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Raymond Queneau, ed., Pour une Bibliotheque Ideal [1956]

103 entries: 73 monographical, 30 otherwise

Ranked

This book is very difficult to find. Thankfully, one the best sites on the web, Bureau of Public Secrets, features a transcription of the 100 entries of that book's final list. In a project similar to J. Peder Zane's, Queneau asked several French authors and critics each to draw up a list of their favorite 100 books. Bibliotheque Ideal includes those responses as well as the overall list seen here.

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  1. The Bible

    2. —Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek

  2. Marcel Proust

    3. À la Recherche du Temps Perdu
    In Search of Lost Time; In Remembrance of Things Past
    originally published in seven volumes, two of which originally published as two books each, 1913-27—French

  3. Michel de Montaigne

    4. Les Essais
    Essays
    originally published in three volumes: 1580, 1588, and 1595—French

  4. François Rabelais

    5. La Vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel
    originally published in five volumes: Les Horribles et Épouvantables Faits et Prouesses du Très Renommé Pantagruel Roi des Dipsodes, Fils du Grand Géant Gargantua, 1532; La Vie Très Horrifique du Grand Gargantua, Père de Pantagruel, 1534; Le Tiers Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1546; Le Quart Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1552; Le Cinquiesme et Dernier Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1564—French

  5. Charles Baudelaire

    6. Les Fleurs du Mal
    The Flowers of Evil
    1857—French

  6. Blaise Pascal
    Pensées
    Thoughts
    1669—French

    • Molière

    7. Plays
    Seventeenth Century—French

  7. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    8. Les Confessions
    1782—French

  8. Stendhal
    Le Rouge et le Noir, Chronique du XIXe Siècle
    The Red and the Black
    1830—French

    • Plato

    9. Dialogues
    early Fourth Century B C—Greek

  9. Stendhal

    10. Le Chartreuse de Parme
    The Charterhouse of Parma
    1839—French

  10. François Villon
    Le Grand Testament Villon et le Petit. Son Codicille. Le Jargon et Ses Ballades
    1489—French

    Arthur Rimbaud
    • Poems

    11. late Nineteenth Century—French

  11. Les Illuminations

    12. published in part serially May-Jun. 1886 in La Vogue; in its entirety later the same year—French

  12. Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz

    13. Mémoires du Cardinal de Retz
    1717—French

  13. Leo Tolstoy

    14. Voyna i Mir"
    War and Peace
    originally entitled 1805, published in part, 1865 and 1867; retitled and published in its entirety, 1869—Russian

  14. Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon

    15. Memoires
    written 1739-49; published in part, 1788; in its entirety, 1858—French

  15. Miguel de Cervantes
    El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
    Don Quixote
    originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615—Spanish

    • Jean Racine

    Plays
    Seventeenth Century—French

    • Aeschylus

    16. Plays
    Fifth Century B C—Greek

  16. Fyodor Dostoevsky
    Brat'â Karamazovy
    The Brothers Karamazov
    originally published serially 1880 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian

    • Stéphane Mallarmé

    17. Poems
    late Nineteenth Century—French

  17. Jean de la Fontaine

    18. Fables
    originally published in 12 volumes: first-sixth, 1668; seventh-eleventh, 1678; twelfth, 1694—French

  18. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

    19. Faust
    originally published in two volumes: first, Faust. Der Tragödie Erster Teil, published in part, 1790; in its entirey, 1808; revised 1829; second, Faust. Der Tragödie Zweiter Teil, 1832—German

  19. Guillaume Apollinaire

    20. Alcools
    1913—French

  20. Gustave Flaubert

    21. L'Éducation Sentimentale
    1869—French

  21. Homer
    Odýsseia
    The Odyssey
    ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B C—Greek

    • Pierre Corneille

    22. Plays
    Seventeenth Century—French

  22. Dante

    23. La Divina Commedia
    The Divine Comedy
    originally entitled La Commedia; written ca. 1308-21—Italian

  23. François-René de Chateaubriand
    Memoires d'Outre Tombe
    published in two volumes, 1849 and 1850—French

    • Honoré de Balzac

    La Comédie Humaine
    collective name for 91 finished and 46 unfinished works; Nineteenth Century—French

    • Sophocles

    24. Plays
    Fifth Century B C—Greek

  24. James Joyce

    25. Ulysses
    published in part serially Mar. 1918-Dec. 1920 in the Little Review; in its entirety, 1922—English

  25. Choderlos de Laclos

    26. Les Liaisons Dangereuses
    The Dangerous Liaisons
    1782—French

  26. Jonathan Swift
    Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and Then a Captain of Several Ships
    Gulliver's Travels
    1726; revised 1735—English

    • Paul Verlaine

    27. Poems
    late Nineteenth Century—French

  27. Gustave Flaubert

    28. Madame Bovary
    originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de Paris—French

  28. Arthur Rimbaud

    29. Une Saison en Enfer
    A Season in Hell
    1873—French

  29. René Descartes

    30. Discours de la Méthode Pour Bien Conduire sa Raison, et Chercher la Vérité dans les Sciences
    Discourse on the Method
    1637—French

  30. Abbé Prévost

    31. L'Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut
    seventh volume of Homme de Qualité, 1731; published separately the same year—French

  31. Pierre de Ronsard
    Les Odes
    originally published in five volumes: first-fourth, 1550; fifth, 1552—French

    • Aristophanes

    32. Plays
    late Fifth Century B C—Greek

    Cornelius Tacitus
  32. Historiae

    33. written ca. 100-10—Latin

  33. Annales

    34. written First Century—Latin

  34. Baruch Spinoza
    Ethica, Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata
    Ethics
    1677—Latin

    • Friedrich Hölderlin

    Poems
    late Eighteenth-early Nineteenth centuries—German

    Gérard de Nerval
    • Les Filles du Feu

    1854; stories, essays, and other works previously published—French

    • Les Chimères

    35. twelve poems originally published in periodicals and earlier books by the author; included in Les Filles du Feu, 1854—French

  35. Daniel Defoe

    36. The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner
    originally anonymously published 1719—English

  36. Augustine of Hippo

    37. Confessionum Libri Tredecim
    The Confessions of St. Augustine
    written 397-98—Latin

  37. Comte de Lautreamont

    38. Les Chants de Maldoror
    The Songs of Maldoror
    1869—French

  38. Victor Hugo

    39. Les Misérables
    1862—French

  39. Lewis Carroll
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
    1865—English

    • Alfred de Musset

    40. Comédies et Proverbes
    title used for varying collections of Musset's plays; Nineteenth Century—French

  40. Jules Renard

    41. Journal de Jules Renard
    1925—French

    Homer
  41. Iliad

    42. ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B C—Greek

  42. Fyodor Dostoevsky

    43. Idiot
    originally published serially 1868-9 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian

  43. Emily Brontë

    44. Wuthering Heights
    originally published 1847 under the pseudonym, Ellis Bell; revised 1850—English

  44. Fyodor Dostoevsky
    Besy
    Demons; The Devils; The Possessed
    1872—Russian

    • Voltaire

    Stories
    Eighteenth Century—French

    • William Blake

    45. Poems
    late Eighteenth-early Nineteenth centuries—English

  45. Fyodor Dostoevsky

    46. Prestuplénie i Nakazániye
    Crime and Punishment
    originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1866 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian

  46. Plutarch

    47. Bìoi Paràllēloi
    Parallel Lives; Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
    First Century—Greek

  47. Madame de la Fayette

    48. La Princess de Clèves
    originallly anonymously published 1678—French

  48. Karl Marx

    49. Das Kapital, Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie
    published in three volumes: 1867, 1885, and 1894—German

  49. Benjamin Constant
    Adolphe, Anecdote Trouvée dans les Papiers d'un Inconnu
    originally anonymously published 1816—French

    • Pierre Beaumarchais

    50. Plays
    Eighteenth Century—French

  50. Agrippa d'Aubigné

    51. Les Tragiques
    1616—French

  51. Alfred de Vigny
    Les Destinées
    1864—French

    • Federico García Lorca

    52. Poems
    early Twentieth Century—Spanish

  52. André Malraux

    53. La Condition Humaine
    Man's Fate
    1933—French

  53. Francois de la Rochefoucauld

    54. Réflexions ou Sentences et Maximes Morales
    originally anonymously published 1665—French

  54. Jean de la Bruyère
    Les Caractères
    1688—French

    • Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sévigné (Madame de Sévigné)

    55. Correspondence
    Seventeenth Century—French

  55. Emile Littré

    56. Le Dictionnaire de la Langue Française
    1863-72—French

  56. Alfred Jarry
    Ubu Roi
    1896—French

    • Paul Valéry

    57. Poems
    early Twentieth Century—French

  57. Blaise Pascal

    58. Lettres Provinciales
    1656-57—French

  58. T E Lawrence
    Seven Pillars of Wisdom
    1922—English

    • Prosper Mérimée

    Stories
    Nineteenth Century—French

    • Paul Valéry

    Variétes
    four volumes of essays previously published—French

    • Heraclitus

    Selected works
    ca. late Sixth-early Fifth centuries B C; only fragments of his work are extant—Greek

    • Pierre de Marivaux

    59. Plays
    Eighteenth Century—French

  59. Victor Hugo

    60. La Légende des Siècles
    originally published in three volumes: 1859, 1877, and 1883—French

  60. Franz Kafka
    Der Prozess
    The Trial
    1925—German

    • Voltaire

    61. Correspondence
    Eighteenth Century—French

  61. Guillaume Apollinaire

    62. Calligrammes: Poèmes de la Paix et de la Guerre 1913-1916
    1918—French

  62. André Gide
    Journal
    originally published in two volumes, 1939 and 1950—French

    • Hans Christian Andersen

    63. Fables
    Nineteenth Century—Danish

  63. Alexandre Dumas

    64. Les Trois Mousquetaires
    The Three Musketeers
    originally published serially Mar.-Jul. 1844 in Le Siècle—French

  64. Giacomo Casanova

    65. Histoire de Ma Vie Jusqu'à l'An 1797 (The Story of My Life)
    The Story of My Life
    German translation published in part, 1822-4; abridged and censored version of the original French published 1826-38; original French published in its entirety, 1960-2—French

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  65. Kitab alf Laylah Wa-Laylah

    66. The Thousand and One Nights; The Arabian Nights
    Ninth-Fifteenth centuries—Arabic

  66. Joseph Conrad
    Lord Jim
    originally published serially Oct. 1899-Nov. 1900 in Blackwood's Magazine—English

    • Novalis

    67. "Poems and philosophical fragments"
    late Eighteenth Century—German

  67. Friedrich Nietzsche
    Also Sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen
    Thus Spake Zarathustra
    originally published in four volumes, 1883-5—German

    • Paul Claudel

    68. Plays
    early Twentieth Century—French

  68. Tristan Corbière

    69. Les Amours Jaunes
    1873—French

  69. Victor Hugo

    70. Les Contemplations
    1856—French
    French

  70. San Juan de la Cruz (Saint John of the Cross)

    71. La Noche Oscura del Alma
    Dark Night of the Soul
    written 1578-79 and 1584-85—Spanish

  71. Nikolai Gogol

    72. Mërtvyâ Duši
    Dead Souls
    1842—Russian

  72. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)

    73. Aeneid
    First Century B C—Latin

  73. Georges Bernanos

    74. Journal d'un Curé de Campagne
    Journal of a Country Priest
    1936—French