When John Muir was a student in the University of Wisconsin he was a frequent caller at the house of Dr. Ezra S. Carr. The kindness shown him there, and especially the sympathy which Mrs. Carr, as a botanist and a lover of nature, felt in the young man's interests and aims, led to the formation of a lasting friendship. He regarded Mrs. Carr, indeed, as his "spiritual mother," and his letters to her in later years are the outpourings of a sensitive spirit to one who he felt thoroughly understood and sympathized with him...

As the title suggests, this work does flirt with the supernatural. Yet it is essentially a political novel—a utopian experiment in a fictitious Balkan country, the Land of the Blue Mountains. The story spans the years from 1892 to 1909. It includes a beautiful love story and an adventure tale—a double rescue requiring strength, cunning, and cutting-edge technology. These various aspects are unified by the character of the hero, a purely admirable individual whom we love and admire from the very first and who acquires immense power...

A collection of letters written by Stuart Walcott while training to be an aviator in France to prepare for combat. Walcott died in his first aerial combat after first downing a German bi-plane. - Summary by KevinS

The Power of Sympathy was the first American novel, published in Boston in January 1789. An epistolary novel, it tells the tragic story of the relationship of an orphan girl and a man of good family, with a dramatic twist and tragic ending. It was inspired by an actual scandal in the Apthorp family of Boston, the "Ophelia" and "Martin" related within the story. It was published anonymously, and there has been controversy over the authorship. For over a century his family kept the author's identity secret...

This is a collection of thirteen letters from Angelina Grimké on the subjects of abolitionism and human rights in the United States.

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné was a French aristocrat famous for the precision, clarity, wit and vividness of her letters, which deal with personal issues and also with public events in the France of Louis XIV - Summary by Wikipedia

These moralistic stories within stories date back to the Sanskrit text Panchatantra . They were first translated into Arabic by a Persian named Ruzbeh who named it Book of Kalilah and Dimna and then by Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa and later Joseph Harris in 1679 and then remodeled in 1818. Max Mueller noted that La Fontaine was indebted to the work and other scholars have noted that Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and John Fletcher were both familiar with the fables. The Fables of Pilpay are a series of inter-woven fables, many of which deploy metaphors of anthropomorphized animals with human virtues and vices.

John Newton, best known for his hymn "Amazing Grace", for his former life as a slave trader and as eventual opponent of the slave trade in Britain. These 14 short letters cover his early life to about 1755 and are filled with his Christian reflections on the events of his life. Letter 5 contains Newton's description of his life under Amos Clowe, an enslaver, who gave him to his wife as a servant. It is worth noting that this collection was published in 1764 and Newton did not publish his scathing pamphlet Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade until 1788 and thus his letters focus on his life as a "an infidel and libertine" than on the institution he later condemned. - Summary by InTheDesert

The "Letters from a Prairie Garden," are genuine letters and not fiction. They went through the mail. An explanatory word about their origin may not be amiss. Some years ago a famous artist came to a certain mid-western city on business connected with his profession. He had an acquaintance who lived in the hotel where the writer lived at that time and with whom he talked over the phone. The writer frequently happened to be talking at the same time, and the wires crossing, he heard me laugh repeatedly, and he nicknamed me "the woman who laughs...

This is the story of the three Cleveland siblings: Fanny, the innocent yet very sympathetic sister; Louisa, the strong willed sister whose miserable marriage to Sir William is the center of the novel; and Sir George who tries to get over the loss of his lover by touring the world. Louisa is not an amoral woman, she is beautiful and very lively, values which 18th century society promotes, yet she suffers only affliction from her "respectable" college educated husband. In the main plot, and all the sub plots , the book tests many prominent values of the time and brings to light their negative implications...

“I had a friend who loved me;” but he has gone, and the “great gulf” is between us. After his death, I received a packet of manuscript with these few words:—“What I have written may appeal to you because of our friendship, and because, when you come to read them, you will seek to grasp, in these apparent confidences, an inner meaning that to the end will elude you. If you think others, not the many but the few, might find here any answer to their unuttered questionings, any fellowship of sympathy in those experiences which are the milestones of our lives, then use the letters as you will, but without my name...

Within these pages find passages from the "lost diaries" of a wide range of people: royal, regular, famous, infamous, historical, and fictional. - Summary by A. Gramour

This is a 1903 translation of Étienne Pivert de Senancour's immensely influential work Obermann. Although it was almost completely ignored by the reading public when it was first published during the period of Napoleonic Wars in 1804, it was rediscovered almost 30 years later by the Romantics, praised by none less than Balzac and George Sand, as well as Franz Liszt and other illustrious persons of that time period. Obermann is an epistolary novel in the form of a journal intime, in which the inner life of the main character is the most important element, rather than the physical action...

This is the story of Caroline and Sibella, two female friends. Strong and smart women who try to make it in a man's world while keeping their values and loyalties intact. The only way to do that is to hide a few secrets. Yet secrets cannot remain hidden for ever, and everything has a price. This is both a social novel and a gothic novel. A true page turner with all the elements of a good 18th century novel: a woman locked in an estate, a hidden pregnancy, some politics of marriage, villains, sentimentality and thought provoking philosophy. Summary by Stav Nisser.

A series of letters on the early occupation of the colony, the Aborigines, etc addressed by Victorian pioneers to his Excellency Charles Joseph La Trobe Esq. , Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Victoria in response to a circular letter sent by him to a number of early settlers dated 29th July 1853. - It cannot be claimed for these papers that they are infallible records of our early history at every point. , The last section ends with lists of Aboriginal words and phrases as were collected by a lady...

or Socialism a Reality In the year 2050, Wolfgang travels to the socialist city of New York. He writes enthusiastically to his friend Hannevig describing the wonders of the journey and vastness of the city. He then turns his eye and pen to the effects of true equality of the sexes and freedom from work. Unfortunately for the New Yorkers, they do not create the desired utopia but just the opposite.

The Letters of a Portuguese Nun (Les Lettres Portugaises) were first published anonymously in Paris in 1669. The five passionate letters in book form were a publishing sensation since their appearance, with five editions in the first year, followed by more than forty editions throughout the 17th century. A Cologne edition of 1669 stated that the Marquis de Chamilly was their addressee, but, aside from the fact that she was female, the author's name and identity remained unknown. The letters were...

As a teenager, Benjamin Franklin apprenticed with his brother James at the shop where The New-England Courant was printed. Since James would not publish any of Benjamin's works, fifteen-year-old Benjamin sent letters to The New England Courant under the pseudonym Silence Dogood. A total of fourteen letters were sent, one each fortnight, between April and December of 1722. (Introduction by Darcy Smittenaar)

The Laodicean (someone whose religious beliefs are “lukewarm”) of the title is Paula Power who bought the ancient castle De Stancy which she is determined to restore. Being of a modern frame of mind, she has the telegraph connected to the castle – and uses it all the time in the course of the story. George Somerset is a young architect who is invited to compete for the chance of the commission to restore the castle and who falls in love with Paula. However, the brother of Paula’s great friend Charlotte De Stancy – of the aristocratic family that once owned the castle – aided by his villainous illegitimate son, sets out to win Paula for himself...

This book draws together some of Jane Austen's earliest literary efforts. It includes "Love & Freindship" and "Lesley Castle" both told through the medium of letters written by the characters. It also contains her wonderful "History of England" and a "Collection of Letters" and lastly a chapter containing "Scraps". In these offerings, we may see the beginnings of Miss Austen's literary style. We may also discern traces of characters that we encounter in her later works. G. K. Chesterton in his preface, for example, says of a passage in Love and Freindship; "...

This recording includes a selection of Jane Austen's letters, edited by Susan Coolidge and chosen from the collection of Austen's great-nephew, Edward, Lord Brabourne. The letters are mostly addressed to Austen's sister Cassandra, with whom she was very close. There are also some letters written to two of her nieces, Anna Austen Lefroy and Fanny Knight. They include some references to her published work, including Sense and Sensibility (abbreviated "S and S"), Pride and Prejudice (also called First Impressions, or P and P), Mansfield Park ("MP") and Emma...

Emily Dickinson is one of the most intriguing of American poets. Since she grew increasingly reclusive, very few of her poems were published until after her death. This collection includes two letters Dickinson wrote to her friends on the occasion of the deaths of her friend, Mr. Humphrey, and her brother, Austin. The rest of collection consists of her poetry on the subject of death.

Everyone probably has Glenn Close and John Malkovich in mind, but for those who have not seen the movie, this epistolary fiction describes how a young girl, Cécile de Voanges, walks on the road to perdition, and is just a toy in the Vicomte de Valmont's and the Comtesse de Merteuil's hands. Readers:Narrator, Mme de Volanges: Nadine Eckert-BouletCécile de Volanges: SaabMarquise de Merteuil: AvailleVicomte de Valmont: Martin GeesonPrésidente de Tourvel: Elizabeth KlettChevalier de Danceny: Max...