BetterReads · A reading pathway
Modern Anxiety
Alienation, doubles, and dread in the modern world.
Step 1 · Metamorphosis
The Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka
When the ordinary becomes unbearable
Step 2 · Jekyll
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson
The mask and what breaks through
Step 3 · Screw
The Turn of the Screw
Henry James
Dread you cannot quite name
Step 4 · Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Longing in a glittering void
Step 5 · Ulysses
Ulysses
James Joyce
One day in Dublin, every thought laid bare
Step 6 · Good Soldier
The Good Soldier
Ford Madox Ford
The saddest story, told in perfect order
Step 7 · Sound & Fury
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner
Memory, time, and a family coming apart
Step 8 · The Trial
The Trial
Franz Kafka
Accused of a crime that is never named
Step 9 · The Castle
The Castle
Franz Kafka
A village, a surveyor, and a door that never opens
Step 10 · Farewell to Arms
A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway
Love and loss in the Great War
Step 11 · Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway
Exiles in Paris, bulls in Pamplona
Step 12 · Antic Hay
Antic Hay
Aldous Huxley
Bohemian London and the comedy of boredom
Step 13 · Crome Yellow
Crome Yellow
Aldous Huxley
Country-house talk and postwar restlessness
Step 14 · Krakatit
Krakatit
Karel Čapek
A terrible explosive and the scientist’s conscience
Step 15 · Last and First Men
Last and First Men
Olaf Stapledon
Two billion years of human futures
