The Palm-Wine Drinkard
#7543.71 adjusted 3.76 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 1952 Reading commitment Low Amos Tutuola Last reviewed 2026-08-27
Overview
The Palm-Wine Drinkard follows a nameless narrator, a man so devoted to palm wine that he keeps a personal tapster to supply him, who journeys into the land of the dead to bring his tapster back after the man's accidental death, encountering a host of supernatural beings, magical trials, and ghostly towns along the way, including the Dead's Town itself. Written in the author's own distinctive Nigerian-English idiom and drawing directly on Yoruba oral folklore, the 1952 novel was one of the earliest African novels published in English and is now recognized as a foundational text of African fantasy fiction. Initial reception was divided: some Western critics dismissed its unconventional English as primitive, while some African intellectuals worried it reinforced colonial stereotypes, but later scholarship reassessed it as an innovative synthesis of oral storytelling and written narrative, and it has since been translated into numerous languages.
Mythic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952) core · 3.71 (4,021 ratings); Full original title: The Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads' Town. Published in the UK by Faber and Faber in 1952 and in the US by Grove Press in 1953; written in an idiosyncratic Nigerian-English idiom drawing directly on Yoruba oral folklore.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Palm-Wine Drinkard? The Palm-Wine Drinkard's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is The Palm-Wine Drinkard finished? Complete (1952).
- How much reading does The Palm-Wine Drinkard take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~125 pages).
- How is The Palm-Wine Drinkard ranked? #754 in this site's official ranking, based on 4,021 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #754?
Ranked #754 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.71 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (4,021 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #753, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Modestly rated · 1 book · Complete · 4k ratings · Ranks #754 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment mythic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- No competitive literary award record was found for this work; it predates most fantasy-specific awards.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.71 across 4,021 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Admit The Palm-Wine Drinkard (Amos Tutuola) accepted 2026-08-27
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia Tier 2
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-08-27
Rule: Core Canon is the single complete novel, the only work in this universe.