky or the older, though still good Constance Garnett. That said, if you like prim and proper Victorian-Edwardian English and sensibilities, then Garnett can be good. Even though Dostoevsky lived in the Victorian era, and he loved Victorian English writers like Charles Dickens, Dostoevsky was almost anything but the stereotypical English Victorian. On the one hand, I'll always be thankful for Garnett (and the husband-wife team of the Maudes) bringing so much of the best of Russian literature to the English speaking world. On the other hand, Garnett is known to have simply elided bits of Russian she didn't quite understand and as such some of Dostoevsky is missing in translation. 3. For P&V problems, see "The Peaverization of Russian Literature" (I think it's called) by Gary Saul Morson, who has also been on the Al Mohler show as well as a couple of other similar podcasts, as well as "Pevear and Volokhonsky are indeed overrated" by John McWhorter. There's also a good article over on First Things about Pevear and Volokhonsky issues, but unfortunately, I can't remember the author or title and I can't be bothered to Google. 4. In Russia, Dostoevsky's greatest works are informally known as his Pentateuch: Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov (which was meant to be the first half of a huge two part work but Dostoevsky died before the second half), Notes from Underground, The Idiot, and The Demons (which uncannily all but predicted the Russian revolution and all the evil and bloodshed that would follow, I suppose it was good that Dostoevsky didn't live to see his terrible predictions come to pass). His short stories "White Nights" and "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" are also worth reading. 5. It's an understatement to say Dostoevsky had an incredibly hard life. That doesn't begin to describe all the suffering he endured. See Joseph Frank's biography which is the best biography of Dostoevsky. However, unless you have a lot of time to read, know it's a super long multi-volume work; I'd recommend his own shorter one volume version, which is still like 1000 pages in length. Briefly, Dostoevsky was born and grew up in a hospital for the poor. He lived and grew up seeing sick and dying patients. His father likely was murdered by peasants, and that's quite likely why murder and even patricide are often main plot points and central themes in his writings such as in The Brothers Karamazov. As a young man, he was almost executed for treason against the tsar because he participated in a revolutionary group, though the worst he did in this group was make inflammatory remarks. At the last minute, just as he (alongside his compatriots) was blind-folded and about to be shot dead by a firing squad, the execution was called off. It had been a mock execution to put the fear of the tsar into the revolutionaries as well as to witness the tsar's mercy. Instead Dostoevsky was sent off to Siberia for something like almost a decade of his life living and working in abysmal conditions that would make Dickens's worst described social ills in England look like child's play. Dostoevsky also had his first wife and at least one child die (e.g. his 3 year old son Alyosha whom he loved with his whole life fell off a tall building and died). It may say something that Dostoevsky would name his worst characters "Fyodor" and his best characters "Alyosha". In any case, Dostoevsky was an increasingly committed and devout Russian Orthodox Christian later in his life, though far from a godly man (e.g. he possibly had an affair, he struggled with a gambling addiction, he was very anti-Semitic, which was sadly commonplace in Europe and Russia at the time and even the affable Dickens had Fagin and the coming popularity of The Protocols of the Elders was not far off).

[@samuelchristie570]

I read a review of Chekhov stories by Pevear and Volokonsky in First Things that cracked me up. The whole article was praising Chekhov(who I adore) and talking him up and quoting him. Then it ends with saying “don’t get this translation! It sucks”

[@jimluebke3869]

I actually read the introduction to _The Idiot,_ which included information about the character of Myshkin in an early draft. Apparently he started out as a cad who wanted to reform. This leads me to believe that the whole book is an exploration of the theme, "OK, so if a guy could love as purely as _Jesus Christ Himself_ could he love two women at the same time without things going horribly wrong?" The whole "what would Jesus do, 19th century Russia edition" was just something he kept filling chapters with because his audience loved it.

[@rogerpropes7129]

I knew a Russian immigrant Jew who said that Pasternak was much superior to Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsen, both of whom I have read but not P. All I can say is that the movie of Zhivago is my favorite after Godfather.

[@tonyzahn4361]

I was getting upset that Monte Cristo wasn't on anyone's list but we finally made it

[@paladin1726]

We who love the Count of Monte Cristo are very passionate about its rightful praise.

[@eddiejc1]

​@@paladin1726I look forward to reading it. The bad comments on this page seem to come from people who think "adventure books" shouldn't be considered.

[@mediamaniac898]

LOTR is one I read EVERY YEAR. Each fall, much like a Hobbit, I feel that call.

[@steveburke7675]

I read DUNE every year....all 6.

[@Franzstrauss1972]

I had never watched before a video of this guy, I speak spanish and I can not communicate in English because I don't understand what I hear, but I hear this man's voice and I can understand perfectly, he has great pronunciation ❤

[@elishevajones6730]

The Old Man and the Sea.

[@Art-is-craft]

Excellent book but not on the internet list.

[@cwr8618]

Reading this right now

[@Ivalice_Dshunter]

How could anybody not LOVE that book!

[@tbarrelier]

Totally agree. It is almost scriptural in its simplicity and beauty of story.

[@JTM1809]

Amazing, but short. It’s a novella, not a full fledged novel. If we’re talking novellas, TOMATS would be in my top 10 together with Stefan Zweig’s Chess, The Little Prince by de Saint-Exupèry and a couple of others.

[@masterasher1048]

The Gulags Archipelago by Alxandr Zolsenitsyn Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

[@Digital_PeterGriffin]

When I’m at a book store I pull up JPs reading list and see if they have anything I don’t have

[@masterasher1048]

@@Digital_PeterGriffin JPs reading list are great read.

[@rogerpropes7129]

I know Russian woman who agrees with you about Bulgakov, but I didn't read it. IMO 'The First Circle' is much better than Gulag.

[@rogerpropes7129]

I think people skip over Solzhenitsen simply because he is hard to spell, as they do about Russian names in general.

[@GregoryWhite-dc1tw]

I totally agree with you about The Master and Margarita. I love Dead Souls as well...

[@thefilmeffect6089]

No Blood Meridian? You can’t have a list of greatest books without Cormac McCarthy.

[@stephenglasse2743]

well you can if you're only dealing with the top 20!

[@josepha.r5839]

@@stephenglasse2743 Personally, I would put in among my top 20.

[@stephenglasse2743]

@@josepha.r5839 yeah, maybe I would as well. But considering the amount of great novels that plausibly deserve a top 20 place (10 from Russia alone probably!) it's not that controversial to leave it out.

[@josepha.r5839]

@@stephenglasse2743 Yes.

[@JTM1809]

I’ve read a handful of McCarthy’s novels, and he’s in a sense like Joyce, putting almost undue emphasis on style and effect. In my opinion, the greatest authors write complex books with immense depth, but the complexity doesn’t smack one in the face. It’s there, it’s hidden for the attentive reader to discover it. Joyce and McCarthy are in one’s face: Joyce with his riddles, McCarthy with his unanchored POV and strange sentence structure. It’s added complexity, in a sense it’s trying too hard. Don’t get me wrong, it’s clever and I enjoyed it, those are great books, but true genius lies elsewhere.

[@Tolstoy111]

Great Expectations is absolutely Dickens at his best. But “The Brothers Karamazov” is the big absence here. And Middlemarch

[@michaelnewsham1412]

Absolutely agree

[@Trejova]

Wait no Hemingway!? “For Whom the Bell Tolls” doesn’t make the list? I know it’s not Klavan’s fault, he didn’t make the list, but the internet is broken again.

[@rpg7287]

Agree completely. And that is his best work.

[@jimluebke3869]

Klavan probably would have included at least one Dashiell Hammett too. Maybe he specifically held himself back.

[@Neaptide184]

Was surprised to find I have read 20 of these…. Also surprised that most of them were read while before I graduated from college, and as best I can remember, 12 were required reading in high school. Saddened that studies show most high school students today have not read a single book.

[@500ccRabbit]

9:24 the magic of the catcher in the rye is that it is a book that only makes sense when you are young. As a kid it was my favorite book, as an adult I could not connect with it, and that is part of the experience.

[@Hanniba1Ch0w]

That Hideous Strength deserves to be included in this list, or at the very least honorably mentioned. It's one of the most prophetic novels of the 20th century, and Lewis' cosmology is a great antidote for our modern materialist view of the universe

[@Meyer-gp7nq]

YES. I love sci-fi and CS Lewis, so that book was one of my favorites when I read it

[@jimluebke3869]

It shows both the strengths and weaknesses of allegory though. The underlying message is great, but a lot of bits -- with Merlin and such -- get really weird.

[@neiliusflavius]

​@@jimluebke3869I felt the other books, particularly Perelandra, worked better because they weren't trying to fit the weirdness into the everyday world.

[@MicahMicahel]

Good in that it reflects what we are going through now but I think it's the weakest of the trilogy. I like Out of the Silent Planet the most. When We Had Faces is my favourite C.S. Lewis

[@NF12222]

Having recently taken a bigger interest in reading and writing, I love these Klavan segments! It's refreshing having a conservative figure discuss literature.

[@comeacross9]

"Catch 22" Joseph Heller "Blood Meridian" Cormac McCarthy "Rabbit,Run" John Updike A pleasant weekend to all.

[@oldterry9356]

Best book on Ontology (metaphysics) is on the best ontology in 2,600 years developed by the Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd. The best summery of Dooyeweerd work (in English) is in ch 11-13 of “The Myth of Religious Neutrality” by Roy A Clouser (should read ch 1-10 to understand ch 11-13). Dooyeweerd did not develop an Epistemology but “Knowing with the Heart” by Roy Clouser presents the summery of an epistemology that would be compatible with Dooyeweerd's ontology by tacking the hardest question in epistemology “is God real?” and how do you KNOW.

[@ianjones9523]

Excellent list, but I think I'd have a John Steinbeck one on there.

[@podeshahejalol]

this is my favorite type of Klavan content. love it when he talks about books.

[@Video81501]

And movies too

[@charbroilbeefcake6095]

Love the list. For me, the best is Of Mice and Men. More important today than when it was written, as our society continues to lose a sense of community. We are incredibly social creatures, and when we lose that to as we drift apart, bringing on the loneliness our modern society creates.

[@AwesomeForte]

Would like to know what novels weren't mentioned that Klavan would have put in S-tier, if he could think of any, which I'm sure he could've.

[@marvin_meza]

Cien años de soledad, Brothers Karamazov, Aeneid, Inferno, A Tale of Two Cities or Oliver Twist (don’t think he’d put both up there)

[@bananamancoolguy7670]

interesting list, a little surprised that names like Steinbeck, Hemingway and Faulkner didn't show up.

[@leonardgulstrom6239]

I want Klavan's list of the best books of all time. He's read them all! Do this, please!

[@OlekChmielewski]

Fun fact count monte cristo was put on the list of books prohibited by Catholic Church. I read it and I really liked it and still can’t figure out what was the problem with it.

[@myersred8]

What makes Moby Dick amazing is its breadth of learning, its grasp of the whole world. Whaling ships provide a point of purchase for covering huge swaths of geography, history, sociology, religions, science. It is also very philological, citing assessing and comparing sources. It is a deeply learned boo, and a deeply proudly AMERICAN book.

[@anotheruser1052]

I have read all of those books. Why you didn't include 100 years of solitude by Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez? It's in every list of the best books in history. I'm curious.

[@Video81501]

He only included the list that was provided.

[@Mateo-et3wl]

Probably because it's overrated and trendy

[@airbourne2]

Frankenstein should be in top category

[@margaretsparksrittenhouse8787]

Moby Dick, everything you never wanted to know about whales, but were afraid to ask. Good grief, it does go on and on. I’ve read most of these.

[@bayreuth79]

I’ve read Tolstoy’s War and Peace 5 times, Anna Karenina 4 times, Hadji Murad 3 times, Kreutzer Sonata 4 times, Resurrection 3 times, Father Sergius 3 times, and so on. I adore Tolstoy!

[@jimluebke3869]

I started with _The Cossacks,_ which provides an interesting perspective on Russia v Chechnya.

[@rpg7287]

Resurrection is an underrated masterpiece.

[@GregoryWhite-dc1tw]

Kreutzer Sonata...a wonderful book!

[@BradZook]

One wonders if War and Peace would have been so popular if it had been published under it's original title, _War, What is it Good For._

[@jimluebke3869]

I thought the original title was _Napoleon in Russia: WTF Just Happened?_

[@tropictom5996]

For me it’s The Little Prince. Broadly valuable for all ages and cultures.

[@JTM1809]

As I wrote elsewhere, it’s rather a novella (too short for a novel). If it was top 10 novellas, it would definitely be there (in my view), together with Zweig’s Chess, and Hemingway’s The Old Man And The Sea.

[@jakeepler5218]

The fact that there’s no Thomas Hardy on this list is a massive injustice

[@AnishChari]

You could say it's ... Madd(en)ING!!! Nyuk nyuk nyuk!!!

[@peachjwp]

Completely agree!

[@rogerpropes7129]

His novels were about sex!

[@richardjames5147]

Lolita and Moby Dick a B and that overrated tripe Anna Karenina an S? This is a disgrace Klavan.

[@Tolstoy111]

Anna Karenina and Moby Dick are two of the greatest literary works of all time. How is AK "tripe"? I'm betting you've never read Lolita

[@richardjames5147]

@@Tolstoy111 Nabokov's love letter to the English language contains perhaps the most sublime prose of all novels. I wrote my BA dissertation on it. It was also one of the first books I introduced to the woman who would become my wife; who later went on to write her Masters Dissertation on it. So yes I've read it...quite a few times... I've read three different translations of AK. The Alymer and Louise Maude trans. Mainly because this is the version Norman Mailer said he read pages of every morning, to get himself in gear when he was writing the Naked and the Dead. I've also read the Rosemary Edmonds and Pevear/Volokhonsky trans. Each time I've been disappointed - basic, uninspired, stock characters and unoriginal. Deny it as Tolstoy might, Flaubert got their first and did it a lot better. I sometimes have trouble believing the same guy who wrote AK also wrote War and Peace and The Cossacks/Death of Ivan llyich etc. Then again he also wrote the woeful Resurrection and thought Shakespeare wasn't much of a dramatist so...

[@luciano2166]

​@@richardjames5147And the man put Jane Eyre above Lolita... Trash list

[@RallyTheTally]

I actually did something like this a while ago, it was fun, one of the best parts of reading is after your done and you can think about it. Also Klavan's opnions of books are like the gospel to me, I listen very carefully.

[@thechicken9463]

I cant tell you how much i despise Great Gasby, probably because the year i read it in english I had an insufferable teacher

[@rajeasylearning]

'To Kill a Mockingbird' should have been in A category. And you shouldn't have missed 'One Hundred years of solitude'. Both books are Outstanding!

[@SaidFallaha]

I respect Klavan and love most of his commentary. However, neither Melville nor Hawthorne are American Transcendentalists. He is obviously a well educated man and might know that Hawthorne once live with Ralph Waldo Emerson but that is not because they shared philosophical, literary, or theological outlooks. Never mind the history, no one can read Moby Dick and make an argument that it is of the same vein as Emerson or Thoreau. Furthermore, the length of Moby Dick is necessary for the central metaphor of hoping that there is some identity responsible for existence. Love Klavan, but he is objectively wrong by claiming Transcendentalism and very arguably wrong about his ranking of the American epic. P.S Moby Dick is way more of Naturalism like Jack London, most scholars call it Romantic though.

[@JayM928]

Catcher in the Rye is hands down the worst book I’ve ever finished reading.

[@enk621]

An absolute garbage book.

[@JayM928]

I would actually like someone to explain to me why it’s supposed to be good - oh, and without using the phrase “when it was written…” as part of the reason. I’m not reading “classics” when they were written.

[@enk621]

@JayM928 I can't figure out what people like about it. The protagonist is an unlikable brat, and the story isn't that interesting. I guess the ending was kind of neat, but otherwise I'm at a loss.

[@Tolstoy111]

@@JayM928Salinger captured that character perfectly - he’s a kid having a nervous breakdown.

[@josepha.r5839]

I''m impressed that you finished it.

[@Moriahg]

The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

[@benjaminririe2009]

I've always wondered what Klavan thinks of McCarthy. Surely (since he says he's read everything) surely Klavan has read a number of his books. McCarthy is my favorite author, but I'm guessing Klavan probably isn't crazy about him since he's "something of a materialist" (McCarthy's own words if I remember correctly, can't remember the source) and his work seems to reflect that.

[@KissellMissile]

I love No Country for Old Men (movie and book), but I don't find The Road that compelling. I wanted to like it, but I don't know if it's a classic (though certainly worth a read).

[@benjaminririe2009]

@@KissellMissile Read Blood Meridian next. It's widely regarded as his best.

[@Moriahg]

@@benjaminririe2009 It would be super interesting to get his thoughts on him. McCarthy is one of my favorite authors too. So sad that he died recently.😔

[@Moriahg]

@@KissellMissile I would consider it a modern classic but I realize that it's debatable. You definitely have to be in the right frame of mind for The Road and it's also just not for some people. I'm going to have to watch the movie of No Country for Old Men I've heard it's wonderful.

[@kingzzz6509]

Not to be rude, but I just can’t say that Tolkien created all of the fantasy troupes that we see today. The reason being is the writers that influenced him. Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian) and C. S. Lewis came before him, and influenced his work. Lewis more so because they were friends.

[@piushalg5041]

And what about "the betrothed" by Manzoni, "Madame Bovary" by Flobert, "Wahlverwandtschaften" by Goethe etc.

[@jaxonjaxoff3291]

I’m scared I’m dyslexic cause I saw “Best Boobs Ranked” and was thinking where’s Christina Hendricks and Kat Dennings?

[@mightydorchux]

That's not dyslexia bud🤦‍♂️

[@scottganser7787]

What?! No Ayn Rand? She at least deserves an E.

[@Fantasyremix]

Her books are in the A is A tier

[@Video81501]

You kidding me? Having read "Atlas Shrugged", I have no desire to read another word she wrote.

[@jwvvvv]

@@Video81501 Maybe you should read it again. It was brilliant.

[@jeanlobrot]

Ayn Rand is so average

[@Fantasyremix]

@@Video81501 this is purely an ideological opinion. Nobody who thinks she was an awful writer is even libertarian-leaning, and almost always a hardcore lefty. In reality, her books are excellent popular fiction with a unique style. They certainly don’t reach the lofty heights of the best literature but they’re great for what they are.

[@stephanies.9620]

More of these please! I've never understood why Klavan has never done a book club! I would up my membership just to listen to him discuss books.

[@coloradoempire3926]

I am not an avid fiction reader so my opinion isn’t the best, but I truly believe Anton Myrer’s 1968 epic ‘Once an Eagle’ is the greatest American novel. No book other than the Bible has done more to shape my understanding of myself and the world and it was one of the most entertaining books I’ve ever read, I cried 4 times and I have never cried from any other book. Figured it wasn’t going to be on this list because it’s somewhat obscure but I’d highly recommend it and it should be required reading for most soldiers, sailors, and marines

[@derekmchenry7225]

Thanks very much for the great list! Can you do one on the greatest films of all time?

[@donblosser8720]

You started off on the wrong foot. Bad in both bowling and reporting. "The internet" did not gather 23 works of literature. What do you even mean by "The internet"? You show a screen shot of the google search engine. Google is not the internet. Why are you equating the two things? There are plenty of other less biased search engines. Secondly, you mentioned the word "literature" several times. Your video title just says "books" Why are you excluding all non-fiction books? And why only include novels? Why is the all time bestseller, the Holy Bible, unmatched in it's influence on literature, culture, & history, not on your list? Under the limited category literature, how could you possibly exclude Les Miserables? This list and your video are a waste of time that I should have spent reading a good book. BTW, I just finished reading and would recommend "That Hideous Strength", C.S. Lewis' fictional version of "The Abolition of Man." Toni Morrison, Nabokov, Salinger, George Orwell, and Harper Lee outrank Victor Hugo, C.S. Lewis, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Shakespeare, O Henry, and Agatha Christie? Give me a break!

[@user-mg2yb6qf4m]

Catch 22, grapes of wrath should be up there in my humble opinion.

[@retrorampage484]

I have recently read Jane Austen for the first time. Amazing. Her prose is unbelievably lean and the story just keeps moving.

[@jameshayes211]

Anyone who says LOTR is "too wordy" and "could be cut in half" has not read LOTR.

[@joachim847]

Dude, it's mostly about a camping trip.

[@Frankincensedjb123]

Better yet, read The Silmarillion. Anyone who writes that much detail about other realms is mad out of his fucking mind, but we are all the better for it. Pure genius.

[@liljinjar1268]

I am a huge LOTR fan but absolutely there are some spots that could be smoothed out. For example, book 1 of the Fellowship of the Ring has a narrative loop that greatly slows down the story. The process of the hobbits finding each other and then finding their way to Bree has four instances of them running from the black riders and taking shelter in someone’s home. It is essentially the same plot device used four times and nearly all the introduced characters have no relevance to the following narrative push of LOTR.

[@ead630]

To be fair he said it's been a while since he read it. Also on a first read the style is definitely a bit jarring, the books seems more perfect with familiarity

[@linathorn6462]

100% Agree! The "wordiness" only feels wordy if you arent paying attention to it. If you do pay attention, it creates a level of detail and immersion I have not found in any other book to this day. It also has remarkable complexity and depth that so often comes from the little moments and small seemingly insignificant "wordy" sections that end up being very important and interesting.

[@peachjwp]

Crime and Punishment is a masterpiece that transcends the crime novel genre.

[@andrewwelham8633]

What is your Fahrenheit 451 book Drew? Which book would you become in order to preserve it? I always find this a more difficult question than what is a great novel?

[@kJedel]

Where is "The Magic Mountain" from Thomas Mann. And where "Faust" from Goethe?

[@UltimateAwe]

His dismissal of Toni Morrison is the point.

[@JTM1809]

Or perhaps the book is not quite on par with Brontë, Austen, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, or Orwell.

[@marty9011]

I re-read 'The Catcher in the Rye " recently, at an older age & found it boring. Couldn't finish it. Dickens, if he were alive today, would be writing for TV soaps.

[@Tolstoy111]

Soaps are one dimensional character in cliched situations. That’s not Dickens at all

[@michaelnewsham1412]

@@Tolstoy111 Are you sure?

[@Tolstoy111]

@@michaelnewsham1412 Yes. A novel like “Bleak House” combines vivid characters in a vast social panorama and an atmosphere you can cut with a knife. He expanded the scope of the novel.

[@josepha.r5839]

Also couldn't finish it. Maybe (as I've read) it's more 'relevant' if you're young but I doubt if I had read it in my youth I still would have been bored.

[@mihalceacosmin7543]

The Drake PDFFILE reference just got me 🤣🤣

[@RobertSmith-jl4yw]

I have read about half of those, mostly from the S and A categories, but my favourite book is "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien (a pen-name). A bit obscure, but could be for you as it deals with.... no, that's giving away the plot. Unless of course you've already read it.

[@chrisbilling]

Between this, the ben shapiro interview and the top 10 reads video, ive got my literature cut out for me for quite awhile

[@jackgoodson1708]

At the outset, Austen being the only female top ten author is ridiculous. I tend more toward male authors in general, but I would say that George Eliot is top five at least. Also, fun video. I would love to see more literary content from Kalvan. Even when I disagree, these kinds of videos are a lot of fun, coming from a well read conservative.

[@Le_Samourai]

True. Emily Dickinson is pretty nice with it

[@ratherrapid]

she has 3 in top 10.

[@zacharywoltanski4285]

Virginia Woolf would at least be top 20. And unironically Gertrude Stein is one of the most influential of all modern novelists.

[@519djw6]

*My objection is that, except for "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey," all of the books you mentioned were prose. How about collections of lyric poetry? And I know that many people are "put off" by lyric poetry.*

[@Tolstoy111]

It seemed to be a list of novels where the Homer didn't belong.

[@christopherqueen3194]

Crime and Punishment: That’s a hard read for me. It took me forever to get past the murder. But you’re right, a great novel.

[@kymanthony6098]

No Steinbeck?

[@Lnfhjjgfgh]

Gotta get blood meridian in there

[@domsdomsdomsdoms]

should tale of two cities be included in this list?

[@Tolstoy111]

Why? It’s considered one of Dickens worst novels.

[@methesupremeleader9086]

Ok I get it, you would have to create a new tier for brothers Karamazov

[@Diallelus]

Klavan’s only mistake in this video is not putting LoTR in S tier.

[@linathorn6462]

fully agree!

[@kevinbarnhard3028]

I hate all the Bronte sisters and everything they wrote. They are exactly who Hawthorne was talking about when he used the term "that damned mass of scribbling women."

[@johncoe929]

Obviously, there is no E because there are no Es in Kleven.

[@johnadams3418]

Klavan is right about Moby Dick. Ahab as a character is great and the idea of how a thirst for vengeance rather than justice will destroy you and everything you have left is compelling. However, the book is overly long and this concept could justify its length, but the book simply fails to do it.

[@Querymonger]

Nah he's wrong and you are too

[@johnadams3418]

@@Querymonger Well with brilliant commentary like that, I'm convinced. Convinced you have never read it and at best might only know the famous opening line or possibly the author's name.

[@Querymonger]

@@johnadams3418 When you, Klavan and others say that Moby Dick is "too long" you make it obvious that you don't really get what the book is about. (Klavan made it VERY obvious when he said the book "has transcendentalist philosophy.) The book has many overlapping themes. Usually when people don't like it, it's because they only really grasped one or two of the themes and don't see why the rest of the book is necessary. What you've written about Ahab is true, yes, that is one of the themes in the book. But Moby Dick is mainly a book about God, using whales symbolically since they are for Melville the closest visible analog we have to God. He uses all the arts of man---science, theater, prose, poetry, mythology---to try and understand this thing but it's just too immense. Tell me-if it's too long, which parts should have been trimmed? Cause I'm just finishing up my second read-through and every single chapter so far was relevant to the higher themes. Tell me which chapter you think was fluff