Offers a simplified version of the story of five Union prisoners of war who escape from a Confederate prison camp in a hot-air balloon, only to crash land on an unknown island where they must learn to survive on their own.
The story of the orphan Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse only to be taken in by a den of thieves, shocked readers when it was first published. Dickens’s tale of childhood innocence beset by evil depicts the dark criminal underworld of a London peopled by vivid and memorable characters – the arch-villain Fagin, the artful Dodger, the menacing Bill Sikes and the prostitute Nancy. Combining elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel and popular melodrama, in Oliver Twist Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.
In seeking to discover his inner self, the brilliant Dr Jekyll discovers a monster. First published to critical acclaim in 1886, this mesmerising thriller is a terrifying study of the duality of man's nature.
The orphaned Pip is serving as a blackmith's apprentice when an unknown benefactor supplies the means for him to be educated in London as a gentleman of "great expectations."
In this contemporary stroy, Richard, a teenage Aboriginal boy raised in white Australian society, is compelled to come to terms with his past by forces outside his control. Readers will join Richard, his brother and his best friend on a journey self-discovery, mystery and adventure through the Australian outback.