The Best 18th-Century Novels, recommended by Sophie Gee
There's nothing in modern works of fiction that wasn't already there in the great novels of the 18th century, argues Sophie Gee, a professor of English at Princeton University and co-host of the Secret Life of Books podcast. She talks us through five of her favourites, from the irrepressible Moll Flanders to the melancholic beauty of Sense and Sensibility.
HISTORY BOOKS Black Spartacus by Sudhir Hazareesingh
🏆 Winner of the 2021 Wolfson History Prize
“I am Toussaint Louverture, you have perhaps heard my name. You are aware, brothers, that I have undertaken vengeance, and that I want freedom and equality to reign in Saint-Domingue”
HISTORICAL FICTION Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
“It’s a very civilised novel, set in New York in the 1740s, in which a man named Smith arrives like a stone thrown in a pond to upset the merchants’ lives.”—Toby Clements on the funniest historical novels
NONFICTION BOOKS The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale 🏆 Winner of the 2008 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction
“Many crimes can also tell you something larger about society, and this one got very much at the notion of how we feel about the sanctity of our home”—David Grann, writer
CLASSIC LITERATURE The Diary of Anne Frank
‘That’s what so difficult in this day and age: the moment we think of our ideals, our dreams, our beautiful future, horrible reality intervenes and destroys them”–Anne Frank, 15 July 1944
FANTASY Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
“It’s a magic that feels absolutely real, as if the book were an eyewitness account. Not since Lewis has the supernatural been such a thrilling, immediate, concrete presence on the page”—Lev Grossman, critic and novelist
NONFICTION BOOKS Waiting to Be Arrested at Night by Tahir Hamut Izgil, Joshua Freeman (translator)
“The most beautifully written book about Xinjiang I’ve come across, not just during this year but ever…by a Uyghur poet”—Jeffrey Wasserstrom, historian
THE BEST BOOKS FOR TEENS The Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe
“When he describes something you already know about, you think, ‘That is such a clever way of putting it in the simplest possible, soundest terms’. “—Kate Lee, physics teacher
THRILLERS The Lost Man by Jane Harper
“I think most people who’ve read her work agree The Lost Man is her best book…it’s so atmospheric. You can really feel the blazing, scorching heat of the Queensland sun. “—Mark Edwards, novelist
FICTION The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
🏆 Winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature
“I absolutely love this book. It’s extraordinary. It’s essentially about memory and forgetting. It’s about terrible atrocities that have happened between different groups of people and how they can then manage to live together”—Marion Turner, Oxford University
ECONOMICS BOOKS The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner
“This is a great book. It still has not been equalled. It’s a run through where the classical economists came from, who they were, what they thought and why they thought what they though”—Brad DeLong, economist, UC Berkeley
TOP ‘ROMANTASY’ BOOKS to get you started
“A word of warning—these books are real page turners and you’ll find yourself reading until the early hours of the morning”—Francesca Martin, journalist
PHILOSOPHY BOOKS Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes
“René Descartes is a superb writer who, in his first Meditation…takes skepticism—which is an unwillingness to assume anything, a philosophical stance where you question everything—about as far as it can go”—Nigel Warburton, philosophy editor, Five Books
FANTASY BOOKS The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
“The Poppy War is about 19th and 20th century Chinese history, in a fantasy world”—Anna Smith Spark, novelist
AI BOOKS ChatGPT-4 offers its own opinions on artificial intelligence “These books offer valuable insights into the development, challenges, and future prospects of AI”—ChatGPT-4, AI chatbot
Our aim is to make Five Books the place to go to on the web for book recommendations, arranged by topic. Help us achieve our goal by making a reading list on a subject you know a lot about. These lists have been created by our readers using our new interactive tool. Browse them all, or make your own.
