Try The Mayor of Casterbridge.
thanks, birdfeed , I've seen it on a shelf and I'll definitely try it.

"Longitude" by Dava Sobel (which we discussed a bit in here some time ago).
This is extremely good and very easy to read.
but awfully difficult to translate. i am racking my brains over all "midshipmen", "king's ransoms" etc. one day AWAD will be inundated by my questions about it