swap_horiz Looking Backward Alternatives

1

Austerlitz

Austerlitz is a 2001 novel by W. G. Sebald, written in German and narrated through the recollections of Jacques Austerli...

German Memory Identity Novel

9.5 Brilliant

2

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1886. It recounts the final illness and death o...

19TH Century Ethics Novella Death

9.2 Excellent

3

The Man Without Qualities

The Man Without Qualities is an unfinished novel by Austrian writer Robert Musil, published in installments beginning in...

Modern Ethics Identity Novel

9.2 Excellent

4

In Search of Lost Time

In Search of Lost Time is a seven-volume novel by French writer Marcel Proust, published between 1913 and 1927. The work...

Time Modern Memory Novel

9.2 Excellent

5

Gravity's Rainbow

Gravity's Rainbow is a novel by American writer Thomas Pynchon, published in 1973. Set primarily in Europe during the fi...

Modern Novel Postmodern Determinism

9.1 Excellent

6

The Unnamable

The Unnamable is a 1953 novel by Samuel Beckett, first published in French as L'Innommable and later translated into Eng...

Beckett Identity Novel Absurdism

9.1 Excellent

7

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a philosophical prose work by Friedrich Nietzsche, published in four parts between 1883 and 18...

19TH Century Nihilism Will To Power Prose Poem

9.0 Excellent

8

The Passion According to G.H.

The Passion According to G.H. is a novel by Brazilian author Clarice Lispector, published in 1964. The narrative consist...

Modern Novel Mysticism Consciousness

8.9 Great

9

The Autumn of the Patriarch

The Autumn of the Patriarch is a 1975 novel by Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, originally published in Spanish...

Power Novel Colombian Marquez

8.9 Great

10

The Inspector General

Nikolai Gogol's 1836 Russian satirical play in which officials of a corrupt provincial town lavish bribes on a penniless...

Play 19TH Century Satire Corruption

8.8 Great

11

Conversation in the Cathedral

Mario Vargas Llosa's 1969 Peruvian novel set during the Odría dictatorship, using a fractured, interwoven narrative stru...

Modern Identity Novel Political Philosophy

8.8 Great

12

Cancer Ward

Cancer Ward is a novel by Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first published in Russian in 1966. Set mainly in a hos...

Russian Novel Suffering Mortality

8.8 Great

13

Malone Dies

Malone Dies is a 1951 novel by Irish writer Samuel Beckett and the second book in the trilogy that also includes Molloy...

Beckett Novel Absurdism Irish

8.8 Great

14

Spring Snow

Spring Snow is a 1969 novel by Japanese writer Yukio Mishima and the first volume of his tetralogy The Sea of Fertility....

Japanese Novel Beauty Tradition

8.8 Great

15

The Foundation Pit

The Foundation Pit is a dystopian novella by Soviet writer Andrey Platonov, written in 1930 and suppressed in the USSR u...

Modern Novel Soviet Utopian

8.6 Great

16

Bouvard and Pécuchet

*Bouvard and Pécuchet* is a satirical novel by French author Gustave Flaubert, published posthumously in 1881. The story...

19TH Century Satire Novel Epistemology

8.2 Great

17

A Raw Youth

A Raw Youth, also translated as The Adolescent, is a novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky published in 1875. The st...

19TH Century Dostoevsky Ethics Identity

7.7 Good

18

Erewhon

"Erewhon" is a satirical novel written by Samuel Butler and published anonymously in 1872. The title is an anagram of "n...

19TH Century Satire Novel Utopian

7.6 Good

19

News from Nowhere

News from Nowhere is a utopian novel written by William Morris, first published in 1890. The narrative follows a protago...

19TH Century Novel Utopian Socialism

7.5 Good

20

Tomorrow's Eve

Tomorrow's Eve (L'Ève future) is an 1886 symbolist novel by French author Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. The novel fea...

Technology 19TH Century Novel Ideal

7.4 Good