Author(s): Bronte Austen

Classics

Pride & Prejudice Jane Austen constructed Pride & Prejudice with wit, social precision and an irresistible heroine. Beginning with one of the most famous sentences in English Literature, it is a perfect ironic novel of manners. Persuasion Jane Austen's question 'What is persuasion?' - a firm belief, or the action of persuading someone to think something else? - is the force behind this novel. Anne Elliot, one of Austen's quietest yet strongest heroines, is also open to change. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte's poor, plain, but plucky heroine, possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage. She is forced to battle against a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte's tale is a wild, passionate story of intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and the adopted foundling Heathcliff. Humiliated by Hindley, Catherine's brother, Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights, but in time he returns to exact a terrible revenge. Tess of the d'Urbervilles Set in Hardy's Wessex, Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards. It tells of Tess Durbeyfield, a poor village girl, her relationships with two very different men, her fluctuating fortunes and her search for respectability. Lady Chatterley's Lover D.H. Lawrence tells the story of Sir Clifford Chatterley, who returns from the war paralysed from the waist down, and of the consequent love which then develops betweenhis wife and his gamekeeper. It is a complex tale open to a variety of conflicting interpretations.