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
26 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
41 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
56 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
59 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
61 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
71 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 1847 British English
75 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
86 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
89 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde 1890 Irish English
112 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
128 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
168 Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth 1969 American English
179 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
180 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
207 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
210 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 1932 British English
212 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
226 Babbitt Sinclair Lewis 1922 American English
233 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
284 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
325 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 1939 American English
377 Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe 1987 American English
379 Main Street Sinclair Lewis 1920 American English
429 The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 1875 British English
458 Lysistrata Aristophanes -411 Greek Ancient greek
465 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh 1934 British English
476 Tartuffe Molière 1664 French French
490 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
505 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
536 Eminent Victorians Lytton Strachey 1918 British English
545 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
565 Scoop Evelyn Waugh 1938 British English
570 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
579 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
584 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde 1895 Irish English
586 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
601 Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West 1933 American English
617 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressell, Peter Miles 1914 British English
627 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos 1925 American English
643 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
672 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
677 The Birds Aristophanes -414 Greek Ancient greek
691 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
711 The Praise of Folly Erasmus 1511 Dutch Latin
715 The Clouds Aristophanes -423 Greek Ancient greek
746 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
753 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
766 Zuleika Dobson Max Beerbohm 1911 British English
774 Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 1913 British English
789 Collected Essays of George Orwell George Orwell 1968 British English
811 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English
813 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
835 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
839 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
850 Love in a Cold Climate Nancy Mitford 1949 British English
940 A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court Mark Twain 1889 American English
941 Our Man In Havana Graham Greene 1958 British English
944 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
947 Northanger Abbey Jane Austen 1817 British English
968 The Egoist George Meredith 1879 British English
976 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
990 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
998 Orthodoxy G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
999 The American Way of Death Jessica Mitford 1963 American English
1034 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
1035 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1049 The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen 1899 American English
1064 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
1091 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
1107 Good Omens Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman 1990 British English
1125 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett 1751 British English
1142 The Seven Madmen Roberto Arlt 1929 Argentinian Spanish
1156 Some Experiences Of An Irish R.M. E.Œ. Somerville, Martin Ross 1899 Irish English
1162 Le Mariage De Figaro Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais 1784 French French
1167 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
1172 Get Shorty Elmore Leonard 1990 American English
1176 Erewhon Samuel Butler 1872 British English
1184 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
1207 The Twelve Chairs Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1928 Russian Russian
1215 A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works Jonathan Swift 1729 Irish English
1242 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
1248 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1293 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
1314 Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock 1818 British English
1322 The Loved One Evelyn Waugh 1948 British English
1326 The Nose Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1338 Hard Times Charles Dickens 1854 British English
1339 The Towers Of Trebizond Rose Macauley 1956 British English
1344 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English
1374 Crome Yellow Aldous Huxley 1921 British English
1398 She Stoops to Conquer Oliver Goldsmith 1773 British English
1410 The Golovlyov Family Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin 1880 Russian Russian
1414 The Misanthrope Molière 1666 French French
1424 The Imaginary Invalid Molière 1673 French French
1431 Penguin Island Anatole France 1908 French French
1445 The Inimitable Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1923 British English
1451 The Works of Moliere Molière 1666 French French
1459 War with the Newts Karel Čapek 1936 Czech Czech
1459 The Portable Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker 1944 American English
1478 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1496 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1554 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
1573 What a Carve Up! Jonathan Coe 1994 British English
1580 The Space Merchants Frederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth 1952 American English
1581 Bai Ganyo Aleko Konstantinov 1895 Bulgarian Bulgarian
1601 King Ubu Alfred Jarry 1896 French French
1621 Jurgen James Branch Cabell 1919 American English
1633 Vile Bodies Evelyn Waugh 1930 British English
1638 Towards The End Of The Morning Michael Frayn 1967 British English
1651 The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Bertolt Brecht 1941 German German
1655 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1662 Letters On England Voltaire 1734 French French
1662 Martin Chuzzlewit Charles Dickens 1843 British English
1691 The Little Golden Calf Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1931 Russian Russian
1699 Anglo Saxon Attitudes Angus Wilson 1956 British English
1738 A Tale Of A Tub Jonathan Swift 1704 British English
1796 The Life And Loves Of A She Devil Fay Weldon 1983 British English
1825 The School For Scandal Richard Brinsley Sheridan 1777 British English