This is a list of notable works of dystopian literature. A dystopia is an unpleasant (typically repressive) society, often propagandized as being utopian. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction states that dystopian works depict a negative view of "the way the world is supposedly going in order to provide urgent propaganda for a change in direction."

18th century

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  • Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift

19th century

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  • The Last Man (1826) by Mary Shelley
  • A Sojourn in the City of Amalgamation (1835) by Oliver Bolokitten
  • The Tragedy of Man (1862) by Imre Madách
  • Notes from Underground (1864) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • The History of a Town (1870) by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
  • Vril, the Power of the Coming Race (1871) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, originally printed as The Coming Race
  • Erewhon (1872) by Samuel Butler
  • The Begum's Fortune (1879) by Jules Verne
  • The Inner House (1888) by Walter Besant
  • A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder (1888) by James De Mille
  • Caesar's Column (1890) by Ignatius L. Donnelly
  • Pictures of the Socialistic Future (1891) by Eugen Richter
  • "The Repairer of Reputations" <!--Short story; goes in quote marks, not italics -->(1895) by Robert W. Chambers
  • The Time Machine (1895) by H. G. Wells
  • When The Sleeper Wakes (1899) by H. G. Wells

1910s

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  • The Night Land (1912) by William Hope Hodgson
  • When William Came (1913) by Saki as a future history, this is among the earliest of Pax Germanica genre
  • Meccania (1918) by "Owen Gregory"(pseudonym)
  • The Heads of Cerberus (1919) by "Francis Stevens" (Gertrude Barrows Bennett)

1920s

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  • R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots (1921) by Karel Čapek
  • We (1921) by Yevgeny Zamyatin
  • Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley
  • It Can't Happen Here (1935) by Sinclair Lewis
  • War with the Newts (1936) by Karel Čapek
  • Swastika Night (1937) by Katharine Burdekin
  • Anthem (1938) by Ayn Rand

1940s

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  • Darkness at Noon (1940) by Arthur Koestler
  • "If This Goes On—" (1940) by Robert A. Heinlein
  • The Moon Is Down (1942) by John Steinbeck
  • That Hideous Strength (1945) by C. S. Lewis
  • Peace In Our Time (1946) by Noël Coward
  • Bend Sinister (1947) by Vladimir Nabokov
  • Ape and Essence (1948) by Aldous Huxley

1950s

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  • Player Piano (1952) by Kurt Vonnegut
  • The Sound of His Horn (1952) by Sarban
  • Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury
  • The Caves of Steel (1954) by Isaac Asimov
  • Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding
  • The Chrysalids (1955) by John Wyndham
  • Vulcan's Hammer (1960) by Philip K. Dick
  • "Harrison Bergeron" (1961) by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Powrót z gwiazd (1961) by Stanisław Lem
  • The Old Men at the Zoo (1961) by Angus Wilson
  • A Clockwork Orange (1962) by Anthony Burgess
  • Camp Concentration (1968) by Thomas M. Disch
  • The Guardians (1970) by John Christopher
  • The Lorax (1971) by Dr. Seuss
  • The Lathe of Heaven (1971) by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Los Angeles: AD 2017 (1971) by Phillip Wylie
  • The World Inside (1971) by Robert Silverberg
  • 334 (1972) by Thomas M. Disch
  • The Ultimate Solution by Eric Norden (1973)
  • Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974) by Philip K. Dick
  • Walk to the End of the World (1974) by Suzy McKee Charnas (1977) – unfinished, attributed to C. S. Lewis,
  • The Eye of the Heron (1978) by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • SS-GB by Len Deighton (1978)
  • The Stand (1978) by Stephen King
  • 1985 (1978) by Anthony Burgess
  • The Turner Diaries (1978) by Andrew Macdonald
  • Alongside Night (1979) by J. Neil Schulman
  • The Long Walk (1979) by Stephen King under the pseudonym Richard Bachman

1980s

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  • Mockingbird (1980) by Walter Tevis
  • Riddley Walker (1980) by Russell Hoban
  • Lanark: A Life in Four Books (1981) by Alasdair Gray
  • Limes inferior (1982) by Janusz Zajdel
  • The Running Man (1982) by Stephen King under the pseudonym Richard Bachman
  • Dayworld (1985) by Philip José Farmer
  • The Handmaid's Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood
  • Sea of Glass (1986) by Barry B. Longyear
  • Obernewtyn Chronicles (1987–2008) by Isobelle Carmody
  • The Domination (1988) by S.&nbsp;M. Stirling
  • The Proteus Operation (1985) by James&nbsp;P. Hogan
  • The Divide (1980) by William Overgard
  • To the Stars trilogy (1980) by Harry Harrison

1990s

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Fiction

  • Clash of Eagles (1990) by Leo Rutman
  • The Dark Beyond the Stars (1991) by Frank M. Robinson
  • Timewyrm: Exodus (1991) by Terrance Dicks
  • Serpent's Walk (1991) by Randolph D. Calverhall
  • The Children of Men (1992) by P.&nbsp;D. James
  • Fatherland by Robert Harris (1992)
  • Snow Crash (1992) by Neal Stephenson
  • Parable of the Sower (1993) by Octavia E. Butler
  • Virtual Light (1993) by William Gibson
  • Vurt (1993) by Jeff Noon
  • Paris in the Twentieth Century (written in1863 but first published in 1994) by Jules Verne
  • The Memory Police (1994) by Yōko Ogawa
  • The Diamond Age (1994) by Neal Stephenson
  • Gun, with Occasional Music (1994) by Jonathan Lethem
  • Amnesia Moon (1995) by Jonathan Lethem
  • 48 (1996) by James Herbert
  • Attentatet i Pålsjö skog (1996) by Hans Alfredson
  • Infinite Jest (1996) by David Foster Wallace
  • Battle Royale (1999) by Koushun Takami
  • Forever Free (1999) by Joe Haldeman
  • The Ice People (1999) by Maggie Gee

Young adult fiction

  • The Giver (1993) by Lois Lowry
  • Shade's Children (1997) by Garth Nix
  • Among the Hidden (Shadow Children #1) (1998) by Margaret Peterson Haddix

21st century

2000s

Fiction

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  • Ella Minnow Pea (2001) by Mark Dunn
  • Feed (2002) by M. T. Anderson
  • In the Presence of Mine Enemies (2003) by Harry Turtledove
  • Jennifer Government (2003) by Max Barry
  • Oryx and Crake (2003) by Margaret Atwood
  • Collaborator (2003) by Murray Davies
  • Asphalt (2004) by Carl Hancock Rux
  • Cloud Atlas (2004) by David Mitchell
  • The Plot Against America (2004) by Philip Roth
  • Divided Kingdom (2005) by Rupert Thomson
  • Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Day of the Oprichnik (2006) by Vladimir Sorokin
  • Blind Faith (2007) by Ben Elton
  • Rant (2007) by Chuck Palahniuk
  • Last Light (2007) by Alex Scarrow
  • Nontraditional Love (2008) by Rafael Grugman
  • World Made by Hand (2008) by James Howard Kunstler
  • Farthing, Ha'penny, and Half a Crown, series by Jo Walton (2006–2008)
  • The City & the City (2009) by China Miéville
  • Shades of Grey (2009) by Jasper Fforde
  • The Windup Girl (2009) by Paolo Bacigalupi
  • The Year of the Flood (2009) by Margaret Atwood
  • Z213: Exit (2009) by Dimitris Lyacos

Young adult fiction

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  • Gathering Blue (2000) by Lois Lowry
  • Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles #1) (2001) by Philip Reeve
  • Noughts and Crosses (2001) by Malorie Blackman
  • The House of the Scorpion (2002) by Nancy Farmer
  • Among the Barons (Shadow Children #4) (2003) by Margaret Peterson Haddix
  • Among the Betrayed (Shadow Children #3) (2003) by Margaret Peterson Haddix
  • The City of Ember (2003) by Jeanne DuPrau
  • Among the Brave (Shadow Children #5) (2004) by Margaret Peterson Haddix
  • Messenger (2004) by Lois Lowry
  • The People of Sparks (2004) by Jeanne DuPrau
  • Among the Enemy (Shadow Children #6) (2005) by Margaret Peterson Haddix
  • Checkmate (2005) by Malorie Blackman
  • Uglies (2005) by Scott Westerfeld
  • Pretties (2005) by Scott Westerfeld
  • Among the Free (Shadow Children #7) (2006) by Margaret Peterson Haddix
  • Genesis (2006) by Bernard Beckett
  • Life as We Knew It (2006) by Susan Beth Pfeffer
  • Specials (2006) by Scott Westerfeld
  • Extras (2007) by Scott Westerfeld
  • Incarceron (2007) by Catherine Fisher
  • Unwind (2007) by Neal Shusterman
  • The Host (2008) by Stephenie Meyer
  • The Dead and the Gone (2008) by Susan Beth Pfeffer
  • The Declaration (2008) by Gemma Malley
  • From the New World (2008) by Yusuke Kishi
  • Gone (2008) by Michael Grant
  • The Hunger Games (2008) by Suzanne Collins
  • The Diamond of Darkhold (2008) by Jeanne DuPrau
  • The Resistance (2008) by Gemma Malley
  • Sapphique (2007) by Catherine Fisher
  • Catching Fire (2009) by Suzanne Collins
  • The Forest of Hands and Teeth (2009) by Carrie Ryan
  • The Maze Runner (2009) by James Dashner

2010s

Fiction

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  • The Envy Chronicles (series) (2010) by Joss Ware
  • The Passage (2010) by Justin Cronin
  • Super Sad True Love Story (2010) by Gary Shteyngart
  • Ready Player One (2011) by Ernest Cline
  • Shimoneta (2012) by Hirotaka Akagi
  • Bleeding Edge (2013) by Thomas Pynchon
  • The Bone Season (2013) by Samantha Shannon
  • The Circle (2013) by Dave Eggers
  • MaddAddam (2013) by Margaret Atwood
  • The Office of Mercy (2013) by Ariel Djanikian
  • Wool (2013) by Hugh Howey
  • Dominion (2014) by C.&nbsp;J. Sansom
  • Station Eleven (2014) by Emily St. John Mandel
  • The Girl with All the Gifts (2014) by M. R. Carey
  • Submission (2015) by Michel Houellebecq
  • The Heart Goes Last (2015) by Margaret Atwood
  • Friday Black (2018) by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
  • Tears of the Trufflepig (2019) by Fernando A. Flores
  • The Testaments (2019) by Margaret Atwood

Young adult fiction

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  • Matched (2010) by Ally Condie
  • Mockingjay (2010) by Suzanne Collins
  • Monsters of Men (2010) by Patrick Ness
  • The Scorch Trials (2010) by James Dashner
  • Across The Universe (2011) by Beth Revis
  • Crossed (2011) by Ally Condie
  • The Death Cure (2011) by James Dashner
  • Delirium (2011) by Lauren Oliver
  • Divergent (2011) by Veronica Roth
  • Legend (2011) by Marie Lu
  • Shatter Me (2011) by Tahereh Mafi
  • The Unwanteds (2011) by Lisa McMann
  • Wither (2011) by Lauren DeStefano
  • Article 5 (2012) by Kristen Simmons
  • Pandemonium (2012) by Lauren Oliver
  • Insurgent (2012) by Veronica Roth
  • The Selection (2012) by Kiera Cass
  • Son (2012) by Lois Lowry
  • Reached (2012) by Ally Condie
  • Revealing Eden (2012) by Victoria Foyt
  • Under the Never Sky (2012) by Veronica Rossi
  • Prodigy (2013) by Marie Lu
  • The Elite (2013) by Kiera Cass
  • The 5th Wave (2013) by Rick Yancey
  • Unravel Me (2013) by Tahereh Mafi
  • Allegiant (2013) by Veronica Roth
  • Champion (2013) by Marie Lu
  • Reboot (2013) by Amy Tintera
  • The Infinite Sea (2014) by Rick Yancey
  • Red Rising (2014) by Pierce Brown
  • Golden Son (2015) by Pierce Brown
  • Red Queen (novel) (2015) by Victoria Aveyard
  • Morning Star (2016) by Pierce Brown
  • The Last Star (2016) by Rick Yancey
  • Scythe (2016) by Neal Shusterman
  • Iron Gold (2018) by Pierce Brown

2020s

Fiction

  • Prophet Song (2023) by Paul Lynch

Young adult fiction

  • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020) by Suzanne Collins
  • Sunrise on the Reaping (2025) by Suzanne Collins
  • Ready Player Two (2020) by Ernest Cline

See also

  • Lists of dystopian works
  • Science fiction
  • List of utopian literature

References