Cold Comfort Farm (Penguin Classics)

Strong of will and slender of ankle, 20-year-old orphan Flora Poste is blessed with every virtue save that of being able to earn her own living. Casting around for suitable relatives with whom she can make her home, Flora alights on the mysterious Starkadders and, ignoring the horrified shrieks of her friends, heads down to darkest Sussex. There she is confronted by an exceptionally odd cast of characters: grief-stricken Judith, fervently religious Amos, the lusty, smouldering Seth, wild and mysterious Elfine and, of course, the invisible tyrant Great Aunt Ada Doom, who saw something nasty in the woodshed. Many would be overcome by the simmering passions of the Starkadder family, but not Flora. All they need is a little organising.