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Rainbow Trail, The

Grey, Zane
The Rainbow Trail is a sequel to The Riders of the Purple Sage. Both novels are notable for their protagonists' mild opposition to Mormon polygamy, but in The Rainbow Trail this theme is treated more explicitly. The plots of both books revolve around the victimization of women in the Mormon culture: events in Riders of the Purple Sage are centered on the struggle of a Mormon woman who sacrifices her wealth and social status to avoid becoming a junior wife of the head of a local church, while The Rainbow Trail contrasts the older Mormons with the rising generation of Mormon women who will not tolerate polygamy and Mormon men who do not seek it.
Father

August Strindberg
The Father is a naturalistic drama by Swedish playwright August Strindberg. The central conflict is between the Captain and his wife Laura about their daughter Bertha's future. In order to gain sole custody of her daughter, Laura tries to convince the Captain that he has gone mad.
Montezuma's Daughter

H. Rider Haggard
A moving adventure story narrated by Thomas Wingfield, an Englishman, for Queen Elizabeth 1 of England about the murder of his mother, his trail of vengeance against the murderer which leads him to the Spanish Inquisition, slavery, romance and living under Montezuma in his kingdom which is now called Mexico
Coningsby, or The New Generation

Benjamin Disraeli
Coningsby is the first of trilogy of political novels that Disraeli published in the 1840s, and gives an insight into his views of the political turmoil following the passage of the Great Reform Bill by the Whigs in 1832 (a second Reform Bill was passed in 1867 under Disraeli’s Tory leadership as prime minister). While Coningsby looks primarily at political questions, its successor -- Sybil, or the Two Nations -- was concerned with the “condition of England” question and the growing social and economic imbalance between rich and poor that in tje writer's view was hastened (though not begun) by the industrial revolution. Granted that Disraeli was not Dickens or Trollope or Eliot or one of the other giants of British letters in the nineteenth century, it’s a bit unfair to suggest (as some have) that the plots are thin and only there to provide the writer with a podium for setting forth his political and social views. It’s true that Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl, but much else happens as well, particularly thanks to the role played by the mysterious figure of the Jewish Sidonia, who in addition to enormous wealth and widespread international connections embodies a kind of wisdom that transcends the mere knowledge acquired by even the best educated Englishmen. Coningsby, himself a product of both Eton and Cambridge, is fortunate enough to be taken under his wing, and intelligent enough to accept his guidance. (Nicholas Clifford)
Manon Lescaut

Abbé Prévost
Published in 1731, Manon Lescaut (on which the Puccini opera is based) takes as its themes passionate, tragic love, and redemption through suffering. It is the story of the Chevalier des Grieux, a student, who sees Manon as she is being taken to a convent, and instantly falls in love with her. He offers to save her from the convent, and the two young lovers run away to Paris. There follow many adventures and tribulations, throughout which the Chevalier remains steadfastly loyal to his love. summary by Mary Bard
Fortunes of Nigel

Sir Walter Scott
During the turbulent moment in English history involving King James 1 and 6, Nigel Olifaunt, a Scottish lord, seeks to protect his family home and holdings, but meets with recalcitrance and treachery, which eventually results in his imprisonment. But there are forces of good that help to set him free and right injustices.
Uneasy Money

P. G. Wodehouse
Uneasy Money is a romantic comedy by P.G. Wodehouse, published during the First World War, it offers light escapism. More romantic but only a little less humorous that his mature works, it tells of the vicissitudes of poor Lord Dawlish, who inherits five million dollars, but becomes a serially disappointed groom.

When the story opens Bill (Lord Dawlish, a thoroughly pleasant man) is engaged to a demanding actress. His first thought when hearing of his massive legacy from a stranger whose tendency to slice he once cured on a West Country golf course is of the disappointed relatives. His trip to the USA attempting to give back the windfall results in complication after complication, including firearms and burglaries as well as the usual human misunderstandings that accompany any human life.

Uneasy Money was first published as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post in the USA from December 1915, and in the UK in Strand Magazine starting December 1916. It first appeared in book form on March 17, 1916 by D. Appleton & Co., New York, and later in the UK (on October 4, 1917) by Methuen & Co., London.

A silent, black-and-white film version was made in 1918.

Summary by Tim Bulkeley based on data from Wikipedia
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Lucinda

Friedrich von Schlegel
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel was born in 1772 at Hannover, Holy Roman Empire, to Johann Adolf Schlegel and Johanna Christiane Erdmuthe Hübsch. He attended Jena University and made friends with many of the writers known by his brother August Wilhelm Schlegel. His first book was About the Diotima, written in 1795, and four years later he wrote Lucinda. The translator, Calvin Thomas, called Lucinda a "naughty book", but that was in 1914. I have no idea where it stands now in the world of literature. It was made up of many disconnected parts.
Heir of Redclyffe, The

Yonge, Charlotte M.
The Heir of Redclyffe (1853) was the first of Charlotte M. Yonge's bestselling romantic novels. Its religious tone derives from the High Church background of her family and from her friendship with a leading figure in the Oxford Movement, John Keble, who closely supervised the writing of the book. The germ of its plot was suggested by her friend Marianne Dyson.
Harvester

Gene Stratton-Porter
The Harvester is one of Gene Stratton-Porter’s romantic novels which combine a love of nature, high moral ideals and a good plot.

This is the story of a young man who lives in the country side with his dog and other animals and grows herbs to sell to medical drug supply houses.

One evening, he has a vision of his Dream Girl and this is the story of his search for her and what happens when he finds her.
Madame Chrysantheme

Pierre Loti
Pierre Loti (a nom de plume) was for many years an officer in the French Navy, giving him the opportunity to sample and analyze different national and cultural milieux, in which he deeply immersed himself. The present book, said to have formed the basis for the famous "Madame Butterfly" story, is presented as an autobiographical account of his marriage to a young Japanese woman while his ship was stationed in Nagasaki. His style is surprisingly modern for the period, perhaps anticipating Camus. His descriptions of summer in Nagasaki have a detail which is at the same time personal and detached, while his observations of the people are less than sympathetic. A sense of ennui and lack of conventional morality pervades.
Lady of Quality, A

Burnett, Frances Hodgson
Set in late 1600's England, the story follows the life of a woman living an unconventional life. The loves of her life and all of its ups and downs are included.
To the Last Man

Grey, Zane
The story follows an ancient feud between two frontier families that is inflamed when one of the families takes up cattle rustling. The ranchers are led by Jean Isbel and, on the other side, Lee Jorth and his band of cattle rustlers. In the grip of a relentless code of loyalty to their own people, they fight the war of the Tonto Basin, desperately, doggedly, to the last man, neither side seeing the futility of it until it is too late. And in this volatile environment, young Jean finds himself hopelessly in love with a girl from whom he is separated by an impassable barrier.
People of the Mist

H. Rider Haggard
Penniless Leonard Outram attempts to redress the undeserved loss of his family estates and fiancee by seeking his fortune in Africa. In the course of his adventures he and his Zulu companion Otter save a young Portuguese woman, Juanna Rodd, together with her nursemaid Soa, from slavery. Leonard and Juanna are plainly attracted to each other, but prone to bickering, and their romance is impeded by the watchful and jealous Soa. The protagonists seek the legendary People of the Mist, said to possess a fabulous hoard of jewels. Finding them, they immediately become embroiled in the turbulent political affairs of the lost race, which is riven by a power-struggle between the monarch and the priesthood of its giant crocodile god. The heroic Leonard can do little more than react to events. The action climaxes in a hair-raising escape by toboggan (it was a flat stone) down a steep glacier.
Rustlers of Pecos County

Zane Grey
The town of Linrock, located in Pecos County in south Texas, has fallen under the control of a gang of rustlers. Two Texas Lone Star Rangers are sent to Linrock to clean up the town .They soon fall in love with two girls who may be related to the leader of the gang of rustlers.There seems to be no good choice for these two dedicated lawmen.
To Let (Forsyte Saga Vol. 3)

Galsworthy, John
‘The Forsyte Saga’ is the story of a wealthy London family stretching from the eighteen-eighties until the nineteen-twenties.
To Let is the third and final book in the saga (although Galsworthy later published two further trilogies which extend the story). We are now in 1920, about twenty years since Irene married Young Jolyon and gave birth to John and since Soames married Annette, who gave him a daughter, Fleur. The two sides of the family have not met since those times and John and Fleur do not even know of each other’s existence.
All the old Forsytes are dead except for Timothy. Val and Holly have returned from South Africa and Val is training racehorses in Sussex. June has opened her gallery near Cork Street.
Soames arranges to meet Fleur at June’s gallery and while there, and again later in a patisserie, they see Irene and Jon. Soames ignores them but Fleur and Jon are attracted to one another at a distance.
As they leave, Fleur drops her handkerchief...
Heritage Of The Desert, The

Grey, Zane
Jack Hare is a young cowboy who was rescued from sure death by an old settler by the name of August Naab. Hare learns that Naab's ranch is a dangerous place and is challenged by cattle thieves and a corrupt rancher who is after Naab's water rights. The greatest danger Hare faces though, is over Mescal, a half-Navajo shepherdess who is already promised in marriage to Naab's first-born son. Hare must stop the marriage, but can't kill the son of his benefactor, August Naab...until a gun battle with rustlers brings the two face-to-face over drawn pistols.
Weird Tales, Volume 2

E. T. A. Hoffmann
Paradoxically, it is variety that unites the tales you are about to read. They take place in widely separated countries and historical periods, and their outcomes—fortunate or tragic—cannot always be predicted with accuracy. The characters too speak with varied voices; even the narrative voice is not uniform, for the author often frames story within a story, using a character in one tale to narrate another.

The reader will sometimes feel as though the author is extending an invitation to enter his workshop to observe him at his trade and admire his craftsmanship. Narrative techniques, for instance, such as suspending the detailed account of events in order to summarize what follows or occasionally interrupting the story line to offer a bit of background or exposition, are introduced by referring to “the indulgent reader,” “my kindly reader,” or even (once) a direct address: “dear reader.” This device is common to much Romantic literature, but Hoffmann’s self-conscious use of it renders it satirical.

He frequently shifts from seriousness to mockery, characterized by an arch tone as he knowingly overworks Romantic clichés like apostrophes to absent or non-sentient entities and especially hyperbole, which he mercilessly burlesques. Yet his mercurial sensibility can then shift in a moment back into the serious use of Romantic conventions: overwrought descriptions, pathetic fallacies, sudden reversals of fortune, unlikely coincidences, gloomy intimations of the cruelty of destiny, dark secrets, and men fulsomely unburdening themselves of their inmost feelings, not without tears. He even takes up the age-old theme of friendship vs. romantic love and their rival claims to be the nobler sentiment. In short, although clearly an early Romantic himself, Hoffmann nevertheless shares Jane Austen’s rational criticism of the Romantic temperament, “sentimental” being a term of reproach in this volume.
Clarissa Harlowe, or the History of a Young Lady - Volume 3

Samuel Richardson
Clarissa Harlowe, is the tragic heroine of this story, she is a beautiful and virtuous young lady whose family has become wealthy only recently and now desires to become part of the aristocracy. Originally they planned to concentrate the wealth and lands of the Harlowe's into the possession of James Harlowe, Clarissa's brother whose wealth and political power will lead to his being given a title. Clarissa's grandfather has left her a substantial piece of property upon his death, and a new route to the nobility opens through Clarissa marrying Robert Lovelace, heir to an earldom. James's response is to provoke a duel with Lovelace, who is seen thereafter as the family's enemy. James also proposes that Clarissa marry Roger Solmes, who is willing to trade properties with James to concentrate James's holdings and speed his becoming Lord Harlowe. The family agrees and attempts to force Clarissa to marry Solmes, whom she finds physically disgusting as well as boorish. The story continues to twist and turn through a series of letters written between two women, two men and a variety of other characters which continues throughout the 9 volumes of the book.
Shepherd of the Hills, The

Wright, Harold Bell
The story depicts the lives of mountain people living in the Ozarks and the mystery surrounding an old man called 'The Shepherd of the Hills,' who's called Dad Howitt. The backdrop storyline surrounds the pretty Samantha Lane, called Sammy, and her love of Young Matt, Grant Matthews. The shepherd, an elderly, mysterious, learned man, escapes the buzzing restlessness of the city to live in the backwoods neighborhood of Mutton Hollow in the Ozark hills.
Marcia Schuyler

Hill, Grace Livingston
A compelling love triangle. Marcia is young and sweet. Her older sister Kate is vain and selfish. Marcia deeply admires the man that Kate is to marry: handsome and respected David Spafford. But on the eve of the wedding, Kate elopes with another man. Marcia is there when the note is found...the note that effectively breaks David's heart. Out of pity for his situation, Marcia offers to take Kate's place, in order to save David from humiliation. She grows in love for him, all the while aware that he's still grieving for his lost Kate. What will happen when Kate returns, fully intending to get David back? Will Marcia have the strength to fight for the man she now loves?
Glimpses of the Moon, The

Wharton, Edith
"The Glimpses of the Moon" (1922) is about Nick and Susy Lansing, both of whom live a decadent life in Europe by sponging off wealthy friends. They marry out of convenience and have an "open" relationship, but are unprepared for where their feelings will take them.
Marcia Schuyler (version 2)

Grace Livingston Hill
A compelling love triangle. Marcia is young & sweet. Her older sister Kate is vain & selfish. Marcia deeply admires the man that Kate is to marry: handsome & respected David Spafford. But on the eve of the wedding, Kate elopes with another man. Marcia is there when the note is found...the note that effectively breaks David's heart. Out of pity for his situation, Marcia offers to take Kate's place, in order to save David from humiliation. She grows in love for him, all the while aware that he's still grieving for his lost Kate. What will happen when Kate returns, fully intending to get David back? Will Marcia have the strength to fight for the man she now loves?
Amelia (Vol. 1)

Henry Fielding
This is the first volume of a three volume novel. In this novel, Amelia marries William Booth against her mother's desires, and the two must move to London. Fielding explores the issues of married life such as infidelity and whether women's intelligence is equal to men's.
Amelia (Vol. 2)

Henry Fielding
The second volume of Amelia.
Dawn of the Morning

Grace Livingston Hill
Fresh from school, mistreated and neglected by her father and stepmother, sixteen-year-old Dawn consents to marry a friend of her father's whom she has only met, but the wedding does not go as planned. Scared and confused, she runs away after the ceremony. Many adventures follow lovely and resourceful Dawn on her journey to becoming an independent woman.
Three Men and a Maid

P. G. Wodehouse
This book with two titles, Three Men and a Maid in the USA and The Girl on the Boat in the UK is a typical PG Wodehouse romantic comedy, involving, at various times: a disastrous talent quest, a lawyer with a revolver, a bulldog with a mind of his own and a suit of armour!

The maid, or marriageable young woman, of the American title is red-haired, dog-loving Wilhelmina "Billie" Bennet. The three men are Bream Mortimer, a long-time friend and admirer of Billie, Eustace Hignett, a poet of sensitive disposition who is engaged to Billie at the opening of the tale, and Sam Marlowe, Eustace's would-be-dashing cousin, who falls for Billie at first sight. All four find themselves on an ocean liner headed for England together (hence the British title), along with an elephant-gun-wielding young woman called Jane Hubbard who is smitten with Eustace the poet. Typically Wodehousian romantic shenanigans ensue. Even Estace's redoubtable mother (a Theosophist author and public speaker) fails to quell the excitement.
Duchess of Padua, The

Wilde, Oscar
Guido Ferranti, a young man, travels to Padua with his friend Ascanio after receiving a mysterious letter from a stranger, claiming to know the true secret of Guido's birth. His plan of revenge goes awry, however, when he falls in love with his enemy's beautiful wife, the Duchess of Padua.
Love Songs (Version 2)

Sara Teasdale
With classical, lyrical tones, and frequently feminist-influenced themes, Sara Teasdale’s Love Songs established her as one of the leading writers in the new Romanticism movement. The book of poems, originally published in 1917, saw five additional printings before its 1918 edition owing to the tremendous demand for her work. The collection was selected as the 1918 winner of the Columbia University Poetry Prize (a precursor to the Pulitzer Prize for poetry). In spite of her commercial success and influence on other female poets such as Edna St. Vincent Millay, the style of Teasdale’s work fell out of fashion and has often been ignored in anthologies of work from that period. Here we offer a reading of the 1918 edition of her work.
Genius

Theodore Dreiser
"The only figure of literary repute who ever rated The "Genius" as first among the novels of Theodore Dreiser was Theodore Dreiser," literary historian Larzer Ziff observed. His fifth published novel, The "Genius" was actually the third novel Dreiser began work on and, as his most autobiographical work, remained the novel closest to his heart. He worked on it in stages over a four-year period. The credit he felt he deserved (and did not receive) for his honesty about sexual urges and damaged relationships and his original publisher's decision not to stand by the novel in the face of criticism contributed to his lifelong feeling that the book had never been given its due. After An American Tragedy, it is his longest book; the final draft ran to over 700 pages in a close-set type. While the protagonist of the book is in many ways a portrait of its author, Dreiser also loosely based Eugene Witla on some of the painters, artists working in an Ashcan realist style, whom he knew in New York at the time and whose studios he visited. The most likely candidate for a model is Everett Shinn, who painted urban scenes of the kind attributed to Witla and who was known as a promiscuous man.

The novel is divided intro three sections: "Youth," "Struggle," and "Revolt." In Book I, Eugene Witla (like Sister Carrie, in Dreiser's earlier novel) escapes the confines of the small town in Illinois where he has been raised to make his way in Chicago. There he studies painting at the Chicago Art Institute and enjoys the excitement of the city and his first sexual experiences. He becomes engaged to a young woman, Angela Blue, with whom he is intimate before their marriage but, at all times, he finds it difficult to remain faithful. A life based on monogamy seems beyond him. In Book II, Eugene and Angela move to New York City, where he makes a name for himself in the art world as an urban realist but finds his marriage with the increasingly conventional Angela painfully limiting. They travel to Europe, he suffers a breakdown, and they return to New York where Eugene attempts to make a better living in the advertising world. Book III chronicles the deterioration of Eugene and Angela's marriage as he begins an affair with Suzanne Dale. (Wikipedia)
Trail of the Lonesome Pine, The

Fox, John, Jnr.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is a 1908 romance novel/western novel written by John Fox, Jr.. The novel became Fox's most successful, and was included among the top ten list of bestselling novels for 1908 and 1909.
Set in the Appalachian Mountains at the turn of the twentieth century, a feud has been boiling for over thirty years between two influential mountain families: the Tollivers and the Falins. The outside world and industrialization, however, is beginning to enter the area. Coal mining begins to exert its influence on the area, despite of the two families feuds. Entering the area, enterprising "furriner" (foreigner) John Hale captures the attention of the beautiful June Tolliver, and inadvertently becomes entangled in the region's politics.
Reef, The

Wharton, Edith
George Darrow, Anna Leath’s first love, is finally coming from London to propose to her. However, he drifts to an affair with Sophy Viner, Anna’s daughter’s naïve and young governess. Sophy’s relationship with Darrow and Anna’s family can threaten his success. In this novel, as in many of Wharton’s other well known novels, we see the eternal love triangle. With her sly and lovely writing style, Wharton delivers to us in this wonderful novel a cast of unforgettable characters and many unforgettable scenes which we can vividly imagine. What would Darrow choose: success or love? Would Anna marry him despite his affair with Sophy?
Simple Story, A

Inchbald, Elizabeth
The story could really have been simple: Miss Milner, who is admired for her beauty and charm, could have been a socialite, marry a respectable and good looking man and be happy in the standards of her time. But if it was so, why would there be a book? Miss Milner, beautiful and charming as she is, announces her wish to marry her guardian, a catholic priest. But women in the 18th century do not declare their wishes or speak about their passions, and- after all- he is a catholic priest… And if he finds a way to marry her, is this her road to happiness?
Daughter of the Commandant

Alexander Pushkin
"The Daughter of the Commandant" (better known as "The Captain's Daughter") is a historical novel by the Russian writer Alexander Pushkin, and is considered to be his finest prose work. The novel is a romanticized account of Pugachev's Rebellion in 1773-1774.

The 17-year-old Pyotr Andreyich is sent by his father to military service in a remote Russian outpost, where he leans honor and love while being caught up in a violent uprising of tribal groups against the imperial government.
Romance of a Mummy and Egypt

Théophile Gautier
The account he gives, in his novel, of the ancient city of Thebes, of the great necropolis in the valley of Biban el Molûk, of the subterranean tombs, of the precautions taken by the designers to baffle curiosity, of the form and ornamentation of the sarcophagi, of the mummy-cases, of the mummy itself, of the manners, customs, dress, and beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, are marvellously accurate.
The purely erudite part of the work would probably not have interested the general public, indifferent to the discoveries of archæology, but the introduction of the human element of love at once captivated it; the erudite appreciated the accuracy of the restoration of ancient times and manners; the merely curious were pleased with a well told story, cleverly set in a framework whose strangeness appealed to their love of exoticism and novelty.
There have been added by the editor, as bearing upon the subject of the "Romance of a Mummy," two or three chapters from the volume entitled "The Orient," which is made up of a collection of sketches and letters of travel written at different times, and of reviews of books upon Eastern subjects, whether modern or ancient.
Summary by (Translator - F. C. de Sumichrast)
Battle of Life

Charles Dickens
While "The Battle of Life" is one of Charles Dickens' Christmas Books - his annual release of a story just before Christmas - this one breaks the tradition by not being concerned with Christmas. Rather, its subtitle, "A Love Story", reveals more of the plot.

The major events of this book take place on land that once was a battleground. That is just a backdrop for Dickens' idea of the real battle of life - finding and winning the right partner, so that life will go on to the next generation. The family that lives there is rather confused in its affections and intentions regarding who should end up with whom. We are thrust into the fight to make things work out, and, happily for a Christmas book, Dickens leads us on to a happy ending.
Vicar's Daughter

George MacDonald
This is the third book of the 'Marshmallow' trilogy. It is a fictional autobiography written by Ethelwyn Percivale, or 'Wynnie'. Her father is a clergyman, Mr. Walton, whose history has already been told in "A Quiet Neighborhood", the first of the three books. Wynnie has a happy childhood and falls in love with a struggling artist. It is about Wynnie and her family, and her little circle of old and new friends. We learn much about the poor of society of that time. This book is set in the real, every-day world, and our narrator is serious when she calls her life ''quiet and ordinary''. Though there are some exciting incidents, visits made, and long conversations about God. This book is a delightful read.
Indian Summer

Howells, William Dean
In his novel Indian Summer, William Dean Howells presents a mellow but realistic story that has the complete feel of that delightful time of the year, although the plot actually spans several seasons. The Indian summer aspect applies to a sophisticated gentleman, Theodore Colville, who has just entered his middle years as he returns to a scene, Florence, Italy, that played an important part in his early manhood. It was here twenty years earlier that he first fell in love, seemingly successfully until a sudden and harsh rejection. Now, after a once profitable career as a newspaper editor has ended, he is barely ensconced in the Italian city when he meets a lady from his past, a close friend of his lost love. Lina Bowen, now a widow with a young daughter, is an attractive and charming socialite among the American and English residents of Florence. Also living with her at this time as a temporary ward is a beautiful young girl just blossoming into womanhood, Imogene Graham.
Colville, although he still hides a shy nature, has become an exceedingly witty and entertaining conversationalist. He quickly becomes a favorite with young Effie Bowen and Imogene Graham. Miss Graham indicates a disdain for the shallow young men that she has met and is highly attracted to the urbane, intelligent Mr. Colville. Mrs. Bowen invites Colville to become a regular guest in her home, and for a time the little coterie is delightfully congenial, but then an emotional triangle begins to develop. Imogene seems to be too devoted to this older gentleman, and Colville does not discourage her. Mrs. Bowen, who apparently is captivated by his charm as well, begins to feel overshadowed by her lovely young ward. This is the core of the intriguing plot.
Howells’ characters are totally believable in their thoughts, their motivations, their words, and their actions. The dialogue is delightful, both in the lighter conversations and in the more passionate speeches. Aided by the social milieu of expatriates in a historic city of art and culture, the story moves at first slowly and pleasantly, but begins to build inexorably toward an emotional crisis. As the whole plot unwinds before us, we can eventually see that there is really no other way that the events could realistically move. This novel is a very engrossing and satisfying tale of people that we become truly interested in.
Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood

George MacDonald
This delightful story begins in a little town called Marshmallows, where a young man, the new vicar, Harry Walton, has just arrived. As he begins his work Harry realizes that everything is not quite 'right' in his little parish and it all seems to center around Oldcastle Hall. As he wins the affection of the people secrets begin to unfold, and Harry Walton attempts to free them from guilt of the past, help them overcome pride and while he is at it, he falls in love with a woman whose past is the most mysterious yet, and whose tyrannical mother is the mistress of Oldcastle Hall.

This Is a wonderful, heartwarming romance and a unique mystery, told from the viewpoint of the young vicar.
Old Friends And New Fancies

Sybil G. Brinton
Generally acknowledged to be the first sequel to the work of Jane Austen, Old Friends and New Fancies incorporates characters from each of Austen's six major novels into one unified story, as well as those of Brinton's own invention. The novel generally focuses on various parings of lovers and the challenges that their unions create.
Flirt

Booth Tarkington
Laura and Cora Madison and their younger brother Hedrick live with their parents in a Midwestern American town that is fairly bursting with Cora’s discarded and would-be beaus. Her flirtatiousness annoys the tempestuous Hedrick but not the reserved Laura. The return to town of a handsome, charming former resident and an encounter with a deranged young person set in motion a roller-coaster of events that interweave and play out to an exciting, emotional climax. Booth Tarkington's writing is exceptionally sensitive and perceptive. A popular American novelist and dramatist, he is best remembered for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Alice Adams". – Lee Smalley
Minister's Wooing

Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe is today best known for her classic novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. However, that book was certainly not her only remarkable anti-slavery work. In The Minister's Wooing, Stowe takes the reader into 18th century New England, and uses that setting to explore themes of slavery and religion as the background to a domestic story. Mary, the heroine of this story, is a woman between several candidates for matrimony. The man she truly loved is lost at sea, and so she finally decides to marry a minister whom she does not love. Will there be a happy end?
Lord Tony's Wife

Baroness Emma Orczy
Another adventure of the Scarlet pimpernel! As the title suggests, it follows the story of Lord Tony and his wife, Yvonne. It is full of suspense adventure and romance. Lord Tony and Yvonne elope after some disturbing happenings including an angry mob and an assault on Yvonne by her own father. Later a man set on revenge and with the help of Chauvelin steal Yvonne away, and Lord Tony must go to the Scarlet Pimpernel for assistance. Will they be able to save her and her father from the clutches of Pierre Adet and Chauvelin? Will Lord Tony ever even see his wife again?
Wanderer, The

Burney, Fanny
This is the fourth and final novel by Fanny Burney, the author of Evelina, Cecilia, and Camilla. "Who is "Miss Ellis?" Why did she board a ship from France to England at the beginning of the French revolution? Anyway, the loss of her purse made this strange "wanderer" dependent upon the charity of some good people and, of course, bad ones. But she always comforts herself by reminding herself that it's better than "what might have been..." This is not only a mystery, not at all. It's also a romance which reminds readers of novels by Jane Austen. Published in 1814, the same year as Mansfield Park, it shares some themes with it. It is also very modern, speaking freely of independent women (like Elinor), weak male characters, and unrequited love. Yes, a love triangle is lurking behind the scenes, and, in this case, it is not clear if the happy ending is suitable. At the time when it was published, critics did not like this political novel, and said that the difficulties which "Ellis" faced while trying to support herself were clearly fictional. However, don't let this deter you. It's a wonderful and mature novel, ahead of it's time by about 100 years. Happy reading!
Trespasser

D. H. Lawrence
Brief Encounter meets Tristan und Isolde - on the Isle of Wight, under a vast sky florid with stars. The consequence is tragic indeed for one of the parties, Siegmund, when he sacrifices family life for a few days’ transcendent rapture. His lover, the self-contained Helena, is strong enough to bear a return to the scruffy suburbs. Redemption of a kind is granted to the deserted wife, Beatrice. But between these robust Lawrentian women Siegmund is cancelled out. His love-death is no cosmic swoon but a sordid exit in an unkempt box-room.

In this very British romance, there is no earthly escape from outworn attachments and life’s deadening routine...
Passionate Friends, The

Wells, H. G.
H. G. Wells is best known for his science fiction, but some of his greatest works were in other genres. The Passionate Friends is a love story. It also is a story about dreams, despair, jealousy, sex, the struggle against social convention, the future of civilization, and much much more. It is written by a father to his son, "not indeed to the child you are now, but to the man you are going to be." He writes it so that one day, perhaps when he is dead, his grown son can read it and rediscover him as a friend and equal. In the process, he tries to make sense of a lifetime's experiences and distill some kind of wisdom from them. It is quite simply a beautiful book, both inspiring and heartbreaking.
Wanted: A Husband

Samuel Hopkins Adams
This serious, yet witty and hilarious, romantic comedy by Samuel Hopkins Adams is a must read/listen! From the very beginning it intrigues you with the troubles and feminine woes of young Miss Darcy Cole. Being a dowdy, unkempt fledgling lady, she finds herself in a mirthful fix after telling a whopper to her room-mates in order to save face from her severely lacking personal life. Resentful and jealous of most all other women, and contemplating suicide, she turns to actress Gloria Greene for guidance on how to become more attractive. Miss Cole had no idea what she was getting herself into! Was it even possible to make herself over? How on Earth would she get through the lie of being engaged to a “titled” man, no less! She had never even met Sir Montrose Veyze, let alone be engaged to him! And then there is the charming Jack Remsen, who seems to be in a pickle himself. Darcy knows he would never fall for someone like her; in fact, no man even looks at her! But perhaps he might be coerced into unwittingly helping her out of her predicament.

A true Ugly Duckling tale, Darcy experiences all the emotions that most ALL women have felt at one time or another throughout life. As quoted by the Proof Listener for this work, the narrator does a superb job of “capturing the spirit of the book!” Drawing the listener in and allowing the audience to live and feel the experience along with the characters. A highly entertaining and riveting book!
Liber Amoris

Hazlitt, William
Liber Amoris is unlike anything Hazlitt wrote and probably like nothing you've come across before. On the face of it it tells the story of Hazlitt's infatuation with his landlords daughter. Hazlitt was middle aged and she young and pretty, a bit of a coquette from the sound of it. It turned out badly for Hazlitt and the book tells the story of this doomed love. Critics have always been divided about the merit of the piece. Even those who see its merit often feel more comfortable with his polished literary works, and perhaps rightly so. This is not a work to make you feel comfortable.
I'd like to propose though that there is more to this as a work of art. It was the beginning of the era of the auto-biography that was arguably started by Rousseau in his Confessions. Going beyond Rousseau's mild self criticism, Hazlitt gives a ruthless self portrait (as well as an unsparing portrait of the object of his affections) of the weakness and mental turmoil that he experienced during the love affair. In this it is much closer to the theatre of cruelty of Antonin Artaud in which a pure artisitc truth is revealed through 'shattering a false reality that lies like a shroud over our perceptions'. Hazlitt had this in spades.
So if you are looking for a polished stroll through the romantic sensibility this is not for you. This is about a close as you'll get to participating in a romantic car crash. A work of great art.
Notes: Nick Duncan
Cricket on the Hearth, The (Version 2)

Dickens, Charles
The tale of John Peerybingle, the good-hearted carrier, and his young wife Mary ('Dot'), interwoven with the story of poor toymaker Caleb Plummer, his beloved blind daughter Bertha, and the harsh old toy merchant Tackleton, who is due to marry May Fielding, a childhood friend of Dot. Comic relief is provided by Tilly Slowboy, the disaster-prone nursemaid of John and Dot's baby, and Boxer, the family dog.
The cricket who chirps on the family hearth assumes fairy form to save the day when disaster looms in the form of a mysterious stranger. Sentimental? Certainly - but this, the third (1845) of Dickens' short Christmas books, is as charming and irresistible as its predecessors A Christmas Carol (1843) and The Chimes (1844).
The novella is subdivided into chapters called 'Chirps', similar to the 'Quarters' of The Chimes or the 'Staves' of A Christmas Carol.
Brethren

H. Rider Haggard
Set in the days of the Crusaders, this books tells of a young maiden named Rosamund, and her twin cousins. Godwin is the grey eyed thoughtful man, and Wulf is the blue eyed warrior. They are both knights of England and they are both in love with their fair cousin. But the riddle of the story is which does Rosamund love?

The adventure begins when Rosamund is taken from England and carried to the East. The plot thickens as the two young knights follow her in hopes of rescuing her from the Muslim leader, Saladin. As the Cross and the Crescent face each other at the Battle of Hattin, the story of Rosamund is unfolded and the riddle is solved.

With dangerous lions, a moon light duel on a bridge, and beautiful Arabian horses, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.
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