Recommendations based on First Loveby Ivan Turgenev

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  1. Fathers and Sons

    by Ivan Turgenev
    A story of generational divide, exploring the differences between fathers and sons.

    Arkady Kirsanov has just graduated from the University of Petersburg . He returns with a friend, Bazarov, to his father's modest estate in an outlying province of Russia. His father, Nikolay, gladly ... (Wikipedia)

  2. 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)

  3. The Kreutzer Sonata

    by Leo Tolstoy
    A man's moral journey of jealousy, envy and betrayal.

    When Marshal of the Nobility Pozdnyshev suspects his wife of having an affair with her music partner, his jealousy consumes him and drives him to murder. Controversial upon publication in 1890, The ... (Goodreads)

  4. A Hero of Our Time

    by Mikhail Lermontov
    A story of a young man's journey through life and his experiences of love, betrayal and morality.

    In its adventurous happenings, its abductions, duels, and sexual intrigues, A Hero of Our Time looks backward to the tales of Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, so beloved by Russian society in the ... (Goodreads)

  5. 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)

  6. The Tale of Genji

    by Murasaki Shikibu
    A classic Japanese novel about the romantic life of a nobleman and his various loves.

    The work recounts the life of, Hikaru Genji, , or "Shining Genji", the son of an ancient Japanese emperor , known to readers as Emperor Kiritsubo, and a low-ranking, but beloved concubine called ... (Wikipedia)

  7. The Death of Ivan Ilych

    by Leo Tolstoy
    A man's journey of self-reflection in the face of death, confronting mortality and the meaning of life.

    Ivan Ilyich lives a carefree life that is "most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible". Like everyone he knows, he spends his life climbing the social ladder. Enduring marriage to a ... (Wikipedia)

  8. In Search of Lost Time

    by Marcel Proust
    An exploration of memory, identity and loss of innocence, through the narrator's journey of self-discovery.

    On the surface a traditional "Bildungsroman" describing the narrator’s journey of self-discovery, this huge and complex book is also a panoramic and richly comic portrait of France in the author’s ... (Goodreads)

  9. 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)

  10. The Fall

    by Albert Camus
    A man's journey into alienation and despair, driven by a sense of absurdity in life.

    The Fall, ( French :, La Chute, ) is a philosophical novel by Albert Camus . First published in 1956, it is his last complete work of fiction. Set in Amsterdam , The Fall consists of a series of ... (Wikipedia)

  11. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

    by Patrick Süskind
    A murder mystery set in 18th century France, exploring the depths of human obsession.

    An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of ... (Goodreads)

  12. Chronicle of a Death Foretold

    by Gabriel García Márquez
    A murder mystery narrated by the townspeople and tracing the events leading up to the crime.

    The non-linear story, told by an anonymous narrator, begins with the morning of Santiago Nasar's death. The reader learns that Santiago lives with his mother, Placida Linero; the cook, Victoria ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Complete Stories

    by Franz Kafka
    A collection of Kafka's surreal and haunting short stories, exploring the human condition and the absurdity of existence.

    The Complete Stories brings together all of Kafka’s stories, from the classic tales such as “The Metamorphosis,” “In the Penal Colony,” and “A Hunger Artist” to shorter pieces and fragments that Max ... (Goodreads)

  14. My Name Is Red

    by Orhan Pamuk
    An art mystery set in 16th century Istanbul, delving into the power of art, religion and love.

    At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of ... (Goodreads)

  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. Collected Fictions

    by Jorge Luis Borges
    An anthology of Borges' masterful short stories, exploring the depths of human thought and imagination.

    Jorge Luis Borges has been called the greatest Spanish-language writer of our century. Now for the first time in English, all of Borges' dazzling fictions are gathered into a single volume, ... (Goodreads)

  17. Lady Susan

    by Jane Austen
    A witty and manipulative widow manoeuvres her way through society to find suitable marriage prospects.

    Beautiful, flirtatious, and recently widowed, Lady Susan Vernon seeks an advantageous second marriage for herself, while attempting to push her daughter into a dismal match. A magnificently crafted ... (Goodreads)

  18. Oedipus Rex

    by Sophocles
    Tragic tale of a man's inescapable destiny and the consequences of his actions.

    Oedipus, King of Thebes, sends his brother-in-law, Creon, to ask advice of the oracle at Delphi , concerning a plague ravaging Thebes. Creon returns to report that the plague is the result of ... (Wikipedia)

  19. The Complete Short Novels

    by Anton Chekhov
    A collection of short stories and novellas exploring the complexity of human nature.

    Anton Chekhov, widely hailed as the supreme master of the short story, also wrote five works long enough to be called short novels. Here, brought together in one volume for the first time, in a ... (Goodreads)

  20. Dead Souls

    by Nikolai Gogol
    A satirical tale of a man's quest for wealth, exposing the corruption of 19th century Russian society.

    The story follows the exploits of Chichikov, a middle-aged gentleman of middling social class and means. Chichikov arrives in a small town and turns on the charm to woo key local officials and ... (Wikipedia)

  21. The White Guard

    by Mikhail Bulgakov
    Set in Kiev during the Russian Revolution, the Turbin family struggles to survive amidst chaos and political upheaval.

    Although less famous than Mikhail Bulgakov's comic hit, The Master and Margarita , The White Guard is still an engrossing book, though completely different in tone. It is set in Kiev during the ... (Goodreads)

  22. 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)

  23. The Magic Mountain

    by Thomas Mann
    A young man's journey of self-exploration and personal growth during a long stay at a Swiss sanatorium.

    The narrative opens in the decade before World War I . It introduces the protagonist, Hans Castorp, the only child of a Hamburg merchant family. Following the early death of his parents, Castorp has ... (Wikipedia)

  24. Antigone

    by Sophocles
    A tragedy about a woman's struggle to uphold justice amidst oppressive laws.

    The curse placed on Oedipus lingers and haunts a younger generation in this new and brilliant translation of Sophocles' classic drama. The daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Antigone is an ... (Goodreads)

  25. Daisy Miller

    by Henry James
    A young American woman travels to Europe and flouts social conventions, leading to her downfall.

    Annie "Daisy" Miller and Frederick Winterbourne first meet in Vevey , Switzerland, in a garden of the grand hotel, , where Winterbourne is allegedly vacationing from his studies (an attachment to an ... (Wikipedia)

  26. The Black Tulip

    by Alexandre Dumas
    A thrilling tale of justice and revenge set in 17th-century Holland.

    'To have discovered the black tulip, to have seen it for a moment...then to lose it, to lose it forever!', Cornelius von Baerle, a respectable tulip-grower, lives only to cultivate the elusive black ... (Goodreads)

  27. Ward No. 6 and Other Stories

    by Anton Chekhov
    Collection of stories depicting the struggles of life in late 19th century Russia.

    Ward No. 6 and Other Stories, by Anton Chekhov, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics (1899), as well as several lesser-known works, no less masterful in their composition. David Plante is a ... (Goodreads)

  28. Steppenwolf

    by Hermann Hesse
    The inner struggles of a tortured soul as he searches for redemption.

    The book is presented as a manuscript written by its protagonist , a middle-aged man named Harry Haller, who leaves it to a chance acquaintance, the nephew of his landlady. The acquaintance adds a ... (Wikipedia)

  29. Embers

    by Sándor Márai
    A story of a lifelong friendship between two men that is tested by secrets and betrayal.

    Originally published in 1942 and now rediscovered to international acclaim, this taut and exquisitely structured novel by the Hungarian master Sandor Marai conjures the melancholy glamour of a ... (Goodreads)

  30. Middlemarch

    by George Eliot
    A grand narrative of life in a small English town, exploring the lives of its inhabitants.

    Middlemarch centres on the lives of residents of Middlemarch, a fictitious Midlands town, from 1829 onwards – the years up to the 1832 Reform Act . The narrative is variably considered to consist of ... (Wikipedia)