Publisher's Weekly Bestsellers Prior to 1895 in Chronological Order

Description
Undeniable bestsellers- before computations for bestsellers existed. List must be incomplete, as there is no mention of jane austen & many more books that qualify.
1
Bleak House
by Charles Dickens
15,389 members
273 reviews
4.2
6 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
2
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë
68,151 members
1,019 reviews
4.2
6 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
3
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë
62,319 members
813 reviews
3.9
6 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
4
Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe
29,103 members
362 reviews
½ 3.6
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
5
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens
28,507 members
273 reviews
3.8
5 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, EGBERTINA
6
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
21,101 members
191 reviews
½ 3.7
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
7
The Pilgrim's Progress
by John Bunyan
20,411 members
197 reviews
½ 3.7
4 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
8
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
33,325 members
473 reviews
4
5 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, EGBERTINA
9
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
29,512 members
599 reviews
4.1
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
10
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
32,659 members
534 reviews
4
5 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, EGBERTINA
11
The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
41,895 members
416 reviews
½ 3.4
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
12
Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert
29,884 members
428 reviews
½ 3.7
5 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, EGBERTINA
13
William Shakespeare: The Complete Works
by William Shakespeare
35,692 members
177 reviews
½ 4.6
4 Members
elkiedee, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
14
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle
18,516 members
277 reviews
4.1
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
15
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
38,481 members
371 reviews
3.9
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
16
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson
40,968 members
491 reviews
3.8
4 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
17
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
49,533 members
586 reviews
3.9
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
18
The House of Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
9,660 members
118 reviews
½ 3.5
4 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
19
The Holy Bible: King James Version
by King James Version
16,234 members
212 reviews
4
2 Members
ahef1963, EGBERTINA
20
Hard Times
by Charles Dickens
12,009 members
146 reviews
½ 3.5
4 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, EGBERTINA
21
Little Men
by Louisa May Alcott
9,245 members
73 reviews
3.8
4 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
22
Silas Marner
by George Eliot
12,947 members
172 reviews
3.8
4 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
23
The Vicar of Wakefield
by Oliver Goldsmith
3,511 members
63 reviews
½ 3.3
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
24
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (Illustrated Junior Libary)
by Margaret Sidney
4,701 members
49 reviews
3.8
4 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, EGBERTINA
25
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
33,669 members
511 reviews
½ 4.3
3 Members
elkiedee, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
26
Tales of Edgar Allan Poe
by Edgar Allan Poe
817 members
9 reviews
½ 4.4
3 Members
NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
27
Mother Goose
102 members
4 reviews
½ 3.4
2 Members
ahef1963, EGBERTINA
28
The Swiss Family Robinson
by Johann David Wyss
9,985 members
97 reviews
½ 3.5
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
Explanations
EGBERTINA: Strongly recommend translation by Kingston.
29
The Old Curiosity Shop
by Charles Dickens
6,578 members
80 reviews
½ 3.7
3 Members
BonnieJune54, NinieB, EGBERTINA
30
Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen
2,471 members
26 reviews
4.2
3 Members
ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
31
Lady Audley's Secret
by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
3,025 members
93 reviews
½ 3.7
3 Members
BonnieJune54, NinieB, EGBERTINA
32
Aesop's Fables
by Aesop
812 members
16 reviews
½ 3.5
2 Members
ahef1963, EGBERTINA
33
The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
by Jacob Grimm
17,502 members
137 reviews
4.2
3 Members
ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
34
Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
19,684 members
209 reviews
3.8
3 Members
BonnieJune54, NinieB, EGBERTINA
35
A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
42,136 members
491 reviews
3.9
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
36
Heidi
by Johanna Spyri
14,433 members
175 reviews
3.9
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
37
A Child's Garden of Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson
9,556 members
101 reviews
4.2
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
38
She
by H. Rider Haggard
3,256 members
75 reviews
½ 3.4
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
39
Black Beauty
by Anna Sewell
21,441 members
233 reviews
3.9
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
40
Moby Dick
by Herman Melville
41,877 members
620 reviews
3.8
2 Members
ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
41
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
by Washington Irving
1,748 members
23 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
NinieB, EGBERTINA
42
Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman
11,469 members
97 reviews
4.1
2 Members
ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
43
Ivanhoe
by Walter Scott
15,075 members
137 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
44
The Last of the Mohicans
by James Fenimore Cooper
15,299 members
146 reviews
½ 3.5
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
45
Lena Rivers
by Mary Jane Holmes
85 members
4
2 Members
NinieB, EGBERTINA
46
The Deerslayer
by James Fenimore Cooper
3,228 members
36 reviews
½ 3.5
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
47
The Wide, Wide World
by Susan Warner
295 members
5 reviews
½ 3.4
2 Members
NinieB, EGBERTINA
48
The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas
24,635 members
270 reviews
4.1
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
49
East Lynne
by Ellen Wood
736 members
20 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
NinieB, EGBERTINA
50
Walden; or, Life in the Woods
by Henry David Thoreau
16,244 members
205 reviews
3.8
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
51
Les Misérables
by Victor Hugo
30,564 members
380 reviews
½ 4.3
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
52
Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates
by Mary Mapes Dodge
4,735 members
37 reviews
½ 3.6
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
53
The Return of the Native
by Thomas Hardy
8,752 members
101 reviews
3.9
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
54
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
by Lew Wallace
6,281 members
95 reviews
3.8
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
55
Fanny Hill, or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
by John Cleland
3,664 members
66 reviews
3.2
2 Members
ahef1963, EGBERTINA
56
Three Men in a Boat
by Jerome K. Jerome
8,698 members
329 reviews
3.9
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
57
Poems of Robert Burns
by Robert Burns
163 members
1 review
½ 4.3
Member
EGBERTINA
58
The Arabian Nights Entertainment
17 members
1 review
Member
EGBERTINA
59
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin
8,323 members
127 reviews
3.8
Member
EGBERTINA
60
Kenilworth
by Sir Walter Scott
1,234 members
17 reviews
½ 3.5
Member
EGBERTINA
61
The Spy
by James Fenimore Cooper
882 members
21 reviews
½ 3.3
Member
EGBERTINA
62
Noah Webster's First Edition of an American Dictionary of the English Language
by Noah Webster
685 members
3 reviews
½ 4.5
Member
EGBERTINA
Explanations
EGBERTINA: all webster dictionaries combined. this was merely facsimile of original.
63
The Last Days of Pompeii
by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton
2,142 members
26 reviews
½ 3.3
Member
EGBERTINA
64
Two Years Before the Mast
by Richard Henry Dana
3,799 members
60 reviews
3.9
Member
EGBERTINA
65
Essays: First Series and Second Series
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
2,194 members
7 reviews
4.2
Member
EGBERTINA
66
The poems of Tennyson
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
1,314 members
4 reviews
4.2
Member
EGBERTINA
67
Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
654 members
5 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
EGBERTINA
68
The Oregon Trail
by Francis Parkman
2,393 members
21 reviews
½ 3.5
Member
EGBERTINA
69
The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
by John Greenleaf Whittier
643 members
6 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
EGBERTINA
70
Reveries of a Bachelor
by Ik Marvel
138 members
2 reviews
½ 2.4
Member
EGBERTINA
71
Tempest and Sunshine
by Mary J. Holmes
80 members
1 review
½ 2.4
Member
EGBERTINA
72
The Age of Fable
by Thomas Bulfinch
4,347 members
31 reviews
3.8
Member
EGBERTINA
73
Familiar Quotations
by John Bartlett
4,587 members
17 reviews
4.2
Member
EGBERTINA
74
The Prince of the House of David
by J. H. Ingraham
222 members
2 reviews
3
Member
EGBERTINA
75
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
by Oliver Wendell Holmes
881 members
11 reviews
½ 3.3
Member
EGBERTINA
76
Ishmael; or, In the Depths
by E. D. E. N. Southworth
261 members
3 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
EGBERTINA
77
Self Raised; or, From the Depths
by E. D. E. N. Southworth
198 members
1 review
4.1
Member
EGBERTINA
78
The Man Without a Country
by Edward Everett Hale
833 members
9 reviews
½ 3.4
Member
EGBERTINA
79
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
by Omar Khayyám
3,570 members
40 reviews
4
Member
EGBERTINA
80
The Story of a Bad Boy
by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
356 members
4 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
EGBERTINA
81
Barriers Burned Away
by Edward Payson Roe
61 members
1 review
5
Member
EGBERTINA
82
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
1,387 members
10 reviews
½ 3.3
Member
EGBERTINA
83
The Faith of Our Fathers
by James Gibbons
332 members
2 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
EGBERTINA
84
Nana
by Émile Zola
4,378 members
69 reviews
3.8
Member
EGBERTINA
85
Poems
by James Whitcomb Riley
1 member
Member
EGBERTINA
86
The Birds' Christmas Carol
by Kate Douglas Wiggin
1,083 members
29 reviews
3.9
Member
EGBERTINA
87
Thelma
by Marie Corelli
100 members
½ 4.3
Member
EGBERTINA
88
Robert Elsmere
by Mrs. Humphry Ward
117 members
2 reviews
2.9
Member
EGBERTINA
89
The great stories of Guy de Maupassant
by Guy de Maupassant
1 member
Member
EGBERTINA
90
Barrack-Room Ballads
by Rudyard Kipling
363 members
7 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
EGBERTINA
91
Steps to Christ
by Ellen G. White
713 members
6 reviews
4.1
Member
EGBERTINA
92
Beautiful Joe
by Marshall Saunders
695 members
19 reviews
4
Member
EGBERTINA
93
Coin's financial school
by W. H. Harvey
13 members
Member
EGBERTINA
94
The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life
by Hannah Whitall Smith
1,953 members
14 reviews
4.2
Member
EGBERTINA
95
Trilby
by George Du Maurier
977 members
16 reviews
3.2
Member
EGBERTINA
Explanations
EGBERTINA: on list here and later; was bestseller several years