Featuring perhaps one of the most famous opening lines in history, ‘Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again.’ Daphne du Maurier’s gothic masterpiece tells the story of a naive new bride whose idyllic life in her husband’s country-pile in Cornwall unravels, from a frosty welcome from the housekeeper to something more sinister.

It received mixed reviews it was first published, in part because it challenged Victorian ideals of purity and sexual morals. But Thomas Hardy’s unflinching account of Tess’s bid for salvation in a society ready to condemn her is a harrowing and powerful read.

William Makepeace Thackeray’s satirical reflection of society on the whole embodied in a cast of characters who although flawed, we can’t help but love and root for as we follow their fortunes and downfalls throughout the Napoleonic wars.  

The iconic country house setting of Brideshead see a family consumed by its religious battle with their loyalties. A reflective and nostalgic novel by Evelyn Waugh about class, family and homecomings.

Emma Bovary, a beautiful young woman stifled by provincial life and in a loveless marriage, embarks of a string of passionate but disappointing affairs with devastating consequences.  

Maggie Tulliver is passionate, impulsive and intelligent but her desires clash against her family’s expectations and result in painful consequences. Eliot drew on the frustrations of her own rural upbringing to write one of her most powerful and moving novels.

The second novel in Anthony Trollope’s series known as the ‘Chronicles of Barsetshire’, opens as the Bishop of Barchester lies on his deathbed; soon the battle for power amongst the town’s key players will commence. Told with plenty of wisdom and wit.

The story of Lady Chatterley who starved of love from her husband, paralysed from the Great War, embarks on an affair with her groundsman Mellors is a captivating novel with an equally compelling story behind it. It became the first work of literary merit to be prosecuted under a new law, the Obscene Publications Act 1959, which Penguin went on to win and subsequently quickly sold three million copies.  

An epic novel by Alexandre Dumas that will have you feeling all the emotions – and a prime example of the old adage that revenge is a dish best served cold.

Perhaps John Steinbeck’s finest novel, this is a beautifully evocative and, by the end, devastating read.

Having survived censorship, controversy and even legal action, James Joyce’s most famous novel is renowned for its use of inner monologue and stream-of-consciousness technique. Whether it’s the greatest novel of the 20th century, or the most unreadable, is up for debate.

Mostly set in California, John Steinbeck’s most ambitious novel follows two families and their interwoven stories. The author himself said, ‘It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years.’