Gustave Flaubert’s daring portrait of adultery caused a national scandal when Madame Bovary was first published, and this masterpiece of realist literature has lost none of its impact today.

Madame Bovary is the debut novel of French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856.

Jane Austen’s third published novel was Mansfield Park. The story follows the young, poor protagonist Fanny Price who at age ten is sent to live with her rich aunt and uncle Bertram at their grand estate of Mansfield Park. Growing up in their family circle, Fanny navigates love, loneliness and rivalry.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen tells the story of Fanny Price, a frail, quiet young woman who has none of the high spirits or wit of Elizabeth Bennet or Marianne Dashwood. 

‘One of the few great and perfect works of poetic imagination written during this century’ Elias Canetti

George Eliot’s most ambitious novel is a masterly evocation of diverse lives and changing fortunes in a provincial community. 

Mrs. Dalloway begins with Clarissa’s preparatory errand to buy flowers. Unexpected events occur―a car emits an explosive noise and a plane writes in the sky―and incite different reactions in different people. Soon after she returns home, her former lover Peter arrives. The two converse, and it becomes clear that they still have strong feelings for each other.

Direct and vivid in her account of Clarissa Dalloway’s preparations for a party, Virginia Woolf explores the hidden springs of thought and action in one day of a woman’s life.