Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. Hard Times offers a fascinating tapestry of Victorian life. Dickens creates the Victorian industrial city of Coketown, in northern England, and its unforgettable citizens. It is the tragic story of Louisa Gradgrind and her father, Thomas. When Louisa, trapped in a loveless marriage, falls prey to an idle seducer, the crisis forces her father to reconsider his cherished system and he is eventually forced to recognise the value of the human heart in an age of materialism and machinery.

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. First published in 1900, Lord Jim established Conrad as one of the great storytellers of the twentieth century. Haunted by the memory of a moment of lost nerve during a disastrous voyage, Jim submits to condemnation by a Court of Inquiry. In the wake of his disgrace he travels to the exotic region of Patusan, and as the agent at this remote trading post comes to be revered as ‘Tuan Jim’. Here he finds a measure of serenity and respect within himself. However, when a gang of thieves arrives on the island, the memory of his earlier disgrace comes again to the fore, and his relationship with the people of the island is jeopardized.

Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. Filled with drama and unexpected plot twists, Collins’ Jezebel’s Daughter is based on a play, The Red Vial, which was produced in 1858. A story of intrigue, betrayal and misplaced trust, revolves around Mrs. Fontaine, a sinister widow who uses her dead husband’s poisons and antidotes to control the futures of those around her. Filled with forensic details found in the best detective fiction, Jezebel’s Daughter is remarkable in the way it handles the treatment of mental illness at the turn of the 20th Century.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set mostly in Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. Child of Storm is a sequel to Haggard’s novel Marie, where Allan Ouatermain helps his Zulu friend Saduko in a crazy battle to win one hundred heads of cattle for the dowry of his love Mameena. However, the beautiful and mysterious Mameena, known as the «Child of Storm,» seduces Allan and tries to engage him in marriage.

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, his third novel, was published in 1839. The narrative follows Nicholas as he escapes from the influence of his villainous uncle and the wicked schoolmaster Wackford Squeers. Then he stumbles into a theatrical career, and pursues his fortune through numerous adventures. Upon its original publication, the set was hailed as «one of the most glorious publishing achievements of our time.»

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, his third novel, was published in 1839. The narrative follows Nicholas as he escapes from the influence of his villainous uncle and the wicked schoolmaster Wackford Squeers. Then he stumbles into a theatrical career, and pursues his fortune through numerous adventures. Upon its original publication, the set was hailed as «one of the most glorious publishing achievements of our time.»

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. The wild rush of action in this classic frontier adventure story has made The Last of the Mohicans the most popular of James Fenimore Cooper’s novels. Deep in the forests of upper New York State, the brave woodsman Hawkeye (Natty Bumppo) and his loyal Mohican friends Chingachgook and Uncas become embroiled in the bloody battles of the French and Indian War.

Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. His works also include fantasy and science fiction, as well as plays, romances, non-fiction and historical novels. The Lost World tells the story of a journalist Edward Malone who decides to join the dangerous but exciting expedition to a world populated by dinosaurs. The Land of Mist is a novel about Professor Challenger, heavily inspired by the ideas of Spiritualism. This book contains a brilliant story about exploring the world of supernatural through the series of fascinating seances.

Jack London was an American novelist, journalist and social activist. Pioneering the genre of magazine fiction and prototyping science fiction, he became one of the first writers, who gained worldwide fame and a large fortune. Lost Face and The Red One are collections of great short stories. The Cruise of The Dazzler is an early adventure novel by London, set in his hometown San Francisco. The plot revolves around a young boy Joe Bronson who has trouble at home and at school. The arguments with his father lead him to run away and join the crew of the ship called Dazzler. Joe dreams of a sailor’s life full of excitement but he soon realizes that he joined the crew of pirates.

Jack London was an American novelist, journalist and social activist. Pioneering the genre of magazine fiction and prototyping science fiction, he became one of the first writers, who gained worldwide fame and a large fortune. This volume contains some of his amazing collected short stories, including The Night Born, Dutch Courage and The House of Pride, which will be perfect for anyone interested in Hawaii history and culture.

Daniel Defoe was an English trader, writer, pamphleteer and journalist. He is most famous for his novel «Robinson Crusoe», which is second only to the Bible in its number of translations. The third book about Crusoe, Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, is a collection of Daniel Defoe’s essays on moral topics. The name of Crusoe used to spur the public’s interest in this work.

Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. His works also include fantasy and science fiction, as well as plays, romances, non-fiction and historical novels. Round the Red Lamp is a collection of medical and detective stories by Doyle, where he focused on the problems that present themselves to physicians and surgeons at the time. The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales is a collection of early Doyle’s short stories. It includes stories of mystery, comedy, shipwrecks and fantasy.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set mostly in Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. This volume contains three famous novels by Haggard. The Mahatma and the Hare is the story of the selfcalled mahatma — a spiritual man who is able, when asleep, to view «The Great White Road» on which the souls of those recently departed enter heaven. Barbara Who Came Back is the story of Septimus Walrond, who was returning from a professional visit to a distant cottage upon the coast of East Anglia. His errand had been sad, to baptise the dying infant of a fisherman. And The Witch’s Head is the second novel by Haggard, which he wrote just prior to King Solomon’s Mines. Zulu magic comes to the British Fenlands, as the severed head of a sorcerer casts a spell from beyond the grave. The story sweeps from England to the South African setting.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set mostly in Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. This volume contains three famous novels by Haggard. The Wizard is a book about adventures and the nature of miracles that could be enjoyed by both adults and children alike. In Elissa Haggard takes his readers to the Phoenician city in South Central Africa, a trading town that was built by civilized men. And in Black Heart and White Heart, the author mounts once more those trusty steeds of his, the nobility of the savage and the rascality of the civilized white.

Daniel Defoe was an English trader, writer, pamphleteer and journalist. He is most famous for his novel «Robinson Crusoe», which is second only to the Bible in its number of translations. This volume contains some of his less famous novels. Colonel Jack is the supposed autobiography of an English gentleman who begins life as a child of the London streets. He and his brothers are brought up as pickpockets and highwaymen, but Jack seeks to improve himself. Kidnapped and taken to America, he becomes first a slave, then an overseer on plantations in Maryland. Also, following the success of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe composed a further tale of high adventure at sea, The King of Pirates, a story of pirate life.

Jerome Klapka Jerome was an English writer and humourist. My Life and Times is an autobiography novel, an entertaining account of Jerome’s life including an experience of his family falling into poverty owing to bad investments. He published it in 1926 being in his late sixties.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. This volume contains ten short stories, including touching and emotional Lizzie Leigh — a poignant tale about illicit love. It deals with the story of a young girl Lizzie who commits a sin and has to deal with consequences. Gaskell brilliantly portraits the deep and true relations of a family.

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. A masterly evocation of the state and psychology of imprisonment, Little Dorrit is one of the supreme works of Dickens’s maturity. When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, he takes a kindly interest in Amy Dorrit, his mother’s seamstress, and in the affairs of Amy’s father, William Dorrit, a man of shabby grandeur, long imprisoned for debt in Marshalsea prison. As Arthur soon discovers, the dark shadow of the prison stretches far beyond its walls to affect the lives of many, from the kindly Mr Panks, the reluctant rent-collector of Bleeding Heart Yard, and the tipsily garrulous Flora Finching, to Merdle, an unscrupulous financier, and the bureaucratic Barnacles in the Circumlocution Office.

Jack London was an American novelist, journalist and social activist. Pioneering the genre of magazine fiction and prototyping science fiction, he became one of the first writers, who gained worldwide fame and a large fortune. As an autobiographical novel adopting the name of an old English folk song, John Barleycorn tells the story of the author’s struggles with alcoholism at different stages of his life. It also includes a variety of themes like masculinity, friendship, general life experiences and the literary fame. Jerry of the Islands is a story of an Irish terrier named Jerry and his adventures on a ship Arangi, engaged in delivering slaves.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. Jack Tier; or, the Florida Reef is a novel set during the Mexican-American war that describes an untraditional lovestory.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. The Ways of The Hour is Cooper’s last novel, published in 1850. It is a courtroom drama of a woman accused of murder and theft. Cooper used the novel, among other things, to express his discontent with changes in New York State’s judicial system during the 1840s, the corruption of courts and juries, and new ideas of women’s rights.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. The Water Witch is a 1830 novel by Cooper. Set in 17th century New York and the surrounding sea, the novel depicts the abduction of a woman, Alida de Barberie, by the pirate captain of the brigantine Water Witch, and the subsequent pursuit of that elusive ship by her suitor, Captain Ludlow.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. The Two Admirals is an 1842 nautical fiction set during the 18th century. Exploring the British Royal Navy, Cooper wrote the novel out of encouragement of his English publisher, who recommended writing another sea novel. Cooper had originally intended to write a novel where ships were the main characters, though eventually decided not to.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. The Sea Lions, originally published in 1849, tells the story of two ships seeking seals among the icebergs of Antarctica, and caught there during the long winter night.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. The Oak Openings focuses on the activities of professional honey-hunter Benjamin Boden, nicknamed «Ben Buzz». The novel is set in Kalamazoo, Michigan’s Oak Opening, a wooded prairie during the War of 1812.

Daniel Defoe was an English trader, writer, pamphleteer and journalist. He is most famous for his novel «Robinson Crusoe», which is second only to the Bible in its number of translations. A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain is an account of author’s travels, first published in three volumes between 1724 and 1727. Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime’s experience to the tradition of travel writing as a businessman, a soldier, an economic journalist and a spy. This book is not only a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution; it is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. The Crater; or, Vulcan’s Peak: a Tale of the Pacific is a novel in which Cooper incorporated knowledge of ship construction he had acquired while working as a midshipman. From merely surviving the loss of his shipmates and the embayment of his ship within The Reef, protagonist Mark Woolston goes on to thrive by his own industry. Following a regional volcanic upheaval which raises new land, he founds a similarly industrious and thriving colony after escaping from, then returning to, The Reef. The outnumbered colonists must defend their new homes and possessions against natives who covet the new land.

Daniel Defoe was an English trader, writer, pamphleteer and journalist. He is most famous for his novel «Robinson Crusoe», which is second only to the Bible in its number of translations. A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain is an account of author’s travels, first published in three volumes between 1724 and 1727. Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime’s experience to the tradition of travel writing as a businessman, a soldier, an economic journalist and a spy. This book is not only a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution; it is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. Precaution is the first novel written by Cooper written in imitation of Jane Austen’s novels of English gentry manners. It is mainly interesting today as a document in the history of American cultural colonialism and as an example of an attempt to imitate Jane Austen’s investigation of the ironic discrepancy between illusion and reality.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. Miles Wallingfordis a classic Cooper’s sea adventure novel about merchant mariners and serves as a sequel to the sea adventure classic, «Afloat and Ashore».

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. Afloat and Ashore is a nautical fiction novel by Cooper. Set in 1796-1804, it follows the maritime adventures of Miles Wallingford Jr., the son of wealthy New York landowners who chooses to go to sea after the death of his parents. The novel is partially autobiographical, based on Cooper’s own experiences as a sailor.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea is a historical novel, first published in January 1824. Its subject is the life of a naval pilot during the American Revolution. The main character of the story leads the American Navy in dangerous raids on the English coast.

Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. The Two Destinies explores the powers of telepathy while telling a skillful tale that interweaves suspense with the familiar ingredients of Victorian melodrama. Mary Dermody is destined to be together with George Germaine one day, or so at least her grandmother prophesizes. Destiny at first does not seem to adhere to this plan, and the pair is separated and lose sight of each other. But when George saves a young woman from drowning, a strong connection seems to develop between them, which seems to be almost supernatural. The Frozen Deep is a story of a love triangle between Clara, Frank and Richard. Exchanging vows of love with sailor Frank Aldersley the night before his departure, Clara Burnham is haunted by the memory of Richard Wardour, and his mistaken belief that they will one day marry. With her gift of ‘Second Sight’, Clara foresees terrible tragedy ahead and is racked by guilt.

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. The stories contained in this volume take rank with the most mature and romantic of his works. The charming love and adventure of the life that he depicts in remote places confirm the growing belief that he is among the greatest of living creative writers. The story of The Nigger of the Narcissus have started when a black sailor with tuberculosis boards the ship Narcissus. The shadow of death falls across the ship and the lingering gloom brings out both the best and the worst in the crew.

Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. The novella The Haunted Hotel is a clever combination of detective and ghost story set in Venice, a city of grim waterways, dark shadows and death. The action takes place in an ancient palazzo converted into a modern hotel that houses a grisly secret. No Thoroughfare is a stage play produced by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Two boys from the Foundling Hospital are given the same name, Walter Wilding, with disastrous consequences in adulthood. After the death of one — now a proprietor of a wine merchant’s company — the executors, to right the wrong, are commissioned to find a missing heir. Their quest takes them from wine cellars in the City of London to the sunshine of the Mediterranean — across the Alps in winter. Danger and treachery would prevail were it not for the courage of the heroine, Marguerite, and a faithful company servant.

Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. The Dead Secret was Collins’s first full-length puzzle-romance. Moments from death, Mrs Treverton tells a secret, never to be passed to her husband. Years later, when her daughter Rosamond returns with her husband, she is warned not to enter the Myrtle Room. Strong-minded and ingenious, Rosamond’s determined detective work uncovers a shocking truth.

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Romance is a novel written by Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford. Serafina is captured by Don Balthasar’s pirates on a Caribbean island, when Jose Armando arrives from Spain to the rescue.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist, a dark romantic, and short story writer. Our Old Home is a collection of essays, based on Hawthorne’s stay in England from 1853 to 1857 as American Consul in Liverpool. It was first published in the form of a series of travel papers for «The Atlantic Monthly». In his essays Hawthorne aimed to show us the splendors of London, and the horrors of the poverty that so many suffered.

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. His first novel Almayer’s Folly is a tale of personal tragedy as well as a broader meditation on the evils of colonialism. Set in the lush jungle of Borneo in the late 1800s, it tells of the Dutch merchant Kaspar Almayer, whose dreams of riches for his beloved daughter, Nina, collapse under the weight of his own greed and prejudice. Conrad established in Almayer’s Folly the themes of betrayal, isolation, and colonialism that he would explore throughout the rest of his life and work. Portraying a young man’s first sea-voyage to the East in Youth, and the blind old age of Captain Whalley in The End of the Tether, the stories in this volume are united in their theme — the ‘Ages of Man’ — and in their scepticism.

Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. Hide and Seek is the story about the girl named Mary — they called her Madonna, and she was deaf and dumb and beautiful as a painting by Raphael. All they did know about her identity was that she’d lost her hearing in an accident, and the proprietor of the circus had treated her horribly, and in her cache of secret personal private things, she owned one thing as precious to her as life itself: a bracelet made of brown human hair with the initials MG tied into it.