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Dr Jekyll creates a potion whereby he can divide the good and evil parts of his personality and thus free the good side to work for the benefit of mankind without the distraction of his baser instincts. Unfortunately, he undertakes the experiment while the depraved side of his nature is in the ascendancy and turns into the repulsive Mr Hyde, whose very presence ‘emanates with foulness and decay’, and who bears the ‘signature of Satan’ on his face.

An enthusiastic, committed but naïve priest, Peter Graham, leaves his fiancée, Hilda, to serve as chaplain in France during World War 1. He is rapidly made aware of the British tommies' total indifference to what he has to offer and is appalled at the decline in morality of the officers revealed by their disrespect and attitude towards the local French women, most of who consequently lead lives of easy virtue.

Vanessa Paris is besotted with Benji, the devil-may-care son of John and Elizabeth Herries. Despite returning her all-consuming passion, Benji will not commit himself to marriage because he fears he can never remain constant and will eventually betray her. Benji's actions finally prompt Vanessa to leave Cumbria and seek a life in London. She stays at Hill Street with the ever persistent Ellis, who worships her.

A Child of the Jago is both thriller and condemnation of social conditions in the East End slums at the turn of the century. Boy hero Dicky Perrott is at heart full of humane instinct but his environment ensures his down fall. "It was my fate to encounter a place in Shoreditch where children were born and reared in circumstances which gave them no reasonable chance of living decent lives: where they were born fore-damned to a criminal or semi criminal career.

Grace Melbury, the timber merchant's daughter, comes back to Little Hintock after some years at finishing school. She was the childhood sweetheart of Giles Winterborne, a compassionate, caring man who works in the village. Melbury senior has promised himself that Grace and Giles will be married to recompense for him taking Giles' father's betrothed many years before. However, Grace is a different woman now, a sophisticated creature, and the suave, knowledgeable local doctor Fitzpiers takes an interest in her.

Mary and George love each other in early childhood, but George's father tears them apart, not believing that Mary, a bailiff's daughter, will be a fit match for his son. The family travel to America to pursue the father's dream of wealth. During George's absence, Mary moves to Scotland and, in order to survive, is forced into a marriage of convenience. George returns after 10 years to search for his promised bride and becomes obsessed and infatuated with a Mrs Van Brandt. Is the pursuit beginning to affect his sanity?

In a fit of drunken bitterness, a young hay trusser, Michael Henchard, sells his wife, Susan, to Mr. Newson, a sailor, at a country fair. The transaction also includes their daughter, Elizabeth Jane. When sober the next day, he regrets his action but looks for them in vain and is eventually told they may have emigrated. Eighteen years later Henchard is the Mayor of Casterbridge, and the people of the town believe him to be a widower.

Captain Stephen Sorrell returns from the First World War decorated with the Military Cross but unnerved by the conflict. His mercenary wife has deserted him for 'one of the fellows who stayed behind' and left him responsible for their son, Christopher. A promised position in an antique shop fails to materialise, and Sorrell faces poverty. Despite losing status, he takes a job as a hotel porter, cleaning shoes and carrying luggage. Thus begins the long climb to financial security.

The phrase 'this book will change your life' has become one of the clichés of the publishing world, but Martin Eden is certainly a novel that merits that observation. Set in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, Jack London's semiautobiographical narrative tells of working class sailor Eden's struggle to elevate himself to a level of society wherein, he believes, reside the intellect and culture he craves. One of the reasons for this endeavour is Ruth Morse, with whom he has fallen in love.

In 'Washington Square' James treats on a subject about which he was passionate - the relationship between parents and their children. Dr Sloper, a wealthy man, is in a difficult position. His son has died aged three years old. His wife also dies within two weeks of giving birth to their surviving daughter Catherine. She is a plain awkward child, yet capable of giving immense affection. She becomes fascinated by would-be man of the world Morris Townsend, falling in love with him very swiftly. Is Morris a fortune hunter?

Robert Michael Ballantyne was one of the most popular adventure story writers during Victoria's reign. He believed that boys should grow up taking risks, and his hero, Martin Rattler, certainly has a thrilling time in this tale. Aunt Dorothy Grumbit thinks him a very bad boy, but Martin possesses all the manly virtues that one expects from a Ballantyne hero, and the story has all the traditional elements of a rollicking yarn: jolly jack tars, pirates, shipwreck, travel up the Amazon, diamond mines and capture by savage tribes.

The tale of a rural habitation in the late 19th Century and the effect of industrialisation on the local community.Seventeen year old Phillis lives on Hope Farm with her parents Minister Ebenezer Holman and his simple wife. Her second cousin Paul Manning, at first reluctantly, comes to visit. He is the son of a rising inventor from Birmingham and is employed as a clerk to Edward Holdsworth, the managing engineer of a railway company laying a line close to the farm.

William Crimsworth escapes the brutal employment of his brother in a Yorkshire mill town, changes profession and takes a position as tutor in a boys' school in Brussels.The authoress is unusually frank, for the time, in her scrutiny of the relationship between the teacher and the domineering headmistress of the adjoining girls' school, Zoraide Reuter.

The third and final collection in this series of reflections written by one of the wittiest and most whimsical men to press pen against paper. As well as his usual take on the foibles of his fellow Englishmen and women, Jerome ruminates, in his typically liberal fashion, about far-flung countries such as Russia, Africa and China. Jerome was never a 'jelly-bellied flag-flapping imperialist', and his vision, experience and worldliness are revealed to us over multiple essays.

This book was the inspiration for an enormous achievement. The Peoples Palace for the entertainment and instruction of the working class was opened in the East End in 1887, five years after the book was published. It had changed peoples lives and was an incredible support for those who had previously no art gallery, theatre, library, concert hall or gymnasium.

A chilling tale of suspense with a puzzling mystery at the heart of the story. Architect Edward Westray is sent by his firm to restore Cullerne Minster. The young man believes that more work is needed to secure the bell tower, but his warnings go unheeded. A fellow lodger, the church organist Sharnall, is investigating the belief of the late Martin Joliffe, the landlady's brother, that he, Joliffe, was the rightful heir to the Blandamer title and estates.

The brutal murder of a woman in a lonely beach cottage, huge footprints found nearby, a meandering tramp singing snatches of opera in the night! Superintendent Minter - "Sooper", rattles around the countryside on his noisy motorbike and tries to find a connection. Hampered by amateur detective Gordon Cardew, aided and admired by lawyer Jim Ferraby and the beautiful Elfa Leigh, Sooper finds the case further complicated by another murder.

London Lavender is not a story; it is a party. It is a party at which Mr Lucas invites his readers to meet all sorts of interesting and unusual seeming guests, and lets them tell their queer and quaint and funny ideas about life, and gives little sketches of their history.

'You will conceive a bunch of grapes,' said he, 'which are covered by some infinitesimal but noxious bacillus. The gardener passes it through a disinfecting medium. It may be that he desires his grapes to be cleaner. It may be that he needs space to breed some fresh bacillus less noxious than the last.'

Helen Rathbone meets her elderly uncle, James Ollerenshaw, in Bursley Park, after an estrangement of several years. Both are very strong-willed, independent characters. Helen has an extravagant lifestyle and likes to spend money while the old man has lived a thrifty life and intends to continue in the same way. However, they develop a friendship which progresses rapidly, and Helen moves in to James' house to look after him.