Books like The Stud — picked by fans

I first became acquainted with this 20th-century classic when it was turned into a popular miniseries, and I felt compelled to read the novel for myself.

Although the narrative traverses settings from London and a great English country house to Europe and even the Americas, the inception of the story is grounded in post-WWI Oxford, where the narrator introduces us to Waugh’s memorably charming but doomed character, Lord Sebastian Flyte.

Waugh’s portrayal of the exuberance of youthful college high-jinx juxtaposed against the perils of dissipation powerfully depicts the inner struggle of his narrator’s search for love, meaning, and ultimately faith.

I greatly admire Waugh’s hauntingly lyrical prose, which vividly captures the aching beauty and mystique of Oxford.

This was only published way after Forster’s death–and I can quite see why: it would have whipped up a storm of unimaginable controversy with its story of homosexual love between two Cambridge students and then (steady yourself!) one of those students in later life and a rough-and-ready groundsman.

Forster wrote this in 1913/14, revised it in the 1930s and again in the 1950s, died in 1970, and Maurice finally appeared in 1971. So the book, which concerns hiding, was deeply hidden for over half a century. Forster is sentimental in terms of love and brutal in terms of fate.

Love bucks polite society’s norms in the face of the danger of arrest, public scandal, and disgrace. But such love is so delicate and dangerous that any affront to it has to be met with the most decisive action to protect everyone involved–even if the price is loneliness and a life-long… show more.

This shamelessly self-regarding autobiography seems to have been a ghost-(re)written into a biography so that the author’s boasts are afforded a bit more credibility: “Harrison Marks is 40, reasonably good-looking, black hair, a black mustache, tanned and fit”; “His life is women, some of the most beautiful women in the world” etc.

Marks was the epicenter of the post-war British erotic revolution, moving from producing kitsch postcards of topless glamour models snapped in his cat-strewn Soho studios to the direction of truly dire British sex comedies (Come Play With Me is the best remembered), and with 8mm loops for home entertainment being churned out behind the scenes.

Disconcertingly, he often appeared in his work too. By the 1980s, he was reputed to be found, very refreshed, slumped in the corner of the film set while the others got on with the business at hand. This book comes from Marks’s… show more.

An accidental academic edge and idealistic, boosterish teacher lands Larkin’s non-entity protagonist in Oxford. Behavior degenerates from the tongue-tied comprehensive boy, ill at ease in the louche public school mob, to a fellow hearty and then a rowdy. After that, he becomes a stalker and gradually loses his marbles. Larkin has the protagonist write letters in the voice of the stalkee, Jill, and so imitate the assumed mindset of the innocent young girl primed for romance. Larkin would try something of this intimate interlocution again (passing himself off, as an author, as a retired headmistress) with his eroticized Enid Blyton-like novellas, Trouble at Willow Gables and Michaelmas Term at St Bride’s (dodging lesbian clinches with predatory older girls during late night Latin lessons in the dorms, frequent spankings from the headmistress, etc).

All this is brilliantly comic, proto-Angry Young Man and proto-punk, and counters the chilliness of post-war austerity with… show more.

I could pick any historical romance by Milan and feel happy giving it a spot on this list. Because Milan’s stories are deeply invested in exploring how social strictures and structures function to keep women in their “rightful” (i.e., subordinate) place.

In my favorite, Mark Turner has recently been knighted by Queen Victoria for his philosophical treatise, A Gentleman’s Practical Guide to Chastity, an honor that makes him a rock star to myriad young Englishmen. When a rival offers a reward to anyone who can prove she’s seduced the morally upright Mark, courtesan Jessica Farleigh takes up the challenge.

While Mark’s fans and neighbors find the virgin philosopher and fallen woman an appalling mismatch, Mark does not shy away from his attraction, simultaneously offering a witty yet biting critique of the double standard on male and female sexual behavior.

This book is one of my favorites because it features a strong independent heroine and a duke who decides to be a better man.

Cassandra has no patience with Ashmont—none. She is appalled by his behavior, and she isn’t afraid to tell him. He, on the other hand, is almost immediately smitten with her. It isn’t easy for him to change from a disgrace to a worthy partner, but he doesn’t give up—even when she plainly tells him she won’t marry him.

She threatens to murder him multiple times, and the fight scene with the umbrella is permanently etched into my mind. He might have been wrong about a lot of things, but he loves her exactly as she is.

Matt Haig is one of those rare writers whose every book is great. And this is no exception. It’s the story of Tom Hazard, a nondescript English teacher–except he’s actually 400 years old and has lived many lives. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of what I would do if I could live my life over. Mind you, it’s not all fun.

Tom has to keep moving, as his non-ageing appearance would become a red flag to others. So he’s not able to fall in love either. There’s a lot of sadness and loneliness in the book, and many times, I found myself asking what I’d do in that situation. It's a beautiful read.

Sometimes a woman can get herself into a situation that she doesn’t see coming and is nervous about telling anyone.

In this book, the protagonist, Lily, is one of those women. I’m drawn to stories where you go on a journey with the main character as she finds her voice and begins to stand up for herself and realizes she’s worth much better in life, than the way she’s being treated.

Many women feel shame around getting themselves into these kinds of situations, but we are all human, and it can happen subtly, so subtly that you don’t see it coming. Lily becomes a strong woman, and that strength is something I admire.

In recent years, Lisa Jewell has moved into psychological thriller, which I also love. But she started off writing warm, gorgeously relatable, and touching stories about young people falling in love, sharing houses, and getting to grips with adult life.

They are all beautifully told, but this one stands out to me. A chance meeting at a caravan park as teenagers see Vince and Joy peeling off into their separate lives and navigating their own joys and heartbreaks… I won’t spoil it, but the ending is just as you’d want it to be. 

This is a lovely memoir of falling in true love for the first time. The author was the same age as me when she fell in love for the first time in a magical Paris when she was there as a serious musical student.

As I read, I was transported with her to that time and sent spinning back into my own life at the same age as a serious drama student falling in love in Amsterdam.

The book is romantic at first and so true to the heart, as well as the experience of losing oneself to another for the first time. I loved experiencing Paris with her and her love of music. A not famous author who deserves to be.