Books like

Books like The Last Temptation of Christ

12 books with a reading profile close to The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. Deep, inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

The power and the Glory

by Graham Greene

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, classic literature

Set in 1930s Mexico during the Cristero War, the narrative follows a nameless whiskey priest fleeing a paramilitary police force.
2

Death in Venice

by Thomas Mann

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, classic literature

Gustav von Aschenbach, a disciplined German writer who has prioritized rigorous intellect over sensory pleasure, travels to Venice to escape a creative drought.
3

Fathers and Sons

by Ivan Turgenev

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, classic literature

Arkady Kirsanov returns from university to his father's estate in 1859, bringing his friend Yevgeny Bazarov, a medical student and self-declared nihilist who rejects authority, art, and tradition.
4

Eugene Onegin

by Alexander Pushkin

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, classic literature

Alexander Pushkin’s novel in verse follows Eugene Onegin, a cynical aristocrat weary of Saint Petersburg’s high society.
5

The Wall

by Jean-Paul Sartre

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, classic literature

Sartre's collection takes its name from the title story, set during the Spanish Civil War.
6

Medea

by Euripides

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, classic literature

Euripides depicts the psychological collapse and subsequent vengeance of Medea, a Colchian princess abandoned by her husband, Jason.
7

Poems by John Keats

by John Keats

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, classic literature

John Keats’s debut collection, published in March 1817 rather than 1800, organizes lyrical meditations on the restorative capacity of the natural world and the permanence of classical mythology.
8

Songs of innocence and of experience

by William Blake

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, classic literature

William Blake’s hand-colored collection contrasts two differing states of the human soul.
9

Alcestis

by Euripides

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, classic literature

In this tragedy, King Admetus is granted a reprieve from his impending death on the condition that someone else dies in his place.
10

The Tartar Steppe

by Dino Buzzati

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, classic literature

Giovanni Drogo, a young officer, is posted to the Bastiani Fortress, an isolated outpost on the northern frontier overlooking a barren plain.
11

No Exit

by Jean-Paul Sartre

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, classic literature

Set in a single room furnished with Second Empire sofas, the play follows three deceased individuals—Garcin, Inès, and Estelle—as they realize they are their own torturers.
12

Island

by Aldous Huxley

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, classic literature

The story follows Will Farnaby, a cynical journalist who shipwrecks on the forbidden Pacific island of Pala.

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