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Books like Carmen

Loved Carmen by Prosper Mérimée? Here are 7 books with the same pull, and why each one fits.

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7 books

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  1. 1The Queen of Spades

    The Queen of Spades

    Alexander Pushkin

    A short, cold-edged story of obsession and ruin told with the same economy and irony as Carmen.

  2. 2A Hero of Our Time

    A Hero of Our Time

    Mikhail Lermontov

    A set of linked tales narrated by an observant outsider who records the ruinous behaviour of a charismatic officer.

  3. 3Madame Bovary

    Madame Bovary

    Gustave Flaubert

    A provincial story of desire and self-destruction, written with the same exact prose and cool judgement on its characters.

  4. 4The Stranger

    The Stranger

    Albert Camus

    A flat, first-person account of a man who acts without strong feeling and is judged by others for it.

  5. 5The Red and the Black

    The Red and the Black

    Stendhal

    The rise and fall of an ambitious young man whose passions and social position drive him to a violent end.

  6. 6Heart of Darkness

    Heart of Darkness

    Joseph Conrad

    A story told by a narrator who hears another man's account of a dangerous journey and reflects on what it reveals.

  7. 7Anna Karenina

    Anna Karenina

    Leo Tolstoy

    A novel of passion and social judgement in which a woman's affair leads to a tragic end.

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