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
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
8 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
22 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884 American English
48 Journey to the End of The Night Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1932 French French
51 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
80 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
81 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
82 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
104 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
122 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
134 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
138 The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal 1839 French French
145 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
151 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
153 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
159 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
198 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
201 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
249 A Hero of Our Time Mikhail Lermontov 1840 Russian Russian
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
259 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
272 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands Joao Guimaraes Rosa 1956 Brazilian Portuguese
276 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
277 The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens 1836 British English
280 The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow 1953 American English
351 Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
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
364 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
392 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
401 Celestina Or The Tragic-Comedy Of Calisto And Melibea Fernando de Rojas 1499 Spanish Spanish
412 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
455 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
460 Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853 American English
489 Manon Lescaut Abbe Prevost 1731 French French
512 The Golden Ass Apuleius 158 Roman Latin
538 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
544 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
554 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
556 The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse 1938 British English
566 I Served The King Of England Bohumil Hrabal 1983 Czech Czech
589 Bel Ami Guy de Maupassant 1885 French French
612 Green Henry Gottfried Keller 1855 Swiss German
617 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
628 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
630 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
672 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
679 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
683 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
715 The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Washington Irving 1819 American English
721 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1795 German German
724 Michael Kohlhaas Heinrich von Kleist 1810 German German
750 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
753 Henderson The Rain King Saul Bellow 1959 American English
760 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
781 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
782 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
793 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
796 The Fall Albert Camus 1956 French French
797 The Manuscript Found in Saragossa Jan Potocki 1805 Polish French
821 Castle Rackrent Maria Edgeworth 1800 British English
846 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
859 The Palm-Wine Drinkard Amos Tutola 1952 Nigerian English
901 Last Exit to Brooklyn Hubert Selby 1964 American English
902 Under the Net Iris Murdoch 1954 British English
908 The Life of a Good-For-Nothing Joseph von Eichendorff 1826 German German
942 Cannery Row John Steinbeck 1945 American English
955 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
992 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
1008 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1046 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
1069 The True Story Of Ah Q Lu Xun 1922 Chinese Chinese
1078 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
1089 Suttree Cormac McCarthy 1979 American English
1132 Fanny Hill John Cleland 1748 British English
1151 The Water Margin Shi Naian 1370 Chinese Chinese
1154 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
1161 The Twelve Chairs Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1928 Russian Russian
1165 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
1175 The Demons Heimito von Doderer 1956 Austrian German
1176 Carmen Prosper Mérimée 1845 French French
1185 The Inimitable Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1923 British English
1205 The Enchanted Wanderer Nikolai Leskov 1873 Russian Russian
1213 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1221 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
1226 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett 1751 British English
1233 The History Of Gil Blas Of Santillana Alain-René Lesage 1715 French French
1414 Something About Eve James Branch Cabell 1927 American English
1418 The Path to the Nest of Spiders Italo Calvino 1947 Italian Italian
1422 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
1431 Cakes And Ale Or, The Skeleton In The Cupboard W. Somerset Maugham 1930 British English
1463 Camera Obscura Nicolaas Beets 1839 Dutch Dutch
1466 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
1481 The Little Golden Calf Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1931 Russian Russian
1501 The Magician of Lublin Isaac Bashevis Singer 1960 Polish Yiddish
1523 Guzmán de Alfarache Mateo Alemán 1599 Spanish Spanish
1525 The Late Mattia Pascal Luigi Pirandello 1904 Italian Italian
1530 Myra Breckinridge Gore Vidal 1968 American English
1556 The Poems of Francois Villon François Villon 1489 French Middle french
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1595 The Forbidden Kingdom Jan Jacob Slauerhoff 1932 Dutch Dutch
1599 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1611 Some Experiences Of An Irish R.M. E.Œ. Somerville, Martin Ross 1899 Irish English
1626 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
1631 Acquainted With Grief Carlo Emilio Gadda 1963 Italian Italian
1685 Burr Gore Vidal 1973 American English
1687 The Hearing Trumpet Leonora Carrington 1974 British English
1691 Cat Country Lao She 1932 Chinese Chinese
1702 Oreo Fran Ross 1974 American English
1715 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1722 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1732 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1754 Changing Places David Lodge 1975 British English
1758 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
1759 Bai Ganyo Aleko Konstantinov 1895 Bulgarian Bulgarian
1778 Rob Roy Sir Walter Scott 1817 British English
1784 Marks of Identity Juan Goytisolo 1966 Spanish Spanish
1792 The Adventures Of Roderick Random Tobias Smollett 1748 British English