Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll
“How puzzling all these changes are! I’m never sure what I’m going to be, from one minute to another.”
On an ordinary summer’s afternoon, Alice tumbles down a hole and an extraordinary adventure begins. In a strange world with even stranger characters, she meets a grinning cat and a rabbit with a pocket watch, joins a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, and plays croquet with the Queen! Lost in this fantasy land, Alice finds herself growing more and more curious by the minute…
Sense and Sensibility | Jane Austen
“Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience- or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.”
Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor’s warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo.
Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love—and its threatened loss—the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.
Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen
“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Mr and Mrs Bennet’s five unmarried daughters after the rich and eligible Mr Bingley and his status-conscious friend, Mr Darcy, have moved into their neighbourhood.
While Bingley takes an immediate liking to the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, Darcy has difficulty adapting to local society and repeatedly clashes with the second-eldest Bennet daughter, Elizabeth.
Far From The Madding Crowd | Thomas Hardy
“I shall do one thing in this life – one thing certain – that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die.”
Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area.
Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community.
The Day of the Triffids | John Wyndham
“And we danced, on the brink of an unknown future, to an echo from a vanished past.”
When Bill Masen wakes up blindfolded in hospital there is a bitter irony in his situation. Carefully removing his bandages, he realizes that he is the only person who can see: everyone else, doctors and patients alike, have been blinded by a meteor shower. Now, with civilization in chaos, the triffids – huge, venomous, large-rooted plants able to ‘walk’, feeding on human flesh – can have their day…
Grimm Tales | Philip Pullman
“Anyone who doesn’t laugh has something on their conscience, you can be sure of that.”
Rediscover the magic and wonder of the original Grimm Tales, retold by master-storyteller Philip Pullman. In this stage version by Philip Wilson, you’ll meet the familiar characters – Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel – and some unexpected ones too, such as Hans-My-Hedgehog, the Goose Girl at the Spring and the remarkable Thousand furs.
Full of deliciously dark twists and turns, the tales come to life in all their glittering, macabre brilliance – a delight for children and adults alike.
Around the World in Eighty Days | Jules Verne
“Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.”
One night in the reform club, Phileas Fogg bets his companions that he can travel across the globe in just eighty days. Breaking the well-established routine of his daily life, he immediately sets off for Dover with his astonished valet Passepartout. Passing through exotic lands and dangerous locations, they seize whatever transportation is at hand – whether train or elephant – overcoming set-backs and always racing against the clock.
Mrs Dalloway | Virginia Woolf
“He thought her beautiful, believed her impeccably wise; dreamed of her, wrote poems to her, which, ignoring the subject, she corrected in red ink.”
Clarissa Dalloway, elegant and vivacious, is preparing for a party and remembering those she once loved.
In another part of London, Septimus Warren Smith is suffering from shell-shock and on the brink of madness. Smith’s day interweaves with that of Clarissa and her friends, their lives converging as the party reaches its glittering climax. Virginia Woolf’s masterly novel, in which she perfected the interior monologue, brings past, present and future together on one momentous day in June 1923.
