Books like

Books like Heartbreak House

12 books with a reading profile close to Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw, George Shaw, Bernard Shaw. Deep and open-ended; a moderate read.

1

Island

by Aldous Huxley

Also deep · philosophy, literary

The story follows Will Farnaby, a cynical journalist who shipwrecks on the forbidden Pacific island of Pala.
2

Il visconte dimezzato

by Italo Calvino

Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary

During a war against the Turks in Bohemia, a young nobleman, Viscount Medardo of Terralba, is split down the middle by a cannonball.
3

Measure for Measure

by William Shakespeare

Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary

Duke Vincentio departs Vienna under a pretext of travel, leaving the puritanical Angelo to enforce long-ignored moral laws.
4

Antigone

by Jean Anouilh

Also deep · philosophy, literary

Jean Anouilh's play, first staged in occupied Paris in 1944, retells Sophocles.
5

The Wall

by Jean-Paul Sartre

Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary

Sartre's collection takes its name from the title story, set during the Spanish Civil War.
6

Oscar Wilde's Plays, Prose Writings, and Poems

by Oscar Wilde, H Pearson

philosophy, literary

This volume assembles the primary literary output of the Victorian era’s most notable wit, including the full text of "The Importance of Being Earnest" alongside "Lady Windermere’s Fan." The collection balances Wilde’s…
7

Alcestis

by Euripides

Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary

In this tragedy, King Admetus is granted a reprieve from his impending death on the condition that someone else dies in his place.
8

Eugene Onegin

by Alexander Pushkin

Also deep · philosophy, literary

Alexander Pushkin’s novel in verse follows Eugene Onegin, a cynical aristocrat weary of Saint Petersburg’s high society.
9

Metamorphoses

by Ovid

Also deep · philosophy, literary

Ovid’s hexameter narrative tracks the history of the world from its chaotic origins to the assassination of Julius Caesar.
10

Fathers and Sons

by Ivan Turgenev

Also deep · philosophy, literary

Arkady Kirsanov returns from university to his father's estate in 1859, bringing his friend Yevgeny Bazarov, a medical student and self-declared nihilist who rejects authority, art, and tradition.
11

No Exit

by Jean-Paul Sartre

Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary

Set in a single room furnished with Second Empire sofas, the play follows three deceased individuals—Garcin, Inès, and Estelle—as they realize they are their own torturers.
12

In the Penal Colony

by Franz Kafka

Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary

In Franz Kafka's "In the Penal Colony," an explorer witnesses a brutal execution machine in a remote penal colony.

Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.

Get papr

Your library, beautifully understood.