The Greatest Utopian and Dystopian Fiction
This selection of utopian and dystopian fiction is based on the continuing research carried out for The Greatest Literature of All Time and additional research into utopian and dystopian literature acclaimed by the world's readers, writers, critics and scholars.
A utopia (which literally means "no place") is an imagined world or society described as much better than the one in which we live—perfect or close to perfect even. A dystopia is one thought to be much worse, providing a horrible existence for its inhabitants. Usually they are portrayed in literature as extrapolations of existing trends, thereby indirectly critiquing the authors' current societies.
Interestingly, while utopian themes have been around since ancient times and has grown with literature in general over the centuries, dystopian fiction has come into its own only in modern times and has spread faster in recent years, coming to dominate speculative bookshelves today.
The Greatest Utopian and Dystopian Fiction focuses on the genres' major creative works, mainly novels, novellas and plays.
You may also be interested in The Greatest Nonfiction, The Greatest Science Fiction or The Greatest Fantasy Fiction.
This list is updated as new works are discovered and appreciation of older works evolves. Please note the revision date when citing the list.
Latest update: October 29, 2025
The 99 greatest works of utopian and dystopian fiction
391 BCE
Assemblywomen
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
c.165–050 BCE
Islands of the Sun
by Iambulus, Greece
Novel
c.1405 CE
The Book of the City of Ladies
by Christine de Pizan, France
Novel, originally Le Livre de la Cité des Dames
1516
Utopia
by Thomas More, England
Novella
1532–1564
The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel
by François Rabelais, France
Novel in five volumes, originally Grands annales tresueritables des gestes merveilleux du grand Gargantua et Pantagruel, includes volumes Pantagruel, Gargantua, The Third Book of Pantagruel, The Fourth Book of Pantagruel, and The Fifth Book of Pantagruel.
c.1552
Wise and Crazy World
by Anton Francesco Doni, Italy
Novel, also known as New World or Star City, originally Il mondo savio e pazzo
1593
Arcadia
by Philip Sidney, England
Novel, also known as The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia
1605
The Discovery of a New World
by Joseph Hall, England
Novel, also known as An Old World and a New or Another World and Yet the Same, originally Mundus Alter et Idem
1626
New Atlantis
by Francis Bacon, England
Novel
1638
The Man in the Moone
by Francis Godwin, England
Novel
1648
New Jerusalem, or the Christian Institution
by attributed to Samuel Gott, England
Novel, originally Nova Solyma, sive Institutio Christiani
1657
The Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon
by Sauvien Cyrano de Bergerac, France
Novel, also known as The Other World or A Voyage to the Moon, originally Histoire comique, par Monsieur de Cyrano Bergerac, Contenant les Estats et Empires de la Lune
1666
The Blazing World
by Margaret Cavendish, England
Novel, also known as The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World
1675–1679
The History of Sevarambians
by Denis Vairasse, France
Novel, also known as The History of the Sevarites or Sevarambi
1676
The Southern Land, Known
by Gabriel de Foigny, France
Novel, originally La Terre Australe connue
1699
The Adventures of Telemachus
by François François, France
Novel, originally Les Aventures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse
1719
Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe, England
Novel
The biggest mystery about Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe may be why it is so well known, so fondly remembered, so enshrined in our culture. As novels go, this is one dreadful piece of work. The writing is.... Critique • Quotes • Text • At the movies • Buy
1726
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, Ireland
Novel
1751
The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a Cornish Man
by Robert Paltok, England
Novel
1759
Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia
by Samuel Johnson, England
Novella
Candide
by François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, France
Novella, originally Candide, ou l'Optimisme
1762
Millenium Hall
by Sarah Scott, England
Novel, also known as
1771
The Year 2440
by Louis-Sébastien Mercier, France
Novel, subtitled A Dream If Ever There Was One; also known as Memoirs of the Year Two Thousand Five Hundred or Astraea's Return, or The Halcyon Days of France in the Year 2440: A Dream; originally L'An 2440, rêve s'il en fut jamais
1776
The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom
by Ignacy Krasicki, Poland
Novel, also known as The Adventures of Nicholas Empiricus, originally Mikołaja Doświadczyńskiego przypadki
1840
Voyage to Icaria
by Étienne Cabet, France
Novel, also known as Travels in Icaria, originally Voyage en Icarie
1870
The History of a Town
by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Russia
Novel, also known as Foolsburg: The History of a Town
1871
The Coming Race
Novel
It's an irony of sorts that Edward Bulwer-Lytton's most influential book may be his last, one of his shortest, written in a genre different from everything else he had done to that point, and not even published under his own.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
1872
Erewhon
Novel
I'm not sure we should even call Erewhon a novel. If it is one, it's a novel of ideas. Not like, say, one of Aldous Huxley's novels of ideas though. Great ideas don't play out among characters or decide the plot. In Butler's.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy
1887
A Crystal Age
by William Henry Hudson, England
Novel
1888
A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder
by James de Mille, Canada
Novel
Looking Backward: 2000–1887
by Edward Bellamy, United States
Novel
1890
Mizora
by Mary E. Bradley Lane, United States
Novel
1891
News from Nowhere
by William Morris, England
Novel
1894
2894, or The Fossil Man (A Midwinter Night's Dream)
by Walter Browne, United States
Novel
A Traveler from Altruria
by William Dean Howells, United States
Novel
1895
The Time Machine
by H.G. Wells, England
Novella
1897
Equality
by Edward Bellamy, United States
Novel
1900
NEQUA or The Problem of the Ages
by Jack Adams (A.O. Grigsby and Mary P. Lowe), United States
Novel
1901
The Purple Cloud
by M.P. Shiel, England
Novel
1903–1911
The Lunar Trilogy
by Jerzy Żuławski[, Poland
Novel series, also known as The Moon Trilogy, originally Trylogia księżycowa, includes On the Silver Globe, The Conqueror and The Old Earth.
1905
Sultana's Dream
by Begum Rokeya, Bangladesh
Novel
A Modern Utopia
by H.G. Wells, England
Novel
The Millennium
by Upton Sinclair, United States
Novel, subtitled A Comedy of the Year 2000
1908
Red Star
by Alexander Bogdanov, Russia
Novel
The Iron Heel
by Jack London, United States
Novel
1909
Beatrice the Sixteenth
by Irene Clyde, England
Novel, subtitled Being the Personal Narrative of Mary Hatherley, M.B., Explorer and Geographer
The Machine Stops
by E.M. Forster, England
Novella
1915
Herland
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, United States
Novel
1924
We
by Yevgeny Zamyatin, Russia
Novel, originally My
1932
Brave New World
Novel
I wonder if people who refer to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World as a cautionary tale—that is, those who aren't confusing it with George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four—could actually spell out what it is cautioning against.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
1933
Lost Horizon
by James Hilton, England
Novel
1935
The Green Child
by Herbert Read, England
Novel
1936
War with the Newts
by Karel Čapek, Czechoslovakia
Novel, also known as Salamander Wars, originally Válka s Mloky
Invitation to a Beheading
by Vladimir Nabokov, Russia
Novel
1938
For Us, the Living
by Robert A. Heinlein, United States
Novel
Anthem
by Ayn Rand, United States
Novella
1948
Walden Two
by B.F. Skinner, United States
Novel
The World of Null-A
Novel
1949
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Novel
George Orwell's dystopian novel has had the fortune to be acclaimed in the West by two usually opposed groups—right wingers and left wingers. The former saw it as a denunciation of collectivism in all its forms.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
1952
Player Piano
by Kurt Vonnegut, United States
Novel
Fahrenheit 451
Novel
It may seem Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is becoming less relevant these days, as hard-copy books are at risk of disappearing, pushed aside by digital communications. Without paper media, warnings about.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
1955
The Chrysalids
by John Wyndham, England
Novel, also known as Re-Birth
1960
A Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller, United States
Novel
1961–1985
The Noon Universe
by Arkady and Boris Strugatski, Russia
Novel series
1962
The Drowned World
by J.G. Ballard, England
Novel
A Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess, England
Novel
1966
Make Room! Make Room!
by Harry Harrison, United States
Novel
The novel Make Room! Make Room! was published right in the middle of the boom in warnings about overpopulation and depletion of resources in the 1960s and early 1970s. It actually preceded a number of more famous.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
1967
Camp Concentration
by Thomas Disch, United States
Novel
1968
Stand On Zanzibar
by John Brunner, United States
Novel
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Novella, also known as Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
1972
The Sheep Look Up
by John Brunner, United States
Novel
1974
The Dispossessed
Novel, subtitled An Ambiguous Utopia
1982
Voyage from Yesteryear
by James P. Hogan, England
Novel
1982–1989
V for Vendetta
by Alan Moore, England
Graphic novel series
1985
The Handmaid's Tale
Novel
If you're well-versed in science fiction—or speculative fiction as it's often called—and you approach The Handmaid's Tale as an example of that genre, you may be disappointed. The world of Margaret.... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy
Always Coming Home
by Ursula K. Le Guin, United States
Novel
1987–2012
Culture series
by Iain M. Banks, Scotland
Novel series includes Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, The State of the Art, and others.
1990
Incandescence
by Greg Egan, Australia
Novel
Pacific Edge
by Kim Stanley Robinson, United States
Novel
1991
Diaspora
by Greg Egan, Australia
Novel
1992
Children of Men
by P.D. James, England
Novel
1993
Parable of the Sower
by Lois Lowry, United States
Novel
The Giver
by Lois Lowry, United States
Novel, first in The Giver Quartet
1997
3001: The Final Odyssey
by Arthur C. Clarke, England
Novel
2001–2008
Aria
by Kozue Amano, Japan
Graphic novel series
2003
Vernon God Little
by DBC Pierre, United States
Novel
2003–2013
The MaddAddam Trilogy
by Margaret Atwood, Canada
Novel series includes Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam.
2005
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro, England
Novel
2006
The Road
by Cormac McCarthy, United States
Novel
2008–2010
The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins, United States
Novel series includes The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay.
2009
The City & the City
by China Miéville, England
Novel
The Windup Girl
by Paolo Bacigalupi, United States
Novel
Maze Runner,The
by James Dashner, United States
Novel
2011
Ready Player One
by Ernest Cline, United States
Novel
2011–2013
Divergent trilogy
by Veronica Roth, United States
Novel series includes includes Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant.
2014
Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel, Canada
Novel
2016–2021
Terra Ignota
by Ada Palmer, United States
Novel series includes Too Like the Lightning, Seven Surrenders, The Will to Battle, and Perhaps the Stars.
2019
Queen of the Conquered
by Kacen Callender, United States
Novel
