Nikolai Gogol
Dead Souls: what to read next?
Books close in genre, era, author or reading level, to read in bilingual editions.
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 genreSame era
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
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 genreSame era
Victor HugoThe Hunchback of Notre-DameParis, 1482: the gypsy Esmeralda dances on the Place de Grève while the city keeps the Feast of Fools. Quasimodo, the cathedral's misshapen bell-ringer, and Claude Frollo, the archdeacon who raised him, are both overcome by her. Between cloister, Court of Miracles and pillory,…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…By the same authorSame genreSame era
Leo TolstoyWar and PeaceIn 1805 Russia goes to war against Napoleon, and the salons of Petersburg discuss it in French. The novel follows Pierre Bezukhov, an awkward heir seeking meaning, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who joins the army to escape his life, and Natasha Rostov, whose childhood ends between…Same countrySame genreSame era
Guy de MaupassantBoule de SuifDuring the war of 1870, ten travellers leave Rouen, occupied by the Prussians, in the same stagecoach: local notables, two nuns, a democrat and a prostitute nicknamed Boule de Suif. Held at an inn by a Prussian officer who sets his conditions, they discover what their…Same genre
Victor HugoLes MisérablesFreed after nineteen years in the galleys for a stolen loaf, Jean Valjean finds neither work nor shelter, until a bishop takes him in. A different man under a false name, he takes in Cosette, daughter of a working woman dead in destitution, and raises her in hiding. Inspector…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 genreSame era
Karl MarxThe Communist ManifestoWritten on the eve of the 1848 revolutions, this short text presents history as a succession of struggles between classes. Marx and Engels describe the rise of the bourgeoisie, the way industry transformed labour, and the formation of a working class they hold bound to…Same genreSame era
Henryk SienkiewiczQuo VadisUnder Nero, the patrician Vinicius falls in love with Lygia, a royal hostage raised in a Roman household and secretly Christian. Used to getting his way, he has her claimed for the palace; she escapes, and he discovers a community living by rules opposed to his own. When Rome…Same genre
Émile ZolaLourdesOne August morning, the national pilgrimage leaves Paris for Lourdes, with whole trains full of the sick and of pilgrims. On board are Marie de Guersaint, a young woman who can no longer walk, and Father Pierre Froment, her childhood friend, who became a priest but no longer…Same genre