Books like

Books like War and Peace

12 books with a reading profile close to War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Deep, contemplative and thought-provoking; a demanding read.

1

War and Peace

by Лев Толстой

Also deep and contemplative · 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.
2

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Volume 2: Purgatorio

by Dante Alighieri

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Following their departure from the pit of Hell, Dante and his guide Virgil ascend the island-mountain of Purgatory.
3

Inferno

by Dante Alighieri

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Dante Alighieri narrates his descent through nine concentric circles of hell under the guidance of the Roman poet Virgil.
4

The Holy Bible: King James Version

by Anonymous

Also deep and contemplative · history, philosophy

The King James Version presents the foundational narrative of the Christian faith, beginning with the creation of the world and the fall of humanity in Genesis.
5

The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides

by Aeschylus

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Aeschylus's trilogy, the only complete surviving set of Greek tragedies, follows the house of Atreus after the Trojan War.
6

The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone

by Sophocles

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

These three plays by Sophocles follow Thebes' royal family through its curse.
7

The Epic of Gilgamesh

by Anonymous

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Gilgamesh, the ruler of Uruk, dominates his subjects until the gods create Enkidu, a feral man, to challenge him.
8

Moby-Dick

by Herman Melville

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Ishmael, a schoolmaster seeking relief from a melancholy spirit, joins the crew of the Pequod, a whaling vessel departing from Nantucket.
9

Don Quixote

by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Alonso Quijano, an elderly man from La Mancha, loses his grip on reality after consuming a constant diet of chivalric tales.
10

The Magic Mountain

by Thomas Mann

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Hans Castorp, a young engineer, visits his cousin at a tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, intending to stay for three weeks.
11

Works [37 plays, 6 poems, sonnets]

by William Shakespeare

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

This 1730 collection organizes the complete dramatic and poetic output of William Shakespeare, encompassing comedies, histories, and tragedies alongside his lyrical sequences.
12

Faust, First Part

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, dense

Heinrich Faust, a disenchanted scholar, abandons traditional medicine, theology, and philosophy after realizing that intellectual mastery has failed to reveal the secrets of the universe.

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