The Greatest Satire Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
4 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
11 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
19 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
45 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
53 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
58 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
67 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
70 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
82 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
84 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 1847 British English
103 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
111 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde 1890 Irish English
148 Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth 1969 American English
152 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
159 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
204 Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe 1987 American English
229 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
232 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
245 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
262 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
272 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 1932 British English
289 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
306 Babbitt Sinclair Lewis 1922 American English
348 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 1939 American English
449 The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 1875 British English
450 Main Street Sinclair Lewis 1920 American English
475 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
486 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
487 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
499 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
510 Lysistrata Aristophanes -411 Greek Ancient greek
512 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh 1934 British English
522 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
526 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
549 Scoop Evelyn Waugh 1938 British English
589 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
653 Tartuffe Molière 1664 French French
664 Good Omens Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman 1990 British English
665 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
666 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
675 Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West 1933 American English
681 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
684 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressell, Peter Miles 1914 British English
708 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
740 Eminent Victorians Lytton Strachey 1918 British English
785 Zuleika Dobson Max Beerbohm 1911 British English
788 Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 1913 British English
812 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos 1925 American English
811 What a Carve Up! Jonathan Coe 1994 British English
816 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde 1895 Irish English
821 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English
822 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
825 The Birds Aristophanes -414 Greek Ancient greek
834 Get Shorty Elmore Leonard 1990 American English
839 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
863 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
874 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
895 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English
896 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
916 Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk Ben Fountain 2012 American English
918 Collected Essays of George Orwell George Orwell 1968 British English
959 Wise Children Angela Carter 1991 British English
996 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
1020 The Praise of Folly Erasmus 1511 Dutch Latin
1028 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
1043 Our Man In Havana Graham Greene 1958 British English
1062 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
1063 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
1074 The Clouds Aristophanes -423 Greek Ancient greek
1098 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1116 The White Tiger Aravind Adiga 2008 Indian English
1158 Woodcutters Thomas Bernhard 1984 Austrian German
1166 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
1167 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1196 Northanger Abbey Jane Austen 1817 British English
1219 Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock 1818 British English
1228 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
1235 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
1256 Le Mariage De Figaro Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais 1784 French French
1261 Love in a Cold Climate Nancy Mitford 1949 British English
1275 A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works Jonathan Swift 1729 Irish English
1289 Erewhon Samuel Butler 1872 British English
1306 Hard Times Charles Dickens 1854 British English
1315 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1331 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett 1751 British English
1364 She Stoops to Conquer Oliver Goldsmith 1773 British English
1377 The Misanthrope Molière 1666 French French
1380 The Great Indian Novel Shashi Tharoor 1989 Indian English
1393 The American Way of Death Jessica Mitford 1963 American English
1401 The Seven Madmen Roberto Arlt 1929 Argentinian Spanish
1403 The Imaginary Invalid Molière 1673 French French
1425 War with the Newts Karel Čapek 1936 Czech Czech
1434 The Life And Loves Of A She Devil Fay Weldon 1983 British English
1456 The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen 1899 American English
1463 Penguin Island Anatole France 1908 French French
1499 The Space Merchants Frederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth 1952 American English
1510 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1515 A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court Mark Twain 1889 American English
1520 The Egoist George Meredith 1879 British English
1520 The Witches Of Eastwick John Updike 1984 American English
1530 The Towers Of Trebizond Rose Macauley 1956 British English
1554 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1558 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1621 The Nose Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1635 Vile Bodies Evelyn Waugh 1930 British English
1656 Night Watch Terry Pratchett 2002 British English
1668 Crome Yellow Aldous Huxley 1921 British English
1718 I Served The King Of England Bohumil Hrabal 1983 Czech Czech
1729 The Monkey Wrench Gang Edward Abbey 1975 American English
1762 The Inimitable Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1923 British English
1765 Orthodoxy G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
1775 Martin Chuzzlewit Charles Dickens 1843 British English
1789 The Truth Terry Pratchett 2000 British English
1806 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
1824 Small Gods Terry Pratchett 1992 British English
1841 The Loved One Evelyn Waugh 1948 British English
1861 Selected Plays of George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw 1976 Irish English
1861 Myra Breckinridge Gore Vidal 1968 American English
1888 Anglo Saxon Attitudes Angus Wilson 1956 British English
1901 The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Bertolt Brecht 1941 German German