CLAT expects you to have knowledge regarding both Indian and World literature, under the Static GK portion. In this respect you are not expected to be aware of the storylines of each and every book. Knowing the names of the most prominent books and authors of those books would be adequate. Here we have compiled for you a list of books and authors of these books. By the time you sit for CLAT you should know each one of these pairs by heart.
Remember that this knowledge will not only help you crack CLAT but greatly increase your cultural awareness and aid you when you are participating in quizzes and debates.
For your convenience we have divided this list into various heads. Keep in mind that the list is not exhaustive and only an indicative one; it will be updated as and when required. Feel free to add your own books and authors pairs to it.
ANCIENT
| 1) Antigone-Sophocles | |||||||||
| 2) Arthashastra-Kautilya | |||||||||
| 3) Ashokavadana- Buddhist monks of the Mathura region | |||||||||
| 4) Brihaddeshi- Matanga Muni | |||||||||
| 5) Buddha Charitam-Ashwaghosha | |||||||||
| 6) Geet Govinda-Jaya Deva | |||||||||
| 7) Harshacharita-Banabhatta | |||||||||
| 8) Illiad-Homer
9) Natya Shastra-Bharata Muni |
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| 10) Indica-Megasthenes | |||||||||
| 11) Kamsutra-Vatsayan | |||||||||
| 12) Kathasaritsagar- Somdeva | |||||||||
| 13) Kumar Sambhava-Kalidas | |||||||||
| 14) Lysistrata-Aristrophanes | |||||||||
| 15) Mahabharata- Valmiki | |||||||||
| 16) Malikagnimitra-Kalidas | |||||||||
| 17) Manusmriti-Manu | |||||||||
| 18) Medea-Euripides | |||||||||
| 19) Meghdoot-Kalidas | |||||||||
| 20) Mrichchakatikam-Shudraka | |||||||||
| 21) Mudra Rakshasa-Vishakha Datta | |||||||||
| 22) Nagananda-Harshavardhana | |||||||||
| 23) Odyssey-Homer | |||||||||
| 24) Oedipus rex-Sophocles | |||||||||
| 25) Oresteia-Aeschylus | |||||||||
| 26) Panchatantra- Vishnu Sharma | |||||||||
| 27) Priyadarsika- Harshavardhana | |||||||||
| 28) Raghuvansha-Kalidas | |||||||||
| 29) Rajtarangini-Kalhana | |||||||||
| 30) Ramayana- Ved Vyas | |||||||||
| 31) Ratnavali-Harshavardhana | |||||||||
| 32) Shatapatha Brahmana-Yajnavalkya | |||||||||
| 33) The Bacchae-Euripides | |||||||||
| 34) Yoga Sutra- Patanjali | |||||||||
MEDIEVAL INDIA
| 1) A Voyage to East India-Thomas Roe | |||||
| 2) Akbarnama-Abul Fazl | |||||
| 3) Baburnama- Babur | |||||
| 4) Book of Durate Barbosa- Duarte Barbosa | |||||
| 5) Book of Sir Marco Polo- Marco Polo | |||||
| 6) Burkan-i-Maasir- Saiyaad Ali Tabtaba | |||||
| 7) Chua-Fan Char- Chonjukua | |||||
| 8) Fatwa-i-Jahandari-Ziauddin Barni | |||||
| 9) Futuhat-i-Alamgiri- Ishwar Das Nagar | |||||
| 10) Futuhat-i-Ferozshahi-Ferozshah Tughlaq | |||||
| 11) History of the late Rebellion in the State of the great Mughal-Francois Bernier | |||||
| 12) Humayanama- Ghiyasuddin Mohammad | |||||
| 13) Humayun Nama-Gulbadan | |||||
| 14) Insha-i-Mahru- Ainul-ul-Mulq Multani | |||||
| 15) Kitab-ul-Hind-Al Beruni | |||||
| 16) Kitab-ul-Rehala- Ibn Batuta | |||||
| 17) Maasir-e-Alamgiri- Mohammad Saqi Mustaid Khan | |||||
| 18) Maasir-e-Apm- Mirza Mohammad Qazwini | |||||
| 19) Mirat-i-Ahmadi- Diwan Ali Mohammad bin Khan | |||||
| 20) Mirat-i-Sikandari-Sikandar bin Mohammad Manju | |||||
| 21) Murujul Jahab- Al Masudi | |||||
| 22) Narrative of Domingo Paes- Domingo Paes | |||||
| 23) Padshahnama- Abdul Hamid Lahori | |||||
| 24) Raj Tarangini-Kalhan | |||||
| 25) Shahjahannama- Inayat Khan | |||||
| 26) Storio Dor Mogor- Manucci | |||||
| 27) Tabkat-i-Akbari- Khwaja Nizamuddin Ahmed Harvi | |||||
| 28) Tabkat-i-Nasiri- Minhanjus Siraj | |||||
| 29) Tajkirat-ul-Muluk- Rafiuddin Shiraz | |||||
| 30) Tarikh-i-Alfi- Abdul Qadir Badayuni | |||||
| 31) Tarikh-i-Feroz shahi-Ziauddin Barni | |||||
| 32) Tarikh-i-Khafi Khan- Mohammad Hashim Khafi Khan | |||||
| 33) Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi- Yahya Abdullah Sarhindi | |||||
| 34) Tarikh-i-Shershahi- Abbas Khan Sherwani | |||||
| 35) The Itinerary of Ludouico de Verthema- Ludouico de Verthema | |||||
| 36) The Voyage of John Hughen Von Linschotten-John Linschotten | |||||
| 37) Trarikh-I-Farishta- Mohammad Qasim Hindu Shah Astarabadi | |||||
| 38) Travels in India- Jean Baptist Tavernier | |||||
| 39) Travels in the Mogul Empire-Francois Bernier | |||||
| 40) Tughlaq Nama-Amir Khusrau | |||||
| 41) Tujuk-i-Jahangiri- Jahangir | |||||
In case you are interested in knowing more about some of these books and their authors, please consult Pratiyogita Darpan Extra Issue Series 16-Indian History-Medieval India
MEDIEVAL EUROPE (1500 AD-1900 AD)
| 1.Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland-Lewis Caroll | |||
| 2.Around the World in Eighty Days-Jules Verne | |||
| 3. Dracula-Bram Stoker | |||
| 4. Frankenstein-Mary Shelley | |||
| 5. Great Expectations-Charles Dickens | |||
| 6.Gulliver’s Travels-Jonathan Swift | |||
| 7.Huckleberry Finn-Mark Twain | |||
| 8.Ivanhoe- Walter Scott | |||
| 9.Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte | |||
| 10.Les Propheties-Nostradamus | |||
| 11.Little Women-Louisa May Alcott | |||
| 12.Macbeth-William Shakespeare | |||
| 13.Merchant of Venice-William Shakespeare | |||
| 14.Moby Dick-Herman Melville | |||
| 15.Paradise Lost-John Milton | |||
| 16.Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austen | |||
| 17.Romeo Juliet-William Shakespeare | |||
| Sense and Sensibility-Jane Austen | |||
| 18.Silas Marner-George Elliot | |||
| 19.Tess of the D’Ubervilles-Thomas Hardy | |||
| 20.The Picture of Dorian Gray-Oscar Wilde | |||
| 21.The Wonderful Wizard of Oz-L. Frank Baum | |||
| 22.Three Men in a Boat-Jerome.K.Jerome | |||
| 23.Treasure Island- Robert Louis Stevenson | |||
| 24.Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea-Jules Verne | |||
| 25.Vanity Fair-William Makepeace Thackeray | |||
| 26.Wuthering Heights-Emily Bronte | |||
PRE INDEPENDENT INDIA
| 1.A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar)- Robert Sewell | |||
| 2.A Gift to Monotheists-Raja Rammohan Roy | |||
| 3.A Nation in the Making-S.N.Banerjee | |||
| 4.Anand Math-Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay | |||
| 5.Byomkesh Bakshi series-Saradindu Bandopadhyay | |||
| 6.Debi Choudhurani-Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay | |||
| 7.Devdas- Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay | |||
| 8.Discovery of India-Jawaharlal Nehru | |||
| 9.Ghulam Giri-Jyotibha Phule | |||
| 10.Gitanjali-Rabindranath Tagore | |||
| 11.Hind Swaraj-Mahatma Gandhi | |||
| 12.Neeldarpan-Dinbandhu Mitra | |||
| 13.Parineeta – Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay | |||
| 14.Pather Panchali-Bibhutibhuson Bandopadhyay | |||
| 15.Poverty and Un-British rule in India-Dadabhai Naoroji | |||
| 16.Precepts of Jesus-Raja Rammohan Roy | |||
| 17.Stree Purusha Tulana-Tarabai Shinde | |||
| 18.Sultana’s Dream-Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein | |||
| 19.The Indian Struggle-Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose | |||
| 20.The Spirit of Islam-Syed Amir Ali | |||
| 21.Unhappy India-Lala Lajpat Rai | |||
| 22.Untouchable-Mulk Raj Anand | |||
| 23.Why am I an Atheist?-Bhagat Singh | |||
MODERN
| A Game of Thrones-George R.R.Martin | ||||
| A History of Rome- Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen | ||||
| A Streetcar Named Desire-Tennessee Williams | ||||
| A Suitable Boy-Vikram Seth | ||||
| Animal Farm-George Orwell | ||||
| Atonement-Ian McEwan | ||||
| Black Beauty-Anna Sewell | ||||
| Dear John-Nicholas Sparks | ||||
| Dubliners-James Joyce | ||||
| Famous Five series-Enid Blyton | ||||
| Feluda series-Satyajit Ray | ||||
| Flood of Fire-Amitav Ghosh | ||||
| Go Set a Watchman-Harper Lee | ||||
| Gone Girl-Gillian Flynn | ||||
| Half Girlfriend-Chetan Bhagat | ||||
| Harry Potter series-J.K.Rowling | ||||
| I Too Had a Love Story-Ravinder Singh | ||||
| Ignited Minds-A.P.J.Abdul Kalam | ||||
| James Bond series-Ian Fleming | ||||
| Lady Chatterley’s Lover-Chester Brown | ||||
| Lolita-Vladimir Nabokov | ||||
| Mary Poppins-P.L.Travers | ||||
| Matilda-Roald Dahl | ||||
| Midnight’s Children-Salman Rushdie | ||||
| Nostromo-Joseph Conrad | ||||
| Old Man and the Sea-Ernest Hemmingway | ||||
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest-Ken Kesey | ||||
| One Hundred Years of Solitude-Gabriel Garcia Marquez | ||||
| Peter Pan-J.M.Barrie | ||||
| Q&A-Vikas Swarup | ||||
| Rebecca-Daphne du Maurier | ||||
| Sherlock Holmes-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | ||||
| Tarzan of the Apes-Edgar Rice Burroughs | ||||
| The Alchemist-Paulo Coelho | ||||
| The Bell Jar-Sylvia Plath | ||||
| The Cask of Amontillado-Edgar Allan Poe | ||||
| The Chronicles of Narnia-C.S. Lewis | ||||
| The Cuckoo’s Calling-Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling) | ||||
| The Da Vinci Code-Dan Brown | ||||
| The Diary of a Young Girl-Anne Frank | ||||
| The Doomsday Conspiracy-Sidney Sheldon | ||||
| The Firm-John Grisham | ||||
| The God of Small Things-Arundhati Roy | ||||
| The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald | ||||
| The Great Indian Novel-Shashi Tharoor | ||||
| The Host-Stephenie Meyer | ||||
| The Kiterunner-Khaled Hosseini | ||||
| The Lord of the Rings-J.R.R. Tolkien | ||||
| The Maneater of Malgudi-R.K.Narayan | ||||
| The Metamorphosis-Franz Kafka | ||||
| The Mysterious Affair at Styles-Agatha Christie | ||||
| The Namesake-Jhumpa Lahiri | ||||
| The Oath of the Vayuputras-Amish Tripathi | ||||
| The Peacock Garden-Anita Desai | ||||
| The Shining-Stephen King | ||||
| The Sins of the Father-Jeffrey Archer | ||||
| The White Tiger-Aravind Adiga | ||||
| To Kill A Mockingbird-Harper Lee | ||||
| Train to Pakistan-Khushwant Singh | ||||
| War and Peace-Leo Tolstoy | ||||
| Winnie the Pooh-A.A.Milne | ||||
| Wise and Otherwise-Sudha Murty | ||||
Now it is time for you to answer some questions. In case you do not know the answer to a question you can ask someone or check for the answer online after you have completed attempting all the questions.
Who was the author of Caesar and Cleopatra?
- William Shakespeare
- George Bernard Shaw
- Homer
- Horapollo
If I am Assasinated was authored by which person?
- Martin Luther King
- Indira Gandhi
- Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
- Abraham Lincoln
Which of these books was written by Pandit Ravi Shankar?
- My Life, My Music
- The Sound of Music
- The Music Man
- A Little Night Music
Who wrote Savitri?
- Aurobindo Ghosh
- Kalidas
- S. Naipaul
- Mulk Raj Anand
Who authored the novel Ulysses?
- Homer
- James Joyce
- Boris Pasternak
- Lord Byron
Vish Vriksha was written by whom?
- Kabir
- Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
- Harivanshrai Bachchan
- Mirabai
Whose autobiography is named Going Solo?
- Roald Dahl
- Charlie Chaplin
- Usain Bolt
- Orville Wright
Who authored Steve Jobs, the biography of the Apple founder?
- Steve Wozniak
- Tim Cook
- Walter Isaacson
- Steven Spielberg
Which of these books were authored by Rabindranath Tagore?
- Memsaheb
- Gora
- Shesh Nomoshkar
- Raj Nagar
By whom is Invisible Man composed?
- Oscar Wilde
- G. Wells
- Harold Laski
- Alvin Toffler