Topic
20th Century
20 reading guides and book lists curated by the Editors Reads team.
20 posts
Where to Start with Bruce Chatwin: A Reading Guide
Where to start with Bruce Chatwin — how to approach In Patagonia, his essential travel memoir that reinvented the form. A complete reading guide to the British author.
Where to Start with Franz Kafka: A Reading Guide
Where to start with Franz Kafka — how to approach The Metamorphosis and The Trial, and which to read first. A complete reading guide to the master of modern alienation.
Where to Start with Kahlil Gibran: A Reading Guide
Where to start with Kahlil Gibran — how to approach The Prophet, his essential collection of prose poems on the nature of life. A complete reading guide.
Where to Start with William L. Shirer: A Reading Guide
Where to start with William L. Shirer — how to approach The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, his monumental eyewitness history of Nazi Germany. A complete reading guide.
Best American Novels: The Great American Novel Reading List
The best American novels — from Moby-Dick and The Great Gatsby to Beloved and Blood Meridian. The essential canon of American fiction from the 19th century to today.
Best French Literature: Essential Novels from France
The best French literature — from Madame Bovary and Germinal to The Stranger and Swann's Way. Essential novels and the canonical reading list for French fiction.
Best Vietnam War Books: Essential Fiction and Non-Fiction
The best Vietnam War books — from The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato to The Quiet American and Tree of Smoke. Essential Vietnam War fiction and history.
F. Scott Fitzgerald Books in Order: Complete Bibliography & Reading Guide
F. Scott Fitzgerald's complete bibliography in order — from This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby to Tender Is the Night and The Last Tycoon. Best starting points and what makes him essential.
John Updike Books in Order: Complete Bibliography & Best Starting Points
John Updike's complete bibliography in order — from Rabbit, Run and The Witches of Eastwick to Rabbit Is Rich. Best starting points and Rabbit series reading order.
Richard Yates Books in Order: Complete Bibliography & Best Starting Points
Richard Yates's complete bibliography in order — from Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade to Disturbing the Peace. Best starting points for new readers.
Saul Bellow Books in Order: Complete Bibliography & Best Starting Points
Saul Bellow's complete bibliography in order — from Herzog and The Adventures of Augie March to Henderson the Rain King and Seize the Day. Best starting points.
Thomas Mann Books in Order: Complete Bibliography & Best Starting Points
Thomas Mann's complete bibliography in order — from The Magic Mountain and Buddenbrooks to Death in Venice and Doctor Faustus. Best starting points for new readers.
Where to Start with Iris Murdoch: A Reading Guide
Where to start with Iris Murdoch — whether to begin with The Sea, the Sea, The Black Prince, or Under the Net. A complete reading guide to her essential novels.
Where to Start with Ralph Ellison: A Reading Guide
Where to start with Ralph Ellison — whether to begin with Invisible Man, Shadow and Act, or Juneteenth. A complete reading guide to the great American novelist.
Where to Start with William Trevor: A Reading Guide
Where to start with William Trevor — how to approach The Story of Lucy Gault, his most celebrated novel following the sixty-year consequences of a child's survival being mistaken for death in 1921 Ireland, told in the most controlled prose of his career. A complete reading guide.
Where to Start with Nevil Shute: A Reading Guide
Where to start with Nevil Shute — how to approach On the Beach, his 1957 novel following survivors in Melbourne as they wait for the radioactive cloud from a nuclear war to reach Australia, facing extinction with quiet, heartbreaking dignity. A complete reading guide.
Where to Start with E.M. Forster: A Reading Guide
Where to start with E.M. Forster — how to approach A Room with a View, his comedy of liberation following Lucy Honeychurch from Florence to Surrey as she chooses between authentic feeling and the performance that Edwardian society requires of her. A complete reading guide.
Where to Start with Richard Russo: A Reading Guide
Where to start with Richard Russo — how to approach Empire Falls, his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of a man managing a diner in a dying Maine mill town, waiting for life to sort itself out while the town empties around him. A complete reading guide.
Where to Start with William Kennedy: A Reading Guide
Where to start with William Kennedy — how to approach Ironweed, his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about Francis Phelan, a Depression-era Albany bum and former baseball player haunted by the dead he has left behind. A complete reading guide.
Where to Start with John Fowles: A Reading Guide
Where to start with John Fowles — how to approach The Magus, his hypnotic psychological novel about a young Englishman on a Greek island drawn into an elaborate game of deception staged by the enigmatic Maurice Conchis. A complete reading guide.
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