The Greatest Experimental Books of All Time

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
3 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
62 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
82 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
163 The Waste Land T. S. Eliot 1922 British English
166 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
167 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
172 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
174 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
189 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
208 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
210 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
219 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
253 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
256 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
261 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
262 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
277 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
289 A Season in Hell Arthur Rimbaud 1873 French French
308 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
329 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
341 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
344 Pensées Blaise Pascal 1670 French French
346 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
374 Death of Virgil Hermann Broch 1945 Austrian German
387 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
403 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
411 Speak, Memory Vladimir Nabokov 1951 American English
431 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
434 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
435 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
445 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
450 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke 1910 German German
452 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
471 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
487 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
488 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
492 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
500 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
507 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
528 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
534 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
538 The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake William Blake 1827 British English
542 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
552 The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe 1968 American English
558 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
566 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
579 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
586 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
600 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
602 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
606 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
611 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
622 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
655 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
666 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
683 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
710 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
718 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
724 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
725 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
731 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
732 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
737 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
750 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
753 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
766 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
770 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
772 Prufrock and Other Observations T. S. Eliot 1917 British English
791 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein 1921 Austrian German
802 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
811 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
818 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
843 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
845 Froth on the daydream Boris Vian 1947 French French
860 Correction Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
864 Against Interpretation Susan Sontag 1966 American English
875 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
897 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
914 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
919 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
937 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
978 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
987 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
992 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
993 Cathedral Raymond Carver 1983 American English
1002 Three Lives Gertrude Stein 1909 American English
1010 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
1012 The Words Jean Paul Sartre 1963 French French
1031 Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant 1781 German German
1034 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
1038 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
1048 Our Lady of the Flowers Jean Genet 1943 French French
1053 Sixty Stories Donald Barthelme 1981 American English
1070 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1086 Howl and Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
1098 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
1126 Dept. of Speculation Jenny Offill 2014 American English
1132 JR William Gaddis 1975 American English
1143 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
1153 Blood and Guts in High School Kathy Acker 1978 American English
1164 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
1165 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
1173 Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney 1984 American English
1179 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
1201 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1205 The Bald Soprano Eugène Ionesco 1950 French French
1245 Locus Solus Raymond Roussel 1914 French French
1248 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1267 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
1272 Watt Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish English
1278 The Labyrinth of Solitude Octavio Paz 1950 Mexican Spanish
1299 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 1959 British English
1340 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
1341 Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon 1997 American English
1368 Rameau's Nephew Denis Diderot 1761 French French
1368 Tender Buttons Gertrude Stein 1914 American English
1381 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1388 The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore Marianne Moore 1967 American English
1421 There But For The Ali Smith 2011 British English
1437 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English