BVBook Verdict

If you liked

Books like The essays of Elia, first series

Loved The essays of Elia, first series by Charles Lamb? Here are 10 books with a similar appeal — drawn mostly from essays, ranked by how confidently we'd recommend them next.

10 books · ranked

  1. 1

    Slouching Towards Bethlehem

    Joan Didion · 1968 · Essays

    Sharp, cool essays on 1960s America; the book that set the standard for the personal essay.

  2. 2

    The Fire Next Time

    James Baldwin · 1963 · Essays

    Two searing essays on race, faith and America; as urgent now as when they were written.

  3. 3

    Works (American Notes

    Charles Dickens · 1800 · Essays

    American Notes was the result of the author's five-month trip to America in 1842. Dickens's travelogue includes the glitter of Boston; a Broadway swarming with hogs; a gruesome penitentiary in Philade

  4. 4

    The Age of Reason

    Thomas Paine · 1794 · Essays

    Thomas Paine who was a dynamic philosophical presence in the American Revolution of 1776 wrote his last book in 1795 on an investigation and commentary of organized religion with a focus on Christiani

  5. 5

    Domestic manners of the Americans

    Frances Milton Trollope · 1832 · Essays

    When Fanny Trollope set sail for America in 1827 with hopes of joining a Utopian community of emancipated slaves, she took with her three of her children and a young French artist, leaving behind her

  6. 6

    Excursions

    Henry David Thoreau · 1840 · Essays

    "Excursions presents texts of nine essays, including some of Thoreau's most engaging and popular works, newly edited and based on the most authoritative versions of each. These essays represent Thorea

  7. 7

    A week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

    Henry David Thoreau · 1849 · Essays

    Thoreau's first book excels at depicting nature around his trip in words.

  8. 8

    The rambler

    Samuel Johnson · 1750 · Essays

    The Rambler was a British essay periodical edited and principally written by Samuel Johnson. A total of 208 issues were published from 1750-1752, on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Essay periodicals were a lo

  9. 9

    Wolfert's roost and other papers

    Washington Irving · 1854 · Essays

    Contains five pieces that might be called short stories: "Mountjoy," a first-person story that originally was to have been developed into a novel entitled "Rosalie"; "The Widow's Ordeal," a story of j

  10. 10

    The autocrat of the breakfast-table

    Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes · 1858 · Essays

    Oliver Wendell Holmes was a physician, professor, author. This was his first book of essays based on his life in a boarding house in Boston in the 19th century.

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