Great Fiction
Fitzgerald, Greene, Waugh, Conrad, Maugham, Highsmith, Ishiguro, McCarthy. Not a literature syllabus — simply the novels we would press on an intelligent friend, with an honest word on which ones are hard work.
Ernest Hemingway · 1952The Old Man and the Sea
A profound novella of man’s struggle against nature and himself, rendered with Hemingway’s stark elegance
Essential
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Mikhail Bulgakov · 1967The Master and Margarita
The Devil and his retinue wreak havoc in Stalin’s Moscow, a darkly comedic and profoundly imaginative exploration of good, evil, and artistic freedom
Essential
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F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1925The Great Gatsby
A short book about money, longing and the American refusal to accept a closed door.
Essential
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Graham Greene · 1955The Quiet American
Greene in Saigon: opium, journalism, and the terrible damage done by good intentions.
Highly Recommended
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Joseph Conrad · 1899Heart of Darkness
A hundred pages up a river, and a century of argument afterwards
Essential
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W. Somerset Maugham · 1944The Razor's Edge
A young American abandons his privileged life to seek profound meaning in a world scarred by war
Essential
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Kazuo Ishiguro · 1989The Remains of the Day
A profound meditation on dignity, duty, and the crushing weight of unspoken emotion in post-war England
Essential
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Umberto Eco · 1980The Name of the Rose
Amidst the arcane splendour of a medieval abbey, a Franciscan friar unravels a complex web of murders and forbidden knowledge
Essential
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Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1866Crime and Punishment
A profound psychological and philosophical exploration of guilt, redemption, and the nature of morality
Essential
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Leo Tolstoy · 1878Anna Karenina
Tolstoy’s sprawling masterpiece of Russian society and the tragic affair that ripples through its rigid moral landscape.
Essential
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Gabriel García Márquez · 1967One Hundred Years of Solitude
A sprawling, hallucinatory saga of a family and a forgotten town, weaving myth and reality into the fabric of Latin American history
Essential
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Cormac McCarthy · 2006The Road
A stark, unflinching vision of a post-apocalyptic world, profoundly exploring the enduring bond between a father and son
Essential
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- The Gentleman's Library
- Espionage & Intrigue
- Power, Money & Business
- Lives Worth Reading
- History Without Homework
- Philosophy for Real Life
- Travel Books
- The Italian Library
- Books for the Riviera
- Adventure & Exploration
- Motoring Library
- Style & Design
- Art & Architecture
- The Coffee Table
- Editions Worth Owning
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