The daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I, Anna Comnena (1083-1153) wrote this work as an account of her father's reign. Although biased in favour of Alexius, the book yields important insights into his rule and provides a picture of the first crusade from a different perspective.

'Three Men in a Boat' relates the adventures and mishaps of three late-Victorian gentlemen and a dog on holiday on the Thames. With its picaresque digressions and asides, Jerome depicts the group's attempts to keep themselves afloat and cope with the English weather.

The fourteen fables in this landmark of children?s literature tell the story of Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. With the help of Baloo the bear, Kaa the python, and Bagheera the black panther, Mowgli learns the laws of the wild and survives countless escapades-none more thrilling than his confrontation with the menacing tiger Shere Khan, king of the jungle. Many other unforgettable characters appear in The Jungle Book, including...

Banished from his father's house, Frank Osbaldistone becomes involved in the conspiracy surrounding the disastrous Jacobite rising of 1715. His adventures take him across the Highland Line, where he finds cruelty and some unlikely friends.

But when his money is stolen and an orphaned child finds her way into his house, Silas is given the chance to transform his life. His fate, and that of the little girl he adopts, is entwined with Godfrey Cass, son of the village Squire, who, like Silas, is trapped by his past. Silas Marner, George Eliot's favourite of her novels, combines humour, rich symbolism and pointed social criticism to create an unsentimental but affectionate portrait of rural...

Jean Valjean is free at last after nineteen years in prison. Cold and hungry, he is rejected by everyone he meets. But Jean's life is changed forever when he discovers love. He spends the rest of his life helping people, like himself, who have been victims of poverty and social injustice - 'les miserables'. --Cover.

Set in the Potteries, the region in which Bennett spent much of his youth, this is the story of a miser's daughter who inherits a fortune. She stands out as a spirited, complex modern woman in a stifling and repressive society.

This classic tale of a handsome, spirited horse, Black Beauty has been a children's favourite for over 100 years. Sewell tells the story of Beauty's life from a young foal through to a working horse.

The wilds of Egdon Heath seem like a prison to Eustacia Vye, cut off from the world in her grandfather's lonely cottage. So, to find some excitement, Eustacia decides to get married.