1. Oscar Wilde
   Charles Dickens
2. J.R.R. Tolkien
   George Orwell

Charles Dickens is one of England's best-loved writers, thanks to works like "Oliver Twist," "David Copperfield" and "A Christmas Carol." In his 13th book, "Great Expectations," which was released in 1861, readers take a journey with Pip from childhood into adulthood, getting to know characters like Miss Havisham and Abel Magwitch.

1. William Golding
   Virginia Woolf
2. Zadie Smith
   E.M. Forster

What happens when the rules of society no longer apply? William Golding showed how a group of British boys handle being marooned on an island -- and how quickly social standards unravel -- in his 1954 "Lord of the Flies."

1. Agatha Christie
   J.K. Rowling
2. Kenneth Grahame
   Mary Shelley

It was Mary Shelley who invented Dr. Frankenstein and his infamous Creature in her 1818 novel. The classic Gothic tale reveals the horror unleashed when monsters are brought to life.

1. George Orwell
   Emily Bronte
2. Roald Dahl
   William Wordsworth

In the 1949 George Orwell release "1984," the characters live in a totalitarian state called Oceania, which is ruled by a regime called the Party. The dystopian novel was so effective at describing the horrors of a world ruled by propaganda and surveillance that the term Orwellian is now used to refer to such a state.

1. Arthur Conan Doyle
   C.S. Lewis
2. J.R.R. Tolkien
   Charlotte Bronte

It was Charlotte Bronte who penned the 1847 book about the young Jane Eyre. After a miserable experience at the Lowood School, she becomes a governess at Thornfield, where she falls for her mysterious boss Mr. Rochester. The bad news, as Jane eventually learns, is that Rochester is already married to a madwoman.

1. Thomas Hardy
   Joseph Conrad
2. William Makepeace Thackeray
   Robert Graves

Framed as a puppet show taking place at a local fair, "Vanity Fair" is an 1848 masterpiece by William Makepeace Thackeray. Generations of readers have fallen under the spell of the scheming Becky Sharp and her friend Emily Sedley as they made their way through 19th century English life.

1. E.M. Forster
   Virginia Woolf
2. Daphne du Maurier
   George Eliot

It's hard to believe that a novel that covers just one day of activity can be such a success, but Virginia Woolf did just that with her 1925 book "Mrs. Dalloway." As the title character goes about her day, organizing a party she will host that same evening, she examines her role in society and her family in this book set between the wars.

1. Jane Austen
   Robert Browning
2. Agatha Christie
   Kazuo Ishiguro

Jane Austen created magic in the 1800s with books like "Sense and Sensibility" and "Mansfield Park," but it was "Pride and Prejudice" that gave readers a glimpse into the mind of the mind of the bold Elizabeth Bennet. She finds herself questioning the very idea that "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

1. Beatrix Potter
   Robert Louis Stevenson
2. Ian McEwan
   Roald Dahl

Set in the '30s and '40s in England and France, Ian McEwan's "Atonement" introduces readers to Briony Tallis. After a devastating mistake as a teen, Briony spends her life seeking to right her wrongs, even if she can only do so on paper.

1. Joseph Conrad
   Oscar Wilde
2. Jonathan Swift
   Anthony Burgess

In the 1899 novel "Heart of Darkness," Joseph Conrad takes readers on a terrifying journey with Charles Marlow as he travels up the Congo River. The novel served as the inspiration for the 1979 film "Apocalypse Now," though the setting was changed from Africa to Vietnam.

1. H.G. Wells
   Emily Bronte
2. Daphne du Maurier
   Charlotte Bronte

Emily Bronte's Gothic classic "Wuthering Heights" was criticized after its 1847 release for questioning social standards and the status quo. This tale in which the ghost of Catherine haunts Heathcliff and the moors around Thrushcross Grange has since become required reading for fans of great books.

1. Rudyard Kipling
   David Mitchell
2. Charles Dickens
   J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien intended "The Lord of the Rings" as a sequel to "The Hobbit." Instead, he found himself lost in his immersive tale, and ended up splitting the story of Middle Earth and the One Ring into three very treasured books.

1. Daniel Defoe
   William Makepeace Thackeray
2. J.R.R. Tolkien
   George Eliot

Move over Tom Hanks, and make room for the original castaway. In Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel "Robinson Crusoe," our narrator spends 28 years trapped on what he names the Island of Despair before being rescued. The story was originally credited to Robinson Crusoe himself, so early readers believed they were reading a true account of his adventure.

1. Nathaniel Hawthorne
   E.M. Forster
2. Arthur Conan Doyle
   Robert Louis Stevenson

"A Room with a View" tells the story of a young woman coming of age in the Edwardian era. Readers of the 1908 E.M. Forster novel follow Lucy Honeychurch as she decides whether to follow tradition or explore a new way of living in the early 1900s.

1. Henry Fielding
   Virginia Woolf
2. Kenneth Grahame
   Mary Shelley

Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows" has been delighting readers young and old since 1908. The classic stories of mole, rat, toad and badger were transformed into a movie in 1949 with the release of "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad."

1. William Golding
   James Joyce
2. Kazuo Ishiguro
   H.G. Wells

It's hard not to weep for the doomed characters in Kazuo Ishiguro's thought-provoking masterpiece "Never Let Me Go." As clones raised only so their organs can be harvested, Tommy and Ruth are forced to find a way to live knowing they will die young in this 2005 novel.

1. Oscar Wilde
   Joseph Conrad
2. George Orwell
   Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll wrote one of the first books intended just for young readers with "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" in 1865. The novel, with characters like the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar and the Mad Hatter has since been made into a beloved 1951 Disney film as well as a 2010 live-action movie starring Johnny Depp.

1. William Wordsworth
   Thomas Hardy
2. Anthony Burgess
   William Makepeace Thackeray

Thomas Hardy takes readers along on a bleak journey with his 1891 release "Tess of the D'Ubervilles." After being raped and giving birth to a child who dies, Tess is shunned by her future husband and eventually put to death for killing the man who raped her.

1. Jonathan Swift
   J.R.R. Tolkien
2. Rudyard Kipling
   Virginia Woolf

Tired of the same old travel stories? Jonathan Swift's 1726 classic "Gulliver's Travels" follows the title character as he is imprisoned by tiny people, runs into a bunch of giants, visits a floating island and finds a family of talking horses. The novel has been adapted to the big screen many times, including a 2010 version starring Jack Black.

1. Robert Graves
   Arthur Conan Doyle
2. Robert Browning
   J.K. Rowling

After a whole bunch of rejections, J.K. Rowling finally found someone to publish "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in 1997. Two decades later, she's one of the most loved -- and richest -- women on the planet thanks to her magical tales of the Boy Who Lived.

1. Oliver Goldsmith
   Charlotte Bronte
2. Agatha Christie
   Anthony Burgess

Author Anthony Burgess claimed it took him just three weeks to write his 1962 masterpiece "A Clockwork Orange." This tale of a violent dystopian future features "Your humble narrator" Alex, who takes readers along as he rapes, robs and kills.

1. Muriel Spark
   Joseph Conrad
2. Wilkie Collins
   William Makepeace Thackeray

In Wilkie Collins' 1859 mystery "The Woman in White," the main character Walter Hartright meets a lost woman, whom he later learns has escaped from an asylum. When he takes a job at a nearby estate, he is stunned to see her again -- or does he?

1. Rudyard Kipling
   George Eliot
2. C.S. Lewis
   William Golding

George Eliot's 1871 novel "Middlemarch" is an epic tale of life in England at the dawn of the 19th century. While the story focuses on an orphan named Dorothea and a doctor named Tertius, none of the residents of the fictional town of Middlemarch are left out of this story, which reflects upon how actual historical events of the period affected everyday people.

1. Ford Madox Ford
   Mary Shelley
2. Thomas Hardy
   Emily Bronte

The 1915 Ford Madox Ford novel begins with the line, "The is the saddest story I have ever heard," and readers might just agree. This novel focuses on two unfaithful couples and their troubles as WWI looms in the background, with an unreliable narrator to make things even more interesting.

1. Charles Dickens
   Jonathan Swift
2. Samuel Richardson
   Kenneth Grahame

Kudos to you if you've made it all the way through Samuel Richardson's "Clarissa." At around a million words, it's one of the longest books in the English language. The novel tells the story of a woman trying to make her way in society but ends up in ruins thanks to her own family.

1. Beatrix Potter
   Henry Fielding
2. Zadie Smith
   William Wordsworth

The 350,000 words that make up Henry Fielding's "The History of Tom Jones" are divided among 18 books. After being adopted into the Allworthy family, orphan Tom Jones makes his way to the big city to find his place in the world in 18th century London.

1. Muriel Spark
   Virginia Woolf
2. E.M. Forster
   David Mitchell

It's hard to find the right words to describe David Mitchell's 2004 sci-fi/fantasy classic "Cloud Atlas." Consisting of six interconnected stories set in different places and eras, the book was made into a big-budget 2010 film starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry.

1. Daphne du Maurier
   H.G. Wells
2. Roald Dahl
   Charles Dickens

Part of the horror in Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca" is that the narrator is never given a name except for "the second Mrs. de Winter." As she moves into Manderley and faces off with housekeepers Mrs. Danvers, the narrator of this classic 1938 novel learns that her new home may come with some spooky secrets.

1. Robert Browning
   Charlotte Bronte
2. Oscar Wilde
   J.R.R. Tolkien

Oscar Wilde was a famous writer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but "The Picture of Dorian Gray" was his only full novel. Released in 1890, it tells the story of a man willing to sell his soul to maintain his youthful appearance as his portrait absorbs the effects of his hedonistic lifestyle.

1. Oliver Goldsmith
   Kenneth Grahame
2. George Orwell
   Robert Louis Stevenson

It's hard to underestimate the effect that Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" has had on pirate lore. The 1883 tale introduced the concept of peg legs, parrots and treasures buried on tropical islands with an "x" to mark the spot.

1. C.S. Lewis
   Joseph Conrad
2. Anthony Burgess
   Kazuo Ishiguro

"The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis has been taking children on a grand adventure since its 1950 release. Admit it, after you read these books, did you try to follow Peter, Susan, Lucy and Edmund through the wardrobe to meet the lion Aslan?

1. James Joyce
   Beatrix Potter
2. Doris Lessing
   William Golding

Doris Lessing's 1962 novel "The Golden Notebook" examines what happens when a compartmentalized life starts to divide the mind. Main character Anna Wulf is a writer who struggles to combine the notebooks that rule her life into a single, golden volume, and readers come along as she heads towards a mental breakdown.

1. David Mitchell
   William Makepeace Thackeray
2. Emily Bronte
   Zadie Smith

After forming a friendship fighting in WWII, the main characters in Zadie Smith's "White Teeth" reunite in London. The 2000 novel takes a profound and gritty look at immigration, religion, social class and poverty.

1. Mary Shelley
   Muriel Spark
2. J.K. Rowling
   Arthur Conan Doyle

Muriel Spark's "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" follows the title character as she selects six students to form a special group she will advise in school starting in the 1930s. After years of manipulation, including a risque love triangle, Miss Brodie is betrayed by one of her beloved group of six.

1. James Joyce
   Roald Dahl
2. Charles Dickens
   Oscar Wilde

James Joyce's books are a challenge but have remained classics because of their brilliance, not to mention the stories and characters. His 1922 novel "Ulysses" is inspired by Homer's Odysseus, and tells the tale of two Dublin men named Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom who form a connection after each experiences a tragic loss.