Having got rid of their human masters, the animals of Manor Farm look forward to a life of freedom and plenty. Orwell's allegoric story of the betrayal of idealism through tyranny and corruption is as fresh today as when it was first published in 1945. This ed. originally published: 1989

This is the story of a young country workman obsessed by his ambition to become an Oxford student, interwoven with his fraught relationships with two women.

What really happened to Miss Quested in the Marabar Caves? This tantalising question provides the intense drama of racial tension at the centre of Foster's last and greatest novel.

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.

Written during the reign of the emperor Nero in the first century A.D., these two works depict a corrupt society dominated by the desire for sensual fulfilment. It is a key text for classics students and also for students of film.