Books like Keeping up appearances by Rose Macaulay

In post‑war New York, Newland Archer faces a dilemma when his fiancée’s cousin, the rebellious Ellen Olenska, challenges his elite society’s expectations and his own loyalty.

Four women from distinct backgrounds rent a medieval Italian castle for the month of April, where friendship and renewal replace disappointment.

Edith Wharton's satiric anatomy of American society in the first decade of the twentieth century appeared in 1913; it both appalled and fascinated its first reviewers, and established her as a major novelist. It follows the career of Undine Spragg, recently arrived in New York from the Midwest and determined to conquer high society. Glamorous, selfish, mercenary, and manipulative, her principal assets are her striking beauty, her tenacity, and her father's money. With her sights set on an advantageous marriage, Undine pursues her schemes in a world of shifting values, where triumph is swiftly followed by disillusion. Wharton was re-creating an environment she knew intimately, and Undine's education for social success is chronicled in meticulous detail. The novel superbly captures the world of post-Civil War Ameria, as ruthless in its social ambitions as in its business and politics. - Back cover.

A coming‑of‑age tale that follows teenage girls as they form bonds over shared love for books in a library setting, weaving in themes of friendship, English literature, and the lives of widowers.

Rose Macaulay’s *Personal Pleasures* is a lively collection of 73 short essays, each chapter a witty vignette that reveals the writer’s joys—from traveling to eating, from church‑going to reading—offering a playful autobiography of everyday delights.