Literature in English

Here you can find the list of the reviewed novels written by English-speaking writers. The list is divided into historical periods (showing when the novel was written) and will be updated regularly.

19th century

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Pre-war period and WWI

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

 Howards End by E.M. Forster

 The Garden Party Katherine Mansfield

 Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham

 The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Summer by Edith Wharton

Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf

Lost generation and WWII

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

 Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

 Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières

Dangerous Corner by J.B. Priestley

 The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

Early postmodern 

Summer Morning, Summer Night by Ray Bradbury

 The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

 Green Shadows, White Whale  by Ray Bradbury

 Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

 To Kill the Mockingbird by Harper Lee

 The Italian Girl by Iris Murdoch

 The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch

 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

 East of Eden by John Steinbeck

 The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams 

Late postmodern

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes

 The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

 Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

 The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

 The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies

 Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones

Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan

 The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak


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"Cakes and Ale" by W. Somerset Maugham

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Like any of Maugham's novels Cakes and Ale is a combination of many different stories. It is the story of the youth of Willie Ashenden, the story of a writer (Edward Driffield) and his family and literary life, the story of another writer (Alroy Kear) who is trying to compose the biography of Mr. Driffield and finally this is a story of Rosie, one of the best female characters of this Somerset Maugham (to my opinion). All this stories are closely connected together, the lines of these lives meet, cross each other and are tangled an knotted together building a curious web called life. What I like about Maugham's books is the characters. The plot may be not very exiting or intriguing and a little bit slow-flowing too, but the characters are always bright, well-drawn and very memorable, the author never draws them as absolutely positive or negative, they are all people, only people with their virtues and vices. It is very debatable whom to call the protagonist of this book
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"The Painted Veil" by W. Somerset Maugham

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Many people have come to reading this novel after they saw the film based on it which, in my opinion, is a huge mistake. The film depicts a love story, which is very beautiful and deep and meaningful but still it is just a love story.  And reading Maugham's novel people still see this love story which is only one side of it. Now let me explain you what I saw in "The Painted Veil" and why I enjoyed it immensely. There is one peculiarity about all Maugham's novels which I truly like alongside with his marvellous style and deep insight into the souls of his characters, and that peculiarity is the title.  The title which is always a clue to the understanding of the whole novel.   And this is he case with "The Painted Veil" too. "Lift not the painted veil which those who live Call Life" - these beautiful words are the first lines of a sonnet of P.B. Shelley. The sonnet says that often the picture of life we see is but a painted veil
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“The Noise of Time” by Julian Barnes

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As we get hold of sharp and sliding border And listen to the buzzing sound of chime,- Don’t we go mad amidst the motley order And change of made-up reasons, space and time?.. Alexander Blok It took me eight years and a degree in literary studies to get to love this great postmodernist but it was definitely worth it. I must confess that the first books by Barnes I read as a student were beyond my understanding and therefore beyond my interest but since than I discovered a lot of his works that made me fall in love with his writing. “The Noise of Time” is definitely one of them. This book is  a perfect example of intermediality  (several types of art combined) and it throws its reader into the majestic world of classical music  telling about one of the most prominent composers of the previous century Dmitri Shostakovich  and his complicated relations with Soviet authorities. It’s widely known that Soviet Union was not the most creative environment because of the
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