Originally published in 1836–7, Dickens's first novel – and his comic masterpiece – follows the illustrious Mr Pickwick, Snodgrass, Winkle et al as they progress around England in the late 1820s. Read by Anton Lesser. Abridged.

Jenny Agutter reads this abridgement of Jane Austen’s ingenious tale of the five Bennet girls, single men in possession of good fortunes and misunderstandings all round.

‘Of all my books,’ wrote Charles Dickens, ‘I like this the best’. The story of how the orphaned boy makes his way in the world, through trials and tribulations to ultimate happiness, is read here by Anton Lesser. Abridged.

This collection brings together five famously frightening stories: Dickens’s The Signal Man and To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt; and MR James’s Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad,The Mezzotint and Rats. Read by Stephen Critchlow.

The Call of Cthulhu (1928) introduced the malevolent Great Old One trapped beneath the ocean who will one day resurface. The story is accompanied by The Hound, The Dunwich Horror and Dagon. Read by William Roberts. Unabridged.

Set in the real and mythical landscapes of Alderley Edge, Colin and Susan’s thrilling adventure begins as the forces of evil recognize the gem in Susan's bracelet as the missing weirdstone. Read by Philip Madoc. Unabridged.

Zorro’s beloved, the beautiful Lolita Pulido, is captured by the evil Captain Ramon and our hero is forced to go to sea and fight pirates to win her back.

In the final book of the series, Pop Larkin is in bed after a heart attack brought on by too much of what he fancied – but a seductive nurse is all he needs for a full recovery.

An old man, enchanted by tales of knightly courage, puts on his rusty armour and sets out on a quest, guided by visions of giants, knights and the beautiful Dulcinea. His comic adventures are read here by Edward de Souza. Abridged.

Elizabeth Gaskell's great 'condition of England' novel explores the myth and the reality of the north-south divide and introduces Margaret Hale, one of Victorian literature's most original heroines. The novel is read by Clare Wille. Abridged.

This fifth book in the Clifton Chronicles series opens with an IRA bomb exploding during MV Buckingham’s maiden voyage – with repercussions for Emma Clifton, chairman of Barrington Shipping. Meanwhile, Harry Clifton is campaigning to free a Russian dissident author. Jeffrey Archer’s cliffhanger is read here by Alex Jennings. Unabridged.

Set in 1840s St Petersburg, a fictional town modelled on Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain grew up, these are the famous escapades of young, energetic daredevil Tom and his companion Huckleberry Finn. Read by Garrick Hagon. Unabridged.

In Mary Shelley’s powerful Promethean fable, Dr Frankenstein’s experiment and its terrible outcome is told through the letters of an English explorer who met the doomed scientist as he pursued his monster into the Arctic wilderness. This abridged version is read by Daniel Philpott, Jonathan Oliver and Chris Larkin. Naxos Young Adult Classics. 2 CDs 2hrs 37mins, plus a bonus CD-ROM with a full text and study guide.

The Larkins descend on Brittany and find the French weather, food and hotel less than ideal; but things improve as Pop sweet-talks the local ladies.

Instead of building the bungalow he promised Mariette and her fiancé, Pop buys a derelict country home to renovate; but selling it to unsuspecting city folk is too lucrative an opportunity to miss.

Mariette and Charley decide to get baby Blenheim christened, leading to a wholesale christening of all the other Larkin children, general chaos and the vicar run ragged.

Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass was considered disreputable when it was published in 1855; now he is seen as ‘America’s poet’. This selection of ten poems includes ‘I Sing the Body Electric’ from Leaves of Grass and Whitman’s Civil War rallying cry to the North, ‘Beat! Beat! Drums!’.

Considered a bridge between romanticism and modernism, Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) wrote verse that is simple and unadorned. This collection of 23 complete poems starts with the famous ‘Dover Beach’ and includes ‘The Scholar Gypsy’ and ‘Growing Old’.

Jane Austen's first novel tells the story of Mrs Dashwood and her two daughters, Elinor and Marianne – one full of good sense, the other prone to romantic notions. Originally published in three volumes in 1811, the novel is read here, unabridged, by Juliet Stevenson.

Virginia Woolf’s first novel is a haunting account of a naive young woman’s sea voyage to South America – and her internal journey into adulthood. The lyrical intensity of Woolf’s mature prose is already in evidence, read here by one of Britain’s finest actresses.

One of the most popular Russian novels of the 20th century, The Master and Margarita blends surrealism and political satire with a dazzling cast that includes Satan, Pontius Pilate and a talking cat. This careful abridgement of a new translation is read by the charismatic Julian Rhind-Tutt.

Though he died in obscurity in 1937, HP Lovecraft is now recognized as a master of the uncanny. In addition to the title story, this collection includes his chilling tales ‘The Outsider’, ‘The Doom that Came to Sarnath’ and ‘The Rats in the Walls’.

DH Lawrence’s classic novel follows the lives and loves of three generations of the Brangwen family as their world is transformed by industrialization, culminating in the passionate, headstrong sisters Ursula and Gudrun’s struggle to grasp a higher form of existence, symbolized by the rainbow.

Having made a wager at his gentlemen’s club in London, Phileas Fogg, along with his long-suffering manservant Passepartout, sets off on the race of a lifetime – to circumnavigate the globe in exactly 80 days. In pursuit is Detective Fix, convinced that Fogg is a bank robber. Read by Bill Homewood. Unabridged.

‘A Book of Job transferred to 18th-century bourgeois England’, Goldsmith's tale begins with Charles Primrose, his wife and four children in their tranquil rural parish: an idyll to be shattered by bankruptcy, seduction and prison. Whether a story of suffering and fortitude or a satire of 18th-century life, the novel's appeal has never faltered. Read, unabridged, by Nicholas Farrell.

During the Siege of Sarajevo, a cellist plays at a site where many have died, while enemy snipers besieging the city try to kill him. Galloway’s bestselling novel revolves around the cellist, following three citizens as they go about their lives, risking death with every simple journey. Read by Gareth Armstrong.

In Mary Shelley’s powerful Promethean fable, Dr Frankenstein’s experiment and its terrible outcome is told through the letters of an English explorer who met the doomed scientist as he pursued his monster into the Arctic wilderness. Read by Daniel Philpott, Roger May and Jonathan Oliver.

Written in Reading Gaol, De Profundis is Oscar Wilde's letter to Lord Alfred Douglas, whose relationship with Wilde had led to the writer’s trial and imprisonment for ‘gross indecency’. In the first part, Wilde reflects on Douglas’s vanity and his own weakness, but goes on to describe how his ordeal has brought a deeper wisdom. The work is read here by Simon Russell Beale.

Ken Follett's epic The Century Trilogy follows the experiences of families across the globe during the 20th century's most tumultuous events, and this final novel explores the impact of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights movement and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Read by John Lee. Abridged.

The Lady Elizabeth is the daughter of Henry VIII, but disinherited and declared a bastard after the execution of her mother. How the young Elizabeth survives the savage world of Tudor politics, inherits the throne and becomes queen is the subject of Alison Weir's novel. It is read here by Emma Fielding. Abridged.

When a surgeon decides to transplant human body parts into a stray dog he creates a drunken, aggressive and selfish monster. Bulgakov's wild and comic novel is read by Roy McMillan. Unabridged. 3 CDs total duration 3 hrs 45 min.

The Pax Britannica trilogy is Jan Morris's accessible and entertaining narrative history of the British Empire from the accession of Queen Victoria to the death of Winston Churchill. A snapshot of the Empire at the Diamond Jubilee, this second volume looks at what it comprised – from adventurers and politicians to communications and infrastructure – but also examines the jumble of ideologies within it and how they affected its 370 million people. Read by Roy McMillan. Unabridged.

DH Lawrence's reflection on mankind's relation to nature, expressed through the story of Lady Chatterley's sexual involvement with her gamekeeper, is read by Maxine Peake.

Written as a Greek tragedy, with the Chorus commenting on the action, Milton's 'dramatic poem' tells the story of blind Samson's revenge on his captors, the Philistines. Performed by Iain Glen and cast, directed by John Tydeman.

This famous tale by Washington Irving (1783–1859) is set before and after the American Revolutionary War and tells of a Dutch villager who went wandering in the Catskill Mountains, fell asleep and awoke 20 years later – after the Revolution – to find the world much changed. Rip van Winkle and two more short stories are read here by Adam Sims. Unabridged.

Thomas De Quincey's powerful autobiographical study describes the psychological effects of his addiction to opium: childhood experience turning into dreams, at first euphoric, but becoming horrific as dependence on the drug deepened. Published in 1822, the book brought De Quincey literary fame and was an important influence on later writers. It is read here by Gunnar Cauthery. Unabridged.

Although stories such as The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Murders in the Rue Morgue have remained popular to this day, Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) felt that his vocation was poetry. This collection includes both stories and poems, plus a biography of Poe. The works are unabridged and read by Kerry Shale, William Roberts and John Chancer.

Set in London in the late 1950s, this novel by the Nobel laureate Doris Lessing (1919–2013) describes the challenges of life in the aftermath of war. It follows the psychological turmoil of Anna, a novelist and a single mother – as Lessing was – struggling to cope as her personal life and political certainties collapse around her. The Golden Notebook (1962) is read here by Juliet Stevenson. Unabridged.

Against a background of social stagnation, apathy and outmoded institutions, Dickens uses a gallery of vivid characters to show that it is individuals and their acts of kindness, love and generosity that can revitalize society. This Complete Classics unabridged edition of Little Dorrit is read by Anton Lesser. 28 CDs 35hrs 15mins

With a head full of brilliant ideas and wild inventions which never work out quite as planned, Professor Branestawm sets off with his friend Colonel Dedshott on a series of adventures involving wild waste paper, burglars and screaming clocks – among other disasters. First published in 1933, the unabridged classic tales of Branestawm are read here by Martin Jarvis. Age 7+

Ian Holm narrates the famous tale of Dr Henry Jekyll and the elixir which he hoped would help him explore the hidden depths of his personality. Jekyll's experiments coincided with the appearance of Mr Edward Hyde on London's streets; but how are the two men related and how can the evil Hyde be stopped? 2 CDs, running time 2.5 hours.

Starring the theatrical Chance twins Dora and Nora, 75, with a past full of jaw-dropping secrets and surprises, Carter's last novel is packed with weird and wonderful characters, mysteries and literary allusions. Read by Eileen Atkins. Abridged. 4 CDs (5 hours)

In the First World War, Ronald Skirth was an ordinary tommy serving in the trenches; but on the Flanders battlefield he had a strange epiphany and became a pacifist. His war became one of small acts of sabotage, committed at huge risk to his own life. Compiled from Skirth's wartime letters and journals and his memoir, this is the story of a young man sticking to his principles in impossible circumstances. The abridged audio version is read by Daniel Weyman.

Douglas Adams on Desert Island Discs, Ursula K LeGuin interviewed on Woman's Hour, Kurt Vonnegut talking on Third Ear in 1990.... Originally broadcast on BBC radio, these interviews feature ten of the really great science fiction writers talking about their art. The other seven writers are Isaac Asimov, Brian Aldiss, Doris Lessing, Michael Moorcock, JG Ballard, Arthur C Clarke (another Desert Islander) and Ray Bradbury. One CD: duration 73 minutes.

From the origins of opera in the 16th century to the works of Britten and Birtwistle, this audio guide to the art form tells the story of its development across Europe. The text by the award-winning writer and librettist Richard Fawkes is read by actor Robert Powell and accompanied by more than 100 musical examples, including performances by some of the 20th century’s greatest singers. 4 CDs; running time 5hrs 17mins.