<pre>Ebenezer Scrooge is a lonely, miserly old man who hates Christmas, which he dismisses as "humbug". One Christmas Eve, however, he is visited by a series of ghosts who reveal to him the innocence he has lost, the wretchedness of his future and the poverty of the present, which he has so far ignored. This experience teaches Scrooge the true meaning of the holiday and leaves him a transformed man.

With its memorable cast of characters such as Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is the most heart-warming of seasonal tales, a timeless classic that continues to enchant readers around the world and a lesson in charity and hopefulness that is as powerful today as when it was first written in 1843.</pre>

A Christmas Carol

<pre>Against the backdrop of growing discontent in Paris, Doctor Manette is released from the Bastille after eighteen years of unjust imprisonment and begins a new life in England with his devoted daughter Lucie. There, the gifted but dissolute lawyer Sydney Carton and the exiled French nobleman Charles Darnay find their lives increasingly intertwined with those of the Manettes. Yet soon both men are drawn ineluctably from the peaceful English capital to the horror and bloodshed of the Paris Terror and the looming threat of the guillotine.

Representing a departure from the social satire of most of his other novels and deemed by Dickens himself to be "the best story I have written", A Tale of Two Cities is a powerful historical novel about the repercussions of epochal events on the personal lives of people on both sides of the Channel.</pre>

A Tale of Two Cities

<pre>The unnamed narrator of the novel, a former government official, has decided to retire from the world and lead a life of inactivity and contemplation. His fiercely bitter, cynical and witty monologue ranges from general observations and philosophical musings to memorable scenes from his own life, including his obsessive plans to exact revenge on an officer who has shown him disrespect and a dramatic encounter with a prostitute.

Seen by many as the first existentialist novel and showcasing the best of Dostoevsky's dry humour, Notes from Underground was a pivotal moment in the development of modern literature and has inspired countless novelists, thinkers and film-makers.</pre>

Notes from Underground

<pre>On a boat in the Thames estuary, Marlow tells his travelling companions of his reconnaissance expedition for a Belgian trading company to its most remote outpost in central Africa, which brought him on the trail of the elusive Kurtz, a brilliant idealist gone rogue. His account relates not only the perils he encounters on his quest, but also the deterioration of his state of mind as he is confronted with a world that is hostile and alien to him.

Renowned for its stylistic boldness and dramatic descriptions, Heart of Darkness is a stark yet subtle examination of the powers of the subconscious and the workings of western imperialism.</pre>

Heart of Darkness and The Complete Congo Diary

<pre>For two and a half thousand years The Art of War has been the core text of military strategy and planning, providing leaders with enduring insights into tactics, psychology, discipline and the nature of power.

Favoured by countless great generals and military tacticians throughout history, over the last century the book has found a new lease of life, inspiring business leaders, politicians and sporting figures, and offering a profound understanding of such diverse topics as managing others and outwitting competitors.</pre>

The Art of War

<pre>Ravaged   by years of war and civil conflict, Britain has changed its name to Airstrip   One and become part of Oceania - one of the three totalitarian blocks   dominating the world - ruled by a mysterious leader called Big Brother who   keeps the population in thrall through strict surveillance and brutal police   repression. In a society where the individual is suppressed and turned into   an "unperson" for not conforming, and where not only personal thought, but   also historical record and language itself are constantly being manipulated   by the ruling regime, Ministry of Truth worker Winston Smith tries to make   sense of the rebellious thoughts and passions that are stirring inside him,   and finds himself impotent against the inexorable machine that surrounds him and   threatens to crush him at any time.
     
     Arguably the greatest dystopian novel of all time and the most influential   post-war work of fiction - which enriched the English language with words   such as "Newspeak", "doublethink" and "thoughtcrime" - Nineteen Eighty-Four   is a riveting read and a groundbreaking exploration of mass surveillance,   censorship and mind control, which has a deep resonance with the world we   live in.</pre>

1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four

<pre>The tale of Heathcliff and Cathy's ungovernable love and suffering, and the havoc that their passion wreaks on the families of the Earnshaws and the Lintons, shocked the book's first readers, with even Emily's sister Charlotte wondering whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff . Replete with unforgettable characters and situations that have seared themselves into our literary consciousness, Emily Bronte's intense masterpiece is one of the most haunting love stories in the canon of English literature.</pre>

Wuthering Heights

<pre>One of Dickens's finest novels, Great Expectations chronicles the fortunes of its young protagonist Pip as he is unexpectedly endowed by a mysterious benefactor with the life of a gentleman, enabling him to escape to London from the prospect of a humble blacksmith's career in rural Kent. In the bustling, unforgiving capital he must learn for himself the pitfalls of love and wealth, and how to sort his friends from his enemies.

Through the lives of its unforgettable and iconic characters - such as Magwitch, Miss Havisham and Estella - Great Expectations charts the course of an England undergoing rapid social and economic change, and tells a tale that is among the foremost classics of the English language.</pre>

Great Expectations

<pre>Under   the feckless husbandry of Mr Jones, the Manor Farm has fallen into disrepair.   Pushed into hardship, the animals decide to stage a revolt, and, led by two   young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, they overthrow Mr Jones and drive him away   from the farm. In the subsequent struggle for power, it is Napoleon who   emerges as a victor: he renames the place "Animal Farm", gets rid of his   enemies and, by the way he behaves - expecting to be glorifi ed above the   others and turning the screw on his fellow beasts in order to keep them   subjugated - begins to resemble more and more the former rulers of the farm,   the hated humans.
     
     Written during the Second World War and published in 1945, this allegorical   novel is a carefully constructed critique of the Russian Revolution and a   sharp satire on the abuse of power. It remains unsurpassed both as a document   of its time and as a testament to the versatility and creative genius of   George Orwell.</pre>

Animal Farm

<pre>Poverty-stricken and cut off from society, former law student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov leads a desolate life in a dreary little room in St Petersburg. Having abandoned all hopes of sustaining himself through work, he now obsesses over the idea of changing his fortunes through an extreme act of violence: the killing of an elderly pawnbroker. His mind baulks at the horror of his plan, but when he hears that his sister Dunya is about to agree to a loveless marriage in order to escape the advances of her employer, his disgust for the world becomes unbounded, and his feelings of rebellion and revenge push him closer and closer to the edge of the precipice.

A masterpiece of psychological insight, Dostoevsky's 1866 novel features some of its author's most memorable characters - from the temperamental protagonist Raskolnikov to the amoral sensualist Svidrigailov and the immoral lawyer Luzhin. Presented here in a sparkling new translation by Roger Cockerell, Crime and Punishment is a towering work in Russian nineteenth-century fiction and a landmark of world literature.</pre>

Crime and Punishment

<pre>Having been found guilty of adultery, Hester Prynne is forced to wear an embroidered scarlet letter A as a punishment for her sin. While her vengeful husband embarks on a quest to discover the identity of her lover, she is left to face the consequences of her infidelity and find a place for herself and her illegitimate child in the hostile environment of seventeenth-century Puritan Boston.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's tense narrative astonished readers with its unparalleled psychological depth when it first appeared, and the novel now stands as one of America's literary landmarks.</pre>

The Scarlet Letter

<pre>Emma is considered by many readers to be Jane Austen's crowning achievement, a timeless comedy of manners that lays bare the limits on women's autonomy in Regency England. The disparity between Emma Woodhouse's self-confidence and self-knowledge, and her determination to arrange marriages for her friends while avoiding one for herself, leads to a painful series of misunderstandings for everyone who suffers from her well-meaning altruism - and with Mr Knightley being the only person of her acquaintance who has the good sense to challenge her, Emma must eventually recognize her match in every sense.

Long praised for its rich detail and perfect craftsmanship, Emma is one of those classic masterpieces that readers go back to again and again for its inexhaustible fund of humanity.</pre>

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