Brilliant Decent Fiction
Discover a curated list of brilliant decent fiction books—thoughtful, engaging reads perfect for any book lover. Explore top picks now!
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Excellent Women
by Barbara Pym
“The finest introduction to Barbara Pym” (The New York Times): a hilarious comedy of manners by the shrewdly observant British novelist often compared to Jane …
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The Professor's House
by Willa Cather
On the eve of his move to a new, more desirable residence, Professor Godfrey St Peter finds himself in the shabby study of his former …
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The Diary of a Country Priest
by Georges Bernanos
In this classic Catholic novel, Bernanos movingly recounts the life of a young French country priest who grows to understand his provincial parish while learning …
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Wise Blood
by Flannery O'Connor
The passengers on the train to Taulkinham show mixed reactions when Haze questions their belief in Jesus.
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Rebecca
by Daphne Du Maurier
The young second wife of a widower comes to realize the evil surrounding Rebecca, his first wife.
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The Eighth Day
by Thornton Wilder
This new edition of Thornton Wilder's renowned 1967 National Book Award–winning novel features a new foreword by John Updike and an afterword by Tappan Wilder, …
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The Day of the Triffids
by John Wyndham
Explores the timeless tale of Earth's survival against alien forces (man-eating plants) and blinding meteor showers.
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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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Arthur & George
by Julian Barnes
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • From the bestselling author of The Sense of an Ending comes an “extraordinary … first rate” novel (The …
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Cancer Ward
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
One of the great allegorical masterpieces of world literature, Cancer Ward is both a deeply compassionate study of people facing terminal illness and a brilliant …
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Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Hailed by Washington Post Book World as “the best [translation] currently available" when it was first published, this second edition of Crime and Punishment has …
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The Man Who Was Thursday
by G. K. Chesterton
The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare is a metaphysical thriller by author G. K. Chesterton. Originally published in the early 20th century, this Chesterton …
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Carry On, Jeeves
by P. G. Wodehouse
A Jeeves and Wooster collectionThese marvellous stories introduce us to Jeeves, whose first ever duty is to cure Bertie s raging hangover ( If you …
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The Best of Wodehouse
by P.G. Wodehouse
P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) was perhaps the most widely acclaimed British humorist of the twentieth century. Throughout his career, he brilliantly examined the complex and idiosyncratic …
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Scoop
by Evelyn Waugh
In "Scoop, " surreptitiously dubbed "a newspaper adventure, " Waugh flays Fleet Street and the social pastimes of its war correspondants as he tells how …
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Modern Classics #2 Forsyte Saga
by John Galsworthy
In this second part of John Galworthy's trilogy of love, power, money and family feuding, a new generation has arrived to divide the Forsyte clan …
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The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME The extraordinary, beloved novel about the ability of …
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They Came Like Swallows
by William Maxwell
To eight-year old Bunny Morison, his mother is an angelic comforter in whose absence nothing is real or alive. To his older brother, Robert, his …
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A Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller
Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, …
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To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South -- and the heroism of one man in the face of blind …
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War and Peace
by graf Leo Tolstoy
Presents a new translation of the classic reflecting the life and times of Russian society during the Napoleonic Wars, in a book accompanied by an …
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The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
by Roald Dahl
Meet the boy who can talk to animals, the man who can see with his eyes closed, and find out about the treasure buried deep …
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The Lord of the Rings
by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
An imaginative epic depicting the Great War of the Ring, a struggle between good and evil in Middle-earth, in which the tiny Hobbits play a …
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Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Brontë's moving masterpiece – the novel that has been "teaching true strength of character for generations" (The Guardian). Nominated as one of America’s best-loved …
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Kristin Lavransdatter
by Sigrid Undset
“[Sigrid Undset] should be the next Elena Ferrante.” —Slate The turbulent historical masterpiece of Norway’s literary master A Penguin Classic In her great historical epic …
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Brideshead Revisited
by Evelyn Waugh
Waugh tells the story of the Marchmain family. Aristocratic, beautiful and charming, the Marchmains are indeed a symbol of England and her decline in this …
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Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
by Winifred Watson
A governess is sent by an employment afency to the wrong address, where she encounters a glamourous night-club singer, Miss LaFosse.
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The Painted Veil
by William Somerset Maugham
She did not know what to say. She was undecided whether indignantly to assert her innocence or to break out into angry reproaches. He seemed …
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Cold Comfort Farm
by Stella Gibbons
"Quite simply one of the funniest satirical novels of the last century." —Nancy Pearl, NPR's Morning Edition The deliriously entertaining Cold Comfort Farm is "very …
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Mariana
by Monica Dickens
A 1930s Bridget Jones who is waiting, often desperately, for the right man
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Someone at a Distance
by Dorothy Whipple
J. B. Priestly describes Dorothy Whipple as a "Jane Austen of the Twentieth Century."
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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A NETFLIX FILM • A remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German Occupation, and of …
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The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
The lives of fifty-four-year-old concierge Rene Michel and extremely bright, suicidal twelve-year-old Paloma Josse are transformed by the arrival of a new tenant, Kakuro Ozu.
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The Priory
by Dorothy Whipple
The setting for The Priory is a large house ‘somewhere in England’, partly modelled on Newstead Abbey near Nottingham where Dorothy Whipple had a weekend …
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They Were Sisters
by Dorothy Whipple
Presents a story of three sisters who's choice of husband dictates whether they have homes, and whether, in their homes, they will be allowed to …
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Peace Like a River
by Leif Enger
A bag with ten copies of the title that may also include miscellaneous notes, discussion questions, biographical information, and reading lists to assist book group …
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So Brave, Young, and Handsome
by Leif Enger
In this stunning successor to his bestseller "Peace Like a River," Enger pens a rugged and nimble story about an aging train robber on a …