Recommendations based on The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmareby G.K. Chesterton

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Out of the Silent Planet

    by C.S. Lewis
    A man is kidnapped and taken to another planet, where he must fight for his freedom.

    While on a walking tour, the philologist Elwin Ransom is drugged and taken on board a spacecraft bound for a planet called Malacandra. His abductors are Devine, a former college acquaintance, and the ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Great Divorce

    by C.S. Lewis
    A spiritual journey through Heaven and Hell, exploring the consequences of our decisions.

    The narrator inexplicably finds himself in a grim and joyless city, the "grey town", where it rains continuously, even indoors, which is either Hell or Purgatory depending on whether or not one stays ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Perelandra

    by C.S. Lewis
    Epic sci-fi fantasy about a man's mission to a new planet to protect it from evil.

    The story starts with the philologist Elwin Ransom , some years after his return from Mars at the end of, Out of the Silent Planet, , receiving a new mission from the Oyarsa (the angelic ruler) of ... (Wikipedia)

  4. The Brothers Karamazov

    by Fyodor Dostoevsky
    A philosophical exploration of morality, faith, and family dynamics among a group of brothers.

    The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich ... (Goodreads)

  5. The Innocence of Father Brown

    by G.K. Chesterton
    Father Brown solves a series of mysterious crimes using his keen insight and intuition.

    Chesterton portrays Father Brown as a short, stumpy Roman Catholic priest, with shapeless clothes and a large umbrella, and an uncanny insight into human evil. "How in Tartarus," cried Flambeau, "did ... (Goodreads)

  6. Don Quixote

    by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
    An aging knight's adventures and misadventures, filled with chivalry, honor, and satire.

    Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading chivalric romances that he determines to become a knight-errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, his exploits blossom in ... (Goodreads)

  7. Brideshead Revisited

    by Evelyn Waugh
    A nostalgic reflection on a wealthy family and the enduring power of love.

    The novel is divided into three parts, framed by a prologue and epilogue. The prologue takes place during the final years of the Second World War . Charles Ryder and his battalion are sent to a ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Beowulf

    by Unknown
    Epic poem recounting the heroic deeds of a legendary Scandinavian warrior.

    Beowulf is a major epic of Anglo-Saxon literature, probably composed between the first half of the seventh century and the end of the first millennium. The poem was inspired by Germanic and ... (Goodreads)

  9. Gilead

    by Marilynne Robinson
    A reverend's reflections on life in the Midwest, and the lessons of faith and family.

    The book is an account of the memories and legacy of John Ames as he remembers his experiences of his father and grandfather to share with his son. All three men share a vocational lifestyle and ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The Name of the Rose

    by Umberto Eco
    A Franciscan friar investigates a series of murders in a medieval monastery, uncovering a sinister plot.

    In 1327, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk , a Benedictine novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy to attend a theological ... (Wikipedia)

  11. A Canticle for Leibowitz

    by Walter M. Miller Jr.
    A post-apocalyptic tale of a world struggling to rebuild after a devastating nuclear war.

    After 20th century civilization was destroyed by a global nuclear war , known as the "Flame Deluge", there was a violent backlash against the culture of advanced knowledge and technology that had led ... (Wikipedia)

  12. The Silmarillion

    by J.R.R. Tolkien
    Epic saga of the history of Middle-Earth, a world filled with mythical creatures.

    The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of ... (Goodreads)

  13. A Confederacy of Dunces

    by John Kennedy Toole
    A satirical tale of an eccentric slacker's misadventures in New Orleans.

    Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found, here, "A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles ... (Goodreads)

  14. The Master and Margarita

    by Mikhail Bulgakov
    A fantastical, satirical examination of Soviet life, intersecting with the supernatural.

    The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland . He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth , ... (Wikipedia)

  15. Invisible Cities

    by Italo Calvino
    A fantastical exploration of the cities of the imagination and the possibilities of life.

    "Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young ... (Goodreads)

  16. The Divine Comedy

    by Dante Alighieri
    A poetic journey through the afterlife, guided by the Roman poet Virgil.

    The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide; his ascent of Mount Purgatory and encounter with his dead love, Beatrice; and finally, his arrival in Heaven. Examining ... (Goodreads)

  17. Heart of Darkness

    by Joseph Conrad
    A journey into the depths of the human psyche, exploring the darkness of colonialism.

    Aboard the Nellie , anchored in the River Thames near Gravesend , Charles Marlow tells his fellow sailors how he became captain of a river steamboat for an ivory trading company. As a child, Marlow ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Foucault's Pendulum

    by Umberto Eco
    A humorous and wild historical conspiracy thriller set across Europe.

    A man named Casaubon , is hiding in the Musée des Arts et Métiers after closing. He believes that a secret society has kidnapped his friend Jacopo Belbo and are now after him, and will meet in the ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Dubliners

    by James Joyce
    Collection of stories about everyday life in Dublin, exploring the Irish psyche.

    This work of art reflects life in Ireland at the turn of the last century, and by rejecting euphemism, reveals to the Irish their unromantic realities. Each of the 15 stories offers glimpses into the ... (Goodreads)

  20. The Pilgrim's Progress

    by John Bunyan
    A Christian allegory of a journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City.

    The entire book is presented as a dream sequence narrated by an omniscient narrator . The allegory's protagonist, Christian , is an everyman character, and the plot centres on his journey from his ... (Wikipedia)

  21. The Aeneid

    by Virgil
    Epic tale of Aeneas and the founding of Rome, a fateful journey through the gods.

    The Aeneid – thrilling, terrifying and poignant in equal measure – has inspired centuries of artists, writers and musicians. Virgil’s epic tale tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan hero, who flees his ... (Goodreads)

  22. The Iliad

    by Homer
    Epic tale of the Trojan War, depicting heroism and tragedy.

    Dating to the ninth century B.C., Homer’s timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, ... (Goodreads)

  23. Bleak House

    by Charles Dickens
    A social commentary on the English legal system, exploring themes of inequality, injustice and corruption.

    Bleak House opens in the twilight of foggy London, where fog grips the city most densely in the Court of Chancery. The obscure case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in which an inheritance is gradually ... (Goodreads)

  24. Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West

    by Cormac McCarthy
    A violent and bloody western epic, exploring the depths of human depravity.

    An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." ... (Barnes & Noble)

  25. King Lear

    by William Shakespeare
    An aging king's descent into madness reveals the consequences of pride and vanity.

    Shakespeare’s King Lear challenges us with the magnitude, intensity, and sheer duration of the pain that it represents. Its figures harden their hearts, engage in violence, or try to alleviate the ... (Goodreads)

  26. The Trial

    by Franz Kafka
    A man is arrested and put on trial for a crime that remains unclear throughout the novel.

    On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K., the chief cashier of a bank, is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents from an unspecified agency for an unspecified crime. Josef is not ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Silence

    by Shūsaku Endō
    A Portuguese priest in Japan faces persecution in pursuit of his faith.

    The young Portuguese Jesuit priest Sebastião Rodrigues (based on the historical Italian figure Giuseppe Chiara ) travels to Japan to assist the local Church and investigate reports that his mentor, a ... (Wikipedia)

  28. The Island of Dr. Moreau

    by H.G. Wells
    A shipwrecked man's encounters with a mad scientist's experiments in animal-human hybridization.

    The Island of Doctor Moreau is the account of Edward Prendick, an Englishman with a scientific education who survives a shipwreck in the southern Pacific Ocean. A passing ship called Ipecacuanha ... (Wikipedia)

  29. Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

    by Fyodor Dostoevsky
    A collection of four works exploring the human psyche, morality, and existentialism through the lens of Russian society.

    The story opens with the narrator wandering the streets of St. Petersburg . He is contemplating the ridiculousness of his own life, and his recent realization that nothing matters to him any more. It ... (Wikipedia)

  30. A Farewell to Arms

    by Ernest Hemingway
    A story of unrequited love in the midst of war.

    The novel is divided into five sections or 'books'. Frederic Henry is first person narrator of the story. Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American paramedic , is serving in the Italian Army . The novel ... (Wikipedia)