On the Road
- 310
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
- Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century
- 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
About the book
On the Road is a 1957 novel by American author Jack Kerouac, inspired by his travels across the United States. It is widely regarded as a defining work of the postwar Beat Generation, following a group of friends living for the moment against a backdrop of jazz, poetry, and rebellion.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 6.9 across 922 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 86% of the weight and the score stays at 7.0 — the Classics average of 7.7 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.1 | 91 | 10% |
| Google Books | 7.0 | 19 | 2% |
| Hardcover | 6.9 | 812 | 88% |
Reader voices
The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).
“A vibrant portrayal of life presented in jazz form: messy, loud, improvised, collaborative, and irreverently original. This is what you would expect from a literary icon who helped found an entire movement. Jack Kerouac's iconic novel On the Road truly lives up to its positive reputation and embodies a life-affirming joie de vivre.”
“Wildly overrated “novel” about a bunch of beatniks travelling around and having “adventures”, mostly involving drugs and sex and being liberated and putting it “to the man”. Pathetically trying to be cool and irreverent but coming off immature, like rebellious teenagers. I don't understand why…”
Frequently asked
How long is On the Road?
It has 310 pages — longer than 65% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Classics — with scores between 7.0 and 7.1, closest to this book.
