My Top 10 Most Dramatic Novels of All Time

Dramatic novels are always the best, I think. I love the mix of emotion alongside these wrenching stories of survival, love and death. It's a brilliantly gushing way to use your reading time. There are many, many dramatic books out there, but I really wanted to go through my top ten most amazing of all of them...

What is a Dramatic Novel?

A dramatic novel is a novel in which melodrama occurs. This can include overly emotional states of character, long descriptions of symbolism and high moral/religion amongst certain characters which ultimately seems to rub other characters up the wrong way. Dramatic novels can also include tragedies, epic novels and stories of war and the bildungsroman. Dramatic novels aren't so much of what they're about, but more in the way they're written. Dramatic novels are normally written in a certain style that is overtly emotive with a clutch on the human condition of feeling everything all at once. It is a great concept and so, I will be having a look at the ten that make this list of my personal favourites.

Where I Think it Came From:

When I have a look at the Dramatic Novel, I always look back to the plays of Shakespeare and Dante's Divine Comedy which have always been overloaded with emotion and the human condition of their own times. Plays like "Hamlet" and Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus" seem to be absolutely exhilarating in terms of what the human experience actually is. They seem to know the exact human reaction based on personality, character and conversation. When the novel became more popular, I believe that this play style blended with prose and became more efficient in telling a story with many different narratives whilst taking you on a more intense journey that can span over years and years at a time. Now, we're at the point where we have seen some of the greatest novels of all time written and published. It truly is something beautiful to witness.

The Main Event

So, without further introduction, let us take a good look at the most dramatic novels I've ever read. It's a brilliant thing to be dramatic about emotion and the human condition and these books just do it so well.

My Top 10 Most Dramatic Novels of All Time

10. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

I first read this book over ten years' ago and I can honestly say that it absolutely blew my mind back then. I now have been teaching the book for a few years and it still never fails to blow my mind today. Some of the passages in that book just make you put it down and give a great big breath because it's overwhelming to read Victor Frankenstein's words about his own misdeeds and calculations. It is a classic for a reason and possibly one of the most popular out there. A brilliant achievement of great literature, it is an absolute work of art from the letters of Robert Walton all the way through the narratives of Frankenstein and the Monster and back again. It will leave you breathless.

9. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Again, I first read this book just about ten years' ago and I cannot lie to you when I say that I absolutely hated it the first time I read it. When I revisited it some two or three years' later, I came to love the novel and admire its character's strength and dignity. I came to admire what made the character of Bertha Mason and, interested to learn more about her, I read every paper I could on her with the obvious choice for starting being "Madwoman in the Attic". I didn't see this as a love story or a bildungsroman as it is always described but as a story of a woman learning to endure her own condition. She is possibly one of the most admired women in all of fiction.

8. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

I think I've told you the story before but when I was about 11, I found this book on a shelf in the library at school. I wasn't allowed to take it out as it was for over 15s only. I set an alarm on my cloud calendar for five years' time so that when I was 16 - I would be reminded to read the book. That's exactly what happened. When I was 16, I read "Les Miserables" and it took a while, but it was one of the most immersive experiences I've ever had from a French Novel. It is one of those books where if you read it too quickly then you've lost the plot. You want to savour every single thing, every character story and every part of the rebellion and the revolutions. It is one of those books that you read and carry with you for the rest of your life in your very soul.

7. Therese Raquin by Emile Zola

The first time I read this book, I was around 18 and it was because I had been reading French Novels lately. This one was on my TBR and so, I gave it a go. I had never really heard of the book but I had heard of Emile Zola before. I read the older yellow penguin edition of the book and I thought to myself that it was one of the most intense psychological experiences I ever had. It was a masterpiece of a novel and had so much packed in, even though it's not very long, there was just an amazing amount of information. The characters are so thoroughly damaged and tormented that you think you're reading a Shakespearean Tragedy by the end of it. And my god, don't make me mention the ending because it is one of those where you will say 'he definitely got this from Shakespeare.' A beautiful work of art this is!

6. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima

This was one of the most emotional books I've ever read. It's about a boy who has to deal with a new man coming into his mother's life whilst discussing it with his slightly delinquent friends. The engagement and moving in of this man preys the discussion of the resentment of fathers which each of the boys in the friendship group has. Noburu (the main character) wishes for the death of this new man whilst he learns that the acts of an under-14 year-old cannot be punished by the law. In his actions, he will write his own destiny.

5. The Red and the Black by Stendhal

I read this for the first time when I was 16 and it was amazing. It's about a man called Julian who rises through the social ranks of France through supposed hard work and defiance whilst also being a complete and utter hypocrite and partially a psychological abuser. I think he's a monstrous character but he's so well-written that Stendhal seems to use these words about France that nobody else can. Julian seems to be a microcosm of the hypocrisy of the French Governing Body and how it ultimately needs to be changed or else.

4. The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This is my favourite Marquez novel of all time and if you read it, you can understand why. This is a brilliantly vibrant tale of survival and the will to change your life. It's an amazing story about a man who is left to his own devices and will to make it through these harsh conditions upon the sea and see to it that he lives. A tale of the extremes of the human experience is no mystery to Marquez but this novel is one of the most beautiful things I've ever read. I read it when I was about 16 and I would not change a single thing about those moments.

3. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

This is one of my favourite novels in the whole world and is a part of my favourite series ever: The Vampire Chronicles. I started reading the Vampire Chronicles when I was about 14 (that's a decade ago from the time that this article is being written - 2020). It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. After reading "Interview with the Vampire" I can honestly say I was entrapped by Lestat and wanted to know more about his existence. When I came on to this novel, I was shocked to say the least. He went through the most emotional times and he suffered greatly. It not only makes you sympathise with Lestat but it makes you understand why he is the way he is. It makes you understand why he keeps saying that line: "I'm going to give you the choice that I never had..."

2. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

If you've read this then you cannot say that it isn't one of the most dramatic things you've ever read. The story of Thomas Sutpen is still engraved on my memories from the first time I read it, when I was 15 years' old. It is William Faulkner's greatest work and is a southern gothic tragedy for the ages. It is a brilliant, almost Shakespearean story with all the emotion of the human experience, all the description of the rugged landscape, all the want for power, the need for land and all the money-talk and financial squalor you could think of. It's a brilliant character story that revolves around glory and greed. I just couldn't describe it to you if I tried - you have to read it.

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

This book is not one that sits lightly on the soul. It is a book that will throw you around emotionally from start to finish. From the beginning where Oblonsky is caught in his affair by his wife, Dolly - to the affairs of Anna who involves herself with Vronsky too often. To the entrapment of Levin's soul in his gargantuan and lonely house in Part 1, Chapter 27 - all the way to the inevitable end. This book, from start to finish is a destructive novel. Often referred to as the greatest novel ever written, it is not just a story. No, it is not just an experience. This book can change your very nature and you will come out a completely different human being. I've read this book many times over the years, but I first lifted it at 16. It was one of those books where I thought I would never remember everything, so I wrote it down. I made notes on notes on notes and by the end of it, I was absolutely emotionally wrecked.