If election coverage has not already exhausted the political portions of your brain, head to the NYPL and check out some great works of literature that wrestle with questions about government, law, and the complexities of human society. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

All The King’s Men

• By telling the story of fictional governor Willie Stark through the eyes of a staff member, Robert Penn Warren gives the reader an intimate portrait of political idealism, corruption, and disillusionment in this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Intruder in the Dust

• Twelve years before Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, William Faulkner told a similar tale of a Southern man accused of murder and the people who attempt to save him. This book is at the same time a moving coming-of-age story and a nuanced reflection on sectionalism, nationalism, and the racial tensions that still affect our country.

Hamlet

• Like he did in many of his plays, Shakespeare intertwined the personal and the political in this great tragedy, whose disastrous events affect not only the prince, but also his entire country. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

A Tale of Two Cities

• Dickens often dealt with contemporary politics in his fiction, especially critiquing flaws he saw in the law and society of his native England. This novel takes a broader approach, examining both England and France during the most radical years of the French Revolution. The personal drama of the Mannette family and their friends is only part of a larger, international one threatening western Europe.

A Man For All Seasons

• In his Tony Award-winning play about Thomas More’s ill-fated conflict with King Henry VIII, Robert Bolt reflects on the meaning of national loyalty, the role of law in society, and the relationship of citizens to their government. Also be sure to check out the 1966 film adaptation of the play, which won six Academy Awards.

Lord of the Flies

• Not many books present a more sobering view of the difficulties involved in creating a just government than William Golding’s chilling story about a group of schoolboys stranded on an otherwise deserted island and forced to fend for themselves.

Brave New World

• Before George Orwell penned his bleak vision of totalitarianism, Aldous Huxley wrote a similarly pessimistic novel set in a dystopian society of a very different kind. In pondering humanity’s need for both community and solitude, Huxley managed to balance poignancy and dark humor with great skill and insight.

Watership Down

• Although this book grew from stories Richard Adams would tell his children, it is far from a childish novel. The tale of rabbits searching for a new home explores various forms of government, diverse styles of leadership, and the intricate task of founding a new society.

The Republic

• Plato’s most famous dialogue is political philosophy as drama. Socrates’ controversial lessons about justice, power, and education are lent even more significance by the readers’ knowledge that these very teachings will eventually lead to his execution.