Uncle Tom's Cabin, first published in 1852, was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and a powerful catalyst for the abolitionist movement. Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel foll
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, published in 1831, is Victor Hugo's monumental historical novel set in medieval Paris. The story centers on Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer of Notr
Candide, published in 1759, is Voltaire's most famous work and a masterpiece of philosophical satire. The story follows the naive and optimistic Candide, who is taught by his tutor
Don Quixote, published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, is Miguel de Cervantes' masterpiece and one of the most influential works in world literature. It tells the story of Alonso Qu
"After a terrible hurricane levels their Jamaican estate, the Bas-Thorntons decide to send their children back to the safety and comfort of England. On the way their ship is set up
After his marriage fails, a Russian nobleman returns to his family estate and falls in love with the devout daughter of his cousin, who encourages him to reconcile with his wife.
Elfride Swancourt is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Corwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began A Pair of Blue Eyes during the beginning of
Stephen Dedalus grows up in Dublin, feeling different from the other boys. His childhood and adolescence are shaped by bullying, his father's weaknesses and the growing realization
Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her, until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. He
Oscar Wilde's audacious drama of social scandal centres around the revelation of Mrs Arbuthnot's long-concealed secret. A house party is in full swing at Lady Hunstanton's country
Brought boldly to life by Herbert Golder and Richard Pevear's translation and contextualized by Herbert Golder's eloquent introduction, this early Sophoclean tragedy tells the stor
King Solomon’s Mines was published in September 1885, becoming an immediate best seller by tapping into people’s excitement for the unknown: in this case, the unexplored regions of
Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad, about a voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State, in the heart of Africa, by the story's
Conrad’s Second novel (An Outcast of the Islands) is about the colonial enterprise and their faults while they take a region. The characters are complex and deep. It makes for a gr
Described by William Faulkner as the best novel ever written and by Fyodor Dostoevsky as “flawless,” Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellio