Stephen King's favourite book is The Golden Argosy

Around 125 leading writers listed their top ten works of literature for a book called The Top Ten, out next month.

Leo Tolstoy appeared twice in the top 20, with Anna Karenina in first place and War and Peace in third.

Gustave's Flaubert's Madame Bovary was in second place, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita was fourth, and Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn fifth.

Shakespeare was the highest rated British author, coming sixth with Hamlet, and reaching 18th place with King Lear.

Booker prize

The only woman to make the top ten was George Eliot with Middlemarch.

Carey, who has won the Booker prize twice, picked Madame Bovary as his all time top book.

Thomas Keneally, who won the Booker for Schindler's Ark, listed Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte as his favourite novel.

Horror writer King chose The Golden Argosy - an anthology of 55 short stories from authors including Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald - as his favourite, with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in second.

He bought his copy of The Golden Argosy in a sale for $2.25 in 1955.

"At the time I only had $4 and spending over half of it on one book was a hard decision," King said.

"I never regretted it. [It] taught me more about good writing than all the classes I have ever taken," he added.