Aphra Behn was both successful and controversial in her own lifetime. This edition brings together her most important comedies. Detailed annotation helps the reader to visualize the plays in performance and the introduction argues for the importance of Behn's skilful stagecraft and her great success as an entertainer.

Hank Morgan, a 19th century American, is sent back in time to 6th century England and opens up a debate on free will versus determinism and the monarchy versus democracy, as well as urging the reader to consider the consequences of technology gone mad.

The miserable and hungry orphan Oliver Twist is forced to flee his wretched life at the workhouse and ends up alone in London. Innocent and vulnerable, young Oliver enters the terrifying street world of the poor and desperate and soon falls into the clutches of criminal mastermind Fagin and his gang of youthful pickpockets.

This single-volume edition of Dicken's classic Christmas story also includes Dicken's four other Christmas books and a selection of original illustrations.

Described variously as the greatest poem of the European Middle Ages and, because of the author's evangelical purpose, the 'fifth gospel', 'The Divine Comedy' is central to the culture of the west. The poem is a spiritual autobiography in the form of a journey.

The death of his beloved wife leaves the Duke of Omnium, former Primer Minister, struggling to impose his will on his three children: in debt, and in love with unsuitable marriage partners, they seek to go their own way, and the novel explores family conflict, principle, and the conquering power of love.

This is a carefully modernised version of Fielding's classic work, based on his amended fourth edition text. The introduction uses the latest scholarship to examine how Tom Jones exemplifies the role of the novel in 18th century public life.

Anxious, accident-prone and occasionally waspish, Charles Pooter has come to be seen as an epitome of English suburban life. The world he inhabits is hilariously and painfully familiar in its small-mindedness and essential decency.

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.