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From its first publication in 1816, Rob Roy has been recognised as containing some of Sir Walter Scott's finest writing and most engaging, fully realised characters. The outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor was already a legendary, disputed figure by the time Scott wrote a heroic Scottish Robin Hood to some, and an over-glamorised, unprincipled predator to others. Scott approaches Rob Roy indirectly, through the adventures of his fictional hero, Frank Osbaldistone, amid the turmoil of England and Scotland in 1715.

Set in Hardy's Wessex, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards. Its challenging sub-title, "A Pure Woman", infuriated critics when the book was first published in 1891, and it was condemned as immoral and pessimistic. The novel tells the story of Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor and dissipated villager, who learns that she may be descended from the ancient family of d'Urbeville.

Set in 1482, Victor Hugo's powerful novel of imagination, caprice, and fantasy is a meditation on love, fate, architecture, and politics, as well as a compelling recreation of the medieval world at the dawn of the modern age. In a brilliant reworking of the tale of Beauty and the Beast, Hugo creates a host of unforgettable characters, amongst them Quasimodo, the hunchback of the title, hopelessly in love with the gypsy girl Esmeralda; satanic priest Claude Frollo; Clopin Trouillefou, king of the beggars; and Louis XI.

Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless investigations of the dogged policeman Javert.

The Moonstone, a yellow diamond looted from an Indian temple and believed to bring bad luck to its owner, is bequeathed to Rachel Verinder on her 18th birthday. That very night the priceless stone is stolen again, and when Sergeant Cuff is brought in to investigate the crime, he soon realizes that no one in Rachel’s household is above suspicion. The Moonstone is a marvellously taut and intricate tale of mystery, in which facts and memory can prove treacherous, and not everyone is as they first appear.

In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Hardy’s powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work.

> Far from the Madding Crowd is perhaps the most pastoral of Hardy's Wessex novels. It tells the story of the young farmer Gabriel Oak and his love for and pursuit of the elusive Bathsheba Everdene, whose wayward nature leads her to both tragedy and true love. It tells of the dashing Sergeant Troy whose rakish philosophy of life was "...The past was yesterday; never, the day after." And lastly, of the introverted and reclusive gentleman farmer, Mr Boldwood.

From humble beginnings living above the family boot-shop in Bath, through the horrors of the Great War, to the life of a celebrated playwright in London’s West End. From unprecedented success and sudden wealth to unforeseen disaster and financial ruin. From the nightmare of another war through painful years of struggle and obscurity to a new, late-flowering fame in a television classic. Anecdotal, engaging, and truthful, Godfrey’s Ghost is an affectionate - and often moving - portrait of a remarkable man.

A new edition of this exciting tale of pirates, skulduggery and buried treasure. Young Jim Hawkins, thanks to a pirate map that has come into his possession, is the only one who can sucessfully get a schooner to a legendary island known for buried treasure. But aboard the ship is a mysterious cook named Long John Silver, whose true motivation on the journey challenges Jim's trust in the entire crew.