# Your favorite book written in the first person **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2019, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833 "2019-09-26T01:34:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/21 "2019-09-26T14:35:05Z")
My favorite book all time: **The Fool’s Progress** by Edward Abbey. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/22 "2019-09-26T15:27:12Z")
The Great Gatsby, of course. I also enjoyed Anthem by Ayn Rand, if not for the content, for the style. It’s been a couple of decades since I read it, but I recall its being initially jarring, but then a relatively easy read. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/23 "2019-09-26T15:34:41Z")
The _Illuminatus_ trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/24 "2019-09-26T15:44:45Z")
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurice. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/25 "2019-09-26T15:47:13Z")
Ralph Ellison’s _Invisible Man_ is a must. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/26 "2019-09-26T15:48:23Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I can guess what one of them is based on your username, but what’s the other? The Catcher in the Rye, mentioned by the OP. When I saw the thread title it’s the first book I thought of. Holden gets a bad rap. It’s a magnificent book. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/27 "2019-09-26T15:51:11Z")
William Henry Hudson’s **Green Mansions.**. I read it two years ago and can’t get it out of my head. In the good way. > **[Green Mansions](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Mansions)** > > Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest (1904) is an exotic romance by William Henry Hudson about a traveller to the Guyana jungle of southeastern Venezuela and his encounter with a forest-dwelling girl named Rima. > The principal characters are Abel, Rima, Nuflo, Cla-Cla and Kua-kó. > Prologue: An unnamed narrator tells how he befriended an old "Hispano-American" gentleman who never spoke of his past. His interest piqued, the narrator finally elicits the story. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/28 "2019-09-26T15:54:43Z")
_Dolores Claiborne_ by Stephen King. Not just told in first person but in the voice / vernacular of a tough, world weary woman born and raised in Maine. Definitely one of King’s best. And lest you think SK=horror, this book is dark but there are no supernatural elements. And he managed to come up with a decent ending. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/29 "2019-09-26T15:55:22Z")
I loved H.F. Saint’s Memoirs of an Invisible Man. For short stories, it do not get any better than Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/30 "2019-09-26T17:17:16Z")
_Lolita_, by Vladimir Nabakov. My favorite book in the English language. For something a little more contemporary (but still 20 years old), _Motherless Brooklyn_, a piece of crime fiction (which I do not have any specific interest in) by Jonathan Lethem, told through the first person viewpoint (minus a brief foray into the third person toward the end) of a detective with Tourette’s syndrome. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/31 "2019-09-26T17:26:11Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > _Dolores Claiborne_ by Stephen King. Not just told in first person but in the voice / vernacular of a tough, world weary woman born and raised in Maine. Definitely one of King’s best. And lest you think SK=horror, this book is dark but there are no supernatural elements. And he managed to come up with a decent ending. There is one “supernatural element”: Delores has some kind of psychic spell during an eclipse that seems to coincide with a similar incident with a character in another of King’s books (but I don’t remember which character/book. Sorry.) BIP: Flowers For Algernon ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/32 "2019-09-26T17:34:47Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > For short stories, it do not get any better than Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart. Ever see the 1953 animation? It was an artistic breakthrough in American cartoons, and sports a dynamite narration by James Mason. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/flKOtXC4oyM/hqdefault.jpg "The Tell Tale Heart - 1953 narrated by James Mason") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flKOtXC4oyM) ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/33 "2019-09-26T18:03:28Z")
_The Martian_ by Weir is written partly in the first person, in the form of log entries. _The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time_ by Haddon Most of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle are narrated by Watson. _I, Claudius_ by Graves Many of Poe’s stories, including “The Cask of Amontillado” ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/34 "2019-09-26T18:37:10Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. YES. One of my four or five very favorite books, and the only one with first-person narrator. Edit: my brain isn’t working well today. Edward Abbey’s _Desert Solitaire_ is also one of my five very favorites, also in first person. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/35 "2019-09-26T18:40:56Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > There is one “supernatural element”: Delores has some kind of psychic spell during an eclipse that seems to coincide with a similar incident with a character in another of King’s books (but I don’t remember which character/book. Sorry.) > BIP: Flowers For Algernon :smack: I forgot about that. I think it’s _Gerald’s Game_, maybe? I can’t really remember the connection now. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/36 "2019-09-26T21:46:28Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Ever see the 1953 animation? It was an artistic breakthrough in American cartoons, and sports a dynamite narration by James Mason. > > [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=flKOtXC4oyM](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=flKOtXC4oyM) I saw it in fourth grade, in class. Terrifying. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/37 "2019-09-26T23:50:51Z")
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief I know that is an outside the box pick, but I read it every single year to my students and it is an absolute home run. Probably my favorite “out loud” reading book. ---
**Author:** ![as\_u\_wish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@as\_u\_wish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/as_u_wish)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/38 "2019-09-26T23:59:50Z")
Jane Eyre. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/39 "2019-09-27T00:59:19Z")
_To Kill a Mockingbird_: the impact of the first person narrator is evident when comparing it to the anonymous 3rd person narrator in the draft version, _Go Set a Watchman_. If you like\* Jane Eyre\* at all, then _Villette_, also by Charlotte Brontë, is an interesting example of an unreliable 1st person narrator _The Eyre Affair_ by Jasper Fforde is a lot of (literary) fun The use of first person narrator in Agatha Christie’s \*The Murder of Roger Ackroyd \*is notable. And not a particular fave of mine, but I know people who love it: \*Life of Pi \*by Yann Martel. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833/40 "2019-09-27T01:22:34Z")
Reading _Fight Club_ took my breath away. And yes, I knew about it before it was cool. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-book-written-in-the-first-person/840833.md?page=3)