Notes from Underground - a novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a Russian novelist, philosopher and short story writer. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychological novelists in world literature. Notes from Underground is considered by many to be one of the first existentialist novels. It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator (generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man), who is a retire...
Great Expectations - a novel by Charles Dickens, an English writer who is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.On Christmas Eve, Pip, an orphan about seven years old, is visiting the graves of his parents and siblings in the village churchyard, where he unexpectedly encounters an escaped prisoner. The convict scares Pip into stealing food and tools from Pip's hot-tempered elder sister and her amiable husband, Joe Gargery, a blacksmith, who have taken...
Poor Folk - a novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a Russian novelist, philosopher and short story writer. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychological novelists in world literature.Poor Folk is written in the form of letters between the two main characters, Makar Devushkin and Varvara Dobroselova, who are poor third cousins twice removed. The novel showcases the life of poor people, their relationship with rich people, and poverty in general. A deep but odd fr...
A Tale of Two Cities - a novel by Charles Dickens, an English writer who is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
A Tale of Two Cities is set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met.
The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain - a novella by Charles Dickens, an English writer who is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.Redlaw is a teacher of chemistry who often broods over wrongs done him and grief from his past. He is haunted by a spirit, who is not so much a ghost as Redlaw's phantom twin and is "an awful likeness of himself...with his features, and his bright eyes, and his grizzled hair, and dressed in the gloomy shadow of his dre...
Hard Times - a novel by Charles Dickens, an English writer who is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
Published in 1854, the story concerns one Thomas Gradgrind, a "fanatic of the demonstrable fact," who raises his children, Tom and Louisa, in a stifling and arid atmosphere of grim practicality. Without a moral compass to guide them, the children sink into lives of desperation and despair.
The Chimes - a novella by Charles Dickens, an English writer who is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.On New Year's Eve, Trotty, a poor elderly "ticket-porter" or casual messenger, is filled with gloom at the reports of crime and immorality in the newspapers, and wonders whether the working classes are simply wicked by nature. His daughter Meg and her long-time fiancé Richard arrive and announce their decision to marry next day....
A Christmas Carol - a novella by Charles Dickens, an English writer who is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
A Christmas Carol recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.
The Battle of Life - a novel by Charles Dickens, an English writer who is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.Two sisters, Grace and Marion, live happily in an English village with their two servants, Clemency Newcome and Ben Britain, and their good-natured widower father Dr Jeddler. Dr Jeddler is a man whose philosophy is to treat life as a farce. Marion, the younger sister, is betrothed to Alfred Heathfield, Jeddler's ward who is leaving the villa...
Oliver Twist - a novel by Charles Dickens, an English writer who is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
The story centers on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the "Artful Dodger", a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin.
The Cricket on the Hearth - a novella by Charles Dickens, an English writer who is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
John Peerybingle, a carrier, lives with his young wife Dot, their baby boy and their nanny Tilly Slowboy. A cricket chirps on the hearth and acts as a guardian angel to the family. One day a mysterious elderly stranger comes to visit and takes up lodging at Peerybingle's house for a few days.
The Pickwick Papers - a novel by Charles Dickens, an English writer who is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.The novel's protagonist Samuel Pickwick, Esquire is a kind and wealthy old gentleman, the founder and perpetual president of the Pickwick Club. He suggests that he and three other "Pickwickians" should make journeys to places remote from London and report on their findings to the other members of the club. Their travels throughout the Engli...
The novel is set in Yorkshire in the period 1811–12, during the industrial depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. The novel's popularity led to Shirley's becoming a woman's name. The title character was given the name that her father had intended to give a son. Before the publication of the novel, Shirley was an uncommon – but distinctly male – name and would have been an unusual name for a woman.
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a novel by Lewis Carroll, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Set six months later than the earlier book, Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror. Through the Looking-Glass includes such celebrated verses as "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter", and the episode involving Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The mirror which inspired Carroll remains displayed in Charlt...
The Professor was the first novel by Charlotte Brontë. It was originally written before Jane Eyre. The book is the story of a young man, William Crimsworth, and is a first-person narrative from his perspective. It describes his maturation, his career as a teacher in Brussels, and his personal relationships.
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë's only novel, was published in 1847 under the pseudonym "Ellis Bell". She died the following year, aged 30. Although Wuthering Heights is now a classic of English literature, contemporary reviews were deeply polarised; it was controversial because of its unusually stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty, and it challenged strict Victorian ideals of the day regarding religious hypocrisy, morality, social classes and gender inequality....
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary non...
Pride and Prejudice is a romance novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story charts the emotional development of the protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, who learns the error of making hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between the superficial and the essential. The comedy of the writing lies in the depiction of manners, education, marriage and money in the British Regency. Pride and Prejudice retains the fascination of modern readers...
Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously; By A Lady appears on the cover page where the author's name might have been.It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, both of age to marry.The novel follows the young women to their new home with their widowed mother, a meagre cottage on the property of a distant relative, where they experience love, romance and heartbreak. The novel is ...
Mansfield Park is the third published novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1814. The novel tells the story of Fanny Price starting when her overburdened family sends her at age 10 to live in the household of her wealthy aunt and uncle, through to her marriage. Mansfield Park is perhaps Austen's most controversial novel due to its brief mention of the British slave trade, and the fact that Fanny's uncle and benefactor, Sir Thomas, owns a plantation in the We...
Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively comedy of manners among her characters. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the first sen...
Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, in 1803, but it wasn't until after her death in 1817 that it was published, along with her other novel Persuasion. The novel is a satire of the Gothic novels popular at the time of its first writing in 1798–99. This "coming of age," story revolves around the main character, Catherine, a young and naïve "heroine," who entertains us on her journey of self-knowledge as she gain...
