The Greatest Western 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
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
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
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
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
2004 A School For Fools Sasha Sokolov 1976 Russian Russian
2007 King Ubu Alfred Jarry 1896 French French
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
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
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
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
2512 Howl, Kaddish And Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
2540 Pilgrimage Dorothy Richardson 1915 British English
2554 Dangling Man Saul Bellow 1944 American English
2558 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
2577 Complete Poems E. E. Cummings 1960 American English
2581 Scenes From The Life Of A Faun Arno Schmidt 1953 German German
2587 Red Shift Alan Garner 1973 British English
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
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
2947 Sighs And Smiles François Haverschmidt 1867 Dutch Dutch
2959 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2964 The Erasers Alain Robbe-Grillet 1953 French French
2968 A Dream Play August Strindberg 1902 Swedish Swedish
2974 The Female Man Joanna Russ 1975 American English
2994 The Doors Of Perception Aldous Huxley 1954 British English
2998 A Cloud In Trousers Vladimir Mayakovsky 1915 Russian Russian
3007 Camera Lucida Roland Barthes 1980 French French
3034 Novel on Yellow Paper Stevie Smith 1936 British English
3055 The Invention of Solitude Paul Auster 1982 American English
3056 The Enigma of Arrival V. S. Naipaul 1987 British English
3062 Home Land Sam Lipsyte 2004 American English
3073 Lunch Poems Frank O'Hara 1964 American English
3097 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3111 Anagrams Lorrie Moore 1986 American English
3117 The White Album Joan Didion 1979 American English
3121 The Possibility Of An Island Michel Houellebecq 2005 French French
3145 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
3164 Dept. of Speculation Jenny Offill 2014 American English
3165 Gender Trouble Judith Butler 1990 American English
3175 Spring And All William Carlos Williams 1923 American English
3175 The Thirtieth Year Ingeborg Bachmann 1961 Austrian German
3186 The Quest For Corvo A. J. A. Symons 1934 British English
3188 City, Sister, Silver Jáchym Topol 1994 Czech Czech
3193 The Aesthetics Of Resistance Peter Weiss 1975 German German
3209 Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris May Lessing 1971 British English
3212 Betty Blue Philippe Djian 1985 French French
3223 Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder Lawrence Weschler 1995 American English
3260 The 42nd Parallel John Dos Passos 1930 American English
3309 The Theater and Its Double Antonin Artaud 1938 French French
3324 Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus Scriblerus Club 1741 British English
3324 Hell Henri Barbusse 1908 French French
3324 Impressions of Africa Raymond Roussel 1910 French French
3324 Tarr Wyndham Lewis 1918 British English
3324 The Apes of God Wyndham Lewis 1930 British English
3324 Monica Saunders Lewis 1930 British Welsh