The case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce?a dispute over a vast fortune left by a miser who died intestate?has occupied the Court of Chancery for years. When Lady Dedlock faints upon recognizing the handwriting in one of the documents pertaining to the case, her sinister lawyer, Tulkinghorn, immediately suspects a hidden secret, and an opportunity for blackmail?but he is playing a dangerous game, and is soon found dead: a victim of murder. It is down to Detective...

Recounts the troubled romance of Rosa Bud and Edwin Drood, whose disappearance reveals the jealousy of Drood's uncle John Jasper, who coveted Rosa and may have killed Drood.

First published in 1854, Hard Times is a profoundly moving, articulate and searing indictment of the life-reducing effects of the industrial revolution, and certain aspects of enlightenment thinking. Set in the fictional midlands mill-town of Coketown, the narrative centers on the industrialist, Mr Thomas Gradgrind, whose belief in scientific utilitarianism skews his world view and is a motive force, carrying the narrative towards farce

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