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.

Howards End is the story of the Schlegel sisters and their struggle to come to terms with their German heritage in Edwardian England. Their lives are intertwined with those of the Wilcox family and their country house, Howards End.

Catherine Morland embarks on a journey from the world of books, via her relationship with Henry Tilney and her stay at the vast Northanger Abbey, into the real world. Her route to maturity is a cruel one, as she comes to realise that not everyone is out to make her into the heroine she would so dearly love to become.

The Pickwick Papers takes its title from the Pickwick Club founded by Mr Samuel Pickwick, and of which Messrs Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass and Nathaniel Winkle are members.

Victory is a sombre study of good and evil in Conrad's mature manner. The characteristic theme of a man reaching out from his apparently total solitude in sympathy for another human being is explored through the story of Axel Heyst.