The Quran
Islam's central scripture, transmitted in Arabic and widely translated into other languages.
Forbidden Books Wiki
Books, scriptures, tracts, and novels that governments tried to suppress.
A source-backed index of famous works that were banned, restricted, confiscated, or otherwise targeted by state power.
Most banned, proxy-ranked by sales
Top list
- The Bible Various authors 5,000,000,000 estimated copies
- The Quran Traditionally attributed to revelations received by Muhammad 800,000,000 estimated copies
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 100,000,000 estimated copies
- The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 80,000,000 estimated copies
- Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 50,000,000 estimated copies
- Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell 30,000,000 estimated copies
- Animal Farm George Orwell 20,000,000 estimated copies
- Oliver Twist Charles Dickens 20,000,000 estimated copies
- Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 20,000,000 estimated copies
- For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway 15,000,000 estimated copies
- Frankenstein Mary Shelley 15,000,000 estimated copies
- The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 14,000,000 estimated copies
Source-backed records
Source-backed picks
Nineteen Eighty-Four
A dystopian novel about surveillance, language control, and total state power.
Animal Farm
An allegorical fable about revolution, propaganda, and the corruption of power.
Mein Kampf
Hitler's manifesto of racial ideology, antisemitism, dictatorship, and expansionist politics.
Little Black Sambo
A children's story whose racial caricatures later made it a target of official restriction.
American Psycho
A satirical horror novel about consumerism, misogyny, status anxiety, and stylized violence.
The Satanic Verses
A sprawling magical-realist novel about two Indian migrants, with dream sequences that satirize prophecy, revelation, migration, and political power.
Droll Stories
Balzac's bawdy pseudo-medieval tales full of sexual farce and exuberant language.