Agnes Grey

An orphaned governess falls for her employer at Thornfield, where something is locked away on the third floor. Jane leaves, survives on her own terms, and returns to Rochester as an equal.

Charlotte Bronte

Margaret Hale moves from a soft southern parish to a northern mill town and clashes with the mill owner at every turn. Strikes, class and grief stand between them until the last chapter.

Elizabeth Gaskell

Frank Gresham loves Mary Thorne, who has neither fortune nor a name his family will accept. Trollope untangles the money and the birth records until the marriage everyone opposed becomes the obvious one.

Anthony Trollope

Lucy Honeychurch is kissed in a field outside Florence and spends the rest of the book pretending it meant nothing. She breaks off the respectable engagement and returns to Italy with George.

E M Forster