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
12 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
18 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
44 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
52 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
58 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
62 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
72 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
74 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 1847 British English
92 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
95 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
98 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde 1890 Irish English
133 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
152 Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth 1969 American English
175 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
202 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
209 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
227 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 1932 British English
229 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
239 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
240 Babbitt Sinclair Lewis 1922 American English
255 Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe 1987 American English
284 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
353 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 1939 American English
422 Main Street Sinclair Lewis 1920 American English
460 The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 1875 British English
485 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
487 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
501 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
516 Lysistrata Aristophanes -411 Greek Ancient greek
517 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh 1934 British English
519 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
534 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde 1895 Irish English
537 Tartuffe Molière 1664 French French
553 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
587 Eminent Victorians Lytton Strachey 1918 British English
609 Scoop Evelyn Waugh 1938 British English
627 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
636 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
640 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressell, Peter Miles 1914 British English
659 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
724 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
730 Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West 1933 American English
736 The Praise of Folly Erasmus 1511 Dutch Latin
739 Collected Essays of George Orwell George Orwell 1968 British English
755 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
783 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos 1925 American English
796 The Birds Aristophanes -414 Greek Ancient greek
800 Zuleika Dobson Max Beerbohm 1911 British English
807 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
816 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
827 Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 1913 British English
835 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
844 The Clouds Aristophanes -423 Greek Ancient greek
857 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English
867 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
869 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
876 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
895 Good Omens Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman 1990 British English
932 Our Man In Havana Graham Greene 1958 British English
945 Love in a Cold Climate Nancy Mitford 1949 British English
967 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
973 Northanger Abbey Jane Austen 1817 British English
996 Orthodoxy G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
1002 The Egoist George Meredith 1879 British English
1043 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
1057 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
1077 Get Shorty Elmore Leonard 1990 American English
1080 A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court Mark Twain 1889 American English
1083 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English
1116 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
1117 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1146 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
1152 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
1161 Le Mariage De Figaro Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais 1784 French French
1167 What a Carve Up! Jonathan Coe 1994 British English
1245 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett 1751 British English
1258 The Towers Of Trebizond Rose Macauley 1956 British English
1264 The Seven Madmen Roberto Arlt 1929 Argentinian Spanish
1271 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
1290 Erewhon Samuel Butler 1872 British English
1311 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1314 The American Way of Death Jessica Mitford 1963 American English
1334 A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works Jonathan Swift 1729 Irish English
1349 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
1374 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1377 She Stoops to Conquer Oliver Goldsmith 1773 British English
1384 The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen 1899 American English
1392 Hard Times Charles Dickens 1854 British English
1396 Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock 1818 British English
1397 Wise Children Angela Carter 1991 British English
1401 Selected Plays of George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw 1976 Irish English
1416 The Imaginary Invalid Molière 1673 French French
1425 The Misanthrope Molière 1666 French French
1461 The Loved One Evelyn Waugh 1948 British English
1474 Jurgen James Branch Cabell 1919 American English
1492 War with the Newts Karel Čapek 1936 Czech Czech
1500 The Nose Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1514 The Life And Loves Of A She Devil Fay Weldon 1983 British English
1529 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1538 Penguin Island Anatole France 1908 French French
1542 The Space Merchants Frederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth 1952 American English
1546 Crome Yellow Aldous Huxley 1921 British English
1586 The Golovlyov Family Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin 1880 Russian Russian
1590 Woodcutters Thomas Bernhard 1984 Austrian German
1621 The Portable Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker 1944 American English
1631 Bai Ganyo Aleko Konstantinov 1895 Bulgarian Bulgarian
1639 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1639 The Inimitable Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1923 British English
1654 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
1655 King Ubu Alfred Jarry 1896 French French
1660 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
1701 The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Bertolt Brecht 1941 German German
1716 Letters On England Voltaire 1734 French French
1720 The Twelve Chairs Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1928 Russian Russian
1728 The School For Scandal Richard Brinsley Sheridan 1777 British English
1738 Towards The End Of The Morning Michael Frayn 1967 British English
1738 Anglo Saxon Attitudes Angus Wilson 1956 British English
1744 The Little Golden Calf Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1931 Russian Russian
1754 The Monkey Wrench Gang Edward Abbey 1975 American English