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Chichikov, a middle-aged gentleman of middling social class and means arrives in a small town and turns on the charm to woo key local officials and landowners. He reveals little about his past, or his purpose, as he sets about carrying out his bizarre and mysterious plan to acquire "dead souls." When rumors flare up about his ideas, Chichikov flees to another part of Russia and attempts to continue his venture. Again he goes from estate to estate, encountering eccentric and absurd characters all along the way. In the Russian Empire, before 1861, landowners had the right to own serfs to farm their land. Landowners could buy, sell or mortgage them, as any other chattel. To count serfs (and people in general), the classifier "soul" was used: e.g., "six souls of serfs." The plot of the novel relies on "dead souls" (i.e., "dead serfs") which are still accounted for in property registers. On another level, the title refers to the "dead souls" of Gogol's characters, all of which represent different aspects of poshlost, a Russian word that means petty evil, vulgarity, or obscenity and bad taste.This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket.

Lucy Honeychurch and her cousin Charlotte arrive in Florence, Italy. What follows is a story of murder, romance, various marriage proposals, betrayal, and an opportunity for Lucy to find lifelong love.

The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in East India Company, India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards.

Kim is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier in India. When Kim is rescued by the British, he is trained as a secret agent. Kim is set with a choice to either follow a life of espionage, or the spiritual way of Tibetan Buddhism.

Hamlet dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called on to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius. Macbeth tells the story of a Scottish general named Macbeth who receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that he will become King of Scotland.

The book is a collection of letters between Abelard and Heloise. Abelard was a Medieval French scholastic philosopher while Heloise was his young student, famous as the most well-educated and intelligent woman in Paris at the time.

Set in mid-19th-century France, the novel tells the tragic love story between fictional characters Marguerite Gautier, a demimondaine or courtesan suffering from consumption, and Armand Duval, a young bourgeois.

The story focuses on the protagonist Elliot's psychological growth from youth to adulthood as his relationship with his friends, Agnes Pembroke and her elder brother, Herbert, develops.

Moll Flanders is born in Newgate Prison and raised by a kindly foster mother. Eventually she becomes a servant in a house where she first realises the effect she has on men.

Set in mid-19th-century Paris, Cousin Bette tells the story of an unmarried middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended family.

A History of New York is a satire on self-important local history and contemporary politics. Irving created a fictional persona, Diedrich Knickerbocker, as the author of the book.

Idylls of the King is a collection of twelve narrative poems that recount Arthur's attempt and failure to lift up mankind and create a perfect kingdom, from his coming to power to his death at the hands of the traitor Mordred.

Catiline's War details the attempt by Lucius Sergius Catilina to overthrow the Roman Republic in 63 BC. The Jugurthine War discusses the war against Jugurtha in Numidia from 112 to 106 BC.

John Jasper, a choirmaster lusts after his pupil, Rosa Bud, who is engaged to his nephew, Edwin Drood. Rosa also caught the eye of the hot-tempered Neville who becomes Edwin's rival. When Edwin disappears, John accuses Neville of killing him.

A young American named Julian West falls into a deep, hypnosis-induced sleep in the late 19th century and wakes up 113 years later in the year 2000.

The Mabinogion are the earliest prose stories of the literature of Britain. The collection covers eleven prose stories of widely different types, offering drama, philosophy, romance, tragedy, fantasy and humour.

The collection of Pliny's letters is divided into ten books. His career as a young man is described in the earlier letters, which include tributes to notable figures.

Lady Audley's Secret plays on Victorian anxieties about the domestic sphere. Elements of the novel mirror themes of the real-life Constance Kent case of June 1860 which gripped the nation for years.

Horace was the leading Roman lyric poet who was often regarded as the world's first autobiographer. His writings tell far more about himself, his character, his development, and his way of life than any other great poet of antiquity.

In this book, Chesterton tries to illustrate the spiritual journey of humanity, or at least of Western civilization.

A rough and uneducated former sailor named Martin Eden falls in love with the young, bourgeois Ruth Morse. He goes through an intense period of self-education, hoping to achieve a place among the literary elite.

Taking place during the American Civil War, this novel is about a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle.

After the death of his parents, 17-year-old David Balfour is confronted by his uncle Ebenezer, who is jealous of his nephew's inheritance. Ebenezer leads David to a nearby ship, where he is struck, bound, and kidnapped.

The book includes three interrelated treatises that trace episodes in the evolution of moral concepts with a view to confronting moral prejudices, specifically those of Christianity and Judaism.

Edward Prendick finds himself shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean, but is soon rescued by a passing boat. He is taken to the island home of Doctor Moreau, who creates human-like hybrids from animals via vivisection.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles tells the story of a country girl descended from a noble line who is seduced and left pregnant. After her baby dies, she meets a man who abandons her on their wedding night when she confesses her past.

This Side of Paradise centres on Amory Blaine, a young man convinced that he has an exceptionally promising future, attends boarding school and later Princeton.

Madame Bovary follows a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life.

When Robin Hood became an outlaw, he recruited the help of Friar Tuck, Little John and Will Scarlet, to maintain justice until the return of King Richard the Lionheart.