Thomas Mann's first great novel, written at the age of 25, is an epic study of decadence among the merchant families of Hamburg at the end of the nineteenth century. The novel is based on Mann's own e
The fable of the scientist who creates a man-monster is one of the best known horror stories ever. It has fascinated readers ever since it was first published in 1818.
Follows the adventures of an Argentinean writer living in Paris with his lover and a circle of bohemian friends, and consists of 155 short chapters that the author advises us to read out of order.
Out of extreme poverty Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread and then spends many years trying to escape his reputation as a criminal. In later years he rises socially and is a respectable member of soc
An epiphany to late-flowering love, this novel holds out the subversive promise that you can have what you wish for: you may just have to wait. Set on the Colombian coast during the early part of this
After the Summer Concert fiasco, Mr Kay resolves to remove Fenn from office and puts his house into special measures, co-opting Kennedy, second prefect of Blackburn's, as reluctant troubleshooter with
Set in the years before and after Waterloo, the novel tells the parallel stories of two schoolfriends - the quiet, long-suffering Amelia and her brilliant, scheming friend, Becky Sharp. The novel port
An account of a man haunted by the Devil in the form of his own evil double. Hogg's 1824 novel, set in 17th century Scotland, anticipates Dostoevsky's great dramas of sin, self-accusation and damnatio
This Wodehousean comedy features Mike Bond, the owner of Bond's Bank, who finds himself in a spot of trouble and wants someone to burgle the bank before the trustees inspect it. Fortunately Horace App
Poet and pervert, Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed by twelve-year-old Lolita and seeks to possess her, first carnally and then artistically, out of love, 'to fix once for all the perilous magic of nym
