Books like “Vanity Fair”

What to read after “Vanity Fair” by William Makepeace Thackeray: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons · 1932
Similar atmosphere: “Comedy of Manners” and “Satire”
- Comedy of Manners
- Satire
Practical Flora Poste, newly orphaned, moves in with her gloomy rural relatives at Cold Comfort Farm. Armed with common sense and a strong will, she sets about tidying their tangled lives, one absurd cousin at a time, in a comic send-up of romantic country novels.
2
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert · 1856
Similar atmosphere: “Satire”
- Satire
- 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.
3
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen · 1813
Similar atmosphere: “Comedy of Manners”
- Comedy of Manners
Elizabeth Bennet has little patience for the proud Mr Darcy, whose fortune and manners make him an easy target for her wit. Their sparring slowly gives way to a truer understanding as family scandal and society threaten to keep them apart.
4
Dead Souls
Nikolai Gogol · 1842
Similar atmosphere: “Satire”
- Satire
- Morally Grey Character
Chichikov arrives in a provincial Russian town and charms its officials and landowners. He has come to buy serfs who have died but are still listed on the tax rolls, and his odd scheme draws him into the vanity and corruption of the society around him.
5
The Grand Sophy
Georgette Heyer · 1950
Similar atmosphere: “Comedy of Manners”
- Comedy of Manners
When Sophy Stanton-Lacy comes to stay with her cousins in London, she finds the household tangled in debts, broken engagements and bad tempers. Cheerful and managing, she sets out to arrange everyone's happiness, clashing with her proud cousin Charles along the way.
6
Convenience Store Woman
Sayaka Murata · 2016
Similar atmosphere: “Satire”
- Satire
Keiko has worked at the same Tokyo convenience store for eighteen years and is content there, until the people around her begin pressuring her to want a normal life. Deadpan and sharp, the novel follows her attempt to perform the life others expect, by staging a relationship she does not want.
7
The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton · 1920
Similar atmosphere: “Comedy of Manners”
- Comedy of Manners
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.
8
Crazy Rich Asians
Kevin Kwan · 2013
Similar atmosphere: “Comedy of Manners” and “Satire”
- Comedy of Manners
- Satire
Rachel Chu, an economics professor in New York, travels to Singapore for the summer wedding of her boyfriend's best friend. There she learns that Nick's family is one of the wealthiest in Asia, and that his mother has already judged her unsuitable. A comic look at money, family and the marriage market.
9
The Red and the Black
Stendhal · 1830
Shared in the plot: ambition, society
- Rags to Riches
- Morally Grey Character
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.
10
Catch-22
Joseph Heller · 1961
Similar atmosphere: “Satire”
- Satire
- Morally Grey Character
Bombardier Yossarian wants to survive the war and go home, but every attempt to be grounded runs into a rule that answers itself: to be excused he must ask, and asking proves he is sane. Around him, officers profit and comrades die.
11
The Poisoned Chocolates Case
Anthony Berkeley · 1929
Similar atmosphere: “Satire”
- Satire
A box of poisoned chocolates kills a man at his club, and the police can find no culprit. Six members of the Crimes Circle, an armchair detective society, each offer a different solution to the same murder, until amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham tests their theories against the facts.
12
The Prince and the Pauper
Mark Twain · 1881
Similar atmosphere: “Satire”
- Satire
- Rags to Riches
On the same day in Tudor London a beggar boy and the heir to the English throne meet and find they look identical. They trade clothes as a joke, and the swap turns real, so each must survive a life he was never taught to live. A tale of switched places, misrule and what a crown is really worth.