1895 Best Seller.

One of the most influential anti-war stories ever written The Red Badge of Courage was adapted as a film in 1951 by John Huston. Crane wanted to show what war was like and achieved a ground breaking 'psychological portrayal of fear'. The story follows an archetypical 19 year old recruit in the American Civil War.

A seminal work of Realism, and one of the most influential novels ever written.

"What is remarkable in Madame Bovary is that its mediocre beings, with their earthbound ambitions and pedestrian problems, impress us, by virtue of the structure and the writing that create them, as beings who are out of the ordinary within their ordinary manner of being." - Mario Vargas Llosa, in The Perpetual Orgy

The novel focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, as she spirals out of control trying to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life.

Don Quixote's imagination has been captured by tales of chivalry, to the point where he becomes quite mad and believes that he is a knight errant. Together with his sidekick Sancho Panza, and filled with misguided chivalric impulses, he embarks on travel and adventure. Don Quixote is a humorous parody of chivalric romance literature. Its characters and language have become widely entrenched in western language and literature. Groundbreaking and influential, it is considered by many to be one of the greatest books of all time.

Orphaned early in life, Jane Eyre endures life with a cruel aunt, harsh boarding school and generous lashings of cruelty. From this grew Jane's strength of character and quest for freedom and equality. Jane eventually secures a job as a governess and falls in love with the owner of the manor, Edward Rochester. Despite her plainness, she captures his heart. But can they overcome differences in social status, age and experience? Will a secret he has come between them? Will she follow her convictions even if it meant losing her true love? Will love conquer all? Jane Eyre is a sensational love story Bronte style with truckloads of gutsy character building material to boot.

This was Goethe's first major success, though it also lead to some difficulties. It started "Werther Fever"; some young men so identified with Werther that that they began dress like him. It also lead to more than 2,000 copycat suicides. The problem became so concerning to the authorities that a rival 'happy ending' was published by Friedrich Nicolai, another author. Goethe was incensed and published a poem in which Nicolai defecates on Werther's grave, starting a literary war that lasted all his life.

The work opens with an unnamed narrator listening to the reading of a manuscript written many years ago by a now dead young governess. The governess relates that soon after arriving to work in the house she learns that her predecessor had died under mysterious circumstances. As the tale unfolds the reader has room to doubt the reality of the evil that the governess feels is approaching.

Through the Looking-Glass is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In this story, Alice wonders what the world is like on the other side of a mirror when magically she is able to pass through it. She discovers that the world through the looking glass is quite different. By holding up a mirror, she learns that she can read a book with looking-glass poetry, Jabberwocky. What is the meaning of all this? Talking flowers, Red Queen and Kings, Chess games, Humpty Dumpty ... When will all this nonsense end? More magical Lewis Carroll. Be enchanted again and again.