The 100 best moderately difficult books of myth and folklore

No. 11 on this list. Company · Samuel Beckett · 1980

Company appears on syllabi within Beckett studies and late modernism courses, but the plays (Waiting for Godot, Endgame) dominate canonical Beckett curricula. The late prose trilogy (Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho) is more specialist than canonical in the broad sense. Its Wikipedia presence is part of the wider Beckett corpus rather than as a standalone canonical text. Taught at graduate rather than undergraduate level.

No. 12 on this list. Fasti · Ovid · 8

Fasti is a core text in Latin studies curricula and appears in most classical literature courses treating Augustan Rome, though it sits in the shadow of Ovid's Metamorphoses and Virgil's Aeneid in breadth of teaching. The Oxford World's Classics edition by Anne and Peter Wiseman (2011, revised 2013) marks its standing as a prestige canonical work. It is not among the most-taught Latin texts in translation courses but is standard reading for specialists.

No. 13 on this list. Salvage the Bones · Jesmyn Ward · 2011

Salvage the Bones is widely taught in contemporary American literature, African American literature, and Southern literature courses. Its National Book Award win brought it immediate and sustained academic attention, and Ward's subsequent acclaim has only reinforced the book's position on university reading lists. With 400 syllabus appearances it sits in the mid-canonical tier — solidly established but not yet at the frequency of works like Beloved or Their Eyes Were Watching God.

No. 14 on this list. Seize the Day · Saul Bellow · 1956

Widely taught in American literature and Jewish-American literature courses, the novella has secured its place in the postwar American canon. Its compact perfection and psychological depth make it a staple of university syllabi, though it lacks the cultural ubiquity of Bellow's longer novels.

No. 15 on this list. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam · Omar Khayyam · 1120

Taught in schools: Armenian secondary literature

Included in: UNESCO Collection of Representative Works

Victorian classic; part of English literary heritage; the Persian original is canonical.

No. 16 on this list. The Silmarillion · J. R. R. Tolkien · 1977

The Silmarillion is widely read within fantasy literature and Tolkien studies, and it appears in courses on mythology, world-building, and fantasy as a genre. It lacks the universal curriculum presence of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, but its Wikipedia article exists in 40+ languages and it remains the foundational text for understanding Tolkien's legendarium.

No. 17 on this list. Mythistorima · Giorgos Seferis · 1935

Mythistorema (1935) is a central text of modern Greek poetry, taught in Greece and read abroad in translations such as Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard's. It is the sequence most often chosen to represent Seferis in courses on European modernism.

No. 18 on this list. Devil on the Cross · Ngugi wa Thiong'o · 1980

Included in: Heinemann African Writers Series

Devil on the Cross holds a firm place in African literature curricula and postcolonial studies courses worldwide, though it reaches fewer syllabi than anglophone classics. Its historic significance — the first novel written in Gĩkũyũ — gives it an anchoring role in discussions of language, decolonization, and African literary identity that keeps it in circulation decades after publication.

No. 19 on this list. The Sandman · Neil Gaiman · 1989

The Sandman occupies a privileged position in the canon of graphic literature and appears regularly in university courses on comics studies, mythology in popular culture, and genre fiction. It is consistently cited on 'essential graphic novels' lists and is taught in courses on sequential art at major universities. Within its medium, its canonical status approaches that of Ulysses in prose — foundational, required — though graphic novel courses reach fewer syllabi overall than prose literature courses. The DB returned no syllabus data, but external sources confirm strong academic presence in comics and cultural studies contexts.

No. 20 on this list. Sing, Unburied, Sing · Jesmyn Ward · 2018

Sing, Unburied, Sing appears on 71 university syllabi — a solid midrange presence, placing it in the 46th percentile of works in the database. It is widely taught in contemporary American literature, Southern literature, and African American literature courses, though it has not yet achieved the deep canonical entrenchment of Morrison or Faulkner. Its teaching presence reflects a novel still being absorbed into the curriculum in the decade since its 2017 publication, with significant room for that footprint to grow.

No. 21 on this list. Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka · Nikolai Gogol · 1832

Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka is a foundational text in Russian and Ukrainian literary history, appearing in Slavic literature and comparative folklore curricula worldwide. While it lacks the global syllabus penetration of Gogol's later Dead Souls or The Overcoat — works more central to realism courses — it is the required starting point for any study of Gogol's development. The book is likely in the 60th–70th percentile of canonical teaching across world literature programs.

No. 22 on this list. The Sandman Vol. 6: Fables & Reflections · Neil Gaiman

The Sandman series appears on university literature and cultural studies syllabi as a defining example of the graphic novel form, though the medium remains underrepresented in traditional English department canons. Vol. 6 is rarely isolated from the series, but as part of one of the most-collected graphic novel sequences in print history it holds a firm place in any serious reading of the form. No syllabus data was available in the database.

No. 23 on this list. Loving · Henry Green · 1945

Ranked 89th on the Modern Library 100 Best Novels and included on TIME's All-TIME 100 Novels, with Wikipedia articles in 10 languages. It is taught in courses on modernist and wartime British fiction, though less widely than Woolf or Waugh.

No. 24 on this list. Zazie in the Metro · Raymond Queneau · 1959

Zazie in the Metro appears on Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century (1999) and in the Open Syllabus Top 500 for literature, placing it firmly within the French literary canon. It is published by NYRB Classics, the most prestigious English-language imprint for foreign literary fiction. The novel is taught in French literature and postmodern fiction courses internationally, though it remains more of a cult text than a curriculum fixture outside France. Its canonical standing in France itself is considerably higher than its anglophone footprint suggests.

No. 25 on this list. Amerika · Franz Kafka · 1927

Amerika is the least studied of Kafka's three novels, taught on world literature and modernism syllabi but with far lower frequency than The Trial or The Metamorphosis. It lacks the Wikipedia language coverage and syllabus saturation of Kafka's canonical works, though it appears in most comprehensive surveys of the modernist novel.

No. 26 on this list. The General of the Dead Army · Ismail Kadare · 1963

Listed in Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century and the work that introduced Kadare to Western readers after its 1970 French translation. It is studied in courses on Balkan and Eastern European literature.

No. 27 on this list. Penelopiad · Margaret Atwood · 2005

The Penelopiad appears regularly on feminist literature syllabi, myth-retelling courses, and contemporary women's fiction reading lists, benefiting from its position in the Canongate Myths series and Atwood's towering reputation. It has not achieved the universal curricular penetration of Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, placing it in established rather than major canon territory.

No. 28 on this list. Always Coming Home · Ursula K Le Guin · 1985

Always Coming Home appears on 72 university syllabi according to Open Syllabus Project data (46th percentile), primarily in science fiction, utopian literature, and feminist studies courses. Its Wikipedia article exists in only 4 languages — modest global reach for a book of this ambition. The book is well-known within Le Guin scholarship and SF studies but has not achieved the broad canonical presence of Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness or The Dispossessed. It was a National Book Award finalist in 1985 and is included in the Library of America's Le Guin edition, which confirms critical recognition without mass adoption.

No. 29 on this list. Angle of Repose · Wallace Stegner · 1972

Angle of Repose is widely taught in courses on the American West, 20th-century American fiction, and historical novels. It appears regularly on university syllabi and literary retrospectives of the 1970s. The novel's canonical position is complicated by the plagiarism controversy regarding Stegner's use of Mary Hallock Foote's letters, which has sparked ongoing scholarly debate about biographical fiction and appropriation.

No. 30 on this list. Circe · Madeline Miller · 2019

Ranked by literary regard among eligible works in the current catalogue. This position reflects the available catalogue evidence.