The Greatest Satire 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
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
8 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
51 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
55 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
80 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
89 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde 1890 Irish English
91 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
104 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
105 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 1847 British English
122 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
134 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
145 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
159 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
203 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
241 Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth 1969 American English
256 Babbitt Sinclair Lewis 1922 American English
310 Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe 1987 American English
347 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 1939 American English
357 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
392 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
412 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
435 Scoop Evelyn Waugh 1938 British English
467 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh 1934 British English
480 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 1932 British English
491 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
492 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressell, Peter Miles 1914 British English
544 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
550 Max Havelaar Multatuli 1860 Dutch Dutch
554 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
564 Main Street Sinclair Lewis 1920 American English
566 I Served The King Of England Bohumil Hrabal 1983 Czech Czech
590 Northanger Abbey Jane Austen 1817 British English
630 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
654 The Praise of Folly Erasmus 1511 Dutch Latin
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
663 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
678 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
679 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 1771 British English
681 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
703 The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 1875 British English
706 The Skin Curzio Malaparte 1949 Italian Italian
712 A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court Mark Twain 1889 American English
723 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
728 Erewhon Samuel Butler 1872 British English
744 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
760 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
776 War with the Newts Karel Čapek 1936 Czech Czech
780 Maxims François duc de La Rochefoucauld 1665 French French
781 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
793 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
800 The Loved One Evelyn Waugh 1948 British English
837 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
846 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
864 Reynard the Fox Unknown 1479 Multiple Middle dutch
869 Woodcutters Thomas Bernhard 1984 Austrian German
876 Lysistrata Aristophanes -411 Greek Ancient greek
880 Orthodoxy G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
904 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
928 Tobacco Road Erskine Caldwell 1932 American English
930 The Seven Madmen Roberto Arlt 1929 Argentinian Spanish
932 The Clouds Aristophanes -423 Greek Ancient greek
934 The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen 1899 American English
941 Collected Essays of George Orwell George Orwell 1968 British English
954 Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 1913 British English
963 Zuleika Dobson Max Beerbohm 1911 British English
965 Eminent Victorians Lytton Strachey 1918 British English
984 Tartuffe Molière 1664 French French
992 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
1008 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1047 The Egoist George Meredith 1879 British English
1069 The True Story Of Ah Q Lu Xun 1922 Chinese Chinese
1111 Get Shorty Elmore Leonard 1990 American English
1116 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English
1118 Germany, a Winter Tale Heinrich Heine 1844 German German
1137 Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West 1933 American English
1161 The Twelve Chairs Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1928 Russian Russian
1164 The Nose Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1165 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
1167 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos 1925 American English
1185 The Inimitable Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1923 British English
1208 Love in a Cold Climate Nancy Mitford 1949 British English
1221 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
1223 Jurgen James Branch Cabell 1919 American 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
1281 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1296 The Works of Moliere Molière 1666 French French
1310 Our Man In Havana Graham Greene 1958 British English
1325 A Far Cry From Kensington Muriel Spark 1988 British English
1356 Towards The End Of The Morning Michael Frayn 1967 British English
1378 The Towers Of Trebizond Rose Macauley 1956 British English
1382 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde 1895 Irish English
1383 The Birds Aristophanes -414 Greek Ancient greek
1407 The Golovlyov Family Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin 1880 Russian Russian
1422 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
1427 Vile Bodies Evelyn Waugh 1930 British English
1429 Aphorisms Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1902 German German
1466 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
1481 The Little Golden Calf Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1931 Russian Russian
1523 Guzmán de Alfarache Mateo Alemán 1599 Spanish Spanish
1527 The Confidence Man Herman Melville 1857 American English
1530 Myra Breckinridge Gore Vidal 1968 American English
1534 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1574 Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock 1818 British English
1594 The Imaginary Invalid Molière 1673 French French
1599 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1603 On the Edge of Reason Miroslav Krleža 1938 Croatian Croatian
1611 Crome Yellow Aldous Huxley 1921 British English
1611 Some Experiences Of An Irish R.M. E.Œ. Somerville, Martin Ross 1899 Irish English
1622 Fortress Besieged Qian Zhongshu 1947 Chinese Chinese
1626 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
1629 Point Counter Point Aldous Huxley 1928 British English
1648 Wizard of the Crow Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 2006 Kenyan English
1653 The Loyal Subject Heinrich Mann 1918 German German
1660 The Waste Books Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1770 German German
1673 Penguin Island Anatole France 1908 French French
1674 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English