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.

Le Morte d'Arthur is a classic tale of loyalty, love, and death. Malory assembles some French and English Arthurian romances, along with some additions of his own. The outline of the story will be familiar to many, it is the source for many modern Arthurian authors, but modern retellings present only a fraction of the original Malory. First printed in 1485 it is likely it will be as well known and loved in another 500 years.

Le Morte d'Arthur is a classic tale of loyalty, love, and death. Malory assembles some French and English Arthurian romances, along with some additions of his own. The outline of the story will be familiar to many, it is the source for many modern Arthurian authors, but modern retellings present only a fraction of the original Malory. First printed in 1485 it is likely it will be as well known and loved in another 500 years.

Widely seen as Eliot's greatest work, it is almost unanimously acclaimed as one of the great Victorian era novels. George Eliot (aka Mary Anne Evans) interweaves the diverse lives and changing fortunes in a provincial community to create a richly nuanced and moving drama. Hailed by Virginia Woolf in The Times Literary Supplement, 1919 as 'one of the few English novels written for grown-up people'.

Zitkala-Sa (Red Bird) 1876 - 1938 was born and raised on the Yankton Sioux reservation in South Dakota. She lived a traditional lifestyle until age eight when she left for Quaker school. Old Indian Legends is a collection of folktales that she gathered during her visits home to the reservation.

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.

Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best selling novel of the nineteenth century. The book is named for the central character and depicts the harsh reality of slavery. The book had such a significant impact that on meeting Stowe, Abraham Lincoln said; "So this is the little lady who made this big war". A product of it's time, the book is interesting also for it's illustration of stereotypes that even abolitionists could not recognise.