Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like Rules of Civility
The best books like Rules of Civility are The Great Gatsby, American Pastoral, and Madame Bovary. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles is about class and ambition, reinvention, new york in the 1930s. 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 Great Gatsby
01
F. Scott Fitzgerald · Classics
The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner who moves to Long Island in the summer of 1922 and finds himself adjacent to the fabulous, mysterious parties of his neighbor Jay Gatsby.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - American Pastoral
02
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 → - Madame Bovary
03
Gustave Flaubert · Classics
Emma Bovary is a doctor's wife in provincial Normandy who believes, with absolute conviction, that real life should feel like the romantic novels she devoured as a girl.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Moveable Feast
04
Ernest Hemingway · Memoir
A Moveable Feast is Hemingway's posthumously published account of his years in Paris during the 1920s, when he and his first wife Hadley lived cheaply in Montparnasse while he apprenticed himself to the work of becoming a writer.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Middlesex
05
Jeffrey Eugenides · Literary fiction
Cal Stephanides is a middle-aged man living in Berlin who decides to tell the whole story — not just his own life, but the lives of his Greek immigrant grandparents and parents, all the way back to the incest that introduced a recessive gene into his bloodline and the gene that made Cal intersex.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - The Mayor of Casterbridge
06
Thomas Hardy · Literary fiction
The Mayor of Casterbridge opens with an act so audacious it takes a moment to process: a drunken hay-trusser named Michael Henchard sells his wife and infant daughter at a country fair for five guineas.
Both dig into class and ambition.
Read the summary → - Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
07
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
Elena Ferrante · Literary fiction
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay is the third novel in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet, picking up where The Story of a New Name left off.
Both dig into class and ambition.
Read the summary → - Chronicles: Volume One
08
Bob Dylan · Memoir
Chronicles: Volume One is the first installment of what Dylan announced as a multi-volume memoir, and it is one of the stranger and more rewarding books any major artist has written about their own formation.
Both dig into reinvention.
Read the summary → - Devil in a Blue Dress
09
Walter Mosley · Mystery
Easy Rawlins is a Black World War II veteran living in Watts in 1948.
Both dig into moral compromise.
Read the summary → - Great Expectations
10
Charles Dickens · Classics
Great Expectations follows Pip, an orphan boy on the Kent marshes who is yanked from modest obscurity into the orbit of wealth and social aspiration when an anonymous benefactor funds his move to London.
Both dig into class and ambition.
Read the summary → - Me Before You
11
Jojo Moyes · Romance
Louisa Clark is twenty-six, cheerfully aimless, and loses her job at the local café on the same day.
Both dig into class and ambition.
Read the summary → - The Atlas Six
12
Olivie Blake · Fantasy
Six of the world's most powerful young magicians are recruited by the Alexandrian Society, a secret organization that has preserved forbidden knowledge since antiquity.
Both dig into moral compromise.
Read the summary →
Books like Rules of Civility: quick answers
What are the best books like Rules of Civility?
The best books like Rules of Civility by Amor Towles are The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Rules of Civility, such as class and ambition, reinvention, new york in the 1930s.
What should I read after Rules of Civility?
A natural next read after Rules of Civility is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are American Pastoral by Philip Roth, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway.
What books are similar to Rules of Civility by Amor Towles?
Rules of Civility centers on class and ambition, reinvention, new york in the 1930s. Books with a similar feel include The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
