Best Books of the 19th Century
The best books published during the 19th century (January 1st, 1801 through December 31st 1900).
1 Pride and Prejudice
by
4.23 of 5 stars 4.23 avg rating — 997,089 ratings
2 Jane Eyre
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4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 avg rating — 661,238 ratings
3 Wuthering Heights
by
3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 441,514 ratings
4 The Picture of Dorian Gray
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3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 avg rating — 263,272 ratings
5 Alice's Adventures in Wonde...
by
4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 avg rating — 203,784 ratings
6 Crime and Punishment
by
4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 197,074 ratings
7 Emma
by
3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 237,691 ratings
8 Frankenstein
by
3.66 of 5 stars 3.66 avg rating — 473,926 ratings
9 Persuasion
by
4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 187,546 ratings
10 Little Women (Little Women #1)
by
3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 741,917 ratings
11 The Count of Monte Cristo
by
4.1 of 5 stars 4.10 avg rating — 356,728 ratings
12 Sense and Sensibility
by
4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 avg rating — 448,160 ratings
13 The Adventures of Huckleber...
by
3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 710,626 ratings
14 A Tale of Two Cities
by
3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 avg rating — 408,841 ratings
15 Dracula
by
3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 avg rating — 289,497 ratings
16 Great Expectations
by
3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 avg rating — 232,913 ratings
17 Les Misérables
by
4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 avg rating — 318,148 ratings
18 Anna Karenina
by
3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 avg rating — 188,165 ratings
19 A Christmas Carol
by
3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 173,020 ratings
20 The Adventures of Sherlock ...
by
4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 avg rating — 74,852 ratings
21 The Brothers Karamazov
by
4.26 of 5 stars 4.26 avg rating — 80,622 ratings
22 The Importance of Being Ear...
by
4.16 of 5 stars 4.16 avg rating — 98,571 ratings
23 War and Peace
by
4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 avg rating — 81,324 ratings
24 Moby-Dick
by
3.36 of 5 stars 3.36 avg rating — 260,437 ratings
25 Tess of the d'Urbervilles
by
3.66 of 5 stars 3.66 avg rating — 85,355 ratings
26 Mansfield Park
by
3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 120,095 ratings
27 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by
3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 avg rating — 242,846 ratings
28 Treasure Island
by
3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 134,966 ratings
29 Northanger Abbey
by
3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 avg rating — 109,531 ratings
30 The Scarlet Letter
by
3.3 of 5 stars 3.30 avg rating — 282,461 ratings
31 Middlemarch: A Study of Pro...
by
3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 avg rating — 48,591 ratings
32 Madame Bovary
by
3.59 of 5 stars 3.59 avg rating — 81,640 ratings
33 David Copperfield
by
3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 avg rating — 77,661 ratings
34 North and South
by
4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 avg rating — 38,617 ratings
35 A Little Princess
by
4.18 of 5 stars 4.18 avg rating — 99,692 ratings
36 The Time Machine
by
3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 avg rating — 118,998 ratings
37 Oliver Twist
by
3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 105,495 ratings
38 Heart of Darkness
by
3.36 of 5 stars 3.36 avg rating — 146,490 ratings
39 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
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3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 avg rating — 115,128 ratings
40 The Three Musketeers
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4.01 of 5 stars 4.01 avg rating — 100,968 ratings
41 The Tell-Tale Heart and Oth...
by
4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 105,420 ratings
42 The Complete Grimm's Fairy ...
by
4.3 of 5 stars 4.30 avg rating — 69,157 ratings
43 Vanity Fair
by
3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 avg rating — 46,094 ratings
44 A Study in Scarlet  (Sherlo...
by
4.1 of 5 stars 4.10 avg rating — 72,596 ratings
45 Bleak House
by
3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 33,607 ratings
46 The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
by
3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 avg rating — 59,239 ratings
47 Alice in Wonderland
by
3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 136,940 ratings
48 The Woman in White
by
3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 46,496 ratings
49 Leaves of Grass
by
4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 38,051 ratings
50 Notes from Underground
by
4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 40,992 ratings
51 The Origin of Species
by
3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 27,844 ratings
52 The Idiot
by
4.13 of 5 stars 4.13 avg rating — 39,168 ratings
53 The War of the Worlds
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3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 avg rating — 75,374 ratings
54 Uncle Tom's Cabin
by
3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 avg rating — 74,043 ratings
55 The Complete Hans Christian...
by
4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 avg rating — 52,448 ratings
56 A Doll's House
by
3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 avg rating — 33,003 ratings
57 The Strange Case of Dr Jeky...
by
3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 avg rating — 847 ratings
58 Villette
by
3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 avg rating — 22,246 ratings
59 Faust: First Part
by
3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 avg rating — 30,917 ratings
60 The Jungle Books
by
3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 33,952 ratings
61 Far from the Madding Crowd
by
3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 avg rating — 37,278 ratings
62 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
by
3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 avg rating — 24,806 ratings
63 The Moonstone
by
3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 avg rating — 23,668 ratings
64 The Strange Case of Dr. Jek...
by
3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 avg rating — 90,755 ratings
65 Twenty Thousand Leagues Und...
by
3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 avg rating — 54,708 ratings
66 The Awakening
by
3.59 of 5 stars 3.59 avg rating — 72,024 ratings
66 The Red and the Black
by
3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 avg rating — 16,843 ratings
68 Around the World in Eighty ...
by
3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 avg rating — 61,605 ratings
69 Heidi
by
3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 avg rating — 83,590 ratings
70 Poems
by
4.13 of 5 stars 4.13 avg rating — 8,917 ratings
71 The Cask of Amontillado
by
4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 avg rating — 21,357 ratings
72 Walden
by
3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 avg rating — 56,415 ratings
73 The Prince and the Pauper
by
3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 43,706 ratings
74 The Sign of Four (Sherlock ...
by
3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 avg rating — 22,826 ratings
75 The Communist Manifesto
by
3.43 of 5 stars 3.43 avg rating — 31,147 ratings
76 Wives and Daughters
by
4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 avg rating — 15,844 ratings
77 Dead Souls
by
3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 20,341 ratings
78 A Connecticut Yankee in Kin...
by
3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 avg rating — 47,239 ratings
79 The Yellow Wallpaper and Ot...
by
3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 35,340 ratings
80 Journey to the Center of th...
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3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 50,078 ratings
81 Black Beauty
by
3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 avg rating — 95,987 ratings
82 Ivanhoe
by
3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 avg rating — 36,367 ratings
83 The Turn of the Screw
by
3.45 of 5 stars 3.45 avg rating — 28,225 ratings
84 Les Fleurs du Mal
by
4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 avg rating — 16,167 ratings
85 The Portrait of a Lady
by
3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 avg rating — 30,358 ratings
86 The Mayor of Casterbridge
by
3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 avg rating — 20,003 ratings
87 Three Men in a Boat
by
3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 avg rating — 14,077 ratings
88 The Murders in the Rue Morg...
by
3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 avg rating — 3,861 ratings
89 The Masque of the Red Death
by
4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 avg rating — 8,666 ratings
90 Little Dorrit
by
3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 16,041 ratings
91 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow...
by
3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 avg rating — 24,414 ratings
92 The Mill on the Floss
by
3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 avg rating — 16,737 ratings
92 Fathers and Sons
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3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 avg rating — 21,767 ratings
94 The Fall of the House of Us...
by
4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 avg rating — 32,999 ratings
95 The Book of Mormon: Another...
by
4.47 of 5 stars 4.47 avg rating — 47,411 ratings
96 Our Mutual Friend
by
4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 avg rating — 9,747 ratings
97 The Little Mermaid
by
3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 avg rating — 6,588 ratings
98 Père Goriot
by
3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 14,282 ratings
99 Germinal (Les Rougon-Macqua...
by
4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 avg rating — 9,228 ratings
100 Pinocchio
by
3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 avg rating — 22,170 ratings
386 books · 2,163 voters · list created June 12th, 2008 by deleted user.
 · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 500 seconds.


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More voters…


Comments (showing 1-40 of 40) (40 new)

dateDown_arrow    newest »

message 1: by Wealhtheow (new)

Wealhtheow Wuthering Heights is just SO histrionic. I refuse to vote for it!


message 2: by Kelly (new)

Kelly Vilette needs to be voted up there over Jane Eyre! What's going on with this, people?

PS- I appreciate your principled stand, Wealhtheow. :)


message 3: by Wealhtheow (new)

Wealhtheow I like the character of Lucy Snowe (of Villette) better than Jane Eyre, but I think JE is a better novel. But I still voted for both. :)


message 4: by Kelly (new)

Kelly Oh, I voted for them both too, I just think Vilette is the more powerful book. but that's what these lists are for, I guess. :)


message 5: by Isaac (new)

Isaac I tried adding The Brothers Karamazov and Huckleberry Finn to the list, but it said they were not published in the 19th century. What gives?


message 6: by Ashley (new)

Ashley Huck Finn is already on the list (currently #9), and Brothers Karamazov had the wrong pub. date listed, so you should be able to add it now.


message 7: by Austen (new)

Austen Elective Affinities (a/k/a Die Wahlverwandtschaften) published 1809 is listed as not published in the 19th century.


message 8: by Brian (new)

Brian My list is kind of a joke since half of them are in the database as not published in the 19th Century ... like Herman Melville's The Confidence Man or Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus.


message 9: by Killthepopular (new)

Killthepopular Crap books that don't deserve to be in here: Wuthering heights, Frankenstein, Heart of Darkness, Moby Dick.
Great books which weren't here and i had to add: The hunchback of notre dame, Fathers and sons, Dr. Jekyll and Mr hyde, Pere Goriot, The Idiot


message 10: by Susanna (new)

Susanna Elective Affinities and Sartor Resartus have addable dates now. As do The Confidence Man and The Brothers Karamazov.

Anything else that needs a new original publication date, just mention it and I'll see if I can fix it.


message 11: by Amanda (new)

Amanda Tried to add The Beetle by Richard Marsh, published 1897, says it isn't from the 19th century.


message 12: by Susanna (new)

Susanna I edited the original publication date. The Beetle should now be addable.


message 13: by Rada (new)

Rada assa Heart of Darkness is on of the greatest novels i have ever read


message 14: by Brenda (new)

Brenda Sheridan Le Fanu's In a Glass Darkly was first published in 1872, but I can't add it.


message 15: by Susanna (new)

Susanna It should be addable now.


message 16: by Capsguy (new)

Capsguy What kind of retarded list is this? In a website where the userbase is dominated by females I can see why Austen and Bronte are at the top.


message 17: by Susanna (new)

Susanna Well, you could vote for other books.


message 18: by [deleted user] (new)

Villette is a good book but better than Jane Eyre would be a hard sell. LOL! Yep it is a woman's list. ;)


message 19: by Susanna (new)

Susanna Made it combine duplicates, so they should be gone.


message 20: by Thomas (new)

Thomas Baughman No Origin of The species?


message 21: by Susanna (new)

Susanna You could add it.


message 22: by Thomas (new)

Thomas Baughman I tried and wasn't able to.


message 23: by Susanna (new)

Susanna I just voted for it; it should be on the list somewhere now.


message 24: by Maia (last edited Nov 06, 2011 02:25pm) (new)

Maia B. Capsguy wrote: "What kind of retarded list is this? In a website where the userbase is dominated by females I can see why Austen and Bronte are at the top."

Since your mind is clearly dominated by sexism I can see why you're so unpleasant.


message 25: by Lauren (new)

Lauren Wow, there are some harsh comments on here. Wuthering Heights isn't my favorite book by the Brontes, but it's not crap. My favorites are Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfield Hall.


message 26: by Mallory (new)

Mallory I can't believe Frankenstein is so high up...it's a terrible book...but what's with all the Wuthering Heights hate? WH is way better than a lot of books on here. And also, isn't A Little Princess 1900s? Not sure. (Oh, just checked. Looks like an earlier version was published in 1888.)


message 27: by Susanna (new)

Susanna For some reason, a lot of people seem to have very strong opinions about Wuthering Heights, either for or against.


message 28: by Hebe (new)

Hebe I love that Pride and Prejudice has top place. Such an amazing book and I can't imagine my life without it.

Though Tess of the D'Urbervilles should be higher!


message 29: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra Kelley I agree that Frankenstein is terrible. It's painful to watch the main character run from place to place whining out his troubles to every passerby, who then tells him how wonderful he is. Ugh.

Lots of good stuff here.


message 30: by Michelle (new)

Michelle What you just said about Frankenstein is how I feel about Tess of the D'Urbervilles... I LOATHE that book.


message 31: by James (last edited Feb 09, 2012 12:55pm) (new)

James The Count of Monte Cristo is the best book on the list...the people that didn't vote for it are the ones that were intimidated by the length and therefore didn't read it.

As for Pride and Prejudice, my wife and I couldn't even sit through the horrible play.


message 32: by Sunny (new)

Sunny Shore Isn't it weird....very few American books on this list!


message 33: by Susanna (new)

Susanna I counted 23 on the first page - but American writing was very much in its youth in the 19th century.


message 34: by Hanne (new)

Hanne i like this list!
i just added a dutch classic from this time period: Eline Vere, written by Louis Couperus. good reads says it's published in 2007, but looks like that is about a new translated version, the original is from 1888 so very much fits the list!


message 35: by Susanna (new)

Susanna Yeah, GR has its original publication date as 1889, so that's fine.


message 36: by Nat (new)

Nat Ugh, I cannot believe Wuthering Heights inched its stupidity so high up the list!

I like a lot of the books on the list, though I wish Jane Eyre was first.


message 37: by Jean Paul (new)

Jean Paul LeFrey Excellent list. Thank you.


message 38: by Michelle (new)

Michelle Nat wrote: "Ugh, I cannot believe Wuthering Heights inched its stupidity so high up the list!

I like a lot of the books on the list, though I wish Jane Eyre was first."




I agree... I like my stories with SOME redeeming points and WH is horrible. Jane Eyre, on the otherhand, is a gothic masterpiece.


message 39: by Emma (new)

Emma James wrote: "The Count of Monte Cristo is the best book on the list...the people that didn't vote for it are the ones that were intimidated by the length and therefore didn't read it.

As for Pride and Prejudic..."


I totally agree with you! The Count of Monte Cristo was by far my favorite book ever. Pride and Prejudice was ok. Once I read the Count I have trouble reading rather boring books by Jane Austin. They're all the same.


message 40: by John (new)

John Call of the Wild was published in 1903.
My Antonia was published in 1918.
Lord Jim was published in a magazine beginning in 1899 but wasn't published as a book until 1900. Not sure about that one.


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