18 books like An autobiography

What to read after An autobiography — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Pictures from Italy Charles Dickens · 1846 · ★ 3.5 · 125p · ≈ 4h · Challenging From the book:If the readers of this volume will be so kind as to take their credentials for the different places which are the subject of its author's reminiscences, from the Author himself, perhaps they may visit them, in fancy, the more agreeably, and with a better understanding of what they are to expect. Many books have been written upon Italy, affording many means of studying the history of… Shares: English Novelists, Journeys, Authors, Description and travel

Design and truth in autobiography Roy Pascal · 1960 · 202p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Originally published in 1960. Is there an art of autobiography? What are its origins and how has it come to acquire the form we know today? For what does the autobiographer seek, and why should it be so popular? This study suggests some of the answers to these questions. It takes the view that autobiography is one of the dominant and characteristic forms of literary self-expression and deserves… Shares: Autobiographie, Biography & Memoir

The mirror of the sea Joseph Conrad · 1906 · ★ 3.9 · 175p · ≈ 5h · Challenging The Mirror of the Sea is a collection of autobiographical essays first published in various magazines 1904-6 (Summary by Wikipedia). Conrad early in his life earned his bread as a Master Mariner in sailing ships. In his Author's Note to this work, Conrad states,"Beyond the line of the sea horizon the world for me did not exist .Within these pages I make a full confession not of my sins but of my… Shares: English Novelists, Journeys, Biography & Memoir

Ian Fleming Andrew Lycett · 1995 · ★ 3.7 · 486p · ≈ 16h · Moderate Sportsman, womanizer, naval commander, world-traveler, spy, the suave Old Etonian creator of the Cold War's archetypal secret agent was infinitely more complicated and interesting than his major fictional character, Agent 007, as Lycett shows in this full-length biography of Ian Fleming. Shares: English Novelists, Authors, Biography & Memoir

Here Lies Eric Ambler · 1985 · 234p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Winner of the Edgar Award, Eric Ambler’s autobiography Here Lies is an intriguing look inside the mind of one of our greatest thriller writers. Here the famously recalcitrant Ambler peels back the layers of experience that affected his life with the same skill he uses to unfold the plots of his novels. His South London childhood; his brief engineering career, which he gave up to work in theater;… Shares: English Novelists, Authors, Biography & Memoir

The Life of Ian Fleming John Pearson · 1966 · ★ 4.0 · 368p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Through extensive research and examination of private papers, this book exposes the fact that although Fleming might have denied the connection, the Bond books were in fact autobiographical. Shares: English Novelists, Authors, Biography & Memoir

Le Rhin Victor Hugo · 1800 · ★ 4.4 · 430p · ≈ 14h · Challenging Dans ces pages de voyage, Victor Hugo fait du Rhin et de ses villes un vaste livre de pierre, où Mayence, Cologne, Francfort, Worms et Rome révèlent les combats du temps, de l'histoire et de la modernité. L'arrivée par le chemin de fer, la douceur des paysages rhénans, les cathédrales, les cloîtres, les tombeaux et les ruines composent une méditation à la fois savante, lyrique et indignée sur la… Shares: Journeys, Description and travel

Autobiography of Lutfullah Lutfullah · 1857 · 429p · ≈ 14h · Challenging Book digitized by Google and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb. Shares: Journeys, Description and travel, Biography & Memoir

The Life of Charlotte Bronte Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell · 1857 · 411p · ≈ 13h · Challenging Intertwining fact and story, The Life of Charlotte Bronte takes the reader by one hand and Charlotte Bronte by the other to run rampant through the making of one of the greatest authoresses of all time. Follow Charlotte from her birthplace of Thornton as she sets off for school and later returns to teach her sisters, and come to know the “characteristic kindness of the Brontes.” This… Shares: English Novelists, Authors, Biography & Memoir

Jane's fame Claire Harman · 2009 · 341p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Part biography and part cultural history, this splendid book not only tells the captivating story of Jane Austen's life, but also her literary legacy. The slow growth of Austen's fame, the changing status of her work, and what it has stood for in English culture is a story of personal struggle and family dynamics as well as a history of critical practices and changing public tastes. Jane's Fame… Shares: English Novelists, Authors, Biography & Memoir

Writing Life Writing Paul John Eakin · 2020 · 288p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Why do we endlessly tell the stories of our lives? And why do others pay attention when we do? The essays collected here address these questions, focusing on three different but interrelated dimensions of life writing. The first section, "Narrative," argues that narrative is not only a literary form but also a social and cultural practice, and finally a mode of cognition and an expression of our… Shares: Autobiographie, Biography & Memoir

Works (American Notes / Pictures from Italy) Charles Dickens · 1800 · 521p · ≈ 17h · Challenging American Notes was the result of the author's five-month trip to America in 1842. Dickens's travelogue includes the glitter of Boston; a Broadway swarming with hogs; a gruesome penitentiary in Philadelphia; Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis; railways and steamboats. Its publication was greeted with dismay: what Dickens described as "honest and true" was regarded in America as "a compound of… Shares: English Novelists, Journeys, Description and travel

An account of Corsica, the journal of a tour to that island; and memoirs of Pascal Paoli James Boswell · 1768 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Demanding "This first complete reprint of James Boswell's book on Corsica since the eighteenth century is enhanced by comprehensive annotation, textual apparatus, and a critical introduction. Boswell designed his text in two parts, first, an "Account" of Corsica, which gives a historical, political, socioeconomic, and cultural overview of the Corsican people, and second, the "Journal" of his tour to see… Shares: Journeys, Authors, Description and travel, Biography & Memoir

The Aran Islands J. M. Synge · 1906 · 112p · ≈ 3h · Challenging "In the late 1890s, John M. Synge, in his middle twenties and unsure of his vocations made his way to Paris intending to study French literature and become a literary critic. There he met William Butler Yeats. The eminent poet advised Synge to drop his involvements with fin de siecle French authors, return to Ireland, and describe a society with which he had some natural connection. Yeats… Shares: Journeys, Description and travel, Biography & Memoir

Wild Wales George Henry Borrow · 1798 · 608p · ≈ 20h · Demanding Wild Wales: Its People, Language and Scenery is a travel book by the English Victorian gentleman writer George Borrow (1803–1881), first published in 1862. Shares: Journeys, Description and travel, Biography & Memoir

Experiment in autobiography H. G. Wells · 1934 · 718p · ≈ 23h · Challenging En un momento de desgaste personal y abierto escepticismo, H.G. Wells, uno de los escritores más importantes de la literatura occidental, realizó el relato de su vida hasta 1934, fecha de publicación de este Experimento en autobiografía. En una primera parte, el autor de La máquina del tiempo o La guerra de los mundos, repasa su niñez, la vida familiar y una embrollada educación, el periplo como… Shares: English Novelists, Biography & Memoir

Travels with Charley John Steinbeck · 1962 · ★ 4.1 · 290p · ≈ 9h · Moderate A quest across America, from the northernmost tip of Maine to California's Monterey Peninsula To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the tress, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years. With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives… Shares: Journeys, Authors, Description and travel, Biography & Memoir

Hills and the sea Hilaire Belloc · 1906 · 301p · ≈ 10h · Challenging Hills and the Sea, first published in 1906 to critical acclaim, collects thirty-eight of Hilaire Belloc's essays, spanning several periods of time and travel. Belloc captures the essence of each place he visits--whether on the gloomy English fens, or the sunny Provence and Languedoc regions of France, or navigating the North Sea in a leaky boat. Praised for his blend of wit and philosophy, Belloc… Shares: Journeys, Description and travel

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