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
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
51 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
72 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
111 The Waste Land T. S. Eliot 1922 British English
151 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
185 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
200 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
213 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
222 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
231 Death of Virgil Hermann Broch 1945 Austrian German
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
238 A Season in Hell Arthur Rimbaud 1873 French French
239 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
257 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
258 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
259 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
269 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
270 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
276 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
316 Pensées Blaise Pascal 1670 French French
318 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
326 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
348 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
354 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
355 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
357 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
360 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
369 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein 1921 Austrian German
377 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
384 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
394 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
395 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
398 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke 1910 German German
403 The Words Jean Paul Sartre 1963 French French
412 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
438 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
455 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
458 Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant 1781 German German
463 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
478 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
479 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
482 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
493 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
496 Froth on the daydream Boris Vian 1947 French French
502 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
514 Speak, Memory Vladimir Nabokov 1951 American English
526 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
540 The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe 1968 American English
546 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
561 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
565 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
583 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
584 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
629 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
634 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
638 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
659 Mythologies Roland Barthes 1957 French French
672 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
683 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
692 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
727 The Street of Crocodiles Bruno Schulz 1934 Polish Polish
748 Howl and Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
756 The Labyrinth of Solitude Octavio Paz 1950 Mexican Spanish
789 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
836 Second Thoughts Michel Butor 1957 French French
841 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
860 The Solitudes Luis de Góngora 1613 Spanish Spanish
874 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
875 Greguerias Ramón Gómez de la Serna 1910 Spanish Spanish
882 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
887 Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1915 American English
889 The 120 Days of Sodom Marquis de Sade 1904 French French
895 The Ravishing of Lol Stein Marguerite Duras 1964 French French
898 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
910 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
912 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
915 Malina Ingeborg Bachmann 1971 Austrian German
919 The Poems Of Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerald Manley Hopkins 1918 British English
924 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
929 Our Lady of the Flowers Jean Genet 1943 French French
936 A Void Georges Perec 1969 French French
939 Rameau's Nephew Denis Diderot 1761 French French
955 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
964 Paroles Jacques Prévert 1946 French French
968 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
982 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
999 Chevengur Andrey Platonov 1928 Russian Russian
1015 Justine Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
1022 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
1026 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
1042 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
1080 Mount Analogue René Daumal 1952 French French
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1106 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
1112 The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake William Blake 1827 British English
1132 Lenz Georg Buchner 1836 German German
1154 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
1155 Three Lives Gertrude Stein 1909 American English
1166 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
1179 Living Henry Green 1929 British English
1213 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1271 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1281 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1282 The Plum in the Golden Vase Unknown 1610 Chinese Chinese
1292 Two Serious Ladies Jane Bowles 1943 American English
1295 Phenomenology of Mind G. W. F. Hegel 1807 German German
1299 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
1302 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1304 Collected Poems Stéphane Mallarmé 1887 French French
1331 Cathedral Raymond Carver 1983 American English