The Greatest Experimental 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
3 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
58 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
93 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
174 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
176 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
192 The Waste Land T. S. Eliot 1922 British English
199 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
219 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
235 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
257 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
261 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
272 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
273 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
284 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
295 A Season in Hell Arthur Rimbaud 1873 French French
297 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
318 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
319 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
330 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
332 Speak, Memory Vladimir Nabokov 1951 American English
345 Death of Virgil Hermann Broch 1945 Austrian German
349 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
351 Pensées Blaise Pascal 1670 French French
376 The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe 1968 American English
394 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
404 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
406 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
410 Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant 1781 German German
416 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
426 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
427 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
438 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
440 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
445 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
454 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
456 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
462 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
469 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
475 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
491 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
495 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
496 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke 1910 German German
505 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
506 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
521 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
535 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
551 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
572 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein 1921 Austrian German
604 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
616 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
622 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
625 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
627 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
642 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
643 Against Interpretation Susan Sontag 1966 American English
646 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
687 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
700 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
702 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
712 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
726 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
735 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
742 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
751 The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake William Blake 1827 British English
753 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
755 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
763 Howl and Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
782 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
798 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
839 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
850 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
874 Three Lives Gertrude Stein 1909 American English
879 Prufrock and Other Observations T. S. Eliot 1917 British English
886 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
892 Froth on the daydream Boris Vian 1947 French French
899 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
906 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
929 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
945 Mythologies Roland Barthes 1957 French French
958 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
961 Cathedral Raymond Carver 1983 American English
985 Correction Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
993 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
1000 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
1033 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1038 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
1046 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
1051 The Words Jean Paul Sartre 1963 French French
1071 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
1088 The Labyrinth of Solitude Octavio Paz 1950 Mexican Spanish
1102 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
1107 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1117 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1140 Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney 1984 American English
1154 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
1174 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
1183 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
1216 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1218 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
1219 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
1220 Our Lady of the Flowers Jean Genet 1943 French French
1223 Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin 1977 French English
1245 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1258 Living Henry Green 1929 British English
1288 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1296 All about H. Hatterr G. V. Desani 1948 Indian English
1311 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1349 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
1360 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
1364 Phenomenology of Mind G. W. F. Hegel 1807 German German
1375 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 1959 British English
1380 Locus Solus Raymond Roussel 1914 French French
1390 JR William Gaddis 1975 American English
1402 Watt Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish English
1402 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1406 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1408 Blood and Guts in High School Kathy Acker 1978 American English
1412 The Bald Soprano Eugène Ionesco 1950 French French
1413 The Cantos Ezra Pound 1933 American English
1442 Illuminations Arthur Rimbaud 1886 French French