Books like

Books like Samson Agonistes

12 books with a reading profile close to Samson Agonistes by John Milton. Deep, contemplative and open-ended; a demanding read.

1

Don Quixote

by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Alonso Quijano, an elderly man from La Mancha, loses his grip on reality after consuming a constant diet of chivalric tales.
2

Paradise Lost

by John Milton

Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, dense

John Milton composed this epic poem in blank verse to justify the ways of God to men.
3

Moby-Dick

by Herman Melville

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Ishmael, a schoolmaster seeking relief from a melancholy spirit, joins the crew of the Pequod, a whaling vessel departing from Nantucket.
4

The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides

by Aeschylus

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Aeschylus's trilogy, the only complete surviving set of Greek tragedies, follows the house of Atreus after the Trojan War.
5

The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso

by Dante Alighieri

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Dante Alighieri narrates his own passage through the three realms of the afterlife, beginning in a dark forest where the Roman poet Virgil meets him.
6

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Volume 2: Purgatorio

by Dante Alighieri

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Following their departure from the pit of Hell, Dante and his guide Virgil ascend the island-mountain of Purgatory.
7

Dead Souls

by Nikolai Gogol

Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, dense

Chichikov, a mysterious gentleman of middling rank and no obvious fortune, drives a britzka into a provincial Russian town and charms the local officials.
8

The Epic of Gilgamesh

by Anonymous

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Gilgamesh, the ruler of Uruk, dominates his subjects until the gods create Enkidu, a feral man, to challenge him.
9

Works [37 plays, 6 poems, sonnets]

by William Shakespeare

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

This 1730 collection organizes the complete dramatic and poetic output of William Shakespeare, encompassing comedies, histories, and tragedies alongside his lyrical sequences.
10

Man and Superman

by George Bernard Shaw

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

In this four-act drama, George Bernard Shaw uses the character of John Tanner, an intellectual revolutionary, to argue that women are the primary pursuers in human courtship.
11

The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone

by Sophocles

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

These three plays by Sophocles follow Thebes' royal family through its curse.
12

The novels and other works of Lyof N. Tolstoï

by Лев Толстой

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

This 1899 multivolume collection compiles the major literary output of Count Lev Tolstoy, encompassing his psychological epics, shorter fiction, and philosophical treatises.

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