Has there ever been a point in your life when you have wondered, ‘What does it feel like to be my shoe?’, ‘How is my toaster feeling today?’ or ‘What is my sponge thinking about?’ Probably not, which means you are more than likely sane. However, what if your household objects had these thoughts and feelings and decided to let you know about them? This collection of letters and their responses, written from the perspective of everyday objects around the house and the individuals they are addressed to, gives a brief glimpse into their lives and how they perceive the world around them. And don’t worry, your teapot isn’t watching you…

A biography of Charlotte Bronte that describes her life of claustrophobic confinement in a Yorkshire parsonage belied by the heights of imagination to which she was able to soar in her writing. It also describes the 'extraordinary genius' that seemed to have touched her family and the intense suffering that also visited them.

Tells of the diverse events which befall Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus in Dublin on 16 June 1904, during which Bloom's wife, Molly, commits adultery. Initially deemed obscene in England and the USA, this novel, revolutionary in its Modernistic experimentalism, was hailed as a work of genius by W B Yeats, T S Eliot and Ernest Hemingway.

A tale of horror, set in the Congo during the period of rapid colonial expansion in the 19th century. The story deals with the highly disturbing effects of economic, social and political exploitation of European and African societies and the cataclysmic behaviour this induced in some individuals.

Adultery is not a typical Jane Austen theme, but when it disturbs the relatively peaceful household at Mansfield Park, it has quite unexpected results. The heroine, Fanny Price, has to struggle to cope with the results, re-examining her feelings while enduring the amorality, old-fashioned indifference and priggish disapproval of those around her.

This perennially popular book was cited by Karl Marx in Das Kapital to illustrate economic theory, but it is readers of all ages over the last 280 years who have given "Robinson Crusoe" its abiding position as a classic tale of adventure.

This novel tells the story of Kimball O'Hara (Kim), who is the orphaned son of a soldier in the Irish regiment stationed in India during the British Raj. It describes Kim's life and adventures from street vagabond, to his adoption by his father's regiment and recruitment into espionage.

The victim of a miscarriage of justice, Edmund Dantes is fired by a desire for retribution and empowered by a stroke of providence. In his campaign of vengeance, he becomes an anonymous agent of fate.

Follows the story of the heroine's movement from the tranquil but moribund ways of southern England to the north. This book uses a love story to show how personal and public lives were woven together in a industrial society. It traces the origins of problems and possibilities which are still challenging a hundred and fifty years later.

Guy de Maupassant was a master of the short story. This collection displays his lively diversity, with tales that vary in theme and tone, ranging from tragedy and satire to comedy and farce.

The author paints a picture as panoramic as his title promises, of the life of 1870s London, the loves of those drawn to and through the city, and the career of Augustus Melmotte.

A collection of stories where action and drama are implied rather than described openly, and which intend to leave much to the reader's imagination.

Educated beyond her station, Grace Melbury returns to the woodland village of little Hintock and cannot marry her intended, Giles Winterborne. Her alternative choice proves disastrous.

A sometimes violent and brutal tale of love and betrayal, separation and reconciliation, set in the familiar Bronte landscape of bleak houses in moorland settings.

Traces the growth of the book's narrator, Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man with depth of character. As Pip unravels truth behind his own expectations in his quest to become a gentleman, the mysteries of past and the fate through a series of adventures steers him towards maturity and an important discovery.

Frankenstein is a deeply disturbing story of a monstrous creation, which has terrified and chilled readers since its first publication in 1818.

Traces the private lives of a group of people caught up in the cataclysm of the French Revolution and the Terror. The author based his historical detail on Carlyle's "The French Revolution", and his own observations and investigations during his numerous visits to Paris.

A summary of the "roaring twenties", and a expose of the "Jazz Age", this book, through the narration of Nick Carraway, takes the reader into the world of the mansions which lined the Long Island shore in the 1920s, to encounter Nick's cousin Daisy, her brash but wealthy husband Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby and the mystery that surrounds him.

One of a series of literature guides using graphics, active learning techniques and self-test questions to encourage an explorative reading of and response to the text, develop the skills and techniques required by English literature coursework and complement the teaching approach used in schools.

Throw caution to the wind and enter a world where the Librarian is an orangutan, luggage has legs, and where Death may come to visit, on his holidays. A world which is flat and balanced upon elephants stood on the back of a giant turtle. Welcome to Discworld....

Georges Simenon, born 1903 in Liege, Belgium, has suffered from a false reputation, being considered by many as no more than an author of crime fiction and as having been too prolific for his own good. For this reason he has not been given his due by many literary critics. He was however admired and revered by many great writers and...

A bold and brilliant debut from a darkly funny new voice.

Experiments with the notion of sin as an element of design. This novel is a puzzle, intended to tease conventional minds with its exploration of the myriad interrelationships between art, life, and consequence.

Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly old skinflint. He hates everyone, especially children. But at Christmas three ghosts come to visit him, scare him into mending his ways, and he finds, as he celebrates with Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and their family, that geniality brings its own reward.