Recommendations based on Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharerby Joseph Conrad

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

  1. 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)

  2. 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)

  3. Waiting for Godot

    by Samuel Beckett
    Two men wait for a mysterious figure who never arrives, reflecting on their lives and existence.

    Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, have met near a leafless tree. Estragon spent the previous night lying in a ditch and receiving a beating from some unnamed assailants. The two men discuss a variety ... (Wikipedia)

  4. 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)

  5. 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)

  6. Nostromo

    by Joseph Conrad
    A gripping tale of greed and political intrigue in a fictional South American country.

    Nostromo is set in the South American country of Costaguana, and more specifically in that country's Occidental Province and its port city of Sulaco. Though Costaguana is a fictional nation, its ... (Wikipedia)

  7. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

    by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
    A single day in a Soviet prison camp, detailing the hardships and struggle of the inmates.

    Ivan Denisovich Shukhov has been sentenced to a camp in the Soviet gulag system. He was accused of becoming a spy after being captured briefly by the Germans as a prisoner of war during World War II ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Lord Jim

    by Joseph Conrad
    A young sailor's journey to redemption after abandoning his ship and passengers in a moment of fear and weakness.

    Recovered from an injury, Jim seeks a position on the Patna , a steamer serving the transport of 800 "pilgrims of an exacting belief" to a port on the Red Sea . He is hired as first mate. After some ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Othello

    by William Shakespeare
    A tale of jealousy, manipulation, and tragedy, as one man's descent into madness leads to disastrous consequences.

    In Othello, Shakespeare creates a powerful drama of a marriage that begins with fascination (between the exotic Moor Othello and the Venetian lady Desdemona), with elopement, and with intense mutual ... (Goodreads)

  10. Inferno

    by Dante Alighieri
    An epic journey through the nine circles of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil.

    Of the great poets, Dante is one of the most elusive and therefore one of the most difficult to adequately render into English verse. In the Inferno, Dante not only judges sin but strives to ... (Goodreads)

  11. 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)

  12. The Power and the Glory

    by Graham Greene
    A whiskey priest in 1930s Mexico struggles with his faith and morality while on the run from authorities.

    The main character is an unnamed 'whisky priest', who combines a great power for self-destruction with pitiful cravenness, an almost painful penitence, and a desperate quest for dignity. , By the ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Complete Works

    by William Shakespeare
    A comprehensive collection of works, containing plays, sonnets, and narrative poems.

    Tempest Two Gentlemen of Verona Merry Wives of Windsor Measure for Measure Comedy of Errors Much Ado About Nothing Love's Labour's Lost Midsummer Night's Dream Merchant of Venice As You Like It ... (Goodreads)

  14. 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)

  15. The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone

    by Sophocles
    Ancient tragedy of a family's fall from grace due to a fateful prophecy.

    English versions of Sophocles’ three great tragedies based on the myth of Oedipus, translated for a modern audience by two gifted poets. Index. ... (Barnes & Noble)

  16. 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)

  17. On the Road

    by Jack Kerouac
    A young man's journey across America, seeking adventure and freedom.

    The two main characters of the book are the narrator, Sal Paradise, and his friend Dean Moriarty, much admired for his carefree attitude and sense of adventure, a free-spirited maverick eager to ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Hunger

    by Knut Hamsun
    The story of a man's battle against poverty and his descent into near-madness.

    The novel's first-person protagonist, an unnamed vagrant with intellectual leanings, probably in his late twenties, wanders the streets of Norway's capital, Kristiania ( Oslo ), in pursuit of ... (Wikipedia)

  19. The Canterbury Tales

    by Geoffrey Chaucer
    A collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on a journey to Canterbury.

    The procession that crosses Chaucer's pages is as full of life and as richly textured as a medieval tapestry. The Knight, the Miller, the Friar, the Squire, the Prioress, the Wife of Bath, and others ... (Goodreads)

  20. The Heart of the Matter

    by Graham Greene
    A British police officer in West Africa struggles with his faith, morality, and loyalty during wartime.

    Major Scobie lives in a colony on the west coast of Africa during World War II , and is responsible for local security during wartime. His wife Louise, an unhappy, solitary woman who loves literature ... (Wikipedia)

  21. Death of a Salesman

    by Arthur Miller
    Tragic story of a man's attempt to find success and happiness in a world of false promises.

    'For a salesman, there is no rock bottom to life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a ... (Goodreads)

  22. Journey to the End of the Night

    by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
    A darkly comic, nihilistic journey of self-discovery, following a man into the heart of an absurd world.

    Céline’s masterpiece—colloquial, polemic, hyper-realistic, boiling over with black humor Céline’s masterpiece—colloquial, polemic, hyper realistic—boils over with bitter humor and revulsion at ... (Barnes & Noble)

  23. To the Lighthouse

    by Virginia Woolf
    Exploration of the complexities of human relationships and family life.

    The novel is set in the Ramsays' summer home in the Hebrides , on the Isle of Skye . The section begins with Mrs Ramsay assuring her son James that they should be able to visit the lighthouse on the ... (Wikipedia)

  24. 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)

  25. Jesus' Son

    by Denis Johnson
    A collection of short stories exploring life of addiction and redemption.

    Jesus' Son , the first collection of stories by Denis Johnson, presents a unique, hallucinatory vision of contemporary American life unmatched in power and immediacy and marks a new level of ... (Goodreads)

  26. The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol

    by Nikolai Gogol
    A collection of bizarre, humorous and satirical stories set in 19th century Russia.

    When Pushkin first read some of the stories in this collection, he declared himself "amazed." "Here is real gaiety," he wrote, "honest, unconstrained, without mincing, without primness. And in places ... (Goodreads)

  27. Breakfast of Champions

    by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
    A humorous exploration of life's absurdities, through a madcap journey of a protagonist.

    Kilgore Trout is a widely published, but ignored and virtually invisible writer who is invited to deliver a keynote address at a local arts festival in distant Midland City. Dwayne Hoover is a ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Julius Caesar

    by William Shakespeare
    Tragedy of political power and ambition as Rome's leader is betrayed by those closest to him.

    The Oxford School Shakespeare has become the preferred introduction to the literary legacy of the greatest playwright in the English language. This exclusive collection of the Bard's best works has ... (Goodreads)

  29. I, Robot

    by Isaac Asimov
    A collection of science fiction stories exploring the relationship between humans and robots.

    Isaac Asimov's I, Robot launches readers on an adventure into a not-so-distant future where man and machine , struggle to redefinelife, love, and consciousness—and where the stakes are nothing less ... (Goodreads)

  30. Cloud Atlas

    by David Mitchell
    A dynamic narrative spanning centuries, exploring the interconnectedness of humanity.

    The book consists of six nested stories; each is read or observed by a main character of the next, thus they progress in time through the central sixth story. The first five stories are each ... (Wikipedia)