Books like “The Great Gatsby”

What to read after “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Red and the Black
Stendhal · 1830
Similar plot moves: “Rags to Riches” and “Love Triangle”
An ambitious young man from a poor family claws his way into high society, first through the church and then through his charm. Torn between two women and his own hunger for status, he risks everything. A novel about ambition, class and love.
2
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens · 1861
Similar plot moves: “Rags to Riches” and “Star-Crossed Lovers”
- Rags to Riches
- Star-Crossed Lovers
An orphan boy is suddenly given money by an unknown benefactor and raised into gentility. He falls for a cold, beautiful girl raised to break men's hearts, and chases a life of status he does not understand. A story about class, love and the cost of pride.
3
Far from the Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy · 1874
Shared in the plot: wealth, neighbour
- Second Chance Romance
- Love Triangle
Bathsheba Everdene inherits a farm and runs it herself. Three men want her: the steady shepherd Gabriel Oak, the wealthy neighbour Boldwood, and the dashing soldier Troy. Her choice and its consequences reshape all their lives in the farming country of Wessex.
4
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Taylor Jenkins Reid · 2017
Similar plot moves: “Second Chance Romance” and “Star-Crossed Lovers”
A young magazine reporter is chosen to write the life story of a fading film star, Evelyn Hugo. Over days of interviews Evelyn reveals seven marriages, a long-hidden love and the cost of the fame she built.
5
These Violent Delights
Chloe Gong · 2020
Similar plot moves: “Second Chance Romance” and “Star-Crossed Lovers”
In 1920s Shanghai, Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov are heirs to rival gangs and former lovers sworn to hate each other. When a madness spreads through the city and people tear themselves apart, the two must work together to find its cause, even as their families demand blood.
6
The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton · 1920
Same genre: “Tragedy”
- Love Triangle
- Star-Crossed Lovers
Newland Archer is engaged to May Welland in old New York society when May's cousin, the Countess Olenska, returns from Europe after leaving her husband. Newland and the Countess are drawn to each other, but the rules of their world demand that he marry May and hide what he feels.
7
The Inheritance Games
Jennifer Lynn Barnes · 2020
Similar plot moves: “Rags to Riches” and “Love Triangle”
- Rags to Riches
- Love Triangle
Avery Grambs, a sharp high-schooler sleeping in her car, learns that a billionaire she never met has left her almost his entire fortune. To claim it she must move into the family mansion, where four disinherited grandsons and a house full of puzzles await.
8
Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray · 1848
Similar plot moves: “Rags to Riches” and “Unreliable Narrator”
Becky Sharp, clever and poor, leaves school determined to climb London society by any means available. Beside her is her gentle friend Amelia, whose love for a vain soldier leads her toward ruin. The novel follows the two women through marriages, debts and reversals, always with an ironic eye on ambition.
9
The Enchanted April
Elizabeth von Arnim · 1922
Similar plot moves: “Second Chance Romance”
- Second Chance Romance
Four British women, strangers to one another, answer an advertisement to rent an Italian castle for April. Away from husbands and habit, each is quietly changed by the sun, the sea and the company of the others, and returns to her old life seeing it anew.
10
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad · 1899
Similar plot moves: “Unreliable Narrator” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Unreliable Narrator
- Morally Grey Character
A sailor tells of his journey up an African river to reach a mysterious ivory trader who has become a god to the locals. The deeper he goes, the more he sees of greed and cruelty, and of what people become when no one restrains them. A short, unsettling classic.
11
Atonement
Ian McEwan · 2001
Similar plot moves: “Star-Crossed Lovers” and “Unreliable Narrator”
- Star-Crossed Lovers
- Unreliable Narrator
On one summer day in 1935, a girl misreads what she sees and tells a lie that destroys two lives. Years later, as war looms, she tries to understand and atone for what she did. A novel about memory, guilt and the stories we tell to survive.
12
The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger · 1951
Similar plot moves: “Unreliable Narrator”
- Unreliable Narrator
Expelled from prep school and drifting through New York before going home, teenager Holden Caulfield narrates a few days of restless encounters. He rails against adults he calls phonies while quietly grieving a brother and his own place in the world.