Author: Charlotte Brontė

Published: 1847

A poor governess, Jane Eyre, captures the heart of her enigmatic employer, Edward Rochester. Jane discovers that he has a secret that could jeopardize any hope of happiness between them.

Published: 1813

Austen's finest comedy of manners portrays life in the genteel rural society of the early 1800s, and tells of the initial misunderstandings (and mutual enlightenment) between lively and quick witted Elizabeth Bennet and the haughty Mr. Darcy.

Published: 1847

Emily Brontė's only novel, this tale portrays Catherine and Heathcliff, their all-encompassing love for one another, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them both, leading Heathcliff to shun and abuse society. First published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, Wuthering Heights is considered to be a classic of English literature.

Published: 1913

Alternately slow-moving and fast-paced, the story focuses on three animal characters in a bucolic version of England, and is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality and camaraderie. It will provide as much pleasure to adult readers as to children, although for rather different reasons.

Published: 1861

"The story of the orphan Pip, writing his life from his early days of childhood until adulthood and trying to be a gentleman along the way. The story can also be considered semi-autobiographical of Dickens, like much of his work, drawing on his experiences of life and people."--Wikipedia

Published: 1868

This popular novel concerns the lives and loves of four sisters growing up during the American Civil War, and was based on Alcott's own experiences as a child in Concord, Massachusetts. After much demand, Alcott wrote a sequel, Good Wives, which is often published together with Little Women as if it were a single work. Good Wives picks up three years after the events in the last chapter of Little Women, and includes characters and events often felt by fans to be essential to the story.

Published: 1869

The novel tells the story of a number of aristocratic families and the entanglements of their personal lives with Napoleon's invasion of Russia. As events proceed, Tolstoy systematically denies his subjects any significant free choice: the onward roll of history determines happiness and tragedy alike. (Translated by Aylmer and Louise Shanks Maude.)

Author: Thomas Hardy

Published: 1891

"Tess" is an exemplification of all the horrors of malignant destiny. By nature its heroine is incarnate goodness: every fibre of her being is pure; and yet, under the stress of circumstances, the compulsion of force and the beguilement of fraud, partly through ignorance, partly through delirium and desperation, she is harassed, degraded, despoiled, plunged into misery, goaded to the insane commission of homicide, and finally is hanged for murder.

Author: George Eliot

Published: 1871

Making masterful use of a counterpointed plot, Eliot presents the stories of a number of denizens of a small English town on the eve of the Reform Bill of 1832. The main characters, Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, each long for exceptional lives but are powerfully constrained by their own unrealistic expectations as well as conservative society. The novel is notable for its deep psychological insight and sophisticated character portraits.

Published: 1865

Followed by Through the Looking Glass.

Published: 1849

or The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (which he never meant to publish on any account).

It adds to the charm of this book to remember that it is virtually a picture of the author's own boyhood. It is an excellent picture of the life of a struggling English youth in the middle of the last century. The pictures of Canterbury and London are true pictures and through these pages walk one of Dickens' wonderful processions of characters, quaint and humorous, villainous and tragic. Nobody cares for Dickens heroines, least of all for Dora, but take it all in al,l this book is enjoyed by young people more than any other of the great novelist. After having read this you will wish to read Nicholas Nickleby for its mingling of pathos and humor, Martin Chuzzlewit for its pictures of American life as seen through English eyes, and Pickwick Papers for its crude but boisterous humor.

Published: 1883

A masterful tale of ''buccaneers and buried gold''. First published in the children's magazine Young Folks, and considered a coming of age story, it is an adventure tale of superb atmosphere, character, and action, as well as a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality—as seen in Long John Silver—unusual for children's literature then and now. It is one of the most frequently dramatised of all novels, and its influence on popular lore about pirates can not be overestimated.

Published: 1818

Eight years ago, Anne Elliot fell in love with poor but ambitious naval officer Captain Frederick Wentworth -- a choice which Anne's family was dissatisfied with. Lady Russell, friend and mentor to Anne, persuaded the younger woman to break off the match; now, on the verge of spinsterhood, Anne re-encounters Frederick Wentworth as he courts her spirited young neighbour, Louisa Musgrove. (Published posthumously.)

Published: 1815

The main character, Emma Woodhouse, is described in the opening paragraph as ''rich, beautiful and clever,'' but is also rather spoiled. As a result of the recent marriage of her former governess, Emma prides herself on her ability to matchmake, and proceeds to take under her wing an illegitimate orphan, Harriet Smith, whom she hopes to marry off to the vicar, Mr Elton. So confident is she that she persuades Harriet to reject a proposal from a young farmer who is a much more suitable partner for the girl.

Published: 1908

A skinny, red-haired, and freckled orphan girl is mistakenly sent to live with a shy, elderly bachelor and his spinster sister on the north shore of Canada's Prince Edward Island; The elderly siblings had asked to adopt a young boy who could work on the family farm, but the imaginitive and rambunctious Anne Shirley arrives instead, and becomes the center of a series of entertaining adventures.

Published: 1845

A classic adventure novel, often considered Dumas' best work, and frequently included on lists of the best novels of all time. Completed in 1844, and released as an 18-part series over the next two years, Dumas collaborated with other authors throughout. The story takes place in France, Italy, and the Mediterranean from the end of the rule of Napoleon I through the reign of Louis-Philippe.

Published: 1843

I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

Published: 1874

Bathsheba Everdene, living in the quiet rural village of Weatherbury, is indeed disrupted by the 'madding crowd'. After shunning the first man to love her, the shepherd Gabriel Oak, she is courted by two others: the lonely and repressed farmer Boldwood, and the charming but faithless Sergeant Troy.

Published: 1909

The book tells the story of Mary Lennox, a spoiled, contrary orphan, who is sent to live in her uncle's manor in Yorkshire. She is left to herself by her uncle Mr. Craven, who travels most of the time, trying to escape from memories of his wife. The only person who has any time for Mary is the chambermaid Martha. It is Martha who tells Mary about the walled garden, Mrs. Craven's favourite garden, which nobody has seen the inside of since she her death; Mr. Craven locked it and buried the key.

Published: 1875

Anna is the jewel of St. Petersburg society until she leaves her husband for the handsome and charming military officer, Count Vronsky. They fall in love, going beyond High Society's acceptance of trivial adulterous dalliances. But when Vronsky's love cools, Anna cannot bring herself to return to the husband she detests...
(Translated by Constance Garnett)

Author: Anna Sewell

Published: 1877

The narrator of this book, the handsome, coal-black horse called ''Black Beauty'', is lead through numerous adventures by various owners - from a riding and carriage horse, to the rough life of a town cab horse, to eventual happiness in a secure home, he keeps his strength and good temper. Influential as animal-rights propaganda, this tale is also an extremely exciting and moving children's story.

Published: 1866

From the Russian master of psychological characterizations, this novel portrays the carefully planned murder of a miserly, aged pawnbroker by a destitute Saint Petersburg student named Raskolnikov, followed by the emotional, mental, and physical effects of that action. Translated by Constance Garnett.

Published: 1859

Sidney Carton is almost the only case in which Dickens has drawn a hero on the true heroic scale, and his famous act of self-sacrifice is unmatched in fiction. The book must be ranked very high among the great tragedies in literature.

Published: 1910

Published: 1860

The Woman in White is widely regarded as the first in the genre of 'sensation novels'. It follows the story of two sisters living in Victorian England with their selfish, uninterested uncle as their guardian. Marian Halcombe is the elder of the two sisters, and a remarkably ugly woman, but with courage, strength and resourcefulness in abundance. The younger, her beautiful half-sister Laura Fairlie, is engaged to a rich man by the name of Sir Percival Glyde.

Published: 1922

Ulysses chronicles the passage through Dublin of Leopold Bloom during an unremarkable day, June 16, 1904. The title alludes to the hero of Homer's Odyssey, and there are many parallels, both implicit and explicit, between the two works. Written from 1914 to 1921, the novel was serialized in the American journal The Little Review from 1918, until the publication of the Nausicaa episode led to a prosecution for obscenity. The book was first published in its entirety in Paris in 1922, but was banned in both the United States and United Kingdom until the 1930s. The work was blacklisted by Irish customs.

Published: 1853

The story concerns a long-running legal dispute which has far-reaching consequences for all involved, and serves as Dickens' assault on the flaws of the British judiciary system (based in part on his own experiences as a law clerk). The author's harsh characterization of the slow, arcane Chancery law process gave voice to widespread frustration with the system, helping to set the stage for its eventual reform in the 1870s.