Natsume Sōseki
Botchan: what to read next?
Books close in genre, era, author or reading level, to read in bilingual editions.
Machado de AssisThe AlienistBack from Europe, Dr. Simão Bacamarte settles in the small town of Itaguaí, in Brazil, and later founds an asylum there, the Green House, to study madness scientifically. His criteria widen week by week: first a respected citizen, then so many residents that the asylum ends up…Same genreSame era
Nikolai GogolThe Overcoat · The NoseThese two Petersburg stories each follow a minor official whom the capital overwhelms. Akaky Akakievich, a copying clerk mocked by his colleagues, goes without for months to pay for the new overcoat that finally earns him some regard. Collegiate assessor Kovalyov wakes up with…Same genre
Oscar WildeThe Importance of Being EarnestTwo young men of high society lie to escape their obligations. Jack, a serious guardian in the country, has invented a younger brother whose name he takes when he goes to London to enjoy himself; Algernon has invented a sick friend, Bunbury, whom he claims to visit whenever a…Same genreSame era
Alphonse DaudetLetters from My WindmillSettled in an abandoned windmill in Provence, the narrator sends his Parisian readers stories of the country and its people. Among them are Monsieur Seguin's goat, the priest of Cucugnan, Corsican lighthouse keepers and an old couple forgotten in their village. The pieces move…Same genre
Oscar WildeThe Canterville GhostThe Otis family, American and practical, buys an English manor said to have been haunted for three centuries. The ghost of Sir Simon multiplies apparitions, chains and bloodstains, without drawing from the newcomers the terror he expects. Humiliated by tenants who scrub away…Same genreSame era
VoltaireCandide, or OptimismRaised in a Westphalian castle, Candide learns from his tutor Pangloss that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Driven out for kissing Cunégonde, he passes through war, the Inquisition, the Lisbon earthquake and the colonies of the Americas. Each disaster…Same genre
E. F. BensonMiss MappMiss Mapp, a central figure in a small town, observes and comments on her neighbors’ lives with obsessive attention. Through subtle rivalries, social strategies, and minor manipulations, she seeks to maintain her influence. Every interaction becomes a quiet power game where…Same genreSame era
Jane AustenEmmaEmma Woodhouse, young, rich and sure of her judgement, has made a pastime of arranging the marriages around her. Convinced she is working for the happiness of others, she guides a friend of no fortune and reads everyone's intentions in her own way. Her arrangements slowly turn…Same genre
Jane AustenPride and PrejudiceElizabeth Bennet, the second of five sisters, belongs to a family of minor English gentry where marriage decides a daughter's future. The arrival of a wealthy neighbour and of his friend Darcy, thought haughty, unsettles the whole neighbourhood. Between gossip and hasty…Same genre
Nikolai GogolDead SoulsChichikov arrives in a provincial town, charms everyone who matters, and calls on the landowners nearby. He offers them a peculiar bargain: to buy the serfs who have died since the last census but still stand on the registers and are taxed to their owners. From estate to estate…Same genre
Miguel de CervantesDon QuixoteA gentleman of La Mancha has read so many books of chivalry that he sets out as a knight errant under the name Don Quixote. On a broken-down horse, with Sancho Panza, a talkative and practical farmer, he takes inns for castles and windmills for giants. His expeditions end in…Same genre
Stefan ZweigFearIrene Wagner leads an untroubled bourgeois life in Vienna, married to a well-known defence lawyer and mother of two, and has been visiting a young pianist for some months. Leaving his flat one afternoon, she is stopped by a stranger who claims to be the man's discarded mistress…Same era