・ Rashomon

Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1915)

The author published Rashomon in a university magazine when he was just 17. Just 13 pages long, it comprises seven statements regarding the murder of a samurai and his wife's disappearance.

・ One Thousand and One Nights

[Photo/China Daily]

Anonymous (first published in English 1706)

Packing in crime, horror, fantasy and romance, it influenced authors as diverse as Tolstoy, Dumas, Rushdie, Conan Doyle, Proust and Lovecraft.