Essential Novelists - Victor Hugo: master of french romanticism

Essential Novelists - Alexandre Dumas: historical novels of high adventure

Essential Novelists - Leo Tolstoy: the giant of Russian literature

Essential Novelists - Eugène Sue: a first look at modern social issues

Essential Novelists - Fanny Burney: novelists of manners with a satirical bent

Essential Novelists - Charles Reade: matter-of-fact romance

Essential Novelists - Samuel Richardson: invention of the epistolary novel