Malvern staff member Fernando is a New York Review Books Classics enthusiast, and he has an excellent recommendation for y’all…

Sheppard Lee, Written by Himself by Robert Montgomery Bird

There exist those nineteenth-century American narratives that touch on the fantastic way beyond the realms of realism that, for some reason, were set aside by time. This novel, first published in 1836, tells the story of Sheppard Lee, who discovers he has the power of transmigration—to cast his soul into other bodies and control their lives. It is a clever, picaresque pursuit of identity, and Edgar Allan Poe was a fan of this novel in his time.

Also recommended: The Stammering Century by Gilbert Seldes. This book compiles the minor cults, movements, fads, obsessions, and many other things concerning America in the nineteenth century—not to be missed by history buffs.