Everyman

A classic novel which follows Stephen Dedalus as he progresses from boyhood to his coming of age in Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century, describing his sexual awakening, his intellectual development and his rebellion against Roman Catholicism. From the author of Dubliners, Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake.

Includes poems such as Chamber Music, and Pomes Penyeach.

His stories are fillled with the rich detail of Dublin life, portraying ordinary, often defeated lives with unflinching realism. He writes of social decline, sexual desire and exploitation, corruption and personal failure, yet creates a brilliantly compelling, unique vision of the world and of human experience.

First published in 1922, and modelled on Homer's "Odyssey", this is Joyce's account of one day in 1904 in the life of Dublin. It is an earthy story which focuses on the humble Lionel Bloom and his sensuous wife, Molly.

Summoned to take up the position of a land surveyor to the mysterious lord of a castle, the character known as K. finds himself in a bitter and baffling struggle to contact his new employer and go about his duties.

The story of the mysterious indictment, trial and reckoning forced upon Joseph K is one of twentieth century's master parables which has influenced many writers since. Rendering the absurd and the terrifying with factual accuracy, the author presents the world we recognize in a narrative which is also a revelation of its hidden significance.

Kafka was an obsessive writer who produced a huge volume of stories, novels, diaries and letters in his brief lifetime.

This selection covers the full range of Kipling's extraordinary short stories throughout his career. Above all, they convey a wonderful sense of life and energy and reveal Kipling as a far greater and more diverse writer than most people suspect.

Born in 1469, Niccolo Machiavelli undertook diplomatic missions to various courts, before his imprisonment and exile. To quote his own words, this book discusses "what a principality is, what kinds there are, how they can be acquired, how they can be kept and why they are lost".

With this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Thomas Mann rose to the front ranks of the great modern novelists, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929.

In the book which put South America on the literary map, Marquez tells the haunting story of a community lost in the depths of that almighty continent where time passes slowly.