William Wilkie Collins ; with an introduction by Nicholas Rance. Robert Louis Stevenson ; with an introduction by Nicholas Rance William Shakespeare ; with an introduction by Sylvan Barnet. Benjamin Franklin ; with an introduction by Jill Lepore. Jules Verne ; with an introduction by Tim Farrant. Patrick White ; with an introduction by Nicholas Shakespeare. Anthony Trollope ; with an introduction by Graham Handley. Herman Melville ; with an introduction by John Updike. Isaac Asimov ; with an introduction by Michael Dirda. James Joyce ; with an introduction by Richard Brown.