The Greatest Books of All Time on Bureaucracy

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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
21 The Trial Franz Kafka 1925 Czech German
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
81 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
104 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
128 The Stories of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov 1900 Russian Russian
159 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
190 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
295 Franz Kafka Franz Kafka 1971 Czech Unknown
440 The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt 1951 German English
460 Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853 American English
530 The Red Room August Strindberg 1879 Swedish Swedish
763 The Case of Comrade Tulayev Victor Serge 1949 French French
870 Economy and Society Max Weber 1922 German German
1023 Transit Anna Seghers 1944 German German
1061 The Case of Sergeant Grischa Arnold Zweig 1927 German German
1061 The Hothouse Wolfgang Koeppen 1953 German German
1160 Eichmann in Jerusalem Hannah Arendt 1963 German English
1164 The Nose Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1311 Our Man In Havana Graham Greene 1958 British English
1464 Little Dorrit Charles Dickens 1855 British English
1522 Cancer Ward Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1967 Russian Russian
1605 The Foundation Pit Andrey Platonov 1930 Russian Russian
1656 Arrowsmith Sinclair Lewis 1925 American English
1731 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1901 The Power Broker Robert Caro 1974 American English
1927 Stories of Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Gogol 1831 Russian Russian
2019 The Death Ship B. Traven 1926 German German
2090 Parkinson's Law C. Northcote Parkinson 1957 British English
2208 Waiting Ha Jin 1999 Chinese English
2430 The Intuitionist Colson Whitehead 1999 American English
2686 The Managerial Revolution James Burnham 1941 American English
2730 Overcoat Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
2791 The Island Of Second Sight Albert Vigoleis Thelen 1953 German English
3193 The Best And The Brightest David Halberstam 1972 American English
3459 Captain Pantoja And The Special Service Mario Vargas Llosa 1973 Peruvian Spanish
3504 Heavy Wings Jie Zhang 1981 Chinese Chinese
3517 Bureaucracy Ludwig von Mises 1944 Austrian English
3530 Behemoth Franz Neumann 1942 German English
3637 Trans-Atlantyk Witold Gombrowicz 1953 Polish Polish
3637 The Captain Of Köpenick Carl Zuckmayer 1931 German German
3851 JR William Gaddis 1975 American English
3913 The History Of A Town Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin 1870 Russian Russian
4082 Diary Of A Madman Nikolai Gogol 1835 Russian Russian
4208 The Case Worker György Konrád 1969 Hungarian Hungarian
4257 Scenes From The Past Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin 1869 Russian Russian
4274 The Blue Book Mikhail Zoshchenko 1923 Russian Russian
4295 The Castle franz kafka 1926 German German
4310 Mister Johnson Joyce Cary 1939 British English
4310 Three Soldiers John Dos Passos 1921 American English
4418 A Bright Shining Lie Neil Sheehan 1988 American English
4431 Das Große Protokoll Gegen Zwetschkenbaum Albert Drach 1964 Austrian German
4511 The Palace Of Dreams Ismail Kadare 1981 Albanian Albanian
4582 The Zone Sergei Dovlatov 1982 Russian Russian
4717 Office Politics Wilfrid Sheed 1965 British English
4724 Mission Box Aris Alexandrou 1974 Greek Greek
4758 The Faculty of Useless Knowledge Yuri Dombrovsky 1976 Russian Russian
4764 Metropole Ferenc Karinthy 1970 Hungarian Hungarian
4767 The Soldier's Art Anthony Powell 1966 British English
4900 The Memorandum Vaclav Havel 1965 Czech Czech
4933 The Military Philosophers Anthony Powell 1968 British English
4981 The Emperor Ryszard Kapuscinski 1978 Polish Polish
5031 The City & the City China Miéville 2009 British English
5088 Imperial Life in the Emerald City Rajiv Chandrasekaran 2006 American English
5255 The Harpole Report J. L. Carr 1972 British English
5448 The Moscoviad Yuri Andrukhovych 1993 Ukrainian Ukrainian
5469 L'étrange Destin De Wangrin Amadou Hampâté Bâ 1973 French French
5531 The Essential Kafka Franz Kafka 1913 Czech German
5579 The Puttermesser Papers Cynthia Ozick 1997 American English
5901 Parables, Fragments, Aphorisms Franz Kafka 1935 Czech German
5929 Go Went Gone Jenny Erpenbeck 2015 German German
5955 A Good Man In Africa William Boyd 1981 British English
6005 Collected Stories Franz Kafka 1931 Austrian German
6169 The Tower Uwe Tellkamp 2008 German German
6255 Six Four Hideo Yokoyama 2012 Japanese Japanese
6795 An Analysis Of The Communist System Milovan Djilas 1957 Serbian Serbo-croatian
6957 The Fifth Risk Michael M. Lewis 2018 American English
7082 The Scholars Wu Ching-tzu 1750 Chinese Chinese
7177 The Asylum Seeker Arnon Grunberg 2003 Dutch Dutch
7195 Social Theory And Social Structure Robert K. Merton 1949 American English
7216 Tales Nikolai Leskov 1870 Russian Russian
7216 Nervous People And Other Satires Mikhail Zoshchenko 1927 Russian Russian
7589 Moo Jane Smiley 1995 American English
7903 The House in the Cerulean Sea Tj Klune 2020 American English
8252 Serve The People! Yan Lianke 2005 Chinese Chinese
8383 Guard of Honor James Gould Cozzens 1948 American English
8473 No Longer At Ease Chinua Achebe 1960 Nigerian English
8619 The Queue Basma Abdel Aziz 2013 Egyptian Arabic
8875 Yawning Heights Alexander Sinowjew 1976 Russian Russian
8943 Febeapá Stanislaw Ponte Preta 1966 Brazilian Portuguese
8963 A Frolic of His Own William Gaddis 1994 American English
9545 Sofia Petrovna Lydia Chukovskaya 1965 Russian Russian
9605 Lenin's Kisses Yan Lianke 2003 Chinese Chinese
9661 Schubumkehr Robert Menasse 2013 Austrian German
9783 Autumn In Peking Boris Vian 1947 French French
10071 The Silences Of Hammerstein Hans Magnus Enzensberger 2008 German German
10171 The Pale King David Foster Wallace 2011 American English
10574 The Censors Luisa Valenzuela 1976 Argentinian Spanish
11113 Stations of the Tide Michael Swanwick 1991 American English
11631 Political And Social Writings Cornelius Castoriadis 1988 French French
11876 Monday Begins On Saturday Arkadi Strugatski 1964 Russian Russian
12104 Sword Of Honour Evelyn Waugh 1965 British English
12226 Shades Of Grey Jasper Fforde 2009 British English
12326 Tropical Gangsters Robert Klitgaard 1988 American English
12604 The Travels Of Lao Ts'an Liu T'ieh-yün 1907 Chinese Chinese
12643 Officialdom Unmasked Li Baojia 1903 Chinese Chinese
13362 The Gate Natsume Sōseki 1910 Japanese Japanese
13362 The Time Regulation Institute Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar 1954 Turkish Turkish
13600 Jerome Maurice Bedel French French
13600 Faux Passeports Charles Plisnier 1937 Belgian French
13600 A Fine Of Two Hundred Francs Elsa Triolet 1944 French English
13772 Tale Of The Troika Arkady Strugatsky 1968 Russian Russian
14331 Execution Of Mayor Yin Chen Ruoxi 1978 Chinese Chinese
14453 Making Money Terry Pratchett 2007 British English
14585 Lai Suo Huang Fan 1987 Chinese Chinese
14985 Adults in the Room Yanis Varoufakis 2017 Greek English
14985 English, August Upamanyu Chatterjee 1988 Indian English
15616 The Greening Of America Charles A. Reich 1970 American English
15837 The Cunning Of History Richard L. Rubenstein 1975 American English
15916 Officers And Gentlemen Evelyn Waugh 1955 British English
15916 Sizwe Bansi Is Dead Athol Fugard 1972 South African English