king Solomon’s Mines tells of a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the missing brother of one of the party. It is the first English adventure novel set in Africa, and is considered to be the genesis of the Lost World literary genre.

Set against the vivid backdrop of the sea, six characters grapple with the death of a beloved friend, Percival. The characters are subtly revealed through the accumulation of their reflections on themselves and each other. Regarded by many as Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece, The Waves was partially written in order to exorcise her private ghosts, as the character of Percival represents her brother who died in 1906.

Samuel Beckett, the great minimalist master and winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature, produced some of his most widely praised work for the stage in the form of the short play.