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Recommendations based on Sir Gawain and the Green Knightby Unknown
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
A collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on a journey to Canterbury.
The procession that crosses Chaucer's pages is as full of life and as richly textured as a medieval tapestry. The Knight, the Miller, the Friar, the Squire, the Prioress, the Wife of Bath, and others ... (Goodreads)
Inferno
by Dante Alighieri
An epic journey through the nine circles of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil.
Of the great poets, Dante is one of the most elusive and therefore one of the most difficult to adequately render into English verse. In the Inferno, Dante not only judges sin but strives to ... (Goodreads)
Paradise Lost
by John Milton
Epic poem of the Fall of Man, exploring the depths of human nature and the consequences of sin.
John Milton's Paradise Lost is one of the greatest epic poems in the English language. It tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of ... (Goodreads)
Oedipus Rex
by Sophocles
Tragic tale of a man's inescapable destiny and the consequences of his actions.
Oedipus, King of Thebes, sends his brother-in-law, Creon, to ask advice of the oracle at Delphi , concerning a plague ravaging Thebes. Creon returns to report that the plague is the result of ... (Wikipedia)
The Silmarillion
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Epic saga of the history of Middle-Earth, a world filled with mythical creatures.
The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of ... (Goodreads)
The Epic of Gilgamesh
by Anonymous
Ancient Sumerian epic poem recounting the adventures of a hero who struggles with mortality.
Miraculously preserved on clay tablets dating back as much as four thousand years, the poem of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, is the world’s oldest epic, predating Homer by many centuries. The story tells ... (Goodreads)
Candide
by Voltaire
A young man's satirical journey through life, encountering misfortune and eventual optimism.
Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a ... (Goodreads)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
An epic poem exploring the power of supernatural forces and the consequences of human action.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere") is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and published in 1798 in the ... (Goodreads)
The Aeneid
by Virgil
Epic tale of Aeneas and the founding of Rome, a fateful journey through the gods.
The Aeneid – thrilling, terrifying and poignant in equal measure – has inspired centuries of artists, writers and musicians. Virgil’s epic tale tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan hero, who flees his ... (Goodreads)
The Rape of the Lock
by Alexander Pope
A satirical poem that humorously describes the trivial event of a young woman having a lock of hair cut off.
A satirical poem that intentionally over-dramatizes an incident in which a lock of a woman's hair is cut without her permission. ... (Goodreads)
Metamorphoses
by Ovid
A collection of tales of transformation, featuring gods and mortals.
Prized through the ages for its splendor and its savage, sophisticated wit, The Metamorphoses is a masterpiece of Western culture–the first attempt to link all the Greek myths, before and after ... (Goodreads)
The Tempest
by William Shakespeare
A story of magical revenge, redemption, and forgiveness set on a remote island.
A ship is caught in a powerful storm, there is terror and confusion on board, and the vessel is shipwrecked. But the storm is a magical creation carried out by the spirit Ariel , and caused by the ... (Wikipedia)
Women in Love
by D.H. Lawrence
Two sisters explore their innermost desires as they search for true love and self-fulfillment.
Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen are sisters living in The Midlands in England in the 1910s. Ursula is a schoolteacher, Gudrun a painter. They meet two men who live nearby, school inspector Rupert Birkin ... (Wikipedia)
The Faerie Queene
by Edmund Spenser
A classic tale of heroism, courage, and love in a mythical kingdom.
The Faerie Queene was the first epic in English and one of the most influential poems in the language for later poets from Milton to Tennyson. Dedicating his work to Elizabeth I, Spenser brilliantly ... (Goodreads)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
A man's internal struggle between good and evil forces, as he attempts to reconcile his dual personalities.
Gabriel John Utterson and his cousin Richard Enfield reach the door of a large house on their weekly walk. Enfield tells Utterson that months ago, he saw a sinister-looking man named Edward Hyde ... (Wikipedia)
The Song of Roland
by Unknown
Epic poem of a knight's heroic battle against a powerful enemy.
On 15 August 778, Charlemagne’s army was returning from a successful expedition against Saracen Spain when its rearguard was ambushed in a remote Pyrenean pass. Out of this skirmish arose a stirring ... (Goodreads)
Till We Have Faces
by C.S. Lewis
An ancient myth re-told, exploring the complexity of divine love and its effects on human life.
The story tells the ancient Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche , from the perspective of Orual, Psyche's older sister. It begins as the complaint of Orual as an old woman, who is bitter at the injustice ... (Wikipedia)
King Lear
by William Shakespeare
An aging king's descent into madness reveals the consequences of pride and vanity.
Shakespeare’s King Lear challenges us with the magnitude, intensity, and sheer duration of the pain that it represents. Its figures harden their hearts, engage in violence, or try to alleviate the ... (Goodreads)
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
by William Blake
A poetic collection exploring the duality of human nature, innocence and experience.
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, is an collection of poems by William Blake., Note:, For a complete Table of Contents of the included poems, see the 'Questions' section below. This book appeared ... (Goodreads)
To the Lighthouse
by Virginia Woolf
Exploration of the complexities of human relationships and family life.
The novel is set in the Ramsays' summer home in the Hebrides , on the Isle of Skye . The section begins with Mrs Ramsay assuring her son James that they should be able to visit the lighthouse on the ... (Wikipedia)
White Fang
by Jack London
A wolfdog's journey from wild to domestication, navigating the complexities of human civilization.
The story begins before the wolf-dog hybrid is born, with two men and their sled dog team on a journey to deliver the coffin of Lord Alfred to a remote town named Fort McGurry in the higher area of ... (Wikipedia)
The Cask of Amontillado - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story
by Edgar Allan Poe
A tale of revenge and retribution, forcibly trapping a foe in a ghoulish crypt.
The story's narrator, Montresor, tells an unspecified person, who knows him very well, of the day he took his revenge on Fortunato (Italian for "the fortunate one"), a fellow nobleman. Angry over ... (Wikipedia)
The Complete Stories and Poems
by Edgar Allan Poe
A collection of dark and mysterious stories and poems, exploring the depths of the human condition.
This single volume brings together all of Poe's stories and poems, and illuminates the diverse and multifaceted genius of one of the greatest and most influential figures in American literary ... (Barnes & Noble)
Grendel
by John Gardner
A modern retelling of the Beowulf story from the perspective of the monster, Grendel.
In the opening scene, Grendel briefly fights with a ram when frustrated with its stupidity. He then mockingly asks the sky why animals lack sense and dignity; the sky does not reply, adding to his ... (Wikipedia)
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
A journey into the depths of the human psyche, exploring the darkness of colonialism.
Aboard the Nellie , anchored in the River Thames near Gravesend , Charles Marlow tells his fellow sailors how he became captain of a river steamboat for an ivory trading company. As a child, Marlow ... (Wikipedia)
The Lady of Shalott
by Alfred Tennyson
A cursed lady lives in a tower, weaving a tapestry and watching the world through a mirror until she falls in love with a knight.
The Lady of Shalott is the third book in Visions in Poetry, an award-winning series of classic poems illustrated by outstanding contemporary artists in stunning hardcover editions. Tennyson's ... (Goodreads)
Medea
by Euripides
Tragedy of a woman's vengeful wrath against her husband and his family.
One of the most powerful and enduring of Greek tragedies, Medea centers on the myth of Jason, leader of the Argonauts, who has won the dragon-guarded treasure of the Golden Fleece with the help of ... (Goodreads)
Brideshead Revisited
by Evelyn Waugh
A nostalgic reflection on a wealthy family and the enduring power of love.
The novel is divided into three parts, framed by a prologue and epilogue. The prologue takes place during the final years of the Second World War . Charles Ryder and his battalion are sent to a ... (Wikipedia)
