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
4784 Entering Fire Rikki Ducornet 1986 American English
4791 Genoa Paul C. Metcalf 1965 American English
4794 Double Or Nothing Raymond Federman 1971 American English
4801 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
4810 The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus 1995 American English
4820 Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography And First Romance Mark Twain 1871 American English
4820 Geography Iii Elizabeth Bishop 1976 American English
4848 Up Ronald Sukenick 1968 American English
4851 Mr. Fox Helen Oyeyemi 2011 British English
4851 Black and Blur Fred Moten 2017 American English
4859 You Bright and Risen Angels William T. Vollmann 1987 American English
4860 My Life and My Life in the Nineties Lyn Hejinian 1980 American English
4861 Sleeping It Off in Rapid City August Kleinzahler 2008 American English
4861 Spreadeagle Kevin Killian 2012 American English
4861 Taipei Tao Lin 2013 American English
4861 The Needle's Eye Fanny Howe 1970 American English
4888 The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. Robert Coover 1968 American English
4893 Mulligan Stew Gilbert Sorrentino 1979 American English
4900 In Memoriam to Identity Kathy Acker 1990 American English
4901 Hogg Samuel R. Delany 1995 American English
4909 Nog Rudy Wurlitzer 1969 American English
4909 The Lime Twig John Hawkes 1961 American English
4909 I, etcetera Susan Sontag 1978 American English
4909 Superfiction Joe David Bellamy 1975 American English
4909 Surrealist Manifesto André Breton 1924 French French
4909 Rivers and Mountains John Ashbery 1966 American English
4909 The Pleasure of the Text Roland Barthes 1973 French French
4909 Fiction and the Figures of Life William H. Gass 1970 American English
4909 The World Within the Word William H. Gass 1978 American English
4909 A Sorrow Beyond Dreams Peter Handke 1972 Austrian German
4909 The Rhetoric of Fiction Wayne C. Booth 1961 American English
4909 Biographia Literaria Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1817 British English
4909 Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial Sir Thomas Browne 1658 British English
5093 Langrishe, Go Down Aidan Higgins 1966 Irish English
5097 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
5129 Looking Back Norman Douglas 1933 British English
5136 Passionate Journey Frans Masereel 1919 Belgian German
5137 Mother London Michael Moorcock 1988 British English
5157 Monsieur Teste Paul Valéry 1896 French French
5327 Diary Of A Seducer Soren Kierkegaard 1843 Danish Danish
5330 This Is How You Lose The Time War Amal El Mohtar, Max Gladstone 2019 Multiple English
5330 Log Of The S.S. The Mrs Unguentine Stanley Crawford 1972 American English
5330 Biography Of X Catherine Lacey 2023 American English
5367 On Wings Of Song Thomas M. Disch 1979 American English
5377 Portrait Of A Man Unknown Nathalie Sarraute 1948 French French
5385 Hotel Splendid Marie Redonnet 1986 French French
5448 Solar Bones Mike McCormack 2016 Irish English
5503 Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments Saidiya Hartman 2019 American English
5611 The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Nabokov 1995 Russian English
5611 The Bridge Hart Crane 1930 American English
5698 Varieties of Disturbance Lydia Davis 2007 American English
5706 Dart Alice Oswald 2002 British English
5758 Gaspard De La Nuit Aloysius Bertrand 1842 French French
5776 La Horde Du Contrevent Alain Damasio 2004 French French
5786 The Red Grass Boris Vian 1949 French French
5804 Philosophy In The Boudoir Marquis de Sade 1795 French French
5805 Autumn In Peking Boris Vian 1947 French French
5813 The Gay Science Friedrich Nietzsche 1882 German German
5827 The Possibility Of An Island Michel Houellebecq 2005 French French
5836 Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, And General Tales Of Ordinary Madness Charles Bukowski 1972 American English
5842 Species Of Spaces And Other Pieces Georges Perec 1974 French French
5843 A Throw Of The Dice Will Never Abolish Chance Stéphane Mallarmé 1897 French French
5854 Echine Philippe Djian 1982 French French
5859 Light M. John Harrison 2002 British English
5885 Big Blondes Jean Echenoz 1995 French French
5896 To The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life Hervé Guibert 1990 French French
5926 American Innovations Rivka Galchen 2014 American English
5926 Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder Lawrence Weschler 1995 American English
5926 Chelsea Girls Eileen Myles 1994 American English
5922 Small Lives Pierre Michon 1984 French French
6002 A Tale Of A Tub Jonathan Swift 1704 British English
6002 Aurelia Gerard de Nerval 1855 French French
6002 Selected Poetry And Prose Stéphane Mallarmé 1945 French French
6002 A Dream Play August Strindberg 1902 Swedish Swedish
6002 The Will To Power Friedrich Nietzsche 1901 German German
6002 Eureka Edgar Allan Poe 1848 American English
6002 T Zero Italo Calvino 1967 Italian Italian
6002 Our Lord Don Quixote Miguel de Unamuno 1935 Spanish Spanish
6002 Space In Motion Juan Goytisolo 1987 Spanish Unknown
6002 Always Astonished Fernando Pessoa 1988 Portuguese Portuguese
6002 Mount Analogue René Daumal 1952 French French
6002 Selected Works Alfred Jarry 1901 French French
6002 Selected Writings Guillaume Apollinaire 1952 French French
6002 Poems Of André Breton André Breton 1948 French French
6002 Selected Writings Henri Michaux 1949 French French
6002 The Book Of Questions Edmond Jabès 1963 French French
6002 Poems Of Edmond Jabès Edmond Jabès 1959 French French
6002 Seven Dada Manifestoes Tristan Tzara 1924 French French
6002 The Nature of Things Francis Ponge 1942 French French
6002 Amédée Eugène Ionesco 1954 French French
6002 Victims Of Duty Eugène Ionesco 1953 French French
6002 The Baphomet Pierre Klossowski 1965 French French
6002 Selected Writings Antonin Artaud 1947 French French
6002 In The Labyrinth Alain Robbe-Grillet 1959 French French
6002 Project For A Revolution In New York Alain Robbe-Grillet 1970 French French
6002 The Use Of Speech Nathalie Sarraute 1933 French French
6002 The Grass Claude Simon 1958 French French
6002 The Wind Claude Simon 1957 French French
6002 Five Novels Ronald Firbank 1949 British English
6002 The Anathemata David Jones 1952 British English
6002 Three Novels Samuel Beckett 1955 Irish French
6002 The King Of Time Velimir Khlebnikov 1920 Russian Russian
6002 Three Novels Witold Gombrowicz 1960 Polish Polish
6002 See Under: Love David Grossman 1986 Israeli Hebrew
6002 Maitreya Severo Sarduy 1978 Cuban Spanish
6002 The Obscene Bird Of Night José Donoso 1970 Chilean Spanish
6002 A Change Of Skin Carlos Fuentes 1967 Mexican Spanish
6002 The Geographical History Of America Gertrude Stein 1936 American English
6002 Paterson William Carlos Williams 1946 American English
6002 Personae Ezra Pound 1909 American English
6002 Complete Poems E. E. Cummings 1960 American English
6002 The Maximus Poems Charles Olson 1960 American English
6002 Second Skin John Hawkes 1964 American English
6002 Stories In An Almost Classical Mode Harold Brodkey 1989 American English
6002 Spanking The Maid Robert Coover 1982 American English
6002 Tatlin! Guy Davenport 1974 American English
6002 The End Of The Road John Barth 1958 American English
6002 Forgetting Elena Edmund White 1973 American English
6002 Nocturnes For The King Of Naples Edmund White 1978 American English
6002 The Double Dream Of Spring John Ashbery 1970 American English