Books like

Books like Candide

12 books with a reading profile close to Candide by Voltaire. Deep and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

The Baron in the Trees

by Italo Calvino

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

In 1767, twelve-year-old Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, a young nobleman in Liguria, climbs a tree after a quarrel at dinner, and vows never to come down.
2

Lord of the Flies

by William Golding

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

During a nuclear conflict, a plane crash leaves a group of British schoolboys stranded on an uninhabited tropical island without adult supervision.
3

The Picture of Dorian Gray Illustrated

by Oscar Wilde

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

In Victorian London, the young Dorian Gray sits for a portrait by artist Basil Hallward, who captures the youth's extraordinary beauty on canvas.
4

Gulliver’s Travels

by Jonathan Swift

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s surgeon, recounts four separate voyages to remote corners of the world where he encounters societies that physicalize human absurdity.
5

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

by Thornton Wilder

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

In 1714, a rope bridge in Peru collapses, sending five travelers to their deaths in the chasm below.
6

The Fountainhead

by Ayn Rand

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

The story follows visionary architect Howard Roark as he battles a society that demands artistic conformity and selfless service over individual excellence.
7

Wise Blood

by Flannery O'Connor

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

Hazel Motes returns from war to a rural Tennessee landscape and establishes the Church Without Christ.
8

The Odyssey

by Homer

Also deep · philosophy, narrative

Following the destruction of Troy, the Greek king Odysseus begins a ten-year voyage to reach his home in Ithaca.
9

1984 and Animal Farm

by Rafael Arrais, George Orwell

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, literary

This volume combines George Orwell’s two most famous political allegories, featuring his original text alongside introductory commentary by Rafael Arrais.
10

Pygmalion

by George Bernard Shaw

Also deep and thought-provoking · narrative, literary

Professor Henry Higgins, a specialist in phonetics, bets that he can pass off a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a duchess by altering her speech and manners.
11

The Great Divorce

by C.S. Lewis

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

A narrator boards a flying bus in a grey, rainy city and travels to the foothills of Heaven.
12

The Plague

by Albert Camus

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

Set in the coastal city of Oran, the narrative begins when rats emerge from the shadows to die in the streets, signaling an outbreak of bubonic plague.

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