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
13,739 members
249 reviews
4.2
6 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
2
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë
59,410 members
924 reviews
4.2
6 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
3
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë
52,363 members
709 reviews
3.9
6 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
4
Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe
23,375 members
323 reviews
½ 3.6
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
5
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens
24,428 members
242 reviews
3.8
5 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, EGBERTINA
6
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
17,943 members
170 reviews
½ 3.7
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
7
The Pilgrim's Progress
by John Bunyan
17,650 members
173 reviews
½ 3.7
4 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
8
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
26,689 members
402 reviews
4
5 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, EGBERTINA
9
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
24,940 members
528 reviews
4.1
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
10
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
27,362 members
482 reviews
4
5 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, EGBERTINA
11
The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
36,817 members
375 reviews
½ 3.4
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
12
Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert
26,364 members
390 reviews
½ 3.7
5 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, EGBERTINA
13
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
by William Shakespeare
31,919 members
170 reviews
½ 4.6
4 Members
elkiedee, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
14
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle
15,808 members
251 reviews
4.1
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
15
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
33,168 members
328 reviews
3.9
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
16
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson
34,362 members
439 reviews
3.8
4 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
17
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
43,298 members
520 reviews
3.9
5 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
18
The House of the Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
8,702 members
115 reviews
½ 3.5
4 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
19
Boldtext Pew Bible: King James Version
by KJV (Bible Version)
16 members
1 review
4
2 Members
ahef1963, EGBERTINA
20
Hard Times
by Charles Dickens
10,626 members
134 reviews
½ 3.5
4 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, EGBERTINA
21
Little Men
by Louisa May Alcott
8,160 members
66 reviews
½ 3.7
4 Members
elkiedee, BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
22
Silas Marner
by George Eliot
11,413 members
152 reviews
3.8
4 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
23
The Vicar of Wakefield
by Oliver Goldsmith
2,843 members
46 reviews
½ 3.3
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
24
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
by Margaret Sidney
3,934 members
47 reviews
3.9
4 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, NinieB, EGBERTINA
25
War and Peace
by León Tolstói
29,067 members
460 reviews
½ 4.3
3 Members
elkiedee, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
26
Tales of Edgar Allan Poe
by Edgar Allan Poe
718 members
9 reviews
½ 4.4
3 Members
NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
27
Mother Goose
80 members
4 reviews
½ 3.4
2 Members
ahef1963, EGBERTINA
28
The Swiss Family Robinson
by Johann David Wyss
8,851 members
90 reviews
½ 3.5
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
Explanations
EGBERTINA: Strongly recommend translation by Kingston.
29
The Old Curiosity Shop
by Charles Dickens
5,731 members
73 reviews
½ 3.7
3 Members
BonnieJune54, NinieB, EGBERTINA
30
Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen
2,199 members
23 reviews
4.2
3 Members
ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
31
Lady Audley's Secret
by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
2,717 members
83 reviews
½ 3.7
3 Members
BonnieJune54, NinieB, EGBERTINA
32
Aesop's Fables
by Aesop
729 members
15 reviews
½ 3.5
2 Members
ahef1963, EGBERTINA
33
Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales
by Jacob Grimm
14,544 members
111 reviews
4.2
3 Members
ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
34
Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
17,124 members
190 reviews
3.8
3 Members
BonnieJune54, NinieB, EGBERTINA
35
A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
36,911 members
457 reviews
3.9
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
36
Heidi
by Johanna Spyri
10,409 members
148 reviews
3.8
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
37
A Child's Garden of Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson
8,239 members
95 reviews
4.2
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
38
She
by H. Rider Haggard
2,945 members
73 reviews
½ 3.4
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
39
Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse
by Anna Sewell
18,213 members
208 reviews
3.9
3 Members
BonnieJune54, ahef1963, EGBERTINA
40
Moby Dick
by Herman Melville
35,683 members
545 reviews
3.8
2 Members
ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
41
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
by Washington Irving
1,573 members
22 reviews
3.8
2 Members
NinieB, EGBERTINA
42
Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman
10,371 members
85 reviews
4.1
2 Members
ManWithAnAgenda, EGBERTINA
43
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott
13,113 members
121 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
44
The Last of the Mohicans
by James Fenimore Cooper
13,303 members
125 reviews
½ 3.5
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
45
Lena Rivers
by Mary Jane Holmes
78 members
4
2 Members
NinieB, EGBERTINA
46
The Deerslayer
by James Fenimore Cooper
2,849 members
32 reviews
½ 3.5
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
47
The Wide, Wide World
by Susan Warner
260 members
5 reviews
½ 3.4
2 Members
NinieB, EGBERTINA
48
The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas
21,475 members
253 reviews
4.1
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
49
East Lynne
by Ellen Wood
654 members
18 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
NinieB, EGBERTINA
50
Walden
by Henry David Thoreau
14,225 members
193 reviews
3.8
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
51
Les Misérables
by Victor Hugo
26,459 members
342 reviews
½ 4.3
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
52
Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates
by Mary Mapes Dodge
4,084 members
32 reviews
½ 3.6
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
53
The Return of the Native
by Thomas Hardy
7,950 members
92 reviews
3.9
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
54
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
by Lew Wallace
5,387 members
88 reviews
3.8
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
55
Fanny Hill, or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
by John Cleland
3,342 members
58 reviews
3.2
2 Members
ahef1963, EGBERTINA
56
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)
by Jerome K. Jerome
7,729 members
290 reviews
3.9
2 Members
BonnieJune54, EGBERTINA
57
Poems of Robert Burns
by Robert Burns
144 members
1 review
½ 4.3
Member
EGBERTINA
58
Arabian Nights Entertainment
by Milo Winter
16 members
1 review
Member
EGBERTINA
59
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin
7,380 members
110 reviews
3.8
Member
EGBERTINA
60
Kenilworth
by Sir Walter Scott
1,102 members
14 reviews
½ 3.5
Member
EGBERTINA
61
The Spy
by James Fenimore Cooper
788 members
15 reviews
½ 3.3
Member
EGBERTINA
62
A Dictionary of the English Language
by Noah Webster
698 members
5 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
1,884 members
22 reviews
½ 3.3
Member
EGBERTINA
64
Two Years Before the Mast
by Richard Henry Jr. Dana
3,412 members
56 reviews
3.9
Member
EGBERTINA
65
Essays: First Series and Second Series
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
1,939 members
7 reviews
4.2
Member
EGBERTINA
66
The poems of Tennyson
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
1,172 members
4 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
EGBERTINA
67
Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
594 members
4 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
EGBERTINA
68
The Oregon Trail
by Francis Parkman
2,090 members
21 reviews
½ 3.6
Member
EGBERTINA
69
The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
by John Greenleaf Whittier
585 members
6 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
EGBERTINA
70
Reveries of a Bachelor
by Ik Marvel
127 members
2 reviews
½ 2.4
Member
EGBERTINA
71
Tempest and Sunshine
by Mary J. Holmes
72 members
1 review
2
Member
EGBERTINA
72
The Age of Fable
by Thomas Bulfinch
13 members
3
Member
EGBERTINA
73
Familiar Quotations
by John Bartlett
4,143 members
16 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
EGBERTINA
74
The Prince of the House of David
by J. H. Ingraham
196 members
3 reviews
3
Member
EGBERTINA
75
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
by Oliver Wendell Holmes
796 members
10 reviews
½ 3.4
Member
EGBERTINA
76
Ishmael
by E. D. E. N. Southworth
216 members
3 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
EGBERTINA
77
Self Raised (Rare Collector Series)
by E. D. E. N. Southworth
169 members
1 review
4.2
Member
EGBERTINA
78
The Man Without a Country
by Edward Everett Hale
753 members
8 reviews
½ 3.4
Member
EGBERTINA
79
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
by Omar Khayyám
2,937 members
34 reviews
4
Member
EGBERTINA
80
The Story of a Bad Boy
by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
306 members
3 reviews
3.8
Member
EGBERTINA
81
Barriers Burned Away
by Edward Payson Roe
53 members
5
Member
EGBERTINA
82
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
1,242 members
10 reviews
3.2
Member
EGBERTINA
83
The Faith of Our Fathers
by James Gibbons
278 members
3 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
EGBERTINA
84
Nana
by Émile Zola
3,956 members
68 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
EGBERTINA
85
Poems
by James Whitcomb Riley
1 member
Member
EGBERTINA
86
The Birds' Christmas Carol
by Kate Douglas Wiggin
942 members
24 reviews
3.9
Member
EGBERTINA
87
Thelma
by Marie Corelli
90 members
½ 4.3
Member
EGBERTINA
88
Robert Elsmere
by Mrs. Humphry Ward
104 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
323 members
7 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
EGBERTINA
91
Steps to Christ
by Ellen G. White
598 members
4 reviews
4.1
Member
EGBERTINA
92
Beautiful Joe
by Marshall Saunders
626 members
18 reviews
4.1
Member
EGBERTINA
93
Coin's financial school
by W. H. Harvey
10 members
Member
EGBERTINA
94
The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life
by Hannah Whitall Smith
1,750 members
11 reviews
4.2
Member
EGBERTINA
95
Trilby
by George Du Maurier
889 members
14 reviews
3.2
Member
EGBERTINA
Explanations
EGBERTINA: on list here and later; was bestseller several years