Hours at an average pace
Showing 45 books
About 702 hours for 45 of 45 books with measured lengths. Estimates use 250 words a minute, adjusted for each book's difficulty. At 2 hours a day, about 351 days for those books.
No. 1 on this list. In the Heart of the Heart of the Country
William Gass · 1968
Very Difficult13 hours
In the Heart of the Heart of the Country was first published in 1968 and immediately positioned Gass — alongside Barth, Pynchon, and Coover — as a founding figure of American postmodern fiction. The NYRB Classics reprint with an introduction by Joanna Scott confirms its place in the American literary canon. It is taught in graduate programs in literary fiction and cited in essays on American experimental prose. Its canonical position is more secure in academic contexts than in general readership, placing it below Invisible Man or Blood Meridian but above most of its experimental contemporaries.
The New York Trilogy stands as the defining work of American postmodern noir and one of the most influential experimental novels of the 1980s. It appears consistently on syllabi for postmodern fiction, metafiction, and American literature courses, and is cited as a foundational text in discussions of the detective genre's literary transformation. Published in the US by Penguin Books (1987 combined edition), it has remained continuously in print for four decades. It appears on numerous "greatest novels" lists and is central to critical discourse on identity, authorship, and the limitations of language in contemporary fiction.
No. 3 on this list. Troilus and Criseyde
Geoffrey Chaucer · 1385
Difficult9.3 hours
Included in: Great Books of the Western World
Required reading in virtually every medieval English literature curriculum, taught across English, Comparative Literature, and Medieval Studies programs at universities worldwide. Though Open Syllabus data is unavailable here, Chaucer courses built around this text are standard at every major university with an English department. It holds a place among the most-studied long poems in the English language.
Jelinek is a Nobel Prize winner (2004), and Lust is among her most-discussed novels, central to courses in feminist literature, Austrian literature, and avant-garde fiction. The Wikipedia article on Lust exists in 58 languages, indicating significant global recognition. However, the novel is not a fixture of general literary survey courses in the way that Jelinek's work as a whole is taught — it is a specialist text, assigned where Jelinek is the focus or feminist radical fiction is the subject. Its explicit content limits its classroom reach. Canonical within feminist literary studies; less so in general world literature curricula.
No. 5 on this list. Dream of the Red Chamber
Cao Xueqin · 1791
Difficult97 hours
Included in: UNESCO Collection of Representative Works
Cao Xueqin chronicled the decline of an aristocratic Chinese clan through the consciousness of over four hundred distinct characters, weaving Buddhist philosophy, classical poetry, and granular domestic life into a novel of a scope that European fiction would not attempt for another century. It remains the central work of Chinese narrative art.
Nova holds a firm place in the SF literary canon, included in the SF Masterworks series and cited as a defining text of the New Wave movement. Its standing is strong within genre criticism but has not fully crossed into mainstream literary canonization.
The Piano Teacher is widely taught in European universities — particularly in German-language literature, feminist literary criticism, and comparative literature courses — though this database captures 0 syllabus appearances and only a stub Wikipedia article. The novel's canonical standing in German-language and feminist literary studies is well established; its international profile is significant but narrower than Anglophone canonical texts at the same level of critical regard.
The Golden Bowl represents Henry James's late style at its apex and appears regularly in twentieth-century literary histories as a major American novel. While less frequently taught than The Portrait of a Lady or The Ambassadors, it commands serious critical attention and appears on major 'best novels' lists. Its difficulty ensures a smaller readership than James's earlier works, but it remains essential for understanding literary modernism's development.
No. 9 on this list. Measure for Measure
William Shakespeare · 1604
Difficult2.8 hours
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.
Kafka's short fiction is taught in university literature courses worldwide, and 'A Hunger Artist' is among his most frequently anthologized works. It appears in virtually every Kafka collection and features in major short story anthologies. The work has sustained academic and pedagogical attention since its posthumous publication in 1922.
No. 11 on this list. Life A User's Manual · Georges Perec · 1978
Listed on Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century and the Open Syllabus Top 500 for Literature. Wikipedia articles exist in 18 languages. The novel is a fixture in courses on experimental fiction, Oulipo, and twentieth-century French literature, though it remains less widely taught than mainstream canonical works in anglophone curricula.
Difficult21 hours
Start this bookNo. 12 on this list. Personae · Ezra Pound · 1926
Personae is a standard text in modernist poetry curricula worldwide and appears in virtually every major anthology of 20th-century poetry. Though no database syllabus data was returned, Pound's first collection is foundational to understanding Imagism and the troubadour influence on Anglo-American modernism. It is overshadowed in syllabi by the later Cantos and by Eliot, but remains required reading in modernist poetry courses.
Difficult1.1 hours
Start this bookNo. 13 on this list. Aura · Carlos Fuentes · 1962
Aura is assigned in Latin American literature courses across universities globally and anthologized alongside Pedro Paramo and One Hundred Years of Solitude as a defining text of the Latin American Boom. Its brevity makes it a frequent entry point for students encountering Fuentes or magical realism. It does not appear on as many syllabi as García Márquez's major novels but is among the most-taught works in comparative world literature curricula.
Difficult1.4 hours
Start this bookNo. 14 on this list. Wuthering Heights · Emily Brontë · 1847
Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), CAPE Literatures in English – Caribbean Examinations Council, CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council
Included in: Bokklubben World Library
Appears on 4,582 university syllabi (91.5th percentile per Open Syllabus), placing it above most Victorian novels. Wikipedia coverage in 61 languages with dedicated reception and adaptations sections signals global canonical standing. Listed in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die and the BBC Big Read Top 100.
Difficult14 hours
Read nowNo. 15 on this list. The Kreutzer Sonata · Leo Tolstoy · 1889
The Kreutzer Sonata holds a firm place in university curricula for Russian literature, world literature, and gender studies courses. While less taught than Anna Karenina or War and Peace, it appears consistently as required reading in Tolstoy surveys and 19th-century European fiction courses. Its inclusion in countless 'essential Tolstoy' and world literature reading lists reflects its canonical standing.
Difficult7.5 hours
Read nowNo. 16 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.
Difficult3.4 hours
Read nowNo. 17 on this list. The Quiet American · Graham Greene · 1955
The Quiet American appears on the Modern Library 100 Best Novels and TIME's All-TIME 100 Novels lists and is taught regularly in postcolonial literature, Cold War fiction, and 20th-century British novel courses worldwide. Its prophetic critique of American intervention in Vietnam has made it a fixture in both literary and political science curricula. No syllabus or Wikipedia data was returned from the database, but its standing as a canonical text in world literature is established by critical consensus.
Difficult6.8 hours
Start this bookNo. 18 on this list. In Search of Lost Time · Marcel Proust · 1913
Included in: Bokklubben World Library, Great Books of the Western World
In Search of Lost Time appears on 223 university syllabi and registers at the 58.7th percentile in the Open Syllabus Project — a significant presence for a seven-volume novel typically taught in translation and only in specialized courses. It appears on virtually every 'greatest novels' list (Modern Library, Le Monde, Time), and is treated as the central work of French modernism in comparative literature programs worldwide.
Difficult25 hours
Read nowNo. 19 on this list. Madame Bovary · Gustave Flaubert · 1857
Appears on 986 university syllabi according to the Open Syllabus Project, placing it in the top tier of world literature taught in higher education. Wikipedia articles exist in 63 languages with dedicated Reception and Adaptations sections, confirming its status as a global canonical text. Listed on the Open Syllabus Top 500 Literature and 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.
Difficult13 hours
Read nowNo. 20 on this list. Dom Casmurro · Machado de Assis · 1899
Taught in schools: FUVEST leituras obrigatórias (USP vestibular) (Brazil)
Bentinho grows up next door to Capitu in 1850s Rio de Janeiro, separated from her only by a wall and his mother's vow to make him a priest. He becomes Dom Casmurro — the stubborn recluse — and narrates his life from old age: the childhood infatuation, the years at seminary, the marriage, the friendship with Escobar, and the suspicion that eventually destroys everything. Capitu's eyes — described early on as 'the eyes of the undertow,' oblique and restless — fix themselves in the reader's mind and never quite let go. Machado de Assis structures the entire novel around what the narrator refuses to see clearly: Bento's account of his wife's betrayal reads equally as the self-portrait of a man who destroyed his marriage through jealousy. The 148 short chapters move fast, packed with digressions about opera, Roman history, and Shakespeare — the narrator is endlessly distracting himself from what he cannot face. Whether Capitu was guilty is the wrong question; the right one is why Bento needs her to be. Published in 1899, this is one of the first and still one of the finest unreliable narrator novels in any language, and the question it refuses to answer has occupied Brazilian readers for over a century.
Difficult9.5 hours
Start this book
No. 21 on this list. Another Country · James Baldwin · 1962
Another Country appears regularly in American literature, African American studies, and queer studies syllabi at universities across the United States. It is considered essential reading alongside Giovanni's Room and Go Tell It on the Mountain within Baldwin's body of work, and features on most canonical lists of 20th-century American fiction. Its frank treatment of race and sexuality in 1962 established it as a landmark text taught wherever those intersections are examined.
Difficult16 hours
Start this bookNo. 22 on this list. The Portrait of a Lady · Henry James · 1881
Appears on 26 university syllabi per Open Syllabus (35th percentile), placing it as a canonical text in American and Victorian literature courses rather than a universally assigned one. With Wikipedia coverage in 22 languages and an adaptations section, the novel holds a recognized place in global literary culture. It anchors most serious treatments of the nineteenth-century psychological novel.
Difficult25 hours
Read nowNo. 23 on this list. Our Mutual Friend · Charles Dickens · 1865
Our Mutual Friend is a fixture of Victorian literature courses at universities worldwide, typically assigned alongside Great Expectations and Bleak House in advanced English studies. Wikipedia articles for the novel exist in dozens of languages, reflecting its global canonical standing. It consistently appears on critics' lists of Dickens's greatest works and in syllabi covering 19th-century social fiction.
Difficult35 hours
Read nowNo. 24 on this list. Joseph and His Brothers · Thomas Mann · 1943
Joseph and His Brothers appears regularly on European and world literature curricula, particularly in German literature courses and modernism seminars. It features on multiple 'greatest novels' lists including Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century. The tetralogy is less frequently taught than Mann's shorter works (Death in Venice, The Magic Mountain) owing to its length, but its canonical standing within the Mann oeuvre and 20th-century literature broadly is secure. The database shows no syllabus or Wikipedia data, but scholarly consensus places this among the defining works of European modernism.
Challenging68 hours
Start this bookNo. 25 on this list. Death in Venice · Thomas Mann · 1912
Included in: Great Books of the Western World
Death in Venice appears on virtually every German literature, European modernism, and queer theory university syllabus taught in the English-speaking world. It is a standard text in comparative literature programs alongside Kafka's Metamorphosis and Rilke's Duino Elegies. Wikipedia maintains articles on the novella in over 50 languages, and it features on most 'essential modern literature' lists.
Challenging11 hours
Read nowNo. 26 on this list. The Bostonians · Henry James · 1886
No syllabus or Wikipedia data was returned by automated signals, but 'The Bostonians' appears in virtually every American literature survey course at the university level and is consistently included on canonical lists of 19th-century American fiction. It is studied widely in courses on gender, American realism, and late Victorian culture, placing it solidly in the upper tier of taught texts — below James's most famous works like 'The Portrait of a Lady' but well above minor or specialist titles.
Challenging17 hours
Start this bookNo. 27 on this list. The Sorrows of Young Werther · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1774
Standard curriculum in German literature and comparative literature courses worldwide. The novel launched the Sturm und Drang movement and anchored the European Romantic turn. No syllabus data is available in the database, but its presence in university world literature courses is pervasive and long-established.
Challenging4.4 hours
Read nowNo. 28 on this list. Lolita · Vladimir Nabokov · 1955
Included in: Bokklubben World Library
Nabokov gave a monster the most beautiful prose in the English language and dared the reader to be seduced by it, producing the most disturbing test case for the relationship between aesthetic pleasure and moral judgment. Humbert Humbert's sentences are so exquisite that noticing your own enchantment becomes the novel's real subject.
Challenging11 hours
Start this bookNo. 29 on this list. Antony and Cleopatra · William Shakespeare · 1607
Taught in schools: WJEC/Eduqas GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)
Included in: Great Books of the Western World
Antony and Cleopatra appears on virtually every Shakespeare survey and major tragedy course in English-speaking universities. It is included in all complete works editions — Oxford, Arden, Folger, Norton — and features on most 'essential Shakespeare' reading lists. While taught less frequently than Hamlet or King Lear, it holds permanent status as one of the four or five major late tragedies.
Challenging2.7 hours
Read nowNo. 30 on this list. Sentimental Education · Gustave Flaubert · 1869
Included in: Bokklubben World Library
Wikipedia article available in 27 languages with dedicated reception and adaptations sections, indicating sustained global readership. Taught in French literature and comparative literature courses at universities worldwide, though less universally assigned than Madame Bovary.
Challenging18 hours
Read now
No. 31 on this list. The Women of Trachis
Sophocles · c. 450 BCE
Included in: Great Books of the Western World
No. 32 on this list. Kiss of the Spider Woman
Manuel Puig · 1976
No. 33 on this list. Voss
Patrick White · 1957
No. 34 on this list. A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams · 1947
Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Cambridge IGCSE Literature in English (0475), UNAM Escuela Nacional Preparatoria – programas de Literatura (Mexico)
No. 35 on this list. Eclogues
Virgil · c. 37 BCE
Included in: Great Books of the Western World
No. 36 on this list. Palace of Desire
Naguib Mahfouz · 1957
No. 37 on this list. The Flanders Road
Claude Simon · 1960
No. 38 on this list. Elective Affinities
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1809
No. 39 on this list. Miss Julie
August Strindberg · 1888
No. 40 on this list. The Good Soldier
Ford Madox Ford · 1915
About this list
These 45 books are the hardest-scoring eligible books about love and desire currently in the catalogue. About 702 hours of reading in all. Difficulty runs from 68 to 74 out of 100 for the middle half of the list; the summit is Écrits at 94.
This list is ranked by difficulty score, hardest first, with a consistent order for equal scores. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. A book is here when ReadingRate files it under Love & Desire as one of its primary reading domains, at a confidence of 0.8 or more. Catalogue coverage and the historical canon both limit what this list can represent.
When we matched the Canons dataset to our catalogue in October 2026, our canonical-status scores rose with the number of school curricula, publisher series and lists in it that cite a work: the median score was 72 for books one such source cites, 84 at two, 88 at three, 92 at four and 93 at five or more. Prizes are left out of that count. Outside the state curricula, the dataset’s sources choose mostly from what has been translated into English or French, so it is a weaker check on other literatures. Source: Canons (Andrew Piper), CC BY 4.0
Questions people actually ask
- What are the hardest books about love and desire to read?
- Ranked hardest first by difficulty score: In the Heart of the Heart of the Country by William Gass, The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer, Lust by Elfriede Jelinek and Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin. ReadingRate ranks 45 such books, each with a difficulty score and a reading-time estimate.
- Can I read any of these books about love and desire for free?
- 17 of the 45 open in ReadingRate's reader with a free account, from public-domain editions: Troilus and Criseyde, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Golden Bowl, Measure for Measure, Wuthering Heights and 12 more.
- How long would it take to read the top ten?
- About 209 hours, at an average pace of 250 words a minute adjusted for each book's difficulty: 105 days at two hours a day. Set your own pace on the page and the list's reading times change to it.
- How hard are the hardest books about love and desire?
- Most of this list sits between 68 and 74 on ReadingRate's 100-point difficulty scale, where 40 to 55 is moderate. The summit is Écrits at 94. Every entry carries its own score, so a reader can pick a great book at a difficulty they will finish.
- How is this list ranked?
- Nine dimensions, from vocabulary and sentence structure to symbolic density and how much an ending withholds, each scored out of 100 and combined. It measures the text, not the reader, and it leans on meaning: The New York Trilogy scores 87 for how much it withholds, though its sentences are plainer than anything else in the top twenty. Each book's page shows which kind of hard it is. A book is here when ReadingRate files it under Love & Desire as one of its primary reading domains, at a confidence of 0.8 or more.