Most popular books published in 1923

Books most frequently added to Goodreads members' shelves, updated weekly

Monthly data available for the current year, the year prior and the next year.
Mrs. Dalloway Book Cover
926k shelvings
Heralded as Virginia Woolf's greatest novel, this is a vivid portrait of a single day in a woman's life. When we meet her, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation while in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with remembrances of faraway times. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices that brought her there, hesitantly looking ahead to the unfamiliar work of growing old.
The Prophet Book Cover
727k shelvings
Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone have sold more than nine million copies.

The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters covering such sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.
The Murder on the Links Book Cover
217k shelvings
When Hercule Poirot and his associate Arthur Hastings arrive in the French village of Merlinville-sur-Mer to meet their client Paul Renauld, they learn from the police that he has been found that morning stabbed in the back with a letter opener and left in a newly-dug grave adjacent to a local golf course.

Among the plausible suspects are Renauld's wife Eloise, his son Jack, Renauld's immediate neighbor Madame Daubreuil, the mysterious "Cinderella" of Hasting's recent acquaintance, and some unknown visitor of the previous day--all of whom Poirot has reason to suspect. Poirot's powers of investigation ultimately triumph over the wiles of an assailant whose misdirection and motives are nearly--but not quite--impossible to spot.

Contains a character key, a detailed biography, and an illustrated list of notable Poirot portrayals.

Librarian's note: the first fifteen novels in the Hercule Poirot series are 1) The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920; 2) The Murder on the Links, 1923; 3) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926; 4) The Big Four, 1927; 5) The Mystery of the Blue Train, 1928; 6) Peril at End House, 1932; 7) Lord Edgware Dies, 1933; 8) Murder on the Orient Express, 1934; 9) Three Act Tragedy, 1935; 10) Death in the Clouds, 1935; 11) The A.B.C. Murders, 1936; 12) Murder in Mesopotamia, 1936; 13) Cards on the Table, 1936; 14) Dumb Witness, 1937; and 15) Death on the Nile, 1937. These are just the novels; Poirot also appears in this period in a play, Black Coffee, 1930, and two collections of short stories, Poirot Investigates, 1924, and Murder in the Mews, 1937. Each novel, play and short story has its own entry on Goodreads.
Whose Body? Book Cover
136k shelvings
The stark naked body was lying in the tub. Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder -- especially with a pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. The police assumed that the victim was a prominent financier, but Lord Peter Wimsey, who dabbled in mystery detection as a hobby, knew better. In this, his first murder case, Lord Peter untangles the ghastly mystery of the corpse in the bath.
Emily of New Moon Book Cover
108k shelvings
Emily Starr never knew what it was to be lonely—until her beloved father died. Now Emily's an orphan, and her mother's snobbish relatives are taking her to live with them at New Moon Farm. She's sure she won't be happy. Emily deals with stiff, stern Aunt Elizabeth and her malicious classmates by holding her head high and using her quick wit. Things begin to change when she makes friends: with Teddy, who does marvelous drawings; with Perry, who's sailed all over the world with his father yet has never been to school; and above all, with Ilse, a tomboy with a blazing temper. Amazingly, Emily finds New Moon beautiful and fascinating. With new friends and adventures, Emily might someday think of herself as Emily of New Moon.
100 Selected Poems Book Cover
90k shelvings
E.E. Cummings is without question one of the major poets of the 20th century, and this volume, first published in 1959, is indispensable for every lover of modern lyrical verse. It contains one hundred of Cummings’s wittiest and most profound poems, harvested from thirty-five of the most radically creative years in contemporary American poetry. These poems exhibit all the extraordinary lyricism, playfulness, technical ingenuity, and compassion for which Cummings is famous. They demonstrate beautifully his extrapolations from traditional poetic structures and his departures from them, as well as the unique synthesis of lavish imagery and acute artistic precision that has won him the adulation and respect of critics and poetry lovers everywhere.
Zeno's Conscience Book Cover

86.2k shelvings
Long hailed as a seminal work of modernism in the tradition of Joyce and Kafka, and now available in a supple new English translation, Italo Svevo’s charming and splendidly idiosyncratic novel conducts readers deep into one hilariously hyperactive and endlessly self-deluding mind. The mind in question belongs to one Zeno Cosini, a neurotic Italian businessman who is writing his confessions at the behest of his psychiatrist. Here are Zeno’s interminable attempts to quit smoking, his courtship of the beautiful yet unresponsive Ada, his unexpected–and unexpectedly happy–marriage to Ada’s homely sister Augusta, and his affair with a shrill-voiced aspiring singer. Relating these misadventures with wry wit and irony, and a perspicacity at once unblinking and compassionate, Zeno’s Conscience is a miracle of psychological realism.
The Inimitable Jeeves Book Cover
52.1k shelvings
When Bingo Little falls in love at a Camberwell subscription dance and Bertie Wooster drops into the mulligatawny, there is work for a wet-nurse. Who better than Jeeves?
The Ego and the Id Book Cover
47.9k shelvings
The Ego and the Id ranks high among the works of Freud's later years. The heart of his concern is the ego, which he sees battling with three forces: the id, the super-ego, and the outside world.


Of the various English translations of Freud's major works to appear in his lifetime, only one was authorized by Freud himself: The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud under the general editorship of James Strachey.


Freud approved the overall editorial plan, specific renderings of key words and phrases, and the addition of valuable notes, from bibliographical and explanatory. Many of the translations were done by Strachey himself; the rest were prepared under his supervision. The result was to place the Standard Edition in a position of unquestioned supremacy over all other existing versions.
I and Thou Book Cover

34.6k shelvings
An alternate cover for this isbn can be found here.

Martin Buber's I and Thou has long been acclaimed as a classic. Many prominent writers have acknowledged its influence on their work; students of intellectual history consider it a landmark; and the generation born after World War II considers Buber one of its prophets. Buber's main proposition is that we may address existence in two ways: (1) that of the "I" toward an "It," toward an object that is separate in itself, which we either use or experience; (2) that of the "I" toward "Thou," in which we move into existence in a relationship without bounds. One of the major themes of the book is that human life finds its meaningfulness in relationships. All of our relationships, Buber contends, bring us ultimately into relationship with God, who is the Eternal Thou.

The need for a new English translation had been felt for many years. The old version was marred by many inaccuracies and misunderstandings, and its recurrent use of the archaic "thou" was seriously misleading. Professor Walter Kaufmann, a distinguished writer and philosopher in his own right who was close to Buber, retranslated the work at the request of Buber's family. He added a wealth of informative footnotes to clarify obscurities and bring the reader closer to the original and wrote an extensive prologue that opened up new perspectives on the book and on Buber's thought. This volume provided a new basis for all subsequent discussions of Buber.
Cane Book Cover

#11

Cane

32.9k shelvings
A literary masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance, Cane is a powerful work of innovative fiction evoking black life in the South. The sketches, poems, and stories of black rural and urban life that make up Cane are rich in imagery. Visions of smoke, sugarcane, dusk, and flame permeate the Southern landscape: the Northern world is pictured as a harsher reality of asphalt streets. Impressionistic, sometimes surrealistic, the pieces are redolent of nature and Africa, with sensuous appeals to eye and ear.
Beyaz Zambaklar Ülkesinde Book Cover
28.8k shelvings
Rus asıllı bir yazarın, Rusların Fin halkına yaptıkları baskı politikasını yazması, kitabın en orijinal tarafı olsa gerektir. Dünya bir asırdır bu kitabı okuyor... Beyaz Zambaklar Ülkesinde; hem Finlerin, hem Bulgarların, hem de Türk milletinin ulusal bilinç elde etmesinde rol oynar. Bulgar yazar G. Baltaciev; Beyaz Zambaklar Ülkesinde hakkında, Naradna Tzelina dergisinde şunları yazmıştı İnanıyorum ki, biz Bulgarlar bir ulus olarak topyekun olduysak, bunu Grigory Petrov’un kütüphanelerimizdeki eserlerine borçlu olduğumuzu iftiharla söyleyebiliriz. İnanıyorum ki, çok yakında Beyaz Zambaklar Ülkesinde adlı kitabın, herhangi bir okul veya millet kütüphanesinde bulunmayışını suç olarak kabul edeceğiz. Millet adına yazılmış böyle bir kitap, enderdir. Bu kitap, herkes için değerli ve yararlıdır. Kitabı okuduğunuzda yazarın sizi nasıl sürüklediğini, kanatlandırdığını hissedeceksiniz. (...) Beyaz Zambaklar Ülkesinde, Türkçeye çevrildiğinde Türk basını tarafından ilgiyle karşılanır ve kitaptan övgüyle bahseder. Milli Talim ve Terbiye Kurulu Başkanı Mehmet Emin Bey’in Hayat mecmuasının 74. sayısında kitaptan övgüyle bahsettiği yazısı şö Elimde olsa; HaydarpaşaAnkara arasında seyahat eden her bir yolcunun eline bu kitabı tutuşturur, kitabı okuturken bir yandan da çevrede bulunan toprak yığını köylere baktırırdım. Öğretmen olsaydım; çocuklara bulunduğum şehrin kenar semtlerini gezdirirken, evlerde konuşulanları tekrarlatırken, (yemeiçme, giyimkuşam) tarzlarını gösterirken, Grigory Petrov’un kitabından sayfalar okurdum. Komutan olsaydım; askerlerimin toplandıkları koğuşlara bu kitabın bazı sayfalarını kopya eder ve asardım. (...) Kitap, Müdafaai Milliye Vekâleti (Milli Savunma Bakanlığı) tarafından askerlere tavsiye edilir. Yine Maarif Vekâleti (Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı) tarafından da öğretmen okullarının son dönem mezunlarına birer adet hediye edilir. Kitap, Bulgarcadan Türkçeye 1928’de çevrildi. M. Kemal’in bu kitapla n
The Revolt of the Masses Book Cover
23.5k shelvings
Social upheaval in early 20th-century Europe is the historical setting for this seminal study by the Spanish philosopher, José Ortega y Gasset. Continuously in print since 1932, Ortega's vision of Western culture as sinking to its lowest common denominator and drifting toward chaos brought its author international fame and has remained one of the influential books of the 20th century.
The Fatal Eggs Book Cover
22k shelvings
As the turbulent years following the Russian revolution of 1917 settle down into a new Soviet reality, the brilliant and eccentric zoologist Persikov discovers an amazing ray that drastically increases the size and reproductive rate of living organisms. At the same time, a mysterious plague wipes out all the chickens in the Soviet republics. The government expropriates Persikov's untested invention in order to rebuild the poultry industry, but a horrible mix-up quickly leads to a disaster that could threaten the entire world.

This H. G. Wells-inspired novel by the legendary Mikhail Bulgakov is the only one of his larger works to have been published in its entirety during the author's lifetime. A poignant work of social science fiction and a brilliant satire on the Soviet revolution, it can now be enjoyed by English-speaking audiences through this accurate new translation.

Includes annotations and afterword.
Saint Joan Book Cover
20.9k shelvings
One of Shaw's most unusual and enduringly popular plays. With SAINT JOAN (1923) Shaw reached the height of his fame and Joan is one of his finest creations; forceful, vital, and rebelling against the values that surround her. The play distils Shaw's views on the subjects of politics, religion and creative evolution.