Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like Frankenstein
The best books like Frankenstein are The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Turn of the Screw, and Homage to Catalonia. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is about creation and responsibility, alienation and loneliness, ambition and its costs. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
01
Oscar Wilde · Literary fiction
Dorian Gray is a beautiful young man who, on the day his portrait is painted, makes a wish — or perhaps a bargain, though no one is present to take the other side of it — that the portrait should age in his place.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - The Turn of the Screw
02
Henry James · Horror
A young governess is sent to an isolated English country house to care for two children, Miles and Flora, whose guardian — a charming, absent man in London — has made clear he does not want to be bothered.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Homage to Catalonia
03
George Orwell · Memoir
Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell's firsthand account of fighting in the Spanish Civil War, which he joined in late 1936 as a volunteer with the POUM militia — a Trotskyist revolutionary organization that was later suppressed by the Soviet-backed Stalinist wing of the Republican forces.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary →
- Heart of Darkness
04
Joseph Conrad · Literary fiction
Marlow, a sailor sitting on a boat on the Thames, tells the story of a journey he made up the Congo River to find Kurtz, a brilliant company agent who has gone silent deep in the interior.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Farewell to Arms
05
Ernest Hemingway · Literary fiction
A Farewell to Arms is set during the First World War in northern Italy and follows Frederic Henry, an American serving as a lieutenant in the Italian ambulance corps, who falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a British nurse.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Fine Balance
06
Rohinton Mistry · Literary fiction
A Fine Balance is set in an unnamed Indian city during Indira Gandhi's Emergency of 1975–1977, a period of suspended democracy, forced sterilization, and slum clearances that is barely taught in the West and barely taught in India.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Little Life
07
Hanya Yanagihara · Literary fiction
A Little Life follows four men from college into middle age and beyond — Willem, an actor; JB, a painter; Malcolm, an architect; and Jude, a lawyer with a past that is revealed in increasingly devastating detail as the novel progresses.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
08
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce · Literary fiction
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man traces the intellectual and spiritual development of Stephen Dedalus from early childhood to the edge of adulthood, when he leaves Ireland to pursue life as an artist.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Thousand Acres
09
Jane Smiley · Literary fiction
A Thousand Acres retells King Lear on a thousand-acre Iowa farm in the 1970s.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Visit from the Goon Squad
10
Jennifer Egan · Literary fiction
A Visit from the Goon Squad is a novel told in thirteen chapters, each from a different point of view and sometimes in a radically different form — including one chapter composed entirely as a PowerPoint presentation.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
11
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain · Literary fiction
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins where Tom Sawyer left off — Huck Finn, the outcast son of the town drunk, has been taken in and given a respectable life he doesn't want.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - American Pastoral
12
Philip Roth · Literary fiction
American Pastoral opens with a narrator, Nathan Zuckerman, learning at a high school reunion about the life and death of Seymour "the Swede" Levov — a man who embodied postwar American success so completely he seemed almost allegorical.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary →
Books like Frankenstein: quick answers
What are the best books like Frankenstein?
The best books like Frankenstein by Mary Shelley are The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Frankenstein, such as creation and responsibility, alienation and loneliness, ambition and its costs.
What should I read after Frankenstein?
A natural next read after Frankenstein is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
What books are similar to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley?
Frankenstein centers on creation and responsibility, alienation and loneliness, ambition and its costs. Books with a similar feel include The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
