Books like Notes from Underground
12 books with a reading profile close to Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Deep, inward-looking and open-ended; a moderate read.
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1
Steppenwolf
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Harry Haller is a middle-aged intellectual living in a rented room, paralyzed by a perceived duality between his refined human persona and a savage, solitary identity he calls the Steppenwolf.
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2
Demian
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Emil Sinclair grows up in a conventional, pious household, struggling to reconcile the "world of light" represented by his family with the "world of darkness" he observes in the streets.
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3
A Hero of Our Time
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Set against the rugged landscape of the Caucasus Mountains, the novel follows Grigory Pechorin, a young Russian officer whose life is defined by boredom and emotional detachment.
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4
Il fu Mattia Pascal
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Mattia Pascal, a small-town librarian in Italy, is trapped in a miserable marriage and weighed down by his mother-in-law's temper.
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5
Franny and Zooey
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Franny and Zooey consists of two connected narratives centered on the youngest members of the Glass family, a group of former child prodigies.
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6
Hamlet
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Prince Hamlet returns to Elsinore, Denmark, for his father’s funeral, only to find his mother, Gertrude, married to his uncle, Claudius, who has seized the throne.
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7
The Kreutzer Sonata
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Pozdnyshev, a Russian landowner traveling by train, recounts the events leading to his wife’s murder.
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8
The Death of Ivan Ilych
by Leo Tolstoy
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Ivan Ilych is a high-ranking judge in nineteenth-century Russia who builds a life around social status, material comfort, and strict professional decorum.
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9
The Double
Also deep and inward-looking · literary, psychology
The story follows Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, a socially insecure titular councillor in Saint Petersburg whose fragile mental state shatters when he encounters a man identical to himself.
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10
One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Vitangelo Moscarda, a man of comfortable means who has inherited a bank from his father, is told by his wife that his nose is crooked.
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11
Confessions of a Mask
by Yukio Mishima, Meredith Weatherby
Also deep and inward-looking · literary, psychology
The novel chronicles the internal struggles of its narrator, Kochan, as he navigates his adolescence and young adulthood in post-war Japan.
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12
Crime and Punishment
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Rodion Raskolnikov, a destitute former student living in a cramped St.
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