swap_horiz Symposium Alternatives

1

Labyrinths (Borges)

Published in 1962, Labyrinths gathers stories and essays by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges in an English-language an...

Infinity Metaphysics Short Stories Argentine

9.67 Brilliant

2

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

9.47 Excellent

3

The Drowned and the Saved

First published in Italian in 1986, Primo Levi's The Drowned and the Saved is a work of nonfiction grounded in his exper...

Italian Ethics Evil Levi

9.41 Excellent

4

The Republic

Written by Plato around 375 BCE, The Republic uses a Socratic dialogue to ask what justice means and whether a just life...

Ancient Political Philosophy Dialogue Justice

9.20 Excellent

5

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich, first published in 1886, follows a Russian judicial official whose terminal illn...

19TH Century Ethics Novella Death

9.20 Excellent

6

The Aleph

First published in 1949, Jorge Luis Borges's The Aleph is a short story collection in which speculative ideas become com...

Modern Infinity Metaphysics Borges

9.20 Excellent

7

In Search of Lost Time

Published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927, Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time follows a narrator through Fren...

Time Modern Memory Novel

9.20 Excellent

8

The Man Without Qualities

Robert Musil's unfinished novel The Man Without Qualities began appearing in 1930 and follows life in Vienna and the Aus...

Modern Ethics Identity Novel

9.18 Excellent

9

Gravity's Rainbow

Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, published in 1973, sets its sprawling narrative primarily in Europe near the end of...

Modern Novel Postmodern Determinism

9.12 Excellent

10

Jesus' Son

Jesus' Son is a 1992 collection of linked short stories by American writer Denis Johnson. The book follows a recurring,...

American Addiction Alienation Short Stories

9.12 Excellent

11

The Book of Disquiet

The Book of Disquiet is a work by Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa, composed as a collection of fragmentary reflections...

Modern Identity Existentialism Prose Poetry

9.10 Excellent

12

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

9.07 Excellent

13

Phaedo

Phaedo is a dialogue by Plato that depicts the final hours of Socrates before his execution by hemlock poisoning in 399...

Ancient Dialogue Plato Immortality

9.05 Excellent

14

Mother Courage and Her Children

Mother Courage and Her Children is a play by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, completed in 1939 and first performed in Z...

Play Modern Ethics War

9.04 Excellent

15

The Invention of Morel

The Invention of Morel is a 1940 novella by Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares. Its narrator encounters a group of peo...

Reality Immortality Argentine Novella

9.04 Excellent

16

Six Characters in Search of an Author

Six Characters in Search of an Author is a play by Italian writer Luigi Pirandello, first performed in 1921 in Rome. The...

Play Modern Identity Reality

9.02 Excellent

17

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

8.95 Great

18

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

8.90 Great

19

Rameau's Nephew

Rameau's Nephew is a philosophical dialogue by French Enlightenment thinker Denis Diderot, composed between 1761 and 177...

Ethics Dialogue Enlightenment Short Fiction

8.50 Great

20

Jacques the Fatalist

Denis Diderot's picaresque novel *Jacques the Fatalist* was written during the 1770s and 1780s, though not published unt...

Novel Dialogue Enlightenment Diderot

8.35 Great