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
2 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
56 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
104 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
176 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
177 The Waste Land T. S. Eliot 1922 British English
193 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
200 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
228 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
239 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
246 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
258 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
268 A Season in Hell Arthur Rimbaud 1873 French French
284 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
288 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
300 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
312 Speak, Memory Vladimir Nabokov 1951 American English
319 Pensées Blaise Pascal 1670 French French
320 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
324 Death of Virgil Hermann Broch 1945 Austrian German
333 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
337 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
353 Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant 1781 German German
358 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
359 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
375 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
376 The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe 1968 American English
378 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
383 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
390 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
392 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
433 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
452 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
453 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
461 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke 1910 German German
498 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
515 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
516 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
519 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
520 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein 1921 Austrian German
528 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
547 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
549 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
561 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
570 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
580 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
582 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
611 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
618 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
623 The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake William Blake 1827 British English
625 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
640 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
644 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
650 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
668 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
682 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
693 Against Interpretation Susan Sontag 1966 American English
698 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
703 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
719 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
723 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
739 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
740 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
754 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
757 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
773 Three Lives Gertrude Stein 1909 American English
781 Howl and Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
796 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
810 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
813 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
821 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
832 Prufrock and Other Observations T. S. Eliot 1917 British English
834 Mythologies Roland Barthes 1957 French French
865 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
867 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
869 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
880 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
891 Froth on the daydream Boris Vian 1947 French French
903 The Words Jean Paul Sartre 1963 French French
905 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
929 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
950 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
994 Cathedral Raymond Carver 1983 American English
1016 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
1035 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1043 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
1053 The Labyrinth of Solitude Octavio Paz 1950 Mexican Spanish
1090 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
1091 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
1101 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
1135 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1140 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
1146 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1156 Living Henry Green 1929 British English
1164 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
1182 All about H. Hatterr G. V. Desani 1948 Indian English
1211 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
1234 The Cantos Ezra Pound 1933 American English
1244 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
1246 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1248 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1251 Our Lady of the Flowers Jean Genet 1943 French French
1252 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
1254 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
1260 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1265 Phenomenology of Mind G. W. F. Hegel 1807 German German
1275 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
1292 Correction Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
1297 Locus Solus Raymond Roussel 1914 French French
1302 Watt Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish English
1310 Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1915 American English
1346 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
1363 Illuminations Arthur Rimbaud 1886 French French
1371 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1392 Aspects of the Novel E. M. Forster 1927 British English
1397 Justine Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
1400 Star Maker Olaf Stapledon 1937 British English
1413 Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney 1984 American English
1426 Rameau's Nephew Denis Diderot 1761 French French
1468 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
1477 Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin 1977 French English