Recommendations
Books Like An Inspector Calls
Best books to read after An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley
Readers who love An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley are drawn to its combination of mystery, socialist moral argument, and the gradual revelation of each family member's complicity in a girl's death — they want plays and novels that deal with collective responsibility, the English class system's relationship to poverty, and the question of what a family owes the people it has damaged.
- 1Buy
Time and the Conways
by J.B. Priestley
The companion Priestley play — the Conway family in 1919, 1937, and 1919 again. The companion in Priestley's treatment of time as a moral category: both plays use temporal dislocation to make the audience confront the consequences of the characters' choices in a way straightforward chronology would not allow
- 2Buy
A Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry
The companion family play organized around each family member's moral responsibility. Both are family plays about individual responsibility and its evasion: both are organized around a family confronting an external demand that requires them to examine their own complicity in a larger social wrong
- 3Buy
The Winslow Boy
by Terence Rattigan
Rattigan's companion in the tradition of the British play about justice and individual vs. institution — the Winslow family's campaign to clear their son Ronnie. Both premiered in 1946 and represent the two dominant modes of post-war British drama: Rattigan's procedural investigation of justice; Priestley's socialist investigation of responsibility
- 4Buy
Look Back in Anger
by John Osborne
The companion in the British theatrical tradition — Jimmy Porter's assault on the English class system. Both are companion investigations of the English class system: Priestley's through the mechanism of the inspector who exposes the Birlings' complicity; Osborne's through the mechanism of the angry young man who refuses to be absorbed by the class system that damaged him
- 5Buy
North and South
by Elizabeth Gaskell
Gaskell's companion in the tradition of the British literary investigation of the moral responsibilities of the wealthy toward the poor — Margaret Hale in the industrial North. Both are companion investigations of what the wealthy owe the poor: Gaskell's more novelistic and focused on individual transformation; Priestley's more theatrical and organized around collective responsibility
- 6Buy
The Remains of the Day
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Ishiguro's companion in the tradition of the British literary investigation of moral evasion — Stevens the butler's account of his service to Lord Darlington. Both are about people who fail to take responsibility for the damage done by their service to those above them in the class hierarchy: Stevens's butler's loyalty to a Nazi sympathizer; the Birlings' refusal to acknowledge their complicity in Eva Smith's death
- 7Buy
The Captain's Doll
by D.H. Lawrence
Lawrence's companion in the tradition of the British literary investigation of class, power, and the relationship between those who exploit and those who are exploited. Both An Inspector Calls and Lawrence's fiction are organized around the question of what people in positions of social power owe to those below them
- 8Buy
Money: A Suicide Note
by Martin Amis
Amis's companion in the tradition of the British literary investigation of class and complicity — John Self's account of his own degradation. An Inspector Calls and Money are companion investigations of what British society does to the people it exploits: Priestley's through the mechanism of the inspector and the socialist moral; Amis's through the mechanism of the confessional narrator who is himself the exploiter
More An Inspector Calls Resources
More Reading Recommendations
View all →Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.