18 books like The well-beloved

What to read after The well-beloved — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Under the Greenwood Tree or, The Mellstock quire Thomas Hardy · 1872 · ★ 3.6 · 188p · ≈ 6h · Challenging Under the Greenwood Tree is the story of the romantic entanglement between church musician, Dick Dewey, and the attractive new school mistress, Fancy Day. A pleasant romantic tale set in the Victorian era, Under the Greenwood Tree is one of Thomas Hardy's most gentle and pastoral novels. Shares: Wessex, British and irish fiction, Romance & Relationships, Historical Fiction

The Woodlanders Thomas Hardy · 1800 · ★ 3.9 · 419p · ≈ 13h · Challenging When country-girl Grace Melbury returns home from her middle-class school she feels she has risen above her suitor, the simple woodsman Giles Winterborne. Though marriage had been discussed between her and Giles, Grace finds herself captivated by Dr Edred Fitzpiers, a sophisticated newcomer to the area - a relationship that is encouraged by her socially ambitious father. Hardy's novel of… Shares: Wessex, British and irish fiction, England, Historical Fiction

The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy · 1800 · ★ 3.9 Like many of Hardy’s novels, The Mayor of Casterbridge is set in the fictional county of Wessex in the mid 1800s. It begins with Michael Henchard, a young hay-trusser, drunk on rum, auctioning off his wife and baby daughter at a village fair. The next day, overcome with remorse, Henchard resolves to turn his life around. When we meet Henchard eighteen years later, temperance and hard work have… Shares: Wessex, British and irish fiction

Ladies whose bright eyes Ford Madox Ford · 1911 · 363p · ≈ 12h · Challenging What would really happen to a modern man thrown back to the Middle Ages ? Shares: British and irish fiction, Romance & Relationships, England

The Black Robe Wilkie Collins · 1881 · ★ 3.7 · 318p · ≈ 10h · Challenging The Black Robe is an 1881 partially-epistolary novel by famed English writer, Wilkie Collins. The book, which relates the misadventures of one "Lewis Romayne", is noted for its anti-Catholic lens. Shares: British and irish fiction, Romance & Relationships, England

Autumn Lover Elizabeth Lowell · 1996 · ★ 3.8 · 504p · ≈ 16h · Moderate Returning to her Wyoming ranch at the Civil War's end, Elyssa Sutton finds it picked bare by scavengers and coveted by determined men. Yet the proud young woman vows never again to abandon her Ruby Mountain home-though it means enlisting the aid of a dark and dangerous stranger who lives for revenge alone. Hunter Maxwell has suffered from the savagery of outlaws and the faithlessness of a woman.… Shares: Romance & Relationships, Historical Fiction, Romance

The Trumpet-Major, and Robert His Brother Thomas Hardy · 1880 · 379p · ≈ 12h · Challenging Set against a backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, this is a novel about a young woman and the three very different suitors who vie for her hand. Two of the men are brothers involved in the fighting, one an easygoing sailor, the other an honest and diffident trumpet major, the third suitor being the cowardly son of the local squire. Shares: Wessex, British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction

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, Romance & Relationships, England

The Regency Brides Collection Michelle Griep · 2017 · 609p · ≈ 20h · Moderate Seven couples must navigate society's gauntlet to secure the hand of true love.... Shares: Romance & Relationships, England, Romance

The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy · 1878 · ★ 3.9 · 257p · ≈ 8h · Challenging The native of the title is Clym Yeobright, who returns to the area from the bright society of Paris and, as any reader of Hardy knows, all is not smooth. He is quickly taken by and marries the one woman he should not--Eustacia Vye. The suffering that follows is mitigated somewhat by the ending. Shares: Wessex, Romance

Coniston Winston Churchill · 1906 · ★ 3.6 · 566p · ≈ 18h · Challenging This book is about a love-story of long ago, of a time some little while after General Jackson had got into the White House and had shown the world what a real democracy was. The Era of the first six presidents had closed, and a new Era had begun. I am speaking of political Eras. Certain gentlemen, with a pious belief in democracy, but with a firmer determination to get on top, arose,—and got on… Shares: British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction

Shirley Charlotte Brontë · 1800 · ★ 3.8 · 640p · ≈ 21h · Demanding Shirley, published in 1849, was Charlotte Brontë’s second novel after Jane Eyre. Published under her pseudonym of “Currer Bell,” it differs in several respects from that earlier work. It is written in the third person with an omniscient narrator, rather than the first-person of Jane Eyre, and incorporates the themes of industrial change and the plight of unemployed workers. It also features… Shares: British and irish fiction, England, Historical Fiction

Miss or Mrs.? Wilkie Collins · 1892 · ★ 3.5 · 84p · ≈ 2h · Challenging The night had come to an end. The new-born day waited for its quickening light in the silence that is never known on land - the silence before sunrise, in a calm at sea. Shares: British and irish fiction, Romance & Relationships, England, Romance

The egoist George Meredith · 1879 · 523p · ≈ 17h · Challenging Presents the text of George Meredith's classic satirical novel along with critical essays by Robert Mayo, Virginia Woolf, and others, textual notes, and background essays by the author. Shares: British and irish fiction, Romance & Relationships, England

Can you forgive her? Anthony Trollope · 1800 · ★ 4.0 · 412p · ≈ 13h · Challenging The Palliser Novels, book 1: Can You Forgive Her? Alice Vavasor cannot decide whether to marry her ambitious but violent cousin George or the upright and gentlemanly John Grey - and finds herself accepting and rejecting each of them in turn. Increasingly confused about her own feelings and unable to forgive herself for such vacillation, her situation is contrasted with that of her friend Lady… Shares: British and irish fiction, Romance & Relationships, England, Romance

Rachel Ray Anthony Trollope · 1863 · ★ 3.9 · 349p · ≈ 11h · Challenging "Rachel Ray is an 1863 novel by Anthony Trollope. It recounts the story of a young woman who is forced to give up her fiancé because of baseless suspicions directed toward him by the members of her community, including her sister and the pastors of the two churches attended by her sister and mother" -- Shares: British and irish fiction, Romance & Relationships, England, Romance

Pelham Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton · 1828 · 375p · ≈ 12h · Challenging This is the tale of Henry Pelham. He falls in love with his best friend’s sister, and then learns that his friend is accused of murder. He must find the real killer in order to marry his love. The book really illustrates the manners, habits and lifestyles of the rich and famous in the first half of the 19th century. This is a very entertaining read!Please Note: This book is easy to read in true… Shares: British and irish fiction, Romance

Home as found James Fenimore Cooper · 1800 · ★ 5.0 · 432p · ≈ 14h · Challenging "No society, dear!--Why you were at the Henderson's, and the Morgan's, and the Drewett's; three of the greatest _réunions_ that we have had in two winters!"' "I did not know that you meant those unpleasant crowds, by society". "Unpleasant crowds! Why, child, that is society, is it not?' "Not what I have been taught to consider such; I rather think it would be better to call it company". "And is… Shares: Historical Fiction

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