Book cover of Thomas Browne: Selected Writings

Book description

This volume in the 21st Century Oxford Authors series offers students and readers an authoritative, comprehensive selection of the work of Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682). Accompanied by full scholarly apparatus, the edition demonstrates the breadth of the author of some of the most brilliant and delirious prose in English Literature.

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Thomas Browne as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Given I study old books, I wanted to include at least one. I was tempted to recommend either Lawrence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, for its sheer strangeness, or Christopher Smart’s Jubilate Agno, for including the best poetic lines ever written about a cat, or, otherwise, John Milton’s Paradise Lost. The latter can be read as an early declaration of human freedom in the face of the totalitarianism of nonhuman forces (be they demonic or divine), but, more importantly, one that is sensitive to the pitfalls of such self-assertion (“sufficient to have stood, though free to fall,” is how Adam…

If you love Thomas Browne...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Want books like Thomas Browne?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 24 books like Thomas Browne.

Browse books like Thomas Browne

Book cover of Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
Book cover of The Emergence of Probability: A Philosophical Study of Early Ideas about Probability, Induction and Statistical Inference
Book cover of The Legitimacy of the Modern Age

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,366

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like Thomas Browne, you might also like...

Book cover of Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS

Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS by Amy Carney,

When I was writing this book, several of my friends jokingly called it the Nazi baby book, with one insisting it would make a great title. Nazi Babies – admittedly, that is a catchy title, but that’s not exactly what my book is about. SS babies would be slightly more…

Book cover of A Forgivable Indecision

A Forgivable Indecision by Shawn Jennings,

In 1913, a 15-year-old pregnant girl was found dead of apparent suicide. Dr. James Wilson, a new graduate and the first doctor ever to start a practice in this rural town, feels guilty over her death because of his delayed intervention.

He knows Bessie was raped by one of her…

5 book lists we think you will like!