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Realism books
Realism books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
Le Père Goriot
Honoré de BalzacLinks a Paris boarding house to the city's money and ambition, a key early model for the social novel.
Madame Bovary
Gustave FlaubertA provincial doctor's wife and her debts and affairs, told with precise, unsentimental detail.
Fathers and Sons
Ivan Sergeevich TurgenevA young university graduate's clash with his elders over ideas, family, and generational change.
Middlemarch
George EliotInterlocking lives in a English provincial town, with careful attention to marriage, ambition, and compromise.
The Way We Live Now
Anthony TrollopeA London financial scheme and its wide social fallout, showing how speculation touches many lives.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
More realism books
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- Anna KareninaAnna KareninaLeo Tolstoy
- The Portrait of a Lady
The Portrait of a LadyHenry James - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Adventures of Huckleberry FinnMark Twain - The Rise of Silas Lapham
The Rise of Silas LaphamWilliam Dean Howells - The House of Mirth
The House of MirthEdith Wharton - The Accidental Tourist
The Accidental TouristAnne Tyler - Brooklyn
BrooklynColm Tóibín - Olive Kitteridge
Olive KitteridgeElizabeth Strout - Pride and Prejudice
Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen1813 - Преступление и наказание
Преступление и наказаниеFiódor Dostoievski1866 - Film art
Film artDavid Bordwell1979 - Mastro-Don Gesualdo
Mastro-Don GesualdoMario Principato1873