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
12 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
22 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884 American English
43 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
64 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
92 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
96 Journey to the End of The Night Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1932 French French
103 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
121 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
124 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
140 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
154 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
172 The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal 1839 French French
179 The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow 1953 American English
188 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
192 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
194 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
198 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
201 The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens 1836 British English
219 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
224 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
246 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
261 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
275 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
333 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
396 A Hero of Our Time Mikhail Lermontov 1840 Russian Russian
410 Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
431 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
436 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
439 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands Joao Guimaraes Rosa 1956 Brazilian Portuguese
445 Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853 American English
465 Celestina Or The Tragic-Comedy Of Calisto And Melibea Fernando de Rojas 1499 Spanish Spanish
468 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
515 The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse 1938 British English
527 The Fall Albert Camus 1956 French French
534 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
539 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
569 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
586 Cannery Row John Steinbeck 1945 American English
599 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
610 Henderson The Rain King Saul Bellow 1959 American English
618 The Palm-Wine Drinkard Amos Tutola 1952 Nigerian English
638 The Golden Ass Apuleius 158 Roman Latin
640 Castle Rackrent Maria Edgeworth 1800 British English
678 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
681 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
682 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
691 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
708 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
709 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
732 Green Henry Gottfried Keller 1855 Swiss German
759 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
765 Manon Lescaut Abbe Prevost 1731 French French
767 Under the Net Iris Murdoch 1954 British English
778 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
791 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
803 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1795 German German
810 Carry On, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1925 British English
813 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
818 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
853 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
908 Bel Ami Guy de Maupassant 1885 French French
909 Suttree Cormac McCarthy 1979 American English
938 Rob Roy Sir Walter Scott 1817 British English
998 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
1000 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
1032 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
1053 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
1061 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
1064 The Life of a Good-For-Nothing Joseph von Eichendorff 1826 German German
1139 The Water Margin Shi Naian 1370 Chinese Chinese
1144 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
1150 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
1154 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
1196 The Manuscript Found in Saragossa Jan Potocki 1805 Polish French
1205 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett 1751 British English
1240 Last Exit to Brooklyn Hubert Selby 1964 American English
1243 Some Experiences Of An Irish R.M. E.Œ. Somerville, Martin Ross 1899 Irish English
1249 The Twelve Chairs Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1928 Russian Russian
1252 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
1301 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1303 The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester 1956 American English
1344 Carmen Prosper Mérimée 1845 French French
1348 Blue Highways William Least Heat-Moon 1982 American English
1388 The Enchanted Wanderer Nikolai Leskov 1873 Russian Russian
1414 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1456 The Poems of Francois Villon François Villon 1489 French Middle french
1525 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1536 Martín Fierro José Hernández 1872 Argentinian Spanish
1546 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1545 The Path to the Nest of Spiders Italo Calvino 1947 Italian Italian
1553 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
1586 Party Going Henry Green 1939 British English
1592 The Inimitable Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1923 British English
1632 Bai Ganyo Aleko Konstantinov 1895 Bulgarian Bulgarian
1638 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
1669 Dog Years Günter Grass 1963 German German
1698 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1739 The Little Golden Calf Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1931 Russian Russian
1746 Rhinoceros and Other Plays Eugène Ionesco 1959 Romanian French
1760 Oreo Fran Ross 1974 American English
1772 The Magician of Lublin Isaac Bashevis Singer 1960 Polish Yiddish
1796 Changing Places David Lodge 1975 British English
1797 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1801 The Egghead Republic Arno Schmidt 1957 German German
1814 Michael Kohlhaas Heinrich von Kleist 1810 German German
1814 The Adventures Of Roderick Random Tobias Smollett 1748 British English
1814 Martin Chuzzlewit Charles Dickens 1843 British English
1849 Mangeclous Albert Cohen 1938 French French
1872 Burr Gore Vidal 1973 American English
1883 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
1898 Abu Telfan, Return from the Mountains of the Moon Wilhelm Karl Raabe 1867 German German
1908 Peer Gynt Henrik Ibsen 1867 Norwegian Norwegian
1908 Handley Cross R. S. Surtees 1843 British English
1938 The White Tiger Aravind Adiga 2008 Indian English
1981 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
1981 Exemplary Stories Miguel de Cervantes 1613 Spanish Spanish
2034 In Search Of The Castaways Jules Verne 1867 French French
2105 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
2143 Women Charles Bukowski 1978 American English