Novels & literary fiction

The novel in all its shapes: social, psychological, domestic, comic or experimental, and the short story.

New books in this genre

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Landmark works

Most widely known first.

1813 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen · read free
1719 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe · read free
1818 Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
1839 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens · read free
1843 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens · read free
1861 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens · read free
1850 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens · read free
1859 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens · read free
1897 The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
1895 The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
1811 Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen · read free
2001 Quidditch Through the Ages by J. K. Rowling
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
1927 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1925 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
1836 The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens · read free
1885 King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
1912 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett · read free
1891 Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
1749 The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
1884 Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott · read free
2001 Atonement by Ian McEwan
1871 Middlemarch by George Eliot
2004 Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
1868 The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins · read free
1722 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe · read free
1871 Lady Susan by Jane Austen · read free
1854 Hard Times: For These Times by Charles Dickens · read free
1887 She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard · read free
1894 The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope · read free

Writers

And 539 more

Joan Collins (1933)
John Henry Newman (1801)
William Godwin (1756)
Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849)
Aphra Behn (1640)
Jhumpa Lahiri (1967)
Richard Francis Burton (1821)
Ian McEwan (1948)
Wilkie Collins (1824)
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810)
Julian Barnes (1946)
Harriet Martineau (1802)
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803)
Samuel Butler (1835)
H. Rider Haggard (1856)
Barbara Cartland (1901)
David Walliams (1971)
Robert Shaw (1927)
Anthony Trollope (1815)
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893)
Ann Radcliffe (1764)
Alex Garland (1970)
Marty Feldman (1934)
Leonora Carrington (1917)
Rebecca West (1892)
Nancy Mitford (1904)
Angela Carter (1940)
Michael Moorcock (1939)
Nick Hornby (1957)
David Mitchell (1969)
George Meredith (1828)
Samuel Richardson (1687)
Tim Rice (1944)
Aubrey Beardsley (1872)
Michaela Coel (1987)
Maria Edgeworth (1768)
Bernie Taupin (1950)
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (1757)
Daniel Defoe (1660)
Frances Burney (1752)
Richard O'Brien (1942)
Helen Fielding (1958)
Peter Ackroyd (1949)
Jane Asher (1946)
Ford Madox Ford (1873)
Peter Cook (1937)
Lady Caroline Lamb (1785)
Genesis P-Orridge (1950)
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647)
William Beckford (1760)
Meera Syal (1961)
George Gissing (1857)
Peter Hammill (1948)
Sebastian Shaw (1905)
Mary Renault (1905)
Alan Sillitoe (1928)
Isaac Watts (1674)
Warren Ellis (1968)
Alan Hollinghurst (1954)
Leonard Woolf (1880)
Jack Thorne (1978)
Jane Goldman (1970)
John Harington (1560)
John Cleland (1709)
Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838)
Sebastian Faulks (1953)
William Hope Hodgson (1877)
Graham Swift (1949)
Anthony Powell (1905)
Grace Dent (1973)
Nigel Planer (1953)
Thomas Nashe (1567)
Christopher Priest (1943)
Anthony Hope (1863)
Joanna Trollope (1943)
William Langland (1332)
James Herbert (1943)
Ralph Brown (1957)
Peter James (1948)
Sally Wainwright (1963)
Stewart Lee (1968)
Constance Lloyd (1859)
Michael Frayn (1933)
Caroline Norton (1808)
Jonathan Coe (1961)
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton (1831)
Melvyn Bragg (1939)
Robert Greene (1558)
Carol Drinkwater (1948)
John Cowper Powys (1872)
Julian Clary (1959)
Merlin Holland (1945)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835)
Chris Chibnall (1970)
Frances Anne Kemble (1809)
Ian Stewart (1945)
Abraham Cowley (1618)
Violet Keppel Trefusis (1894)
Mike Hodges (1932)
John Stonehouse (1925)
Chips Hardy (1950)
James Anthony Froude (1818)
George Borrow (1803)
Ernest Dowson (1867)
Kim Newman (1959)
Vyvyan Holland (1886)
M. John Harrison (1945)
Mary Lamb (1764)
Nancy Cunard (1896)
Peter Mayle (1939)
Elly Griffiths (1963)
Willy Russell (1947)
Vivian Stanshall (1943)
Malorie Blackman (1962)
Robert Bridges (1844)
Andrew Miller (1960)
Ken Campbell (1941)
Mark Billingham (1961)
Eileen O'Shaughnessy (1905)
John Heywood (1497)
Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863)
Anne Fine (1947)
Saunders Lewis (1893)
Terry Hayes (1951)
Nicholas Monsarrat (1910)
Charles Reade (1814)
Caroline Blackwood (1931)
David Almond (1951)
Henry Green (1905)
Philippa Perry (1957)
Rachel Joyce (1962)
David Peace (1967)
Jeremy Dyson (1966)
Sarah Perry (1979)
Marjorie Boulton (1924)
Osbert Sitwell (1892)
Eliza Haywood (1693)
Auberon Waugh (1939)
Lee Hall (1966)
Frederick William Faber (1814)
Montague Summers (1880)
May Sinclair (1863)
Olivia Shakespear (1863)
James P. Hogan (1941)
Lemn Sissay (1967)
Astro Teller (1970)
Mary Dickens (1838)
Monica Dickens (1915)
Brian Stableford (1948)
Dorothy Wilde (1895)
William Tenn (1920)
Julian Bell (1908)
Ellen Wood (1814)
Eliza Cook (1812)
Tibor Fischer (1959)
Deborah Moggach (1948)
Angela Thirkell (1890)
Tom McCarthy (1969)
Jonathan Clements (1971)
James Runcie (1959)
Beatrice Hastings (1879)
George Ripley (1415)
Ada Leverson (1862)
Tahir Shah (1966)
Emily Eden (1797)
Clemence Dane (1888)
Kia Abdullah (1982)
Ada Cambridge (1844)
Joseph Hall (1574)
Mary Angela Dickens (1862)
Mike Harding (1944)
Amelia Opie (1769)
Joseph Pearce (1961)
Augustus Toplady (1740)
Ray Strachey (1887)
Charles Langbridge Morgan (1894)
Theodore Hook (1788)
Florence Farr (1860)
Sally Carson (1902)
Harriette Wilson (1786)
Alec Waugh (1898)
Aidan Chambers (1934)
Kate Summerscale (1965)
Stella Benson (1892)
B. A. Paris (1958)
Holly Smale (1981)
Alice Kuipers (1979)
Lisa St Aubin de Terán (1953)
Robert Sherard (1861)
Richard Le Gallienne (1866)
Gary Russell (1963)
Oliver Onions (1873)
Jonathan Meades (1947)
Lucy Hutchinson (1620)
Frances Chesterton (1869)
Agnes Strickland (1796)
Kit de Waal (1960)
Angela du Maurier (1904)
James Kirkup (1918)
John Watson (1850)
Daisy Ashford (1881)
Jane Wells Webb Loudon (1807)
E. M. Delafield (1890)
Alex Wheatle (1963)
Stewart Home (1962)
Jacintha Buddicom (1901)
Rachel Abbott (1952)
Louisa Young (1959)
Gilbert Cannan (1884)
John Drinkwater (1882)
Jane Caro (1957)
Clementina Black (1853)
Storm Jameson (1891)
Pamela Wyndham (1868)
Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere (1800)
Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie (1837)
Charles Higham (1931)
John Michell (1933)
Frances Brooke (1724)
Constantine Phipps, 1st Marquess of Normanby (1797)
Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux (1857)
Jonathan Raban (1942)
Edith Ellis (1861)
Bhanu Kapil (1968)
John Hegley (1953)
John Hill (1716)
Claire Fuller (1967)
Nancy Price (1880)
Alan Simpson (1929)
Natasha Pulley (1988)
Emily Gerard (1849)
Clare Francis (1946)
John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris (1908)
Chris Cleave (1973)
Andrew Martin (1962)
Charlotte Bury (1775)
James Hawes (1960)
Ralph Hodgson (1871)
Bessie Rayner Parkes (1829)
Ray Galton (1930)
Colin Falconer (1953)
Alexander Baron (1917)
George Grossmith Jr. (1874)
Peter Wolfe (1968)
Catherine Gore (1799)
Thomas Burke (1886)
Lavinia Greenlaw (1962)
James Hanley (1897)
Julian Grenfell (1888)
Rachel Billington (1942)
Edward Upward (1903)
T. F. Powys (1875)
William Howitt (1792)
Dorothy Koomson (1971)
Stella Duffy (1963)
Rosita Forbes (1890)
Samuel Bamford (1788)
Henry Kingsley (1830)
Jessie Catherine Couvreur (1848)
Paul West (1930)
Gabriel Harvey (1553)
Lauren Henderson (1966)
Peter Quennell (1905)
Clare Chambers (1966)
Tom Moran (1987)
Oliver Herford (1863)
Rebecca Perry (1986)
Helen Rappaport (1947)
Florence L. Barclay (1862)
Georgiana Fullerton (1812)
Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr (1831)
Olivia Rossetti Agresti (1875)
Adam Thirlwell (1978)
Sheila Kaye-Smith (1887)
Charlotte Maria Tucker (1821)
John Thelwall (1764)
Isabella Banks (1821)
Lucy Diamond (1970)
Fidelis Morgan (1952)
Mona Caird (1854)
Elizabeth Fremantle (1962)
David Downing (1946)
Elizabeth Jenkins (1905)
Lindsey Kelk (1980)
Harry Beresford (1863)
Martin Rowson (1959)
Angela Forbes (1876)
Theophilus Cibber (1703)
Erica James (1960)
Thomas Sprat (1635)
William Hurrell Mallock (1849)
William Combe (1742)
Annabel Abbs (1964)
Geraldine Jewsbury (1812)
Susan Buchan, Baroness Tweedsmuir (1882)
Pamela Frankau (1908)
Adrian Plass (1948)
Beatrice Harraden (1864)
Mary Cholmondeley (1859)
Veronica Henry (1963)
Jo Baker (1973)
Sarah Burney (1772)
Reggie Oliver (1952)
Barry Pain (1864)
Jenn Ashworth (1982)
Ivy Low Litvinov (1889)
Hesba Stretton (1832)
Julia Pardoe (1806)
Mortimer Collins (1827)
Les Barker (1947)
Henrietta Eliza Vaughan Stannard (1856)
Dougie Brimson (1959)
Cathi Unsworth (1968)
Julia Blackburn (1948)
Mary Theresa Vidal (1815)
Virginia Henley (1935)
Edward Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford (1902)
Hugh Conway (1847)
Soame Jenyns (1704)
Emanuel Litvinoff (1915)
Bea Fitzgerald (1996)
Robert Nichols (1893)
William Hale White (1831)
Joel Lane (1963)
Alice Dixon Le Plongeon (1851)
Sarah Holland (1961)
Ian Stuart Black (1915)
Edith Olivier (1872)
Benjamin Farjeon (1838)
Margaret Irwin (1889)
Mollie Panter-Downes (1906)
Elizabeth Buchan (1948)
Vivian Stuart (1914)
Lady Pansy Lamb (1904)
Bernard Barton (1784)
Barbara Hofland (1770)
Dreda Say Mitchell (1965)
Lucas Malet (1852)
Albert Richard Smith (1816)
Richard Church (1893)
John Rodker (1894)
Rosie Hewlett (1995)
Ralph Hale Mottram (1883)
Margaret Louisa Woods (1855)
Roy Fisher (1930)
Bernard Newman (1897)
Harry Graham (1874)
Maria Jane Jewsbury (1800)
Egerton Castle (1858)
Ada Ellen Bayly (1857)
Ernest Rhys (1859)
Violet Fane (1843)
Lady Dorothy Mills (1889)
Ella D'Arcy (1857)
Ralph Bates (1899)
Robert Keable (1887)
William Babington Maxwell (1866)
Tim Fountain (1967)
Louis Golding (1895)
Anthony Anaxagorou (1983)
Sean Bonney (1969)
Horace Annesley Vachell (1861)
Sheenagh Pugh (1950)
Elizabeth Benger (1775)
Rosa Nouchette Carey (1840)
John Philips (1676)
Anna Blackwell (1816)
Leone Ross (1969)
Edward Bradley (1827)
Catherine Hubback (1818)
Mona Douglas (1898)
William Brighty Rands (1823)
Ian Duhig (1954)
Jessie Fothergill (1851)
William McFee (1881)
James Roose-Evans (1927)
Mary Stocks, Baroness Stocks (1891)
Ann Hatton (1764)
Ethel Carnie Holdsworth (1886)
Geoff Nicholson (1953)
Kathy Page (1958)
Margaret Thomas (1842)
Bessie Marchant (1862)
Sarah Hilary (1950)
John Osborne (1981)
Jill Dawson (1962)
Sarah Anne Curzon (1833)
Ella Hepworth Dixon (1857)
Charly Cox (1995)
William Arthur Satchell (1861)
Benjamin Brierley (1825)
Herbert Greenhough Smith (1855)
Ernest Charles Temple Thurston (1879)
Helen Benedict (1952)
Edward Fitzball (1793)
Frank Cowper (1849)
Marjorie Pickthall (1883)
Mary Gleed Tuttiett (1846)
Augusta Theodosia Drane (1823)
Anne Ross Cousin (1824)
Frederick Chamier (1796)
Anne Marsh-Caldwell (1791)
Annie Hall Cudlip (1838)
Hubert Crackanthorpe (1870)
Paul Selver (1888)
Gabriel Fielding (1916)
Leo Myers (1881)
Elizabeth Bentley (1767)
Alec John Dawson (1872)
Nathaniel Gould (1857)
Netta Syrett (1865)
Garry O'Connor (1938)
Ada Buisson (1839)
Amabel Kerr (1846)
E. L. Grant Watson (1885)
Caroline Emily Lovett Cameron (1844)
Edith Cowper (1859)
George Keate (1729)
Richard Cobbold (1797)
Mary Charlotte Julia Gordon (1840)
Adeline Sergeant (1851)
Rachel McCarthy (1984)
Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler (1860)
Ellen Buckingham Mathews (1849)
Laura, Lady Troubridge (1867)
Pippa Goldschmidt (1972)
Victoria Princewill (1990)
Basil Macdonald Hastings (1881)
Violet, Lady Greville (1842)
Caroline Wigley Clive (1801)
Michael Morton (1862)
John Clarke (1885)
A. Hamilton Gibbs (1888)
Alice Mary Buckton (1867)
Mary Hay (1840)
Charles Francis Keary (1848)
James Flint (1968)
Alice Dudeney (1866)
Caroline Grosvenor (1858)
Jeremy Brooks (1926)
Willie Riley (1866)
Judith Barrington (1944)
Paul Mendelson (1965)
Henry Sambrooke Leigh (1837)
George Calderon (1868)
Jane Wenham-Jones (1962)
Harriet Parr (1828)
Annie Jack (1839)
William Brough (1826)
Bernadette Strachan (1962)
Marcas Mac an Tuairneir (1984)
Coulson Kernahan (1858)
Richard Percival Lister (1914)
Zadie Smith (1975)
Jane Gomeldon (1720)
Daniel Weissbort (1935)
Cecily Sidgwick (1854)
Arthur Gask (1869)
John Shebbeare (1709)
Caroline Fry (1787)
Ridgwell Cullum (1867)
Daren King (1972)
Edith Alleyne Sinnotte (1871)
John Abraham Heraud (1799)
Greta Rana (1943)
Gertrude M. Robins (1861)
Mary Louisa Boyle (1810)
Barbarina Grey (1823)
Ella McLeod (1996)
Caroline Biggs (1840)
Emery Bonett (1906)
N. M. Browne (1960)
Jeremy Clarke (1962)
Tom Gallon (1866)
Arthur Montagu Brookfield (1853)
Dorothy Boulger (1847)
Mary Linskill (1840)
Julia Clara Byrne (1819)
Barbara Noble (1907)
Sarah Hoare (1777)
Mary Grimstone (1796)
Katharine Macquoid (1824)
Catherine Stepney (1778)
Gertrude Warden (1859)
Leopold Davis Lewis (1828)
Beatrice Heron-Maxwell (1859)
Francesca Maria Steele (1848)
Jane Crewdson (1808)
Edith Henrietta Fowler (1865)
Michael Blackburn (1954)
Sophia Frances Anne Caulfeild (1824)
Simon Higgins (1958)
Joygopal Podder (1960)
Lily Watson (1849)
Louisa Parr (1848)
Vera Beringer (1879)
Lillian Spender (1835)
F. F. Montrésor (1862)
James Brockway (1916)
John Hoadly (1711)
Louisa Dundas (1806)
Ada Barnett (1864)
Frances Maria Wilbraham (1815)
Robert Bigsby (1806)
Maude Annesley (1871)
Muriel Hine (1874)
Norrey Ford (1907)
Mayne Lindsay (1873)
Katharine Wylde (1854)
Hanif Kureishi (1954)
Lucy Gertrude Moberly (1860)
Joanne Harris (1964)
Frances Notley (1820)
Louis de Bernières (1954)
Thomas Day (1748)
David Croft (1922)
Robert Llewellyn (1956)
Nii Ayikwei Parkes (1974)
Thomas Holcroft (1745)
Richard Stapley (1923)
Diana Evans (1971)
Clare Mackintosh (1976)
Samuel Garth (1661)
Adam Mars-Jones (1954)
Tessa Hadley (1956)
Joolz Denby (1955)
Rupert Thomson (1955)
Alison Moore (1971)
Philip Sherrard (1922)
Alexander Stuart (1955)
Julia Darling (1956)
Sarah Lotz (1971)
Arthur Smith (1954)
Julia Fraser (1841)
M Jonathan Lee (1974)
Paul Stenning (1976)
James Byrne (1977)
Kate Fox (1975)
Angela Misri (1975)