Provenance Of

Every story has ancestors.

Name a book or a film you love. We'll show you what it owes, the works that shaped it, and what else those works went on to shape. That is what to read or watch next.

Add the author or director if the title is common. Or start with
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Two kinds of recommendation

Ancestors
The works your favorite was made from: the novel a film adapts, the poem a title is taken from, the book its author kept rereading.
Cousins
Other works descended from those same ancestors. They share a parent with what you love, which is a better reason to try one than a star rating.

Add more than one favorite and the works they lead to in common rise to the top. Rate what you read or watch and the list learns from it.

Or trace one work all the way back

The whole family tree behind a single book or film, generation by generation, back to the oldest literature we have. It takes two or three minutes to draw.

Recently traced

  1. Poster for Blade Runner
    Blade Runner Film by Ridley Scott. 32 works, back to Genesis and Iliad.
  2. Cover of Against the Grain (À rebours)
    Against the Grain Joris-Karl Huysmans. 30 works, back to Odyssey and Hebrew Bible (Tanakh).
  3. Cover of Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i nakazaniye)
    Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky. 27 works, back to Iliad and Genesis.
  4. Cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
    Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling. 33 works, back to Iliad and Odyssey.
  5. Cover of A Sentimental Education (L'Éducation sentimentale)
    A Sentimental Education Gustave Flaubert. 33 works, back to The Odyssey and The Iliad.
  6. Cover of The Sun Also Rises
    The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway. 25 works, back to Ecclesiastes (Qohelet) and The Gospel of Mark.