Classic Literature
From To Kill a Mockingbird to Jane Eyre, from Great Expectations to The Last Of the Mohicans, 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
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.
Mein Kampf
by Adolf Hitler
Mein Kampf is a 1925 autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany. Hitler began the book while imprisoned, following his failed Putsch in Munich in November 1923. The governor of Landsberg noted at the time that "he [Hitler] hopes the book will run into many editions, thus enabling him to fulfill his financial obligations and to defray the expenses...
Read more about this item
The Hobbit
by J R R Tolkien
The Hobbit tells the famous
story of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who is caught up in the affairs of
wizards. His journey through Mirkwood and the climactic confrontation
with the dragon Smaug served as the launching point for Tolkien's
transformative trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. Many of the
essential elements of Tolkien's classic saga have their roots in this
children's book.
The story remains popular, and stands
as one of the most enduring (and endearing) stories of the last
century. The Hobbit... Read more about this item
story of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who is caught up in the affairs of
wizards. His journey through Mirkwood and the climactic confrontation
with the dragon Smaug served as the launching point for Tolkien's
transformative trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. Many of the
essential elements of Tolkien's classic saga have their roots in this
children's book.
The story remains popular, and stands
as one of the most enduring (and endearing) stories of the last
century. The Hobbit... Read more about this item
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
Nineteen Eighty-Four
by George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George
Orwell has become the definitive dystopian novel of the twentieth
century. Originally published on June 8, 1949 by Secker and
Warburg in the United Kingdom, the book follows the main character,
Winston Smith, through his disillusionment with totalitarianism and a
doomed struggle of resistance. George Orwell is a pen-name, Orwell's
real name was Eric Blair. -
Orwell has become the definitive dystopian novel of the twentieth
century. Originally published on June 8, 1949 by Secker and
Warburg in the United Kingdom, the book follows the main character,
Winston Smith, through his disillusionment with totalitarianism and a
doomed struggle of resistance. George Orwell is a pen-name, Orwell's
real name was Eric Blair. -
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
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
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
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
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
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
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
Moby Dick
by Herman Melville
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
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
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
Lord Of the Rings, The
by J R R Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by philologist and Oxford University professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit (1937), but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1954, much of it during World War II. After the success of The Hobbit, Tolkien’s publisher asked that he produce a sequel. Although written as one big work comprised of...
Read more about this item
Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
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
The Silmarillion
by J R R Tolkien
The Silmarillion narrates the complexity of Middle-earth through a collection of J.R.R Tolkein’s 5 mythopoeic works, illustrating an extensive history and lore in relation to his work, The Hobbit. The collection was originally published as individual works, but was later rejected due to incompleteness. In 1977 The Silmarillion was edited and published posthumously by Tolkien's son Christopher, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer.
Beloved
by Toni Morrison
Beloved (1987) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison. Morrison was inspired to write the story after finding a newspaper article about the legal case of Margaret Garner. Garner escaped slavery in Kentucky to the free State of Ohio when U.S. Marshals captured her. To spare her children from being returned to slavery, she killed her two-year-old daughter and attempted to kill her other children. Morrison's novel is set after the Civil War in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sethe was born a slave...
Read more about this item
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
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
Brave New World
by Huxley Aldous
Brave New World is a novel by Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Set in the London of AD 2540 (632 A.F. in the book), the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society. The future society is an embodiment of the ideals that form the basis of futurism. Huxley answered this book with a reassessment in an essay, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with his final work, a novel titled Island (1962), both summarized below. In...
Read more about this item
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
Dracula
by Bram Stoker
Dracula is a gothic horror book written by Bram Stoker and published in 1897. The story is told through a series of journal entries, letters, and newspaper articles, and it follows the efforts of a group of people led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing to defeat the vampire Count Dracula.Dracula by Bram Stoker has been attributed to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel, and invasion literature. It has become a cultural icon, spawning countless adaptations in...
Read more about this item
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
Classic Literature Books & Ephemera
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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.
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
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
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
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
![The Lord of the Rings [The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King]](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/939/462/38462939.0.m.1.jpg)
