World literature

Great authors, and the books they left us.

From Homer to the present: short bios, dates, and each author's books, with quotes checked against the text.

179 authors · 1,494 books · 179 with a bio so far

Portrait of Homer
Featured authorHomerc. 9th century BCE–c. 8th century BCEThe Odyssey · The Iliad
From the books
Bold is the task, when subjects, grown too wise,Instruct a monarch where his error lies.
The IliadHomer

In the collection

  1. Homerc. 9th century BCE–c. 8th century BCE
  2. William Shakespeare1564–1616
  3. Dante Alighieri1265–1321
  4. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra1547–1616
  5. Leo Tolstoy1828–1910
  6. Fyodor Dostoevsky1821–1881
  7. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832
  8. Virgil70–19 BCE
  9. Sophoclesc. 496–c. 406 BCE
  10. Murasaki Shikibuc. 970 CE–11th century
  11. Xueqin Cao1724–1763
  12. Franz Kafka1883–1924
  13. James Joyce1882–1941
  14. Marcel Proust1871–1922
  15. Charles Dickens1812–1870
  16. Victor Hugo1802–1885
  17. Jane Austen1775–1817
  18. Anton Chekhov1860–1904