Read by Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Jordan Peterson and 4 others
What books does Sigmund Freud recommend?
Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis and reshaped how the modern world thinks about the mind, and his book recommendations, drawn from his own writings and letters, reveal a voracious literary reader as much as a clinician. Collected here are 26 titles cited across his works, his correspondence, and a 1907 questionnaire in which he named ten good books, overwhelmingly fiction, with philosophy, history, and psychology alongside. His top pick is Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, a novel he analyzed at length. Freud saw his own theories mirrored in literature: he read Sophocles's Oedipus Rex as a story whose destiny moves us only because it might have been our own, and interpreted Hamlet through the same lens. His recommended reading also gathers Milton's Paradise Lost, Kipling's The Jungle Book, and Goethe's Faust, of which he asked where we would be today if Goethe had not written it.
Last updated February 2026 · Every recommendation cited to its original source.
byFyodor Dostoevsky
1880824 PagesSource: Dostoevsky and Parricide (1928)
Read by Sigmund Freud
Oedipus Rex
Oedipus the King
bySophocles
-429144 Pages(237,763)
“The legend of the Greek king Oedipus, who kills his father and marries his mother... His destiny moves us only because it might have been our own.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
Hamlet
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
byWilliam Shakespeare
2003432 Pages“In Hamlet the subject has not been confused by any modifications... the loathing which should drive him on to revenge is replaced in him by self-reproaches, by scruples of conscience.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
byJohn Milton
1667512 Pages(184,500)
“You did not even ask for 'favourite books', among which I should not have forgotten Milton's Paradise Lost and Heine's Lazarus.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Letter to Hugo Heller regarding the 'Ten Good Books' questionnaire (1907)
Read by Sigmund Freud
The Lazarus Poems
With English Versions by Alistair Elliot
byHeinrich Heine
199079 Pages“You did not even ask for 'favourite books', among which I should not have forgotten Milton's Paradise Lost and Heine's Lazarus.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Letter to Hugo Heller regarding the 'Ten Good Books' questionnaire (1907)
Read by Sigmund Freud
byRudyard Kipling
2009240 Pages“I will therefore name ten such 'good' books for you... Kipling, Jungle Book.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Contribution to a Questionnaire on Reading (1907)
Read by Sigmund Freud
byMark Twain
1875400 Pages“I will therefore name ten such 'good' books for you... Mark Twain, Sketches.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Contribution to a Questionnaire on Reading (1907)
Read by Sigmund Freud
byÉmile Zola
1899784 Pages“I will therefore name ten such 'good' books for you... Zola, Fécondité.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Contribution to a Questionnaire on Reading (1907)
Read by Sigmund Freud
byAnatole France
1905230 Pages“I will therefore name ten such 'good' books for you... Anatole France, Sur la pierre blanche.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Contribution to a Questionnaire on Reading (1907)
Read by Sigmund Freud
The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci
The Resurrection of the Gods
byDmitry Merezhkovsky
1901659 Pages“I will therefore name ten such 'good' books for you... Merezhkovsky, Leonardo da Vinci.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Contribution to a Questionnaire on Reading (1907)
Read by Sigmund Freud
The People of Seldwyla
Seven Legends
byGottfried Keller
1856627 Pages“I will therefore name ten such 'good' books for you... G. Keller, Leute von Seldwyla.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Contribution to a Questionnaire on Reading (1907)
Read by Sigmund Freud
byConrad Ferdinand Meyer
1871170 Pages“I will therefore name ten such 'good' books for you... C. F. Meyer, Huttens letzte Tage.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Contribution to a Questionnaire on Reading (1907)
Read by Sigmund Freud
Critical and Historical Essays
Contributed to the Edinburgh Review
byThomas Babington Macaulay
1843928 Pages“I will therefore name ten such 'good' books for you... Macaulay, Essays.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Contribution to a Questionnaire on Reading (1907)
Read by Sigmund Freud
Greek Thinkers
A History of Ancient Philosophy
byTheodor Gomperz
1896634 Pages“I will therefore name ten such 'good' books for you... Gomperz, Griechische Denker.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Contribution to a Questionnaire on Reading (1907)
Read by Albert Einstein, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and 3 others
Don Quixote
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha
byMiguel de Cervantes
2003976 Pages“He learned Spanish just to read Don Quixote in the original... it remained a lifelong favorite.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud
David Copperfield
The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery
byCharles Dickens
18501024 Pages“Freud gave a copy of this novel to his fiancée... writing that the characters were 'sinful without being abominable'.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Letter to Martha Bernays (1882)
Read by Sigmund Freud
byThomas Mann
20051536 Pages“The effect of this story [Joseph in Egypt] combined with the idea of the 'lived vita' in your lecture... has started within me a trend of thought.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Letter to Thomas Mann (1936)
Read by Sigmund Freud
Paracelsus
And Other One-Act Plays
byArthur Schnitzler
1995220 Pages“I was astonished to see what such a writer knows about these things.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Letter to Wilhelm Fliess (1898)
The Golden Bough
A Study in Magic and Religion
byJames George Frazer
2009864 PagesSource: Totem and Taboo (1913)
Read by Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Karl Marx and 1 others
Faust
A Tragedy
byJohann Wolfgang von Goethe
1808512 Pages“Where would we be today if Goethe had not written Faust?”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: General writings and citations
Read by Sigmund Freud
byGustave Flaubert
1874304 Pages“It evokes for him the most personal memories.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud
Read by Sigmund Freud
byStefan Zweig
192796 Pages“I have read your 'Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman' with great pleasure.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Letter to Stefan Zweig
byArthur Conan Doyle
1892307 Pages“Freud's favorite bedtime reading.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Recollections by Nicholas Meyer and Paula Fichtl
Read by Sigmund Freud
byAgatha Christie
1934256 Pages(732,000)
“When it came to detective novels, Freud chose mainly English authors, such as Agatha Christie... The professor almost always knew who the murderer was.”
— Sigmund Freud
Source: Paula Fichtl (Freud's housekeeper) Memoirs
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Frequently asked questions
What books did Sigmund Freud recommend?
The 26 titles here include The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Hamlet by Shakespeare, Paradise Lost by John Milton, and The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, mixing classic drama with the novels he loved.
What was Sigmund Freud's favorite book?
His top pick here is Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, which he examined in his 1928 essay Dostoevsky and Parricide. He also named Milton's Paradise Lost and Heine's Lazarus poems among books he called favourites.
Where do Sigmund Freud's book recommendations come from?
They are drawn from his own works, such as The Interpretation of Dreams and Totem and Taboo, his letters, and a 1907 questionnaire from publisher Hugo Heller in which he listed ten good books.
Has Sigmund Freud written any books?
Yes. He authored 12 works listed here, including The Interpretation of Dreams, Civilization and Its Discontents, The Ego and the Id, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Totem and Taboo, and Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.
What genres did Sigmund Freud read most?
His recommendations lean heavily toward fiction, with philosophy, history, and psychology alongside. He read Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, and Goethe closely, and even had a fondness for detective novels, especially the Sherlock Holmes stories and Agatha Christie.
All 26 Books Sigmund Freud Has Recommended
- The Brothers Karamazov · Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Oedipus Rex · Sophocles
- Hamlet · William Shakespeare
- Paradise Lost · John Milton
- The Lazarus Poems · Heinrich Heine
- The Jungle Book · Rudyard Kipling
- Sketches New and Old · Mark Twain
- Fruitfulness · Émile Zola
- The White Stone · Anatole France
- The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci · Dmitry Merezhkovsky
- The People of Seldwyla · Gottfried Keller
- Hutten's Last Days · Conrad Ferdinand Meyer
- Critical and Historical Essays · Thomas Babington Macaulay
- Greek Thinkers · Theodor Gomperz
- Don Quixote · Miguel de Cervantes
- David Copperfield · Charles Dickens
- Joseph and His Brothers · Thomas Mann
- Paracelsus · Arthur Schnitzler
- The Golden Bough · James George Frazer
- Faust · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- The Temptation of Saint Anthony · Gustave Flaubert
- Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman · Stefan Zweig
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes · Arthur Conan Doyle
- Murder on the Orient Express · Agatha Christie
- The Life of Ramakrishna · Romain Rolland
- Philosophy of the Unconscious · Eduard von Hartmann