Books like

Books like The French Lieutenant’s Woman

12 books with a reading profile close to The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles. Deep, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

The Passion

by Jeanette Winterson

Also deep and open-ended · romance, literary

Henri is a young French peasant who becomes Napoleon's personal cook and follows the emperor's armies, as he worships the emperor.
2

Orlando

by Virginia Woolf

Also deep and open-ended · classic literature, literary

The narrative follows Orlando, a young Elizabethan nobleman who begins as a favorite of the court and lives for over three centuries without aging significantly.
3

Ojos de perro azul

by Gabriel García Márquez

Also deep and open-ended · classic literature, literary

This collection of short stories documents the early development of Gabriel García Márquez’s narrative style before his shift into Macondo.
4

Howl and Other Poems

by Allen Ginsberg

Also deep and open-ended · classic literature, literary

Published in 1956, this collection centers on the title poem, a frantic catalog of mid-century American struggle.
5

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Also deep and open-ended · classic literature, literary

The poem recounts a sailor’s harrowing sea voyage that spirals into disaster after he shoots an albatross without provocation.
6

Woyzeck

by Georg Büchner

Also deep and open-ended · classic literature, literary

Franz Woyzeck is a low-ranking soldier stationed in a provincial German town, struggling to provide for his common-law wife, Marie, and their infant son.
7

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

by J.D. Salinger

Also deep and contemplative · classic literature, literary

J.D.
8

Amerika

by Franz Kafka

Also deep and open-ended · classic literature, literary

Karl Rossmann is a teenager banished by his parents to America after a scandal with a maid.
9

Clevinger's trial (from 'Catch-22')

by Joseph Heller

Also deep and open-ended · classic literature, literary

Joseph Heller’s standalone play, Clevinger’s Trial, adapts the eighth chapter of his novel Catch-22 into a rhythmic, one-act script.
10

Antony and Cleopatra

by William Shakespeare

Also deep and thought-provoking · romance, classic literature

This tragedy chronicles the political and romantic alliance between Mark Antony, a Roman triumvir, and Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt.
11

Wuthering Heights

by Emily Brontë

Also deep and thought-provoking · romance, classic literature

Set against the desolate Yorkshire moors, this novel follows the volatile connection between Catherine Earnshaw and the foundling Heathcliff.
12

Naked Lunch

by William S. Burroughs, William Burroughs

Also deep and open-ended · classic literature, literary

William Lee, a drug addict and fugitive, flees a narcotics investigation in the United States to seek refuge in the Interzone, a hallucinatory territory located in North Africa.

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