Books like The Unknown Masterpiece
12 books with a reading profile close to The Unknown Masterpiece by Honoré de Balzac. Deep, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
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1
The Wall
Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary
Sartre's collection takes its name from the title story, set during the Spanish Civil War.
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2
No Exit
Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary
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.
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3
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4
In the Penal Colony
by Franz Kafka
Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary
In Franz Kafka's "In the Penal Colony," an explorer witnesses a brutal execution machine in a remote penal colony.
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5
Waiting for the Barbarians
by J.M. Coetzee
Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary
A magistrate runs a small frontier town in an unnamed empire.
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6
Measure for Measure
Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary
Duke Vincentio departs Vienna under a pretext of travel, leaving the puritanical Angelo to enforce long-ignored moral laws.
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7
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8
Island
Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, literary
The story follows Will Farnaby, a cynical journalist who shipwrecks on the forbidden Pacific island of Pala.
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9
Fathers and Sons
Also deep and thought-provoking · 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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10
Eugene Onegin
Also deep and thought-provoking · 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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11
Bartleby the Scrivener
Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary
Set in a mid-nineteenth-century Wall Street law office, the story follows an elderly lawyer who hires a quiet copyist named Bartleby to manage an increasing workload.
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12
The Tartar Steppe
by Dino Buzzati
Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, literary
Giovanni Drogo, a young officer, is posted to the Bastiani Fortress, an isolated outpost on the northern frontier overlooking a barren plain.
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