Reading path

The City as Character

Books where the city is not a setting but a protagonist. Dublin insists on itself in Joyce until the reader can smell the Liffey; Dickens's London is a living creature of fog and foundries and swarms of clerks; Baudelaire's Paris is a place to dissolve into; Dostoevsky's Petersburg sweats paranoia; Bulgakov's Moscow opens up into the metaphysical; Calvino's cities are invented and impossible, and they clarify every real city that came before them. A path for readers who love the novel as an act of urban attention: the rhythm of streets, the memory of rooms, the way a great writer can make a place unforgettable by refusing to let it stay in the background.

In the app a path keeps your place, marks what you have read, and hands you the next work when you are ready for it.

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The route

1. The Diary of Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys, 1669
2. A Journal Of The Plague YearDaniel Defoe, 1722
3. Bleak HouseCharles Dickens, 1853
4. A Christmas CarolCharles Dickens, 1843
5. The Flowers of EvilCharles Baudelaire, 1857
6. Notes From the UndergroundFyodor Dostoevsky, 1864
7. Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoevsky, 1866
8. Song of MyselfWalt Whitman, 1855
9. NostromoJoseph Conrad, 1904
10. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManJames Joyce, 1916
11. The DeadJames Joyce, 1914
12. UlyssesJames Joyce, 1922
13. The TrialFranz Kafka, 1925
14. Mrs DallowayVirginia Woolf, 1925
15. Berlin AlexanderplatzAlfred Döblin, 1929
16. Native SonRichard Wright, 1940
17. Invisible ManRalph Ellison, 1952
18. Go Tell It on the MountainJames Baldwin, 1953
19. Pedro PáramoJuan Rulfo, 1955
20. HowlAllen Ginsberg, 1956
21. The Cairo TrilogyNaguib Mahfouz, 1957
22. Sonny's BluesJames Baldwin, 1957
23. The Master & MargaritaMikhail Bulgakov, 1967
24. Invisible CitiesItalo Calvino, 1972
25. Father GoriotHonoré de Balzac, 1835
26. Le Pont Mirabeau (The Mirabeau Bridge)Guillaume Apollinaire, 1912
27. Crossing Brooklyn FerryWalt Whitman, 1856
28. Bel AmiGuy de Maupassant, 1885
29. Bonfire of the VanitiesTom Wolfe, 1987
30. The Long GoodbyeRaymond Chandler, 1953
31. Lost IllusionsHonoré de Balzac, 1837
32. Cousin BetteHonoré de Balzac, 1846
33. Boys AlivePier Paolo Pasolini, 1955
34. The Alexandria QuartetLawrence Durrell, 1957
35. The Big SleepRaymond Chandler, 1939
36. Brighton RockGraham Greene, 1938
37. Call It SleepHenry Roth, 1934
38. DublinersJames Joyce, 1914
39. Fortunata and JacintaBenito Pérez Galdós, 1887
40. Our Mutual FriendCharles Dickens, 1864
41. The Hunchback of Notre-DameVictor Hugo, 1831
42. The Notebooks of Malte Laurids BriggeRainer Maria Rilke, 1910
43. The Secret AgentJoseph Conrad, 1907
44. White TeethZadie Smith, 2000
45. Another CountryJames Baldwin, 1962
46. PetersburgAndrei Bely, 1913
47. The History of the Siege of LisbonJosé Saramago, 1989
48. The MaiasEça de Queirós, 1888
49. The Seven MadmenRoberto Arlt, 1929
50. Zayni BarakatJamal al-Ghitani, 1974
51. Rickshaw BoyLao She, 1936
52. Our Lady of the AssassinsFernando Vallejo, 1994
53. The Sound Of Things FallingJuan Gabriel Vásquez, 2011
54. Tent of MiraclesJorge Amado, 1969
55. The Lonely LondonersSam Selvon, 1956
56. Three Trapped TigersGuillermo Cabrera Infante, 1965
57. The Day of the LocustNathanael West, 1939
58. The Ginger ManJ.P. Donleavy, 1955
59. Barnaby RudgeCharles Dickens, 1841
60. Hard TimesCharles Dickens, 1854
61. The Old Curiosity ShopCharles Dickens, 1841
62. RomolaGeorge Eliot, 1863
63. Mary BartonElizabeth Gaskell, 1848
64. A Harlot High And LowHonoré de Balzac, 1839
65. Au Bonheur Des DamesÉmile Zola, 1883
66. The Marble FaunNathaniel Hawthorne, 1860
67. In the Skin of a LionMichael Ondaatje, 1987
68. Cat's EyeMargaret Atwood, 1988
69. Brown Girl In The RingNalo Hopkinson, 1998
70. Rakes Of The Old CourtMateiu I. Caragiale, 1929
71. Enigma OtilieiG. Călinescu, 1938
72. Journal, 1935 44Mihail Sebastian, 1996
73. Wasted MorningGabriela Adameșteanu, 1984
74. SolenoidMircea Cărtărescu, 2015
75. The Red RoomAugust Strindberg, 1879
76. The Laughing PolicemanMaj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö, 1968
77. Bruges-la-MorteGeorges Rodenbach, 1892
78. The White GuardMikhail Bulgakov, 1925
79. The CityValerian Pidmohylny, 1928
80. Death And The PenguinAndrey Kurkov, 1996
81. Jar CityArnaldur Indriðason, 2000
82. Conversation in the CathedralMario Vargas Llosa, 1969
83. A World for JuliusAlfredo Bryce Echenique, 1970