F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby: what to read next?
Books close in genre, era, author or reading level, to read in bilingual editions.
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 genreSame era
Thomas HardyTwo on a TowerIn the English countryside of the nineteenth century, Lady Constantine lives alone on her estate while her husband hunts lions in Africa. She has promised him to see almost no one, and she is bored. At the top of an old tower she finds Swithin St Cleeve, a young man of twenty…Same genre
Sabahattin AliMadonna in a Fur CoatAn unremarkable clerk, hired out of pity by a firm in Ankara, shares an office with Raif Efendi, a translator nobody knows anything about. When this man, old before his time, falls ill, he asks the young clerk to burn a black notebook, then lets him read it for one night. It…Same genreSame era
Anatole FranceThe Red LilyJacques, a man torn between passion and disillusionment, maintains a complex relationship with Thérèse, a seductive and elusive woman. Their affair evolves through attraction, jealousy, and power games. In a refined social environment, feelings mingle with interests and…Same genre
Elizabeth GaskellCranfordAn English novel published in 1853. Cranford is a small country town where nearly every house is kept by ladies, often poor, who never speak of money. The narrator, Mary Smith, who comes from the large town nearby, makes long stays with Miss Matty Jenkyns, the gentle and timid…Same genre
Alexandre DumasThe Count of Monte CristoIn 1815 Edmond Dantès, a young first mate promised a command and a bride, is denounced on the day of his betrothal. Imprisoned without trial in the Château d'If, he meets the abbé Faria, who teaches him and tells of a hidden treasure. Under the name of the Count of Monte…Same genre
John Oliver HobbesRobert OrangeAn English novel, sequel to The School for Saints. London, 1869: Robert Orange, a young Catholic Member of Parliament of French descent and a protégé of Disraeli, marries Brigit, a young widow he loves with an almost mystical devotion. On the very day of the wedding, word comes…Same genreSame era
Fyodor DostoevskyCrime and PunishmentRaskolnikov, a poor student in Saint Petersburg, believes that certain men can transgress moral laws to achieve great things. He commits a crime he deems justified but is quickly consumed by intense inner turmoil. Between guilt, fear, and pride, his mind wavers as those around…Same genre
Alfred OllivantOne WomanAn English novel, the second part of “a Romance of Sussex”. In 1908, in a seaside town in the south of England, Ruth, a former housemaid, marries Ernie Caspar, a working man who raises little Alice, born before their marriage, as his own daughter. The years pass: more children…Same genreSame era
Arthur StringerThe Prairie WifeA novel by the Canadian writer Arthur Stringer, published in 1915 and written in the form of a diary. A young woman from New York high society, suddenly ruined, marries almost without thinking Duncan McKail, a Canadian of Scottish descent, a former engineer who now grows wheat…Same genreSame era
Sewell FordTorchy and VeeSeventeen linked comic stories, told by Torchy in the everyday speech of New York. Once a red-haired office boy, now private secretary to the president of a large company, Torchy is married to Vee and has a baby. The stories take place in 1918 and 1919, in New York and its…Same countrySame genreSame era
Stefan ZweigLetter from an Unknown WomanA well-known novelist comes home on his birthday and finds a long letter from a woman whose name he does not know. In it she tells her whole life, from the day when, still a girl, she watched him move into her building in Vienna. For years she loved him without making herself…Same genreSame era