If you’re going away for the weekend, or this Easter, and want something portable to read that will impress your travelling companions, why not pick up one of Country Life’s favourite pocket-sized classic novels? Or suggest some more in the comments below…

The Time Machine (H. G. Wells). A courageous explorer journeys 800,000 years into the future and finds the Earth almost unrecognisable. The novel gripped Victorian readers, and it remains an awe-inspiring feat of imagination.

The Jungle Book (Rudyard Kipling)

Adults revisiting Mowgli’s escapades will find them as boisterous and cleverly told as they did when they were children.

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)

Wilde’s only novel is a slim but supremely elegant cautionary tale. Worth a read purely for immortal lines like ‘The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it’.

84, Charing Cross Road (Helene Hanff)

The touching 20-year correspondence between a writer in a tiny Manhattan apartment and the staff at the London shop she ordered books from is an absolute joy.
Good Morning, Midnight (Jean Rhys)

Fans of Rhys’s atmospheric prequel to Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, will adore this tale of love and betrayal in 1930s Paris.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Holmes and Watson’s finest hour – a spirited romp across Dartmoor and a race against time.

Uneasy Money (PG. Wodehouse)

Uneasy Money is an irresistible early Wodehouse which takes place in a universe unconnected to either Blandings or Bertie Wooster. However, the short novel does feature a charming young male protagonist, a high wire plot and a visit to America.

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