
Best Books of the 17th Century

The best books published during the 17th century (January 1st, 1601 through December 31st 1700).

See also
Most Rated Book By Year

Best Books By Century:
21st, 20th,
19th, 18th, 17th, 16th, 15th,14th, 13th, 12th, 11th, 10th,
9th, 8th, 7th, 6th, 5th, 4th

Lists for all books by Number of Ratings:
80,000 to 99,999 - 100,000 to 199,999 - 200,000 to 499,999 - 500,000 to 999,999
1,000,000 and more
1

by
4.02 avg rating — 667,955 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
3.89 avg rating — 615,432 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
3.87 avg rating — 188,394 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
3.81 avg rating — 121,034 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
3.90 avg rating — 166,857 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
3.89 avg rating — 290,486 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
3.81 avg rating — 159,193 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
3.68 avg rating — 156,090 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
3.98 avg rating — 147,979 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
3.99 avg rating — 96,467 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
3.67 avg rating — 28,517 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.42 avg rating — 202,414 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
4.25 avg rating — 76,603 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
3.79 avg rating — 51,641 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
3.78 avg rating — 16,150 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
3.83 avg rating — 68,163 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
4.05 avg rating — 12,290 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
3.96 avg rating — 10,358 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
3.71 avg rating — 12,564 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
3.74 avg rating — 8,007 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
3.71 avg rating — 24,974 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
3.70 avg rating — 23,621 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
4.14 avg rating — 12,591 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
3.68 avg rating — 12,732 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
3.66 avg rating — 8,482 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
3.98 avg rating — 13,114 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
3.69 avg rating — 34,542 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
4.11 avg rating — 7,616 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
3.43 avg rating — 9,130 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
3.76 avg rating — 9,165 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
4.04 avg rating — 11,941 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
3.55 avg rating — 5,886 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
3.60 avg rating — 241 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
3.84 avg rating — 13,896 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
4.13 avg rating — 3,070 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
3.68 avg rating — 5,612 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
4.22 avg rating — 4,210 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
4.06 avg rating — 2,963 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
3.74 avg rating — 5,538 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
3.55 avg rating — 5,700 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
3.65 avg rating — 10,129 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
4.53 avg rating — 59 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
43

by
4.18 avg rating — 1,217 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
3.76 avg rating — 17,501 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
3.72 avg rating — 11,726 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
3.69 avg rating — 28,109 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
4.30 avg rating — 34,171 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
3.68 avg rating — 3,918 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
3.85 avg rating — 1,827 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
4.09 avg rating — 1,216 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
3.68 avg rating — 20,548 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
3.62 avg rating — 11,671 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
3.73 avg rating — 1,851 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
3.58 avg rating — 6,595 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.67 avg rating — 1,717 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.37 avg rating — 6,982 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
3.65 avg rating — 3,016 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
3.83 avg rating — 15,896 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
2.98 avg rating — 8,886 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
3.35 avg rating — 3,127 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
61

by
3.65 avg rating — 13,092 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
3.49 avg rating — 7,000 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
3.40 avg rating — 4,265 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
64

by
3.57 avg rating — 848 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
3.64 avg rating — 2,056 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
3.85 avg rating — 247 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
3.80 avg rating — 4,192 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
68

by
3.74 avg rating — 1,997 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
4.15 avg rating — 395 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
70

by
3.60 avg rating — 1,453 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
3.39 avg rating — 3,758 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
72

by
3.70 avg rating — 1,335 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
3.36 avg rating — 3,484 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
74

by
3.35 avg rating — 668 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
3.69 avg rating — 871 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
4.10 avg rating — 2,278 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
3.28 avg rating — 373 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
78

by
3.93 avg rating — 323 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
3.52 avg rating — 671 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
3.15 avg rating — 2,229 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
81

by
3.65 avg rating — 2,531 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
3.18 avg rating — 190 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
3.58 avg rating — 2,779 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
84

by
4.11 avg rating — 280 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
3.90 avg rating — 200 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
86

by
3.53 avg rating — 1,181 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
3.78 avg rating — 600 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
88

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 88 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
4.15 avg rating — 54 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
3.40 avg rating — 423 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
3.65 avg rating — 1,920 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
92

by
3.54 avg rating — 41 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
93

by
3.43 avg rating — 79 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
94

by
3.45 avg rating — 504 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
3.86 avg rating — 2,433 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
3.24 avg rating — 119 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
3.26 avg rating — 663 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
98

by
4.31 avg rating — 45 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
4.39 avg rating — 33 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
4.05 avg rating — 3,915 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
flag this list (?)
300 books · 632 voters · list created June 23rd, 2008 by deleted user.
182 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Jami 2186 books
57 friends
Michelle 7804 books
486 friends
Liz 2783 books
44 friends
Antoine 949 books
176 friends
Edith 2032 books
52 friends
abcdefg 111999 books
259 friends
jeanie 696 books
9 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3142 books
828 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-49 of 49 (49 new)

dateDown arrow    newest »

message 1: by Antoine (new)

Antoine moliere is excluded!


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Not anymore -- but plenty of books still are (Ben Jonson's plays, for one). Whenever a given book page says that the book was "first published" in a year other than that of its REAL initial publication (e.g., because the text edition in question was first published in the year stated), you can't put that book on the list. And it gets worse the further back you go in history ...


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads I think most of Ben Jonson is now kosher.

Anyone else?


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Just about every Jacobean playwright of note. Middleton, Fletcher, Beaumont, Webster, Ford ... the lot. (Same goes for the Restoration poets and dramatists: Davenant, Wycherly, and most of Congreve; to name just some of them.)

Don't rush to do this, though -- I'm sure there are plenty of better things to keep you busy. Not that those who care about this aren't profoundly grateful for your labors! (Well, I am, anyway ...)


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads John Webster, check.

(And there seem to be about 5 authors named "John Webster" all lumped together! This one, a theologian, a guy who writes about fungi and dairy cows, etc.)


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Ugh -- what a mess. All the more: ThankYouThankYouThankYou!!


message 7: by Susanna - Censored by GoodReads (last edited Sep 30, 2009 11:39AM) (new)

Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Beaumont and Fletcher, check.

Half of Fletcher's listing is a guy who's an expert on Samuel Beckett. And a novelist, and a guy who reviews cars.


message 8: by Laurel (new)

Laurel Hicks Isn't 1633 the seventeenth century? I've been trying to add The Temple by George Herbert and am told it was not published during the seventeenth century.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Susanna wrote: "Beaumont and Fletcher, check.

Half of Fletcher's listing is a guy who's an expert on Samuel Beckett. And a novelist, and a guy who reviews cars."


Susanna, you deserve a medal for this ...


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Yeah, somehow it thought The Temple was first published in 1927.

Fixed.


message 11: by Thom (new)

Thom Dunn Shakespeare's First Folio, 1623, 2nd 1632, 3rd 1664, 4th 1687 all published during 17th (obviously) and all available for viewing (look but don't touch) in the States especially at he Widener in Harvard and he Folger in Wash, D.C. I'm steamed and frustrated.....If Goodreads can't sell it, seems they don't want to acknowledge its existence


message 12: by Thom (new)

Thom Dunn LONG OVERDUE THANKS TO LOBSTERGIRL and UNKNOWN. Thanks for fighting the good fight. "Goodreads doesn't care about Antiquarians" (bumper sticker).


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Uh, the individual plays of Shakespeare should be eligible. A number of them are on this list, in fact. (Others are on the 16th Century List.)

Also, I changed the original publication date of The Anatomy of Melancholy to 1621.


message 14: by Thom (new)

Thom Dunn If Goodreads is an example of "viral marketting", maybe what we have in this thread of comments is ......a "retrovirus" ?


message 15: by Stuart (new)

Stuart Thom wrote: "If Goodreads is an example of "viral marketting", maybe what we have in this thread of comments is ......a "retrovirus" ?"

Oh, now that was just terrible...


message 16: by Thom (new)

Thom Dunn Stuart wrote: "Thom wrote: "If Goodreads is an example of "viral marketting", maybe what we have in this thread of comments is ......a "retrovirus" ?"

Oh, now that was just terrible..."


Many have told me my humor is something less than....infectious.

(Sorry all around, and God bless are there, Thom)


message 17: by [deleted user] (new)

Thom wrote: "If Goodreads is an example of "viral marketting", maybe what we have in this thread of comments is ......a "retrovirus" ?"

LOL! I like it. ;-)




Susanna - Censored by GoodReads John Ford, check.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Susanna wrote: "John Ford, check."

Did I already mention that you deserve a medal for this?


message 20: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl In defense of the people who first entered data on GR, it was probably unclear that the "first published" field actually meant first ever publication of the work, rather than first publication of a particular edition. I think the fields are now clearer, but many incorrect dates remain.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads And a lot of it's Amazons' fault, I think, on the ones brought over by ISBN.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Thomas Middleton, check.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Susanna, you're a star.

(And both you and Lobstergirl are probably right on how this mess came about in the first place.)


message 24: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra Glad to see some favorite restoration dramas here. I've added a 1637 Chinese book on technology, if nonfiction is okay. I, too, had to deal with the "originally published" field, which had the date of Dover's first printing of it. But I figure unless it had to have been translated into English in the 17th century, it should be okay. Besides, it's just neat.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Alessandra wrote: "Glad to see some favorite restoration dramas here. I've added a 1637 Chinese book on technology, if nonfiction is okay. I, too, had to deal with the "originally published" field, which had the da..."

Chinese technology in the 17th century -- now THAT sounds intriguing indeed!!


message 26: by Ricardo (new)

Ricardo I honestly believe that this is seriously biassed list. But I also think that it is only natural. Should such a list have been proposen in Germany, France, Italy or my country, Spain, the result would have been correspondingly different, with a biass of their own. But, thank you nonetheless. It is very useful to me. I'll try adding some Spanish ones, which in my opinion are worthy of being in this list.


message 27: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Ricardo, you should add whatever works you want. There's no intended bias; people add the works they're familiar with.


message 28: by Ricardo (new)

Ricardo I apologize if it did sound a bit bitter. Of course the bias was not intended. I just wrote that comment because when I read the list (which, I admit, I found because I was looking for something similar) I wondered if such a thing as the title proposes, a ranking of the best books written in the 17th century, is possible. I will add my own favourites (and there will be a bias in that list too), but I struggle with the concept of ranking for books. Their sales can be measured, but that is no measure for quality. And, how is quality measured once we go beyond good and bad? Where is the line thrown for a 100% good, or just 99% good? How do we do or do not take into account our own cultural influences? I apologize again if my previous comment sounded as negative, because that was not my intention. It was more than anything a simple thought about the matter, and briefly expressed. Once again, thank you for the list, because it did in fact help me.


message 29: by Bu (new)

Bu Where is Don Quixote by Cervantes?????


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads At #2, currently. Right behind Hamlet.


message 31: by Rachel (new)

Rachel Page Doctor Faustus and Richard III are on both this list and the best books of the 16th century... Hmmmm... Something's gone wrong there.


message 32: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Marlowe's Doctor Faustus was first published in 1604, according to wiki, although first performed c. 1592. I think it should be left on the list, definitely.

I removed Richard III.


message 33: by Mel (new)

Mel Foster William Bradford's On Plymouth Plantation(includes Mayflower Compact & First Thanksgiving), anything by John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet, almost anything by Roger Williams is unavailable because of mislisting of first publication dates. Thanks!


message 34: by Mel (new)

Mel Foster Also the Reina-Valera was published in 1602. Significant translation of the Bible


message 35: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Mel wrote: "William Bradford's On Plymouth Plantation(includes Mayflower Compact & First Thanksgiving), anything by John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet, almost anything by Roger Williams is unavailable because of m..."

If you go over to the Librarians Group and link to each book in question, they can correct that for you.


message 36: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl I got "Of Plymouth Plantation."


message 37: by Mel (new)

Mel Foster Thanks Lobstergirl! I added an edition to John Woolman's Journal, but I don't know if that will do it.


message 38: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl I see that one was published posthumously in 1774, so it wouldn't be eligible for this list.

Best thing to do is post in Librarians Group. You don't have to be a GR librarian to post there but you do have to be a group member.


message 39: by Sheryl (new)

Sheryl Hill The King James Version of the Bible was based on William Tyndale's English translation in the 1500's from [what he knew of] ancient Hebrew and Greek (not all the copies were burned!). Much of Tyndale's beautiful language is retained. The King James' committee massaged it, making it (primarily) politically correct for its time. I don't think "Anonymous" is the appropriate author.


message 40: by Sheryl (new)

Sheryl Hill I don't understand why Shakespeare is in this century. His plays were reproduced and produced for public consumption during his lifetime. One of the things I love about these lists "per century" is being able to absorb the flavor of discourse and leisure from century to century. Shakespeare just doesn't belong here.


message 41: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Lyn wrote: "I don't understand why Shakespeare is in this century. His plays were reproduced and produced for public consumption during his lifetime. One of the things I love about these lists "per century" is..."

Some of his works are on this list, some of them are on Best Books of the 16th century.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/52


message 42: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Lyn wrote: "The King James Version of the Bible was based on William Tyndale's English translation in the 1500's from [what he knew of] ancient Hebrew and Greek (not all the copies were burned!). Much of Tynda..."

Undoubtedly you are right, but it is a Goodreads convention for sacred texts like the Bible to have Anonymous as author. There were long discussions about this in the Librarian Group, beginning years ago. You can go there and search for them and read them.


message 43: by Sheryl (new)

Sheryl Hill Ah. Thank you for clarifying that. It sounds like a good compromise.


message 44: by Erin (new)

Erin I would like to add Palace of Eternal Youth by Hong Sheng. It was originally written in 1688 but Goodreads does not have an originally published date for this work to reflect this and so I cannot add it to this list. Might a librarian be able to update the entry?

Thank you!


message 45: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Erin wrote: "I would like to add Palace of Eternal Youth by Hong Sheng. It was originally written in 1688 but Goodreads does not have an originally published date for this work..."

Done.


message 46: by Erin (new)

Erin Lobstergirl wrote: "Erin wrote: "I would like to add Palace of Eternal Youth by Hong Sheng. It was originally written in 1688 but Goodreads does not have an originally published date ..."

Thank you! 😊


message 47: by Emrys (new)

Emrys Johannes Kepler's Harmonies Of The World & Epitome of Copernican Astronomy and Harmonies of the World could be added to this list when their original publication years are changed to something more appropriate.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Changed the publication date on Harmonies of the World to 1619. The second volume is more complicated because it's a double book, and I'm not sure on which date is the correct one in that case.


message 49: by Emrys (new)

Emrys Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Changed the publication date on Harmonies of the World to 1619. The second volume is more complicated because it's a double book, and I'm not sure on which date is the correct one in that case."

Thanks! (I started a thread in the Book Issues subforum the other day about them, so it's possible someone will consider whether to re-date the second book).


back to top
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/53.Best_Books_of_the_17th_Century
www.goodreads.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2019-47
794860
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:EL4WRCEEM77DN5RXIYVNFTAMLNLNWXZZ
<urn:uuid:9cb83bbb-1dda-4f38-84e4-587218d1e652>
2019-11-19T20:12:20Z
52.94.237.126
text/html
sha1:Z7BGVV7Z65PKT52ZOCFCTYFZ4B6KDQL2
<urn:uuid:31cdfe9f-de7b-4e07-ba6c-287ec4e5300a>
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/53.Best_Books_of_the_17th_Century
response
<urn:uuid:08640087-a3b3-415e-afc8-881d6831111b>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-47
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for November 2019
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-22.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.16 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/