Bartley Alexander is a construction engineer and world-renowned builder of bridges going through what's known today (but not in 1912) as a mid-life crisis. Although married to his wife Winifred, Bartley resumes his acquaintance with a former lover, Hilda Burgoyne, in London. The affair proves to gnaw at Bartley's sense of propriety and honor.
'The Forsyte Saga' is the story of a wealthy London family stretching from the eighteen-eighties until the nineteen-twenties. In Chancery is the second book in the saga. Five years have passed since Irene left Soames and the death of Bosinney. Old Jolyon meets Irene and is enchanted by her. At his death he leaves her a legacy sufficient for her to live an independent life in Paris.
Soames who is desperate for a son, attempts to effect a rapprochement but is rejected by her. Meanwhile Young Jolyon, now a widower,who is Irene’s trustee falls in love with her.
Soames suspects Young Jolyon and Irene of adultery and sues for divorce. His action is successful. Young Jolyon and Irene marry. She bears him a son, John. Soames remarries. His wife Annette bears him a daughter, Fleur.
"She carried a fishing rod and line, and her name was Kate Bonnet. She was a bright-faced, quick-moving young person, and apparently did not expect to catch many fish, for she had no basket in which to carry away her finny prizes." It was the first quarter of the seventeenth century in Barbados, and Mistress Kate was the pretty daughter of a notorious pirate with her eye on a young, handsome and prosperous farmer. This is an account of the fictional daughter of infamous crony of Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet (whose only real-life daughter was named Mary).
The Quest of the Silver Fleece is a story of romance, race economics and politics set around the 1900s. Here, a traditionally educated boy and an unschooled “swamp girl” each begin a journey toward love, ambition and redemption in the “Old South.”
This is the sequel to 'The Prisoner of Zenda'. Five years have passed. The King has become jealous of Rudolf Rassendyll and suspicious of the queen (Flavia)'s feelings towards him. Flavia decides that this must be the last year in which she sends to Rudolf the single red rose that betokens her love, and therefore she also sends via Fritz von Tarlenheim, her letter of good-bye.
Count Rupert of Hentzau, banished from Ruritania after the incidents of the earlier book, is plotting his return. In furtherance of his scheme he obtains both letter and rose, and plots to place them before the King. Rudolf, Fritz and Sapt must prevent this at all costs...
An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews, or simply Shamela, as it is more commonly known, is a satirical novel written by Henry Fielding and first published in April 1741 under the name of Mr. Conny Keyber. Fielding never owned to writing the work, but it is widely considered to be his. It is a direct attack on the then-popular novel Pamela (November 1740) by Fielding's contemporary and rival Samuel Richardson and is composed, like Pamela, in epistolary form. Shamela is written as a shocking revelation of the true events which took place in the life of Pamela Andrews, the main heroine of Pamela. From Shamela we learn that, instead of being a kind, humble, and chaste servant-girl, Pamela (whose true name turns out to be Shamela) is in fact a wicked and lascivious creature, scheming to entrap her master, Squire Booby, into marriage.
Young Elizabeth, left orphaned by an evildoer who murders her last brother, flees Montana on horseback to find her remaining relatives in the East. Her social and spiritual journey leads her through harrowing encounters, struggles between good and evil, romance and, ultimately, love and fortune. Classic Grace Livingston Hill.
"The Rosary" is a beautiful love story. Gareth Dalmain falls in love with the Honorable Jane Champion. She loves him back, but does not trust his love, as is known to be a great lover of beauty, and she - alas - is very plain. Just as she decides to trust him, she receives news that he has been blinded in a hunting accident. She wants to go visit him, but he will not receive her, as he wants only her love - not her pity. With the help of their mutual friend and doctor, she gets the position as his nurse under a presumed name, and thereby gets to know the 'new' Gareth.
This road trip novel is set in the early twentieth century and follows the experiences of an aristocratic New Englander and her father as they travel by automobile from Minneapolis to Seattle. She is wooed and won by a noble but simple commoner she meets along the way. Lewis is at his usual wryly humorous self, poking fun at the upper class and treating the common people only slightly better.
John Builder is a solid, middle-class Englishman. He is very domineering but finds that the women around him are insistent on living their own lives. They will not let him take control. His world begins to fall apart around him
Independent Kate Bates resents the fact that, as the youngest of a large family, she is expected to stay at home and help her parents while her brothers and sisters are free to pursue their desires. When she defies her family and leaves home, she finds that the path to independence is paved with hardships.
The Graustark novels are stories of court intrigue, royal disguise, and romance similar to Anthony Hope's 1894 novel, The Prisoner of Zenda, and its sequels. They were popular best-sellers at the time they were published and the original editions are still readily available in used book shops. The novels gave their name to a fictional genre called Graustarkian: this genre contains tales of romance and intrigue usually featuring titled characters in small, fictional, Central European countries.
During the 1870's, Graustark's ruler, Prince Ganlook, was killed in a war with neighboring Axphain. As part of the ensuing peace treaty, Graustark agreed to pay a large indemnity to Axphain, to be due, with interest, in fifteen years.
Volunteers bring you 23 recordings of Here, Take My Heart by Thomas Moore. This was the Weekly Poetry project for July 29, 2012.
This weekly poem is one of the many love poems by the 19th-century Irish poet Thomas Moore. Some of his poems were composed. One of his best known poems is The Last Rose Of Summer.
Undine is a novel by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué concerning Undine, a water spirit who marries a Knight named Huldebrand in order to gain a soul. It is an early German romance, which has been translated into English and other languages. The novel served as inspiration for two operas in the romantic style by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann and Albert Lortzing, respectively, and two ballets: the nineteenth century Ondine and the twentieth century Undine. An edition of the book was illustrated by Arthur Rackham. In The Fantastic Imagination, George MacDonald writes, "Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine: that is a fairytale ... of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful."
The love that develops between Luke Rowan and Rachel Ray is not universally welcomed. Mrs. Tappitt- a rich, influential, and bad woman - wishes him to marry one of her own daughters, while Rachel's mother and older sister are not sure he is worthy of her. After many adventures, everybody gets what they deserve. Characteristically to Trollope's works, there is also a secondary plot involving the election of parliament in Baslehurst."
Summary by Stav Nisser.
The book lives still because of its delicate little scenes of comedy, the meeting of the lovers, Mrs. Tappitt's ball, the bedroom confidences of the Tappitts, Rachel's talks with her mother. -Walpole
The thirty-five year-old (hence utterly over-the-hill) Miss Margaret Mackenzie, having devoted her life to others, suddenly finds herself with no one to care for, and in possession of a moderate fortune. Having money, she is now much sought-after and no longer universally deemed too old to marry. Partly because she has spent her life taking care of the brother whose money she has now inherited, she has no experience of wealth or popularity. Miss Mackenzie is the definition of “other-oriented. (Indeed, Trollope originally considered naming the novel, and his heroine, “Griselda”, presumably to invoke the folkloric character’s qualities of stolid obedience and endless patience.) These circumstances are the perfect set-up for classic Trollopian swipes and snipes at various fortune-hunters and other obsequies, and more broadly at society’s sexism, classism, and Mammonism. She comes into her own and begins to try to enjoy life, at first juggling, but ultimately rejecting, three serious suitors. As the story unfolds, the particulars of her deceased brother’s life and death reveal themselves, Miss Mackenzie becomes increasingly able to know who she is and what she wants, and both she and the reader are better able to discern the true colors of those around her. The question is: Will her self-knowledge overcome both her personal history and various social prejudices, so as to allow her to fall in love with – and say “yes” to – a really good man?
This scene of 'Domestic Bliss' is from Poems of Cheer by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. (Pub 1914)
This poem, by Franklin P. Adams, is the sequel to/answer to Dorothy Parker's poem, Women I'm Not Married To, with a decidedly different but equally humorous take on the matter.
Doom Castle is the story of young Count Victor's journey to Scotland after the Jacobite Rebellion, searching for a traitor to the Jacobite cause as well as a mysterious man under the name of "Drimdarroch", whom he swore revenge. After a perilious journey, Count Victor arrives at Doom Castle as a guest of the enigmatic Baron of Doom, his two strange servitors and his beautiful daughter...
Foreword from the author, Edna Ferber - "And so," the story writers used to say, "they lived happily ever after."
Um-m-m—maybe. After the glamour had worn off, and the glass slippers were worn out, did the Prince never find Cinderella's manner redolent of the kitchen hearth; and was it never necessary that he remind her to be more careful of her finger-nails and grammar? After Puss in Boots had won wealth and a wife for his young master did not that gentleman often fume with chagrin because the neighbors, perhaps, refused to call on the lady of the former poor miller's son?
It is a great risk to take with one's book-children. These stories make no such promises. They stop just short of the phrase of the old story writers, and end truthfully, thus: And so they lived. E. F.
This is a short one act comedy by Shaw which involves two couples on a cruise who both need help figuring out their relationships.
This Marie Corelli novel falls in the realm of fantasy and science fiction with a steampunk element. The story centers around Morgana Royal, a powerful woman who invents an airship, and Roger Seaton, her love interest who has control of a destructive power. She explores her capacity to love, as well as his. Moreover, she questions whether she is of this world and this time, or some other realm altogether.
The Country Beyond, subtitled A Romance In the Wilderness, is a story of "Jolly" Roger McKay, an outcast on the run from the law; Nada, the girl he falls in love with; and Peter, the devoted mixed-breed dog who links the two together as no human could, as action, adventure, and romance take them through the Northwest Canadian wilderness in search of The Country Beyond.
May Wedderburn is a quiet provincial girl, living in small and seemingly boring Skernford. Underneath the dull exterior, there is mystery, suspicion and fear in this little town, surrounding the austere local wealthy landowner who is very interested in marrying poor May. It looks as though she will have to marry him whether she likes it or not until an unsuspected alliance is formed between her and a respected old lady. They both escape to Germany where music and excitement await them.
Like Wuthering Heights, the center of this story is a dramatic love triangle, the setting is a huge English manor. Olivia Marchmont has always "done her duty." However, when she falls in love and her beloved is in love with another woman, the malice of her heart is released in full view. In this dramatic tale, the vivid description of the country is also important- as if nature has a part in it. Unlike many novels, nobody gets what they deserve at the end. Or do they? Read and decide for yourself.
Emily Brown is an orphan girl that almost no one can help but love when they meet her. She is pursued by two worthy men: Mr. Alban Morris, the drawing master at her school; and Rev. Miles Mirabel, a clergyman. However, one of them is lying to her after she discovers that her father's death wasn't natural, as she was led to believe.
Mr. Neilson was determined to name his first child after his boyhood chum, William Henshaw. When the baby disappointed him by being a girl, he was consoled by naming her Billy. Miss Billy, now 18, orphaned and all alone in the world, takes her lawyer’s suggestion to ask her namesake to take her in. Only one little problem – Mr. Henshaw did not know of her existence, and then mistakenly thinks that Billy is a boy!
Eleanor H. Porter was an early 20th century author of children’s literature and novels. Her most well known book was “Pollyanna” and it’s sequel, “Pollyanna Grows Up”.
This is one of the Victorian “Sensationist” Mary Elizabeth Braddon's many novels (best known among them: “Lady Audley’s Secret”). It is extremely well written, fluid, humorous and, in places, self-mocking: one of the main characters is a Sensation Author. The motifs of the-woman-with-a-secret, adultery, and death are classic “sensationist” material. Yet this is also a self-consciously serious work of literature, taking on various social themes of the day. Specifically, Braddon presents the psychological struggle and cognitive dissonance which are the inevitable plight of the married middle-class woman with a strong sense of self, who is essentially constrained to live the life of her husband. In this, it echoes Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary.”
The heroine, Isabel Sleaford, was driven early in her childhood to bury herself in, and develop her sense of self through, romantic novels and poetry. She is thus ill-adapted to the conventional, provincial structures and strictures laid upon her when she marries the very good and adoring, but also boring and unimaginative, Dr. George Gilbert. Isabel forms friendships with men (including her husband's best friend) who are more amenable to her romantic inclinations, and inevitably encounters social condemnation as a result. The book shows how life’s tragedies and the world’s cruel judgments shape Isabel, as she grows more mature, somewhat embittered, but also – true to her nature – beautifully resilient.
This is a great book if you're looking for an adventure filled novel. It takes place during the Spanish Inquisition and describes some of the horrors that happened giving you an idea of what it was really like to live during that time period. Follow Lysbeth, a young Hollander girl, as she struggles through life enduring times of hardship and peace, sorrow and happiness, war and love.
Near Galway, young Florian Jones has just converted to Catholicism when he witnesses the deliberate destruction of his English father’s land by the Catholic Landleaguers. The Irish Land War has commenced, with the boycotting of wealthy landowners and a brutal chain of revenge killings. This is the story of Florian, his father, his two beautiful sisters, his adult brother Frank, and Frank’s beloved Rachel, an American singer working the London stage with her firebrand father. It’s also the story of the social order coming apart and then painfully coming back together in one Irish county. The Landleaguers was Anthony Trollope’s last book and was not completed before he died in 1882, but proceeds far enough to be a touching and engrossing story and to leave the reader pretty certain of the outcome.
What if figures of animals had lives of their own? If the figures of a lion and a unicorn at the shop across the street could talk, what would they say about the little things in life that they see every day on the streets of London? This short story describes the love story of Philip Caroll and Helen Cabot, as witnessed by these two figures..
Charles K. Spencer is a well-to-do young American mining engineer. Drinking his water in a hotel in London one day, he overhears a conversation between two young women, one of whom is to go to Switzerland. He decides to play "fairy godfather" and send the other girl there as well, also to further her career as a writer for a scientific journal. However, the girl is shadowed on her journey by the mysterious Mr. Bower. Convinced that Bower is a rogue, Mr. Spencer decides to follow them to protect the girl...
When Miss Billy closed, Miss Billy and Bertram were happily engaged. In this first sequel to Miss Billy will the path to wedded bliss run smooth or will misunderstandings and heartache cross their path? Find out in Miss Billy’s Decision!
Aurora Floyd is the spoiled, impetuous, but kind hearted daughter of Archibald Floyd, a wealthy banker and his wife, an actress who died shortly after Aurora's birth. As a teenager she is sent away to finishing school in Paris. This is volume two of the story which tells of Aurora's life with her husband John Mellish. This is a story of love, murder and the search for justice.
Lee Clavering, a young playwright falls in love with an Austrian countess, not noticing the adoring glances from the outgoing flapper, Janet. Unknown to the young lover, the object of his devotion is defying age with artifice in this controversial pseudo-science fiction romance.
Trying to get away from an engagement he had got himself into more or less against his will, Stephen Knight travels to Algiers to visit his old friend Nevill. On the Journey there he meets the charming and beautiful Victoria. She is on her way to Algiers to search for her sister, who had disappeared years ago after marrying an Arab nobleman. With the support of his friend, Stephen Knight decides to help the girl - but when she also disappears, the adventure begins...
Stewart Edward White wrote fiction and non-fiction about adventure and travel, with an emphasis on natural history and outdoor living. White's books were popular at a time when America was losing its vanishing wilderness and many are based on his experiences in mining and lumber camps. The Blazed Trail is the story of early lumbermen in the northern woods of Michigan. The novel portrays the challenges faced by the workers focusing on one, Harry Thorpe, as he endeavors to be successful though completely unskilled when he enters the woods. The author mixes the splendor of nature with suspense, danger, and romance and provides glimpses into corrupt practices in the lumber industry at the time.
"Jane Hathaway and her niece, Ruth Thorne, have never met. Jane invites Ruth for a visit, but leaves before Ruth comes. Ruth agrees to come to Jane for quiet and rest. When Ruth arrives, the maid gives her a letter from her aunt. In the letter, Aunt Jane does not tell Ruth anything about her trip abroad but insists that Ruth light an oil lamp in the attic each night. Very soon, the all together forgotten past and the steady present are united."
After Civil Servant Philip Christy crosses paths with the mysterious Bertram Ingledew in the respectable suburb of Brackenhurst, Philip and his sister Frida, married to the wealthy Scot Robert Monteith, become friends with the stranger. Bertram has some unconventional concepts about society, and as the story unfolds, his beliefs and actions cause much disruption in the family and the neighbourhood.
Who is Bertram? Where does he come from? Allen explores some interesting ideas about society, some of which are curiously relevant today.
The story is preceded by an introduction which, although it may appear to have no connection with the story itself, the reader is earnestly besought by the author to read. The introduction begins as a diatribe against publishers, and develops into a philosophical justification of Allen's writing, and may, if desired, be omitted by the listener who is only interested in the story.
Charlotte Powers is a woman who loves life, and is set to marry Nickols just as soon as she can figure herself out. However, coming home and meeting the charismatic pastor that seems to have influenced all her friends, tips her worldview, and she doesn't know what to do.
"If Burke Denby had not been given all the frosted cakes and toy shotguns he wanted at the age of ten, it might not have been so difficult to convince him at the age of twenty that he did not want to marry Helen Barnet."
"Of course the inevitable happened. However near two roads may be at the start, if they diverge ever so slightly and keep straight ahead, there is bound to be in time all the world between them. In the case of Burke and Helen, their roads never started together at all: they merely crossed; and at the crossing came the wedding. They were miles apart at the start—miles apart in tastes, traditions, and environment. In one respect only were they alike: undisciplined self-indulgence—a likeness that meant only added differences when it came to the crossing; and that made it all the more nearly impossible to merge those two diverging roads into one wide way leading straight on to wedded happiness." (From the book)
This all sounds complicated. This complicated situation is conveyed to us by the couple and some of their friends. However, more complications rise when a daughter is caught in the middle - a clever and wonderful girl who had to endure a sad and bitter life: live with her abnormal mother and be employed by her father, without knowing it's him. Her parents know what's best for her, but does Betty know what's best for herself? Will Betty be able to forgive her parents?
Edith Wharton's 1907 novella explores the milieu of Americans living abroad in Paris. New Yorker John Durham travels to Paris to woo an old flame, Fanny Frisbee, now the Marquis de Malrive. Fanny is separated from her husband and wants to marry John and return to America, but she doubts whether her Catholic husband will grant her a divorce. When John meets Fanny's sister-in-law, the enigmatic Madame de Treymes, he hopes she may be able to help them in their quest for happiness.
Torn between her love for her aging father, a minister steeped in the puritanical values of old New England, and the young Virginian who was born and raised of southern chivalrous tradition, the many and conflicting emotions which stir deep within Conscience Williams envelop this tale of desire, devotion, inner strength, devious treachery, and individuality of spirit.
There would be many obstacles in the path of Conscience's future, and many trials to overcome. Fate has a way of molding inequities in our lives; circumstance is often a veil stronger than the human will can endure. In summarized simplicity, The Tyranny of Weakness is a gripping and intense story of life. However it is also a complex and compelling story of injustice in the face of sincerity; of conflicting traditions; of generational differences; of bold deceit; and of inner strength in dealing with family bonds.
A tale of mystery, romance, and honor, as David Carrigan must choose between his duty
as an officer of the law and a girl who holds him captive; a girl who Carrigan thinks he may
have fallen in love with no less! Who is this strange girl Jean-Marie, and why won't she give him
his freedom? And who are the people that she surrounds herself with along the great Canadian
rivers and wilderness barrens and forests of the northwest?
Summary by Roger Melin.
Flower of the North finds Philip Whittemore on an adventure which takes him up the Churchill River of northern Canada to a land which he thought he knew. However, tucked in among the rocks and hills lies an unfamiliar outpost which he's been told is called Fort o' God whose inhabitants and history are shrouded in mystery. It is Jeanne D'Arcambal and her protector Pierre who have told him of this place, but there is so much which they haven't told him, including who they really are, where they come from, and their clouded past.
"A novel, with several elements of rather unusual interest. As a tale, it is swift, simple, and absorbing, and one does not willingly put it down until it is finished. It has to do with grain-elevator business, with railways, strikes, and commercial and financial matters generally, woven skilfully into a human story of love." --The Commercial Advertiser
"'Calumet "K"' is a novel that is exciting and absorbing, but not the least bit sensational. It is the story of a rush.... The book is an unusually good story; one that shows the inner workings of the labor union, and portrays men who are the bone and sinew of the earth."--The Toledo Blade.
"The heroine in this case is the hero's stenographer; but the action of the story grows out of the attempt of rival capitalists and grain men to balk the building of a grain elevator by a set date." --The Burlington Free Press
Black Heart and White Heart, is a story of the courtship, trials and final union of a pair of Zulu lovers in the time of King Cetywayo.
Our Valentine Poem is by Arthur William Symons, a British poet, critic and magazine editor., taken from his collection Silhouettes (1896).
Spoiled, handsome, 24 year old Easterner meets pretty, no-nonsense gal from Wyoming, is instantly smitten and does a sea-change to try and impress her in this genial romantic comedy.
This is a fast-paced mystery, set in New York City, has two or three really interesting ("round") characters, a solid plot, no cheap plot-twists, two full-fledged sub/urban battles and some real surprises.
Winifred Bartlett, a beautiful and poor orphan, suddenly finds herself homeless and out of a job. Prince Charming (nee Rex Carshaw) comes on to her by accident and begins to take an interest. As strange, apparently unconnected disasters continue to batter poor Winnie, Rex and two police detectives (the most interesting characters in the book) probe the causes and forces threatening the dear girl's well-being and, ultimately, her very life and liberty. It turns out that it is Winifred's close resemblance to her mother, who died long ago in Vermont, that threatens certain powerful interests in contemporary (1913) New York.
An unusually large cast of bad guys - each with a different motive for getting rid of Winifred - includes a US Senator, and unsuccessful book binding supervisor, an influential NY society belle, and gun-slinging Western gangster "Mick the Wolf.” The mystery becomes increasingly complex with every new assault on the girl's well-being, and the efforts of the NY police and the ever-faithful Rex.