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.

'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.

'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.

When people use the adjective 'Kafkaesque', it is 'The Trial' they have in mind - the nightmarish world of Joseph K., where the rules are hidden from even the highest officials and any help there may be comes from unexpected sources. K. is never told what he is on trial for, and when he says he is innocent, he is immediately asked 'innocent of what?' Is he perhaps on trial for his innocence? Could he have freed himself from the proceedings by confessing his guilt as a human being? Has the trial been set up because he is incapable of admitting his guilt, and hence his humanity? 'The Trial' is a chilling and at the same time blackly amusing tale that maintains, to the very end, a constant, relentless atmosphere of disorientation. 172pp. Paperback.

'As the November winds wail in ivied chimneys we are drawn into a Victorian Gothic atmosphere of menacing, sombre gloom and ebony shadows.' Sheridan Le Fanu leaves us in no doubt that we are in for a feast of exciting drama, luring us into the intensely claustrophobic world of the 19th century sensational novel. Le Fanu is amongst the top-notch exponents of the creepy, the criminal and the oppressive. In this tale of the orphaned teenage heiress Maud Ruthyn, fearing for her life at the hands of her sinister uncle, he has created a rattling good plot with the depth of a social novel and the power of high romance. 432 page paperback.

With its strange, imaginative blend of horror, science fiction, romance and lyrical prose, Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow is a classic masterpiece of weird fiction. This series of vaguely connected stories is linked by the presence of a monstrous and suppressed book which brings fright, madness and spectral tragedy to all those who read it. An air of futility and doom pervade these pages like a sweet insidious poison. Dare you read it? This collection has been called the most important book in American supernatural fiction between Poe and the moderns. Paperback, 179pp.

Henry James was arguably the greatest practitioner of what has been called the psychological ghost story. This edition includes all ten of his ghost stories, and as such is the fullest collection currently available. The stories range widely in tone and type. They include 'The Jolly Corner', a compelling story of psychological doubling; 'Owen Wingrave', which is also a subtle parable of military tradition; 'The Friends of the Friends', a strange story of uncanny love; and 'The Private Life', which finds a shrewd, high comedy in its ghostly theme. The volume also includes James's great novella 'The Turn of the Screw' , perhaps the most ambiguous and disturbing ghost story ever written. Paperback. 344pp.

The young Thomas Hardy, working as an architect, but fired with literary ambition, tried for years to get into print. He finally succeeded with 'Desperate Remedies', a 'sensation novel' in the mode of Wilkie Collins. Here was a racy specimen of the genre, replete with sudden death, dark mysteries, intriguing clues, fire and storm, flight and pursuit. Anyone who enjoys 'The Woman in White' is likely to enjoy 'Desperate Remedies'. But that is only half the story. Hardy contrived also, in this unlikely context, to give a first airing to various of the ideas and technical experiments which were to characterise his later fiction. The result is an exhilaratingly uneven work: at any point in the narrative some brilliant passage of description or metaphor may burst out like a firework. Desperate Remedies can be relished both for what it is and for what it promises. 368 page Wordsworth paperback.