There seem to be two main ways to choose the subject matter to a work that will be considered a masterpiece. In the first you choose a huge subject filled with human suffering and triumph with a protagonist or main characters that many people may associate with even though they have no direct experience of what the characters are doing. Few of us have experience of the Napoleonic wars but we all know where Pierre is coming from in War and Peace, not all of us have been in prison but we identify with the trials of Jean Valjean’s life in Les Miserables. At a stretch we may even identify with Don Quixote’s attempt to get back to a halcyon period in human history.
The second way is more quixotic (literally) and produces a book that simply speaks to a nation in terms that become grounded in their culture. The deep love inspired by readers over generations almost cements the work into the psyche of the nation. Pride and Prejudice for England, Moby Dick for America. Some critics argue this makes the book only a ‘classic’, but to be a masterpiece it really needs to touch the universal.
In actual fact there are not many books that translate well enough to be universally adored but there are a few. Nearly all tragedies.