Great literature, like all great art can create windows in our limited reality. This can occure through:

• the inspiational value of the characters or message
• or the depth or delicacy of descriptions within the work
• or the sheer beauty of the prose or poety.

Below are just a very few examples of such texts.

Poetry

1. Wordsworth:

• "Prelude" (1805 ed.)
• "The Lucy Poems"
• "Tintern Abbey"

Prose

Jane Austen:

• "Mansfield Park"

George Elliot:

• "Daniel Deronda" (dealing with Gwendolene Harleth)

Henry James:

• "Portrait of a Lady"
• "The Awkward Age"

Joseph Conrad:

• "Nostromo"
• "Heart of Darkness"
• "Secret Agent"
• "Secret Sharer" (novello)

D.H.Lawrence

• "Rainbow"
• "Women in Love"

Emily Bronte:

• "Wuthering Heights"

This is obviously just the very beginning of an English list of work likely to be character changing in its intensity, perspective or sheer beauty. We need a for many other languages.