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Published in 1905 to immediate critical and commercial success, Edith Whartons enduringly popular novel of manners is a brilliant evocation of the economic and social changes wrought by the Gilded Age, as well as a universal satire on the constraints and follies of upper-crust conventions.

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Published in 1928 when Shaw was seventy-two, this book draws on decades of political activity and remains one of his brilliant exercises in propaganda. It contains a foreword by Polly Toynbee. Ramsay MacDonald, Labour leader, hailed the work as the world's most important book since the Bible

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A poignant tale of thwarted love, 'The Intimate Strangers' explores many of Fitzgerald's favourite themes, such as the constraints of social pressure on romance and the American fascination for Old Europe. This volume also includes other lesser-known stories, revealing new facets to the author of The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night.

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Part of Alma Classics Evergreen series of popular classics, this edition includes pictures and an extensive section on Wells's life and works.

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Shocking and suffused with contemporary fears regarding the morality of the latest advances in science and their possible implications for religion, The Island of Dr Moreau, here presented with extra material, is both a ruthless social satire and an exploration of human nature.

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First published in 1797, The Italian, with its archetypal villain Schedoni, its intense romance and its sublime depiction of landscape, is the masterpiece of Gothic fiction.

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A prototype of the murder mystery and a thoughtful examination of village society, this intriguing novella contains hints of the Gothic and the uncanny, including ominous thunderstorms, mysterious disappearances, eerie doppelgangers and grizzly discoveries, as well as a famously ambiguous climax.

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Here presented with brand-new illustrations by Ian Beck, these hugely popular tales, inspired by ancient fables and Kipling's own experiences in India, form a vivid account of the relationship between humans and nature, and will continue to inspire readers young and old.

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One of Chekhovs most admired stories, The Kiss is joined in this volume by six other celebrated tales in a new translation by Hugh Aplin.

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Recently adapted for BBC Television, The Ladies' Paradise evokes the giddy pace of Paris's transition into a modern city and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place at the end of the century.

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The Last Day of a Condemned Man is an eloquent plea for compassion and a masterpiece of realist fiction. This edition includes Preface to the 1832 edition, a manifest of Hugo's personal opnions, A Comedy about a Tragedy and Claude Gueux, an early example of "true crime" fiction.

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Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis is a masterly prose work by one of Italy's most celebrated poets, and perhaps the greatest Italian novel of the Romantic movement.

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'The Last of the Belles' centres on the Southern beauty Ailie Calhoun from Tarleton, Georgia, who finds herself the object of attention of all the officers at a nearby army base, including the narrator, Andy. A melancholy exploration of unfulfilled dreams and lost youth, the story is considered one of Fitzgerald's finest pieces of short fiction.

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Widely regarded as the first great American novel, The Last of the Mohicans, with its epic landscapes, stoic frontiersmen and noble Native Americans, created much of the mythology and romance that has wreathed the American frontier adventure ever since. This edition contains notes and extra material.

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The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices is a charming evocation of the adventures Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins experienced on a walking tour of the north-west of England.

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A classic tale of American Gothic, `The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' has found a central place in the collective imagination and inspired many adaptations. Also included in this volume is a selection of some of Irving's most celebrated ghostly tales, such as `Rip Van Winkle' and `The Devil and Tom Walker'.

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Introduces us to a group of memorable characters, variously eccentric, farcical and endearing. This book involves the reader in the labyrinthine creation of a purported autobiography. It anticipates modernism and postmodernism.

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Written in Machiavelli's characteristically lucid and terse style, Life of Castruccio Castracani is a revealing account of the political ferment and fractious factionalism of fourteenth-century Italy.

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Charts the life of the French playwright - Moliere - from humble beginnings to later theatrical triumphs and political controversies.

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Details Rossini's early life followed by discussions in the operas, libretti, personalities of the period, and on Rossini's own character. This work includes a whole chapter devoted to his sense of humour.

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When the reporter Edward Malone is sent to interview Professor Challenger about his accounts of strange prehistoric beasts on a remote plateau in South America, he expects to be given short shrift by the researcher. But Challenger, invites Malone along on his next expedition, plunging him into a mysterious world populated by dinosaurs and ape men.

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A poignant tale which touches on the themes of yearning and lost youth that are central to many of Fitzgerald's novels and stories, 'The Love Boat' is here presented with other lesser-known pieces which he wrote in the 1920s and explore the many facets of his creative talents.

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Part of Alma Classics 101 Pages series, The Marquise of O is a masterpiece of psychological literature. This unique edition is accompanied by The Earthquake in Chile and The Foundling, showcasing the range of their author's narrative abilities and his taste for the ambiguous and the paradoxical.

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An account of the birth, the infancy, the schooling, the diet-planning, the unconventional love affairs and the attainments of this child prodigy, The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus is surely the funniest imaginary biography ever written.