Although he was a celebrated playwright, Oscar Wilde wrote only four novels. "The Picture of Dorian Gray," written in 1890, was a groundbreaking work of literature and still retains the power to shock. It tells the story of Dorian Gray, a young and impressionable narcissist who is led into a world of vice and debauchery by an aristocrat, Lord Henry Wotton. For every venal and carnal act he commits, Gray remains the same, but his image in a portrait disintegrates and ages.
One of the most influential children's books ever written, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was first published in 1865. It helped popularize the "nonsense verse" approach of Edward Lear and introduced a host of memorable characters to world literature. The skewed logic of the creatures Alice encounters and the dreamlike narrative had an effect on many great authors, from Tolkien and Lewis to Borges and Kafka.
The middle sister of the preternaturally gifted Brontes, Emily Bronte wrote "Wuthering Heights" in 1847, the year before she died of tuberculosis. More than the passionate romance for which it is most famous, "Wuthering Heights" features on many university reading lists. Blending elements of gothic fiction and tragedy, it introduced challenging themes such as incest in precise, lyrical prose. It is also a gripping tale, in which wild Heathcliff returns to exact punishment on the people who scorned him.
A giant of 19th century literature, Dostoevsky published "Crime and Punishment" in 1866. A tale of murder and madness with a cold moral heart, the novel pushed the boundaries of literature and pioneered a scientifically detached prose style. It is the novel for which Dostoevsky will be most remembered and its influence can still be felt today, with its employment of an unreliable narrator and ambiguous ending.