18 books like Portrait of a genius

What to read after Portrait of a genius — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault · 1975 · ★ 4.1 · 333p · ≈ 11h · Moderate English version of "Surveiller et punir: naissance de la prison" Shares: Community pick

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 Authors, Authorship, Authors, Biography & Memoir

D.H. Lawrence D. H. Lawrence · 1928 · 30p · ≈ 1h · Challenging A collection of poems on themes of animals, people, celebration and condemnation, and love, by a prolific English poet, novelist, critic, travel writer, playwright, and painter. Shares: English Psychological fiction, English Authors, Criticism and interpretation, History and criticism

Paul Kelver Jerome Klapka Jérôme · 1902 · 322p · ≈ 10h · Challenging IN WHICH THE AUTHOR SEEKS TO CAST THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THIS STORY UPON ANOTHER. Shares: English Authors, Authors, Biography & Memoir

Poetics of Arabic Autobiography Ariel M. Sheetrit · 2020 · 198p · ≈ 6h · Moderate This book examines the poetics of autobiographical masterpieces written in Arabic by Leila Abouzeid, Hanan al-Shaykh, Samuel Shimon, Abd al-Rahman Munif, Salim Barakat, Mohamed Choukri and Hanna Abu Hanna. These literary works articulate the life story of each author in ways that undermine the expectation that the "self"—the "auto" of autobiography—would be the dominant narrative focus. Although… Shares: Biographie, Authorship, History and criticism, Biography & Memoir

Malory Christina Hardyment · 2005 · ★ 3.9 · 634p · ≈ 21h · Moderate Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur (1469) is one of the most renown books in the world. Virtually all modern versions of the Arthurian legends are derived from its energetic, memorably phrased and remarkably individual telling of the stirring exploits of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Yet the identity of the fifteenth-century knight who wrote it has remained an enigma for… Shares: English Authors, Authorship, Authors, Biography & Memoir

Telling Tales Kylie Cardell · 2015 · 156p · ≈ 5h · Moderate Young writers have historically played a pivotal role in shaping autobiographical genres and this continues into the graphic and digital texts which characterise contemporary life writing. This volume offers a selection of pertinent case studies which illuminate some of the core themes which have come to characterise autobiographical writings of childhood, including: cultural and identity… Shares: Authorship, Biography & Memoir

Cowper Goldwin Smith · 1800 · 128p · ≈ 4h · Challenging In this masterful biography, Goldwin Smith presents the life and works of William Cowper (1731-1800), whom Samuel Taylor Coleridge called “the best modern poet". Tracing Cowper's life—from his beginnings in England to his death—Smith analyzes his major lyrical works and as well as his hymns. Smith also offers an examination of the writer's lasting influence on Romantic poetry. Shares: English Authors, Authors, Psychology, Biography & Memoir

To Cut a Long Story Short Jeffrey Archer · 2000 · ★ 3.8 · 294p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Fourteen all new short stories. Shares: English Psychological fiction, Psychological fiction

Victorian women's fiction Shirley Foster · 1985 · 244p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Critical interest in women's fiction has grown enormously in recent years, in particular focusing on the ways in which female novelists have, in their creative work, challenged or scrutinized contemporary assumptions about their own sex. Victorian Women's Fiction: Marriage, Freedom and the Individual develops this area of exploration, showing how mid-nineteenth-century women writers confront the… Shares: English Psychological fiction, Psychological fiction, History and criticism

Anaphora ston Gkreko Nikos Kazantzakis · 1961 · ★ 4.0 · 512p · ≈ 17h · Moderate Shares: Biographie, Authors, Psychology, Biography & Memoir

Amor and Psyche Erich Neumann · 1956 · 181p · ≈ 6h · Moderate ''Psyche and Amor'', also known as ''Psyche Receiving Cupid's First Kiss'' (1798), by [[François Gérard: a symbolic butterfly hovers over Psyche in a moment of innocence poised before sexual awakening.Dorothy Johnson, David to Delacroix: The Rise of Romantic Mythology Shares: Psychological fiction, Criticism and interpretation, History and criticism, Psychology

On a Chinese screen William Somerset Maugham · 1922 · 242p · ≈ 8h · Challenging On a Chinese Screen was first published in 1922 by Heinemann Publishers, London. Its 58 short vignettes are based on Maugham’s travels along the Yangtze River from 1919 to 1920. Although later editions of the book added the subtitle “Sketches of Life in China,” there are actually only a few descriptions of the places he visited and the local Chinese people he met; rather, Maugham focuses on… Shares: English Authors, Authors, Biography & Memoir

The faraway nearby Rebecca Solnit · 2013 · ★ 4.2 · 259p · ≈ 8h · Moderate A companion to "A Field Guide for Getting Lost" explores the ways that people construct lives from stories and connect to each other through empathy, narrative, and imagination, sharing anecdotes about historical figures and members of the author's own family. Shares: Psychological aspects, Authorship, Authors, 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: Authorship, Authors, Biography & Memoir

A smuggler's bible Joseph McElroy · 1966 · ★ 4.0 · 435p · ≈ 14h · Moderate A Smugglers Bible is Joseph McElroys first novel. David Brooke—who talks of himself in a split-personality manner—narrates a framing tale that consists of him "smuggling" his essence into eight autobiographical manuscripts, although their connection with Brooke is not always clear. Brooke seems to deteriorate, while his fictions become more real. Shares: Authorship, Authors, Biography & Memoir

Intentions Oscar Wilde · 1891 · ★ 3.3 · 258p · ≈ 8h · Challenging A DIALOGUE. Persons: Cyril and Vivian. Scene: the Library of a country house in Nottinghamshire. (coming in through the open window from the terrace). My dear Vivian, don’t coop yourself up all day in the library. It is a perfectly lovely afternoon. The air is exquisite. There is a mist upon the woods Shares: English Authors, Authorship, History and criticism, Biography & Memoir

Auto/Biography Across the Americas Ricia A. Chansky · 2016 · 261p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Auto/biographical narratives of the Americas are marked by the underlying themes of movement and belonging. This collection proposes that the impact of the historic or contemporary movement of peoples to, in, and from the Americas—whether chosen or forced—motivates the ways in which identities are constructed in this contested space. Such movement results in a cyclical quest to belong, and to… Shares: Biographie, History and criticism, Biography & Memoir

About the book Portrait of a genius →