Books like “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”

What to read after “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” by Victor Hugo: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Interview with the Vampire
Anne Rice · 1976
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
A young interviewer listens as the vampire Louis tells the story of his long life: turned by the powerful Lestat, endlessly hunting to survive, and raising the child vampire Claudia with him in a small, doomed family.
2
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley · 1818
From the same world: “Gothic”
- Gothic
- Sympathetic Monster
Victor Frankenstein discovers the secret of life and assembles a living creature from the dead, then abandons it in horror. Lonely and rejected, the creature turns on its maker, and both are drawn into a cycle of guilt and vengeance.
3
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Anne Brontë · 1848
From the same world: “Gothic”
A young widow, Helen Graham, moves into the half-ruined Wildfell Hall and keeps to herself, refusing to explain her past. The farmer Gilbert Markham falls for her, then hears rumours about her and her son. Helen's hidden diary slowly reveals the marriage she fled and why she lives in hiding.
4
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert · 1856
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Forbidden Love
A country doctor's wife dreams of romance and a grander life than her dull provincial marriage offers. She takes lovers and spends beyond her means, chasing a happiness that keeps slipping away. A sharply observed novel about desire, debt and disillusion.
5
The Mad Women's Ball
Victoria Mas · 2019
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Outcast Hero
In 1885 Paris, women who defy their families can be locked away in the Salpetriere hospital. Eugenie, sent there by her father for hearing the dead, meets Genevieve, a senior nurse devoted to the famous doctor Charcot. Their bond grows as the hospital prepares its annual costume ball for the public.
6
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy · 1891
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
Tess Durbeyfield, a poor country girl, is sent to wealthy relatives who share her family name. There she is wronged by a young man and later falls in love with Angel Clare, who knows nothing of her past. Society's judgement of her becomes the story's central cruelty.
7
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Outcast Hero
A young woman in colonial Korea, Sunja, leaves home for Japan with a husband she barely knows and raises a family that lives as outsiders for generations. Through war and poverty, the household holds on to its dignity and its secrets.
8
Kristin Lavransdatter
Sigrid Undset · 1920
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Forbidden Love
In fourteenth-century Norway the headstrong Kristin defies her devout father to marry the charming Erlend. Their life together brings seven sons, guilt and hardship as the world shifts around them and her early choices return to weigh on her.
9
The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger · 1951
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Outcast Hero
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.
10
The Mysteries of Udolpho
Ann Radcliffe · 1794
From the same world: “Gothic”
- Gothic
- Forbidden Love
After her parents die, Emily St. Aubert is left to the care of an aunt who marries an Italian nobleman. Taken to the gloomy castle of Udolpho, she is surrounded by unexplained sounds, sealed rooms and sinister men, while she tries to keep her love and her safety.
11
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe · 1958
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
Okonkwo, a respected wrestler and farmer in a Nigerian village, builds his standing on a fear of appearing weak. When he is exiled and, years later, British missionaries and officials arrive, the customs that shaped him begin to collapse around him and his people.
12
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë · 1847
From the same world: “Gothic”
- Gothic
- Forbidden Love
An orphan becomes a governess at the brooding Thornfield Hall. A bond grows between her and its stern master, but the house hides a dangerous secret that threatens the life she is beginning to hope for.