This is an early novel by the phenomenally successful author of frontier, western and sports stories. It deals with historical characters and incidents in the Ohio Valley in the late 18th century, especially with the foundation of Gnaddenhutten, a missionary village intended to bring Christianity to the Indians of Ohio, despite the violent opposition of both Indians and white renegades. This turbulent adventure romance features the heroics of a semi-legendary frontiersman, Lewis Wetzel, who attempts to protect the settlers from hostile Native Americans and the vicious white outlaws the Girty brothers.
This is a delightful Victorian romance by Irish novelist Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, published in 1890. The heroine of this novel, Joyce, finds herself to be in high demand, receiving the attentions of two eligible gentlemen. There is the steadfast Mr. Dysart, but can he outshine the charming but slightly sinister Mr. Beauclerk? Joyce needs to keep her head throughout this affair and come to the right decision in the end.
A milkmaid, Margery, encounters a mysterious foreigner and perhaps prevents him from committing suicide. In gratitude, the man offers her any reward she can name. She tells him she wants to go to a ball. He takes her, admittedly a bit reluctantly, to a yeoman's ball in a neighboring county. From there the story continues because of course, a lot happens after the ball. She happens to already have an engagement to a local lad but his hold over her seems to grow of its own accord. This Hardy story may not end the way you wish, but that is often true of stories by this master writer.
An adventure novel about William Wallace, one of the most popular books ever written by Jane Porter. The French version was even banned by Napoleon, and the book has remained very popular with Scottish children, but is equally enjoyable for adults.
“She stood on the platform watching the receding train. A few bushes hid the curve of the line; the white vapour rose above them, evaporating in the pale evening. A moment more and the last carriage would pass out of sight. The white gates swung forward slowly and closed over the line”. Thus opens the novel about Esther Waters, young, pious woman from a poor working class family who, while working as a kitchen maid, is seduced by another employee, becomes pregnant, is deserted by her lover, and against all odds decides to raise her child as a single mother. Esther Waters is one of a group of Victorian novels that depict the life of a “fallen woman”. It is considered to be Moore’s best novel.
Written by Louisa May Alcott under her pseudonym, A. M. Barnard, this Christmas story deals with the themes of love and defending one's honor. Although he is disinherited and poor, Maurice Traherne tries to win the hand of his love, Octavia.
Marcia Copley, an American Heiress, comes to Rome. Typically for the period, she may want to attract an aristocrat. He brings the title, she brings the money to support it. Her adventures in Rome are different than she anticipated. Rich and poor live side by side, and the author does her best to describe both walks of life vividly and truthfully. Jean Webster is the author of Daddy Long Legs and Dear Enemy. This particular novel would also please fans of Henry James and George Gissing.
Before she wrote Little Women and Little Men, Louisa, writing under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard, had this `blood and thunder' thriller (as she called them) published in 1863 by a weekly pulp magazine. This was during the period when Louisa worked a nurse during the American Civil war. The rigid and unfair roles of men and women of this period, their expectations and desires, plays a large in this story of betrayed love, anger, petulance, and ultimately, vengeance. The story is well written and plotted of course, being an Alcott story, so listeners can expect to enjoy a captivating and satisfying story read to them by one of the best and most highly polished readers around.
Set during the Tudor period of English history, When Knighthood Was in Flower tells the tribulations of Mary Tudor, a younger sister of Henry VIII of England who has fallen in love with a commoner. However, for political reasons, King Henry has arranged for her to wed King Louis XII of France and demands his sister put the House of Tudor first, threatening, "You will marry France and I will give you a wedding present – Charles Brandon's head!"
Christina is an ordinary girl who lives with her aunt and uncle. Life is normal until one day when her father appears and plans to take Christina away to live with him at a robber baron's castle. Her peaceful life has suddenly turned upside down, but this is only the first of many changes. How will Christina, gentle as a dove, survive in the violent eagle's nest?
Harriett Frean is a well-to-do, unmarried woman living a life of meaningless dependency, boredom, and unproductivity as she patiently cares for her aging parents, waiting for a man to marry. When her opportunity for Love finally comes, she is offered a moral dilemma: the man is engaged to her best friend. Should she sacrifice what, according to the priorities of the time, seems like her "one chance for happiness," or should she seize the moment? Can she make something meaningful of her life without significant others? May Sinclair, as always gently ironic in tone, succeeds in skewering the conventions of her society while laying bare the hopeless realities for so many women of the era who were given so few chances really to live. ( summary by Expatriate)
The young Count von Rudloff got himself into so much trouble with the Imperial Family in Berlin, that he sees no other way out of it than to fake his own death. Stumbling through different identities, he finally assumes - quite against his will - the identity of the Prince von Gramberg. At Gramberg Castle, he finds a web of intrigue, which threatens the safety of the young and beautiful Countess Minna. The Count von Rudloff decides to save the girl, but the intrigue is more complicated than it first appeared, and there are old enemies who are still waiting for their revenge...
His Grace of Osmonde, being the portions of that nobleman's life omitted in the relation of his Lady's story presented to the world of fashion under the title of 'A Lady of Quality'
“Mr. and Mrs. Seth Appleby were almost old. They called each other 'Father' and 'Mother.' But frequently they were guilty of holding hands, or of cuddling together in corners, and Father was a person of stubborn youthfulness.” It is only by subterfuge that Seth is able every year to obtain his two week's vacation from the shoe store, and they are off to the farm-house of Uncle Joe Tubbs on Cape Cod. But this year the vacation turns into a full blown scheme to open a country tea room somewhere on Cape Cod, and their life suddenly begins to change. . . .
Unfairly given a dishonorable discharge from the army, Calvin Gray goes to Dallas, where he manages to win the trust of a jeweler and is able to sell a number of diamonds to the newly oil rich Briskows. He makes friends with the family and helps them adjust to their newly found riches. The Briskows, in turn, help him prove false the charges that caused his dismissal from the army.
Jerry is the humorous story of a young man's attempt to win his lady. Jerry is waiting for his friends at a hotel in Italy, and is bored and lonely. When he hears that a beautiful American lady, Constance Wilder, is staying nearby, he tries to visit her. After an awkward first meeting, he tries to catch her attention by pretending to be a peasant tour guide. She recognizes him for what he is, but pretends not to, and a lively charade is carried on as they tease and fall in love. A clean, sweet, funny historical fiction/romance.
A romance with the backdrop of the notorious Star Chamber of the English legal system. The Chamber began as purely administrative, but gradually took on more of a judicial role, enforcing the monarch's will when the courts could or would not do so. As the mix of fact and fiction unfolds in this tale, the court is beginning to lose favor during the reign of James I as the church once again increased its power, while Parliament's power decreased as the monarch tried to rule without them.
A divorced playboy hosts a dinner party complete with a stand in wife to placate his aunt who financially supports him. When his chef is hospitalized with smallpox symptoms, the fun begins. Throw in an ex-wife, a mystery, and a little romance and you have a comedy of side splitting proportions. - Summary by Sharon Kilmer
"This story revolves around Gilbert Fenton, a very tallented midle class businessman from London, who falls in love with a beautiful country woman far below his station. He decides to marry her anyway. But is she all that she seems?"
"A Happy Boy" was written in 1859 and 1860. It is, in my estimation, Bjørnson's best story of peasant life. In it the author has succeeded in drawing the characters with remarkable distinctness, while his profound psychological insight, his perfectly artless simplicity of style, and his thorough sympathy with the hero and his surroundings are nowhere more apparent. This view is sustained by the great popularity of "A Happy Boy" throughout Scandinavia. (From the Preface)
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1903.
This novel was written by Margaret Widdemer, who won the Pulitzer prize for her collection of poetry in 1919. Phyllis is a 25-years-old children's librarian. She is good at her job. Yet when she sees a girl from her hometown with two children, she discovers she wants more. She marries an invalid who is expected to die. Would she find the love and sense of belonging she craves for? And would he really die?
Note: This book is in the public domain in the USA. The author died in 1978 so may still be protected by copyright in many other countries.
Things look bleak for Lesbia Hales. Her father does not let her marry the man she loves. Her mother is dead. She has to keep secrets in order to promote what she wants for herself. One day, her lover, George Walker, is injured in her home and someone stole the expensive amethyst cross. Who could have done that and why?
Khaled is a powerful jinn, or genius, but he has a good heart. When he sees that Zehowah, the beautiful, virtuous daughter of the king is about to accept a foreign prince as husband, who lied about converting to Islam, he takes the law into his own hands and kills the prince. When the pair is confronted by an Angel, Khaled begs to be made into a mortal man. His wish is granted, under one condition: Khaled must win the love of Zehowah...
Instead of prison time, former governor, Samuel Appleby, sentences his former rival, Daniel Wheeler to imprisonment on his homestead with a very strange addendum.He then endeavors to convince Mr. Wheeler to endorse his son’s candidacy for governor with a promise of commuting his sentence. In the meantime, Samuel Appleby is murdered in Wheeler’s home.The discovery of the identity of the murderer has many twists and turns filled with love, devotion, gumshoe dialog, and weird circumstances that will delight the listener in a most unusual way.
The Maid of Maiden lane is a wonderful love story in which Mrs. Barr intertwines the hot political and social issues that were occurring in America during the last decade of the 18th century with an excellent love story plot. Some of those issues include: the moral dilemma and debate over the French Revolution, and how that event touched the lives of the immigrants in America; the prejudices between the immigrants from England, and those from France or Holland, and how those animosities affected the ordinary lives of the people; and the political debate over titles, foreign policy, and such things(for example)as where the capital of the nation was to reside, New York or Philadelphia. The author gives us a picture of New York City that is vastly different from today, with it's residential areas and tree lined roads as the backdrop for this very interesting drama. Cornelia, the Maiden of Maiden lane, is loved by two young men. Who she chooses, and the obstacles that the two face because of the opposition of their fathers, friends, and a huge mistake that turns everything upside down, propels the story towards its climax, where a surprise character, spiritual in nature, comes to the rescue, while sacrificing her own desire for love to help the two lovers. Good character, love, and the family ties and relationships that existed during those times are very well portrayed by the author, and the book is as interesting from a historical point of view as it is from a truly interesting and sweet old fashioned love story.
The Lone Wolf is the first of eight books in a series featuring the jewel thief turned private detective Michael Lanyard. With his identity betrayed and the police on his heels, he must fly from Paris, which is made much more difficult by his self-imposed duty to take care of the beautiful Lucia, who has a dark secret of her own...
A large number of movies have been based on the books.
Priscilla Glenn lives in Kenmore, a place which the Canadian Indians call "the in-place, the place beyond the winds". There are so many traditions, so many things to be proud of, yet Priscilla is different. She dreams of living in the big city. Would she be able to fulfil her dream? If she does, would she leave her traditions behind or remember when she came from? The novel includes descriptions of the traditions and sprawling nature, of the people of Kenmore, and of Priscilla herself. Many people go far away from home to fulfil some or other dream, but home is always there. The novel is perfect for everybody, including fans of Gene Stratton Porter.
Jilted by the man she loves, Xenie Carroll has determined that no matter the cost she will exact the ultimate revenge on he who broke her heart. She is tempted over and over with opportunities that she believes will allow her to complete her revenge but instead sets off a series of events that only make things more complicated. This melodramatic dime novel is full of twists and turns that keeps the reader wondering what improbable thing will happen next?
The best stories are written by life itself, and that is why Thornton Hall has collected real life love stories in this volume. All the Princes Charming and the Fair Maidens of these stories are historical figures, which have at one time played their roles at one of the many Courts of Europe. Hall's writing style is entertaining and easy to follow, and though he may be guilty of embellishing the stories, the flourishes only add to their charm.
An unlikely pair were Neewa, the black bear cub who had been orphaned at a young age, and Miki, part Mackenzie hound, part Airedale and Spitz who had become separated from his master in the frozen reaches of northern Canada. But the two befriended one another, and these nomads fended for themselves until they too became separated in an unfortunate way. While Neewa searched for his friend, Miki was taken by northern trappers who felt he could be trained to become a good fighting dog, a valuable asset in the north. What follows is Miki's attempts to flee from his captors and search for his master, and Neewa's search for his canine friend.
Dice Lashmore will do everything he can in in his quest to become rich. The key is, of course, finding a rich wife. This book describes his numerous courtships of women. It also describes the moral decline of a man who has only one goal, and how other people react to it. This book is about courtship, but also about values. It raises questions like: do modern values of feminism and choice still hold? Do everybody who claims to believe in them really believes, and, of course, what if not?
After 11 years in Rome, Annie Kilburn returns home to the US after the death of her father. But the home she knew is dramatically changed in many ways. She starts to work with sick children, and finds herself attached to them, and to the minister who helps her, Mr. Peck.
The novel traces the return of a young Englishwoman from several years of schooling abroad, to find that her life will not take up where she thought it would. Clarissa Lovel faced not only an emotionally and financially bereft father, but her first glimpse at love - and that not from the best vantage point.
Penrod for girls in the form of Florence, the bratty younger cousin of luminous Julia Atwater, enlivens this romantic comedy set in Tarkington's Indiana of the early 20th Century.
Beatrice is a lonely twenty-two year old woman. After saving Geoffrey's life, they fall in love. However, Geoffrey is married. In addition, a local rich land owner wants to marry the beautiful Beatrice. This is a romance by the author of King Solomon's Mines, Allen Quatermain, and She."
The story of the mission of two Christmas cards written by a minister’s wife. These cards find their way to two straying sheep from the village fold, who hear through the message in the words, and the little scenes on the cards, the compelling voice of home. There was inspiration and good cheer in the cards, and from them came, in one case reformation, in the other romance. (Summary compiled by Maria Therese from various original 1915 reviews)
Anthony Trollope’s fortieth novel, published in 1881, concerns a respectable Christian boys’ school whose proprietor unknowingly hires a woman who apparently has two husbands: A devoted English scholar and an abusive drunkard from the American south. The book interweaves a sensitive and realistic exploration of Dr. Wortle’s moral dilemma with a humorous look at small-town gossip and--of course--a romance involving the doctor’s beautiful young daughter.
Herbert Barclay is desperately in love with Grace Bellassys, but a number of factors stand in the way of their happiness, the biggest of which is the person of Lady Amelia Roscoe, Grace's guardian. Lady Amelia has several objections to the union, one of which is the fact that Herbert is not a Papist, and to separate the two young people, she has sent Grace to school in France. The two decide to elope, but this is just the start of the adventure...
Kate is a dress maker in the north of England who always did what was decided for her: serving those who come her way, marrying a man who is considered suitable, and living all her life "over the hills" she wants so desperately to cross. Until she decides her life are not enough for her. The novels she reads give her new ideas that change the course of her life forever.
George Moore was an Irish realistic novelist. A Mummer's Wife was his second novel. At the time, the circulating libraries were those who published the mainstream novels. They were charged with publishing moral works. They rejected A Mummer's Wife. This sparked interest among the public and it sold 14 editions by the end of the first year. This was considered so dangerous that the libraries took Moore's publisher to court over what was called The Literary Act which was meant to decide which work was considered moral.
This is a less known, but not less beautiful, novel by the author of The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, The Lost Prince, Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Shuttle, and many more. There is something different about miss Lysbeth Crespigny. Raised by three maiden aunts and sheltered from the world, she leaves them for the first time in order to explore the world. Yet she is often misunderstood. The world she discovers is more complicated and confusing then she anticipates. She is only 18 when the book starts. However the choices she has to make have consequences which she learns to navigate and become the strong woman she can be.
Kit Orchardson, an apprentice produce grower in Sunbury, England describes for us a time in his youth in which he fell in love with Kitty, a young lady of higher status, endeavored to secure her love and ventured to solve her mysterious disappearance shortly after they were joined in marriage. Through Kit's perspective, we get a wonderful view of life in 1860 England where people's attitudes were maneuvering between their societal status and their character.
This is a saga about life in a small town in England during the Victorian era. The "stars" of this saga are the Channings. Mr. Channing was ill and, because of his poverty, his six children have to work. Many things happen during this saga: a man confesses to a theft which he thinks his brother did, a lady is engaged to a gentleman much above her station, and so much more. But in the middle of all this you can find plenty of family love.
James desperately needs someone to help him keep his farm going, but has failure after colossal failure finding a good housekeeper. Alida marries a man only to find out he's already married. She's so undone when she finds out that she just wants to go somewhere where no one will judge her for her misfortune, where she can work and keep herself fed and clothed. James and Alida meet and arrange for a strictly business marriage, leaving loving and honoring out of the vows. The title of the book tells the rest of the story, but the way it gets there is worth the journey.
Kept in the Dark is a novel by the 19th century English novelist Anthony Trollope. It was published in eight monthly installments in 1882, and also in book form in the same year. Cecilia Holt ends her engagement to Sir Francis Geraldine because of his indifference to her; she goes abroad and meets Mr George Western, who has been jilted by a beautiful girl. They marry but she does not tell him she has been previously engaged, although he has told her his story. When Western is informed of the previous engagement by Sir Francis, Western leaves his wife and goes abroad; she returns to Exeter to live with her mother. Her sister-in-law in the end effects a reconciliation. There is a comic sub-plot, involving one of Cecilia's friends who attempts to marry Sir Francis.
The second volume of a romance with the backdrop of the notorious Star Chamber of the English legal system. The Chamber began as purely administrative, but gradually took on more of a judicial role, enforcing the monarch's will when the courts could or would not do so. As the mix of fact and fiction unfolds in this tale, the court is beginning to lose favor during the reign of James I as the church once again increased its power, while Parliament's power decreased as the monarch tried to rule without them.
Geoffrey Holland, a young millionaire, visits his country home in Hillsborough after hearing of a recent string of burglaries. To Holland's surprise, he finds the burglar reading a book in his library. And it's none other than his old schoolmate, Billy McVay. As the blizzard gets stronger, McVay persuades Holland to go out and rescue his sister who is living in a nearby rundown shack. What will Holland do and find?
A wealthy bachelor businessman looks back on the romance that he fumbled with a beautiful married woman he and his college buddy both had crushes on when younger. ( Matt Pierard)
After the loss of his father, Don finds that life isn't quite as easy when having to make his own way in the world. Stripped of his riches, he must find a way to make his own money. On this journey he discovers that life will be very different for him. He also discovers that the things and people that he thinks he wants in his life might not be what he wants at all.
Published two years after Gissing's death, this novel tells the story of Will Warburton. Will loses his money in a failed business venture and has to come to terms with his new job as a grocer. This is a book about acceptance, love, and, of course, the meaning of money and status.
After working several years in foreign affairs, and after winning and then losing a fortune, Rupert Tremorne is stranded in Nagasaki, at the end of his wits and in some debt. His only chance is to take the post as private secretary to the Millionaire Mr Hemster, and to sail on with him on his yacht. Sailing around Asia is big adventure for anyone, but it is a special one for Tremorne, because besides Mr Hemster and his staff, there are the beautiful Miss Gertrude Hemster and her companion Hilda Stretton on board. And suddenly, Tremorne has his hands full with those two ladies...