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Original poster

I need a book for clever well read 23 year old dil.

111 replies

CurlewKate · 13/11/2025 18:09

She’s doing an English degree and she’s loved some of the books I’ve given her- I try to choose old fashioned sort of classics-she loved Muriel Spark, Graham Green and Evelyn Waugh, for example and A Month in the Country. She didn’t like Kingsley Amis or Barbara Pym. Any ideas?

OP posts:
Fifthtimelucky · 14/11/2025 13:02

My favourite books of recent years have been Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and A Gentleman in Moscow.

Going back a bit I also love the The Fountain Overflows trilogy by Rebecca West and re-read it every few years.

If she hasn’t read any Trollope, the six Barsetshire books are wonderful and a great introduction to him. The first two are The Warden and Barchester Towers.

MrsLeonFarrell · 14/11/2025 12:41

My Name is Asher Lev.

Dappy777 · 14/11/2025 12:39

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘old-fashioned’. There is no such thing as ‘old-fashioned’ art. If something is great art, it’s timeless. That’s sort of the definition of great art. Only left-wing fanatics, who want to dismantle the canon, believe great literature can be dated. Is Homer ‘old-fashioned’? Or Dante or Shakespeare or Tolstoy or Proust or Milton or Blake or Jane Austen or Dickens or Dostoyevsky or Thomas Mann? Are Vermeer’s paintings ‘old-fashioned’? Or Mozart’s music?

If she likes Evelyn Waugh, I’m sure she’d like the following:

Aldous Huxley: Chrome Yellow
Aldous Huxley: Point Counter Point
Anthony Powell: A Dance to the Music of Time
Ford Maddox Ford: Parade’s End

pepperminticecream · 14/11/2025 11:59

IlovetoKnitandRead · 13/11/2025 18:51

Have a look at Persephone Books. They give book suggestions for people's likes. Their books are all wonderful.

Thank you for recommending. I just ordered a few books from them after seeing your recommendation.

latetothefisting · 14/11/2025 11:36

twilightermummy · 13/11/2025 18:41

I'm an English graduate and these have been my favourites this year.
Lolita
Flowers for Algernon
The Alchemist

Not dissing your taste at all because I like those as well, but flowers for algernon was a gcse set text for years so she likely would have read it.

Going off piste a bit OP would she appreciate some non fic as something a bit different? Invisible women is always a classic, but something like the literary detective might link in with her degree? I found strong female character a good read too and could give more recs depending on what she likes -pyschology/true crime/history/feminism?

Or something still quite classic but fun/easy to read like Agatha Christie?

I did an English degree and had a good year or two after where I was classic fiction-ed out and read either more fun stuff or non fic.

DoraChance · 14/11/2025 11:33

And the British Library Women Writers series is also good for this kind of thing. And again, very nice covers.

DoraChance · 14/11/2025 11:30

Daunt Books publish some fantastic rediscovered classics by authors like Natalia Ginzburg (lovely covers too), or Cynthia Dale. They’re really nicely produced and quite cool. And also check out Persephone Books as mentioned upthread.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 14/11/2025 11:26

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. Kept me up reading all night.

I am also an English graduate and my 2 best books this year are by Ling Ling Huang. Natural Beauty and Immaculate Conception both have Black Mirror vibes.

If you’re going for something more literary Wolf Hall?

Fasterthan40 · 14/11/2025 10:39

Lymond chronicles? I came across the recommendation here and really enjoyed. Otherwise Barbara Trapido Oxford books (juggling etc..) or The Scarlet Petal and the White/Under my Skin? Rebecca West is a v good author and has an interesting back story too

DelphiniumBlue · 13/11/2025 19:47

Cold Comfort Farm - very funny
Lady Audley's Secret
North & South, Cranford or anything by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Crimson Petal and the White

MsSmartShoes · 13/11/2025 19:30

The Pursuit of Love
The Go - Between
The Well of Loneliness

you get her a Persephone voucher?

Original poster
CurlewKate · 13/11/2025 19:28

Thank you-so many brilliant ideas and so many I want to reread. Very tempted by I Capture the Castle for her-love that book!

OP posts:
Original poster
CurlewKate · 13/11/2025 19:25

WitcheryDivine · 13/11/2025 18:58

The Woman in White would be a great Christmas read. Totally gripping.

Some Dorothy L Sayers mysteries?

Some great suggestions on this thread

I gave her Gaudy Night last Christmas!

OP posts:
FawnDrench · 13/11/2025 19:17

John Steinbeck
Ernest Hemingway

Overtheatlantic · 13/11/2025 19:15

The Moors Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri

Apileofballyhoo · 13/11/2025 19:03

The Cazalet Chronicles

17to35 · 13/11/2025 19:00

Richard Ford- Sportswriter Lay of the land. Good writer she is unlikely to have read

WitcheryDivine · 13/11/2025 18:58

The Woman in White would be a great Christmas read. Totally gripping.

Some Dorothy L Sayers mysteries?

Some great suggestions on this thread

Mama1980 · 13/11/2025 18:57

Miss buncle from Persephone press - it’s never fails to cheer me up

FrostyMorn · 13/11/2025 18:56

David Lodge - e.g. Nice Work or Changing Places

thisoldcity · 13/11/2025 18:56

Margaret Atwood has just written her memoirs which look really interesting. Not fiction, but she's a writer your DIL will no doubt read at some point.

claracluck1978 · 13/11/2025 18:55

PJ James Children of Men
Dystopian and still feels contemporary even though it’s over 30 years old

outofofficeagain · 13/11/2025 18:53

IlovetoKnitandRead · 13/11/2025 18:51

Have a look at Persephone Books. They give book suggestions for people's likes. Their books are all wonderful.

Ha! Jinx!

outofofficeagain · 13/11/2025 18:53

Have you tried Persephone Books, they have great, interesting titles. https://persephonebooks.co.uk/

IlovetoKnitandRead · 13/11/2025 18:51

Have a look at Persephone Books. They give book suggestions for people's likes. Their books are all wonderful.

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