4.30 avg rating — 4,907,725 ratings

"Absolute best and cleverest book ever."

3.85 avg rating — 32,617 ratings

"The first book I remember laughing out loud about, on the street."

3.81 avg rating — 277,796 ratings

"Charming and charming, with one of the most generously drawn women in fiction."

4.02 avg rating — 786 ratings

"Funny, funny look inside a British public school, and the brains of boys everywhere."

3.89 avg rating — 39,695 ratings

"Clever, clever, clever. A police detective in hospital is offered the puzzle of Richard III's guilt or innocence as a pastime."

4.24 avg rating — 22,141 ratings

"The best of the Sayers mysteries for me, maybe because Bunter's (the valet's) abilities to "manage" are showcased."

3.62 avg rating — 3,088 ratings

"My daughter used to call this "the book that makes Mommy laugh." RLS's sufferings with his donkey are brutally funny."

4.38 avg rating — 1,198 ratings

"The first book, The Warden, is weak, but it's short and optional. The second is, flat out, the funniest book ever (if you like things British)."

4.38 avg rating — 780 ratings

"If you like the Victorians and mordant social commentary, these six LONG books, you can't do better than this."

3.90 avg rating — 518 ratings

"Angela Thirkell sets her books in Trollope's England, beginning about 50 years after he stopped. Not a genius, but very British and very addicting. Miss Bunting is the perfect governess cum companion."

3.76 avg rating — 21,747 ratings

"No one reads it, but it's fabulous. He doesn't really solve crime so much as solve people's problems, fascinatingly."

3.55 avg rating — 12,038 ratings

"Not a laugh riot, clearly, but riveting from start to finish, not something I'd say about another piece of British fiction until Jane Austen."

4.14 avg rating — 372,225 ratings

"The very repressed emotional life of the perfect butler."

3.87 avg rating — 27,036 ratings

"I'd vote for this as her best book: interesting characters, important themes."

4.05 avg rating — 2,370 ratings

"I love Miss Silver. A retired governess who sleuths. She's a sterner Miss Marple. The more she's in the book, the better. I cried when I read the last of the series."

3.74 avg rating — 32,588 ratings

"I read it every year and laugh helplessly."

3.77 avg rating — 99,894 ratings

"Much more interesting than the title, the description, or the terrible movie would have you believe. It's England being made over by a conqueror with lots of casualties. Two appealing heroines."

4.11 avg rating — 2,003 ratings

"I never liked her novels, but she is THE genius of the essay."

4.14 avg rating — 6,240 ratings

"British people ruining themselves and everyone else by being very British in someone else's country."

4.36 avg rating — 6,990 ratings

"Not a lot of modern British novels set in convents. Rumer Godden is the standard. Fascinating details and complex characters have made me read this 3-4 times."

4.18 avg rating — 19,682 ratings

"I have no interest in sailors or ships, yet I could not put this book down and started taking out the rest of the series in twos and threes. Total page turners with a really likable main character."

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,149 ratings

"Shy young girl goes to her first country-house party. It's crack for an Anglophile."

4.05 avg rating — 262,832 ratings

"Funny, sad, touching. His most perfect book?"

4.15 avg rating — 793,804 ratings

"Sadder and gentler than her other books, but not too gentle."

3.78 avg rating — 27,032 ratings

4.29 avg rating — 1,168 ratings

"So tender and sweet I'm almost ashamed of this."

4.09 avg rating — 952,005 ratings

3.83 avg rating — 26,617 ratings

"If you can get past the dialect, a wrenching book with a title character you love and pictures of English country life that are so much better than the drivel the Romantic poets spewed."

3.83 avg rating — 48,716 ratings

3.87 avg rating — 33,223 ratings

"A keen mind applied to colonialism."

4.13 avg rating — 51,169 ratings

4.19 avg rating — 32,659 ratings

"Inside a women's school for this mystery. "

3.89 avg rating — 1,039,073 ratings

4.02 avg rating — 115,628 ratings

3.81 avg rating — 134,019 ratings

3.53 avg rating — 239,949 ratings

"Only medievalists read all of them, but the prologue and some of the tales ("Wife of Bath's", "Miller's" are piercing or funny or beautiful."

4.29 avg rating — 42,638 ratings

4.23 avg rating — 333,004 ratings

3.81 avg rating — 1,029,748 ratings

"So much better than the ghastly movie or the terrible sequel. Made me want to write in incomplete sentences forever."

4.24 avg rating — 74,177 ratings

4.29 avg rating — 169,410 ratings

"Not a children's book at all, I thought. I couldn't put it down."

4.54 avg rating — 740,442 ratings

4.17 avg rating — 1,317,092 ratings

4.28 avg rating — 715,813 ratings

4.43 avg rating — 4,579,087 ratings

3.96 avg rating — 3,713 ratings

4.05 avg rating — 1,003,177 ratings

"I mostly hate Emma, but the rest of the characters are priceless."

3.92 avg rating — 1,950,701 ratings

4.16 avg rating — 2,368,865 ratings

3.70 avg rating — 94,962 ratings

4.09 avg rating — 1,316,005 ratings

4.25 avg rating — 742,408 ratings

3.89 avg rating — 1,615,494 ratings

"Flawlessly realized world of an autistic teen, and a good mystery too. I'd love it even if it weren't British."

3.85 avg rating — 28,507 ratings

3.58 avg rating — 14,540 ratings

"Terrific, and terrifically honest, account of live "in service" and before. The gem that working class country parents stayed home from Sunday service for the treat of a little sex while the kids were at Sunday school? Priceless."

4.16 avg rating — 41,654 ratings

4.36 avg rating — 160,703 ratings

"Sweet, gently funny. So much better than the boring series they made out of it."

3.82 avg rating — 661 ratings

"intelligent and funny. Guinness also seems to have lunch with every famous British actor of his generation."

4.03 avg rating — 21,756 ratings

3.91 avg rating — 59,520 ratings

"The most vicious speeches in Shakespeare. Delicious."

3.68 avg rating — 95 ratings

"Lots of courtiers with lots of sex on the brain. Also, compact, which is an excellent thing in a poet."

3.91 avg rating — 240,824 ratings

"Best play ever, period, to my mind."

4.37 avg rating — 356,290 ratings

4.24 avg rating — 87,646 ratings

3.94 avg rating — 506 ratings

3.95 avg rating — 820 ratings

"Fascinating look at the early war effort in Britain. Lots more people than were needed. Lots more flawed than Tom Brokaw et al. would have you believe."

3.87 avg rating — 479 ratings

3.51 avg rating — 10,245 ratings

"Funny spy novel? Yep."

3.65 avg rating — 1,770 ratings

3.50 avg rating — 140,109 ratings

"I find D.H. Lawrence a little wearing, but how many sexy British books are there? And this is sexy."

3.81 avg rating — 131,973 ratings

"I love Miss Marple, and this might be my favorite Miss Marple. All the reactions to the murder are so British: suspicion of the artist fellow, fretting about what the neighbors will think, and the will to carry on."

4.47 avg rating — 11,606,452 ratings

4.22 avg rating — 270,757 ratings

4.27 avg rating — 1,662,055 ratings

3.85 avg rating — 13,023 ratings

3.89 avg rating — 57,027 ratings