Classic Literature

From To Kill a Mockingbird to Ulysses, from Great Expectations to Frankenstein, we can help you find the classic literature books you are looking for. As the world's largest independent marketplace for new, used and rare books, you always get the best in service and value when you buy from Biblio.co.uk, and all of your purchases are backed by our return guarantee.

Top Sellers in Classic Literature

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with serious issues of rape and racial inequality.
The Catcher In the Rye

The Catcher In the Rye

by J D Salinger

Published in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye has become a common part of high school and college curricula throughout the English-speaking world and has been translated into all major languages. Since its publication with a $3.00 sticker, it has reportedly sold more than 65 million copies. The novel's antihero, Holden Caulfield, has become a cultural icon for teenage rebellion. Due to its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and teenage angst, it has frequently been... Read more about this item
The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

by F Scott Fitzgerald

Written in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is widely
considered to be one of the author’s greatest works. Set in New York City and
Long Island during the Roaring Twenties, the focus of the story is (of course)
its title character, Jay Gatsby, and his unswerving desire to be reunited with
Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years earlier. However, Nick Carraway,
who happens to be both Gatsby’s neighbor and Daisy’s cousin, narrates Gatsby's journey
from poverty to wealth, into the... Read more about this item
The Grapes Of Wrath

The Grapes Of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
stands as a pivotal piece of American literature. The story follows
the Joad family (and thousands of others) as they are driven from the
Oklahoma farm where they are sharecroppers during the Great
Depression. The drought, economic hardship, and changes in financial
and agricultural industries send them searching for dignity and
honest work in the bountiful state of California.


The novel earned Steinbeck the Pulitzer
Prize for fiction in 1940, and inspired the... Read more about this item
The Old Man and The Sea

The Old Man and The Sea

by Ernest Hemingway

This novella, only 140 pages, was first
printed in its entirety in Life Magazine on September 1, 1952. It inspired a buying frenzy - selling over five million copies of the
magazine in just two days!
The story about an aging Cuban
fisherman wrangling a large marlin in the gulf stream was written in
1951 in Cuba and published in 1952. In 1953, it won the Pulitzer Prize
for Fiction and led to Hemingway's nomination for the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 1954.
Man's struggle against nature is the... Read more about this item
Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged

by Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand in her most controversial book yet, depicts a dystopian United State. A world of private businesses that are increasingly penalized and weighted through laws and regulations, stepping over the people who carry out that labor. As a mysterious figure, John Gault appears on the scene; the country’s top banker, an oil producer, a professor, a composer, and a distinguished judge disappear without a trace, abandoning their professions and loved ones. In turn a revolution begins, creating a new... Read more about this item
Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice is the second novel by English author Jane Austen, after Sense and Sensibility. First published on 28 January 1813, Austen sold the copyright for just £110.  Its manuscript was initially written between 1796 and 1797 in Steventon, Hampshire, where Austen lived in the rectory. Originally called First Impressions, it was never published under that title, and in following revisions it was retitled Pride and Prejudice. It was first published anonymously. A... Read more about this item
Tuesdays With Morrie

Tuesdays With Morrie

by Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom recollects his conversations with his former college professor, Morrie Schwartz, who was dying of ALS in this memoir. The book explores life lessons through the perspectives of Morrie, who imparts his wisdom and experiences to Albom during their weekly meetings. Through their conversations, they discuss topics such as death, love, forgiveness, and the meaning of life. Morrie's teachings and insights help Albom to gain a new understanding of the world and to appreciate the important things in... Read more about this item
Night

Night

by Elie Wiesel

Night is a memoir by Elie Wiesel, first published in Yiddish as Un di velt hot geshvign (And the World Kept Quiet) in 1956 in Buenos Aires by Union Central Israelita Polaca en la Argentina. The book is a harrowing account of Wiesel's experiences as a teenager during the Holocaust, detailing his imprisonment in several concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and the brutal conditions and atrocities he witnessed and endured. Through his haunting and poignant narrative, Wiesel... Read more about this item
Gone With the Wind

Gone With the Wind

by Margaret Mitchell

Margaret Mitchell only published one complete novel, but it was quite the book - Gone With the Wind earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 and National Book Award for 1936. The epic romance tale set in and around Atlanta, Georgia during the American Civil War has remained a bestseller, even before the equally popular film starring Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh was made in 1939.
Sun Also Rises

Sun Also Rises

by Ernest Hemingway

Based on real events and acquaintances of Hemingway, Sun Also Rises is about American and English expats in Pamplona.
Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

by John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men is a novella written by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression in California.An intimate portrait of two men who cherish the slim bond between them and the dream they share in a world marred by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. Clinging to each other in their loneliness and alienation, George and his simple-minded... Read more about this item
Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart

by Chinua Achebe

In his debut novel, Chinua Achebe challenges our written perspective of history and portrays the devastating influence of colonization in late 19th century Nigeria.  Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political and religious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order. The story follows Okonkwo, a man known for his fierce heart and physical strength, as he navigates his personal demons and his... Read more about this item
Lord Of the Flies

Lord Of the Flies

by William Golding

 
Even though Lord of the Flies
is a frequent submission on any banned books list, many high school
students are first introduced to this classic piece of literature in
their freshman English class. Using very young protagonists set in a
harsh, wild environment, author William Golding's disturbing and
engaging novel addresses the themes of human nature and personal
welfare, often resulting in violence and murder. Despite its
controversial subject matter, it is often considered one of the best
novels... Read more about this item
Animal Farm

Animal Farm

by George Orwell

Animal Farm is a dystopian novella by George Orwell. Published in England on 17 August 1945, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before World War II. Orwell, a democratic socialist and a member of the Independent Labour Party for many years, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and was suspicious of Moscow-directed Stalinism after his experiences with the NKVD during the Spanish Civil War.
Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre is a famous and influential novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre, an Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell". Orphaned as a child, Jane felt like an outcast during her childhood. She was sent by her cruel aunt to a boarding school where she was met with further torment. After the devastating loss of a friend, she finds herself enrolled under a new headmaster at the Lowood School... Read more about this item
Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 (Ballantine Books, 1953) by Ray Bradbury is a dystopian novel that presents a future American society in which the masses are hedonistic and critical thought through reading is outlawed. Written in the early years of the Cold War, the novel is a critique of what Bradbury saw as issues in American society of the era. Bradbury combined two of his early short stories, "The Pedestrian" and  "Bright Phoenix," into The Fireman, a novella published in the... Read more about this item
In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood

by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood is a nonfiction book by American author Truman Capote. The book details the brutal 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, a wealthy farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, and his wife and two of their children. When Capote learned of the quadruple murder before the killers were captured, he decided to travel to Kansas and write about the crime.
A Farewell To Arms

A Farewell To Arms

by Ernest Hemingway

Set during World War 1, Ernest Hemingway’s A
Farewell to Arms is the story of Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American serving
as an ambulance driver in the Italian army, and his love affair with an English
nurse named Catherine Barkley. The novel is semi-autobiographical, based on
Hemingway's own experiences serving in the Italian campaigns during the war.
While some assume the title of the work to be taken from a poem by 16th century
English dramatist George Peele, others believe it to be a simple pun... Read more about this item
For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls

by Ernest Hemingway

Many consider For Whom the Bell Tolls to be author Ernest Hemingway’s finest work. Inspired by Hemingway’s time as a war correspondent for The North American Newspaper Alliance during the Spanish Civil War, For Whom the Bell Tolls is a stark and brutal commentary on the nature of war, sacrifice, and death. In fact, many believe his work is among the best depictions of the Spanish Civil War written. As with some of Hemingway’s other work, many of the characters, experiences, and... Read more about this item
Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

by Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights, the only book written by Emily Brontë, and originally published in 1847 by Thomas Cautley Newby under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, is a classic work of English literature. The Brontë sisters are known for classical and important literature, such as Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Brontë) and Agnes Grey (by Anne Brontë). The first edition of Wuthering Heights was first published in three volumes, the first two composed of Wuthering Heights, with the third volume containing Anne... Read more about this item
The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

by Mark Twain

Commonly named among the Great American novels, The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, is generally regarded as the
sequel to his earlier novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; however, in
Huckleberry Finn, Twain focused increasingly on the institution of
slavery and the South. Narrated by Huckleberry “Huck” Finn in Southern
antebellum vernacular, the novel gives vivid descriptions of people and
daily life along the Mississippi River while following the adventure of
Huck and... Read more about this item
Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God

by Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a 1937 novel and the best-known work by African American writer Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston wrote the novel in a reported seven weeks while visited Haiti. Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel garnered attention and controversy at the time of its publication but fell out of print for a number of years. Its popularity was resurrected in the 1970s by an article in Ms. Magazine by Alice Walker "Looking for Zora." Their Eyes Were Watching... Read more about this item
Ulysses

Ulysses

by James Joyce

Ulysses is a modernist novel by James Joyce. It was first
serialized in The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920 and later
published by Shakespeare and Company in 1922. Originally, Joyce conceived of
Ulysses as a short story to be included in Dubliners, but decided instead to
publish it as a long novel, situated as a sort of sequel to A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man, picking up Stephen Dedalus’s life over a year later.
Ulysses takes place on a single day, June 16, 1904, in Dublin -... Read more about this item

Classic Literature Books & Ephemera

Great Expectations

Great Expectations

by Dickens, Charles

Great Expectations is a classic novel by Charles Dickens, published in 1861. It tells the story of Pip, a young orphan boy brought up by his abusive sister and her blacksmith husband in rural England. Pip dreams of becoming a gentleman and escaping poverty, but his life takes a dramatic turn when he receives a large fortune from an anonymous benefactor. As he rises in society, he becomes involved with a host of colorful characters, including the eccentric Miss Havisham and her adopted daughter Estella,... Read more about this item
A Tale Of Two Cities

A Tale Of Two Cities

by Dickens, Charles

Written by Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel that follows Manette, a French doctor imprisoned for 18 long years in Paris’s Bastille. Following his release, he goes to live in London with his daughter Lucie, who had never met him and believed him to be dead. Set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution and Reign of Terror, A Tale of Two Cities is a fictitious story that falls both into the historical and adventure genres. The famous book is one of the... Read more about this item
Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

by Bronte, Charlotte

Jane Eyre is a famous and influential novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre, an Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell". Orphaned as a child, Jane felt like an outcast during her childhood. She was sent by her cruel aunt to a boarding school where she was met with further torment. After the devastating loss of a friend, she finds herself enrolled under a new headmaster at the Lowood School... Read more about this item
Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

by Bronte, Emily

Wuthering Heights, the only book written by Emily Brontë, and originally published in 1847 by Thomas Cautley Newby under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, is a classic work of English literature. The Brontë sisters are known for classical and important literature, such as Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Brontë) and Agnes Grey (by Anne Brontë). The first edition of Wuthering Heights was first published in three volumes, the first two composed of Wuthering Heights, with the third volume containing Anne... Read more about this item
Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

by Austen, Jane

Pride and Prejudice is the second novel by English author Jane Austen, after Sense and Sensibility. First published on 28 January 1813, Austen sold the copyright for just £110.  Its manuscript was initially written between 1796 and 1797 in Steventon, Hampshire, where Austen lived in the rectory. Originally called First Impressions, it was never published under that title, and in following revisions it was retitled Pride and Prejudice. It was first published anonymously. A... Read more about this item
Moby Dick

Moby Dick

by Melville, Herman

Melville's classic was first published in England as three volumes titled The Whale in October 1851. Slow sales of Melville's previously books convinced Publisher L. Richard Bentley to reduce the printing to only 500 copies, and of that, only 300 sold in the first 4 months. The remaining unbound sheets were bound in a cheaper casing in 1852, and in 1853 there were still enough remaining sheets to again bind into an even cheaper edition.Melville changed the title to Moby Dick a month later, November 1851,... Read more about this item
Gulliver\'s Travels

Gulliver's Travels

by Swift, Jonathan

Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships, is a novel by Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers' tales" literary sub-genre. It is Swift's best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature. The book became tremendously popular as soon as it was published.
Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist

by Dickens, Charles

Oliver Twist, published in 1838, became one of English writer Charles Dickens's better-known stories and was the first Victorian novel with a child protagonist. Oliver Twist (Parish Boy's Progress) focuses on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into an apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the "Artful Dodger", a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by an elderly criminal Fagin. The book shows an unromantic... Read more about this item
The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

by Twain, Mark

Commonly named among the Great American novels, The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, is generally regarded as the
sequel to his earlier novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; however, in
Huckleberry Finn, Twain focused increasingly on the institution of
slavery and the South. Narrated by Huckleberry “Huck” Finn in Southern
antebellum vernacular, the novel gives vivid descriptions of people and
daily life along the Mississippi River while following the adventure of
Huck and... Read more about this item
The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

by Fitzgerald, F Scott

Written in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is widely
considered to be one of the author’s greatest works. Set in New York City and
Long Island during the Roaring Twenties, the focus of the story is (of course)
its title character, Jay Gatsby, and his unswerving desire to be reunited with
Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years earlier. However, Nick Carraway,
who happens to be both Gatsby’s neighbor and Daisy’s cousin, narrates Gatsby's journey
from poverty to wealth, into the... Read more about this item
Treasure Island

Treasure Island

by Stevenson, Robert Louis

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. The story was originally serialised in the children's magazine Young Folks under the title The Sea Cook over a period of several months from 1881-82.Traditionally considered a coming-of-age story, Treasure Island is the classic pirate tale, known for its superb atmosphere, character and action. It is one of the most frequently dramatised of all novels. The influence of Treasure Island on popular perception of... Read more about this item
David Copperfield

David Copperfield

by Dickens, Charles

"The most perfect of all the Dickens novels' Virginia WoolfWhen David Copperfield escapes from the cruelty of his childhood home, he embarks on a journey to adulthood which will lead him through comedy and tragedy, love and heartbreak and friendship and betrayal. Over the course of his adventures, David meets an array of eccentric characters and learns hard lessons about the world before he finally discovers true happiness.
The Odyssey

The Odyssey

by Homer

Listen, O Muse, and hear my song, Of the great adventures that took so long, Of the noble Odysseus, king of Ithaca, Whose journey was filled with many a setback.The tale begins with the end of the Trojan War, When the Greeks set sail from the Trojan shore. Odysseus and his men faced many a danger, From the wrath of the gods to the Cyclops' anger.They sailed through storms and fought with beasts, But despite all odds, they made it to their feast, And there, in the halls of the goddess Circe, Odysseus... Read more about this item
The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter

by Hawthorne, Nathaniel

The Scarlet Letter: A Romance (1850) is considered the American author Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'masterwork.' A work of historical fiction set in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the Puritan settlement of 1642-1949 itells the story of Hester Prynne, who after having a child as a result of an extra-marital affair attempts to live a life of repentance and dignity although she is marked by having to wear a Scarlett A on her person. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and... Read more about this item
The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer

by Twain, Mark

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, is a popular 1876 novel about a young boy growing up in the antebellum South on the Mississippi River in the town of St. Petersberg, based on the town of Hannibal, Missouri.
The Grapes Of Wrath

The Grapes Of Wrath

by Steinbeck, John

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
stands as a pivotal piece of American literature. The story follows
the Joad family (and thousands of others) as they are driven from the
Oklahoma farm where they are sharecroppers during the Great
Depression. The drought, economic hardship, and changes in financial
and agricultural industries send them searching for dignity and
honest work in the bountiful state of California.


The novel earned Steinbeck the Pulitzer
Prize for fiction in 1940, and inspired the... Read more about this item
A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

by Dickens, Charles

The full title of Charles Dickens' most famous work is technically A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas. This novella was published on December 19, 1843, and the first edition run of 6000 copies were sold out by Christmas Eve of that year. The publication of the first edition was fraught with complications, and even though the book was received to positive reviews, profits of the book fell far below Dickens' expectations, and the financial strain caused rifts between Dickens and... Read more about this item
Emma

Emma

by Austen, Jane

Emma is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1815. The story follows the life of Emma Woodhouse, a wealthy and beautiful young woman who lives in the English countryside. Emma fancies herself as a matchmaker and sets out to find a suitable husband for her friend Harriet Smith. However, her attempts to play cupid lead to several misadventures, including a love triangle involving her own romantic interests. As the story unfolds, Emma learns important lessons about humility, love, and the consequences of... Read more about this item
The Catcher In the Rye

The Catcher In the Rye

by Salinger, J D

Published in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye has become a common part of high school and college curricula throughout the English-speaking world and has been translated into all major languages. Since its publication with a $3.00 sticker, it has reportedly sold more than 65 million copies. The novel's antihero, Holden Caulfield, has become a cultural icon for teenage rebellion. Due to its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and teenage angst, it has frequently been... Read more about this item
To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Lee, Harper

To Kill a Mockingbird is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with serious issues of rape and racial inequality.
Kidnapped

Kidnapped

by Stevenson, Robert Louis

Considered one of Robert Louis Stevensn's best works, Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel, first published in Young Folks magazine from May to July 1886. The novel is considered a companion to Stevenson's Treasure Island. A Sequel, Catriona, was published in 1893.The full title of the book is Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: How he was Kidnapped and Cast away; his Sufferings in a Desert Isle; his... Read more about this item
Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

by Defoe, Daniel

Robinson Crusoe was first published in April 1719, in London. In the beginning, the story was published as an autobiography, but it was later established that the author was Daniel Defoe. The novel became an instant classic, with four editions printed in the first year of publication. Often called the first English novel, it follows the story of Robinson Crusoe, a man marooned on an island. Crusoe’s adventure-packed story of survival started the genre of realistic fiction and inspired a slew of other... Read more about this item
The Last Of the Mohicans

The Last Of the Mohicans

by Cooper, James Fenimore

The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 by James Fenimoore Cooper is the second and best-known book of his Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy. Like the rest of the books in the series, the story follows the adventures of Natty Bumppo, nicknamed “Hawkeye” by his Native American friends. Set in 1757 in the American wilderness that would become New York State, The Last of the Mohicans takes place during the Seven Years' War (known in America as the French and Indian War). The book is widely read in... Read more about this item
Frankenstein

Frankenstein

by Shelley, Mary

Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus is a Gothic novel written by Mary Shelley in 1818. The story revolves around Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who creates a monstrous creature and immediately regrets his actions, abandoning the creature to its own devices. The creature, seeking acceptance and revenge, terrorizes Victor and those he loves. Themes of ambition, ethics, humanity, and loneliness are explored through Shelley's vivid descriptions of the natural world and her characters' psychological... Read more about this item