Books Like “The God of Small Things”

The House of Seven Gables Readalong

Nathaniel Hawthorne

1851

FThis enduring novel of crime and retribution vividly reflects the social and moral values of New England in the 1840s. Nathaniel Hawthorne's gripping psychological drama concerns the Pyncheon family, a dynasty founded on pious theft, who live for generations under a dead man's curse until their house is finally exorcised by love. Hawthorne, by birth and education, was instilled with the Puritan belief in America's limitless promise. Yet - in part because of blemishes on his own family history - he also saw the darker side of the young nation. Like his twentieth-century heirs William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hawthorne peered behind propriety's façade and exposed the true human condition.

Sons and Lovers

D. H. Lawrence

1913

Sons and Lovers is D.H. Lawerence's masterpiece novel that has been listed as one of the top ten novels of the 20th century. The novel centers around the life of Paul Morel. Born into an unhappy marriage, Paul is determined to please his mother, even when it means destroying his own life in the process. This Xist Classics edition has been professionally formatted for e-readers with a linked table of contents. This eBook also contains a bonus book club leadership guide and discussion questions. We hope you’ll share this book with your friends, neighbors and colleagues and can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it. Xist Publishing is a digital-first publisher. Xist Publishing creates books for the touchscreen generation and is dedicated to helping everyone develop a lifetime love of reading, no matter what form it takes

Little House in the Big Woods

Laura Ingalls Wilder

1932

"Little House in the Big Woods" is an autobiographical children's novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published by Harper in 1932. It was Wilder's first book published and it inaugurated her Little House series. It is based on memories of her early childhood in the Big Woods near Pepin, Wisconsin, in the early 1870s. Based on a 2007 online poll, the U.S. National Education Association named the novel one of its ""Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children"". In 2012, it was ranked number 19 among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal – the first of three Little House books in the Top 100.

To the Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf

1927

In To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf draws on her childhood experiences to create an autobiographical novel with universal themes; a masterpiece in the tradition of Proust and Joyce.

Man and Wife

Wilkie Collins, Norman Page, Harry A. Webber

1870

Man and Wife was Wilkie Collins' ninth published novel. It is the second of his novels (after No Name) in which social questions provide the main impetus of the plot. Collins increasingly used his novels to explore social abuses, which according to critics] tends to detract from their qualities as fiction. The social issue which drives the plot is the state of Scots marriage law; at the time the novel was written, any couple who were legally entitled to marry and who asserted that they were married before witnesses, or in writing, were regarded in Scotland as being married in law. The novel has a complex plot, common in Collins' work.[3] In a Prologue, a selfish and ambitious man casts off his wife in order to marry a wealthier and better-connected woman, by taking advantage of a loophole in the marriage laws of Ireland.The initial action takes place in the widowed Lady Lundie's house in Scotland. Geoffrey Delamayn has promised marriage to his lover Anne Silvester (governess to Lady Lundie's stepdaughter Blanche), who has incurred the enmity of her employer. The spendthrift Geoffrey is about to be disinherited and wishes to escape from his promise and marry a wealthy wife. Nevertheless, he is obliged to arrange a rendezvous with Anne, in the character of his wife, at an inn, and documents this in an exchange of notes with her. Subsequently, urgent matters force him to send his friend Arnold Brinkworth, Blanche's fiancé, to Anne in his place. To gain access to her, Arnold must ask for "his wife". Although nothing improper passes between them, they appear to the landlady and to Bishopriggs, a waiter, to be man and wife.Thus, both Geoffrey and Arnold might be deemed to be married to Anne, depending on the weight put on the spoken and written evidence. Most of the novel concerns Anne's, Geoffrey's and Arnold's attempts to clarify their marital status:

Novels (Emma / Mansfield Park / Northanger Abbey / Persuasion / Pride and Prejudice / Sense and Sensibility)

Jane Austen

1818

This collection from Everyman's Library provides the complete works of one of the most popular authors in English literature. Each of Jane Austen's masterpieces is enchantingly funny, touchingly and wittily told, and filled with a dazzling gallery of characters. These beautiful, clothbound classics are essentials for any home library. Titles included: Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abby, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sandition and Other Stories, Sense and Sensibility