Fiction Genres

In 1888 Lord and Lady Clayton sail from England but to West Africa and perish on a remote island. When their infant son is adopted by fanged, great anthropoid apes, he is Tarzan of the Apes. His intelligence and caring mother raise him to be king. Self-educated by his parents’ library, Tarzan rescues genteel Jane Porter from the perils of his jungle.

"The year is 1922, and young Nick Carraway moves to the village of West Egg, where he discovers that his neighbor is the eclectic millionaire Jay Gatsby. As he and Gatsby become acquainted, Nick is thrown into a world full of dazzling parties, unrequited love, and unchecked idealism. Gatsby, surrounded by riches, yearns for the love of a woman who chose another man. He waits for her every night, using a green light at the end of his dock to call out to her from across the water. Daisy, stuck in a loveless marriage, dreams of what could have been—and gets a taste for it after she is re-acquainted with Gatsby through Nick. Considered by critics to be one of the greatest novels ever written, this 1925 masterpiece is a portrait of the Roaring Twenties that’s full of literary intrigue, resounding metaphors, and decadent glimpses into the glitz and glam of early twentieth-century America. As relevant today as ever, it offers a cautionary tale of the American Dream, warning against the temptation to believe that enough money paired with equal desire can achieve anything—even reverse the deepest regrets."

Rodion Raskolnikov is a handsome, yet impoverished student. Morally conflicted, he believes that extraordinary men who contribute much to society by their thinking are above the law, and in order to prove his theory, he decides to murder a grasping old money lender and, through unforeseen circumstances, her sister. Unexpectedly filled with remorse, Raskolnikov is caught in a moral dilemma: while he believes he can get away with the perfect murder, he also finds his conscience challenged by his developing relationship with the beautiful, but deeply religious Sonia. Crime and Punishment was first published in 1866 and has become one of Russian literature's most famous and influential works.

Professor Otto Lidenbrock's great adventure begins by chance when a scrap of paper drops out of an ancient book he has just bought. The coded inscription reveals the existence of a passageway leading to the centre of the earth and that the entrance lies within the crater of an extinct volcano in Iceland. The professor travels to Iceland accompanied by his nephew, Axel, a keen young geologist. Together with a Swiss guide, they descend into the bowels of the earth where an amazing prehistoric world awaits them. Written in 1864, Journey to the Centre of the Earth established Verne as a pioneer of science fiction. This edition has been revised and improved for a modern readership.

Oliver Twist sent out shock waves when it appeared in 1838. With a half-starved orphan for a hero, it was Dickens' first attempt to rouse the public conscience over the social evils of the day. The adventures of the innocent Oliver - from workhouse to London's underworld, and how he was rescued - is one of Dickens' most popular stories.

First published in 1813, "Pride and Prejudice," Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners - one of the most popular novels of all time - tells the story of Mr and Mrs Bennet's five unmarried daughters after the rich and eligible Mr Bingley and his status-conscious friend, Mr Darcy, have moved into their neighbourhood. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." So begins the novel, that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues.

A shipwreck brings Lemuel Gulliver to Lilliput, where he finds himself in a kingdom of tiny people. This experience is later reversed when he lands among the giants of Brobdingnag. And yet more contrasts lie in store for him between the Houyhnhnms - a race of noble horses - and the savage sub-human Yahoos. Gulliver's Travels has not been out of print since its publication in 1726. Readers, 'from the cabinet council to the nursery', have enjoyed Swift's fusion of fantasy and reality on many levels. While politics and religion are prime targets for his satire, he also holds a mocking mirror to human nature in general.

Longman's new Cultural Editions Series, Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, edited by Jeff Nunokawa, includes Books 1-3 of Hard Times and contextual materials on the age of Dickens.

Includes the stories: The Time Machine, The Empire of the Ants, The Country of the Blind, The Man Who Could Work Miracles.