Gaskell saw the emotional and economic realities of ordinary life with a steely honesty

Ruth, North and South and Mary Barton are at least as good as any of Dickens's novels

Pah! to Dickens. Eat your heart out, Little Nell. That Elizabeth Gaskell could write a death scene to make your socks melt

One of the most perceptive novels of the mid-Victorian era

North And South explores themes that still seem strikingly modern. One hundred and fifty years after it appeared, the North-South divide - and the social and economic gulf it implies - remains intact

What a book [Moby-Dick] Melville has written! It gives me an idea of much greater power than his preceding ones. It hardly seemed to me that the review of it, in the Literary World, did justice to its best points

Osama bin Laden's name and face have become so numbingly familiar to Americans as in effect to obliterate any history he and his shadowy followers might have had before they became stock symbols of everything loathsome and hateful to the collective imagination. Inevitably, then, collective passions are being funnelled into a drive for war that uncannily resembles Captain Ahab in pursuit of Moby Dick

Meticulous, clever, eloquent. An absorbing and thoughtful tale of good people in hard times

A remarkably feeling, nuanced novel that satisfies the head as well as the heart. This does not read like a retelling of history, but like a draught of real life. With her seemingly small canvas, Dunmore has created a universe

Dunmore's genius lies in her ability to convey the strange Soviet atmosphere of these very Soviet stories using the most subtle of clues

Storytelling on a grand scale

This cleverly constructed novel will have, deservedly, widespread popular appeal, especially, perhaps, with young female readership

A beautifully written book with moments of real sadness, hope, laughter, tragedy and joy, which make you appreciate all the little things you love, as your eyes brim with tears

A beautifully-crafted, heart-breaking look at love and loss

Another must is If I Stay by Gayle Foreman, which deals with deep, universal emotions and unpicks the truth about moving on after unspeakable loss - a fresh and compelling piece of work

A heartbreaking and beautifully written novel that should be a must-read for everyone. I doubt anyone who reads this will get to the end dry-eyed. Stock up the tissues!

If I Stay makes you appreciate what you have, all that you've lost and all that might be

A beautifully written book with moments of real sadness, hope and joy