Wilde, glamorous and notorious, invites readers of his verse to meet an unknown and intimate figure. The poetry of his formative years includes the haunting elegy to his young sister and the grieving lyric at the death of his father. The religious drama of his romance with Rome is captured here, as well as its resolution in his renewed love of ancient Greece. He explores forbidden sexual desires, pays homage to the great theatre stars and poets of his day, observes cityscapes with impressionistic intensity. His final masterpiece, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, tells the painful story of his own prison experience, and calls for universal compassion. 192pp paperback.

Love, sex and death are the components of Shakespeare's classic story of the love of two young people which reaches across the barriers of family and convention. The loveliness and the music of the poetry make believable the otherwise commonplace afflictions of blighted love. The beautiful personification of some of the main characters has caused Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and the Nurse to become part of the world's literary mythology. 152pp. Paperback.

Considered by many to be Dicken's finest novel, Great Expectations traces the growth of the book's narrator, Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man with depth of character. From its famous dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish marshes, the story abounds with some of Dicken's most memorable characters. Among them are the kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery, the mysterious convict Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Haversham and her beautiful ward Estella, Pip's good-hearted room-mate Herbert Pocket and the pompous Pumblechook. As Pip unravels the truth behind his own 'great expectations' in his quest to become a gentleman, the mysteries of the past and the convolutions of fate through a series of thrilling adventures serve to steer him towards maturity and his most important discovery of all - the truth about himself. Introduction and Notes by Dr John Bowen, Keele University. Illustrations by Marcus Stone. 432pp paperback.

Contains 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' including The Fall of the House of Usher and The Premature Burial, 'Tales of Humour and Satire' including Loss of Breath, The Sphinx and Never Bet the Devil Your Head, 'Flights of Fancy' including King Pest and Von Kempelen and His Discovery, on page 787 the Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and 'Miscellaneous Poems' including The Raven, A Valentine, Hymn, The Colosseum, To My Mother, Bridal Ballad, For Annie, Evening Star and Fairy-Land. With 20 atmospheric silhouette illustrations, a monumental 1038 page new paperback from Wordsworth. Poe was born the son of itinerant actors on January 19th, 1809 in Boston, Massachusets. In 1836 he married his cousin Virginia but despite his prolific activities - journalism, poetry, lecturing, short stories, publishing, criticism and experimentation with fictional genres, including the detective novel which he virtually invented with the publication of 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' (1841) - he received scant recognition for his efforts until the publication of 'The Raven' in 1845. The poem's instant popularity gave him a new visibility in literary circles, but his personal situation remained desperate: poverty, illness, drink, and the physical decline and ultimate death of Virginia in 1847 led to his untimely and premature decline. He died at the age of 40. Paperback, 1038 pages.

This collection brings together perhaps the finest of Dickens' shorter novels, filled with event, character, and the unsurpassed brilliance of his story-telling. 'Oliver Twist' enhanced and strengthened Dickens' reputation and contains classic Dickensian themes - grinding poverty, desperation, fear, temptation and the eventual triumph of good in the face of great adversity. 'Hard Times' was attacked by Macaulay for its 'sullen socialism'. 'A Tale of Two Cities' (1859), Dickens' greatest historical novel, traces the lives of a group of people caught up in the cataclysm of the French Revolution and the Terror. 'Great Expectations traces the life of Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man of character. From its dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish marshes, the story abounds with memorable characters. 1312 pages. Paperback.

'Lord Jim', first published in 1900, confirmed Conrad's place in literature as one of the first 'modernists' of English letters. Set in the Malay Archipelago, not only does the novel provide a gripping account of maritime adventure and romance, but also an exotic tale of the East. 'Nostromo' is the only man capable of the decisive action needed to save the silver of the San Tome mine and secure independence for Sulaco, Occidental Province of the Latin American state of Costaguana. 'The Secret Agent', Conrad's story of espionage and anarchists, tells of Winnie Verloc and her devotion to her peculiar and simple-minded brother, Stevie. Also includes 'Youth', 'Typhoon', 'Heart of Darkness', 'The End of the Tether' and 'The Shadow-Line'. 1371 page paperback.

Written and privately published in Florence in 1928, 'Lady Chatterley’s Lover' was denied unexpurgated publication in England until 1960. D.H Lawrence’s uncompromisingly candid novel deals in poetic and sexually explicit language with the passionate relationship between Lady Constance Chatterley and her husband’s powerfully masculine gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. Trapped in a marriage, which has become sterile and joyless since her husband’s return from the trenches partially paralysed and confined to a wheelchair, Connie seizes the chance of sexual fulfilment she had thought lost forever. 276 page paperback woth new Intro and notes.

'The Captain's Doll', 'The Fox', 'The Ladybird', 'St. Mawr', 'The Princess', 'The Virgin and the Gypsy' and 'The Escaped Cock' are among the shorter stories included in this volume. The main body comprises his famous semi-autobiographical novel of family, class, sexuality and suffocating relationships, 'Sons and Lovers'. 'Women In Love' is perhaps Lawrence's most mature novel, a sorry tale of sexual depravity in the love of the sisters Ursula and Gudrun, for Rupert and Gerald. 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', written in poetic and sexually explicit language, deals with the passionate relationship between Lady Constance Chatterley and Oliver Mellors, her emotionally and physically crippled husband's masculine gamekeeper. 1353 pages in huge softback.

Jane Austen constructed 'Pride & Prejudice', with wit, social precision and an irresistible heroine. 'Persuasion' - Anne Elliot is one of Austen's quietest yet strongest heroines, is also open to change. 'Jane Eyre', Charlotte Bronte's poor, plain, but plucky heroine, possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage. She is forced to battle against a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. 'Wuthering Heights', Emily Bronte's tale is a wild, passionate story of intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and the adopted foundling Heathcliff. Set in Hardy's Wessex, 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards. 1308 pages. Paperback.

'Germinal' (1885) is the 13th in Émile Zola’s cycle of 20 novels about the Rougon-Macquart dynasty. It tells the story of Étienne Lantier, from the illegitimate Macquart branch of the family, who arrives in the mining settlement of Montsou, and witnesses at first hand the appalling conditions in which miners live and work. Gradually becoming embroiled in a bitter dispute between the miners and their employers, he eventually leads the strike which is the centrepiece of the novel. But this is more than the struggle of labour against capital. It is also the struggle of the hungry against the well-fed, against the passivity and resignation passed down over generations of starving people, and ultimately against hunger itself, represented by the fantastical devouring monster of the mine, which swallows up men, just as the beast of the modern industrial economy relentlessly swallows up capital. This apparent pessimism about society is offset by the possibility of rebirth and regeneration. 478pp. Paperback.