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
3 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
56 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
76 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
158 The Waste Land T. S. Eliot 1922 British English
165 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
166 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
174 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
177 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
184 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
208 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
216 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
227 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
240 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
248 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
257 A Season in Hell Arthur Rimbaud 1873 French French
262 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
265 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
276 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
305 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
329 Death of Virgil Hermann Broch 1945 Austrian German
330 Pensées Blaise Pascal 1670 French French
332 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
333 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
356 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
358 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
381 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
390 Speak, Memory Vladimir Nabokov 1951 American English
418 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
421 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke 1910 German German
425 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
429 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
447 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
449 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
453 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
458 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
461 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
466 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
489 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
498 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
500 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
501 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
507 The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe 1968 American English
517 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
527 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
540 The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake William Blake 1827 British English
544 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
552 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
569 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
573 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
609 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
619 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
635 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
637 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
638 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
644 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
646 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
687 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
701 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
702 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
710 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
712 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein 1921 Austrian German
713 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
724 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
730 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
744 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
745 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
756 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
762 Prufrock and Other Observations T. S. Eliot 1917 British English
771 Froth on the daydream Boris Vian 1947 French French
787 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
791 Correction Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
806 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
813 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
840 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
843 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
863 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
865 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
869 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
894 Against Interpretation Susan Sontag 1966 American English
949 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
973 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
980 Three Lives Gertrude Stein 1909 American English
983 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
986 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
993 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
995 The Words Jean Paul Sartre 1963 French French
1030 Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant 1781 German German
1034 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
1040 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
1056 Blood and Guts in High School Kathy Acker 1978 American English
1066 Our Lady of the Flowers Jean Genet 1943 French French
1069 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
1073 Sixty Stories Donald Barthelme 1981 American English
1107 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
1108 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1122 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1125 Cathedral Raymond Carver 1983 American English
1128 Howl and Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
1131 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
1142 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
1170 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
1179 Locus Solus Raymond Roussel 1914 French French
1181 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1205 Dept. of Speculation Jenny Offill 2014 American English
1213 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
1216 Watt Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish English
1229 There But For The Ali Smith 2011 British English
1235 The Labyrinth of Solitude Octavio Paz 1950 Mexican Spanish
1242 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
1259 Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney 1984 American English
1277 The Ravishing of Lol Stein Marguerite Duras 1964 French French
1305 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
1315 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1335 JR William Gaddis 1975 American English
1359 Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon 1997 American English
1364 Rameau's Nephew Denis Diderot 1761 French French
1364 Tender Buttons Gertrude Stein 1914 American English
1379 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1385 The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore Marianne Moore 1967 American English
1399 Pilgrimage Dorothy Richardson 1915 British English