Books like Ulysses
12 books with a reading profile close to Ulysses by James Joyce. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a demanding read.
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1
The Waste Land
by T.S. Eliot
Also deep and inward-looking · dense, literary
The Waste Land presents a fragmented vision of Europe following the First World War, utilizing a collage of classical mythology, religious texts, and urban vignettes.
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2
Absalom, Absalom!
Also deep and inward-looking · dense, literary
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.
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3
2666
Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary
The narrative follows five interconnected parts, beginning with four European academics tracking the reclusive German novelist Benno von Archimboldi.
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4
Pale Fire
Also deep and inward-looking · dense, literary
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.
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5
The Waste Land and Other Poems
by T.S. Eliot
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
Published in the wake of the First World War, this collection centers on the psychological and cultural fragmentation of Western society.
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6
The Sound and the Fury
Also deep and inward-looking · dense, literary
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.
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7
Journey to the End of the Night
Also deep and inward-looking · dense, literary
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.
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8
Pedro Páramo
by Juan Rulfo
Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary
Juan Preciado travels to Comala to fulfill a deathbed promise to his mother: find his father, the ruthless cacique Pedro Páramo.
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9
Hopscotch
Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary
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.
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10
The Waves
Also deep and inward-looking · dense, literary
The Waves follows six friends—Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny, and Louis—from childhood through late adulthood.
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11
The Street of Crocodiles
by Bruno Schulz
Also deep and inward-looking · dense, literary
In a fictionalized version of the Polish city Drogobych, a narrator recounts his childhood centered on his father’s eccentric decline.
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12
The Satanic Verses
Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary
Two Indian expatriates, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, survive a mid-air plane explosion over the English Channel and undergo startling physical transformations.
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