18 books like The History of Tom Jones

What to read after The History of Tom Jones — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe · 1722 · ★ 3.5 · 322p · ≈ 10h · Demanding These are the true confessions of a remarkable and passionate young woman are thought to have been based on the adventures of a real prisoner in Newgate where Moll was born. ostensibly written as a warning to wrongdoers, the moral of Defoe's candid and cautionary tale is often lost in the sheer vitality of Moll - one of the supreme characters of English comic fiction. Her fortunes and… Shares: Social life and customs, History

Fanny Erica Jong · 1980 · ★ 3.7 · 505p · ≈ 16h · Moderate "Jong . . . filled a gap in the great tradition of the picaresque novel. . . . Linguistically, "Fanny" is a tower of strength. . . . Jong has gone farther than Joyce."--Anthony Burgess, "Saturday Review." Shares: Foundlings, England, History

The peppered moth Margaret Drabble · 2000 · ★ 3.3 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Moderate "It is 1912 and Bessie Bawtry is a small child living in Breaseborough, a South Yorkshire mining town. Unusually gifted, she sits quietly and studies hard, waiting for the day when she can sit the Cambridge entrance exam and escape the kind of life her ancestors have never even thought to question. Her parents are in awe of her - who is this swan-child, is she a freak? (Where did she get her… Shares: Manners and customs, British and irish fiction, Social life and customs

Mr. Sponge's sporting tour Robert Smith Surtees · 1852 · 416p · ≈ 13h · Challenging Ill-mannered foxhunter Mr. Sponge is the anti-hero of this 1853 farce of Victorian England. This book also includes illustrations by John Leech. Shares: Manners and customs, Humor, England, Social life and customs

Amelia Henry Fielding · 1751 · 594p · ≈ 19h · Demanding Against her mother's wishes, Amelia marries Captain William Booth, a young army officer, and runs away to London. William is unjustly imprisoned in Newgate, and is subsequently seduced by Miss Matthews. Amelia stays faithful to her husband and forgives his transgression, but William soon draws them into trouble again as he accrues gambling debts trying to lift the couple out of poverty. Shares: Manners and customs, British and irish fiction, England, Social life and customs

Orley Farm Anthony Trollope · 1861 · ★ 4.0 · 610p · ≈ 20h · Demanding When Joseph Mason of Groby Park, Yorkshire, died, he left his estate to his family. A codicil to his will, however, left Orley Farm (near London) to his much younger second wife and infant son. The will and the codicil were in her handwriting, and there were three witnesses, one of whom was no longer alive. A bitterly fought court case confirmed the codicil. Twenty years pass. Lady Mason lives… Shares: Manners and customs, British and irish fiction, England, Social life and customs

The way of all flesh Samuel Butler · 1900 · ★ 3.6 · 561p · ≈ 18h · Challenging I am the enfant terrible of literature and science. If I cannot, and I know I cannot, get the literary and scientific big-wigs to give me a shilling, I can, and I know I can, heave bricks into the middle of them.' With The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler threw a subversive brick at the smug face of Victorian domesticity. Published in 1903, a year after Butler's death, the novel is a thinly… Shares: Young men, Manners and customs, British and irish fiction, England

The road to Little Dribbling Bill Bryson · 2015 · ★ 3.9 · 486p · ≈ 16h · Moderate Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to discover and celebrate that green and pleasant land. The result was Notes from a Small Island, one of the bestselling travel books ever written. Now he has traveled about Britain again, by bus and train and rental car and on foot, to see what has changed -- and what hasn't. Following a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis… Shares: Manners and customs, Humor, Social life and customs, History

Martin Chuzzlewit Charles Dickens · 1800 · ★ 3.8 · 716p · ≈ 23h · Demanding The greed of his family has led wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit to become suspicious and misanthropic, leaving his grandson and namesake to make his own way in the world. And so young Martin sets out from the Wiltshire home of his supposed champion, the scheming architect Pecksniff, to seek his fortune in America. In depicting Martin's journey – an experience that teaches him to question his… Shares: Young men, British and irish fiction, England, Social life and customs

The years Virginia Woolf · 1937 · 452p · ≈ 15h · Challenging A stirring, straightforward work written near the end of her luminous career, Virginia Woolf's The Years is a portrait of the Pargiters, a staid London family presided over by Colonel Abel Pargiter. In some ways, "portrait" is not an entirely appropriate word, because Woolf's subject in this novel (and an abiding concern in all of her works) is fluidity and flux: the movement of the seasons and… Shares: Manners and customs, British and irish fiction, England, Social life and customs

Silas Marner George Eliot · 1800 · ★ 3.7 · 253p · ≈ 8h · Challenging Eliot's touching novel of a miser and a little child combines the charm of a fairy tale with the humor and pathos of realistic fiction. The gentle linen weaver, Silas Marner, exiles himself to the town of Raveloe after being falsely accused of a heinous theft. There he begins to find redemption and spiritual rebirth through his unselfish love for an abandoned child he discovers in his isolated… Shares: Foundlings, Social life and customs, History

The uncommercial traveller Charles Dickens · 1776 · ★ 3.5 · 419p · ≈ 13h · Demanding A collection of seventeen sketches which grew out of Dickens' insomnia. He took long walks through London at night and his observations resulted in these sketches. Shares: British and irish fiction, Social life and customs, History

No Thoroughfare Charles Dickens · 1800 · ★ 3.6 · 106p · ≈ 3h · Challenging No Thoroughfare is a stage play and novel by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, both released in December 1867. Shares: Manners and customs, British and irish fiction, Social life and customs

Adrian Mole Sue Townsend · 1999 · ★ 4.5 · 390p · ≈ 13h · Moderate He's back. Aged 30¼. Twenty-first century Mole. Now in his thirties, Adrian's still worrying: Can he be a good father? Is Viagra cheating? Why won't the BBC produce 'The White Van', his serial killer comedy? Will he find the fulfilment he seeks as a celebrity offal chef, single parent and celibate novelist? Is there a place for Adrian Mole in Blair's Brave New Britain? 'Thank goodness for his… Shares: Young men, Manners and customs, Humor, Social life and customs

The Newcomes William Makepeace Thackeray · 1853 · ★ 3.7 · 801p · ≈ 26h · Demanding The Newcomes is Thackeray's most essentially 'Victorian' novel, generous in its proportions, sharp in its criticism of the moral convolutions of the age, and encyclopaedic in its reference. Set in the 1830s and 1840s, a period of rapid change and of political and economic development, the novel considers the fortunes and misfortunes of a 'most respectable' extended middle-class family. The action… Shares: British and irish fiction, England, Social life and customs

The complete works of O. Henry [pseud.] O. Henry · 1899 · ★ 3.8 · 1396p · ≈ 46h · Demanding The FICTION & PROSE LITERATURE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection provides readers with a perspective of the world from some of the 18th and 19th century’s most talented writers. Written for a range of audiences, these works are a treasure for any curious reader looking to see the world through the eyes of ages past. Beyond the main body of… Shares: Manners and customs, Social life and customs

Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy · 1874 · ★ 3.9 · 491p · ≈ 16h · Challenging Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues,… Shares: Manners and customs, British and irish fiction, England, Social life and customs

Clayhanger Arnold Bennett · 1910 · 415p · ≈ 13h · Challenging This coming-of-age story set in the Midlands of Victorian England follows Edwin Clayhanger as he leaves school, takes over the family business and falls in love. Bennett wrote it in 1910 at the Royal Albion Hotel, Brighton, and in Lausanne. Edwin Clayhanger's father, Darius, has risen from an extremely poor background, which Bennett repeatedly returns to, to become a prominent printer in Bursley.… Shares: British and irish fiction, England, Social life and customs

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