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
11 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
24 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884 American English
49 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
62 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
74 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
78 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
123 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
126 Journey to the End of The Night Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1932 French French
136 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
137 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
146 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
152 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
166 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
167 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
205 The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow 1953 American English
216 The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal 1839 French French
229 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
232 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
243 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
256 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
257 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
260 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
261 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
263 The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens 1836 British English
295 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
307 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
329 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
341 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
452 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
462 A Hero of Our Time Mikhail Lermontov 1840 Russian Russian
471 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
485 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
518 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
526 Henderson The Rain King Saul Bellow 1959 American English
549 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
555 Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
557 Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853 American English
581 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands Joao Guimaraes Rosa 1956 Brazilian Portuguese
587 Celestina Or The Tragic-Comedy Of Calisto And Melibea Fernando de Rojas 1499 Spanish Spanish
612 Suttree Cormac McCarthy 1979 American English
616 The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse 1938 British English
630 Cannery Row John Steinbeck 1945 American English
705 The Fall Albert Camus 1956 French French
707 Castle Rackrent Maria Edgeworth 1800 British English
718 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
721 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
725 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
730 The Golden Ass Apuleius 158 Roman Latin
731 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
749 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
787 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
792 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
802 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
812 Carry On, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1925 British English
835 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
899 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
957 Under the Net Iris Murdoch 1954 British English
959 Green Henry Gottfried Keller 1855 Swiss German
1001 The White Tiger Aravind Adiga 2008 Indian English
1044 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
1056 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
1058 Blue Highways William Least Heat-Moon 1982 American English
1069 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
1075 The Life of a Good-For-Nothing Joseph von Eichendorff 1826 German German
1174 The Water Margin Shi Naian 1370 Chinese Chinese
1201 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1248 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1257 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
1305 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
1323 Rhinoceros and Other Plays Eugène Ionesco 1959 Romanian French
1324 The Poems of Francois Villon François Villon 1489 French Middle french
1330 Manon Lescaut Abbe Prevost 1731 French French
1345 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1795 German German
1364 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1416 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1425 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1488 The Enchanted Wanderer Nikolai Leskov 1873 Russian Russian
1492 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1495 Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver 2022 American English
1536 The Inimitable Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1923 British English
1558 At Last Edward St Aubyn 2011 British English
1583 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
1600 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
1600 Party Going Henry Green 1939 British English
1600 Oreo Fran Ross 1974 American English
1634 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
1666 Bel Ami Guy de Maupassant 1885 French French
1672 The Magician of Lublin Isaac Bashevis Singer 1960 Polish Yiddish
1674 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
1675 The History of Love Nicole Krauss 2005 American English
1694 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
1694 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
1694 Myra Breckinridge Gore Vidal 1968 American English
1740 The Twelve Chairs Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1928 Russian Russian
1753 Women Charles Bukowski 1978 American English
1761 The Little Golden Calf Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1931 Russian Russian
1777 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett 1751 British English
1777 Rob Roy Sir Walter Scott 1817 British English
1826 Burr Gore Vidal 1973 American English
1826 Michael Kohlhaas Heinrich von Kleist 1810 German German
1848 Don Juan Molière 1665 French French
1854 The Egghead Republic Arno Schmidt 1957 German German
1883 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
1895 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
1895 Exemplary Stories Miguel de Cervantes 1613 Spanish Spanish
1915 The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester 1956 American English
1919 Abu Telfan, Return from the Mountains of the Moon Wilhelm Karl Raabe 1867 German German
1946 Cities of the Red Night William S. Burroughs 1981 American English
1949 The Palm-Wine Drinkard Amos Tutola 1952 Nigerian English
2003 In Search Of The Castaways Jules Verne 1867 French French
2039 The Horseman on the Roof Jean Giono 1951 French French
2057 Friday Michel Tournier 1967 French French
2121 City of Bohane Kevin Barry 2011 Irish English
2176 The Manuscript Found in Saragossa Jan Potocki 1805 Polish French
2178 Restoration Rose Tremain 1989 British English
2183 The Magic Pudding Norman Lindsay 1918 Australian English
2186 The Good Lord Bird James McBride 2013 American English
2205 Lord Of The Barnyard Tristan Egolf 1998 American English
2210 How Should a Person Be? Sheila Heti 2010 Canadian English