‘Of living creators of cosmic fear raised to its most artistic pitch, few if any can hope to equal the versatile Arthur Machen.’...

Othello has long been recognised as one of the most powerful of Shakespeare’s tragedies. This is an intense drama of love,...

The Thought Police, Doublethink, Newspeak, Big Brother – 1984 itself: these terms and concepts have moved from the world of...

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
In 1943, there was an urgent need for Animal Farm. The Soviet...

Anne of Avonlea continues Anne’s story. Now half-past sixteen but as strong-headed and romantic as ever, Anne becomes a teacher...

‘… the shadow turned round; and I saw a terrible death’s-head, which darted a look at me from a pair of scorching eyes. I felt as...

Like George Orwell, Franz Kafka has given his name to a world of nightmare, but in Kafka’s world, it is never completely clear...

The Brothers Grimm rediscovered a host of fairy tales, telling of princes and princesses in their castles, witches in their...

Through the Looking-Glass the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, containing the famous illustrations by Sir John...

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a huge cyclone transports the orphan Dorothy and her little dog Toto from Kansas to the Land of...

Hans Christian Andersen is the best-loved of all tellers of fairy tales.
This collection of over forty of Andersen's most...

‘… the shadow turned round; and I saw a terrible death’s-head, which darted a look at me from a pair of scorching eyes. I felt as...

‘White Nights’ is one of Dostoevsky’s earlier short stories but one of his most enduringly popular. It tells the story of four...

Its lyricism, comedy (both broad and subtle) and magical transformations have long made A Midsummer Night’s Dream one of the most...

James Joyce’s astonishing masterpiece, Ulysses, tells of the diverse events which befall Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus in...

Hamlet is not only one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, but also the most fascinatingly problematical tragedy in world...

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart…”

Crime and Punishment is one of the...

Pride and Prejudice, which opens with one of the most famous sentences in English Literature, is an ironic novel of manners. In...

Little Women is one of the best-loved children’s stories of all time, based on the author’s own youthful experiences. It...

Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s finest novel, The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the “roaring...

Far from the Madding Crowd is perhaps the most pastoral of Hardy’s Wessex novels. It tells the story of the young farmer Gabriel...

Moby Dick is the story of Captain Ahab's quest to avenge the whale that 'reaped' his leg. The quest is an obsession and the novel...

Set in Hardy's Wessex, Tess is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards. Its challenging sub-title, A Pure Woman,...

'There he lay looking as if youth had been half-renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey, the...

'...man is not truly one, but truly two.'

In this powerful deconstruction of Calvinist belief and the hypocrisy at the heart...

Dickens had already achieved renown with The Pickwick Papers. With Oliver Twist his reputation was enhanced and strengthened. The...

Wilde's only novel, first published in 1890, is a brilliantly designed puzzle, intended to tease conventional minds with its...

Frankenstein is the classic gothic horror novel which has thrilled and engrossed readers for two centuries. Written by Mary...

Romeo and Juliet is the world's most famous drama of tragic young love. Defying the feud which divides their families, Romeo and...

The Jungle Book introduces Mowgli, the human foundling adopted by a family of wolves. It tells of the enmity between him and the...