Books like

Books like White Nights

12 books with a reading profile close to White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Deep, inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

The Sorrows of Young Werther

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Also deep and inward-looking · romance, psychology

Werther is a young man of feeling who leaves town and settles in the village of Wahlheim, where he sketches, reads Homer, and befriends the local children.
2

The End of the Affair

by Graham Greene

Also deep and inward-looking · psychology, literary

Set in London during and after the Blitz, the novel follows Maurice Bendrix, a novelist who begins a physical relationship with Sarah Miles, the wife of a civil servant.
3

Bilinmeyen Bir Kadının Mektubu

by Stefan Zweig

Also deep and inward-looking · romance, literary

A famous Viennese novelist receives a long letter on his birthday from a woman he does not remember.
4

Passing

by Nella Larsen, Matthew Hodgson

Also deep and inward-looking · psychology, literary

Set in 1920s Harlem and Chicago, the narrative follows the unexpected reunion of two childhood friends, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry.
5

The Meek One

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Also deep and inward-looking · psychology, literary

A middle-aged pawnbroker ponders the corpse of his young wife, who has just committed suicide by jumping from their window while holding an icon.
6

If Beale Street Could Talk

by James Baldwin

Also deep and inward-looking · romance, literary

Set in 1970s Harlem, the story follows nineteen-year-old Tish Rivers and her fiancé, Fonny Hunt, an aspiring sculptor.
7

The Lover

by Marguerite Duras

Also deep and inward-looking · romance, literary

Set in 1930s French Indochina, the narrative centers on a fifteen-year-old French girl from a financially destitute family who begins a clandestine affair with a wealthy Chinese heir.
8

Lettres portugaises

by Gabriel de Guilleragues, Mariana Alcoforado

Also deep and inward-looking · romance, literary

Published anonymously in 1669, this epistolary novel consists of five letters written by a Portuguese nun, Mariana Alcoforado, to an absent French officer named Noël Bouton de Chamilly.
9

Bonjour tristesse

by Françoise Sagan

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · romance, literary

Seventeen-year-old Cécile spends a restless summer on the French Riviera with her widowed father, Raymond, and his current mistress, Elsa.
10

A Doll's House

by Henrik Ibsen

Also deep and inward-looking · psychology, literary

Nora Helmer lives as a pampered wife and mother under the strict domestic authority of her husband, Torvald.
11

Love in the Time of Cholera

by Gabriel García Márquez

Also deep and inward-looking · romance, literary

In the twilight of the nineteenth century, Florentino Ariza falls into a lifelong obsession with Fermina Daza, a woman who eventually rejects his youthful advances to marry Dr.
12

The Seagull

by Anton Chekhov, Laurence Senelick

Also deep and inward-looking · psychology, literary

Konstantin Treplev, an aspiring playwright, stages an experimental outdoor performance to impress Nina Zarechnaya, a young actress whom he loves.

Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.

Get papr

Your library, beautifully understood.