Anne Elliot is thrown back into the company of Captain Wentworth, a past love. Things didn't work out the last time they met, so it looks like it might be another bumpy ride in store for the pair... Partly autobiographical, Persuasion possesses a gentle sense of humour, and has rather a more serious tone than most of Austen's other works. Anne Eli...

Catherine Moorland is a tomboy who yearns for dark and dangerous adventure. Her first outing in society does not quite fit this specification, although she does fall decidedly in love, which is an adventure in itself. Young and susceptible, Catherine Morland expects dark secrets and many dangers to be lurking in the hidden recesses of Northanger A...

A nautical yarn that encompasses adventure, thrills and spills on the high seas. Not to foget a certain massive whale! Captain Nemo is hell-bent on catching the famous gargantuan whale, who cost him one of his legs on a previous voyage. With disregard for his safety or that of his crew, he persues the beast with an obsession tantamount to madness.

The young and innocent Isabel Archer has a choice to make when she comes to England from America: dignity and duty or her happiness? A familiar theme in James' writing is the meeting of Europe and America. Isabel Archer is determined to make the most of her new-found freedom when she arrives in England, but other expatriate Americans manipulate he...

A family living on the edge of the river struggle with the thought of losing their livelyhood, whilst battling to keep family relationships together. Maggie and Tom, brother and sister, try to save their livelihood as their parents flounder in the face of modernization. Maggie befriends the disabled son of a family rival in an attempt to build bri...

Dorothea is on a quest to find heroism in ordinary people, an enthralling journey which encompasses both highs and lows. Praised by Virginia Woolf as one of the only novels 'written for grown-up people', Middlemarch is a highly accomplished story, whose characters are involving and intreguing. Dorothea's story interlinks powerfully and tantalisin...

The story of a dark and dangerous love, set on the moors surrounding the looming, oppressive and isolated house, Wuthering Heights.

Margaret Hale moves from the country into the inner-city and starts to learn what life is like for the workers. Elizabeth Gaskell highlights the difference between the middle and working classes in this tale set in the time of the Industrial Revolution. A largely autobiographical story, she also highlights the good that each group can do for each...

Anna Karenina risks her lifestyle and wealth when she falls for the wrong man in this dramatic and romantic tale of choices and consequences. Married to a man of importance in 19th century St.Petersburg, Anna 's world crumbles when she falls passionately in love with the handsome Count Vronsky, and is forced to choose between her lover and her you...

Phileas Fogg sets out on his epic adventure - will he make it back to London in time for tea? Steve Coogan, Jackie Chan and Cecile de France star in a new film version of the book. Here former Manuel actor Andrew Sachs gives full range to hs versatility using his many voices along with brilliant narration.

The action is set within the claustrophobic confines of a British man-of-war ship in the summer of 1797. Here live the crew of the HMS Indomitable, many of them pressed into service against their will. Billy Budd, however, enjoys naval life. But the evil master-at-arms, Claggart, loathes his fresh-faced innocence and accuses him of mutiny. From th...

Our hero, a carpenter, loves Hetty Sorel, but she loves Arthur Donnington, a local squire. The story soon progresses onto powerful themes, such as: who has the right to determine who lives and who dies? A non-judgemental examination of human relationships and nature, Adam Bede has been highly praised for achieving something 'beyond' realism.

Becky Sharpe will stop at nothing to increase her social standing, could anything get in her way? Becky Sharp is one of literature's most important and controversial characters; born into the lower classes, she must rely on her wit and guile and sexuality to master regent society. Neither friendship nor trust can even abate Becky's desire to climb...

Classic story from the author of The Woman In White, a young woman finds herself caught between true love and her family's honor

Hugo's vibrant portrait of the characters in late eighteenth century Paris is a world-famous story, which has also been made into an award-winning musical. Jean Valjean, an ex-convict, tries to turn his life around for the sake of his adopted daughter, Cosette. Set in turbulent times, this reading by Michael Jayston of this classic tale is a bustli...

Rudyard Kipling classic written in 1890 - the obnoxious Fleete, newly arrived in India, desecrates the temple of Hanuman, the monkey god. A priest avenges Hanuman with a savage bite to Fleete's chest, with grave and mysterious consquences.

Conventional and circumstance bind the young Ethan Frome to a wife he cannot love. Grimly resigned to his fate, he sees for himself a life as bleak and constricted as the New England farm on which he lives. Then the appearance in his bleak personal landscape of his ailing wife's orphaned young cousin, Mattie Silver, rouses in Ethan a fierce passion...

This is a story about two half-brothers. Though raised by the same man, the brothers' formative experiences are far from similar. Gregory, the child born of his mother's first marriage, was treated unfairly by his stepfather who was jealous and envious of the love his wife showed towards the child. His step-ather wanted this love for himself but he...

"Now what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life." So says Thomas Gradgrind in Dickens' immortal story set in the North of England in the 19th Century. Gradgrind, a local industrialist, gave this advice to his children set against a backdrop of huge wealth and even huger poverty where the rich...

Dickens' most autobiographical novel. It paints a powerful picture of social conditions in Victorian England. One of six Dickens' titles read by the great Martin Jarvis. His interpretation of Uriah Heep for BBC Television is a classic.

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing, and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby---young, handsome, and fabulously rich---always seems alone in...