Pride and Prejudice is perhaps Jane Austen's most famous novel. Like most of her work, it focuses on the romantic travails of upper class women in her own early nineteenth-century England. Pride and Prejudice specifically details the two very different approaches taken by the two Bennett sisters, the suspicious and harsh Elizabeth and the sweet, shy Jane, in finding appropriate marriages.

Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Miserables is an epic tale about Jean val Jean, a man who spends years on the run after escaping prison. Val Jean famously enters the harsh French prison system after stealing a loaf of bread, and is chased by the ruthless Inspector Javert. The book uses val Jean's story as a way to deal with French history, taking place from the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 to the June Rebellion of 1832.

Published in 1820, Ivanhoe was Sir Walter Scott's fifth novel. Like his previous novels, it was a historical novel, but it was his first to focus on the medieval era. Telling the story of the roguish hero Wilfred of Ivanhoe during the last part of the twelfth century, Scott's book brought about a revival of interest in medievalism, chivalry, and Anglo-Saxon England during the nineteenth century in Britain.

Middlemarch, written by George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans), was akin to many nineteenth-century English novels in that it had a wide scope in terms of characters and plot. In contrast to other novels of the time, however, Middlemarch featured a biting tone regarding its subjects, and did not feature a strong moral or societal lesson.

Jules Verne was a French author who rose to prominence in the late nineteenth century from a series of novels with overlapping themes, known as Les Voyages Extraordinaires. His 1865 book From the Earth to the Moon detailed a space fight, 1870's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea chronicled a submarine voyage, and 1872's Around the World in Eighty Days followed a circumnavigation of the globe in a hot-air balloon.

Charles Dickens' next-to-last novel, 1861's Great Expectations is often considered Dickens' most well-constructed and best-written novel. The story follows, in first person narrative, a young boy named Pip as he grows up and navigates Victorian London society through various connections he makes. The book is able to provide Dickens a platform to criticize Victorian manners and mores, as well as class structures.

In Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, the Artful Dodger is an orphan that mentors Oliver when he first arrives in London. The Dodger introduces Oliver to Mr. Finnegan, a gentleman that feeds and clothes a small army of orphans. In exchange, he teaches them to pick pockets and keeps the proceeds for himself.

Peter Pan was written by James Barrie; Treasure Island was written by Robert Louis Stephenson; The Hunchback of Notre Dame was written by Victor Hugo; and Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck.

Gulliver's Travels is a satirical novel by the Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift, published in 1726. In it, Swift satirizes the popular "travelogue" by having his main character, Lemuel Gulliver, visit various odd worlds and locations. Among these are the civilized horses called the Houyhnhnms, the giant Brobdingnagians, and the diminutive Lilliputians.

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe was based on the true story of the lost Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk. Defoe's work, first published in 1719, is often considered the first novel to be written in English, as Defoe recounted the story of Crusoe in a manner not unlike a prose account of a real event.