Books like “The Red and the Black”

What to read after “The Red and the Black” by Stendhal: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens · 1861
Same genre: “Bildungsroman”
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.
2
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1925
Similar plot moves: “Rags to Riches” and “Love Triangle”
Long Island, the 1920s. Nick Carraway becomes neighbour to the wealthy, secretive Jay Gatsby, who throws lavish parties for a single purpose: to win back Nick's cousin Daisy, married to the brutish Tom Buchanan.
3
The Thorn Birds
Colleen McCullough · 1977
Shared in the plot: ambition, family
On a sheep station in the Australian outback, Meggie Cleary grows up in the shadow of a family curse. She falls in love with Ralph de Bricassart, a priest whose ambition pulls him towards Rome, and the two stay bound to each other for decades by a love they can never openly have.
4
Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray · 1848
Shared in the plot: ambition, society
- Rags to Riches
- Morally Grey Character
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.
5
A Hero of Our Time
Mikhail Lermontov · 1840
Same genre: “Psychological fiction”
- Love Triangle
- Morally Grey Character
Pechorin is a clever, restless officer serving in the Caucasus, bored by everything and unable to value what he wins. In five linked tales he manipulates the people drawn to him, a princess, a smuggler, an old comrade, and coolly explains his own cruelty. A portrait of a gifted man who has nothing left to want.
6
The Bronze Horseman
Paullina Simons · 2000
Shared in the plot: hunger, family
In Leningrad in 1941, as the German army tightens its siege, Tatiana meets Alexander, a young officer with a secret. Their love is forbidden by her family and by the war, but through hunger, loss and the frozen winter they hold on to each other and to the hope of survival.
7
Matched
Ally Condie · 2010
Shared in the plot: everything, society
In a society where the Officials choose who you love, Cassia is matched with her best friend, until a mistake shows her another face. Torn between two futures, she begins to question the system that decides everything for her.
8
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.
9
Red Queen
Victoria Aveyard · 2015
Similar plot moves: “Love Triangle” and “Star-Crossed Lovers”
Mare lives in a world split by blood: silver elites with powers and powerless reds. When a dangerous ability of her own is exposed, the royal family hides her in their palace, where she becomes a pawn in two secret wars.
10
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert · 1856
Similar plot moves: “Forbidden Love” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Forbidden Love
- Morally Grey Character
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.
11
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy · 1891
Shared in the plot: society, family
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.
12
The Selection
Kiera Cass · 2012
Similar plot moves: “Rags to Riches” and “Love Triangle”
In a future kingdom divided into castes, thirty-five girls are chosen to compete for the crown. America Singer enters only for the money, torn between a secret love back home and the young prince she is slowly getting to know.