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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

  3. Marcel Proust

  4. 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


  5. Michel de Montaigne

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


  7. François Rabelais

  8. 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

  9. Charles Baudelaire

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


  11. Blaise Pascal
    Pensées
    Thoughts
    1669—French


    • Molière

  12. Plays
    Seventeenth Century—French

  13. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  14. Les Confessions
    1782—French

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


    • Plato

  16. Dialogues
    early Fourth Century B C—Greek

  17. Stendhal

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


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

    Arthur Rimbaud
    • Poems

  20. late Nineteenth Century—French

  21. Les Illuminations

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

  23. Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz

  24. Mémoires du Cardinal de Retz
    1717—French

  25. Leo Tolstoy

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


  27. Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon

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

  29. 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

  30. Plays
    Fifth Century B C—Greek

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


    • Stéphane Mallarmé

  32. Poems
    late Nineteenth Century—French

  33. Jean de la Fontaine

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

  35. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  36. 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

  37. Guillaume Apollinaire

  38. Alcools
    1913—French

  39. Gustave Flaubert

  40. L'Éducation Sentimentale
    1869—French

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


    • Pierre Corneille

  42. Plays
    Seventeenth Century—French

  43. Dante

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


  45. 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

  46. Plays
    Fifth Century B C—Greek

  47. James Joyce

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

  49. Choderlos de Laclos

  50. Les Liaisons Dangereuses
    The Dangerous Liaisons
    1782—French


  51. 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

  52. Poems
    late Nineteenth Century—French

  53. Gustave Flaubert

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

  55. Arthur Rimbaud

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


  57. René Descartes

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


  59. Abbé Prévost

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

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

    • Aristophanes

  62. Plays
    late Fifth Century B C—Greek

    Cornelius Tacitus
  63. Historiae

  64. written ca. 100-10—Latin

  65. Annales

  66. written First Century—Latin

  67. 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

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

  69. Daniel Defoe

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

  71. Augustine of Hippo

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


  73. Comte de Lautreamont

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


  75. Victor Hugo

  76. Les Misérables
    1862—French

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

    • Alfred de Musset

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

  79. Jules Renard

  80. Journal de Jules Renard
    1925—French

    Homer
  81. Iliad

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

  83. Fyodor Dostoevsky

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

  85. Emily Brontë

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

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


    • Voltaire

    Stories
    Eighteenth Century—French

    • William Blake

  88. Poems
    late Eighteenth-early Nineteenth centuries—English

  89. Fyodor Dostoevsky

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


  91. Plutarch

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


  93. Madame de la Fayette

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

  95. Karl Marx

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

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

    • Pierre Beaumarchais

  98. Plays
    Eighteenth Century—French

  99. Agrippa d'Aubigné

  100. Les Tragiques
    1616—French

  101. Alfred de Vigny
    Les Destinées
    1864—French

    • Federico García Lorca

  102. Poems
    early Twentieth Century—Spanish

  103. André Malraux

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


  105. Francois de la Rochefoucauld

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

  107. Jean de la Bruyère
    Les Caractères
    1688—French

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

  108. Correspondence
    Seventeenth Century—French

  109. Emile Littré

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

  111. Alfred Jarry
    Ubu Roi
    1896—French

    • Paul Valéry

  112. Poems
    early Twentieth Century—French

  113. Blaise Pascal

  114. Lettres Provinciales
    1656-57—French

  115. 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

  116. Plays
    Eighteenth Century—French

  117. Victor Hugo

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

  119. Franz Kafka
    Der Prozess
    The Trial
    1925—German


    • Voltaire

  120. Correspondence
    Eighteenth Century—French

  121. Guillaume Apollinaire

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

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

    • Hans Christian Andersen

  124. Fables
    Nineteenth Century—Danish

  125. Alexandre Dumas

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


  127. Giacomo Casanova

  128. 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


    --
  129. Kitab alf Laylah Wa-Laylah

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


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

    • Novalis

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

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


    • Paul Claudel

  134. Plays
    early Twentieth Century—French

  135. Tristan Corbière

  136. Les Amours Jaunes
    1873—French

  137. Victor Hugo

  138. Les Contemplations
    1856—French
    French


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

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


  141. Nikolai Gogol

  142. Mërtvyâ Duši
    Dead Souls
    1842—Russian


  143. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)

  144. Aeneid
    First Century B C—Latin

  145. Georges Bernanos

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