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If you loved
Books like A Handful of Dust
A glittering, razor-sharp comedy of manners that slowly dissolves into a surreal and devastating nightmare. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with A Handful of Dust.
- bleak
- claustrophobic
- absurd
- glittering
- 01
Decline and Fall
Evelyn Waugh
A delightfully vicious and breezy romp through the absurdities of 1920s British high society and institutional incompetence.
- 02
Vile Bodies
Evelyn Waugh
A dizzying, champagne-soaked descent into the glamorous emptiness of a doomed generation.
- 03
Crome yellow
Aldous Huxley
A sparkling, cynical country-house comedy where intellectuals talk endlessly and accomplish absolutely nothing.
- 04
The death of the heart
Elizabeth Bowen
A razor-sharp, quietly devastating portrait of adolescent innocence colliding with the icy cynicism of polite society.
- 05
The heart of the matter
Graham Greene
A sweltering, guilt-soaked descent into the agonizing trap of human pity and moral compromise.
- 06
Lady Chatterley's Lover
D. H. Lawrence · 1993
A lush, philosophical exploration of bodily awakening and raw desire set against the sterile backdrop of industrial society.
- 07
Cakes and Ale or The skeleton in the cupboard
William Somerset Maugham
A deliciously sharp and surprisingly tender skewering of literary society and the fictions we construct to hide our messy, vibrant pasts.
- 08
Love in a cold climate
Nancy Mitford · 2000
A wickedly funny, velvet-draped romp through the glittering monotony and sudden scandals of the English upper class.
- 09
Howards End
E. M. Forster · 2007
A sharp, deeply felt exploration of what happens when the life of the mind collides with the brutal pragmatism of the modern world.
- 10
The end of the affair
Graham Greene
A bitter, rain-swept confession of obsessive love and the agonizing intrusion of the divine.
- 11
Murder on Safari
Huxley, Elspeth Joscelin Grant
A classic 1930s whodunit where the sun-baked tension of an East African safari masks deadly secrets and ruthless motives.
- 12
Those barren leaves, a novel
Aldous Huxley · 1949
A deliciously biting satire that strips the cultural elite of their pretensions under the Italian sun.
