Books like The Name of the Rose
12 books with a reading profile close to The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Deep and open-ended; a demanding read.
-
1
An Instance of the Fingerpost
by Iain Pears
Also deep and open-ended · history, dense
Set in 1660s Oxford, the novel centers on the suspicious death of Dr.
-
2
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
Also deep · history, philosophy
Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, this novel tracks the interconnected lives of three aristocratic families: the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Kuragins.
-
3
The Epic of Gilgamesh
by Anonymous
Also deep · philosophy, dense
Gilgamesh, the ruler of Uruk, dominates his subjects until the gods create Enkidu, a feral man, to challenge him.
-
4
War and Peace
by Лев Толстой
Also deep · history, philosophy
Leo Tolstoy’s narrative tracks the intersecting lives of three main aristocratic families—the Rostovs, Bolkonskys, and Kuragins—during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.
-
5
Man and Superman
Also deep and open-ended · 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.
-
6
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.
-
7
The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides
by Aeschylus
Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, dense
Aeschylus's trilogy, the only complete surviving set of Greek tragedies, follows the house of Atreus after the Trojan War.
-
8
Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, dense
Alonso Quijano, an elderly man from La Mancha, loses his grip on reality after consuming a constant diet of chivalric tales.
-
9
-
10
Moby-Dick
Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, dense
Ishmael, a schoolmaster seeking relief from a melancholy spirit, joins the crew of the Pequod, a whaling vessel departing from Nantucket.
-
11
Dead Souls
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.
-
12
Inferno
Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, dense
Dante Alighieri narrates his descent through nine concentric circles of hell under the guidance of the Roman poet Virgil.
Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.
Get papr
