Gateways to Classic Literature

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Take your pick of author or playwright.

If you want to read their works, these are our top picks for starting out.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE	The Tragedy of Macbeth	A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that, one day, he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. Though racked with guilt and paranoia, he is forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion and, soon, he becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness and death.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE	The Hound of the Baskervilles	When Sir Charles Baskerville is found mysteriously dead in the grounds of Baskerville Hall, everyone remembers the legend of the monstrous creature that haunts the moor. The great detective Sherlock Holmes knows that there must be a more rational explanation, but the difficulty is to find it before the hellhound finds him.
J R R TOLKEIN	The Hobbit	In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.  Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937.  Now recognised as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent.
JANE AUSTEN	Pride and Prejudice	Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilised sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.
Robert Louis Stevenson	Treasure Island	For sheer storytelling delight and pure adventure, Treasure Island has never been surpassed. From the moment young Jim Hawkins first encounters the sinister Blind Pew at the Admiral Benbow Inn until the climactic battle for treasure on a tropic isle, the novel creates scenes and characters that have fired the imaginations of generations of readers. Written by a superb prose stylist, a master of both action and atmosphere, the story centres upon the conflict between good and evil - but in this case a particularly engaging form of evil. It is the villainy of that most ambiguous rogue, Long John Silver, that sets the tempo of this tale of treachery, greed and daring.
Molière	Tartuffe	Condemned and banned for five years in Molière’s day, Tartuffe is a satire on religious hypocrisy. Tartuffe worms his way into Orgon’s household, blinding the master of the house with his religious "devotion", and almost succeeds in his attempts to seduce his wife and disinherit his children before the final unmasking.
Oscar Wilde	The Portrait of Dorian Gray	Oscar Wilde’s novel is the dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. In this celebrated work, Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of  Gothic horror novels and decadent French fiction, the book centres on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigour, while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world.
Virginia Woolf	Mrs. Dalloway	Heralded as Virginia Woolf's greatest novel, this is a vivid portrait of a single day in a woman's life. When we meet her, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation while in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with remembrances of faraway times. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa re-examines the choices that brought her there, hesitantly looking ahead to the unfamiliar work of growing old.
Agatha Christie	And Then There Were None	First, there were ten — a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host — an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them — is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, will there be none?  And who is committing their murders? Only the dead are above suspicion.
Charles Dickens	A Christmas Carol	"If I had my way, every idiot who goes around with Merry Christmas on his lips, would be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. Merry Christmas? Bah humbug!" To bitter, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, Christmas is just another day. But all that changes when the ghost of his long-dead business partner appears, warning Scrooge to change his ways before it's too late.
Anton Chehov	The Gull	An aging actress named Irina Arkadina pays summer visits to her brother, Pyotr Sorin and her son Konstantin at a country estate.  On one occasion, she brings her lover, Boris Trigorin, a successful novelist.  Nina, a free and innocent girl on a neighbouring estate - who is in a relationship with Konstantin - falls in love with Boris. Chehov's description of the play was characteristically self-mocking: "A comedy: 3x females, 6x males, 4x acts, rural scenery (a view over a lake); much talk of literature, little action, five bushels of love."
Alexander Dumas	The Count of Monte Cristo	An epic tale of wrongful imprisonment, adventure and revenge. Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of If.  There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to use the treasure to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas’ epic tale of suffering and retribution was inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment.
Mary Shelley	Frankenstein	Traumatised by the death of his mother, young Victor Frankenstein vows to discover the secrets of life and death. He assembles a monster from parts of corpses and uses electricity to bring it to life. Horrified by what he has done, Frankenstein abandons the creature, who is met with fear, rejection and violence wherever he goes. Frankenstein's creature learns to loathe himself and his creator, and he sets out to destroy everyone Frankenstein loves.