My Antonia

David tells his own life from a cruel stepfather and a bottling factory to the desk where he becomes a writer. Dickens called it his favourite of his own books.

Charles Dickens

Maggie Tulliver is clever in a town that has no use for a clever girl, and the pull between her mind and her family runs the whole novel.

George Eliot

Philip Carey moves from an unhappy childhood through art school and medicine while an obsessive love keeps derailing him. A long, honest account of learning to live.

Somerset Maugham

A young sailor teaches himself to write to win a woman from a higher class, and finds that success costs him everything he wanted it for.

Jack London

Four generations of a family bear down on one son who slowly works out that he does not have to become his father. A landmark attack on Victorian upbringing.

Samuel Butler