23 must-read fiction books like The Breakthrough by Daphne du Maurier

Cover of The Breakthrough by Daphne du Maurier

The Breakthrough

By: Daphne du Maurier

3.59

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

Dispatch the maimed, the old, the weak, destroy the very world itself, for what is the point of lif…

"These involve programming it with a series of questions. The answers are then fed back into the computer, and are themselves used to modify the questions that follow."

-Daphne du Maurier, The Breakthrough

"These involve programming it with a series of questions. The answers are then fed back into the computer, and are themselves used to modify the questions that follow."

-Daphne du Maurier, The Breakthrough

If you liked the fiction plot in The Breakthrough by Daphne du Maurier , here is a list of 23 books like this:

1. Investigations of a Dog

By: Franz Kafka

4.62

Format: None pages,

"Investigations of a Dog" (German: "Forschungen eines Hundes") is a short story by Franz Kafka writ… read more

Similar categories in Franz Kafka's Investigations of a Dog book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

Cover of Notes on Nationalism by George Orwell

2. Notes on Nationalism

By: George Orwell

4.01

Format: 52 pages, Paperback

In this essay, Orwell discusses the notion of nationalism, and argues that it causes people to disr… read more

Similar categories in George Orwell's Notes on Nationalism book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • modern classics
  • 20th century
  • short stories
"Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism."

-George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism

"For those who feel deeply about contemporary politics, certain topics have become so infected by considerations of prestige that a genuinely rational approach to them is almost impossible."

-George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism

"Political or military commentators, like astrologers, can survive almost any mistake, because their more devoted followers do not look to them for an appraisal of the facts but for the stimulation of…"

-George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism

"By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled…"

-George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism

Cover of The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN) by Anaïs Nin

3. The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN)

By: Anaïs Nin

3.48

Format: 56 pages, Paperback

'What did she expect of him? What was her quest? Did she have an unfulfilled desire?' Transgress… read more

Similar categories in Anaïs Nin's The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN) book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
"Sometimes she answered, 'My mouth wants you, I want to feel you in my mouth, way down in my mouth.' Other times she answered, 'I am moist between the legs."

-Anaïs Nin, The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN)

Cover of Create Dangerously by Albert Camus

4. Create Dangerously

By: Albert Camus

3.84

Format: 58 pages, Paperback

'To create today is to create dangerously' Camus argues passionately that the artist has a respo… read more

Similar categories in Albert Camus's Create Dangerously book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • modern classics
"Artists, like everyone else, must take up their oars without dying, if possible."

-Albert Camus, Create Dangerously

"To paint a still life, a painter and an apple must confront and adjust to each other."

-Albert Camus, Create Dangerously

"Perhaps there is no peace for an artist other than the peace found in the heat of combat."

-Albert Camus, Create Dangerously

"But now the artist is in the amphitheatre. Of necessity, his voice is not quite the same; it is not nearly so firm."

-Albert Camus, Create Dangerously

Cover of Africa's Tarnished Name by Chinua Achebe

5. Africa's Tarnished Name

By: Chinua Achebe

4.40

Format: 56 pages, Paperback

He needed to hear Africa speak for itself after a lifetime of hearing Africa spoken about by others… read more

Similar categories in Chinua Achebe's Africa's Tarnished Name book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
"Our humanity is contingent on the humanity of our fellows. No person or group can be human alone. We rise above the animal together, or not at all. If we learned that lesson even this late in the day…"

-Chinua Achebe, Africa's Tarnished Name

"People are wrong when they tell you that Conrad was on the side of Africans because his story showed great compassion towards them. Africans are not really served by his compassion, whatever it means…"

-Chinua Achebe, Africa's Tarnished Name

"The poor of the world may be guilty of this and that particular fault or foolishness, but if we are fair we will admit that nothing they have done or left undone quite explains all the odds we see st…"

-Chinua Achebe, Africa's Tarnished Name

Cover of Lance by Vladimir Nabokov

6. Lance

By: Vladimir Nabokov

3.37

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'The illegible signature of teetering disaster' Three great stories—"The Aurelian", "Signs and … read more

Similar categories in Vladimir Nabokov's Lance book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • science fiction
  • modern classics
"So it went on, that obsession and that despair and that nightmarish impossibility to swindle destiny, until a certain first of April, of all dates."

-Vladimir Nabokov, Lance

"What I am thinking of is the man of imagination and science, whose courage is infinite because his curiosity surpasses his courage. Nothing will keep him back."

-Vladimir Nabokov, Lance

"I not only debar too definite a planet from any role in my story – from the role every dot and full stop should play in my story (which I see as a kind of celestial chart)."

-Vladimir Nabokov, Lance

"The clichés are, of course, disguised; essentially, they are the same throughout all cheap reading matter, whether it spans the universe or the living room. They are like those 'assorted' cookies tha…"

-Vladimir Nabokov, Lance

Cover of The Three Electroknights by Stanisław Lem

7. The Three Electroknights

By: Stanisław Lem

3.33

Format: 54 pages, Paperback

'What use to a being that lives beneath a sun are jewels of gas and silver stars of ice?' From a… read more

Similar categories in Stanisław Lem's The Three Electroknights book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • science fiction
  • modern classics
Cover of Three Japanese Short Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

8. Three Japanese Short Stories

By: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

3.28

Format: 50 pages, Paperback

'Oh the cruelty of time, that destroys all things!' Beguiling, strange and hair-raising tales fr… read more

Similar categories in Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's Three Japanese Short Stories book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
"Heroes have always been monsters who crushed sentimentalism underfoot."

-Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Three Japanese Short Stories

"Oh, but once one has returned to the land of one's birth – there is no place more constricting – one's surroundings no longer permit such freedom, and one can no longer simply transcend the demands o…"

-Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Three Japanese Short Stories

"For her I would gladly ferry across the Sumida on the coldest winter day to buy her those sakura-mochi sweets from old Edo that she loved so much. But medicine? That is another matter. Not even on th…"

-Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Three Japanese Short Stories

"No, nothing in this world is as oppressive and debilitating as blood ties. Any other relationship – be it friend, lover, wife; be it obligatory or constraining or difficult – is something one has con…"

-Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Three Japanese Short Stories

Cover of The Vigilante by John Steinbeck

9. The Vigilante

By: John Steinbeck

3.50

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

'Everything was dead, everything unreal; the dark mob was made up of stiff lay-figures' One of A… read more

Similar categories in John Steinbeck's The Vigilante book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • horror
  • modern classics
Cover of The Breakthrough by Daphne du Maurier

10. The Breakthrough

By: Daphne du Maurier

3.59

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

Dispatch the maimed, the old, the weak, destroy the very world itself, for what is the point of lif… read more

Similar categories in Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • british literature
  • novella
  • short stories
  • 20th century
  • fiction
  • mystery
  • horror
  • modern classics
  • science fiction
"These involve programming it with a series of questions. The answers are then fed back into the computer, and are themselves used to modify the questions that follow."

-Daphne du Maurier, The Breakthrough

Cover of Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady by Clarice Lispector

11. Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady

By: Clarice Lispector

3.52

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

"The morning became a long, drawn-out afternoon that became depthless night dawning innocently thro… read more

Similar categories in Clarice Lispector's Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
Cover of Piers of the Homeless Night by Jack Kerouac

12. Piers of the Homeless Night

By: Jack Kerouac

3.18

Format: 48 pages, Paperback

'See my hand up-tipped, learn the secret of my human heart...'Soaring, freewheeling snapshots of li… read more

Similar categories in Jack Kerouac's Piers of the Homeless Night book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • fiction
  • classics
  • modern classics
  • short stories
"The hobo has two watches you can't buy at Tiffany's, on one wrist the sun, on the other wrist the moon, both bands are made of sky."

-Jack Kerouac, Piers of the Homeless Night

Cover of Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.

13. Letter from Birmingham Jail

By: Martin Luther King Jr.

4.54

Format: 54 pages, Paperback

There is an alternate edition published under ISBN13: 9780062509550. 'Injustice anywhere is a th… read more

Similar categories in Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • modern classics
"It is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends."

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

"There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over..."

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

"Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself."

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

"Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily."

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

Cover of The Black Ball by Ellison Ralph

14. The Black Ball

By: Ellison Ralph

3.79

Format: 53 pages, Paperback

'If he only knew what it was, he would fix it; he would kill this mean thing that made Mama feel so… read more

Similar categories in Ellison Ralph's The Black Ball book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
Cover of The Skeleton’s Holiday by Leonora Carrington

15. The Skeleton’s Holiday

By: Leonora Carrington

3.66

Format: 48 pages, Paperback

'Ring for your maid, and when she comes in we'll pounce upon her and tear off her face. I'll wear h… read more

Similar categories in Leonora Carrington's The Skeleton’s Holiday book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • horror
  • modern classics
"The hyena found it difficult to walk in my high-heeled shoes."

-Leonora Carrington, The Skeleton’s Holiday

"The skeleton was as happy as a madman whose straitjacket had been taken off."

-Leonora Carrington, The Skeleton’s Holiday

"Ring for your maid, and when she comes in we'll pounce upon her and tear off her face. I'll wear her face tonight instead of mine."

-Leonora Carrington, The Skeleton’s Holiday

"The skeleton's lodgings had an ancient head and modern feet. The ceiling was the sky, the floor the earth. It was painted white and decorated with snowballs in which a heart beat. He looked like a tr…"

-Leonora Carrington, The Skeleton’s Holiday

Cover of Food by Gertrude Stein

16. Food

By: Gertrude Stein

1.96

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

Sadder than salad. From apples to artichokes, these glittering, fragmented, painterly portraits … read more

Similar categories in Gertrude Stein's Food book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • modern classics
  • 20th century
  • short stories
Cover of New York City in 1979 by Kathy Acker

17. New York City in 1979

By: Kathy Acker

3.11

Format: 47 pages, Paperback

"It is necessary to go to as many extremes as possible." A tale of art, sex, blood, junkies and … read more

Similar categories in Kathy Acker's New York City in 1979 book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • fiction
  • classics
  • modern classics
  • short stories
"Intense sexual desire is the best thing in the world."

-Kathy Acker, New York City in 1979

"The two main girlfriends he has had wanted him to support them in the manner to which they certainly weren't accustomed even though he couldn't put his flabby hands on a penny."

-Kathy Acker, New York City in 1979

"old people have to go to children's or most often to rest homes where they are shunted into wheelchairs and made as fast as possible into zombies cause it's easier to handle a zombie, if you have to …"

-Kathy Acker, New York City in 1979

Cover of The Missing Girl by Shirley Jackson

18. The Missing Girl

By: Shirley Jackson

3.55

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

' "Of course, no one would want to say anything about a girl like this that's missing..." ' Mali… read more

Similar categories in Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • mystery
  • horror
  • modern classics
Cover of The Distance of the Moon by Italo Calvino

19. The Distance of the Moon

By: Italo Calvino

3.86

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'Time is a catastrophe, perpetual and irreversible.' Science and fiction interweave delightfully… read more

Similar categories in Italo Calvino's The Distance of the Moon book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • science fiction
  • modern classics
"To explode or to implode – said Qfwfq – that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in the mind to expand one's energies in space without restraint, or to crush them into a dense inner concentration."

-Italo Calvino, The Distance of the Moon

"My return was sweet, my home refound, but my thoughts were filled only with grief at having lost her, and my eyes gazed at the Moon, for ever beyond my reach, as I sought her. And I saw her. She was …"

-Italo Calvino, The Distance of the Moon

Cover of I Have More Souls Than One by Fernando Pessoa

20. I Have More Souls Than One

By: Fernando Pessoa

3.96

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'But no, she's abstract, is a birdOf sound in the air of air soaring,And her soul sings unencumbere… read more

Similar categories in Fernando Pessoa's I Have More Souls Than One book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • fiction
  • classics
  • modern classics
  • short stories
Cover of Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Death Chamber by Allen Ginsberg

21. Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Death Chamber

By: Allen Ginsberg

2.84

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

BRAND NEW, Exactly same ISBN as listed, Please double check ISBN carefully before ordering. read more

Similar categories in Allen Ginsberg's Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Death Chamber book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • fiction
  • classics
  • modern classics
  • short stories
Cover of The Custard Heart by Dorothy Parker

22. The Custard Heart

By: Dorothy Parker

3.68

Format: 50 pages, Paperback

'She felt a cozy solidarity with the big company of the voluntary dead.' Wise-cracking and heart… read more

Similar categories in Dorothy Parker's The Custard Heart book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • novella
  • short stories
  • 20th century
  • fiction
  • modern classics
Cover of The End by Samuel Beckett

23. The End

By: Samuel Beckett

3.19

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

'They didn't seem to take much interest in my private parts which to tell the truth were nothing to… read more

Similar categories in Samuel Beckett's The End book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • novella
  • short stories
  • 20th century
  • fiction
  • modern classics
Cover of The Duke in His Domain by Truman Capote

24. The Duke in His Domain

By: Truman Capote

3.80

Format: 50 pages, Paperback

Now Brando looked at people with assurance, and with what can only be called a pitying expression, … read more

Similar categories in Truman Capote's The Duke in His Domain book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • modern classics
  • short stories
Cover of The Great Hunger (Penguin Modern) by Patrick Kavanagh

25. The Great Hunger (Penguin Modern)

By: Patrick Kavanagh

3.48

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'I have lived in important places, times When great events were decided . . .' By turns comical… read more

Similar categories in Patrick Kavanagh's The Great Hunger (Penguin Modern) book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
Cover of The Survivor by Primo Levi

26. The Survivor

By: Primo Levi

3.74

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'Back, away from here, drowned people, go. I haven't stolen anyone's place' A selection of poet… read more

Similar categories in Primo Levi's The Survivor book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
"What is the number of your days? I've counted them: Few and brief, and each one heavy with cares; With anguish about the inevitable night, When nothing saves you from yourself; With fear of the dawn …"

-Primo Levi, The Survivor

Cover of The Legend of the Sleepers (Penguin Modern) by Danilo Kiš

27. The Legend of the Sleepers (Penguin Modern)

By: Danilo Kiš

2.93

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'For once there had been false idols and asses' heads drawn on the walls...' Sleepers awake in … read more

Similar categories in Danilo Kiš's The Legend of the Sleepers (Penguin Modern) book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • science fiction
  • modern classics
Cover of An Advertisement for Toothpaste (Penguin Modern) by Ryszard Kapuściński

28. An Advertisement for Toothpaste (Penguin Modern)

By: Ryszard Kapuściński

3.61

Format: 53 pages, Paperback

'Like rotting stakes in a forest clearing' The great journalist of conflict in the Third World … read more

Similar categories in Ryszard Kapuściński's An Advertisement for Toothpaste (Penguin Modern) book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • modern classics
  • 20th century
  • short stories
Cover of Till September Petronella by Jean Rhys

29. Till September Petronella

By: Jean Rhys

3.39

Format: 53 pages, Paperback

'I knew he was imagining a really lovely girl—all curves, curls, heart and hidden claws' In stor… read more

Similar categories in Jean Rhys's Till September Petronella book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • british literature
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
"We sat under the mango tree and I was holding his hand when he began to cry. Drops fell on my hand like the water from the dripstone in the filter in our yard. Then I began to cry too and when I felt…"

-Jean Rhys, Till September Petronella

Cover of Four Russian Short Stories by Gaito Gazdanov

30. Four Russian Short Stories

By: Gaito Gazdanov

3.35

Format: 56 pages, Paperback

In these stories, four writers—all exiles from revolutionary Russia—explore four deaths in a world … read more

Similar categories in Gaito Gazdanov's Four Russian Short Stories book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
Cover of Glittering City by Cyprian Ekwensi

31. Glittering City

By: Cyprian Ekwensi

3.15

Format: 52 pages, Paperback

'"Forget all your fears now. Have a fling this night"' Untrustworthy, charming Fussy Joe spins s… read more

Similar categories in Cyprian Ekwensi's Glittering City book and Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough

  • classics
  • novella
  • short stories
  • 20th century
  • fiction
  • modern classics

30 best-selling classics books like The Breakthrough by Daphne du Maurier

Transform Your Habits

Notes on Nationalism

George Orwell

4.01

Transform Your Habits

The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN)

Anaïs Nin

3.48

Transform Your Habits

Create Dangerously

Albert Camus

3.84

Transform Your Habits

Africa's Tarnished Name

Chinua Achebe

4.40

View all the books

16 must-read fiction books like The Three Electroknights by Stanisław Lem

Transform Your Habits

The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN)

Anaïs Nin

3.48

Transform Your Habits

The Three Electroknights

Stanisław Lem

3.33

Transform Your Habits

Three Japanese Short Stories

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

3.28

Transform Your Habits

The Vigilante

John Steinbeck

3.50

View all the books

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