Books like The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark — picked by fans

This is the darkest of Hermann Hesse’s well-known spiritual journey novels. Unlike works such as Siddhartha, and Demian, Harry Haller in Steppenwolf is a despondent, surly, and suicidal misfit, incapable of coming to grips with the bourgeois culture around him, which seems to him irreparably antithetical to the classical art and literature he worships.

Haller’s eventual spiritual awakening is far more subtle and less dazzling than those Hesse portrayed in other works, and for me, therefore, in many ways more relatable. Deeply ingrained in my mind is Hesse’s image of the gramophone playing tinny, distorted works by master classical composers—which Haller at first despises— but then comes to see that it is much like his trying to decipher mystical truth, which manifests to him in a sort of abridged and imperfect form—because that is all that we, as corporeal humans, are able to discern.

The humanity! I could not imagine being trapped in a body that I no longer had control over. To make a decision about purposely ending your life and then finding the love of your life is awful.

From the care takers point of view, I felt every feeling of letting myself go just to have to remind myself of the reality of the situation. There was no arguing with a brick wall. Only acceptance. The grief was real.

This novel of unrequited (or is it?) mad love for a married woman was so popular that many young men of the time took to wearing the yellow waistcoat that our hero Werther sports in the novel. Werther’s sensitivity and passionate nature were the essence of Romantic-era values.

Unlike Lancelot, Werther is not a hyper-masculine, aggressive guy pursuing love; instead, he moons around talking with Lotte, his beloved, about life, love, and poetry. I must say I’d take Werther over Lancelot any day, but as with the Werthers in my life, it doesn’t turn out well.

Lotte becomes his entire world, but she is a virtuous wife to her dull husband, so she tries to friend-zone him. He isn’t having it, but she holds fast. This more than disappoints poor Werther, as you will see.

This book by my author friend Marlene puts together the shards of colourful glass to reveal the beautiful mosaic of Tess, a self-made but shattered woman feeling closer to a stranger than to herself, recounting stories about Native Americans, Africans, and the farm life of the poor early settlers in Canada.

I like this book because it addresses multiple personality disorders. I think while it is easy for most to relate to physical illness, it can be tough to relate to mental illness. Speaking from experience, someone said uncomprehendingly after a suicide, “But she was intelligent,” as if mental disablement and mental illness were the same thing. We can also catch a cold without being physically disabled.

I enjoyed this book so much, I have read it three times. I first came across The Singer’s Crown when I was much younger than I am now, but I have since then read it multiple times because the love of the main character, Prince Kattanan, was so innocent, and I just couldn’t help but fall in love with him as he held secret feelings for Princess Melisande.

The story blends betrayal, a cast-out prince, magic, and secret feelings like a perfect blend of creamy chocolate and magical peanut butter. It is one of my favorites, and it keeps pulling me back to reread the story over and over; I highly recommend it. 

Odalisque blew me away. I did not expect this author to produce such a raw and dark series. Set in a time where brutality was the norm, I loved exploring Ana’s journey as she fought to regain not only her freedom from slavery, but the epic lengths she went to—to gain power in a world ruled by strength and deception. Fiona draws out the reader’s emotions and will cast you into a scene right out of history. Revenge and honour, sex and murder all take place in the desert, so keep your eye out for this book.

The System is the third book in the Baroque Cycle which begins with Quicksilver and continues with The Confusion. The whole Cycle is a rip-roaring, wildly inventive, and massively ambitious saga, ranging from the mid-seventeenth to the early eighteenth century, spanning the globe and casting an amazing set of characters from Leibnitz and Newton, to King George, Thomas Newcomen and William Teach the pirate. It's astonishing and has some of the best subterranean London episodes I've ever read, including an escape from Newgate Prison which takes in the Bank of England, a Roman Temple, and a medieval privy. Read all three books and hang on to your hats, it's a thrilling ride.

I was looking for a series that caught my attention from the first page, and Jim Butcher’s Furies of Calderon did not disappoint me.

This is another series that uses the Roman Empire as a basis for the story, so I was immersed in Roman legionaries and their use of fighting techniques, but what involved me the most were Butcher’s characters.

I loved the relationship between the main character, Tavi, and the woman he connects with, Kitai, who is also a member of the horse clan and one-time enemy of the Empire. Characters are also connected with earth elements such as wind, fire, earth, and water, my favorite being a wind fury that allows characters to fly.

Queen Emma, wife to both Æthelred the ‘Unready’ (d. 1016) and then to Cnut (d. 1035), and Queen Edith, wife to Edward the Confessor (d. 1066), lived through some of the most turbulent and interesting politics of the early medieval period.

We are permitted unusual access to their lives through eleventh-century texts either directly about them (the Encomium Emmae) or commissioned by them (the Vita Edwardi). Stafford wonderfully brings to the fore their pivotal roles in English politics across the eleventh century, and, in doing so, shines the spotlight on the position of women in medieval society more generally. 

Jessica Cluess surprises not just the readers, but also each of the characters in her novel with her choices for protagonists. Every new emperor in her world is chosen from a contest amongst the eldest heirs of each of the five major houses of the land. But this time, the eldest of each family is spurned and the younger, apparently weaker child is picked to compete. House of Dragons is a lot of fun, and the story has a clever construction, for this strange choice of hero is no accident. There is a powerful reason and lesson in House of Dragons. Read it and find out why we sometimes want the second pick for the team.