The 100 best challenging books about faith and spirituality

No. 11 on this list. Measure for Measure · William Shakespeare · 1604

Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), WJEC/Eduqas GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

Measure for Measure appears on university syllabi across English literature, drama, law, and gender studies courses worldwide. It is one of Shakespeare's most-taught 'problem plays,' central to any serious study of his canon, with Wikipedia articles in dozens of languages. Less ubiquitous than Hamlet or Macbeth, but firmly within the core Shakespeare curriculum.

No. 12 on this list. The Brothers Karamazov · Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1880

Included in: Bokklubben World Library, Great Books of the Western World

Dostoevsky staged the question of whether God's existence can be reconciled with the suffering of children as a family drama among four brothers, each embodying a different answer. The Grand Inquisitor chapter alone would secure its place; the rest of the novel makes it the most intellectually ambitious work of fiction ever completed.

No. 13 on this list. The Satanic Verses · Salman Rushdie · 1988

The Satanic Verses occupies singular position in late-twentieth-century literature due to the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, making it perhaps the most internationally controversial novel of its era. Beyond the political firestorm, it stands as landmark postcolonial fiction and exemplar of British multicultural literature. The novel appears on standard lists of essential postmodern works and remains central to discussions of migration, identity, and religion in global fiction. Its notoriety ensures permanent place in literary and political history.

No. 14 on this list. Voss · Patrick White · 1957

Voss is recognized as a cornerstone of Australian literature and a major work of postcolonial fiction. It consistently appears in scholarly discussions of antipodean identity, imperial mythology, and mid-century modernism. The novel has maintained critical attention since publication and is standard curriculum in Australian and Commonwealth literary studies.

No. 15 on this list. Poem Without a Hero · Anna Akhmatova · 1960

Requiem and Poem Without a Hero are canonical texts of 20th-century Russian literature and essential documents of Stalinist-era witness poetry — required reading in Russian literature courses worldwide. No database records appear for this English translation's syllabus presence, but the works are universally taught in courses on Soviet literature, women's writing, and poetry of witness. The Wikipedia absence in this database likely reflects a data gap rather than actual obscurity: Akhmatova's works are foundational to Russian studies curricula.

No. 16 on this list. Angels in America: Perestroika · Tony Kushner · 1992

Angels in America is taught in American theater, drama, and queer studies programs at universities across the country and is consistently listed among the essential works of 20th-century American literature. Both parts of the play appear regularly on syllabi in literature, political science, and history courses. Its status as a defining document of the AIDS crisis and Reagan-era America makes it required context for anyone studying the period.

No. 17 on this list. Go Tell It on the Mountain · James Baldwin · 1953

Listed on both the Modern Library 100 Best Novels (1998) and TIME All-TIME 100 Novels (2005), and appears on 414 university syllabi (65th percentile by Open Syllabus data). Baldwin's debut is a fixture in American literature and African-American literature courses.

No. 18 on this list. The Good Soldier · Ford Madox Ford · 1915

Appears on 473 university syllabi (67th percentile in Open Syllabus), placing it firmly in the modernist teaching canon alongside Conrad and early Lawrence. Listed on the Modern Library 100 Best Novels. A standard text in courses on British modernism and narrative technique, though less universally assigned than Woolf or Joyce.

No. 19 on this list. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas · Ursula K Le Guin · 1973

Widely taught in philosophy, ethics, and literature courses globally. Anthologized in hundreds of collections and featured on virtually every 'essential short fiction' list. Its presence in academic syllabi rivals Borges and Kafka in ethics curricula, where it functions as a standard thought-experiment text.

No. 20 on this list. Billy Budd, Sailor · Herman Melville

Taught in schools: Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US)

Billy Budd is a fixture in American literature courses, canonized alongside Moby-Dick as one of Melville's essential works and one of the foundational American novellas. Although the data signals show no tracked syllabus entries in this database, the text has been continuously taught at university level since its rediscovery in the 1920s and appears on virtually every American literature syllabus covering the 19th century. It is frequently included on lists of great American fiction.

No. 21 on this list. Under Western Eyes · Joseph Conrad · 1911

Under Western Eyes holds a secure place in the Conrad canon — studied in university courses alongside Nostromo, The Secret Agent, and Lord Jim, and consistently discussed in critical accounts of Conrad's major work. Leavis included Conrad among the great tradition of English novelists, and the novel's treatment of guilt, betrayal, and political despotism has kept it on syllabi across literature and political thought programmes. Its standing is below Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim in frequency of assignment but firmly canonical within the Conrad corpus.

No. 22 on this list. The Golden Ass · Apuleius · 170

Included in: Oxford World's Classics

The Golden Ass is the only Latin prose novel to survive complete from antiquity, making it a required text in virtually every classical literature and ancient novel course worldwide. Though the database returned no formal syllabus entries, the work appears across comparative literature, mythology, and world literature curricula at universities globally. It features in most canonical 'great books' programs and was included in Harold Bloom's Western Canon.

No. 23 on this list. The Axion Esti · Odysseas Elytis · 1959

The Axion Esti stands as the central work of modern Greek poetry and one of the most significant long poems of the 20th century. It holds canonical status in Greek literature comparable to The Waste Land in English, widely taught in Greek schools and universities. The work's international recognition increased substantially after Elytis received the Nobel Prize in Literature (1979), though it remains less widely read outside Greece than other Nobel-honored poetry.

No. 24 on this list. The Vatican Cellars · André Gide · 1914

The Vatican Cellars opens in Rome in 1890 with Anthime Armand-Dubois, a freemason rationalist whose body trembles with spasms while his wife Véronique maintains quiet devotion. Anthime conducts vivisection experiments on animals to reduce behavior to simple tropisms, recruiting street orphan Beppo to procure his living test subjects. When Anthime smashes a Madonna statue in fury at his wife's prayers, he experiences a dream-vision of the Blessed Virgin that leaves him physically healed yet spiritually transformed. The novel then shifts to Julius de Baraglioul, a novelist and aristocrat whose father sends him to investigate the mysterious young Lafcadio Wluiki, a mysterious nineteen-year-old orphan of dubious origins. Julius discovers Lafcadio's private notebook, where the youth records not moral reflections but acts of self-harm, punishing himself with meticulous tallies for imagined transgressions. Gide weaves together these character strands with satirical precision, creating a darkly comic examination of belief, rebellion, and the peculiar violence that lurks beneath bourgeois respectability.

No. 25 on this list. Cymbeline · William Shakespeare · 1611

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

Cymbeline is a regular presence in university Shakespeare courses and appears in collected editions universally, but it occupies the second tier of the canon — studied more as a late romance alongside The Winter's Tale and The Tempest than as a standalone essential. It lacks the curricular centrality of Hamlet, Macbeth, or King Lear, and general readers are unlikely to encounter it outside academic contexts. Its place in the late-romances grouping grants it moderate canonical standing, above Pericles but well below the great tragedies.

No. 26 on this list. Fifth Business · Robertson Davies · 1970

Fifth Business is widely regarded as the foundational text of modern Canadian literature and a fixture on university English syllabi across Canada and internationally. Its place at the head of the Deptford Trilogy and its sustained presence in academic course lists — from Canadian literature surveys to courses on the psychological novel — cement its canonical standing well beyond its national origin.

No. 27 on this list. House of Glass · Pramoedya Ananta Toer · 1988

House of Glass is the concluding volume of the Buru Quartet, which is universally regarded as the most important work of Indonesian literature and one of the defining anticolonial novels of the twentieth century. It appears on numerous world literature reading lists and is taught at universities across Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America, though its presence in Western canons is less robust than its literary standing merits.

No. 28 on this list. The Winding Stair · William Butler Yeats · 1933

Published in 1933, this collection represents Yeats at the height of his late powers, confronting old age, political disillusionment, and metaphysical yearning through symbols drawn from his occult system A Vision. The tower at Thoor Ballylee becomes a central image: in 'Blood and the Moon' it rises as both Anglo-Irish monument and emblem of consciousness ascending through gyres of history. 'A Dialogue of Self and Soul' stages an internal debate between transcendent renunciation and acceptance of embodied life, concluding with a forceful affirmation of existence that forgives even suffering. The paired Byzantium poems ('Sailing to Byzantium' appears in the earlier Tower volume, but 'Byzantium' here extends the meditation) envision sacred art as escape from biological decay into eternal form. 'Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931' elegizes Lady Gregory's estate and the cultural moment it represented, now dissolving in Ireland's post-revolutionary violence. 'Vacillation' sustains eight sections of philosophical oscillation between worldly and spiritual commitments without final resolution. Throughout, Yeats employs demanding stanzaic forms—ottava rima, terza rima—whose formal strictness contains explosive metaphysical content, creating poetry that is simultaneously architectural and visionary.

No. 29 on this list. Parable of the Talents · Octavia E. Butler · 1998

Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel (1999). Widely taught in speculative fiction, Afrofuturism, and American dystopia courses. The Parable duology is among the most assigned works in contemporary SF syllabi and is firmly canonical within the genre; its canonical standing in broader American literary culture continues to grow.

No. 30 on this list. Rameau's Nephew · Denis Diderot · 1805

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

Rameau's Nephew is a fixture in 18th-century French literature and philosophy courses at the university level, though it occupies a more specialist niche than Diderot's Encyclopédie work. It appears on syllabi in French literature, Enlightenment studies, and courses on the dialogue form. Goethe's German translation (1805) was the work's first publication and secured its European reputation; Wikipedia articles exist in around 30 languages.