Mademoiselle Chanel

My Dear Hamilton

Stephanie Dray2018

The life of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton from the American Revolution through her widowhood. It follows her marriage and her work on her husband's legacy.

Same earnest register, still historical fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner1936

The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

earnest → elegiac, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

Gravity's Rainbow

Thomas Pynchon1973

During the end of WWII, an American lieutenant's sexual encounters seem to predict where German V-2 rockets will fall. The narrative is fragmented.

earnest → sardonic, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

Ulysses

James Joyce1914

Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

earnest → playful

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

Girl, Wash Your Face

Rachel Hollis2018

The author lists twenty common lies she once believed about herself and provides personal anecdotes and advice to dismantle them.

Same earnest register

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Unfinished

Priyanka Chopra Jonas2021

The actress details her childhood in India, her time in American schools, and her transition from pageantry to a global film career.

Same earnest register

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Weekends Required

Sydney Landon2013

An assistant performs a burlesque routine for her boss at a bachelor party, changing their professional dynamic into a romantic pursuit.

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Candide

Voltaire

A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.

earnest → sardonic

pace+2·prose0·bleak0

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown2003

A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

earnest → propulsive

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

The Martian

Andy Weir2011

A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

earnest → wry

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

Ulysses

James Joyce1914

Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

earnest → playful

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

Umbrella

Will Self2013

A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.

earnest → clinical

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

earnest → bleak

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

The Confessions of Nat Turner

William Styron1967

A fictionalized confession of the leader of an 1831 slave revolt while he awaits execution in a Virginia jail cell.

earnest → bleak, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

The Known World

Edward P. Jones2003

A black man who was once a slave becomes a slave owner in antebellum Virginia. The story follows the fallout on the plantation after his death.

earnest → meditative, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

A Long Long Way

Sebastian Barry2005

A young Irishman joins the British Army to fight in the trenches of World War I while his home country moves toward rebellion.

earnest → elegiac, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2