CS Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950).
English language
Estimated copies: 85 million
“Once upon a time there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. They lived in London but, during the Second World War, they were forced to leave the city due to air raids. They were sent to the house of an old professor who lived in the heart of the country, and a little less than twenty kilometers from the nearest railway station and two and a half kilometers from the post office. The professor had no wife: Mrs. Macready, the housekeeper, looked after the house, helped by three maids named Ivy, Margaret and Betty (but they have little to do with our story)”.
Henry Rider Haggard
She (She: A History of Adventure) 1887
English language
Estimated copies: 83 million
“Holly is in her room, it's evening, and a few days later she would have exams at the university to get the position of assistant professor. She looks in the mirror: more than a man, she looks like a monster. It is precisely this ugliness of him that has led him to be a shy, solitary and misogynistic type. He receives an unexpected visit (given the late hour) of his only friend, Vincey, who shows up with a strange iron chest, its keys, and a letter, and announces that he would die that same night due to a incurable disease with which he has been suffering for a long time".
Carlo Collodi
The Adventures of Pinocchio. Story of a puppet 1881
Italian language
Estimated copies: 80 million
“Once upon a time… — A king! — my little readers will immediately say. “No, guys, you were wrong. Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not a luxury wood, but a simple piece from the stack, the kind that are placed in stoves and fireplaces in winter to light the fire and to heat the rooms”.
Dan Brown
The Da Vinci Code (2003).
English language
Estimated copies: 80 million
“The famous curator of the Louvre, Jacques Saunière, waded into the entrance to the Grand Gallery and ran towards the painting closest to him, a Caravaggio. Grasping the gilded frame, the seventy-six-year-old man pulled the masterpiece towards him until it detached from the wall, then fell backwards under the weight of the painting. As expected, a heavy iron shutter dropped where he had passed just before, blocking the entrance to the corridor. The parquet floor shook. Far away, an alarm began to sound.
J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) 1998
English language
Estimated copies: 77 million
“It wasn't the first time an argument had broken out over breakfast at 4 Privet Drive. Mr Vernon Dursley had been awakened at dawn by a very high-pitched whistling from his nephew Harry's bedroom.'
Napoleon Hill
Think and Grow Rich (1937).
English language
Estimated copies: 70 million
“Truly, 'thoughts are things' and become incredibly powerful if we amalgamate them with the clarity of purpose, tenacity and burning desire to translate them into concrete objects or riches”.
J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) 2007
English language
Estimated copies: 69 million
“The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards away, in the moonlit lane. For a moment they stood motionless, wands pointed at each other's chests; then they recognized each other, put their wands under their cloaks and set off quickly in the same direction. "Novelty?" asked the taller of the two. "The best possible," Severus Snape replied.
J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) 2005
English language
Estimated copies: 68 million
“It was nearly midnight and the Prime Minister was sitting alone in his office, reading a long report which slipped from his mind without leaving a trace. He was waiting for a call from the president of a remote country and, between wondering when that wretch would call and trying to push away the unpleasant memories of a very long, tiring and complicated week, there wasn't much room in his head for anything else. The more he tried to concentrate on the printed characters on the page, the clearer he saw the vicious face of his political opponent. He had appeared on the news that same day not only to list all the terrible things that have happened in the last week (as if there was any need to remind them), but also to explain why they were, from the first to the last, the Government's fault”.
J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) 2003
English language
Estimated copies: 67 million
“The hottest day of the summer—at least up to that moment—was drawing to a close, and a sleepy silence hung over the big square houses of Privet Drive. The usually gleaming automobiles stood dusty in the driveways and the once emerald green lawns lay shriveled and yellowish, because irrigation had been prohibited because of the drought. In the absence of their usual occupations - washing the car and mowing the lawn - the inhabitants of Privet Drive had holed up in the dim light of their cool houses, with the windows wide open in the hope of persuading a non-existent breeze to enter. The only person left outdoors was a teenager who was lying flat on his back in a flower bed outside number four.'
J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000).
English language
Estimated copies: 66 million
“The people of Little Hangleton still called it Riddle House, even though it had been many years since the Riddles had lived there. It was on the hill overlooking the village: some of the windows were nailed up, the tiles were missing from the roof and ivy was growing wild on the facade. Riddle House had once been an elegant home, certainly the largest and grandest building for miles around, but now it was damp and desolate and uninhabited. The Hangletonians all agreed that the old house was "sinister." Half a century earlier, something strange and terrible had happened there, something the older villagers still loved to discuss when they were out of gossip.
J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) 1999
English language
Estimated copies: 65 million
“Harry Potter was an unusual boy in many ways. First of all, he hated the summer holidays more than any other time of the year. Then he really wanted to do his homework, but he was forced to study secretly, in the middle of the night. And he was a wizard on top of that. It was nearly midnight, and Harry was lying on his stomach on the bed, the covers drawn over his head like a curtain, a flashlight in his hand, and a thick leather-bound book (A History of Magic, by Bathilda Bath) open and propped up on his pillow. He ran the tip of his eagle quill over the page, frowning, looking for something that might help him write the essay: Why witch-burnings in the Fourteenth Century were completely pointless”.
JD Salinger
Young Holden (The Catcher in the Rye) 1951
English language
Estimated copies: 65 million
“If you really want to hear this story, you might want to know first of all where I was born and what my crappy childhood was like and what my parents and all were doing before I came along, and all that David Copperfield crap but I don't really feel like talking about it. First, that stuff pisses me off, and second, my parents would each get a couple of heart attacks if I said anything too personal about them. They are terribly sensitive about these things, especially my father. Cute and all — who denies it — but also bloody touchy. On the other hand, I have no desire to start telling all my damned autobiography and company”.
Ellen G White
The Better Way (Steps to Christ) 1892
English language
Estimated copies: 60 million
“Nature and revelation alike testify of God's love. Our Father in Heaven is the source of life, wisdom, and joy. He observes the wonderful and beautiful things in nature. He thinks of their wonderful adaptation to the needs and happiness, not only of human beings, but of all living creatures. The sun and the rain, which gladden and refresh the earth, the hills, the seas and the plains, speak to us of the love of the Creator. It is God who procures the daily needs of all creatures of him ”.
Robert James Waller
The Bridges of Madison County (1992).
English language
Estimated copies: 60 million
“There are songs that are born from the grass dotted with blue, from the dust of thousands of country roads. This embodies its poetry. It's a late afternoon in the fall of 1989, I'm sitting at my desk, watching the blinking cursor on the computer screen in front of me as the phone rings. At the other end of the line is a former Iowa resident named Michael Johnson who now lives in Florida. A friend sent him one of my books. Michael Johnson has read it, his sister Carolyn has read it too, and they have a story to offer that they think I might be interested in.”
Umberto Eco
In the name of the rose 1992
Italian language
Estimated copies: 60 million
“It was a beautiful late November morning. It had snowed a little during the night, but the ground was covered with a fresh veil no more than three inches thick. In the dark, immediately after the hearing, we had heard mass in a village downstream. Then we set out for the mountains at sunrise. As we climbed the steep path that wound around the mountain, I saw the abbey”.
