Works of Fiction that are Best Read Together

Here is the most unusual pairing you are bound to get: Night of the Generals by Hans Hellmut Kirst, followed by The Wary Transgressor, by James Hadley Chase. The reason these books are paired is that Kirst plagiarized the central plot of Chase's book. He later was forced to acknowledge this. I discovered it by accident after reading the two books years apart.

Great pairing, even if it fits none of the criteria: Blood Meridian (McCarthy) and Empire of the Summer Moon (Gwynne)

The letter writer wants stories that are "nice" and "interesting" but also not too dark or controversial. I'm afraid nice is boring; perhaps you should trust your guests to delve into deeper material. I run a book group in Queens that was founded on the idea that we can peacefully dive into hard, dark, works and use them to learn and grow. It works. Trust your readers!

Ooops, sorry. The correct title in my previous comment is THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS

No contest: THOSE WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS, by Ursula LeGuin, and HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut

This may not be place to ask but... Which book has no sentences but just works written randomly ? A classic probably hey James Joyce but ... Had it and lost it...

Reading books in a social gathering ?! Even going to cinemas and enjoying a movie 'together' is a pastime which is clearly outdated. Like we grew up reading separate books so do our children now enjoy different movies on different tabs in the same room. Anyway the idea of 'works of fiction that are best read together' is a great idea. But the suggestions here were .... Instead the suggestions made by commentators to the article were really worthy. But what is most striking about the choice of books by commentators is that almost all of them are 'classics'. Thereby hangs another tale ... I truly thought the day of classics was past and was seriously contemplating building up a more modern library for my kids. To my surprise in the parents and teachers meetings, it emerged that teachers even today recommend classics for reading over more modern storybooks or modern novels. And given that even cartoons generously borrow events and storylines from classics and even closely copy the dialogue sometimes, it was another surprise when my kids could easily read thru what were seen as 'complex' plots in our time. My daughter easily completed the entire books of 'The Count of Monte Cristo', ''Les Miserables', 'Bleak House' and even 'Lord Jim' upto half of the book. Amazing.

I recently read George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia followed by rereading Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Orwell was the superior prose writer, but both books capture well the Spanish Civil War with its moral ambiguities and portends for the future.

"War and Peace" followed by "The Sirens of Titan" (or vice versa). I consider "Sirens," by Kurt Vonnegut, to be re-make of "War and Peace" -- for the space age (and with around 90% fewer words). That's not intended as a slur on Mr. Vonnegut, but rather as the highest possible praise. As a bonus, Vonnegut answers the question that Tolstoy couldn't: "WHY?"

"Jane Eyre" followed by "Wide Sargasso Sea"

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolf and The Hours by Michael Cunningham. See both movies, too.

"Mary, Queen of Scots", Elizabeth the Great", "Nicholas and Alexandra" Royalty is more than wealth.... amazing sense of duty to which they devoted their lives. Never considered that.

Without plan, one weekend in the '80s, I read The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving, followed by The White Hotel by D. M. Thomas. There are other dissimilar books that I was glad to have read consecutively, but none that affected me so deeply as that curious pair. They heterodyned to subtly shift my view of human relationships in ways that continue to resonate in my life decades later. I offer them as an endorsement of the practice of pairing books much as one pairs flavors, scents, voices, dancers, and lovers.

For books: 'King Leopold's Ghost' - Adam Hochschild, 'The Poisonwood Bible', Barbara Kingsolver and 'Heart of Darkness' - Joseph Conrad.

Why match books of fiction only. Why not match a novel about a period in history with a good book describing the true events of that era. And, it is fun to avoid the usual history narratives that focus on the political and economic events, instead choosing a book that describes scientific and/or technological developments of the period.

The Standard of Living is dated? Nicole Lamy needs to reread it. The premise is timeless and true.

James Joyce’s Dubliners and Edward P. Jones’s Lost in the City. Jones’s story collection is modeled after Dubliners, but set in the black community of Washington, DC. Wonderful stuff.

Hundred Light Year Diary by Greg Egan, and Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang.

Definitely love the pairing of "The Stranger" and "The Meursault Investigation." Double helix!

Gilead, by Marianne Robinson and The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.

"Clarissa" by Samuel Richardson & "Dangerous Liaisons" by Choderlos Laclos. Two epistolary novels from the 2nd half of the 18th century depicting the cruel tricks played on innocent young women by merciless libertines in order to seduce them. With contemporary JS Bach playing in the background, both books provide a wonderful reading experience.

Must read. Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find and Alice Munro's Save the Reaper. Two devastating, tense stories that are enjoyed even more when matched together.

A few summers ago I paired Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged with Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which I thought made for an interesting juxtaposition of economic theories.

In high school, I parallel-read “The Red And The Black” with “Madame Bovary.” That was a revealing entry into literature.

How about a Salter-Hemingway combo? You could put any of the titles in a bowl and pick them out to pair!

A slightly different suggestion. Many of your female readers might have read "What Katy Did" by Susan Coolidge.If not, well this might be an opportunity to get them to take children's books seriously. The companion book would be "Katy" by Jacqueline Wilson. It's a skilful re-telling of What Katy Did set in contemporary London by Britain's most popular author of contemporary fiction, it seems to be just a riff on a familiar theme. However, after the central incident (not revealed here, because it's a spoiler) the two stories start a subtle diversion. It's a good talking point both for what the content is - do you agree or disagree with he changes, what difference does the switch to contemporary London make? You can also discuss whether people agree with updating classics - is a rip-off or a form of re-evaluation?

I came upon the pairing below in a book in the ‘70s. (I think it was entitled Teaching Literature to Adolescents.) As I recall, the intent of this pairing was to challenge young readers to develop standards by which to assess literary quality. After reading each story, readers would be asked to take a critical stance and defend that stance, with the focus question being, “Which story is ‘better literature’?” Said another way, the pairing asked readers to recognize sentimentality, to discuss why some stories stay with readers while others do not, and to recognize some ways writers develop narrative. 1. “The Chaser” by John Collier 2. “Appointment with Love” by S. I. Kishor

i just finished the pairing of Camus’ The Stranger and the response from a major Algerian writer. you won’t regard Camus the same again

When I was teaching English, I paired "The Open Window" by Saki with "A.V. Laider" by Max Beerbohm - two stories that have a similar twist but are otherwise quite different. And (SPOILER) nobody actually dies in either of them, so they fit your requirements. I think it would be interesting to pair Sherman Alexie's "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" with Tolstoy's "What Men Live By." According to Tolstoy, people live "not by care for themselves, but by the love for them that is in other people." And I think this idea is rather beautifully illustrated in the Alexie story. Kipling's "A Matter of Fact" and Ray Bradbury's "The Fog Horn," both stories about lonely prehistoric sea-monsters, go together so well that I suspect Bradbury had read Kipling's story. But they make for an interesting comparison, because the writers have very different, very distinctive, styles and preoccupations.

How about matching two SF novellas, both looking at alternate history: 1) "The Great Work of Time by John Crowley. A beautiful and haunting piece from one of the master stylists of the genre. He looks at Cecil Rhodes original scheme for perpetuating the (as he sees it) benign rule of the British empire. Just don't let any discussion ending up about how bad/evil the British Empire was. that is - as you will soon discover - not where the heart or the philosophical muscle of this story lies. 2) "The Lucky Strike" by Kim Stanley Robinson. Another novella taking on the job of alternate history - this time about the bombing of Hiroshima. Once again the story is gripping and the point explored. Once again try not to let the discussion become about who was right about the historical event and look at how history can change in an instant. For extra credits - get them to read the short story by that master of the swift, funny takedown, R A Lafferty, "Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne." Looking once again at alternate history, but rather differently.

Two of my favorite science fiction books, "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem, and "Roadside Picnic", by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, might be a good pair. Not only do both of them bring up the subject of our limits of scientific understanding, but also both have been adapted into films by Andrei Tarkovsky, if that's of interest to readers, making the movies a pairing for different reasons.

Albert Camus “The Stranger” with Kamel Daoud “The Mersault Investigation”

the idea drew me in but the article seems a lot of fumbling and maybes. I have read works of fiction simultaneously which melded well, but not short stories. Still, thanks for the idea.

I'm not thinking specifically of pairings, but some wonderful short story writers include Kate Chopin, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and Flannery O'Connor.

Wonderful idea! Try these two: „Arch of Triumph“ by E.M. Remarque, and „The Radetzky March“ by J. Roth.

"Jane Eyre," Charlotte Bronte; and "Wide Sargasso Sea," Jean Rhys.

What a great idea. I love the artful compression of a good short story over many novels, which can lag. Try these pairings: Nabokov's "Signs and Symbols" with Lorrie Moore's "Referential" (which I happen to think is the much better story); Yiyun Li's "Golden Boy and Emerald Girl" with William Trevor's "Three People" (in which parents and children keep hidden their essential selves); and Ethan Canin's "The Carnival Dog, The Buyer of Diamonds" with Saul Bellow's "The Silver Dish" (two tough as nuts fathers rule in these stories). As Yiyun Li has written somewhere, every story is really a response to another story, illustrated perfectly in the story of hers mentioned above which pays homage to the Trevor. Happy reading!