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
1332 One, No One and One Hundred Thousand Luigi Pirandello 1926 Italian Italian
1344 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
1347 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
1355 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1359 Illuminations Arthur Rimbaud 1886 French French
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1399 Star Maker Olaf Stapledon 1937 British English
1411 Concrete Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German
1414 Something About Eve James Branch Cabell 1927 American English
1421 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
1424 Our Ancestors Italo Calvino 1952 Italian Italian
1441 The Cantos Ezra Pound 1933 American English
1443 Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon 1997 American English
1472 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
1486 Locus Solus Raymond Roussel 1914 French French
1492 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Vladimir Nabokov 1941 Russian English
1508 Surrealist Manifesto André Breton 1924 French French
1533 Dreamtigers Jorge Luis Borges 1960 Argentinian Spanish
1534 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1565 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1591 Wry-Blue Loves Tristan Corbière 1873 French French
1600 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1610 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
1617 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
1619 Nostalgia Mircea Cărtărescu 1989 Romanian Romanian
1633 In Watermelon Sugar Richard Brautigan 1968 American English
1644 The Nature of Things Francis Ponge 1942 French French
1659 The Americans Robert Frank 1959 American English
1660 The Waste Books Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1770 German German
1702 Oreo Fran Ross 1974 American English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1716 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1730 Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin 1977 French English
1732 Tender Buttons Gertrude Stein 1914 American English
1737 Exercises in Style Raymond Queneau 1947 French French
1742 A Tale Of A Tub Jonathan Swift 1704 British English
1769 Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas 1954 British English
1822 Small Lives Pierre Michon 1984 French French
1829 To The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life Hervé Guibert 1990 French French
1861 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
1886 Poems, New And Collected, 1957 1997 Wislawa Szymborska 1998 Polish Polish
1909 The Collected Stories Of Lydia Davis Lydia Davis 2009 American English
1922 Tropisms Nathalie Sarraute 1939 French French
1934 Capital of Pain Paul Éluard 1926 French French
1942 The Land At The End Of The World António Lobo Antunes 1979 Portuguese Portuguese
1953 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 1959 British English
1961 Demian Hermann Hesse 1919 German German
1962 The Prose Of The Trans Siberian Blaise Cendrars 1913 French French
1967 Leviathan Arno Schmidt 1949 German German
1969 Poppy And Memory Paul Celan 1950 German German
1979 Furor and Mystery René Char 1948 French French
1980 Chapel Road Louis-Paul Boon 1953 Belgian Dutch
1991 All about H. Hatterr G. V. Desani 1948 Indian English
2004 A School For Fools Sasha Sokolov 1976 Russian Russian
2007 King Ubu Alfred Jarry 1896 French French
2054 Spain, Take This Chalice from Me César Vallejo 1939 Peruvian Spanish
2058 Sixty Stories Donald Barthelme 1981 American English
2060 The Passion Of New Eve Angela Carter 1977 British English
2064 Watt Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish English
2065 The Egghead Republic Arno Schmidt 1957 German German
2067 The Infernal Desire Machines Of Doctor Hoffman Angela Carter 1972 British English
2068 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
2117 Querelle of Brest Jean Genet 1947 French French
2127 Life In The Folds Henri Michaux 1949 French French
2226 Aspects of the Novel E. M. Forster 1927 British English
2242 Collected Poems Arthur Rimbaud 1898 French French
2247 The Bald Soprano Eugène Ionesco 1950 French French
2257 Correction Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
2302 Le Roman Inachevé Louis Aragon 1956 French French
2305 Giles Goat-Boy John Barth 1966 American English
2310 Chance And Necessity Jacques Monod 1970 French French
2311 Sexing the Cherry Jeanette Winterson 1989 British English
2312 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2314 The Left-Handed Woman Peter Handke 1976 Austrian German
2336 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
2357 The Fruits of the Earth André Gide 1897 French French
2362 On the Heights of Despair Emil Cioran 1934 Romanian Romanian
2382 The Will To Power Friedrich Nietzsche 1901 German German
2400 The Blazing World Margaret Cavendish 1666 British English
2406 A Sorrow Beyond Dreams Peter Handke 1972 Austrian German
2417 Lyrical Ballads William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
2418 Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney 1984 American English
2421 The Melancholy of Resistance László Krasznahorkai 1989 Hungarian Hungarian
2469 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
2483 Blood and Guts in High School Kathy Acker 1978 American English
2494 All Souls Javier Marias 1989 Spanish Spanish
2497 The Garden Of Forking Paths Jorge Luis Borges 1941 Argentinian Spanish
2514 Howl, Kaddish And Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
2542 Pilgrimage Dorothy Richardson 1915 British English
2556 Dangling Man Saul Bellow 1944 American English
2559 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
2578 Complete Poems E. E. Cummings 1960 American English
2580 A Cup Of Rage Raduan Nassar 1978 Brazilian Portuguese
2582 Scenes From The Life Of A Faun Arno Schmidt 1953 German German
2588 Red Shift Alan Garner 1973 British English
2600 Almost Transparent Blue Ryū Murakami 1976 Japanese Japanese
2641 The Palm At The End Of The Mind Wallace Stevens 1971 American English
2648 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
2653 Sleepless Nights Elizabeth Hardwick 1979 American English
2657 Ariel Sylvia Plath 1965 American English
2667 The Songlines Bruce Chatwin 1987 British English
2693 Near To The Wild Heart Clarice Lispector 1943 Brazilian Portuguese
2708 A Lover's Discourse Roland Barthes 1977 French French
2725 The Book Of Questions Edmond Jabès 1963 French French
2799 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
2807 James Percival Everett 2024 American English
2835 The Luzhin Defense Vladimir Nabokov 1930 Russian Russian
2845 10:04 Ben Lerner 2014 American English
2849 The Museum of Unconditional Surrender Dubravka Ugrešić 1997 Croatian Croatian
2878 Palace of the Peacock Wilson Harris 1960 Guyanese English
2948 Sighs And Smiles François Haverschmidt 1867 Dutch Dutch
2960 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2965 The Erasers Alain Robbe-Grillet 1953 French French
2969 A Dream Play August Strindberg 1902 Swedish Swedish
2975 The Female Man Joanna Russ 1975 American English
2995 The Doors Of Perception Aldous Huxley 1954 British English
2999 A Cloud In Trousers Vladimir Mayakovsky 1915 Russian Russian
3008 Camera Lucida Roland Barthes 1980 French French
3009 Labyrinths Christopher Okigbo 1971 Nigerian English