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In 1971 the Swedish Academy gave Pablo Neruda the Nobel Prize in Literature “for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent’s destiny and dreams”. He was born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto in Parral, in southern Chile, in 1904, and his love poems of 1924 made his name while he was still a student in Santiago. Then came consular posts in Rangoon, Colombo and Batavia, the Spanish Civil War, a seat in the Chilean Senate for the Communist Party, a year in hiding, and exile. He died in Santiago on 23 September 1973, twelve days after the military coup that brought down his friend Salvador Allende. This guide covers his 11 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 11 key books · 1924–1974 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Pablo Neruda’s best-known books are Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada, 1924), the epic Canto General (1950), One Hundred Love Sonnets (1959) and Residence on Earth (1933). Start with Twenty Love Poems: it is short, and it is where his fame began. Read on for the political poet, the poet of everyday things and the controversy around him.
Where to Start with Pablo Neruda
If you want the love poems that made him famous
→ Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924) — written in his teens and early twenties.
If you want his epic of the Americas
→ Canto General (1950) — including “The Heights of Macchu Picchu”.
If you want poems about ordinary things
→ Elemental Odes (1954) — odes to onions, tomatoes and the atom.
If you want his life in his own words
→ Memoirs (1974) — the memoir he finished just before he died.
11 Pablo Neruda Books, in Order
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada, published in Santiago in 1924 when Neruda was about twenty: twenty numbered love poems, set against the sea, rain and forests of southern Chile, and a closing “Song of Despair”. Poem XX opens “Tonight I can write the saddest lines”. W. S. Merwin’s English translation appeared in 1969.
Residence on Earth
Residencia en la tierra, written between 1925 and 1931, largely while he was a lonely, badly paid consul in Rangoon, Colombo and Batavia. The poems are dense and dreamlike, full of decay and isolation. A first volume appeared in Santiago in 1933; an enlarged two-volume edition followed in Madrid in 1935, including “Walking Around”.
Spain in Our Hearts
España en el corazón, his response to the Spanish Civil War, which broke out while he was Chile’s consul in Madrid and in which his friend Federico García Lorca was killed. It contains “I Explain a Few Things”, in which he says why his poetry no longer speaks of lilacs but of the blood in the streets. It marks his turn to political poetry.
Canto General
An epic history of Latin America in verse, from its geography, plants and pre-Columbian peoples through the conquest and liberators to the workers and dictators of his own time. Much of it was written while he was in hiding after 1948, and it was first published in Mexico in 1950. Its best-known section is “The Heights of Macchu Picchu” (Alturas de Macchu Picchu). Jack Schmitt’s complete English translation appeared in 1991.
The Captain’s Verses
Los versos del capitán, love poems to Matilde Urrutia, published anonymously in Naples in 1952, while he was still married to Delia del Carril. Neruda later acknowledged them as his own. Donald Walsh’s English translation appeared in 1972.
Elemental Odes
Odas elementales, odes in very short lines to ordinary things, such as the onion, the tomato and the atom, written to be clear to any reader. They were followed by Nuevas odas elementales (1956) and Tercer libro de las odas (1957); selections are available in English as Odes to Common Things and Selected Odes.
Extravagaria
Estravagario, a looser, more playful and self-mocking book after the public poetry of the 1950s, with poems about ageing, travel, doubt and his own contradictions, among them “Keeping Quiet”. Alastair Reid translated it into English.
One Hundred Love Sonnets
Cien sonetos de amor, dedicated to Matilde Urrutia, whom he married in 1966. The hundred unrhymed sonnets are arranged in four parts, morning, afternoon, evening and night. Stephen Tapscott’s English translation appeared in 1986.
Isla Negra
Memorial de Isla Negra, an autobiography in verse in five parts, published in the year he turned sixty and named after Isla Negra, the place on the Pacific coast where he had his house. It goes from his childhood in Temuco through his years in Asia, Spain and exile. Alastair Reid’s English translation appeared in 1981.
The Book of Questions
Libro de las preguntas, one of several collections published in 1974, after his death: short poems made entirely of unanswerable questions, about nature, objects, history and himself. William O’Daly’s English translation appeared in 1991.
Memoirs
Confieso que he vivido (“I confess that I have lived”), his autobiography, published in 1974, the year after his death. It covers his childhood in the south of Chile, his consular years in Asia, Spain, politics, exile and the days around the 1973 coup. It also contains the passage, from his time in Ceylon, in which he describes raping a cleaning woman. Hardie St. Martin’s English translation appeared in 1977.
In What Order to Read Pablo Neruda
Neruda’s books do not depend on one another, so you can read them in any order. Publication order does show how he changed: the young love poet, the dark modernist of Residence on Earth, the political poet of the Spanish Civil War and Canto General, then the plainer, more personal poet of the odes, the sonnets and the late books.
Most English editions are bilingual, with the Spanish on the facing page; even a little Spanish helps you hear the rhythm. Canto General is long, so many readers begin with “The Heights of Macchu Picchu”, which is also published on its own.
A reading path
1. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924)
2. One Hundred Love Sonnets (1959)
3. Elemental Odes (1954)
4. Canto General (1950)
5. Memoirs (1974)
Everything Else Pablo Neruda Published
Beyond the 11 key books: 10 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Early books
3
3 books · 1923–1926
- 1923Crepusculariohis first book of poems
- 1926Tentativa del hombre infinitoan experimental long poem
- 1926El habitante y su esperanzaa short prose narrative
Later poetry and prose
7
7 books · 1954–1974
- 1954Las uvas y el vientopoems from his travels in exile
- 1956Nuevas odas elementalesthe second book of odes
- 1957Tercer libro de las odasthe third book of odes
- 1967Fulgor y muerte de Joaquín Murietaa verse play, in English as Splendor and Death of Joaquin Murieta
- 1973El mar y las campanaslate poems, in English as The Sea and the Bells
- 1974Jardín de inviernoposthumous poems, in English as Winter Garden
- 1974El corazón amarilloposthumous poems, in English as The Yellow Heart
The years · 1904–1973
Quick facts about Pablo Neruda
- Known for
- Pablo Neruda is known for his love poetry and for Canto General, his epic of Latin America, and is one of the most widely read poets of the twentieth century in any language.
- 1904
- Born in Parral, Chile
- 1945
- Elected senator for the Communist Party
- 1950
- Canto General published in Mexico
- 1971
- Nobel Prize in Literature
- 1973
- Dies in Santiago after the coup
- Born
- Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, 12 July 1904, Parral, Chile
- Died
- 23 September 1973, Santiago, Chile, twelve days after the military coup
- Diplomat
- Consul in Asia from 1927, then Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Madrid; consul general in Mexico (1940–1943); ambassador to France from 1971
- Politics
- Communist senator for Tarapacá and Antofagasta (1945); in hiding and exile 1948–1952
- Married
- Marijke Antonieta Hagenaar (1930), Delia del Carril (1943), Matilde Urrutia (1966)
- Honours
- Stalin Peace Prize (1953); Nobel Prize in Literature (1971)
- Houses
- Isla Negra, La Chascona in Santiago and La Sebastiana in Valparaíso, now museums
The red mark is 1924: Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, the book that made him famous.
How Pablo Neruda Writes: From Love Poems to Odes
Neruda changed his manner several times. Twenty Love Poems works with long, musical lines and images of the southern Chilean landscape: the beloved is compared to the earth, the sea and the night. Residence on Earth, written in isolation in Asia, is much darker and harder: long, piled-up images of decay and loneliness, close to surrealism.
The Spanish Civil War turned him outward. From Spain in Our Hearts onwards he wrote for a public, and in Canto General he tried to tell the history of a whole continent, naming its rivers, birds, minerals, peoples and tyrants. In the Elemental Odes he took the opposite route: very short lines, plain words and everyday subjects such as an onion or a tomato, so that anyone could read them.
His late books are more personal and often playful: questions without answers, poems about ageing and memory, and the one hundred sonnets for Matilde Urrutia, which keep the fourteen lines but drop the rhyme. Throughout, he writes from concrete things he can see and touch rather than from abstractions.
Frequently asked questions about Pablo Neruda’s books
How many books has Pablo Neruda written?
More than forty, most of them poetry, some published after his death in 1973. This page covers 11 key books, from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924) to his Memoirs (1974), and lists ten more early and later titles.
What are Pablo Neruda’s books in order?
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924), Residence on Earth (1933), Spain in Our Hearts (1937), Canto General (1950), The Captain’s Verses (1952), Elemental Odes (1954), Extravagaria (1958), One Hundred Love Sonnets (1959), Isla Negra: A Notebook (1964), The Book of Questions (1974) and Memoirs (1974).
Where should I start with Pablo Neruda?
With Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924). It is short, it is the book that made him famous, and it includes Poem XX, “Tonight I can write the saddest lines”. Then try One Hundred Love Sonnets or the Elemental Odes.
What is Pablo Neruda’s most famous book?
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada, 1924) is his most famous and most read book. Canto General (1950), his epic of Latin America, is usually seen as his most ambitious.
Why did Pablo Neruda win the Nobel Prize?
He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971 “for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent’s destiny and dreams”. At the time he was Chile’s ambassador in Paris.
Who were Neruda’s love poems written for?
The Twenty Love Poems come from his youth in Temuco and Santiago. The Captain’s Verses (1952) and One Hundred Love Sonnets (1959) were written for Matilde Urrutia, his third wife, whom he married in 1966; she is buried with him at Isla Negra.
Is Il Postino about Pablo Neruda?
Partly. Il Postino (1994) is a fictional film about a postman who brings Neruda his mail while he lives in exile on an Italian island. It is based on Antonio Skármeta’s 1985 novel Ardiente paciencia. Pablo Larraín’s film Neruda (2016) is about the period when he was in hiding after 1948.
When did Pablo Neruda die?
On 23 September 1973 at the Santa María clinic in Santiago, aged 69, twelve days after the military coup of 11 September 1973. The official cause was prostate cancer; the investigation into whether he was poisoned is covered in the next question.
Why is Pablo Neruda controversial?
There are three main issues. First, in his Memoirs (1974) he describes raping a cleaning woman while he was consul in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, around 1929; feminist groups cited the passage when they protested a 2018 proposal to rename Santiago’s airport after him, which was dropped. Second, he was a lifelong communist who received the Stalin Peace Prize in 1953 and wrote an ode in praise of Stalin after his death that year. Third, his death: an international panel said in 2017 that the evidence did not support cancer as the cause, and a 2023 report by experts from Canada, Denmark and Chile found the bacterium Clostridium botulinum in his remains, but could not establish whether it caused his death. A judge closed the case in December 2023; an appeals court reopened it in February 2024.
Should I read Neruda in Spanish or English?
Most English translations, such as W. S. Merwin’s Twenty Love Poems (1969), are bilingual editions with the Spanish facing the English, so you can read both. Different translators often render the same poem very differently, so it is worth comparing two versions of a favourite.
What was Pablo Neruda’s real name?
Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto. He took the name Pablo Neruda by the middle of 1920, when he was about sixteen, probably because his father disapproved of his writing. More writers who did the same are on my list of authors who wrote under pseudonyms.
Footnotes
- Pablo Neruda — Wikipedia
- Pablo Neruda — Facts, NobelPrize.org
- Pablo Neruda — Bibliography, NobelPrize.org
- He’s known as Chile’s greatest poet, but feminists say Pablo Neruda is canceled — NPR, 2022
- Famous poet Pablo Neruda was poisoned after a coup, according to a new report — NPR, 2023
- Las nuevas diligencias en la investigación por la muerte de Pablo Neruda — The Clinic, 2024
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.”
— Pablo Neruda, Poem XIV, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924); in Spanish “Quiero hacer contigo lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos”
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