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
1599 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
1715 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1731 Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin 1977 French English
1733 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
1933 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
2053 Spain, Take This Chalice from Me César Vallejo 1939 Peruvian Spanish
2057 Sixty Stories Donald Barthelme 1981 American English
2059 The Passion Of New Eve Angela Carter 1977 British English
2063 Watt Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish English
2064 The Egghead Republic Arno Schmidt 1957 German German
2066 The Infernal Desire Machines Of Doctor Hoffman Angela Carter 1972 British English
2067 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
2116 Querelle of Brest Jean Genet 1947 French French
2126 Life In The Folds Henri Michaux 1949 French French
2225 Aspects of the Novel E. M. Forster 1927 British English
2241 Collected Poems Arthur Rimbaud 1898 French French
2246 The Bald Soprano Eugène Ionesco 1950 French French
2256 Correction Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
2301 Le Roman Inachevé Louis Aragon 1956 French French
2304 Giles Goat-Boy John Barth 1966 American English
2309 Chance And Necessity Jacques Monod 1970 French French
2310 Sexing the Cherry Jeanette Winterson 1989 British English
2311 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2313 The Left-Handed Woman Peter Handke 1976 Austrian German
2334 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
2355 The Fruits of the Earth André Gide 1897 French French
2360 On the Heights of Despair Emil Cioran 1934 Romanian Romanian
2380 The Will To Power Friedrich Nietzsche 1901 German German
2398 The Blazing World Margaret Cavendish 1666 British English
2404 A Sorrow Beyond Dreams Peter Handke 1972 Austrian German
2415 Lyrical Ballads William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
2416 Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney 1984 American English
2419 The Melancholy of Resistance László Krasznahorkai 1989 Hungarian Hungarian
2467 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
2481 Blood and Guts in High School Kathy Acker 1978 American English
2492 All Souls Javier Marias 1989 Spanish Spanish
2495 The Garden Of Forking Paths Jorge Luis Borges 1941 Argentinian Spanish
2512 Howl, Kaddish And Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
2540 Pilgrimage Dorothy Richardson 1915 British English
2555 Dangling Man Saul Bellow 1944 American English
2559 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
2577 Complete Poems E. E. Cummings 1960 American English
2579 A Cup Of Rage Raduan Nassar 1978 Brazilian Portuguese
2581 Scenes From The Life Of A Faun Arno Schmidt 1953 German German
2587 Red Shift Alan Garner 1973 British English
2599 Almost Transparent Blue Ryū Murakami 1976 Japanese Japanese
2640 The Palm At The End Of The Mind Wallace Stevens 1971 American English
2647 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
2652 Sleepless Nights Elizabeth Hardwick 1979 American English
2656 Ariel Sylvia Plath 1965 American English
2666 The Songlines Bruce Chatwin 1987 British English
2692 Near To The Wild Heart Clarice Lispector 1943 Brazilian Portuguese
2707 A Lover's Discourse Roland Barthes 1977 French French
2724 The Book Of Questions Edmond Jabès 1963 French French
2797 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
2805 James Percival Everett 2024 American English
2833 The Luzhin Defense Vladimir Nabokov 1930 Russian Russian
2842 10:04 Ben Lerner 2014 American English
2846 The Museum of Unconditional Surrender Dubravka Ugrešić 1997 Croatian Croatian
2875 Palace of the Peacock Wilson Harris 1960 Guyanese English
2946 Sighs And Smiles François Haverschmidt 1867 Dutch Dutch
2958 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2963 The Erasers Alain Robbe-Grillet 1953 French French
2967 A Dream Play August Strindberg 1902 Swedish Swedish
2973 The Female Man Joanna Russ 1975 American English
2993 The Doors Of Perception Aldous Huxley 1954 British English
2997 A Cloud In Trousers Vladimir Mayakovsky 1915 Russian Russian
3006 Camera Lucida Roland Barthes 1980 French French
3007 Labyrinths Christopher Okigbo 1971 Nigerian English