Read The War of the Worlds

The Eloi, the Morlocks and the beach at the end of the world; Wells invented time travel.

Pip, Magwitch on the marshes and Miss Havisham's rotting cake.

Dickens' favourite child, from a blacking factory to a writer's desk; Micawber and Uriah Heep.

London and Paris during the Terror; "it is a far, far better thing that I do".

Please, sir, I want some more; Fagin, the Artful Dodger and Bill Sikes.

A lawsuit that outlives everyone in it, and the fog over Chancery; Dickens' biggest novel.

Becky Sharp climbs through Regency society without a heart; a novel without a hero.

A portrait ages while its subject sins; Wilde's only novel.