Books like The Razor’s Edge
12 books with a reading profile close to The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
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1
The Old Man and the Sea
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Set in a small Cuban fishing village in 1952, the story follows Santiago, an aging fisherman who has gone eighty-four days without a catch.
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2
The power and the Glory
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Set in 1930s Mexico during the Cristero War, the narrative follows a nameless whiskey priest fleeing a paramilitary police force.
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3
Our Town
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Set in the fictional village of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, between 1901 and 1913, this three-act play strips away traditional theatrical scenery to focus on the daily rhythms of the Gibbs and Webb families.
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4
The Road Not Taken and Other Poems
by Robert Frost
Also inward-looking and contemplative · philosophy, literary
Robert Frost’s 1916 collection, originally titled Mountain Interval, centers on the rural landscapes and social dynamics of New England.
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5
The Last Day of a Condemned Man
by Victor Hugo
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Focused on the final six weeks of a prisoner awaiting execution in nineteenth-century France, Victor Hugo’s novel follows an unnamed protagonist from his trial at the Bicêtre Hospital to the guillotine at Place de Grève.
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6
Death in Venice
by Thomas Mann
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
Gustav von Aschenbach, a disciplined German writer who has prioritized rigorous intellect over sensory pleasure, travels to Venice to escape a creative drought.
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7
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
A cynical protagonist, convinced that nothing in the universe possesses objective value, decides to commit suicide.
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8
Poems by John Keats
by John Keats
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
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.
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9
Songs of innocence and of experience
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
William Blake’s hand-colored collection contrasts two differing states of the human soul.
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10
The Stranger
by Albert Camus
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, literary
In Algiers, a clerk named Meursault receives news of his mother’s death and attends her funeral with complete emotional detachment.
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11
Fathers and Sons
Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, literary
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.
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12
Eugene Onegin
Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, literary
Alexander Pushkin’s novel in verse follows Eugene Onegin, a cynical aristocrat weary of Saint Petersburg’s high society.
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