In this famous story of seduction, two highly intelligent but amoral French aristocrats plot the downfall of a respectable young married woman and a 15 year old girl who has only just emerged from the convent. The letters these two conspirators exchange are remarkably frank in describing how they manage to achieve their ends and, at the same time, reveal nuances of character which make it impossible to dismiss either of them as simply evil. Those written by their victims are equally revelatory in a quite different and subtle way, while the manner in which Laclos handles the epistolary form in order to ensure that his two protagonists are finally defeated, not by outside forces, but the fissures in their own relationship, is a triumph of narrative skill. This novel poses shrewd questions about the relation between love and sex, and suggests that, in certain sections of eighteenth century French high society, idleness, boredom and wealth had created individuals whose misfortunes it would be hard to regret when, only seven years after Dangerous Liaisons was published, the Revolution broke out. 397 page paperback.

With an introduction by Dr Richard Serjeantson. Since its first publication in 1651, Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan has been recognised as one of the most compelling, and most controversial, works of political philosophy written in English. Forged in the crucible of the civil and religious warfare of the mid-17th century, it proposes a political theory that combines an unequivocal commitment to natural human liberty with the conviction that the sovereign power of government must be exercised absolutely. Leviathan begins from some shockingly naturalistic starting-points: an analysis of human nature as being motivated by vain-glory and pride, and a vision of religion as simply the fear of invisible powers made up by the mind. Yet from these deliberately unpromising elements, Hobbes constructs with unparalleled forcefulness an elaborate, systematic, and comprehensive account of how political society ought to be: ordered, law-bound, peaceful. In Leviathan, Hobbes presents us with a portrait of politics which depicts how a state that is made up of the unified body of all its citizens will be powerful, fruitful, protective of each of its members, and - above all - free from internal violence. Paperback, 535pp.

The Holy Qu'ran (also known as The Koran) is the sacred book of Islam. It is the word of God whose truth was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel over a period of 23 years. The first full compilation was by Abu Bakar, the first Caliph, and it was then recompiled in the original dialect by the third Caliph Uthman, after the best reciters had fallen in battle. Muslims believe that the truths of the Qur'an are fully and authentically revealed only in the original classical Arabic. This translation, by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, is considered to be the most faithful rendering available in English. 562pp. Paperback.

Herodotus (c480 - c425 B.C.) is the Father of History and his Histories are the first piece of western historical writing. They are also the most entertaining. Why did Pheidippides run the 26 mile and 385 yards from Marathon to Athens? And what did he do when he got there? Was the Battle of Salamis fought between sausage sellers? Which is the oldest language in the world? And what is the best way to kill a crocodile? This wide-ranging history provides the answers as well as many fascinating insights into the Ancient World. 734pp in paperback.

Russia in the 1840s. There is a stranger in town, and he is behaving oddly. The unctuous Pavel Chichikov goes around the local estates buying up 'dead souls'. These are the papers relating to serfs who have died since the last census, but who remain on the record and still attract a tax demand. Chichikov is willing to relieve their owners of the tax burden by buying the titles for a song. What he does not say is that he then proposes to take out a huge mortgage against these fictitious citizens and buy himself a nice estate in Eastern Russia. Will he get away with it? Who will rumble him? A picaresque series of grotesque portraits, situations and conversations described with Gogolian humour based mainly on hyperbole. The funniest book in the Russian language before the 20th century. Wordsworth paperback, 472pp.

The proverbial phrase ‘life’s little ironies’ was coined by Hardy for his third volume of short stories. These tales and sketches possess all the power of his novels: the wealth of description, the realistic portrayal of the quaint lore of Wessex, the ‘Chaucerian’ humour and characterisation, the shrewd and critical psychology, the poignant estimate of human nature and the brooding sense of wonder at the essential mystery of life. Ranging widely in length and complexity, they are unified by Hardy's quintessential irony, which embraces both the farcical and the tragic aspects of human existence. 192pp. Paperback.

As Angus Calder states in his Introduction to this edition, Seven Pillars of Wisdom is one of the major statements about the fighting experience of the First World War. Lawrence's younger brothers, Frank and Will, had been killed on the Western Front in 1915. The book was written between 1919 and 1926 and it tells of the vastly different campaign against the Turks in the Middle East, one which encompasses gross acts of cruelty and revenge and ends in a welter of stink and corpses in the disgusting hospital in Damascus. Great value 665 page paperback.

This astonishing series of aphorisms, put into the mouth of the Persian sage Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, contains the kernal of Nietzsche's thought. God is dead, he tells us. Christianity is decadent, leading mankind into a slave morality concerned not with this life, but with the next. Nietzsche emphasises the Übermensch, or Superman, whose will to power makes him the creator of a new heroic mentality. The intensely felt ideas are expressed in prose-poetry of indefinable beauty. Though misused by the German National Socialist party as a spurious justification of their creed, the book also had a profound influence on early 20th century writers such as Shaw, Mann, Gide, Lawrence and Sartre. It remains, to this day, a beacon of original thought. 320pp paperback.

Dickens' last complete novel of Victorian society is a vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values. The chief of its several plots centres on John Harmon who returns to England as his father's heir. He is believed drowned under suspicious circumstances - a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity until he can evaluate Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. Colourful characters and incidents the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering's dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of the workhouse and the greedy plottings of Silas Wegg. Includes illus, 794pp. Paperback.

Dickens had already achieved renown with 'The Pickwick Papers'. With 'Oliver Twist' his reputation was enhanced and strengthened. The novel contains many classic Dickensian themes - grinding poverty, desperation, fear, temptation and the eventual triumph of good in the face of great adversity. 'Oliver Twist' features some of the author's most enduring characters, such as Oliver himself (Who dares to ask for more), the tyrannical Bumble, the diabolical Fagin, the menacing Bill Sykes, Nancy and 'the Artful Dodger'. 400pp. Paperback.