A Particular Eye for Villainy vs American Pastoral: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Social conditions, History, Fiction
A Particular Eye for Villainy
From "an accomplished veteran" of crime fiction, a Victorian murder mystery featuring a female sleuth and her detective husband (Kirkus Reviews).When Mr. Thomas Tapley is found bludgeoned to death in his sitting room,…
vs
American Pastoral
American Pastoral is a Philip Roth novel published in 1997 concerning Seymour "Swede" Levov, a successful Jewish American businessman and former high school star athlete from Newark, New Jersey. Levov's happy and…
1 film adaptation
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- American Pastoral has the widest readership — 91149 ratings behind its score.
- American Pastoral runs the darker storyline; A Particular Eye for Villainy stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| A Particular Eye for Villainy | American Pastoral | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 4.0 (91149) |
| Hardcover | 3.3 (3) | 3.5 (2) |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (7) | 4.0 (42) |
Reception
| A Particular Eye for Villainy | American Pastoral | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 7 | 91149 |
| Editions | 3 | 27 |
| Film adaptations | — | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 109417 |
| Reading it now | — | 5322 |
| Written reviews | — | 7273 |
| Wikipedia attention | — | 7589 |
| Pages | 373 | 427 |