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
96 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
116 The Waste Land T. S. Eliot 1922 British English
188 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
194 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
203 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
232 A Season in Hell Arthur Rimbaud 1873 French French
233 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
234 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
238 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
240 Death of Virgil Hermann Broch 1945 Austrian German
244 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
248 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
249 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
268 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
274 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
276 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
282 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
295 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
299 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
311 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
314 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
323 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
326 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
331 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
334 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
342 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
344 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
345 Speak, Memory Vladimir Nabokov 1951 American English
365 The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe 1968 American English
368 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
375 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
380 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
393 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
406 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
414 Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant 1781 German German
417 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke 1910 German German
419 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
426 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
438 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
439 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
449 Pensées Blaise Pascal 1670 French French
454 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein 1921 Austrian German
458 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
461 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
466 Froth on the daydream Boris Vian 1947 French French
476 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
482 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
490 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
528 Howl and Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
549 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
552 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
570 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
589 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
614 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
632 The Words Jean Paul Sartre 1963 French French
638 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
647 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
656 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
660 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
670 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
676 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
685 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
707 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
756 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
769 The Street of Crocodiles Bruno Schulz 1934 Polish Polish
773 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
777 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
779 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
789 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
804 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
849 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
857 The Solitudes Luis de Góngora 1613 Spanish Spanish
874 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
887 Greguerias Ramón Gómez de la Serna 1910 Spanish Spanish
917 Mythologies Roland Barthes 1957 French French
922 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
929 Three Lives Gertrude Stein 1909 American English
935 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
982 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
985 Paroles Jacques Prévert 1946 French French
986 Phenomenology of Mind G. W. F. Hegel 1807 German German
989 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
991 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
1023 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
1035 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
1042 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
1048 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
1049 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
1052 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1075 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
1085 One, No One and One Hundred Thousand Luigi Pirandello 1926 Italian Italian
1088 Cathedral Raymond Carver 1983 American English
1090 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
1096 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1129 Living Henry Green 1929 British English
1158 The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake William Blake 1827 British English
1163 Our Ancestors Italo Calvino 1952 Italian Italian
1174 Justine Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
1188 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
1191 Ariel Sylvia Plath 1965 American English
1204 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
1207 Exercises in Style Raymond Queneau 1947 French French
1211 The Labyrinth of Solitude Octavio Paz 1950 Mexican Spanish
1234 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
1268 The 120 Days of Sodom Marquis de Sade 1904 French French
1274 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
1276 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
1299 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
1316 Second Thoughts Michel Butor 1957 French French
1317 Star Maker Olaf Stapledon 1937 British English
1343 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
1356 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1362 All about H. Hatterr G. V. Desani 1948 Indian English
1374 Our Lady of the Flowers Jean Genet 1943 French French
1375 Aspects of the Novel E. M. Forster 1927 British English
1435 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 1959 British English
1439 Collected Poems Stéphane Mallarmé 1887 French French
1443 G. John Berger 1972 British English