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
3 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
9 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
26 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884 American English
49 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
56 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
71 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
89 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
106 Journey to the End of The Night Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1932 French French
117 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
126 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
128 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
136 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
155 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
165 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
174 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
190 The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal 1839 French French
200 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
226 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
231 The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow 1953 American English
237 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
240 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
241 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
244 The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens 1836 British English
248 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
264 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
289 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
303 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
332 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
356 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
434 A Hero of Our Time Mikhail Lermontov 1840 Russian Russian
447 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
461 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
470 Henderson The Rain King Saul Bellow 1959 American English
488 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
504 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands Joao Guimaraes Rosa 1956 Brazilian Portuguese
506 Celestina Or The Tragic-Comedy Of Calisto And Melibea Fernando de Rojas 1499 Spanish Spanish
519 Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
524 Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853 American English
553 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
562 Cannery Row John Steinbeck 1945 American English
580 Suttree Cormac McCarthy 1979 American English
583 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
590 The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse 1938 British English
644 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
672 The Fall Albert Camus 1956 French French
675 Castle Rackrent Maria Edgeworth 1800 British English
702 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
703 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
711 The Golden Ass Apuleius 158 Roman Latin
713 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
725 Carry On, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1925 British English
734 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
774 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
787 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
794 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
842 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
902 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
906 Under the Net Iris Murdoch 1954 British English
907 Green Henry Gottfried Keller 1855 Swiss German
916 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
942 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
948 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
954 The Life of a Good-For-Nothing Joseph von Eichendorff 1826 German German
1011 The White Tiger Aravind Adiga 2008 Indian English
1080 The Water Margin Shi Naian 1370 Chinese Chinese
1082 Blue Highways William Least Heat-Moon 1982 American English
1122 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1181 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1201 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
1261 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
1301 The Poems of Francois Villon François Villon 1489 French Middle french
1310 Manon Lescaut Abbe Prevost 1731 French French
1312 The Enchanted Wanderer Nikolai Leskov 1873 Russian Russian
1315 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1323 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1795 German German
1364 The Inimitable Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1923 British English
1371 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1394 At Last Edward St Aubyn 2011 British English
1419 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
1475 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1483 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
1528 Bel Ami Guy de Maupassant 1885 French French
1533 The Magician of Lublin Isaac Bashevis Singer 1960 Polish Yiddish
1536 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
1537 The History of Love Nicole Krauss 2005 American English
1560 Rhinoceros and Other Plays Eugène Ionesco 1959 Romanian French
1563 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
1563 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
1563 Myra Breckinridge Gore Vidal 1968 American English
1623 The Twelve Chairs Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1928 Russian Russian
1629 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
1644 The Little Golden Calf Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1931 Russian Russian
1661 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett 1751 British English
1661 Rob Roy Sir Walter Scott 1817 British English
1727 Burr Gore Vidal 1973 American English
1727 Michael Kohlhaas Heinrich von Kleist 1810 German German
1737 Party Going Henry Green 1939 British English
1754 The Egghead Republic Arno Schmidt 1957 German German
1788 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1794 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
1798 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
1798 Exemplary Stories Miguel de Cervantes 1613 Spanish Spanish
1828 Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver 2022 American English
1831 Abu Telfan, Return from the Mountains of the Moon Wilhelm Karl Raabe 1867 German German
1854 Cities of the Red Night William S. Burroughs 1981 American English
1860 The Palm-Wine Drinkard Amos Tutola 1952 Nigerian English
1911 Women Charles Bukowski 1978 American English
1970 The Horseman on the Roof Jean Giono 1951 French French
1976 Friday Michel Tournier 1967 French French
2023 G. John Berger 1972 British English
2039 Thomas of Reading, Or, The Sixe Worthie Yeomen of the West Thomas Deloney 1599 British English
2039 Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus Scriblerus Club 1741 British English
2039 Fanny Hill John Cleland 1748 British English
2039 The Female Quixote Charlotte Lennox 1752 British English
2039 Camera Obscura Nicolaas Beets 1839 Dutch Dutch
2039 Martín Fierro José Hernández 1872 Argentinian Spanish
2039 The Forbidden Kingdom Jan Jacob Slauerhoff 1932 Dutch Dutch
2039 Broad and Alien is the World Ciro Alegría 1941 Peruvian Spanish
2039 The Path to the Nest of Spiders Italo Calvino 1947 Italian Italian
2039 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English