Books like

Books like The Waste Land

12 books with a reading profile close to The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and open-ended; a demanding read.

1

Pale Fire

by Vladimir Nabokov

Also deep and inward-looking · dense, classic literature

Vladimir Nabokov’s 1962 novel is structured as a 999-line poem titled "Pale Fire," written by the fictional American poet John Shade, followed by a lengthy line-by-line commentary.
2

Absalom, Absalom!

by William Faulkner

Also deep and inward-looking · dense, classic literature

Thomas Sutpen arrives in Mississippi in 1833 with a group of enslaved people and a plan to create a vast plantation called Sutpen’s Hundred.
3

Ulysses

by James Joyce

Also deep and inward-looking · dense, classic literature

Set in Dublin on June 16, 1904, the narrative follows Leopold Bloom, an ordinary Jewish advertisement canvasser, as he moves through the city’s streets, pubs, and cemeteries.
4

The Sound and the Fury

by William Faulkner

Also deep and inward-looking · dense, classic literature

Set in early twentieth-century Mississippi, this novel documents the decline of the Compson family, a former aristocratic household now facing financial and moral ruin.
5

2666

by Roberto Bolaño

Also deep and contemplative · dense, classic literature

The narrative follows five interconnected parts, beginning with four European academics tracking the reclusive German novelist Benno von Archimboldi.
6

Journey to the End of the Night

by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Also deep and inward-looking · dense, classic literature

Ferdinand Bardamu, a cynical and nihilistic protagonist, begins his odyssey in the trenches of World War I, where he observes the senseless brutality of mechanized slaughter.
7

The Street of Crocodiles

by Bruno Schulz

Also deep and inward-looking · dense, classic literature

In a fictionalized version of the Polish city Drogobych, a narrator recounts his childhood centered on his father’s eccentric decline.
8

The Waves

by Virginia Woolf

Also deep and inward-looking · dense, classic literature

The Waves follows six friends—Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny, and Louis—from childhood through late adulthood.
9

Hopscotch

by Julio Cortázar

Also deep and contemplative · dense, classic literature

Horacio Oliveira, an Argentine intellectual living in Paris, wanders with a group of artist friends, the Serpent Club, and his lover La Maga, discussing jazz, art and metaphysics.
10

The Waste Land and Other Poems

by T.S. Eliot

Also deep and open-ended · dense, classic literature

Published in the wake of the First World War, this collection centers on the psychological and cultural fragmentation of Western society.
11

The Golden Notebook

by Doris Lessing

Also deep and inward-looking · dense, classic literature

Anna Wulf, an author living in 1950s London, attempts to counter her creative block and mental fragmentation by recording different facets of her life in four colored notebooks.
12

Pedro Páramo

by Juan Rulfo

Also deep and contemplative · dense, classic literature

Juan Preciado travels to Comala to fulfill a deathbed promise to his mother: find his father, the ruthless cacique Pedro Páramo.

Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.

Get papr

Your library, beautifully understood.