Social satire dystopias

Dystopian satire uses the exaggerated future to indict the present. The tone is comic, the target is real, and the absurd society on the page is a mirror held up at an angle. These books earn their darkness through laughter, and their best jokes are the ones that turn out to be true.

29 titles in this subgenre, earliest first.

• 
  Gulliver's TravelsJonathan Swift · 1726
• The History of a Town
  The History of a TownMikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin · 1870
• 
  The Fixed PeriodAnthony Trollope · 1882
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  A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper CylinderJames De Mille · 1888
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  The First Men in the MoonH. G. Wells · 1901
• 
  Meccania"Owen Gregory" · 1918
• 
  Brave New WorldAldous Huxley · 1932
• 
  It Can't Happen HereSinclair Lewis · 1935
• Some Time Never: A Fable for Supermen
  Some Time Never: A Fable for SupermenRoald Dahl · 1948
• 
  Nineteen Eighty-FourGeorge Orwell · 1949
• 
  Player PianoKurt Vonnegut · 1952
• 
  Fahrenheit 451Ray Bradbury · 1953
• 
  The Space MerchantsFrederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth, consumerism, George Mann · 1953
• 
  The Old Men at the ZooAngus Wilson · 1961
• 
  A Clockwork OrangeAnthony Burgess · 1962
• Planet of the Apes
  Planet of the ApesPierre Boulle · 1968
• 
  The Foundation PitAndrei Platonov · 1969
• 
  The Handmaid's TaleMargaret Atwood · 1985
• 
  FeedM. T. Anderson · 2002
• 
  Jennifer GovernmentMax Barry · 2003
• 
  Day of the OprichnikVladimir Sorokin · 2006
• 
  Blind FaithBen Elton · 2007
• 
  Shades of GreyJasper Fforde · 2009
• 
  Super Sad True Love StoryGary Shteyngart · 2010
• 
  MaddAddamMargaret Atwood · 2013
• Submission
  SubmissionMichel Houellebecq · 2015
• 
  The Heart Goes LastMargaret Atwood · 2015
• 
  The CircleDave Eggers · 2016
• 
  Friday BlackNana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah · 2018