Other books that might interest you

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  Old Fags

  Stacy Aumonier

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  Nobel Prize winner (and Forsyte Saga author) John Galsworthy described Stacy Aumonier as ‘one of the best short-story writers of all time’ and predicted that, through the best of his stories, he would ‘outlive all the writers of his day’. "Old Fags" is one of Stacy Aumonier's most memorable stories. 
  
  
  Set in a miserable and overcrowded block of flats in London, whose inhabitants struggle daily against poverty and starvation, Old Fags is the pariah of the building. His nickname reflects his trade, collecting and repurposing cigarette butts. He is also prone to lose part of his days to gin bottle. Notwithstanding, he is a cheery and generous soul, more than willing to lend a helping hand to those who despise him. 
  
  
  When his neighbours, the Birdles, run into difficulties, he begins to supply them with delicious stews made with onions and mysterious meat. When Miss Birdle bears a child out of wedlock to an untrustworthy groom, Old Fags sets out to right the situation in the only way he knows how.

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  The Hunchback of Notre Dame

  Victor Hugo

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  This classic is a French Romantic/Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The story centers on the famous cathedral. Esmeralda captures the hearts of men, including those of Captain Phoebus and Pierre Gringoire, but also Quasimodo and his adoptive father, Archdeacon Claude Frollo. Frollo is torn between his obsessive lust and the rules of the church. He orders Quasimodo to kidnap her, but the hunchback is captured by Phoebus and his guards, who save Esmeralda. The following day, Quasimodo is sentenced to be flogged and turned on the pillory for one hour, followed by another hour's public exposure. He calls for water. Esmeralda, seeing his thirst, approaches the public stocks and offers him a drink of water….

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  Robinson Crusoe

  Daniel Defoe

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  Defoe's masterpiece is part adventure and part do-it-yourself book. It describes the experiences of the resourceful sailor and castaway Robinson Crusoe. After escaping shipwreck and being swept on to an island with nothing but his wits, Crusoe survives ? and even prospers ? through his ingenuity and perseverance. He builds his own dwelling and makes furniture and clothes. He lives alone until the arrival of cannibals brings him an unexpected companion and the chance landing of mutineers gives him the opportunity to return home.

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  Kipps

  H. G. Wells

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  This wonderful comedy about orphan and innocent Arthur Kipps was the means by which Wells satirized what he saw as a gross stupidity and blight upon English society; the pretensions of and obsession with class. Humble drapers’ assistant Arthur unexpectedly inherits his grandfathers fortune and is instantly propelled into a higher social strata with the subsequent problems of attaining the required behaviour of a ‘gentleman.’ Wells gets much comic mileage from Arthurs desperate attempts to win the approval of his ‘betters’ and the hand of his Goddess, the ambitious, would be London Bohemian Helen, but there is pathos in his inevitable fall from grace and reunion with Ann, his childhood sweetheart. Wells, the revolutionary, makes some serious political comment and with great foresight predicts the worlds’ citizens as ‘one body’ in the words of the jaundiced socialist Masterman. A joyous thought provoking tale with an ingenious twist in the final moments.

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  A Tale of Two Cities

  Charles Dickens

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  A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events.

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  David Copperfield

  Charles Dickens

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  David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr. Murdstone; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora; and the magnificently impecunious Micawber, one of literature's great comic creations.In David Copperfield—the novel he described as his "favorite child"—Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of his most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure

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