Jane Austen teased readers with the idea of a 'heroine whom no one but myself will much like': but Emma is irresistible. 'Handsome, clever, and rich', Emma is also an 'imaginist', 'on fire with speculations and foresight'. She sees the signs of romance all around her, but thinks she will never be ma...

Virginia Woolf displays genuine humanity and concern for the experiences that enrich and stultify existence. Society hostess, Clarissa Dalloway is giving a party and her thoughts on that one day, and the interior monologues of others with interwoven lives reveal the characters of the central protagonists. 'To the Lighthouse' is the most autobiographical of Virginia Woolf's novels. It is at its most trenchant when exploring adult relationships and the changing class-structure in the period spanning the Great War. 'Orlando', 'the longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully co...