Books like 'David Copperfield'
Readers who enjoyed David Copperfield by Charles Dickens & Gish Jen also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical action / adventure europe british-isles united-kingdom england urban classics historical-fiction literary-fiction
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The Count of Monte Cristo. Vol. II by Alexandre Dumas
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe Count of Monte Cristo is one of the great thrillers of all time. In 1853 William Thackeray wrote to a friend: 'began to read Monte Cristo at six one morning and never stopped till eleven at night.'. Falsely accused of treason, the young sailor Edmund Dantes is arrested on his wedding day and imprisoned in the island fortress of the Chateau d'If... -
Pather Panchali: Song of the Road by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPather Panchali deals with the life of the Roy family, consisting of Harihar, Sarbajaya, Apu and Durga, both in their ancestral village Nishchindipur in rural Bengal and later when they move to Varanasi in search of a better life, as well as the anguish and loss they face during their travels...Categorized as:
bildungsroman children classics coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction -
A Reluctant Bride by Jody Hedlund
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLiving in London's poorest slum, Mercy Wilkins has little hope of a better life. When she's offered an opportunity to join a bride ship sailing to British Columbia, she agrees. After witnessing so much painful heartache and loss in the slums, the bride ship is her only prospect to escape a bleak future, not only for herself but, she hopes, someday for her sister...Categorized as:
british-isles drama england europe historical-fiction industrial-era united-kingdom urban -
The Physician by Noah Gordon
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsIn the 11th century, Rob Cole left poor, disease-ridden London to make his way across the land, hustling, juggling, peddling cures to the sick—and discovering the mystical ways of healing. It was on his travels that he found his own very real gift for healing—a gift that urged him on to become a doctor... -
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The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsA glorious novel of the controversial Richard III - a monarch betrayed in life by his allies and betrayed in death by history... -
The Country Bride: The final book in the heartwarming, romance saga from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Village Scandal by Dilly Court
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe third book in the dramatic new Village Secrets trilogy from the Sunday Times bestselling author. The time had come to leave Creek Manor. Their relationship was doomed from the start, he was the master of the house and she the servant… Summer, Little Creek 1879For most of her life, Judy Begg has been a loyal servant at Creek Manor and to Jack Fox, its future lord...Categorized as:
coming-of-age epic family historical-fiction industrial-era victorian action-adventure adult -
The Twisted Sword by Winston Graham
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe eleventh novel in the legendary Poldark saga. Cornwall, 1815: Demelza sees a horseman riding down the valley and senses disruption to the domestic contentment she has fought so hard to achieve. For Ross has little option but to accept the summons - and travel to Paris with his family, as an "observer" of the French armed forces...Categorized as:
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Nobody's Boy by Hector Malot
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsA compelling story in which orphaned Remi gets hired out to a traveling street entertainer when his foster parents fall on hard times. Going from village to village with its act, ‘nobody’s boy’ has numerous adventures until his boss also falls on hard times and perishes, homeless and destitute...Categorized as:
bildungsroman children classics coming-of-age drama europe family historical-fiction -
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A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Nancy Bond
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 72 ratingsSara Crewe, an exceptionally intelligent and imaginative student at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, is devastated when her adored, indulgent father dies. Now penniless and banished to a room in the attic, Sara is demeaned, abused, and forced to work as a servant... -
The Runaway Children by Lindsey Hutchinson
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn two rundown houses, at the side of a barren Black Country heath, live six children with no family but each other. Abandoned or orphaned, every day is a fight to find food and keep warm. But they are determined to stay free of the clutches of the workhouse and the horrors that would face them if they were ever torn apart.Dora Parsons lives with her mother Mary and her evil grandmother Edith...Categorized as:
british-isles coming-of-age england epic europe family historical-fiction industrial-era -
The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright, Pamela Dillman
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSYNOPSIS: Meet the Melendys! Mona, the eldest, is thirteen. She has decided to become an actress and can recite poetry at the drop of a hat. Rush is twelve and a bit mischievous. Miranda is ten and a half. She loves dancing and painting pictures. Oliver is the youngest. At six, he is a calm and thoughful person...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
The Return of the Warrior by Chris Bradford
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA new instalment and standalone adventure charting series protagonist Jack Fletcher's return to pre-civil war England.His quest: to find his missing sister, with the help of some familiar faces..Categorized as:
british-isles coming-of-age england europe historical-fiction united-kingdom action-adventure book -
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 89 ratingsIn this beloved story, readers travel with Mary Lennox, a spoiled and sullen orphan, from colonial India to Misselthwaite Manor, a forbidding estate on the Yorkshire moors. There, in the unlikeliest of places, Mary discovers and helps restore an abandoned garden and, in the process, blossoms herself into a creature of loving kindness... -
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A Story Like the Wind by Laurens van der Post
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsVan der Post’s incomparable knowledge of Africa illuminates this epic novel, set near the Kalahari Desert, about a boy on the verge of manhood, his experiences with the wonder and mystery of a still-primitive land, and his secret friendship with the Bushman whose life he saves. The narrative of A Story like the Wind continues in A Far-Off Place... -
Swami and Friends by R.K. Narayan
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"There are writers—Tolstoy and Henry James to name two—whom we hold in awe, writers—Turgenev and Chekhov—for whom we feel a personal affection, other writers whom we respect—Conrad for example—but who hold us at a long arm's length with their 'courtly foreign grace...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic -
A River Runs Through it and Other Stories by Norman Maclean, Annie Proulx
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsJust as Norman Maclean writes at the end of "A River Runs through It" that he is "haunted by waters," so have readers been haunted by his novella. A retired English professor who began writing fiction at the age of 70, Maclean produced what is now recognized as one of the classic American stories of the twentieth century...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family high-school historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction -
Extinction by Thomas Bernhard
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe last work of fiction by one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, Extinction is widely considered Thomas Bernhard’s magnum opus. Franz-Josef Murau—the intellectual black sheep of a powerful Austrian land-owning family—lives in Rome in self-imposed exile, surrounded by a coterie of artistic and intellectual friends...Categorized as:
classics drama family historical-fiction humor industrial-era literary-fiction victorian -
The Sorrow of Angels by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Sorrow of Angels is the second novel in an epic and elemental trilogy by the winner of the Icelandic Prize for Literature Jón Kalman Stefánsson, and the follow up to Heaven and Hell (publishing in paperback 3/11/15...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure book fiction historical -
Who Buries the Dead by C.S. Harris
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe grisly murder of a West Indies slave owner and the reappearance of a dangerous enemy from Sebastian St. Cyr’s past combine to put C. S. Harris’s “troubled but compelling antihero” (Booklist) to the ultimate test in this taut, thrilling mystery.London, 1813. The vicious decapitation of Stanley Preston, a wealthy, socially ambitious plantation owner, at Bloody Bridge draws Sebastian St...Categorized as:
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Pied Piper by Nevil Shute
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt is the summer of 1940 and in Europe the time of Blitzkrieg. John Howard, a 70-year-old Englishman vacationing in France, cuts shorts his tour and heads for home. He agrees to take two children with him.But war closes in. Trains fail, roads clog with refugees. And if things were not difficult enough, other children join in Howard's little band...Categorized as:
british-isles children classics drama england europe historical-fiction literary-fiction -
The Black Moon by Winston Graham
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe birth of a son to Elizabeth and George Warleggan seems to make the rift between the Poldark and Warleggan families worse. When Morwenna Chynoweth, governess to Elizabeth's son, grows to love Drake Carne, Demelza's brother, things get worse...Categorized as:
british-isles classics drama england europe family historical-fiction industrial-era -
Lady Frederica and the Scot Who Would Not by Julie Johnstone
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen the guarded King of the Underworld collides with a maddeningly reckless lady, the road to ruination becomes impossible not to take. Lady Frederica Darlington isn’t prim, obedient, or appropriately dispassionate as a proper lady of the aristocracy should be. Nor is she interested in securing a husband, whether rake, rogue, duke, or lord...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor industrial-era literary-fiction victorian action-adventure adult book -
Kiss Me Duke by Tamara Gill
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMolly Clare is living her dream. Being a guest in a gorgeous villa while she explores Rome is everything she could’ve hoped for and more. The man who owns the villa is equally charming—and entirely too tempting. At least, that’s what he appears to be. The truth of who and what he really is…well, that’s infinitely more complicated.Lord Hugh Farley is living a nightmare...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor industrial-era literary-fiction victorian action-adventure adult -
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To Sir, With Love by E.R. Braithwaite
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThis classic schoolroom drama of a black teacher in London's tough East End who triumphs over bigotry and ignorance to change the lives of his students forever was hailed by the "New York Times" as "a book that the reader devours quickly, ponders slowly, and forgets not at all"With opportunities for black men limited in post-World War II London, Rick Braithwaite, a former Royal Air Force pilot...Categorized as:
british-isles classics coming-of-age drama europe high-school historical-fiction literary-fiction -
Dair Devil: A Georgian Historical Romance (Roxton Family Saga) by Lucinda Brant
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA mismatch made in heavenWar hero and heir to an earldom, Dair Fitzstuart enjoys the life of a reckless rogue. Rory Talbot, on the other hand, is a wallflower. She lives a quiet life cultivating pineapples. Dair and Rory's paths will surely never cross. Until one night they do, and everything turns upside down..Categorized as:
british-isles england europe family historical-fiction humor industrial-era united-kingdom -
Hellion at Heart by Tamara Gill
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSifting through the sands in the Middle East while learning of ancient cultures and buried civilizations is all Miss Hallie Evans dreams about. But when an impending scandal forces her back to England, her hopes and dreams are destroyed. Now, as a hired archaeologist for the rich, Hallie explores and studies the ancient ruins excavated on their properties...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor industrial-era literary-fiction victorian action-adventure adult -
The Duke is Wicked by Tracy Sumner
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsVictorian historical romance with a sexy splash of the supernatural.*The willful American hellion and the reluctant very-English duke*Enemies turned friends turned lovers*Forbidden loveLeagues and lives apart, Delaney and Sebastian navigate a world they're not destined for together. Can she let down her guard and learn to trust a WICKED Duke?He's harboring a fiery secret..Categorized as:
europe british-isles united-kingdom england urban industrial-era victorian historical-fiction -
Sir Gibbie by George MacDonald
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFollow Sir Gibbie on his adventures through the moors of Scotland's Highlands more than a century ago. Having no mother and an alcoholic father, Gibbie must survive on the streets as a child unable to read or speak. See how this boy wins the hearts of his neighbors and offers what little he has to help others...Categorized as:
british-isles children classics europe family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction -
The Fields by Conrad Richter
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsConrad Richter's trilogy of novels The Trees (1940), The Fields (1946), and The Town (1950) trace the transformation of Ohio from wilderness to farmland to the site of modern industrial civilization, all in the lifetime of one character. The Fields continues the saga of the Luckett family that began in The Trees... -
Highland Avenger by Hannah Howell
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Hannah Howell continues the dramatic Murray saga with this brand-new story of passions surging in the face of fear. . .Once, Arianna Murray Lucette believed she'd met the man she could always rely on. She was wrong. Now she is fleeing for her life, and when her enemies attack a ship bound for her only refuge, she believes all hope is lost... -
The Jewels of Halstead Manor by Kasey Stockton
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsShe can only stay as long as the invalid needs her... so he makes it his business to need her forever. When a cryptic invitation brings Giulia Pepper to her uncle's remote estate in Devon, she arrives in dire need of a benefactor, only to discover that her uncle never sent her any invitation—nor does he want her there...Categorized as:
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Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA 2021 Edgar ® Award Winner, Best JuvenileA BookPage Best Book of 2020: Middle GradeA Mighty Girl's 2020 Books of the YearIntroducing Myrtle Hardcastle, your favorite new amateur a wickedly smart twelve-year-old with a keen interest in criminology and a nose for murder in Victorian England...Categorized as:
europe british-isles united-kingdom england historical-fiction children family industrial-era -
The Potato Factory by Bryce Courtenay
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIkey Solomon is very successful indeed, in the art of thieving. Ikey's partner in crime is his mistress, the forthright Mary Abacus, until misfortune befalls them. They are parted and each must make the harsh journey from 19th century London to Van Diemens Land. In the backstreets and dives of Hobart Town, Mary learns the art of brewing and builds The Potato Factory, where she plans a new future...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction victorian action-adventure -
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How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsHow Green Was My Valley is Richard Llewellyn's bestselling -- and timeless -- classic and the basis of a beloved film. As Huw Morgan is about to leave home forever, he reminisces about the golden days of his youth when South Wales still prospered, when coal dust had not yet blackened the valley... -
The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Education of Little Tree tells of a boy orphaned very young, who is adopted by his Cherokee grandmother and half-Cherokee grandfather in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee during the Great Depression...Categorized as:
bildungsroman children classics coming-of-age drama family high-school historical-fiction -
The Bastard by John Jakes
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsOne man’s quest for his destiny leads him to the New World and into the heart of the American Revolution. Meet Phillipe Charboneau: the illegitimate son and unrecognized heir of the Duke of Kentland. Upon the Duke’s death, Phillipe is denied his birthright and left to build a life of his own...Categorized as:
classics drama epic family high-school historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction -
Be Careful What You Wish For by Jeffrey Archer, Otakar Brousek ml.
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsBestselling author Jeffrey Archer's Be Careful What You Wish For opens with Harry Clifton and his wife Emma rushing to hospital to learn the fate of their son Sebastian, who has been involved in a fatal car accident. But who died, Sebastian or his best friend Bruno? When Ross Buchanan is forced to resign as chairman of the Barrington Shipping Company, Emma Clifton wants to replace him... -
A Christmas Carol / The Chimes / The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsA Christmas Carol, The Chimes, and The Cricket on the Hearth, by Charles Dickens, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras...Categorized as:
british-isles children classics drama europe family historical-fiction industrial-era -
Three Novels of Old New York: The House of Mirth; The Custom of the Country; The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEdith Wharton made the world of Old New York her own, the wealthy high society so powerfully depicted in these three elegantly ironic novels. Revolving around the marriage question, they explore the dilemma of women and men held within the rigid bounds of social convention... -
Where Rainbows End by AnneMarie Brear
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom an author hailed for her “great characters”—a brave young woman finds love and adventure in the harsh frontier of nineteenth century Australia (Jo Lambert). After a scandal drove them from their native England, the Noble family have travelled to the other side of the world to start a new life in the Australian colonies...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction industrial-era victorian action-adventure adult -
Where Dragonflies Hover by AnneMarie Brear
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA lost diary connects two women, a century apart, in a beguiling romance of lost love and forbidden secrets. Lexi O’Connor is at a crossroad with her exhausting career and her splintering marriage when she becomes enthralled with Hollingsworth House... -
The Wayward Son by Gretta Curran Browne
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSet in the mid 19th century, on the beautiful Island of Mull, the largest of Scotland’s Western Isles, on the estate of Jarvisfield owned by Lachlan Macquarie Jnr – a young man deeply unhappy with his lot in life...Categorized as:
epic historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction victorian action-adventure adult book -
Scottish Starter Box Set: Angel of Skye / The Dreamer / Borrowed Dreams by May McGoldrick
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsScottish Starter Box Set by May McGoldrickThree Full Length Series-Starter Novels. Opening the door to danger and desire!This box set contains the opening novels of three exciting, award-winning historical romance trilogies set in the Scottish Highlands... -
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Brazen Rogue by Tamara Gill
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen the past and present are standing in the way of happiness, it’ll take brazen act to save the day…Miss Reign Hall has resigned herself to being a spinster. Her disastrous season in London left her with little opportunity (or desire) for anything else. But when she’s offered a governess position, she knows it’s her best chance for a fresh start away from small country village life...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor industrial-era victorian action-adventure adult book -
Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan, Alexander McCall Smith
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsR. K. Narayan (1906—2001) witnessed nearly a century of change in his native India and captured it in fiction of uncommon warmth and vibrancy. The four novels collected here, all written during British rule, bring colonial India into intimate focus through the narrative gifts of this master of literary realism...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age epic historical-fiction humor literary-fiction action-adventure adult -
Through the Barricades by Denise Deegan
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsShe was willing to sacrifice everything for her country. He was willing to sacrifice everything for her'Make a difference in the world, ' are the last words Maggie Gilligan's father ever says to her. They form a legacy that she carries in her heart, years later when, at the age of fifteen, she tries to better the lives of Dublin's largely forgotten poor...Categorized as:
british-isles epic europe family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction victorian -
A Distant Hope by Ellin Carsta, Gerald Chapple
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this breathtaking and emotional saga, a family must travel far from home to save what they hold dear. Hamburg 1888: After thirty prosperous years, coffee importer Peter Hansen & Sons faces hard times—and certain bankruptcy—unless three brothers can make savvy moves to save the faltering business after their father’s untimely death... -
Four Sisters by Val Wood
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA powerful story about the bond of sisterhood and how it can triumph against any adversity, from the Sunday Times bestselling author Val Wood.Hull, 1852. Matty has had to care for her three younger sisters ever since their mother’s death ten years ago. She and the girls’ beloved father have worked hard to keep the family together and now it’s time to celebrate as Matty turns eighteen...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family drama literary-fiction classics epic coming-of-age historical -
Highland Guard by Hannah Howell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Hannah Howell brings back the daring Murray family in a brand-new tale of dangerous love rekindled. . . Lady Annys MacQueen has no other choice. The deception that enabled her to keep her lands safe is on the verge of being revealed by a cruel kinsman...
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