On a poor farm near Starkfield in western Massachusetts, Ethan Frome struggles to wrest a living from the land, unassisted by his whining and hypochondriacal wife Zeena. When Zeena's young cousin Mattie Silver is left destitute, the only place she can go is Ethan's farm. The novel has remained enduringly popular since its first publication in 1911 and is considered Wharton's greatest tragic story. 128pp. 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.

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.

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.

A tale of desire and possession, of love and death. An unspeakable subtext lies beneath the silence. It centres on 'the dying girl who wants to live - to live and love.' But those closest to her are in competition for what she can leave behind. Milly Theale, 'the heiress of all the ages', is imaged as a dove, a princess, a Renaissance beauty, but these symbols come at a dreadful cost. By the end of the novel we know, 'We shall never be again as we were!' With an introduction by Nicola Bradbury and Notes. 431pp in paperback.

In the love affairs of two sisters, Ursula with Rupert, and Gudrun with Gerlad, critics could only see a sorry tale of sexual depravity and philosophical obscurity. What are the definitive forms of our relationships - love, marriage, family, friendship - really worth? And how might they be otherwise? Without directly referring to the war, 'Women in Love' explores these questions with restless energy. The novel develops experimental techniques which made Lawrence one of the most important writers of the Modernist movement. 464pp. Paperback.

Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's finest novel, The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the "roaring twenties", and a devastating expose of the "Jazz Age". Through the narration of Nick Carraway, the reader is taken into the superficially glittering world of the mansions which lined the Long Island shore in the 1920s, to encounter Nick's cousin Daisy, her brash but wealthy husband Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby and the mystery that surrounds him. With an Introduction and Notes by Guy Reynolds, University of Kent at Canterbury. 144pp. Paperback.

Featuring the world's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, in his most challenging case. The Baskerville family is haunted by a phantom beast "with blazing eyes and dripping jaws" which roams the mist-enshrouded moors around isolated Baskerville Hall on Dartmoor. Now the hound seems to be stalking young Sir Henry, the new master of the Baskerville estate. Is this fiendish spectre the manifestation of the family curse? Or is Sir Henry the victim of a vile and scheming murderer? Only Sherlock Holmes can solve this devilish affair. 232pp. Paperback.

Translated by Louise & Aylmer Maude. With an Introduction by Henry and Olga Claridge, University of Kent at Canterbury.War and Peace is a vast epic centred on Napoleon’s war with Russia. While it expresses Tolstoy’s view that history is an inexorable process which man cannot influence, he peoples his great novel with a cast of over five hundred characters. Three of these, the artless and delightful Natasha Rostov, the world-weary Prince Andrew Bolkonsky and the idealistic Pierre Bezukhov illustrate Tolstoy’s philosophy in this novel of unquestioned mastery. This translation is one which received Tolstoy’s approval. 1024pp Wordsworth paperback.