10
Think and Grow Rich – 70 million
Source: A Lifetime of Riches: The Biography of Napoleon Hill, Michael J. Ritt and Kirk Landers, Image: Wikimedia
Featuring one of only two American authors in the top ten (the other is #9), “Think and Grow Rich” was a self-improvement book written by Napoleon Hill in 1937. Asked to look at the relationship between individual characteristics and wealth attainment by steel giant Andrew Carnegie, Hill embodied his 13 principles of personal achievement into the book, a hot-cake as countries were beginning to emerge from the Great Depression.
9
The Da Vinci Code – 80 million
Image: Wikipedia
The most recently published book in the top ten of the most widely read books in the world, “The Da Vinci Code” was a global phenomenon in the mid-2000’s. A mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown, the book follows main characters Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder at the Louvre and are embroiled in a deeper, sacrilegious (called by some groups) mystery regarding the Holy Grail and Mary Magdalene.
8
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – 85 million
Source: Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples) 1898-1963, Image: Elena Ringo's "The Snow Queen" via Wikipedia
Starting a line of primarily British author domination for the remaining places on our list, C.S. Lewis and his fantasy novel “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” come in at #8 with 85 million copies sold. Present in many a high school English class, the novel follows the story of four English children completing their destiny in the land of talking animals and mythical beings. Though the book is only one (the first) in a seven-novel series, it is by far the best-selling.
7
Dream of the Red Chamber – 100 million
Source: Complete Review & Yang, Weizhen; Guo, Rongguang (1986). 《红楼梦》辞典. 山东文艺出版社., Image: Wikipedia
The only Chinese book on our list is Cao Xueqin’s “Dream of the Red Chamber” (Chinese: 红楼梦). Such a major hit in China, the book even has its own named field of study: Redology. Considered to be one of China’s Four Great Classical Novels, “Dream of the Red Chamber” is one of the most complex novels ever written with almost 40 major characters and nearly 500 minor characters. Written during the Qing dynasty, the book often employs poetry as it follows the life of two aristocratic families and their declining wealth and status.
6
She: A History of Adventure – 100 million
Source: The Collected Works of Carl Jung, Image: Wikipedia
So influential that it has been cited by psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung in their writings, “She: A History of Adventure” is H. Rider Haggard’s most famous work. One of the finest examples of imaginative and imperialist literature, this novel tells the story of two men’s trek to a lost kingdom deep in the African continent. The men come across a savage native tribe and their white queen: “She-who-must-be-obeyed”. A bedrock of the Lost World subgenre, “She” purports many Victorian ideas of race and evolution.
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