Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. This volume contains three famous novels by Gaskell. The Moorland Cottage is a story of Maggie Browne, the daughter of a deceased clergyman who is encouraged to give up her own life and passions and devote herself to her brother Edward. Lois the Witch is a story set against the backdrop of the Salem witch hunts, where recently orphaned Lois is forced to leave the English parsonage and sail to America. And Mr. Harrison’s Confessions is a story of country doctor William Harrison who is prevailed upon by his longtime friend Charles, a bachelor, to dispense some advice on the «wooing and winning» of women’s affections.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. This volume contains three beautifully written novels set in England. Cousin Phillis is a novel about 19-year-old Paul Manning, who moves to the country and befriends his mother’s family and his cousin Phillis Holman. Cranford is a story of adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances. Through a series of vignettes, Elizabeth Gaskell portrays a community governed by old-fashioned habits. A Dark Night’s Work turns on concealed crime and a false accusation of murder. The secret goes unknown for about 15 years until the body is dug up during the construction of a railroad.

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Victory features Axel Heyst, a dreamer and a restless drifter, who believes he can avoid suffering by cutting himself off from others. Then he becomes involved in the operation of a coal company on a remote island in the Malay Archipelago, and when it fails he turns his back on humanity. But his life alters when he rescues a young English girl, Lena, from Zangiacomo’s Ladies’ Orchestra and the evil innkeeper Schomberg, taking her to his island retreat. Victory is both a tale of rescue and adventure and a perceptive study of a complex relationship and of the power of love.

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Nostromo is a 1904 novel set in the fictitious South American republic of «Costaguana». The events described in the novel are typical for political life in underdeveloped countries. The author takes up the problem of imperialism and its corrupting action even on the best people, which is the main character of the novel — the sailor Nostromo.

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. The Human Drift includes amazing short stories and sketches like «Small-Boat Sailing,» «Four Horses and a Sailor,» and «That Dead Men Rise Up Never» — a nautical ghost story of London’s youth. Brown Wolf and Other Stories is a collection of adventure short stories that includes many amazing tales such as «That Spot,» «Trust,» «All Gold Canyon,» and «The Story Of Keesh.»

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. The Life and Adventures of Martin Cbuzzlewit is his sixth novel. The story involves the escape of a young boy from imminent danger, and portrays the terrified child’s point of view throughout his traumatic experiences. It also contains some of Dickens’s most memorable characters. There is the seedy but charming schemer Montague Tigg, and his associate Chevy Slyme, the eccentrically fey and colourfully attired barber, the buxom goodhearted pub landlady Mrs Lupin and many others. The novel is widely accepted as the last of his picaresque novels and was thought by Dickens himself to be his best novel.

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. Barnaby Rudge is a story of mystery and suspense which begins with an unsolved double murder. Barnaby Rudge is a young innocent simpleton who is devoted to his talkative raven, Grip. When he gets caught up in the mayhem of the Gordon riots and a mysterious unsolved murder, his life is put in jeopardy. And, as London erupts into riot, Barnaby himself struggles to escape the curse of his own past. Barnaby Rudge is a powerful, disturbing blend of historical realism and Gothic melodrama, it is a tale of treachery, forbidden love, abduction and the dangerous power of the mob.

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. The Life and Adventures of Martin Cbuzzlewit is his sixth novel. The story involves the escape of a young boy from imminent danger, and portrays the terrified child’s point of view throughout his traumatic experiences. It also contains some of Dickens’s most memorable characters. There is the seedy but charming schemer Montague Tigg, and his associate Chevy Slyme, the eccentrically fey and colourfully attired barber, the buxom goodhearted pub landlady Mrs Lupin and many others. The novel is widely accepted as the last of his picaresque novels and was thought by Dickens himself to be his best novel.