20 Essential Works of Fiction
Discover the 20 essential works of fiction every book lover must read. Explore timeless classics and modern masterpieces that define literature's greatest achievements.
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Collected Stories of Isaac Babel
by Isaac Babel
To read Babel is to experience the wild and often terrifying swings of Russian history."--BOOK JACKET.
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"Masquerade" and Other Stories
by Robert Walser
Born in Switzerland in 1878, Robert Walser worked as a bank clerk, a butler in a castle, and an inventor's assistant before discovering what William …
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Raymond Carver: Collected Stories (LOA #195)
by Raymond Carver
In collections such as Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Raymond Carver wrote with unflinching …
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The Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway
by Ernest Hemingway
The complete, authoritative collection of Ernest Hemingway's short fiction, including classic stories like "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and "The Short Happy …
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First, Body
by Melanie Rae Thon
Winner of the 1997 Whiting Writers' Award One of Granta's "Best Young American Novelists"
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Jesus' Son
by Denis Johnson
Jesus' Son is a visionary chronicle of dreamers, addicts, and lost souls. These stories tell of spiraling grief and transcendence, of rock bottom and redemption, …
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Girl with Curious Hair
by David Foster Wallace
A collection of short stories by David Foster Wallace that explore the different ways people live their lives.
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The Rainbow Stories
by William T. Vollmann
A collection of thirteen short fiction stories about people around the world who live outside the law.
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Collected Stories of Franz Kafka
by Franz Kafka
Collects Kafka's short stories and parables, each reflecting his concern for modern man's search for identity, place, and purpose.
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The Razor's Edge
by W. Somerset Maugham
Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brillant …
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Journey to the End of the Night
by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis-Ferdinand Celine's revulsion and anger at what he considered the idiocy and hypocrisy of society explodes from nearly every page of this novel. Filled with …
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Self Portraits
by 太宰治
"A rich boy turned drop-out, a radical turned drug addict, obsessed with self destruction and suicide, Osamu Dazai retains his cult status among Japan's intellectual …
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The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely
by Raymond Chandler
Farewell, My Lovely: Philip Marlowe navigates the underworld of the Los Angeles gambling circuit while investigating the disappearance of a beautiful nightclub girl.
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The Overcoat and Other Short Stories
by Nikolai Gogol
Four short stories include a satirical tale of Russian bureaucrats and a portrayal of an elderly couple living in the secluded countryside.
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The Tales of Hoffmann
by Ernst Theodor Hoffman
A lawyer by day and a creator of a world of fantasy by night, Hoffman (1776-1822) lived a Jekyll and Hyde existence. Many of the …
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The Tin Drum
by Günter Grass
A dwarf drummer found guilty of a crime he did not commit writes his memoirs from a mental hospital in postwar Germany