Bildungsroman

Bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood and in which character change is thus extremely important.

Bildungsroman Books

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Adventures of Tom and Huck, #2)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)

More bildungsroman books...

Lists

gay coming-of-age novels featuring a Brief and Passionate Secret Love Affair, told retrospectively because it's all about the yearning and bitter(sweet?) tragedy, I guess

9 books — 9 voters

Loss of Innocence

17 books — 2 voters

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Best Bildungsroman book

366 books — 329 voters

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

The Golden Phoenix and the Blue Jackal by Chris Mustache

The 50 Greatest Coming-of-Age Novels

88 books — 35 voters

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Middle Grade Coming-of-Age About Girls

421 books — 27 voters

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Paranormal and Fantasy books with an intricate exotic plot

40 books — 7 voters

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Quotes Tagged “Bildungsroman”

“ You are small. You have red hair. You don’t realize it yet, but you are about to set out on the most alarming episode of your life so far… ”
― Cressida Cowell, How to Speak Dragonese

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“ There is no man,’ he began, ‘however wise, who has not at some period of his youth said things, or lived in a way the consciousness of which is so unpleasant to him in later life that he would gladly, if he could, expunge it from his memory. And yet he ought not entirely to regret it, because he cannot be certain that he has indeed become a wise man—so far as it is possible for any of us to be wise—unless he has passed through all the fatuous or unwholesome incarnations by which that ultimate st There is no man,’ he began, ‘however wise, who has not at some period of his youth said things, or lived in a way the consciousness of which is so unpleasant to him in later life that he would gladly, if he could, expunge it from his memory. And yet he ought not entirely to regret it, because he cannot be certain that he has indeed become a wise man—so far as it is possible for any of us to be wise—unless he has passed through all the fatuous or unwholesome incarnations by which that ultimate stage must be preceded. I know that there are young fellows, the sons and grand sons of famous men, whose masters have instilled into them nobility of mind and moral refinement in their schooldays. They have, perhaps, when they look back upon their past lives, nothing to retract; they can, if they choose, publish a signed account of everything they have ever said or done; but they are poor creatures, feeble descendants of doctrinaires, and their wisdom is negative and sterile. We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world. The lives that you admire, the attitudes that seem noble to you are not the result of training at home, by a father, or by masters at school, they have sprung from beginnings of a very different order, by reaction from the influence of everything evil or commonplace that prevailed round about them. They represent a struggle and a victory. I can see that the picture of what we once were, in early youth, may not be recognisable and cannot, certainly, be pleasing to contemplate in later life. But we must not deny the truth of it, for it is evidence that we have really lived, that it is in accordance with the laws of life and of the mind that we have, from the common elements of life, of the life of studios, of artistic groups—assuming that one is a painter—extracted something that goes beyond them. ...more ”
― Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove, Part 2

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