Title
| Author
| Comments
|
A Modest Proposal |
Jonathan Swift |
With tongue firmly in cheek, Swift proposes an audacious solution to the starving Irish |
Alices Adventures in Wonderland |
Lewis Carroll |
Who needs hallucinagenic drugs when you can read this childrens story? |
Around the world in eighty days |
Jules Verne |
The premise is a gentlemanly wager. Centred around the eccentric punter and his valet. |
Cranford |
Elizabeth Gaskell |
I read this for my English course at college. |
Emma |
Jane Austen |
Emma is a wicked match-maker. A most unlikeable main character. |
Fanny Hill |
John Cleland |
An early erotic novel. Fanny uses her sexuality to her advantage and eventually marries. |
Gulliver's Travels |
Jonathan Swift |
A hilarious political satire and a parody of travel writing and colonialism. |
Hard Times |
Charles Dickens |
A novel set in the industrial north with typically two dimensional characters such as Mr Gradgrind. Ok if you like Dickens. |
Journey to the Centre of the Earth |
Jules Verne |
Two men investigate the inner workings of the earth and are ejected via a volcanic chimney. Good reading for teenage boys. |
Mansfield Park |
Jane Austen |
Not the most memorable of Jane Austen novels but still good. |
Mary Barton |
Elizabeth Gaskell |
Working class strife 1840s |
Moll Flanders |
Daniel Defoe |
Working girl escapes death and makes good. Whats not to like? |
North and South |
Elizabeth Gaskell |
A story of comparisons and worker-manager relations. |
Northanger Abbey |
Jane Austen |
Was this in the middle of a re-work? Two distinct approaches. |
Persuasion |
Jane Austen |
One of the shorter Austen novels. |
Pride and Prejudice |
Jane Austen |
The regency equivalent of a rom-com. With razor sharpe observations. |
Robinson Crusoe |
Daniel Defoe |
You know the story but have you read the actual book? |
Sense and Sensibility |
Jane Austen |
A novel tracing the betrothal of the sisters Elinor and Marianne. |
The Book |
Keith Houston |
An absorbing account of the history of the book as a medium. An academic work with references. |
The Computing Universe |
Tony Hey and Gyuri Papay |
This is an academic work with extensive references covering a wide range of aspects of computing. |
The Group |
Mary McCarthy |
Novel about NY socialites in the late 1930s. Not a page-turner. |
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom |
T.E. Lawrence |
Lawrence of Arabias own account of the Arab Revolt. A substantial work. |
Tom Jones |
Henry Fielding |
Tom Jones is the typical bad boy that the girls go for. Reveals the hyocritical morals of the period. |
Tom Sawyer |
Mark Twain |
The adventures of a Mississipi youth. |
Treasure Island |
Robert Lewis Stevenson |
A romping tale of piracy and contrasting characters. |
Ulysses |
James Joyce |
Famously unreadable... until he wrote Finnegans Wake that is. |