A Christmas Carol by Charles DickensDead Souls by Nikolai GogolThe Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan PoeThe Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
Best Books of the Decade: 1840s
280 books — 385 voters
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor DostoevskyNotes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculo... by Fyodor DostoevskySentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
Best Books of the Decade: 1860s
235 books — 399 voters

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark TwainAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis CarrollThe Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche
Best Books of the Decade: 1870s
258 books — 347 voters
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark TwainThe Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor DostoevskyDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis StevensonTreasure Island by Robert Louis StevensonThus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
Best Books of the Decade: 1880s
378 books — 414 voters

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar WildeThe Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar WildeThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan DoyleThe Turn of the Screw by Henry JamesThe Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Best Books of the Decade: 1890s
471 books — 500 voters
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan DoyleThe Gift of the Magi by O. HenryThe Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf
Best Books of the Decade: 1900s
473 books — 857 voters

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest HemingwayUlysses by James JoyceThe Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha ChristieLady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. LawrenceWomen in Love by D.H. Lawrence
Best Books of the Decade: 1920s
765 books — 1,130 voters
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. TolkienBrave New World by Aldous HuxleyOf Mice and Men by John SteinbeckMurder on the Orient Express by Agatha ChristieDeath on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Best Books of the Decade: 1930s
907 books — 1,256 voters

1984 by George OrwellAnimal Farm by George OrwellThe Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-ExupéryThe Stranger by Albert CamusFor Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Best Books of the Decade: 1940s
821 books — 1,146 voters
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. SalingerLord of the Flies by William GoldingFahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyThe Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Best Books of the Decade: 1950s
1,185 books — 1,510 voters

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper LeeOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken KeseySlaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.Catch-22 by Joseph HellerIn Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Best Books of the Decade: 1960s
1,363 books — 1,776 voters
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas AdamsInterview with the Vampire by Anne RiceBreakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas PynchonIf on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
Best Books of the Decade: 1970s
1,956 books — 1,884 voters

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan KunderaA Prayer for Owen Meany by John IrvingThe Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas AdamsThe Vampire Lestat by Anne RiceMidnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Best Books of the Decade: 1980s
2,258 books — 2,431 voters
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Best Books of the Decade: 1990s
3,140 books — 3,678 voters