Best selling books: list, top 10, authors, genres, plot, main characters and reader reviews

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In the list of the best-selling books in the history of mankind, you will find literary works that readers actually voted for with their wallets. It is well known that the Bible is the leader in circulation, for all the time about 6 trillion copies of this book have been released, but this does not mean at all that it is able to get into the list of the best-selling literature. So, here are the top 10 best-selling books in the world.

The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye by David Salinger is 10 on the list of best-selling books. It was first published in 1951.

The work of an American author is written on behalf of 17-year-old Holden Caulfield, who is undergoing treatment at the clinic. He tells in detail about everything that happened to him last winter and led to his illness. The main events unfold in the December days of 1949. It all starts with the fact that Holden is expelled for poor performance from the Pansy boarding school.

This novel is not by chance one of the best-selling books in history. In it, the main character, according to readers, describes the perception of American reality as frankly as possible, the rejection of the morality of modern society. The book is still extremely popular among young people and adults. Regularly listed as one of the best novels of the century.

The Da Vinci Code

A novel by popular contemporary author Dan Brown was on the list of best-selling books. It was published in 2003 as a continuation of his other famous book "Angels and Demons".

Nish Brown is an intelligent detective. Its protagonist is Robert Langdon, professor of religious symbolism, who teaches at Harvard University. In his investigations, he regularly encounters the world's mysteries and masterpieces of the art world.

In the novel "The Da Vinci Code" he has to unravel the case of the murder of the curator of the Louvre, Jacques Saunière. His body was found naked inside the museum in the pose of a Vitruvian Man, and encrypted inscriptions were located on the torso. They hold the key to the puzzle.

The professor and his assistants will have to analyze the works of Leonardo da Vinci in order to understand who is behind the mysterious crime.

The Little Prince

On the 8th place in the list of the mostof books sold in Russia is the allegorical tale of the French writer and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery "The Little Prince". The book was written at the height of World War II and was first published in New York in 1943.

At the same time, this is one of the kindest and most humanistic works in world literature. The hero of the tale is a pilot who makes an emergency landing in the Sahara. There he meets an extraordinary child who calls himself the Little Prince and claims to have come to Earth from another planet.

The boy tells the pilot about his amazing adventures - the rose he left on his planet, life on the asteroid. During his journey in space, he meets a king, a drunkard, an ambitious man, a lamplighter, a businessman, a geographer, but does not want to stay anywhere for a long time. Only on Earth does he meet friends from whom he learns many important things.

She

What are the best-selling books in the world? The novel of the English writer Henry Ryder Haggard "Her: the story of an adventure" takes 7th place in sales in the world. It first saw the light in 1887.

It tells about the journey of Horace Holly and his friend Leo Vincey in the little-studied areas of East Africa. There they search for the lost kingdom, but instead discover a tribe of savages and the mysterious Queen Aeshu, who has mystical powers and is said by the locals to be immortal.

The book received positive reviews from critics and readers, but caused a lot of controversy about Victorian ideas aboutracial difference, female power.

The lion, the witch and the wardrobe

On the 6th place among the best-selling books in the world is the first book from the Chronicles of Narnia series - a novel called "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". A 1950 novel by Clive Staples Lewis.

The events of the book unfold during the bombing of London during the Second World War. Four children from the Pevensie family go to take refuge with Professor Digor Kirk.

In his big house they play hide-and-seek, Lucy hides in the Wardrobe, through which she enters the fairy-tale land of Narnia. There, the girl meets the faun Tumnus, who tells her the story of the mysterious kingdom. It was under the rule of the White Witch, who declared herself queen. Because of her, eternal winter has come to Narnia and now there is no Christmas. The four of them go on an adventure to a fairyland.

Ten Little Indians

At 5th place in the list of best-selling books is a detective novel by the English writer Agatha Christie. "Ten Little Indians" is perhaps her most famous work, repeatedly filmed in the West and in Russia.

Readers were captivated by a mysterious plot in which it is impossible to determine until the very last moment who is the cold-blooded killer who gathered ten absolutely unfamiliar people on the so-called Negro Island. Everyone came there at the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Owen, but the owners themselves are not on the island, soon the guests begin to doubt whether they really exist.

But in the living room there is a tray with ten porcelain figurines of negro children, and in the room of each of the guests there is a children's rhyme. When everyone gathers together, the gramophone turns on, the voice on which accuses each of those gathered of the perfect murder. Moreover, they were never punished for this crime.

The guests are outraged, but it turns out that in the coming days they cannot leave the island.

Dream in the red chamber

4 place in the list of 10 best-selling books went to not very well-known in Russia classic novel by Chinese writer Cao Seyuqin called "Dream in the Red Chamber". The work was written back in the 18th century, the date of the first publication is presumably between 1763 and 1791.

The novel is written in the genre of a family chronicle. It tells the story of two branches of the Jia family that are in decline. A large number of characters, relatives and households of the main characters pass before the reader.

In this classic Chinese novel, unlike most of the earlier works, there is a clear storyline and harmonious composition, the author talks in detail about the suffering and experiences of his characters. Seyuqin mixes the facts of his own biography with fictional episodes and even supernatural incidents. In prim China, the novel was banned more than once due to the large number of indecent scenes in it, butthis seems to have only fueled his popularity.

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

The top three best-selling books are opened by John Tolkien's fantasy novel "The Hobbit, or There and Back Again". This book was first published in 1937.

It is based on the journey of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins and the wizard Gandalf. They head to the Lonely Mountain, where the treasures of the dwarves are kept, which were captured by the evil dragon Smaug.

In writing this novel, whose popularity continues today, the author turned to Scandinavian mythology, as well as the Old English poem "Beowulf". According to literary critics, the author's personal experience during his participation in the First World War reflected on the novel. This book actually marked the beginning of the birth of the fantasy genre. Its peculiarity was the opposition of modern and ancient standards of behavior, for example, this can be observed in the speech of the characters.

The main character Bilbo has many characteristics of a modern person, so he stands out against the background of the ancient world. Thus, the novel raises an important question about the relationship of a person who considers himself to be a modern culture, with the ancient heroes who surround him. During a conflict over treasure, the writer addresses the issue of greed and how to overcome it.

The Lord of the Rings

Tolkien can certainly be called the most successful writer of the 20th century. After all, two of his novels were at the top of the best-selling rankings.books. The Lord of the Rings is a whole epic that came out in 1954 and 1955.

In fact, this is a continuation of the novel "The Hobbit, or There and Back Again". The epic consists of three parts, which are called "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers" and "Return of the King". The protagonist of the previous book Bilbo retires, his nephew Frodo is in the foreground. It is he, together with his comrades, who goes in search of the Omnipotence ring, which is capable of making its owner invisible, as well as subjugating all other magic rings.

A Tale of Two Cities

Probably few people will guess about the leader of the ranking of the best-selling novels. This is a historical novel by Charles Dickens, dedicated to the events of the French Revolution. It was first published in 1859. It is a textbook in the history of English literature, with over 200 million copies sold.

The events of the novel begin to develop in London in 1775. Near-death bank clerk Lorry tells 17-year-old Lucy that her father, whom she had long thought dead, is actually alive. The fact is that from the moment of her birth, he was kept in the Bastille on a false denunciation, and was recently released.

Lucy and Lorrie go to Paris to find the unfairly convicted. This is the premise of this world's best-selling novel.