swap_horiz Ivan Turbincă Alternatives

1

Dead Souls

Nikolai Gogol’s *Dead Souls* is a 19th-century Russian picaresque novel centered around Pavel Chichikov’s bizarre scheme...

Russian Classic 19TH Century Satire

9.2 Excellent

2

Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas

Brás Cubas’s posthumous memoirs offer a uniquely challenging perspective on 19th-century Brazil. Written by Machado de A...

19TH Century Satire Brazilian Unreliable Narrator

9.2 Excellent

3

Macunaíma

Mário de Andrade’s *Macunaíma* is a foundational Brazilian modernist work. The novel presents Macunaíma, a shapeshifting...

Classic Satire Modernist Brazilian

8.8 Great

4

The Adventures of Pinocchio

Carlo Collodi’s *The Adventures of Pinocchio* is a classic picaresque novel from 1883 Italy. The story follows Pinocchio...

Italian Classic 19TH Century Children

8.8 Great

5

Bel-Ami

Bel-Ami is Guy de Maupassant's 1885 French realist novel, tracing Georges Duroy's ascent in Paris journalism through man...

Classic French 19TH Century Satire

8.6 Great

6

Memórias de um Sargento de Milícias

Memórias de um Sargento de Milícias is an 1852-1853 Brazilian serial novel by Manuel Antônio de Almeida, satirizing urba...

Classic 19TH Century Satire Rogue

8.5 Great

7

The Eyes of the Overworld

The Eyes of the Overworld is Jack Vance's 1966 Dying Earth fix-up novel, a picaresque fantasy centered on the roguish Cu...

Fantasy Quest American Satire

8.3 Great

8

The Luck of Barry Lyndon

The Luck of Barry Lyndon is William Makepeace Thackeray's 1844 serial picaresque, narrated by an Irish fortune-hunter se...

19TH Century Satire Rogue British

8.2 Great

9

The Confidence-Man

The Confidence-Man is Herman Melville's 1857 satirical final novel, set on a Mississippi steamboat bound for New Orleans...

American 19TH Century Satire River

8.2 Great

10

El diablo cojuelo

El diablo cojuelo is Luis Vélez de Guevara's 1641 satirical fantasy, in which a freed devil exposes Madrid society by li...

Fantasy Baroque Classic Spanish

8.1 Great

11

Trafalgar

Trafalgar is Benito Pérez Galdós's 1873 Spanish historical novel, the first of the Episodios nacionales and a fictional...

Adventure Spanish 19TH Century Satire

8.1 Great

12

The Mangy Parrot

The Mangy Parrot is an 1816 Mexican novel by José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, widely regarded as the first novel publi...

Classic 19TH Century Satire Rogue

8.1 Great

13

The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak

The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak is Charles De Coster's 1867 Belgian novel, recasting the trickster as a...

Classic 19TH Century Satire Belgian

8.1 Great

14

The Diary of a Chambermaid

The Diary of a Chambermaid is Octave Mirbeau's 1900 French novel, using servant Célestine's diary to expose bourgeois hy...

French 19TH Century Satire Servant

8.0 Great

15

Till Eulenspiegel

Till Eulenspiegel is the German trickster of a chapbook printed around 1510, notable for exposing social folly through l...

German Classic Satire Trickster

8.0 Great

16

Baudolino

Baudolino is Umberto Eco's 2000 Italian historical novel, following a 12th-century fabulist linked to Frederick Barbaros...

Italian Satire Medieval 21ST Century

7.8 Good

17

Fasana-e-Azad

Fasana-e-Azad is Ratan Nath Sarshar's Urdu picaresque, serialized in Avadh Akhbar from 1878 to 1883 and considered an ea...

Classic 19TH Century Satire Urdu

7.8 Good

18

Bay Ganyo

Aleko Konstantinov's 1895 Bulgarian picaresque work follows Bay Ganyo, a crude rose-oil merchant traveling Europe, satir...

Classic 19TH Century Bulgarian Satire

7.8 Good

19

The Papess Joanne

Emmanuel Rhoides' 1866 Greek novel follows the legendary Pope Joan, blending picaresque satire with historical fiction t...

Classic 19TH Century Satire Historical

7.7 Good

20

Martin Chuzzlewit

Martin Chuzzlewit is an 1844 novel by Charles Dickens notable for its satirical picaresque journey following a selfish y...

19TH Century Satire English America

7.7 Good