Books like

Books like The Complete Essays

12 books with a reading profile close to The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and open-ended; a demanding read.

1

The Complete Stories

by Franz Kafka

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, dense

This volume gathers the short stories Franz Kafka wrote and published during his lifetime, plus other pieces released after his death.
2

Thus Spake Zarathustra

by Friedrich Nietzsche

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, dense

Zarathustra, a prophet who has spent a decade in mountain solitude, descends to the valley to share his realizations with humanity.
3

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, dense

Zarathustra, a mountain-dwelling hermit, descends to civilization to announce the death of God and the emergence of the Ubermensch.
4

Heart of Darkness

by Joseph Conrad

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, dense

Charles Marlow, a seasoned sailor, narrates his passage aboard a steamship into the Congo Free State to retrieve Mr.
5

The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

by W.B. Yeats

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, dense

This volume tracks the evolution of William Butler Yeats’s poetic output across four decades, charting a progression from early Victorian romanticism to a starker, modernist aesthetic.
6

WILHELM MEISTER'S APPRENTICESHIP AND TRAVELS

by J. W. von Goethe

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, dense

Wilhelm Meister begins as a merchant’s son who abandons his family’s commercial expectations to join a troupe of traveling actors.
7

Faust, First Part

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, dense

Heinrich Faust, a disenchanted scholar, abandons traditional medicine, theology, and philosophy after realizing that intellectual mastery has failed to reveal the secrets of the universe.
8

Inferno

by Dante Alighieri

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Dante Alighieri narrates his descent through nine concentric circles of hell under the guidance of the Roman poet Virgil.
9

Works [37 plays, 6 poems, sonnets]

by William Shakespeare

Also deep and inward-looking · 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

The Magic Mountain

by Thomas Mann

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, dense

Hans Castorp, a young engineer, visits his cousin at a tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, intending to stay for three weeks.
11

King Lear

by William Shakespeare

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, dense

In 1608, William Shakespeare’s tragedy follows an aging British monarch who abdicates his throne and divides his territory based on his daughters’ public professions of love.
12

Collected Fictions

by Jorge Luis Borges

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

This volume brings together Borges's short fiction in English, including A Universal History of Infamy, Ficciones, The Aleph, Doctor Brodie's Report and The Book of Sand.

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