Although this novel was first published anonymously as a monthly serial, it proved to be the author’s first major literary success and earned him a wide readership. The story follows independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene and the challenges she faces as a farmer of a large estate as well as her romantic entanglements with three very different suitors. This atmospheric novel’s vivid descriptions of rural life and frank portrayal of complicated sexual relationships established Hardy as one of the great Victorian realist writers of his time.

Of the many novels that Dickens wrote he considered this to be his favourite. Perhaps that’s because it is widely-considered his most autobiographical. David Copperfield follows its eponymous hero’s journey from an impoverished and perilous childhood to finding fame and fortune as a writer of fiction. With scenes of heart-breaking brutality, romantic strife and comic brilliance, this novel contains some of the most outlandish and memorable of its authors sharply depicted characters.

Socialite Dorian Gray’s much-admired beauty is captured in an artist’s painting, but he realises that his looks will rapidly fade when he acquires a taste for the hedonistic lifestyle introduced to him by Lord Henry Wotton. When his wish that the painting should age instead of him is fulfilled, Dorian indulges in all the unrestrained vices that Victorian London has to offer from Opium dens to sexual scandal. But what is the real price of a libertine lifestyle where sensual pleasure is pursued without any apparent consequence?

Mr Bennet is anxious for at least one of his five daughters to marry well in order to ensure the family’s financial security. But his intelligent and witty second daughter Elizabeth is quick to judge on first impressions. She makes a superficial assessment of wealthy, but ill-at-ease newcomer to the village Mr Darcy. The prospect of their potential romance is further complicated by Darcy’s notoriously aloof decorum. Discover why this fractious pair are at the centre of one of the most comic and romantic novels of all time.

It’s been 200 years since Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley first published this gothic masterpiece about scientist Victor Frankenstein and his famous monster. This sensational novel was a great success with the public when it was first published anonymously in 1818 and its gone on to inspire a huge amount of theatrical and film adaptations. But this landmark of science fiction proves its enduring relevance with the way its dramatic journey questions the consequences of meddling with nature and the meaning of what makes us human.

What happens when the spirited Countess Anna Karenina turns her back on a secure, but passionless marriage to unite with the dashing Count Karenin? This epic novel recounts the story of a feverish love affair conducted amidst social stigma and a religiously conservative 19th century society. But this is also the tale of Levin, a wealthy and idealistic landowner who grapples with similar conflicts in pursuing marriage to a woman of nobility. Tolstoy’s masterpiece captivates with a skilful and thoughtful balance of humour, tragedy and intriguing drama.

Centred around the lives of a large cast of characters in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch, Eliot sets her ambitious novel at a pivotal point in English history. Electoral reforms, medical innovations and transforming social values herald in the beginning of more modern era. Eliot masterfully interweaves tales about a young idealist, a pedantic aging scholar, a progressive doctor, a religious hypocrite and a passionate impoverished artist. This extraordinary novel continues to fascinate readers for its nuanced psychological insight as much as its wonderfully dramatic story.

Set on the wiley, windy Yorkshire moors at the end of the 1700s, Emily Brontë’s only novel is a tale of a household divided by jealousy and torn apart by revenge. The romance between irascible Heathcliff and strong-willed Catherine has become one of the most renowned and tempestuous love affairs in English literature. Although this novel was initially scorned by critics for amorality and Emily Brontë never witnessed the book’s enduring success it has gone on to influence and inspire writers and musicians from Sylvia Plath to Kate Bush.