My Chiltern Books

The arrival of two rich bachelors stirs Mrs Bennet to hope that wedding bells will soon be in the air. Jane, the eldest of Mrs Bennet’s daughters, forms an early attachment to Mr Bingley, but her spirited sister Elizabeth takes against the arrogant Mr Darcy. Events conspire to keep Jane and Mr Bingley apart, while Darcy’s pride and Lizzy’s prejudice hamper the course of true love.

Elinor Dashwood’s cool reason and her sister Marianne’s more demonstrative nature are revealed when their father Henry dies and they are uprooted from the family home. For Elinor and Marianne, salvation lies in making a suitable match, but both must overcome adversity. Elinor strikes up an attachment with Edward Ferrars, who harbours a secret that constrains his commitment, while Marianne falls for a penniless charmer who throws her over for a rich heiress.

In her last completed novel, Jane Austen revisits the theme of mischance and misunderstanding along the road to happiness. Seven years after she was persuaded to break off their engagement, Anne Elliot is unexpectedly reacquainted with Captain Frederick Wentworth. Anne is still in love with Wentworth, but will the captain be able to forgive her?

Nick Carraway rents a property on Long Island, where the new moneyed class are given to ostentatious displays of wealth. None more so than the mysterious Jay Gatsby, a man who throws lavish parties for uninvited guests. After befriending his enigmatic neighbour, Nick helps reconnect Gatsby with his lost love Daisy Buchanan, now married and living tantalizingly close by. The rekindling of their passion has explosive ramifications, and the secrets of Gatsby’s murky past are finally revealed.

Orphaned Jane Eyre has endured a life of austerity and hardship until she is appointed governess at Thornfield Hall by its remote and brooding master, Edward Rochester. When the two finally meet, they are drawn together and Jane’s future appears to be secure. But Rochester harbours a dark secret that bars their path to happiness

In Emily Brontë’s only novel, the passion of Catherine and Heathcliff is as wild as the moors surrounding their childhood home, Wuthering Heights. This dark tale of love and loss, power and possession, action and terrifying reaction, stands as one of the greatest works of fiction in the English language.

When Helen Graham takes the tenancy of Wildfell Hall, she incites passion and rumour among the local community. Helen’s secrets are slowly revealed; the flight from a brutish, dissolute husband, and determination that her son should not follow his example. Regarded as a milestone of feminist literature, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall challenged Victorian standards when it was published in 1848.

Good Wives takes off about three years after where Little Women left off. Meg is about to get married, Jo is attempting to launch a literary career, Beth has sadly never recovered from her scarlet fever and is now virtually housebound, and little Amy is maturing fast, and about to go off travelling with a wealthy aunt. Each girl is struggling with her own problems; for Meg, she must learn to be a good wife and mother, and juggle the demands of the two; Jo must learn how to maintain her morals in a corrupt business, and rein in her headstrong and often selfish nature; Beth has to come to terms with the fact that she may never grow old, and learn to enjoy the time she has left without dwelling on what may come, and Amy must learn to put others first, and understand that money and fine things are nothing in comparison to a good heart and unconditional love.

With their father away at the Civil War, times are hard for the March sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy – and their mother, Marmee. Louisa May Alcott’s moving coming-of-age story, whose homespun charm and core family values made it a cultural landmark in America, is enduringly popular all over the world.

When having his portrait painted, Dorian Gray declares he would give anything to stay youthful – even his soul. Dorian descends into a life of decadent excess, and while he retains his youthful looks, the portrait becomes horrifically disfigured. Oscar Wilde’s only novel is a dark, Faustian fable of wish fulfilment that leads to an inescapable day of reckoning.

In Great Expectations, one of his best-loved novels, Dickens tells the enthralling story of the orphaned Pip and introduces us to a gallery of unforgettable characters including Joe, the kindly blacksmith, the mysterious Magwitch, the reclusive Miss Havisham and the beautiful but cold-hearted Estella.