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
7 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
14 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
53 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
59 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
62 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
67 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
74 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
93 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde 1890 Irish English
96 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
105 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
114 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 1847 British English
138 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
159 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
163 Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth 1969 American English
188 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
219 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
231 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
279 Babbitt Sinclair Lewis 1922 American English
304 Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe 1987 American English
318 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 1932 British English
332 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
345 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
401 Eminent Victorians Lytton Strachey 1918 British English
426 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
454 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
460 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 1939 American English
471 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh 1934 British English
481 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressell, Peter Miles 1914 British English
484 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
493 Main Street Sinclair Lewis 1920 American English
521 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
599 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
637 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
654 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
656 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
662 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
668 The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 1875 British English
677 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
692 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
697 The Seven Madmen Roberto Arlt 1929 Argentinian Spanish
727 The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen 1899 American English
738 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
780 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English
814 Northanger Abbey Jane Austen 1817 British English
833 Scoop Evelyn Waugh 1938 British English
839 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
852 Collected Essays of George Orwell George Orwell 1968 British English
875 The Nose Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
882 Love in a Cold Climate Nancy Mitford 1949 British English
897 The Praise of Folly Erasmus 1511 Dutch Latin
926 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
930 Max Havelaar Multatuli 1860 Dutch Dutch
936 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
946 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
949 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
986 Erewhon Samuel Butler 1872 British English
987 Tartuffe Molière 1664 French French
1005 Get Shorty Elmore Leonard 1990 American English
1009 Lysistrata Aristophanes -411 Greek Ancient greek
1063 Jurgen James Branch Cabell 1919 American English
1085 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
1097 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
1102 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett 1751 British English
1101 Some Experiences Of An Irish R.M. E.Œ. Somerville, Martin Ross 1899 Irish English
1110 Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West 1933 American English
1124 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos 1925 American English
1130 Orthodoxy G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
1159 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
1162 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
1200 The American Way of Death Jessica Mitford 1963 American English
1210 The Inimitable Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1923 British English
1221 The Golovlyov Family Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin 1880 Russian Russian
1234 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
1238 A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court Mark Twain 1889 American English
1242 Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 1913 British English
1243 Our Man In Havana Graham Greene 1958 British English
1252 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
1273 Crome Yellow Aldous Huxley 1921 British English
1292 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1320 Bai Ganyo Aleko Konstantinov 1895 Bulgarian Bulgarian
1337 The Egoist George Meredith 1879 British English
1355 The Birds Aristophanes -414 Greek Ancient greek
1358 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English
1364 The Twelve Chairs Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1928 Russian Russian
1385 Zuleika Dobson Max Beerbohm 1911 British English
1409 The Little Golden Calf Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1931 Russian Russian
1436 Germany, a Winter Tale Heinrich Heine 1844 German German
1467 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
1473 The Clouds Aristophanes -423 Greek Ancient greek
1489 War with the Newts Karel Čapek 1936 Czech Czech
1490 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
1491 Towards The End Of The Morning Michael Frayn 1967 British English
1505 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1506 A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works Jonathan Swift 1729 Irish English
1539 Keep the Aspidistra Flying George Orwell 1936 British English
1549 Good Omens Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman 1990 British English
1570 The Works of Max Beerbohm Max Beerbohm 1902 British English
1602 Bokhandlaren som slutade bada Fritiof Nilsson Piraten 1937 Swedish Swedish
1625 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde 1895 Irish English
1629 Anglo Saxon Attitudes Angus Wilson 1956 British English
1636 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
1642 Selected Poetry Of Francisco De Quevedo Francisco de Quevedo 1648 Spanish Spanish
1665 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1712 Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus Scriblerus Club 1741 British English
1712 The Female Quixote Charlotte Lennox 1752 British English
1712 The Apes of God Wyndham Lewis 1930 British English
1712 On the Edge of Reason Miroslav Krleža 1938 Croatian Croatian
1780 A Time To Be Born Dawn Powell 1942 American English
1789 The Confidence Man Herman Melville 1857 American English
1798 Le Mariage De Figaro Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais 1784 French French
1819 King Ubu Alfred Jarry 1896 French French
1838 Mangeclous Albert Cohen 1938 French French
1871 Hard Times Charles Dickens 1854 British English
1880 The City Of Marvels Eduardo Mendoza 1986 Spanish Spanish
1915 I Served The King Of England Bohumil Hrabal 1983 Czech Czech
1931 Wizard of the Crow Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 2006 Kenyan English
1933 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
1955 Life Of Quintus Fixlein Jean-Paul Richter 1796 German German
1969 Someone Like You Roald Dahl 1953 British English