Books like

Books like A Handful of Dust

12 books with a reading profile close to A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh. Deep and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

Tartuffe

by Molière

Also deep and thought-provoking · literary, classic literature

In seventeenth-century Paris, a wealthy patriarch named Orgon falls under the spell of Tartuffe, a man posing as a pious ascetic.
2

Keep the Aspidistra Flying

by George Orwell

Also thought-provoking · literary, classic literature

Gordon Comstock, a young London poet, has quit a good advertising job because he despises the worship of money.
3

Washington Square

by Henry James

Also deep and thought-provoking · literary, classic literature

In the affluent backdrop of mid-nineteenth-century New York, Catherine Sloper lives under the scrutiny of her father, Austin, a prominent physician who views his daughter as dull and unremarkable.
4

The Moon and Sixpence

by W. Somerset Maugham

Also deep and thought-provoking · literary, classic literature

Charles Strickland is an ordinary London stockbroker with a wife and two children until he abandons them without explanation and moves to Paris to paint.
5

The Beautiful and Damned

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Also thought-provoking · literary, classic literature

Set in the shifting social landscape of 1910s New York, the narrative follows Anthony Patch, the presumptive heir to a massive tycoon fortune, and his marriage to the socialite Gloria Gilbert.
6

The Portable Oscar Wilde

by Richard Aldington, Oscar Wilde

literary, classic literature

This 1946 compilation preserves the breadth of Oscar Wilde’s literary output, moving beyond his reputation as a mere wit.
7

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Also thought-provoking · literary, classic literature

Eliot Rosewater, the alcoholic heir to a massive industrial fortune, abandons high society to relocate to a decaying town in Indiana.
8

Portnoy’s Complaint

by Philip Roth

Also deep and thought-provoking · literary, classic literature

Alexander Portnoy lies on a psychoanalyst’s couch and delivers a frantic, obscene monologue regarding his sexual frustrations and childhood hangfires.
9

Eugénie Grandet

by Honoré de Balzac, Christopher Prendergast

Also thought-provoking · literary, classic literature

Set in the provincial town of Saumur, this novel documents the domestic tyranny of Felix Grandet, a former cooper who has amassed a secret fortune through obsessive land speculation and hoarding.
10

A Rose for Emily and Other Stories

by William Faulkner

Also deep and thought-provoking · literary, classic literature

Faulkner's collection centers on the title story, in which the townspeople of Jefferson, Mississippi, attend the funeral of Miss Emily Grierson, a reclusive woman from an old family.
11

MAIN STREET

by Sinclair Lewis

Also deep and thought-provoking · literary, classic literature

Carol Kennicott moves from the city to Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, seeking to introduce aesthetic beauty and intellectual vibrancy to the provincial town.
12

La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes

by Lazarillo de Tormes

Also thought-provoking · literary, classic literature

Lázaro narrates his own life from the poorest start.

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