Bleak House by Charles Dickens (Bantam, $7). Dickens’ famous indictment of a massive, grindingly slow, utterly incomprehensible legal system is also an investigation of the essential fragility of human identity and its possible repair through the healing force of narrative. And the master’s prose here is at its wondrous best.
The Awkward Age by Henry James (Penguin, $13). People are talking, and the more they talk, the more frightening the novel becomes, as it reveals the corrosive hypocrisies of a society without moral ground. Nanda Brookenham is a heroine of immense tenderness and great depths of feeling. When Nanda cried, so did I.
Either/Or by Søren Kierkegaard (Penguin, $18). Written under several pseudonyms, this work is the novel as philosophy or philosophy as a novel. Every character is persuasive—from the fictional editor, Eremita; to A., the aesthete; to B., the ethicist; to the seducer, Johannes, who tracks his erotic prey, Cordelia, with chilling stealth. A masterpiece told in many voices.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Middlemarch by George Eliot (Signet, $8). Eliot’s “story of provincial life”—with its struggles, sorrows, petty ambitions, and dashed idealism—bears rereading many times. Psychologically subtle, intellectually rigorous, and emotionally powerful, the book never leaves me.
The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson (Gramercy, $7). Every time I open this volume, I am startled by the poet’s language and am reminded of what the English language can do—its astounding flexibility and richness. Dickinson’s poetry is difficult, paradoxical, painful, and joyous. Reading it makes you feel as if you are wandering around in the dense terrain of a human soul.
The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud (Avon, $7). Nobody knows why we dream, but Freud’s journey into this mystery remains one of the best reading experiences of my life.
-
Lou Berney’s 6 favorite books with powerful storytellingFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Dorothy B. Hughes, James McBride, and more
-
Elizabeth Gilbert’s favorite books about women overcoming difficultiesFeature The author recommends works by Tove Jansson, Lauren Groff, and more
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imaginationFeature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
-
Keith McNally's 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
Garrett Graff's 6 favorite books that shine new light on World War IIFeature The author recommends works by James D. Hornfischer, Craig L. Symonds, and more
-
Helen Schulman's 6 favorite collections of short storiesFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Raymond Carver, James Baldwin, and more
-
Beatriz Williams' 6 timeless books about history and human relationshipsFeature The best-selling author recommends works by Jane Austen, Zora Neale Hurston, and more
