This is a classic story of one man's tragic failure and eventual redemption, told under the circumstances of high adventure at the margins of the known world.

Left by harrowing circumstances to fend for herself in the great capital of a foreign country, Lucy Snowe, the narrator and heroine of Villette, achieves by degrees an authentic independence from both outer necessity and inward grief.

A novel in which Dickens launches a ferocious onslaught against England and English society. He draws on the memory of his father in his depiction of the Marshalsea debtors prison and there is also the story of the love between an older man and a younger woman.

These stories of the 19th-century Russian rural landscape and the difficult life of those who inhabited it were universally popular with the reading public at large and contributed in no small measure to the emancipation of the serfs in 1861.

A story which traces the history of a house and a family at the time of World War I. This is a picture of Edwardian England at its most opulent. Exploring the themes of love, honour and betrayal, this contemporary of Henry James and Joseph Conrad shows himself their equal in literary skill.

This, the author's first novel, tells the story of a spoilt child in search of happiness. Wealthy, pampered and brilliant at school, Amory Blaine looks for the love of others, but finds only himself.

An account of a man haunted by the Devil in the form of his own evil double. Hogg's 1824 novel, set in 17th century Scotland, anticipates Dostoevsky's great dramas of sin, self-accusation and damnation by half a century.

No other book in history has wielded greater influence over a larger number of people over a longer period of time than "The Analects of Confucius." Since it was written about 2,500 years ago, it has been the essential text of Chinese scholarship: a man could simply not be considered enlightened if he had not read it.
The teachings of Chinese philosopher and thinker Confucius (BC 551-479) espouse the importance of education for moral development and celebrate qualities such as sincerity, piety, and virtue. It was in these pivotal writings that, for the first time, human behavior was put...

James' novel featuring a complex and bizarre battle between two wives - the shy Maggie, who marries an Italian prince, and the prince's former mistress, who marries Maggie's widowed father. Determined to take back her lover, the brilliant Charlotte is nevertheless defeated by her rival.

This selection of stories by Katherine Mansfield has been chosen by Claire Tomalin and emphasize the stronger, feminist side of her writing rather than the popular, more sentimental view. The 21 stories are presented in chronological order and include Prelude, The Garden Party and At the Bay.