Books like Tess of the D’Urbervilles
12 books with a reading profile close to Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Margaret R. Higonnet, Tim Dolin. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
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1
A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
John Wheelwright narrates the life of his best friend, Owen Meany, a boy with a high-pitched voice who accidentally kills John’s mother with a foul ball during a Little League game in 1953.
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2
A Fine Balance
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Set in mid-1970s India during the government-mandated Emergency, the narrative centers on four strangers cohabitating in a cramped apartment to survive economic hardship.
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3
Villette, a novel
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Lucy Snowe, a young woman without family or financial security, travels to the fictional Belgian city of Villette to become a teacher at a girls’ boarding school.
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4
The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran Desai
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Set in a crumbling house in the Himalayas against the 1980s Gorkhaland insurgency, the narrative follows Biju and Sai.
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5
On Beauty
by Zadie Smith
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
The narrative center of the novel is the Belsey family, led by Howard, a white British art historian living in a fictional Massachusetts college town.
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6
Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder
by Evelyn Waugh
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
During the mobilization of World War II, Captain Charles Ryder finds himself stationed at Brideshead Castle, the ancestral seat of the Marchmain family.
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7
The Marriage Plot
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Set in the early 1980s, the story follows three Brown University graduates navigating the transition to adulthood.
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8
A Sportsman's Sketches Vol. I
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
In this 2025 edition from Double 9 Books, an aristocratic narrator travels through the Russian countryside on hunting expeditions, documenting his encounters with various social strata.
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9
The Stone Diaries
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Daisy Goodwill Flett is born in 1905 in a Manitoba limestone quarry town, her mother dying in childbirth without knowing she was pregnant.
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10
Martin Eden
by Jack London
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Martin Eden, a coarse and uneducated sailor, decides to overhaul his entire identity after meeting Ruth Morse, a woman from a refined bourgeois family.
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11
The Lowland
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Subhash and Udayan are brothers born in Calcutta, separated by temperament and political conviction.
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12
Winesburg, Ohio
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Set in a small Midwestern town at the turn of the century, this collection of interconnected stories centers on George Willard, a young reporter for the local newspaper.
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