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.

Good and evil. Everybody has both these aspects within them thinks Dr. Jekyll who sets about creating a potion that turns him increasingly into evil. Adopting the evil persona of Edward Hyde, he indulges in a double life until it finally takes its toll ... Robert Louis Stevenson horrifies through the ages. Great reading.

Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, the novel's influence on the popularity of vampires has been singularly responsible for scores of theatrical and film interpretations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Three of the most famous are Nosferatu (1922), Dracula (1931), and Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

Wuthering Heights tells the story of an all-consuming love between Heathcliff and Catherine but betrayal leads to hatred, bitterness and retribution that reverberates across generations. Will enduring love prevail or bitterness destroy them all? Classic literature at its enthralling best.

1863 Best Seller.

Whitney was an opponent of women's suffrage, although in keeping with her philosophy she took no part in public life. Her message of then merely conservative values meant that her books sold very well to the parents of girls.

1871 Best Seller.

The second of the 'Little Women' / 'March Family Saga' trilogy, follows the progress of Jo Bhaer and her students of Plumfield Estate school.