Looking at the best, worst, and most unforgettable adaptations of books to the big and small screens.

Books Brought to Life

Entertainment

Movie adaptations of books are a uniquely difficult variety&nbsp;of filmmaking. It&#39;s almost impossible to adapt a book into a movie while staying 100% faithful&nbsp;to the original work, because they&#39;re two fundamentally different mediums. Inevitably story lines&nbsp;will change, whether that&#39;s due to&nbsp;the realities of translating written words into a visual story&nbsp;or because filmmakers think they can improve on what&#39;s already there.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/authors-who-hated-movie-adaptations-of-their-books/anncasano" target="_blank">It&#39;s common for authors to hate film adaptations of their books</a>. Stephen King famously <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2016/02/stephen-king-says-stanley-kubricks-the-shining-is-like-a-big-beautiful-cadillac-with-no-engine-inside-it-83995/" target="_blank">disliked</a> Stanley Kubrick&#39;s 1980 adaptation of&nbsp;The Shining, even though the film is considered a horror classic, and even though King himself admits&nbsp;it&#39;s a visual masterpiece. But authors don&#39;t always hate the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/who-authors-had-in-mind-for-characters/tracey-graham" target="_blank">movie versions of their books</a>, and many love them. Usually that&#39;s because the filmmakers stayed <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-book-characters-in-movies/josh-plainse" target="_blank">true to what they originally wrote</a>.&nbsp;But sometimes, even the author has to admit that the movie version is just better.&nbsp;

Here are 18&nbsp;authors who loved the movie adaptations of their books.

18 Authors Who Loved The Movie Adaptations Of Their Books

Film

Authors Who Loved the Movie Adaptations of Their Books

Jim Rowley

All about the spooky, thrilling worlds of Edgar Allan Poe—including The Fall of the House of Usher, now playing on Netflix.

Nevermore

Edgar Allan Poe

“The Pit and the Pendulum.” “The Telltale Heart.” “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Many of us have known these creepy <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/weird-edgar-allan-poe-facts/philgibbons">Edgar Allan Poe</a> tales since childhood. But some of his most intriguing stories are relatively unread. Poe had a wide-ranging intellect; in addition to the stories of horror and the macabre for which he is most famous, he ranged into satire, psychology, and even proto-science-fiction.Here's a selection of Poe stories you may not have read. Vote up the ones that seem most exciting - or the ones you already know and love. Links to read the stories online can be found below, but there's nothing quite like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Tales-Poems-Edgar-Allan/dp/1435106342">curling up with an actual book</a> for a chilling tale or two.

Underrated Edgar Allan Poe Stories That Creeped Us Out

Book

Gordon Cameron

Ranking, deconstructing, and thinking about movies based on books, TV shows based on comics, plays based on cartoons, musicals based on toys, etc.

Great Adaptations

Literature

There&#39;s something about the written word that feels super satisfying when adapted to the screen and this list of the best TV shows based on books ranks television adaptations of novels from best to worst based on your votes. Even as more and more people are complaining about sequels and reboots and re-imaginings at the movies, it&#39;s the <a href="/list/best-years-for-tv-shows/loganrapp?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">golden age of television</a>, with <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/tv-and-movies-you-didn-t-know-were-based-on-books/brent-sprecher" target="_blank">awesome shows inspired by books everywhere you look</a>. The small screen has the benefit of being much more long-form, and therefore a great place to showcase something based on a book or series of books. With television adaptations of books you have the ability to learn love and live with characters for the long haul, just as with a novel or series of novels.&nbsp;

Naturally, as TV has been around for quite some time, there have been great book adaptations throughout the years. There have also been plenty of books adapted for TV in the form of miniseries or TV movies, but that&#39;s another list and you won&#39;t find them here (otherwise Band of Brothers would most certainly have made the cut). Instead, we are just focusing on traditional TV programs that are based on or inspired by books from genres like <a href="/list/best-fantasy-shows-based-on-books/ranker-tv" target="_blank">fantasy</a> and <a href="/list/best-sci-fi-shows-based-on-books/ranker-tv" target="_blank">sci-fi</a> to mysteries, historical classics, and more.

Fun fact: Game of Thrones isn&#39;t the only good TV show based on a book streaming on the airwaves!&nbsp; Be it current and recent shows like Nancy Drew or The Magicians, critically acclaimed shows that have ended such as Boardwalk Empire and Orange Is the New Black, a show that started out amazing while it was based on its book series... then derailed (Dexter), or a classic TV show you might not have realized was based on a book at all (M*A*S*H*), this list has them all. What it doesn&#39;t have are <a href="/list/best-comic-book-superhero-shows/ranker-tv" target="_blank">comic book adaptations and superhero TV shows</a>. This list is all about novels, book series, and short stories. Even teen and <a href="/list/young-adult-fiction-series/ranker-books?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">YA book series</a> - like the two times the Melinda Metz Roswell High book series has been adapted - count, as do <a href="/list/tv-shows-adapted-from-both-movies-books/ranker-tv" target="_blank">shows that are based on books and movies,</a> or that continue telling a book&#39;s story past the movie adaptation. Some shows, like Shadow and Bone, combine multiple books from the same universe into one TV series.

These are the best shows based on books to ever air on television! Vote up the best of these shows below - whether because they nailed the adaptation or because they were top-notch, quality programming in their own right.

The Best TV Series Based on Books

TV Program

The Best TV Shows Based on Books, Ranked By Fans

Ranker TV

Watchworthy

It seems the minute a writer finishes a novel, there's some Hollywood executive creeping right around the corner trying to buy the rights for a film adaptation. Since the early days of cinema, making <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-best-movies-based-on-books?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">movies based on books</a> has the been one of the go-to strategies for filmmakers. These days, you would think every single piece of written fiction has already been adapted, but that's not actually the case. Surprisingly enough, there are certain novels which have been adapted multiple times, while other classics sit patiently by awaiting their turn. Watchworthy readers are talking about the books they are surprised haven't gotten a film adaptation, and we'd seriously pay good money to see all of these made. Which of these novels do you also think deserves a big screen adaptation? &nbsp;Comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Watchworthy Readers Share The Books They Are Surprised Didn’t Get A Film Adaptation

August Alva

Edgar Allan Poe is remembered as one of America’s darkest writers for good reason. His chilling stories tell of murderers and madmen, tragedies and vengeance –&nbsp;and many Poe stories take inspiration from actual historical people and events.Born in 1809, Poe lived by his pen. He did a brief stint in the military before becoming a professional writer. Poe was equally at home with poetry and prose. Though best known for his short stories, he even published a novel before his untimely death in 1849 at only 40 years old.Poe knew a good story when he saw one, and he often found inspiration from the world around him, both past and present. He was attracted to dark, tragic tales that revealed surprising shades of the human psyche. Stories from history and Poe include a medieval tragedy, a famous general, and one of New York City’s most mysterious unsolved crimes.&nbsp;Even though death haunted much of his work, he gave his characters immortality through the tales he told.

The Real-Life Inspirations For Some Of Edgar Allan Poe's Dark Tales

Real-Life Inspirations For Some Of Poe's Darkest Tales

Setareh Janda

Ranking the most overlooked, underloved action flicks we nearly missed.

Totally Underrated Action

Graphic Novels

Do you enjoy over-the-top action movies? Do you enjoy violent graphic novels? Do you enjoy <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/movies-you-didnt-know-were-based-on-comics/ranker-comics" target="_blank">graphic novel adaptations</a>? Then&nbsp;boy, oh, boy&nbsp;do we have something&nbsp;for you. The nature of comic books and graphic novels make them <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/tv-and-movies-you-didn-t-know-were-based-on-books/brent-sprecher" target="_blank">easily adaptable</a> to film and television. A lot of the storyboarding is already done for you! Just get the film rights and go! And there certainly has been no shortage of comic book adaptations in recent years... but how about those films that have gone underappreciated?

We&#39;re talking&nbsp;Atomic Blonde. We&#39;re talking&nbsp;Wanted. We&#39;re talking Snowpiercer. Every film that follows may not be at the cutting edge of cinematic quality, but they definitely are fun to watch if you can get in the right frame of mind. They&#39;re based on graphic novels, after all, and though that medium is full of all kinds of masterpieces, the action-based ones that tend to get film adaptations aren&#39;t really pushing the boundaries of storytelling. These movies are loud, they&#39;re brash, and they&#39;re just good fun.

Underrated Action Movies Based On Graphic Novels

T.W. Mitchell

Lists about novelists, poets, short story authors, journalists, essayists, and playwrights, from simple rankings to fun facts about the men and women behind the pens.

People Who Write

Unscripted

As writing can be a provocative practice that often requires challenging social norms and common convention, it&#39;s no surprise history has given us so many controversial novelists. Love them or hate them, no one can argue the infamous authors below were sources of great public scrutiny and debate. These scribes penned some of the most commonly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-books-that-have-been-banned/ranker-books" target="_blank">banned books</a>&nbsp;and took a lot of heat from the public, their contemporaries, literary critics, and the occasional frantic&nbsp;parent high on <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/moral-panic-examples/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">moral panic</a>.&nbsp;

What makes an author controversial? Sometimes, the ideas they present spark outrage. Ayn Rand has a long history of provoking anger amongst&nbsp;those who do not take kindly to her impassioned libertarian ideals and Christopher Hitchens&nbsp;certainly did not make many friends of the religiously inclined. Sometimes, however, it&#39;s less the content and more the execution that makes an author debate-worthy. Some of the most controversial writers of the 21st&nbsp;century, like Stephenie Meyer and E.L. James,&nbsp;have been panned for their subpar prose. There are also children and young adult authors whose work is thought to be a little&nbsp;too&nbsp;raunchy for impressionable minds. There&#39;s a reason Judy Blume&#39;s work frequently shows up on banned books lists.&nbsp;

Which of the below authors do you think is the most controversial? From recent writers to historic scribes, cast your vote below to decide on the most controversial writer of all time! Then explore a different method of shocking the bourgeoisie with <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/counterculture-scene-from-every-decade/megan-summers" target="_blank">our photo survey of every decade&#39;s counterculture since 1900</a>.

Which Authors Deserve Their Controversial Reputations?

The Most Controversial Writers of All Time

Writer

The 50 Most Controversial Writers of All Time, Ranked

Ranker Books

These are the best living authors and novelists currently, according to Rankers and bibliophiles. If you’re looking for a book to read for a rainy day, you can’t go wrong by choosing a novel or short story written by someone on this list. After all, the greatest novelists alive consistently get onto bestseller lists and book club recommendation lists. But amongst all these writers currently alive, who are the best?If you love reading, then vote for your favorite living authors and novelists below. They hail for a wide range of genres and literary styles, from playwrights to novelists. You’ll find your favorite science fiction writers as well as great dramatic novelists. Everyone on the list and everyone that you vote for must currently be alive. We all know that there are plenty of great writers that have left us, but this list is about the ones we still get to cherish.Don’t see a great living author listed? Then add him or her so that others may vote and discover some excellent novels. If you’re curious where your favorite novelist currently alive is ranked, use the search box at the top of the list. Otherwise, get your votes on, book worms. Vote for who you think is the best living author (or <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-living-writers/ranker-books?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">best living authors</a>) right now!

Isabel Allende

The 30+ Best Living Novelists &amp; Fiction Authors Today, Ranked

Top 50+ Best Living Novelists & Fiction Authors, Ranked by Readers

Ranker Community

Ranking the best novels and non-fiction books of every genre.

Bibliophilia

Culture

Here is a list of the best movies based off books, voted on by cine-bibliophiles everywhere. Many movies are based off of books but whenever a new <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/movie-endings-better-than-the-book/elle-tharp" target="_blank">movie based on a book</a> comes out there is an endless amount of whining about how Hollywood isn&#39;t original and why can&#39;t they write their own stories? That&#39;s simple, it&#39;s because these amazing stories are already written and Hollywood has the means to bring them to life, and sometimes they do it better than even your imagination thought possible&nbsp; (then again, sometimes they simply <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/books-that-deserve-better-movie-adaptations/charley-ruddell" target="_blank">can&#39;t do the original book justice</a> or were <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/tv-shows-adapted-from-both-movies-books/ranker-tv" target="_blank">later also adapted into TV shows</a> to continue the story or do it better). It&#39;s no surprise that <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/movies-based-on-classic-literature/nydahmad" target="_blank">popular movies</a> are often inspired by classic literatures and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/movies-inspired-by-paintings/megan-summers" target="_blank">works of art</a>, but which one is the best?

This list looks at the films based on the books - novels, literature, or nonfiction - that made you want to reread the book, started endless <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/movies-that-changed-the-ending-of-the-book/tracey-graham" target="_blank">&quot;which was better the movie or the book&quot;</a> debates, made you squeal with delight that you pictured it that way in your head, and just blew your frickin&#39;&nbsp;mind.

What are the best movies based on books? Vote on the top movies based on books and share this with your friends to get their opinions, too!

Want to vote on more lists about book adaptations? Check out this list of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-film-franchises-based-on-books/ranker-film" target="_blank">film franchises based on books</a>, and our roundup of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/authors-who-loved-movie-adaptations-of-their-books/jim-rowley" target="_blank">movie adaptations that the book authors loved</a>.

The Green Mile

The Best Movies Based On Books

Best Movies Based on Books | List of Top Cinematic Adaptations of Novels

Popular Opinion

As you slide comfortably into being an adult, one fact quickly becomes evident: everyone is a big fat liar, especially when it comes to discussing impressive books to read. Avid readers should definitely check out these <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-book-review-youtube-channels/youtuber" target="_blank">popular book reviewers on YouTube</a>.&nbsp;Not only are there too many life-affirming books out in the world to read in one lifetime, but there are also a bunch of books that become a part of the social zeitgeist, and if you don’t read them you’ll be left out of the cultural conversation. The books people lie about reading tend to be considered classics, but they’re also <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/books-youll-never-finish/amylindorff">massive tomes</a> that are responsible for destroying an entire forest. Some books people claim to have read would make better doorstops than they would entertainment, but you should still act as if you’ve devoured every page. If you don’t lie about some of these books, what are you going to have to talk about?There are so many intelligent&nbsp;and cool people out in the world, and every single one of them&nbsp;says they have read all of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-books-of-all-time-_fiction_">most important books</a>. You know how you lie about what you scored on your SATs? Well you should also do that with literature. This list of books you should say you've read makes it easy for you to fool your friends and strangers alike. Because if you do come across someone who has actually read all of these books they’re not going to be able to keep the plot points separated in their heads long enough to call you on your BS. Keep reading to see all the books people pretend to have read – and then maybe actually read one of them.&nbsp;

On the Road

You Know You've Never Read 'Of Mice And Men'

35+ Books Everybody Lies About Having Read

30+ Books Everyone Says They've Read But No One Actually Has

Jacob Shelton

Each of the seven <a href="http://www.ranker.com/tags/harry-potter">Harry Potter</a> books is special in its own way, but every one is magical and has a unique opening sentence that kicks off the adventure. You probably remember where you were when you first opened a Harry Potter book. I was in my elementary school library, perusing the Scholastic Book Fair. A friend said, &quot;There's a girl's name in that you won't be able to pronounce,&quot; and I love a challenge. Hermione and I took off on a literary quest that didn't end until I went on a date with a boy who had a Deathly Hallows tattoo. It turns out that doesn't always equal true love. Live and learn! But Harry Potter opening sentences. They are great. They are full of mystery. One is succinct. Too many are about the Dursleys, but what can you do?J.K. Rowling wrote all these opening sentences from <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-harry-potter-books/ranker-books">Harry Potter books</a>,&nbsp;and she deserves a real big thank you for the world of Potter and Hogwarts and &quot;accio.&quot; Maybe you like the first line of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which is full of Tom Riddle lore. Maybe you like the one about the muggle Prime Minister (barf). Maybe you have a <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/harry-potter-fan-theories/lisa-waugh">Harry Potter fan theory</a> that has to do with the books' opening sentences and have been dying to share. Whatever the case, cast your votes for the best first sentences from Harry Potter below, and then enjoy the rest of your day.

The Best Opening Sentences In The Harry Potter Books, Ranked

General

Amy Boal

A deeper dive into the world of manga for those of you who just can't get enough. Learn what popular manga creator's favorite series are, get recommendations for underrated manga, and much more. 

Manga Obsession!!

Manga

Shonen manga is wildly popular, but a lot of fans don't go beyond the biggest names. Manga like One Piece, My Hero Academia, and Demon Slayer are awesome, but sometimes it's good to check out series that don't get as much attention - you might just find a new favorite.One of the most popular underrated shonen manga is probably Psyren, a series about a teenage boy who must fight in a tournament using psychic powers. Another great one is Sakamoto Days, which highlights the adventures of a former hitman who is just trying to live a normal life with his wife and kid. Prefer something a little more down-to-earth? Check out Akane-banashi, which is about a girl trying to redeem her father's tarnished rakugo career. No matter what you're into, if you're a shonen fan, there's something here for you.

15 Underrated Shonen Manga More People Need To Read

Anna Lindwasser

Lists about and ranking the best poets and poems of all times, including rhymes, haiku, sonnets, free verse, blank verse, epics, ballads, love poems, villanelles, and even limericks. 

Poetry? Oh Noetry!

Not all poems have to rhyme. But the best <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-short-poems-to-memorize/ranker-books?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">short rhyming poems</a> are examples of why the classic style is still so universal. These simple rhyming poems are all under 25 lines or less.&nbsp;

Easy rhyming poems often sound like a song. As children, we are exposed to this kind of poetry through greats like Dr. Suess. Some of these short poems that rhyme are children&rsquo;s poems, others are all about falling in love, while others center on the hardships of life.&nbsp;

You will no doubt recognize a few famous poets on this roundup, like Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. However, there are also several more&nbsp;obscure rhyming poems that are equally impressive and deserve to be read among the classics.

Make your voice heard. What are the best short rhyming poems? Vote up all your favorites.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Best Short Rhyming Poetry

Poem

The Best Short Rhyming Poems To Memorize

Ranked recommendation lists for manga about everything, from military and ninja manga to cooking and zombie manga!!

Best Manga About EVERYTHING!

Anime Underground

Tsunderes - also known as the girl (or boy) whose signature line is &quot;it&#39;s not like I like you or anything, baka!&quot; show up frequently in manga. If this character archtype appeals to you, check out this list of the best tsundere manga - you don&#39;t even have to admit you like it.&nbsp;

One of the most famous tsundere manga is&nbsp;Toradora!,&nbsp;a manga about a tsundere named Taiga who finds herself falling in love with her scary-looking but actually very kind classmate Ryuuji. Prefer male tsunderes in manga? Try&nbsp;Wolf Girl &amp; Black Prince, which follows Erika and Kyouya as they move from being a fake couple created via blackmail to an actual couple that maybe kind of love each other. These stories can be frustrating, but they&#39;re also exciting.&nbsp;

The rankings are determined by your votes, so let the world know what you think by voting up your favorite manga about tsunderes.

The Best Tsundere Manga

The 20+ Best Tsundere Manga | Recommendations List

Ranker Anime

Our core manga collection with a list for every popular genre. The best manga you can read ranging from horror and psychological thriller to adventure and slice of life!

Manga Mania

Manga doesn&#39;t need to include magical powers, complex political machinations, or high-stakes battles to be interesting. In fact, some of the greatest manga ever made are slice of life manga - stories that feature relatable tales of everyday life.&nbsp;

If you&#39;re an adult dealing with work stress, you might want to try Barakamon, a slice of life manga that follows a stressed-out twenty-something whose career mistake gets him sent to an isolated island where he learns how to chill out and enjoy a simpler lifestyle. If you&#39;re looking for an emotionally resonant tale of high school romance, try Toradora!, a story where two people with wildly different personalities fall in love. Like sports? Try&nbsp;Haikyuu!,&nbsp;the best volleyball manga you could ever hope to read.

No matter what aspect of everyday life you&#39;re looking to read about, there&#39;s something on this list for you. Vote up the slice of life&nbsp;manga that you consider the greatest to help fellow fans find their next great read.&nbsp;

The Best Slice of Life Manga

The  25+ Best Slice of Life Manga of All Time

If you&#39;re a manga fan, it&#39;s important to be well-versed in the classics - but with so much awesome old-school manga available to you, it can be difficult to figure out what&#39;s worth your time, and what isn&#39;t. This list of the best old school manga can help guide you to your next great read.

Some manga from before 1999, like Akira,&nbsp;are a great way to learn way more about the world it presents than you possibly could from the anime alone. Others have a completely different feel to them - you don&#39;t truly know&nbsp;Yu-Gi-Oh!&nbsp;until you&#39;ve seen the sadistic monster that is manga!Yugi. There are also a few old school manga that have recently exploded into the public consciousness after getting modern day adaptations - Banana Fish and Dororo were published decades before debuting as an anime.&nbsp;

Each of these classic manga has something great to offer its readers. Vote up your favorites to let the world know which are truly the best of the best.

The Best Old School Manga

The 30+ Best Old School Manga Everyone Should Read

Book lists at Ranker - the ultimate source for top 10, best of, funny, or factual lists of any kind - see how everything ranks

Book lists on Ranker

Top Book Lists: Top 10 Books/Literature Lists and Articles

Books

Professor Minerva McGonagall

Luna Lovegood

Matilda

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Leo Tolstoy

Charles Dickens

The Lord of the Rings

The Harry Potter Series

A Song of Ice and Fire

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Lists about the most memorable fictional characters in film, TV, and literature that will stick in our minds forever.

Characters We'll Never Forget

Some of the greatest characters in literature are women and girls, but which ones are the very best?&nbsp;From the evil to the undeniably perfect, the always strong to those who those who <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/fictional-characters-who-never-give-up/ranker-characters" target="_blank">never give up</a>, these are the greatest female characters from literature of all genres. This list includes the best female characters of all ages, like the youthful girls Matilda (Matilda) and Hermione Granger (Harry Potter) to the ever-so-adult Evelyn Couch (Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe). We're even ranking <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/fictional-characters-who-are-immortal/ranker-characters" target="_blank">immortal female characters</a>, like Galadriel from Lord of the Rings and the goddess Athena you read about in Greek mythology.Why do female literary characters stay with readers long after they’ve finished reading the novels these characters are featured in? Often, it’s due to the intimacy with which readers have come to know a character. Jane Eyre (and all of her desires and feelings), for example, becomes so real to readers that they feel as if they’ve met and understood this amazing female character. So many people relate to fiery, independent Jo March that her marriage at the end of Little Women feels like a betrayal - something <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/jo-professor-bhaer-relationship-little-women/bailey-brown" target="_blank">the 2019 film adaptation addresses head-on</a>.Other times, readers love female characters in literature because of the audacity of their actions. Scarlett O’Hara (Gone with the Wind) was exceedingly bold for a woman of her time, while Madame Defarge (A Tale of Two Cities) is an exemplar of tireless villainy. Some of the most popular female literary characters manage to embody both wholesome and defiant, becoming reflections of the complex nature of women. From inspirational feminist heroes to strong women from fantasy series, the greatest fictional women from literature also make great role models.&nbsp;For the wide range of personality traits we find in these <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-female-tv-characters-of-all-time?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">great female characters</a> (and the audacious actions they’ve performed), these women have earned their titles as the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-female-movie-characters/ranker-characters?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">best female characters</a> in literature. They may be young or old, charming or black-hearted, but they are all memorable. Whether you love them or love to hate them, all the famous fictional heroines are here in this list of the best female characters in literary history.&nbsp;

Jane Eyre

The Greatest Female Characters In Literature, Ranked

Fictional Character

The 100+ Best Female Literary Characters Of All Time

This is the ultimate list of the best novels of all time, which is based on influence, originality, popularity, and personal affections. You can make the case for many books to be on this list, but only a few can be considered the best novel ever written. For as long as books have been around, there has been debate amongst book enthusiasts over what truly is the best book ever. The one criteria on this list is that we are only taking fiction books into account. Anything should not be on here.Classics like Victor Hugo's Les Mis&eacute;rables, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities and John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath are all on here and deservedly so as they've stood the test of the time and have become important pieces of literature. That's not to say that modern books are neglected, in fact, they're well represented as well. Recent classics like J. R. R. Tolkien's <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/unscripted-lines-in-lord-of-the-rings/tpetersccc?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Lord of the Rings</a>, Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, Thomas Pynchon's Gravity Rainbow and Stephen King's The Waste Lands are on here.It's up to you to vote on or even add a book that isn't on this list. Otherwise, decide what the best book of all time is by voting up&nbsp;what you think is a worthy choice.

The Best Novels Ever Written

Best Books of All Time | List of Greatest Fiction Novels Ever Written

Lists about films, TV series, novels & series, anime, and other media that explore imaginary universes and the characters and forces that live inside them.

What's Your Fantasy?

poll

A votable list of the all-time best fantasy book series, ranked by readers of fantasy fiction. Of fantasy books, readers can expect an intricately-created <a href="/crowdranked-list/the-best-of-the-fantasy-worlds">imaginary world</a> with its own culture, history and rules of engagement.&nbsp;The setting of most popular fantasy book series is internally consistent or self-coherent, where inspiration from mythology or folklore remains a consistent theme. 
 
Most <a href="/crowdranked-list/best-fantasy-authors">authors of the top fantasy books</a> use magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary plot element, theme, or setting. In the structure of a good fantasy book, the fantastical element of the story can be anywhere: the story may occur entirely in a fantasy world (like J.R.R. Tolkien&#39;s <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-lotr-franchise-action-moments/griffin-peters?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Lord of the Rings</a> series) or fantastic elements like magic can exist alongside an apparently real world setting (as in the seven Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling). Fantasy follows rules of its own making, but the great fantasy books are consistent with the rules that they lay out for themselves. In the best fantasy books, the reader suspends disbelief and loses himself in the imaginary world of the book.

Some of the fantasy book series included in this list are of the grand epic fantasy genre, some are more character-driven fantasy or coming of age tales, some may be simply fantasy that&#39;s part of a series. Vote up your favorites to determine the best fantasy series of all time. And if we missed any epic tales you love, be sure to add them to this list of the best fantasy book series. Then, check out the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-fantasy-books-2019/ranker-books" target="_blank">best new fantasy books</a> - many the start of series that may soon be new favorites.

The Best Fantasy Book Series

Best Fantasy Book Series | Popular Novels with Magic & Imaginary Worlds 

List of the best authors of all time as voted on by normal, book-loving people. For this list, we will consider writers who are mainly novelists.&nbsp;Many of the people included on this list are famous authors who wrote popular books; others may not be as well-known, but are masters of their craft.&nbsp; The <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-best-living-novelists?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">most popular authors</a> are ones that have somehow enriched our lives. J.D. Salinger gave us Holden Caulfield and the term &quot;phony,&quot; James Joyce introduced us to stream-of-consciousness prose and Carson McCullers immortalized the misfits and outcasts of the U.S. South in the first half of the 20th century.The best writers are ones that changed the literary landscape in some way, introduced an iconic character, experimented with form and style and captured our imagination with their language.While lists of &quot;best novelists&quot; are often attempted by individuals, they can be easily disputed because they often amount to no more than one person's opinion. Since this Ranker list is crowdsourced and open to voting, it benefits from the collective wisdom of many rather than the whims of a few.&nbsp;Feel free to vote on this list of top authors, add some that may have been left off, or ReRank this list entirely.&nbsp;