CLASSICS

THE SCIENCE FICTION CLASSIC, NOW A MAJOR BBC DRAMA"For a time I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence, and that I stood there alone, the last man...

Thomas Hardy's last novel, Jude the Obscure is a fearless exploration of the hypocrisy of Victorian society, edited with an introduction by Dennis Taylor in Penguin Classics.Jude Fawley's hopes of...

Wuthering Heights tells the story of a romance between two youngsters: Catherine Earnshaw and an orphan boy, Heathcliff. After she rejects him for a boy from a better background he...

Notes from the Underground (1864) is one of the most profound works of nineteenth-century literature. A probing, speculative book, often regarded as a forerunner of the Existentialist movement, it examines...

'people get out of prison, and when they get out, and their name is Edmond Dant`es, they take their revenge!'Falsely accused of treason, the young sailor Edmond Dant`es is arrested...

Inspired by a grisly discovery in the nineteenth century, The King's General was the first of du Maurier's novels to be written at Menabilly, the model for Manderley in Rebecca....

Though Stoker did not invent vampires - and in fact based his character's life-in-death on extensive research into European folklore - his novel elevated the nocturnal monster to iconic stature,...

When John Franklin brings his plane down into Occupied France at the height of the Second World war, there are two things in his mind - the safety of his...

The quintessential adventure story that first established pirates in the popular imagination, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island is edited with an introduction by John Seelye in Penguin Classics.When a mysterious...

A Jeeves and Wooster novelThank You, Jeeves is the first novel to feature the incomparable valet Jeeves and his hapless charge Bertie Wooster - and you've hardly started to turn...

Pip doesn't expect much from life...His sister makes it clear that her orphaned little brother is nothing but a burden on her. But suddenly things begin to change. Pip's narrow...

Lord and Lady Clonbrony are more concerned with fashionable London society than with their responsibilities to those who live and work on their Irish estates. Concerned by this negligence, their...

Cooper's most enduringly popular novel combines heroism and romance with powerful criticism of the destruction of nature and tradition. Set against the French and Indian siege of Fort William Henry...

Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth - four "little women" enduring hardships and enjoying adventures in Civil War New England. The charming story of the March sisters, Little Women has been...

Follow the thrilling and exciting adventures of Horatio Hornblower's life at sea in the Royal Navy, in these three classic stories. Hornblower and the AtroposSkippering the flagship for Nelson's funeral...

HEART OF DARKNESS * AN OUTPOST OF PROGRESS * KARAIN * YOUTHThe finest of all Conrad's tales, 'Heart of Darkness' is set in an atmosphere of mystery and menace, and...

'The unity of Miss Cather's design, the clarity and distinction of this book, should put it beside her first great success, My Antonia' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'She is undoubtedly one...

'If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book.'William Godwin, the author's future husband, was...

Born to drunken parents in the slums of Paris, Nana lives in squalor until she is discovered at the Theatre des Varietes. She soon rises from the streets to set...

The Aylmer Vance stories date from the Edwardian period, and there are echoes in them of the Sherlock Holmes adventures which had proved so popular in the preceding decade. The...

Deals with the misdeeds of Tyrrel, a tyrannical country squire, who comes into conflict with Falkland, a neighbouring squire of a seemingly more benevolent disposition. When Tyrrel knocks Falkland down...

A new collection of A. A. Milne's short stories for grown-ups. Gathered in full for the first time, they include several never published before. They show Milne's renowned charm, concision...

Originally published in 1940, this is Cather's last novel, a retrospective portrait of a society and conditions that have vanished forever in the Old South. The stain of slavery is...

First published in 1954, William Golding's debut novel, now a classic, is a stark story of survival, probing the depths of human nature, and what happens when civilization collapses. As...

Translated, with an Introduction and Notes by John R. Williams.Goethe's Faust is a classic of European literature. Based on the fable of the man who traded his soul for superhuman...

Oblomov was considered a satirical portrait of the Russian aristocracy, who no longer had a useful role in society. Oblomov is a nineteenth century Russian landowner brought up to do...

Revel in the sumptuous language of Edgar Allan Poe's best works.The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe features key works, spanning from 1827 to his death in 1849,...

Coketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, school headmaster and model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils and family with facts, he bans fancy and wonder...

A fresh new translation of Collodi's cherished classic of childhood adventureCarved from a piece of magical wood by the old carpenter Geppetto, the puppet Pinocchio comes to life and is...