Item category 1: Classics

Written in the early 1930s, 'Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky' displays Patrick Hamilton's talent for understanding the milieu who stand at the side of the bar.

Set entirely on one day, 16 June 1904, "Ulysses" follows Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedalus as they go about their daily business in Dublin. From this starting point, James Joyce constructs a novel of extraordinary imaginative richness and depth. Unique in the history of literature, "Ulysses" is ...

'I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year.' Becky Sharp is sharp, calculating, and determined to succeed. Craving wealth and a position in society, she charms, hoodwinks, manipulates everyone she meets, rising in the world as she attaches herself to a succession of rich men. ...

'In this classic and timeless novel, we encounter the rise and fall of the once might Vathek. The story chronicles the fall from power of the Calip Bathek, who engages with his mother, Carathis, in a series of licentious and deplorable activities designed to gain him supernatural powers. Perverse...

When Lucy Snowe leaves England to look for a new life on the Continent she has no idea what lies in store for her. This quiet, lonely girl must learn quickly when she finds herself teaching in a foreign school, with no friends or family to rely on. However it's not long until figures from Lucy's ...

Based on Charlotte Bronte's personal experience as a teacher in Brussels, this is a moving tale of repressed feelings and subjection to cruel circumstance and position, borne with heroic fortitude.