Drugs, sexual obsession and possible murder are the themes of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Dickens' unfinished last novel is a sensational mystery never to be solved. Focusing on the evil in human nature, it has the grotesque humour, the unforgettable characters, the superb dialogue, the sombreness, the delight and the innate sense of theatre of the best of his earlier works in a more distilled form. Included with this tantalising fragment are lesser-known stories and sketches, that deal with subjects as diverse as murder, guilt and childhood. This volume presents an unusual selection that illustrates the extraordinary versatility of one of our greatest authors. Paperback. 407pp. Cover design may vary.

The Good Soldier is a masterpiece of 20th century fiction, an inspiration for many later, distinguished writers, including Graham Greene. Set before the First World War, it tells the tale of two wealthy and sophisticated couples, one English, one American, as they travel, socialise, and take the waters in the spa towns of Europe . They are 'playing the game' in style. That game has begun to unravel, however, and with compelling attention to the comic, as well as the tragic, results the American narrator reveals his growing awareness of the sexual intrigues and emotional betrayals that lie behind its façade. Wordsworth Classics paperback. 192pp.

The science fiction stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stand alongside those of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. The protagonist, the 'cave-man in a lounge suit', is the maddening, irascible and fascinating Professor George Edward Challenger. In these collected tales he faces adventures such as that high above the Amazon rain forest in The Lost World and the challenges of The Land of Mist. 480pp Paperback

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man represents the transitional stage between the realism of Joyce's Dubliners and the symbolism of Ulysses, and is essential to the understanding of the later work. The novel is a highly autobiographical account of the adolescence and youth of Stephen Dedalus, who reappears in Ulysses, and who comes to realise that before he can become a true artist, he must rid himself of the stultifying effects of the religion, politics and essential bigotry of his background in late 19th century Ireland. Written with a light touch, this is perhaps the most accessible of Joyce's works. 196pp. Paperback.

Andrew Lang recounts the Homeric legend of the wars between the Greeks and the Trojans. Paris, Helen of Troy, Achilles, Hector, Ulysses, the Amazons and the Wooden Horse all figure in this magical introduction to one of the greatest legends ever told. Also included are the adventures of Theseus and his dramatic battle with the Minotaur with the help of Ariadne, and the quest of Jason for the Golden Fleece with the help of the Princess Medea. 304pp. Paperback.

The master of the short story has themes ranging from the brutality of war and the hypocrisy it spawns, the petty limitations, dissimulations and vanities inherent at different levels of society and all the stories are linked by a trenchant irony and preoccupation with the frailty of human nature and futility of so many lives. From tragedy and satire to comedy and farce. 197 page Wordsworth paperback.

'The Turn of the Screw' is the classic ghost story for which Henry James is best remembered. Set in an English country house, it is a chilling tale of the supernatural told by a master of the genre. 'The Aspern Papers' is a tale of Americans in Europe, a theme in which Henry James is at his most assured and accomplished. The author cleverly evokes the drama of the comédie humaine against the majestic setting of a Venetian palace. 192pp. Paperback.

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'. Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley on Lake Geneva. The story of Victor Frankenstein who, obsessed with creating life itself, plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, but whose botched creature sets out to destroy his maker, would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity. Begun when the author was only eighteen and conceived from a nightmare, Frankenstein, is the deeply disturbing story of a monstrous creation which has terrified and chilled readers since its first publication in 1818. 192pp. Paperback.

Notes from Underground and Other Stories is a comprehensive collection of Dostoevsky's short fiction. Many of these stories, like his great novels, reveal his special sympathy for the solitary and dispossessed, explore the same complex psychological issues and subtly combine rich characterization and philosophical meditations on the (often) dark areas of the human psyche, all conveyed in an idiosyncratic blend of deadly seriousness and wild humour. In Notes from Underground, the Underground Man casually dismantles utilitarianism and celebrates in its stead a perverse but vibrant masochism. A Christmas Tree and a Wedding recounts the successful pursuit of a young girl by a lecherous old man. In Bobok, one Ivan Ivanovitch listens in on corpses gossiping in a cemetery and ends up deploring their depravity. In A Gentle Spirit, the narrator describes his dawning recognition that he is responsible for his wife's suicide. In short, as a commentator on spiritual stagnation, Dostoevsky has no equal. Paperback, 686pp.

Saki (H.H. Munro) stands alongside Anton Chekhov and O Henry as a master of the short story. His extraordinary stories are a mixture of humorous satire, irony and the macabre, in which the stupidities and hypocrisy of conventional society are viciously pilloried. This collection includes 'Sredni Vastor' and 'The Unrest Cure'. 494pp. Paperback.