''1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die'' is a

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, ...

reference book A reference work is a document, such as a Academic publishing#Scholarly paper, paper, book or periodical literature, periodical (or their electronic publishing, electronic equivalents), to which one can refer for information. The information ...

compiled by over one hundred literary critics worldwide and edited by Peter Boxall, Professor of English at Sussex University, with an introduction by

Peter Ackroyd Peter Ackroyd (born 5 October 1949) is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a specialist interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, William ...

. Each title is accompanied by a brief synopsis and critique briefly explaining why the book was chosen. Some entries have illustrations. This book is part of a series from Quintessence Editions Ltd.

The list

The list contains 1001 titles and is made up of novels, short stories, and short story collections. There is also one pamphlet (''

A Modest Proposal ''A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick'', commonly referred to as ''A Modest Proposal'', is a Juvenalian satirical essay wr ...

''), one book of collected text ('' Adjunct: An Undigest''), and one graphic novel (''

Watchmen ''Watchmen'' is a comic book Limited series (comics), limited series by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins (comics), John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 and 19 ...

''). The most featured authors on the 2006 list are

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee Order of Australia, AC Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL Order of Mapungubwe, OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, and translator. The recipient of the 2003 ...

and

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

with ten titles each. There was a major revision of 280 odd titles in 2008. The clear shift within the list has been the removal of ~300 works almost entirely by English-language authors who have more than one title on the original list in favour of lesser known works, often by non-English-language writers. The 2010 revised and updated edition of the book is less Anglocentric and lists only four titles from Dickens and five from Coetzee, who has the most of any writer on the list. It also includes a collection of essays by

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the s ...

, '' The Rebel''. Minor changes of fewer than 20 books were made in 2010 and 2012. The 2012 version, while the book list did not change drastically, the book itself was "completedly revised for 2012"

Editions

This is not a standalone publication; rather, its original English edition has undergone five updated editions, transitioning through various publishing houses. Consequently, its selection has evolved over a 15-year cycle (2006-2021). In addition to the English revisions, the work has been published in adapted forms in the languages of the main publishing markets, such as Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Danish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, etc., with each adaptation tailored to its cultural context. While led by a principal director, the work benefits from the contributions of a diverse group of advisors involved in the selection and compilation of reviews. This group also changes across the different English editions and typically includes a principal person responsible for the version in each language, such as Jennifer Byrne (AU), Peter Ackroyd (DE), José-Carlos Mainer (ES), Göran Hägg (SV), Jean d'Ormesson (FR), Ed van Eeden (NL), Olaf Jensen (NO), and Sadanori Betsumiya (JP). Therefore, it is neither a personal endeavor nor the result of an open and massive process.

References

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