Austen’s last completed novel before her untimely death was one tinged with heartache and regret. Anne Elliot’s feelings for the handsome Captain Wentworth are re-ignited when he returns from sea. Will they get a second chance at happiness? 

Vive la révolution! A sweeping epic and a completely satisfying read by Victor Hugo. Full of love, anger, drama and wit. Quite possibly the perfect novel.

Every American writer since 1851 has been chasing the same whale: to somehow write a novel as epic and influential as Melville’s.

To the Lighthouse is a daring novel with little regard for rules. There’s no consistent narrator, scant dialogue and almost no plot. With everything stripped away, we’re left with a breathtaking and lyrical meditation on relationships, nature and the folly of perception.

Considered Elizabeth Bowen’s masterpiece novel, this is the story of 16-year old Portia who is sent to live with her Aunt in London, after her mother’s death. There, she falls for the attractive cad Eddie. A devastating exploration of adolescent love and innocence betrayed.

Written when Mary Shelley was just 18 years old, but don’t let that depress you. Frankenstein is a Gothic masterpiece with entertaining set pieces aplenty.

This spine-chilling story was censored by Stalin and sadly only published after Mikhail Bulgakov’s death.

A moving exploration by L. P. Hartley of a young boy’s loss of innocence and a critical view of society at the end of the Victorian era.

It is one of the greatest and most influential epic poems ever written, and (alongside The Odyssey) the oldest surviving work of Western literature. Although the story centres on the critical events of the last year of the Trojan war, Homer also explores themes of humanity, compassion and survival.

A psychiatric ward in Oregon is ruled by a tyrannical head nurse, but when a rebellious patient arrives her regime is thrown into disarray. A story of the imprisoned battling the establishment.

The definitive dystopian novel, George Orwell’s vision of a high surveillance society is gripping from the first page to the last. 

Probably the least commented-upon aspect of J.D. Salinger’s masterpiece is how utterly hilarious it is. Holden is a character no one ever forgets.