• The Best 19th-Century Books - Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
  • The Best 19th-Century Books - Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
  • The Best 19th-Century Books - The Heart of Mid-Lothian by Walter Scott
  • The Best 19th-Century Books - Villette by Charlotte Brontë
  • The Best 19th-Century Books - Scarlet and Black by Stendhal
  • The Best 19th-Century Books - Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

The Best 19th-Century Books

The 19th century was a golden age for books, with the flourishing of great realist novels, as well as epic adventure stories and what would turn out to be distinct genres, including sci-fi, horror, and mystery. It was also an important time for the history of ideas, with the publication of key books that would change the world, and how we view it, forever.

  • The Best Post-Apocalyptic Novels - The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  • The Best Post-Apocalyptic Novels - Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
  • The Best Post-Apocalyptic Novels - The Last Man by Mary Shelley
  • The Best Post-Apocalyptic Novels - World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
  • The Best Post-Apocalyptic Novels - On The Beach by Nevil Shute
  • The Best Post-Apocalyptic Novels - Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

The Best Post-Apocalyptic Novels

Do you take perverse pleasure in reading about the end of the world as we know it? Us too. Here, we’ve gathered together a selection of the best post-apocalyptic novels ever to appear on Five Books to help you choose your next horrifying, exhilarating literary parlay into armageddon.

  • Five Timeless Books Rooted in Oral Storytelling - Grendel by John C. Gardner
  • Five Timeless Books Rooted in Oral Storytelling - Three Kingdoms: A Historical Novel by Luo Guanzhong & Moss Roberts (translator)
  • Five Timeless Books Rooted in Oral Storytelling - The Tale of Princess Fatima, Warrior Woman: The Arabic Epic of Dhat al-Himma translated by Melanie Magidow
  • Five Timeless Books Rooted in Oral Storytelling - Grettir's Saga by Jesse Byock (translator)
  • Five Timeless Books Rooted in Oral Storytelling - The Kushnameh: The Persian Epic of Kush the Tusked by Iranshah ibn Abu'l-Khayr & translated by Kaveh L. Hemmat

Five Timeless Books Rooted in Oral Storytelling, recommended by Tuva Kahrs

Long before we published books, tales were told around the campfire, or recited by a professional one episode at a time. So why not go straight to the wellspring of literature, and read stories so good they have been told and re-told for centuries? Here, Five Books contributing editor Tuva Kahrs recommends timeless books that began life in oral storytelling traditions from around the world, whose themes have resonated through the ages.