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This poet of Victorian times was held in awe for his magnificent works, including "In Memoriam", "Morte D'Arthur", and "Charge of the Light Brigade". His language and command of vocabulary seem particularly in keeping with the grand sweep of Victorian ambition. Many selections are asembled here and read with great character by Dame Sybil Thorndike, Sir Edward Casson, and Robert Speaight.

There are stark differences between rich and poor in the Manchester of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel, Mary Barton. Factory owners such as Mr Carson, do not understand the anger of their poverty stricken workers, and care little for their welfare. For the mill-workers, employment means food on the table and being one step away from starvation, but trying to gain any political power means risking a loss of livelihood.

The Man Who Would Be King. This rich wonderfully written classic features two opportunists who venture into remote Central Asia with the intention of acquiring a country to rule. Their adventures meet with surprising initial success but then.....

Professor Aronnax, his faithful servant, Conseil, and the Canadian harpooner, Ned Land, begin an extremely hazardous voyage to rid the seas of a little-known and terrifying sea monster. However, the "monster" turns out to be a giant submarine, commanded by the mysterious Captain Nemo, by whom they are soon held captive. So begins not only one of the great adventure classics by Jules Verne, the 'Father of Science Fiction', but also a truly fantastic voyage from the lost city of Atlantis to the South Pole.

John Donne (1572 – 1631) was an English poet, preacher, and a major representative of the metaphysical poets of the period. His works are notable for their realistic and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires, and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially as compared to those of his contemporaries.

These four stories test Father Brown in many ways, creating headaches a plenty. However, Father Brown is nothing if not redoubtable and whilst Chesterton's stories are, in his own words, "very slight and improbable", his method is all his own. Bill Wallis captures perfectly the mood and tone of Father Brown in this collection.

Women In Love studies the nature of relationships between men and women through four very different characters, each of whom seeks fulfilment in their own way. Gudrun seeks an intellectual equal, while for Ursula, overwhelming love is all that will suffice; Gerald attempts to fill his emotional void with success and physicality, whereas Birkin desires total commitment from both his lover and his friend.

When we think of Oscar Wilde we think of his wonderful wit and of course his plays and short stories. We rarely think of his poetry. We should. His work brings new insights into both his view of the world and how we can view him.

At twenty-seven, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. What happens when they encounter each other again is movingly told in Jane Austen's last completed novel.

Wilkie Collins was a prolific writer of short stories. Always original, his combination of cleverly constructed plots and believable characters has made him one of our most widely read authors.

Throughout David Copperfield, Dickens masterfully sustains the action through a series of dramatic contrasts. As the story unfolds, David’s happiest moments are often followed by those of extreme misery and the author weaves the more humorous elements of the story between the times of great tragedy and sorrow.

Summer beckons each and every one of us to its warm embrace. For many of us it is the season we can most enjoy; the days are long and warm and all manner of things become easier. Nature shows us her most colourful side as she fills the landscape with colours and textures of every hue. As for ourselves we all seem a little more approachable, a little more likable. For poets, the Summer season conjures up many themes and images.

Anna Karenina is one of the most loved and memorable heroines of literature. Her overwhelming charm dominates a novel of unparalleled richness and density. Tolstoy considered this book to be his first real attempt at a novel form, and it addresses the very nature of society at all levels - of destiny, death, human relationships and the irreconcilable contradictions of existence.

Adam Bede (1859), George Eliot's first full-length novel, marked the emergence of an artist to rank with Scott and Dickens. Set in the English Midlands of farmers and village craftsmen at the turn of the 18th century, the book relates a story of seduction issuing in 'the inward suffering which is the worst form of Nemesis'. But it is also a rich and pioneering record - drawing on intimate knowledge and affectionate memory - of a rural world that we have lost.

This book comes with an introduction and notes by Owen Knowles, University of Hull. Thackeray's upper-class Regency world is a noisy and jostling commercial fairground, predominantly driven by acquisitive greed and soulless materialism, in which the narrator himself plays a brilliantly versatile role as a serio-comic observer. Although subtitled 'A Novel without a Hero', "Vanity Fair" follows the fortunes of two contrasting but inter-linked lives.

These five chilling tales make perfect night time listening - and, for the fearful, can be heard in a group, rather than experienced as solo bedtime reading. Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, W. L. George, A. M. Burrage, and Guy de Maupassant provide the terrifying text; Ian Holm and Julie Peasgood provide the spoken spooks.

Most famous for his tales of crime and deduction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also had a passion for suspense, the supernatural, and the macabre, as demonstrated in this collection of gothic short stories. This set contains the stories 'The New Catacomb', 'Playing with Fire', 'The Terror of Blue John Gap', 'The Case of Lady Sannox', 'The Brown Hand', and 'The Los Amigos Fiasco'. So get ready for Doyle’s vivid, spine-tingling imagination to unnerve and thrill you in equal measure!

With the beach landings of June 6th in the greatest amphibious assault ever seen the final phase of the war had begun. Churchill could survey his task with an easier mind. His relationship with Stalin was becoming increasingly more difficult as Stalin’s moves replaced one terror with another. Churchill was anxious to move forces through Italy to relieve the military pressure on Normandy and Stalin yet limit the advance of Soviet forces into Central and Eastern Europe.

The Forsyte Saga initially centres on Soames Forsyte - a successful solicitor living in London with his beautiful wife Irene. A pillar of the late Victorian upper middle class, materially wealthy, his appears to be a golden existence endowed with all the necessary possessions for a 'Man of Property' but beneath this very proper exterior lies a core of unhappiness and brutal relationships. When The Forsyte Saga was shown on television in 1967 it was hugely successful.

Most famous for his tales of crime and deduction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also had a passion for suspense, the supernatural and the macabre as demonstrated in this collection of gothic short stories. This set contains the stories: The Horror of the Heights, The Lord of Chateau Noir, The Nightmare Room, The Ring of Thoth & The Brazilian Cat. So get ready for Doyle’s vivid spine tingling imagination to unnerve and thrill you in equal measure!