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In 1572, Montaigne – nobleman, humanist, and thoroughly Renaissance man – retired to the seclusion of his estate in the Dordogne and started to write. From his pen poured a stream of ‘essays’ – attempts to capture the observations that came to him on an idiosyncratic range of subjects, from ancient customs, cannibals and books to thumbs, war-horses and the wearing of clothes.

Written after the capture of Rome in 410 by Alaric, King of the Visigoths, St Augustine’s City of God was intended as a response to pagan critics who blamed Christianity for this brutal defeat. Augustine attacks ancient pagan beliefs and relates the corruption and immorality that led to Rome’s downfall, which began before Christ, before reaching his main argument: that the City of Man is perishing and only the Heavenly City of God will endure.

It was Adam Smith (1723–1790) who first established economics as a separate branch of knowledge, and many would say his work has never been surpassed. The Wealth of Nations, which appeared in 1776, is the definitive text for all who believe that economic decisions are best left to markets, not governments.

John Galsworthy’s magnificent trilogy of power and passion chronicles the wealthy Forsyte family. As the disintegrating values of the Victorian era progress to World War I and the political uncertainty of the 1930s, the family’s material and emotional struggles are set within the dwindling status of the affluent middle-classes.

Of all the legends of Western civilisation, perhaps the glorious adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are the best known. The Quest for the Holy Grail, and the undying illicit love between Sir Launcelot and Queen Guenever, have provided inspiration for storytellers and poets down the ages, and sparked so many films and books of our own time.

John Galsworthy’s magnificent trilogy of power and passion chronicles the wealthy Forsyte family. As the disintegrating values of the Victorian era progress to World War I and the political uncertainty of the 1930s, the family’s material and emotional struggles are set within the dwindling status of the affluent middle-classes.

Bereft of his beloved wife Glencora and his role as Prime Minister, Plantagenet Palliser enters the realm of family politics as he struggles to guide and connect with his three wayward children. Lord Silverbridge, the Duke’s first born and natural inheritor, expelled from Oxford, a gambler at the racetrack and an elected Conservative, further troubles his father when he becomes engaged to Isabel Boncassen, a vibrant and witty American heiress of low social status.

Sent by the French government to examine the American prison system, Alexis de Tocqueville spent nine months touring the United States between 1831 and 1832. However, fascinated by the success of America’s democratic system, de Tocqueville took advantage of his stay to examine the country’s foundations and glean ideas that might rescue his homeland from the manacles of social inequality.

Ulysses is one of the greatest literary works in the English language, regarded by many as the single most important novel of the twentieth century.

Two young men linked by a familial murder mystery, a beautiful yet wicked governess who spins a web of deceit, and five individuals named Allan Armadale: Wilkie Collins’s follow-up to The Woman in White and No Name is an innovative take on mistaken identity, the nature of evil and the dark underbelly of Victorian England.