The Greatest Picaresque 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
11 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
23 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884 American English
41 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
61 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
85 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
95 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
116 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
119 Journey to the End of The Night Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1932 French French
132 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
135 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
168 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
173 The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow 1953 American English
185 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
188 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
189 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
190 The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal 1839 French French
195 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
197 The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens 1836 British English
213 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
218 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
237 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
254 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
268 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
321 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
390 A Hero of Our Time Mikhail Lermontov 1840 Russian Russian
405 Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
425 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
433 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands Joao Guimaraes Rosa 1956 Brazilian Portuguese
459 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
505 The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse 1938 British English
519 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
524 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
554 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
566 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
572 Cannery Row John Steinbeck 1945 American English
575 Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853 American English
587 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
589 Celestina Or The Tragic-Comedy Of Calisto And Melibea Fernando de Rojas 1499 Spanish Spanish
599 Henderson The Rain King Saul Bellow 1959 American English
607 The Palm-Wine Drinkard Amos Tutola 1952 Nigerian English
628 The Golden Ass Apuleius 158 Roman Latin
630 Castle Rackrent Maria Edgeworth 1800 British English
659 The Fall Albert Camus 1956 French French
668 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
672 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
673 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
697 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
698 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
718 Green Henry Gottfried Keller 1855 Swiss German
744 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
750 Manon Lescaut Abbe Prevost 1731 French French
752 Under the Net Iris Murdoch 1954 British English
763 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
776 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
787 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1795 German German
794 Carry On, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1925 British English
797 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
802 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
833 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
887 Bel Ami Guy de Maupassant 1885 French French
888 Suttree Cormac McCarthy 1979 American English
916 Rob Roy Sir Walter Scott 1817 British English
975 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
977 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
978 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
1011 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
1030 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
1039 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
1042 The Life of a Good-For-Nothing Joseph von Eichendorff 1826 German German
1117 The Water Margin Shi Naian 1370 Chinese Chinese
1121 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
1128 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
1131 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
1181 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett 1751 British English
1214 Last Exit to Brooklyn Hubert Selby 1964 American English
1217 Some Experiences Of An Irish R.M. E.Œ. Somerville, Martin Ross 1899 Irish English
1223 The Twelve Chairs Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1928 Russian Russian
1273 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1275 The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester 1956 American English
1315 Carmen Prosper Mérimée 1845 French French
1319 Blue Highways William Least Heat-Moon 1982 American English
1360 The Enchanted Wanderer Nikolai Leskov 1873 Russian Russian
1385 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1425 The Poems of Francois Villon François Villon 1489 French Middle french
1495 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1506 Martín Fierro José Hernández 1872 Argentinian Spanish
1516 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1515 The Path to the Nest of Spiders Italo Calvino 1947 Italian Italian
1522 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
1551 Party Going Henry Green 1939 British English
1557 The Inimitable Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1923 British English
1599 Bai Ganyo Aleko Konstantinov 1895 Bulgarian Bulgarian
1605 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
1636 Dog Years Günter Grass 1963 German German
1666 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1709 The Little Golden Calf Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1931 Russian Russian
1716 Rhinoceros and Other Plays Eugène Ionesco 1959 Romanian French
1730 Oreo Fran Ross 1974 American English
1742 The Magician of Lublin Isaac Bashevis Singer 1960 Polish Yiddish
1766 Changing Places David Lodge 1975 British English
1767 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1771 The Egghead Republic Arno Schmidt 1957 German German
1784 Michael Kohlhaas Heinrich von Kleist 1810 German German
1784 The Adventures Of Roderick Random Tobias Smollett 1748 British English
1784 Martin Chuzzlewit Charles Dickens 1843 British English
1842 Burr Gore Vidal 1973 American English
1853 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
1868 Abu Telfan, Return from the Mountains of the Moon Wilhelm Karl Raabe 1867 German German
1878 Peer Gynt Henrik Ibsen 1867 Norwegian Norwegian
1878 Handley Cross R. S. Surtees 1843 British English
1908 The White Tiger Aravind Adiga 2008 Indian English
1950 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
1950 Exemplary Stories Miguel de Cervantes 1613 Spanish Spanish
2003 In Search Of The Castaways Jules Verne 1867 French French
2075 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
2090 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
2114 Women Charles Bukowski 1978 American English
2117 Don Juan Molière 1665 French French
2139 The Manuscript Found in Saragossa Jan Potocki 1805 Polish French