swap_horiz Wise Blood Alternatives

1

Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner’s *Absalom, Absalom!* explores the ambitious, ultimately tragic story of Thomas Sutpen’s attempt to bui...

Classic American 20TH Century Southern

9.4 Excellent

2

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen's beloved novel follows the spirited Elizabeth Bennet as she navigates the complexities of love, class, and...

Classic Character Driven 19TH Century Romance

9.2 Excellent

3

Tristram Shandy

Laurence Sterne’s *Tristram Shandy* is a significant 18th-century English novel renowned for its highly unconventional n...

18TH Century Classic Experimental English

9.2 Excellent

4

Light in August

William Faulkner’s *Light in August* explores complex themes within rural Mississippi during the 1930s. The novel examin...

Classic American 20TH Century Southern

9.1 Excellent

5

The Power and the Glory

Graham Greene’s *The Power and the Glory* portrays a Catholic priest’s struggle for survival and faith amidst intense re...

Classic English Religious Mexico

8.7 Great

6

The House of Mirth

The House of Mirth is Edith Wharton's 1905 American novel about Lily Bart, a sharp critique of wealth and marriage in Ne...

Classic American Wharton 20TH Century

8.5 Great

7

Passing

Nella Larsen’s *Passing* explores the complexities of racial identity within the context of the Harlem Renaissance. The...

Classic American Race Harlem Renaissance

8.5 Great

8

Go Tell It on the Mountain

Go Tell It on the Mountain is James Baldwin's 1953 debut novel, drawing on Harlem Pentecostal life and a teenage boy's a...

Classic American 20TH Century Race

8.4 Great

9

Giovanni's Room

Giovanni's Room is James Baldwin's 1956 novel set in Paris, a major early American treatment of gay male desire and exil...

Classic American 20TH Century Lgbtq+

8.4 Great

10

The Recognitions

William Gaddis’s *The Recognitions* explores themes of art, faith, and deception through a highly experimental narrative...

Classic American Postmodern Art

8.4 Great

11

Tender Is the Night

Tender Is the Night is Francis Scott Fitzgerald's 1934 novel, set largely on the French Riviera and tracing the decline...

Classic American Modernist 20TH Century

8.3 Great

12

The Ambassadors

Henry James’ *The Ambassadors* explores the complexities of cultural adjustment and disillusionment through the experien...

Classic American Realist Society

8.3 Great

13

Babbitt

Sinclair Lewis’s *Babbitt* portrays George F. Babbitt, a suburban realtor in Zenith City, Illinois. The novel is notable...

Business Classic American Satire

8.3 Great

14

Sister Carrie

Sister Carrie is Theodore Dreiser's 1900 American novel, a key work of naturalism centered on ambition, desire, and city...

Classic American Naturalist 20TH Century

8.2 Great

15

The Awakening

Kate Chopin’s *The Awakening* explores the restrictive nature of marriage and societal expectations for women in late ni...

Classic American Feminist Marriage

8.1 Great

16

Main Street

Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street examines the stifling effects of conformity within a struggling Midwestern community. The n...

Classic American Satire Small Town

8.1 Great

17

Rabbit, Run

John Updike’s *Rabbit, Run* explores the disillusionment of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a working-class man navigating subu...

Classic American Suburban Realist

8.1 Great

18

Ethan Frome

Ethan Frome is a 1911 novella by Edith Wharton, set in rural Massachusetts and noted for its spare tragedy of marriage,...

Classic American Rural Tragic

7.9 Good

19

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin is Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 American anti-slavery novel, a bestseller that influenced abolitionist...

Classic American 19TH Century Slavery

7.4 Good

20

Tropic of Cancer

Tropic of Cancer is a 1934 novel by Henry Miller, first published in Paris and long controversial in the United States f...

Classic American Controversial Modernist

7.4 Good