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Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln

Charles Watts Whistler
Troy, Athens, Rome... each has its founding legend. So too does the Lincolnshire town of Grimsby, once the largest fishing port in the world.

Havelok the Dane probably derives from a folk-tale, orally passed down before assuming written form - first in Anglo-Norman French, later in Middle English verse (c. 1280-1300). It tells of the rescue of the Danish prince from a wicked regent, who has tried to procure Havelok's murder. Grim the fisher, the appointed hit-man, thwarts the plan by spiriting the lad to England, where Grim settles with his family on the coast, adopting Havelok as his foster-son and naming the new community after himself.

C.W. Whistler's clever adaptation of the tale (published in 1899) draws on the various medieval sources. The English poem is particularly suited to 'novelisation'. It abounds in homely detail, and the hero's progress from half-dead waif to the triumphant fulfillment of his strength and kingly destiny makes a satisfying arc for the development of plot and character. At the same time, the legend's origins in oral performance are suggested through the choice of a first-person narrator, namely Grim's sober-sided son Radbard, whose plain-spoken account conveys something of the older saga tradition.

Our reader, the gifted Tony Foster, has worked and travelled in Scandinavia. His subtly-inflected narration brings a truly Nordic flavour to this re-creation of life in sixth-century Britain.

Since Charles Whistler published his novel, both Grimsby and its local heroes have been celebrated from time to time - by Elton John in his album Caribou (1974) and recently in a folk rock musical by local band Merlin's Keep (2014). (Introductory summary by Martin Geeson)
Imperium in Imperio: A Study of the Negro Race Problem

Sutton Griggs
Imperium in Imperio is a historical fiction novel by Sutton Griggs, published in 1899. The novel covers the life of Belton Piedmont, an educated and disciplined black man in the Jim Crow south and his role in a shadow government of black men operated out of a college in Waco, Texas.
Valley of the Squinting Windows

Brinsley MacNamara
The Valley of the Squinting Shadows was the author's first novel and proved controversial. In it, he tells a realistic tale of life in a small Irish town as he saw it, rather than the romanticized version told by others, or how the locals wished to be seen. Mrs. Brennan, the local dressmaker, has opinions. Her son is off studying to become a priest, which elevates him -- and thus her -- in her opinion. Mr. Brennan is forgiven all his transgressions, on account of being father to the son. Mrs. Brennan is less tolerant of those not related to her and her acerbic tongue is well-known throughout the village. Imagine the villagers' satisfaction when young John Brennan doesn't quite follow the path anticipated by his mother!
Christmas Every Day and Other Stories Told for Children

Howells, William Dean
Five short delightful stories for children, told in the voice of "the papa" to "the girl" and "the boy" William Dean Howells (March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist author and literary critic. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novel The Rise of Silas Lapham. (Reader’s Note for story 3: A pony engine is a small locomotive for switching cars from one track to another.)
Will Warburton

George Gissing
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.
Trial and Triumph

Frances E. W. Harper
This novel, like two other novels that Harper serialized in The Christian Recorder, sets forth the principles which make for a meaningful, moral life. In Trial and Triumph, we follow Annette Harcourt through trials and tribulations, which test her resolve, but because she clings to her values, she does after much struggle achieve success and as a further reward also love. (N.B. There are some missing portions of the text.)
Legends and Myths of Hawaii

David Kalakaua
A collection of legends and myths of the Hawaiian islands and their 'strange people' as told by His Majesty King Kalakaua, the last king of Hawaii. Introduction, including a history, geography and social and religious commentary on the islands by R.M. Daggett, United States Minister to the Hawaiian Islands 1882-1885.
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Mill on the Floss (Version 2)

George Eliot
The Mill on the Floss is George Eliot’s second novel, and was published in 1860, only a year after her first, Adam Bede. It centres on the lives of brother and sister Tom and Maggie Tulliver growing up on the river Floss near the town of St. Oggs (a fictionalised version of Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire, England) in the years following the Napoleonic Wars, with both as young adults eventually meeting a tragic end by the Mill which the family holds so dear. In large measure, their lives are dominated by their father, a successful miller brought down by his inability to resist settling arguments in a court of law. Character differences between Tom and Maggie - he dour and rigid of thought, she lively and impulsive - seem to matter little in childhood, but eventually strain their relationship beyond breaking point. It is Maggie, however, who is the dominant character of the book, arguably one of the great characters of 19th century literature. Each of her relationships is vital to the narrative: with her parents, with Tom above all, but on a romantic level with Philip Wakem, the sensitive hunchbacked son of her father’s (and Tom’s) bitterest enemy, and with charming and urbane Stephen Guest, fiance of Maggie’s cousin Lucy Deane. Maggie’s life is changed utterly by an impulsive elopement which she turns back from, but too late to stop the inevitable abuse and contempt. This is a semi-autobiographical reflection of the vilification which George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) herself had to endure while openly living with a married man, a time when her brother was willing to communicate with her only through lawyers. Eliot writes of character and relationships with an insight and sharp detail that few authors have ever equaled. It’s a long book, but you will appreciate it for its depth.
More Selected Classics of Washington Irving

Washington Irving
Washington Irving is, arguably, one of America's greatest writers. He spent many years in Europe and kept records of his observations, which formed the basis of such classics as "Old Christmas," "Bracebridge Hall" and "Tales of a Traveler." This volume is the latest entry in a series of collected essays written during these early years. The fragility of the heart forms the basis of many of these short stories. Irving handles the issues of love, heartbreak and death in a caring and compassionate way. ( Greg Giordano)
Piazza Tales

Herman Melville
A collection of six short stories by American writer Herman Melville, published in May 1856. Except for the newly written title story, "The Piazza," all of the stories had appeared in Putnam's Monthly between 1853 and 1855. The collection includes what has long been regarded as three of Melville's most important achievements in the genre of short fiction, "Bartleby, the Scrivener", "Benito Cereno", and "The Encantadas", his sketches of the Galápagos Islands. (Billy Budd, arguably his greatest piece of short fiction, would remain unpublished in his lifetime.) One should note that the era's prevalent racism occasionally surfaces, as in describing blacks as "indisputable inferiors", to be found in "Benito Cereno".
Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, The

Tressell, Robert
Clearly frustrated at the refusal of his contemporaries to recognise the iniquity of society, Tressell's cast of hypocritical Christians, exploitative capitalists and corrupt councillors provide a backdrop for his main target — the workers who think that a better life is "not for the likes of them". Hence the title of the book; Tressell paints the workers as "philanthropists" who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters.
The hero of the book, Frank Owen, is a socialist who believes that the capitalist system is the real source of the poverty he sees all around him. In vain he tries to convince his fellow workers of his world view, but finds that their education has trained them to distrust their own thoughts and to rely on those of their "betters". Much of the book consists of conversations between Owen and the others, or more often of lectures by Owen in the face of their jeering; this was presumably based on Tressell's own experiences.
Èmile

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Emile, or On Education or Émile, or Treatise on Education (French: Émile, ou De l’éducation) was published in 1762 in French and German and in 1763 in English. The significance of Rousseau in education as well as in politics must be found in his revolutionary attitude toward established institutions. Some of his biographers relate the story that when the Academy of Dijon, in 1749, offered a prize for an essay on the question whether the progress of the arts and sciences has tended to the purification of morals and manners, he followed the suggestion of Diderot, who reminded him of the greater notoriety which he could gain by advocating the negative side. The Archbishop of Paris, Christophe de Beaumont (1703-1781), saw in it a dangerous, mischievous work, and gave himself the trouble of writing a long encyclical letter in order to point out the book to the reprobation of the faithful. This was due to the Fourth Book, Confessions of a Savoyard Priest.

Rousseau created an imaginary child named Emile and became his tutor. As tutor, he was careful to keep the passions in check while developing the mind. Then he created an imaginary mate for Emile named Sophy.

The book was reviewed in The Monthly Review 1763 printed by Ralph Griffiths. "Rousseau says man is born twice, first to exist, then to live; once to a species and again with regard to sex. At the age of puberty commences the second birth, when he is truly born to live, and enters into full possession of the powers of human nature. Tho' nature points out the time when youth emerges from infancy this period may be either accelerated or retarded by education." It was originally translated into English as early as 1768.

William H. Payne (1836–1907) translated Emile in 1895. This reading is from Barbara Foxley's 1912 translation from Gutenberg.org.
Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry

William Butler Yeats
This is a collection of Fairy and Folk tales. The poet William Butler Yeats collected them from around the Western part of Ireland and translated them near the end of the 1800s.
Adam Bede (version 2)

George Eliot
George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans – an ironic ‘deception’ given that Adam Bede, her first novel, is written unashamedly from a feminist standpoint.The story centres on a pastoral love triangle. Two young men, carpenter Adam Bede and squire Captain Arthur Donnithorne, are both in love with the mercurial Hetty Sorrel. There’s a further love interest between Adam and beautiful lay preacher Dinah Morris.The setting is a country village in the north of England in the last years of the eighteenth century. The author paints a wonderful landscape of contemporary life as it really was, and excels in the portraits of her characters. Each is flawed, each has their own passions, each is unique, and through this great novel, Eliot put her stamp on literature and on the way we view the vagaries of character, helping us to see people as they really are.This is one of the greatest novels in the English language. First published in 1859, Adam Bede has never been out of print since, which speaks volumes about its timeless quality.
Cane

Jean Toomer
Reading this book, I had a vision of a land, heretofore sunk in the mists of muteness, suddenly rising up into the eminence of song. Innumerable books have been written about the South; some good books have been written in the South. This book is the South. . . . . Part One is the primitive and evanescent world of Georgia. Part Two is the threshing and suffering brown world of Washington. . . . Part Three is Georgia again . . . this black womb of the ferment seed: the neurotic, educated, spiritually stirring Negro. From the Forward by Waldo Frank
Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (Version 2)

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
"Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life" was Mrs Gaskell's first full-length novel. It was published anonymously in that tumultuous year of political change, 1848 - only a few months after the Communist Manifesto co-authored by her fellow Manchester-resident, Friedrich Engels. Engels's experience as agent in his father's cotton-spinning factory motivated him to write "The Condition of the Working Class in England", a classic account of the sufferings of the poor under the factory-system.

Elizabeth Gaskell's own personal contact with the plight of the poor cotton workers of Lancashire also compelled her to a compassionate examination of their lives; but as a middle-class woman, married to a Unitarian minister, her approach to her subject took on a more emotionally complex significance; influenced by religious faith but also by more personal considerations.

In the brief preface to the novel, Mrs Gaskell hints at her initial impulse. The loss of a beloved child in infancy led her to seek a therapeutic outlet, but one which left her uncertain of her capacity to contextualize her public, writerly response to the tragedies occurring in the surrounding society of Manchester's poorest classes: "I know nothing of Political Economy, or the theories of trade..." She was, however, determined to portray, in novelistic form, the intimate connection between the private experience of her characters and the social forces of her time. The success of the novel led her to proclaim her authorship and move on to further works of fiction, which have secured her in our times a mounting reputation as one of the leading novelists of the mid-Victorian period.

Certainly the novel features numerous death-scenes, all conveyed with a depth of sympathy that contrasts with the queasy iambics with which Dickens orchestrated the notorious demise of Little Nell. Mrs Gaskell was not, like Dickens, a London-based novelist observing the sufferings of the provincial poor with a journalistic detachment - as evidenced in his own admirable, Lancashire-based novel "Hard Times". Gaskell lived among the people whose attenuated lives she chronicled - and however hesitantly, as a début novelist, she rendered their experience in literary terms, her writing presents us with a true insight into the sufferings of individuals at a point in history when the mass of human beings fell casualty to the forms of economic progress following upon the Industrial Revolution. Most impressively she called into question the political and social cost of creating a resentful proletariat despairing of survival in (to quote Karl Marx) a "heartless world".

Our reader Tony Foster is a resident of Manchester and a near-neighbour of Mrs Gaskell (allowing for their separation in time). His superb narration renders the native speech of her characters with an authenticity which ideally conveys the spirit of this book. A truly moving experience awaits everyone who gives ear to this 'Tale of Manchester Life'.
British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions

Wirt Sikes
The British Isles, in particular Wales, are renowned for legend and folklore. The author, an American journalist working in Europe, was appointed Consul to Wales and thus began his fascination with Welsh folklore. He became a renowned authority and published several books on the subject. This work is more of a scholarly discussion on the origins and geography than a narration of the stories.
Sketches by Boz, version 2

Charles Dickens
A collection of early writings of Charles Dickens under his early pseudonym, "Boz." They first appeared in various publications from 1833 to 1836. Divided into four sections, "Our Parish," "Scenes," "Characters," and "Tales." The first three sections are descriptions of various people and places, and the final section contains fictional short stories.
Crossing

Winston Churchill
This is an historical fiction novel. Many real characters of history are included, as well as fictitious ones. The saga takes place in the period slightly before the American Revolution, and extends for some years after that war. It covers the first movement of southern colonists, over the mountains, into Kentucky, then into the lands that would become Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The battles to take these lands from the British make up much of the drama. The characters also move into New Orleans to face off with the French.

This was a major best selling novel when released. The writer, Winston Churchill, was a most prominent American novelist of the time. The Prime Minister of England, Winston S. Churchill, was his contemporary, but no family relation. This book contains content that some listeners might find offensive.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Weston Translation Version 2)

The Gawain Poet
This poem celebrates Christmas by exploring the mystery of Christ's mission on earth: his death, resurrection, and second coming as judge of all human souls. Sir Gawain is cast in the role of Everyman. At the feast of the New Year, an unarmed green giant rides his green horse into the banqueting hall of King Arthur and challenges any member of the assembled company to behead him with a huge axe and then to submit to the same treatment from his victim the next year. Gawain volunteers to prevent Arthur from accepting this challenge, fairly confident that the challenger will be unfit to return the blow. However, when the green knight rides out of the hall carrying his severed head, Gawain must wait a year under what amounts to a sentence of death. At the end of this period his quest for the green knight leads him first through perilous adventures comparable to the life-threatening dangers confronting all mortals in their earthly sojourn and then, when his travels are at an end, through a series of temptations that represent allegorically the spiritual challenges determining not the time of death but the fortunes of the soul after death. The spot where Gawain then meets his foe closely resembles a graveyard superintended by the green knight, now converted, in effect, from a victim into a judge, as Christ was murdered by mankind but survived to be our judge at the end of time. A couple early footnotes may help in appreciating two details in the conclusion of the tale: First, Catholics believe that to perform the sacrament of Confession while intending to commit another sin deprives the priest's absolution of effect. Second, it was generally believed, in the Middle Ages and even today, that evil spirits cannot cross running water. This belief appears in "Tam o’Shanter," "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," and The Lord of the Rings.
Felix Holt, The Radical

George Eliot
"Harold Transome is a landowner who goes against his family's political tradition (much to his mother's distress), while Felix Holt is a sincere radical. The setting of the book, the 1832 parliament election, is used to discuss the social problems of that time. A secondary plot involves Esther Lyon, the stepdaughter of a minister who is the real heiress to the Transome estate, with whom both Harold Transome and Felix Holt fall in love. Esther loves poor Felix Holt, but would she choose a comfortable life with Harold Transome?"
Golden Maiden and Other Folk Tales and Fairy Stories Told in Armenia

A. G. Seklemian
Armenians trace their history back to before the time of the Babylonians and earliest recorded history - in fact, to Togarmah, a grandson of Japhet, Noah's son, who settled in Armenia after the Ark came to rest on mount Ararat. Armenia was also the first State in the world to adopt Christianity as their official religion, around the 3rd Century AD. This book contains many wonderful folk and fairy tales culled from this long history of the Armenian country people, to whom all nature is full of stories, by the scholar and storyteller Mr. A. G. Seklemian.
Violets And Other Tales

Alice Dunbar Nelson
This is a collection of the author's short stories and poems where she writes about the collective experience of African American women, and African Americans in general. But she is sharpest when she pushes back against the notion that women must accept and endure a subservient role to men.
Heart of Mid-Lothian

Sir Walter Scott
An historical novel set in Scotland in 1736, involving a riot and surrounding drama.
Myths And Legends Of California And The Old Southwest

Katharine Berry Judson
"...The preparation of a volume of the quainter, purer myths, suitable for general reading, authentic, and with illustrations of the country portrayed, but with no pretensions to being a purely scientific piece of work.... This volume is intended for popular use." As with most mythologies or religions, these stories tell how the world came to be, how places and peoples got their names, how social customs and mores developed, adventures of the ancestors or gods, and much, much more.
It Is Never Too Late to Mend

Charles Reade
A ruthless squire becomes obsessed with a younger woman and conspires against her lover, George Fielding, so that the squire can win her. With the squire's financial pressure turned up on his family, George goes to Australia to earn money enough to marry his girl. In the meantime, a young man named Tom Robinson is sent to prison for stealing. For his somewhat minor offense, he suffers severe mistreatment in prison. "It Is Never Too Late to Mend" was written in the 1850s to shed light on abuses in British prison discipline and the treatment of criminals, but is also an adventure yarn set in the gold fields of Australia.
Gray Mills of Farley, The

Jewett, Sarah Orne
As contemporary today as it was over a century ago, this relatively unsentimental tale of labor relations still packs a punch.
Children of the Ghetto

Israel Zangwill
In this 1892 novel of London's Jewish East End, Israel Zangwill sets the apparently irrational and decidedly indecorous religious practices of transplanted eastern European Jews against the forces of assimilation. Zangwill's knowledge of Yiddishkeit and skill in melodrama created a series of unforgettable vignettes that had a significant effect on the public perception of this much stigmatized immigrant group.

Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) was born in London of Russian and Polish parents. He coined the term cultural "melting pot".
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.
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.
Crock of Gold

James Stephens
This is a comic novel written by Irish author James Stephens, a quick-witted storyteller whose pantheistic philosophy is revealed in his adult Irish fairy tales. His first novel, The Charwoman's Daughter (1911), humorously examines the life and fantasies of a poor Dublin mother and daughter. His second, The Crock of Gold (1913), again showcases his unique writing style, quirky thoughts, grasp of irony and cleverness of phrase. No conformity here, lots of head-scratching twists and turns that reveal odd bits of wisdom too! The main characters are an extremely pedantic Philosopher, his revengeful wife, their sweet innocent children lured down leprechaun holes, a teenage girl seduced by Pan (the god of lust and carefree living) then saved by Angus Og (the Irish god of youth, love and beauty), culminating in a giant parade of Irish gods. Stephen's serious philosophy is on display here and there, and we learn many useful tips for dealing with fairies, goblins and gods, especially that no good comes of stealing a leprechaun's crock of gold! ~Summary by Michele Fry
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Volume 2

Songling Pu
"Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" or "Strange Tales of Liaozhai" is a collection of nearly five hundred mostly supernatural tales written by Pu Songling during the early Qing Dynasty. It was written in Classical Chinese rather than Vernacular Chinese. Pu is believed to have completed the majority of the tales sometime in 1679, though he could have added entries as late as 1707. He borrows from a folk tradition of oral storytelling to put to paper a series of captivating, colorful stories, where the boundary between reality and the odd or fantastic is blurred. The cast of characters includes vixen spirits, ghosts, scholars, court officials, Taoist exorcists and beasts. Moral purposes are often inverted between humans and the supposedly degenerate ghosts or spirits, resulting in a satirical edge to some of the stories. Ghosts and spirits are often bold and trustworthy, while humans are on the other hand weak, indecisive and easily manipulated, reflecting the author's own disillusionment with his society. ( Wikipedia)
Stories and Pictures

I. L. Peretz
A collection of short stories written originally in Yiddish and later translated into English. These stories were published under censorship in Russia from 1875 to 1900 provide an illuminating portrayal of the harsh life conditions for Russian Jews. Summary by Elsie Selwyn
Mary: A Fiction

Mary Wollstonecraft
Eliza, Mary's mother, is obsessed with novels, rarely considers anyone but herself, and favours Mary's brother. She neglects her daughter, who educates herself using only books and the natural world. Ignored by her family, Mary devotes much of her time to charity. When her brother suddenly dies, leaving Mary heir to the family's fortune, her mother finally takes an interest in her; she is taught "accomplishments", such as dancing, that will attract suitors. However, Mary's mother soon sickens and requests on her deathbed that Mary wed Charles, a wealthy man she has never met. Stunned and unable to refuse, Mary agrees. Immediately after the ceremony, Charles departs for the Continent.
Village in the Jungle

Leonard Woolf
Woolf wrote this novel based on his experience as a government agent for British imperialist-controlled Ceylon in the early part of the twentieth-century. He focuses his story on one poor family in a jungle village as they struggle to survive, not just faced with a very harsh environment but with their own human prejudices, superstitions, jealousies, violence, ignorance, and greed. In the background is the other enemy: the foreign government that controls them but does not really understand or care for these uncivilized, not really human beings. It was an important work because its point of view was sympathetically a native one. JL
Tales of Daring and Danger

G. A. Henty
G A Henty takes us on a variety of adventures in this collection:A daring rescue on rough seas, a military action against Chinese pirates, hunting down a tiger in India, and even a calamity in a camp of gold miners in California!With each new encounter, you'll thrill at the daring of our heroes in the face of imminent danger.
Myths and Legends of Alaska

Katharine Berry Judson
Editor Katharine Berry Judson collates and presents a narrative history of Alaskan Myths. Originally gathered and recorded by government ethnologists, she paints an overall picture of Alaskan history as told by its many tribes. From the Eskimo to the Tlingit, from the Tsetsaut to the Haida, the origin of the still-wild state begins with the great Bird (often called "Raven") and branches out, through its legends, in wonderful and amazing directions.
Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 4, June 1906

Max Baginski
"Mother Earth was an American anarchist journal that described itself as "A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature". Founded in early 1906 and initially edited by Emma Goldman, an activist in the United States, it published articles by contemporary activists and writers in Europe as well as the US, in addition to essays by historic figures." This is Volume 1 of the series
Myths And Legends Of The Great Plains (version 2)

Katharine Berry Judson
Here, amidst the vast sweep of the plains which stretch away to the horizon on every side, boundless, limitless, endless, lived the plains Indians. Standing in the midst of this vast green plain on a soft May morning, after the Thunder Gods have passed, when the sun is shining in the soft blue above, and the sweet, rain-swept air is blown about by the Four Winds which are always near to man, day and night,—standing far out on the plains with no hint of the white man or his work—one sees the earth somewhat as the Indian saw it and wonders not at his reverence for the Mysterious One who dwelt overhead, beyond the blue stone arch, and for the lesser powers which came to him over the four paths guarded by the Four Winds….

The authorities used in this compilation are those found in the annual reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology and the Publications of the United States Geographical and Geological Survey: contributions to North American Ethnology…. No claim whatever is made for original work. Indeed, original work of any kind in a compilation such as this would impair the authenticity of the myths, and therefore destroy the value of this work. Nor has any effort been made towards “style.” The only style worth having in telling an Indian legend is that of the Indian himself.

These stories are from the following tribes: Osage, Cherokee, Lenni-Lenapi (Delaware), Omaha, Teton, Comanche, Assiniboin, Sioux, Pawnee, Dakota, Kiowa, Mandan Arikara, Ponca, Yankton Arapahoe, and Kansa. Summary by Author's Preface and david wales.
Callista

John Henry Newman
Callista, A Tale of the Third Century, was written by John Henry Newman, who was a scholarly and personable Anglican theologian who became a Catholic priest and cardinal, bringing a good number of Protestant friends along with him into the Roman faith. He wrote Callista as the fruit of a challenge (dare we say “bet”?) with Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman that each man would write a novel about the early church. Wiseman wrote Fabiola and Newman wrote Callista, publishing it in 1855. The title character is a beautiful and talented, but unhappy Greek woman living in pagan Roman North Africa in the third century. She is wooed by a lonely young Christian man, for whom she shows little interest, though she deeply desires to know more about his Christian faith. However, the third century was a dangerous time for Christians, with the onset of persecution under the Emperor Decius. The colorful cast of characters react to the persecution in different ways, but some are put to the ultimate test of whether they will maintain their faith at the price of torture and painful death. Cardinal Newman's writing style is often lively, and occasionally humorous, especially in his conversations. But there is no denying that modern readers may find parts of it quite wordy, particularly in the descriptions of geography (beware Chapter 1!). Most readers are likely to find themselves caring very much about the characters, and cheering for their victories, in addition to learning quite a bit about 3rd century history along the way.
Epics and Romances of the Middle Ages

Wilhelm Wägner
This volume contains the principal hero-lays of the six great epic cycles of the Teutonic Middle Ages: The Langobardian Legends, the Amelung and Kindred Legends; Dietrich of Bern's Adventures; the Nibelung Legends; the Hegeling Legends; and Beowulf. To them, the author has added the great mythical Carolingian cycle, which centred round the persons of Charlemagne and his heroes, and the Breton ones of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, as well as the legend of the Holy Grail. Therefore, this one book tells all of the great epic and romances of the Middle Ages in accessible language for the general public.
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)
Tales from Jókai

Mór Jókai
Móric Jókay de Ásva, known as Mór Jókai or Maurus Jokai, was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist. He was a very prolific writer from an early age and wrote hundreds of novels, novellas, and short stories in his lifetime. The nine stories in this selection tell about hard times in Eastern Europe, especially in Hungary (Jokai was involved in the Hungarian uprising of 1848), as well as of ancient superstitions and folk lore. In the novella "The City of the Beast", Jokai gives his version of the sinking of Atlantis.
Stories of the Scottish Border

William Platt
Nothing seems to be known about Mr and Mrs William Platt, the writers of Stories of the Scottish Border. What they produced is an eccentric guidebook and history, seen partly through the ballads of the region. The book recounts the military stratagems, treachery and courage of those who struggled for control of the Border lands and of the whole country, and tells of the triumphs or tragic fate of those who took part on both sides. It also tells us stories of the Border Reivers, raiders who lived by riding out and stealing their neighbours’ livestock. Their lives were governed for several hundred years by a form of rough justice, and they showed an even rougher wit. While their adventures, though cloaked by the writers in romance and chivalry, were often petty and bloodthirsty, the ballads which distill their experience are, at their best, haunting and intensely moving. The Borders and Northumberland have changed little in aspect over the centuries, and I suggest following the book with a map and images of the places described, to give some idea of the wild remoteness and imaginative power of this Border land.
Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp

Harriet Beecher Stowe
This is Stowe's second book, another one depicting the horrors of southern slavery, published 4 years after Uncle Tom's Cabin and 5 years before the commencement of the Civil War, when new territories wanting admittance into the US (Texas, Oklahoma, name the states), were vying to become slave states, threatening to spread the heinous system. While a work of fiction, the book successfully documents the horrors of the slave system, and depicts how some slaves escaped into the Dismal Swamp (a real place spreading over a million acres in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina), where they often lived for years hiding from their pursuers, often in community. Dred, one of Stowe's most unusual heroic characters, proclaims his mission as follows: ". . .the burden of the Lord is upon me . . . to show unto this people their iniquity, and be a sign unto this evil nation!'" The book depicts that slaves were not all passive victims, as so often portrayed, and had many white sympathizers, but all were caught in the grips of a legal system so stacked against them that nobody could overturn it without threats to life and limb. The book was welcomed by the anti-slavery movement in Europe as well as in America, and helped move the needle of sympathy to finally overthrowing the system.
Legends of Saints and Sinners

Douglas Hyde
"I have called the present volume "Legends of Saints and Sinners," which to a certain extent it is; but I mean it for a book of Irish Christian folk-lore. My idea in compiling it has been to give for the first time a collection of genuine Irish folk-lore which might be called "Christian." By this I mean folk-stories and folk-poems which are either entirely founded upon Christian conceptions, or else are so far coloured by them, that they could never have been told—at least in their present shape—had not Christianity established itself in Ireland. Every one of these stories conforms fairly to this standard, except one or two, which I give as necessary corollaries. They are all translations from the Irish. I have found hardly any such stories in English. They were mostly collected by myself from the mouths of native speakers, but three or four of them I have taken from Irish MSS. in my own possession, and a few more were given me by my friends. Not one of these stories was ever translated into English before, with the exception of those which I have taken from my own "Religious Songs of Connacht."
Under the Shadow of Etna: Sicilian Stories

Giovanni Verga
The short stories of Giovanni Verga, one of the leading authors of Italian verismo, or realism, tell mostly of working-class characters in rural, 19th-century Sicily. One of these stories, "Rustic Chivalry," or "Cavalleria rusticana," was the basis for the opera of the same name by Mascagni.
Golden Calf

Mary Elizabeth Braddon
A late 19th Century sensation novel following the young life of Ida Palliser as she searches for fortune and love within England's Gentry Class. Victorian sensation books were often set in ordinary, familiar setting, undermining the perceived adherence to social convention. They exposed the true lives of Victorian England's upper class - lives they tried to keep hidden.
Job, The

Lewis, Sinclair
'The Job' is an early work by American novelist Sinclair Lewis. It is considered an early declaration of the rights of working women. The focus is on the main character, Una Golden, who desires to establish herself in a legitimate occupation while balancing the eventual need for marriage. The story takes place in the early 1900-1920's and takes Una from a small Pennsylvania town to New York. Forced to work due to family illness, Una shows a talent for the traditional male bastion of commercial real estate and, while valued by her company, she struggles to achieve the same status of her male coworkers. On a parallel track, her quest for traditional romance and love is important but her unique role as a working woman... makes it tough to find an appropriate suitor.
With Cortez in Mexico, or By Right of Conquest

G. A. Henty
In perhaps the most audacious military enterprise in the history of human conquest, Cortez, with only a few hundred men, conquered a civilization of tens of thousands. This is the story of an Englishman who boards a merchant ship destined for the New World, but a shipwreck strands him in Pre-Columbian Mexico, and Roger must find a way to avoid becoming one of the many human sacrifices offered to the Aztec gods.
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