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Advantages: Easy to read…
Disadvantages: …nonsense.

...A WOMAN OF PLEASURE (or) FANNY HILL (1748) By John Cleland (1710-1789) The aim of writing this novel was, according to John Cleland, to present pornography without a single “taboo” word. The modern reader will “search in vain for four-letter words,” as I read in one of the introductions to the book. This is the story of a young orphan girl, called Francis (or Fanny) Hill, who works in prostitution and although she meets the love of her life, she ...
...she actually has sex with Fanny and makes her orgasm. Later on towards the end of the novel, Francis peeps at two men out of curiosity and she realizes that they are having sex. She feels disgusted by this “criminal scene” as she puts it and tries to “raise the house upon them” but she falls and faints. Hypocrisy? No, in fact her relationship with Phoebe, it seems, was not considered “unnatural” –whatever what that may mean– to her in any way. This ... Read review

Advantages: Beautifully written, descriptive brilliance, insight, characterisation
Disadvantages: Style and structure may be difficult

There are many ‘classic’ novels that are very over-rated, but this is not one of them. This is a fascinating exploration of greed and obsession set in a fictional South American republic plagued by constant revolutions. 'Nostromo' explores the corrupting influence of the pursuit of material interests and is prescient in its depiction of the U.S.A.'s involvement in the politics of the region. Meticulous in its detail and insightful in ...
...flows quickly (for a Conrad novel!) and the many shifts in time and location steadily draw the reader into the bloody history of Costaguana and its long-suffering people. The characterisations are excellent (although the author struggles a little as usual with his female characters)as are the evocative descriptions of the landscape and society, and Conrad's prose style is simply superb. If you have seen the woeful BBC adaptation, forget it. This ... Read review

Advantages: one of the gems of English literature, short
Disadvantages: none

This novella has one of the highest ratio of meaning per page, the text is only 106 pages long, yet you can get interpretations which are many times longer than the original! Let's look closely at the text without referring to loads of background information and see if we can find out what it is about. Like many novellas (a piece of literature longer than a short-story but shorter than a novel) 'Heart of Darkness' has a frame, in fact it has two ...
...on a pleasure ship lying at anchor in the mouth of the Thames who listens, together with some other men, to Marlow whose business on board isn't quite clear talking about his time as the captain of a steamer on a river in Africa. The function of a frame is twofold: on the one hand the story seems more credible if there's a source that vouches for its being true, on the other hand the frame creates a distance between the reader and what is told, the ... Read review

Advantages: real adventure story
Disadvantages: there are many clichés

...is called “The Last of the Mohicans” written by J. Fenimore Cooper. The story takes place in North America, near the river Hudson. There are two English forts, fort Edward and fort William Henry surrounded by Indians, the tribe of the Mohicans, Hurons and Delawares. The French soldiers are about to attack fort William Henry which is 15 miles away from fort Edward. General Munro, the leader of the attacked fort asks fort Edward, where his daughters ...
...the English soldiers prepare for help. A second group which consists of Duncan, an English soldier, the two girls Cora and Alice, the music teacher David and their guide Magua from the Indian tribe of the Hurons also want to leave and go to fort William Henry on a secret path across the forest. While walking through the woods their guide Magua disappears, but they meet three men: Chingachgook, the chief of the Mohicans, his son Uncas and Hawkeye, ... Read review

Advantages: Not too long, dramatic ending
Disadvantages: Controversial ending?

...controversial themes through the relationship of the two main characters. George: a sharp, quick-witted character and his best friend Lennie: a large, strong but dumb character who unintentionally often gets them into trouble. Set in America during the Depression it highlights the true struggle men went through to try and find work. Through their journey - the readers is given an insight into many problems the men faced: poverty, lonlieness, prejudice ... Read review