Is it true that people can literally be scared to death ? Is it possible to photograph astral projections ? What happens if you play with a pack of cards which belonged to a dead card-trickster ? These and more questions are raised and answered in ''The Seen and the Unseen'' , a collection of twelve short stories of a supernatural and uncanny nature by English author Richard Marsh , famous for such mystery/horror novels as ''The Beetle'' and ''The Goddess: A Demon''. So if you feel you are ready for some goosebumps before bedtime, snuggle up and have a listen. - Summary by Sonia

The second book by Huysmans concerning the religious development of the novelist Durtal, who in the first book experienced depravity and Satanism. In this book he struggles desperately to find a foothold in the Catholic faith. He is aided by his aesthetic sensitivities and the support of an understanding priest. But it is not until he undertakes a retreat in a Trappist monastery that he achieves depth of spiritual transformation.

After a night of drinking and gambling, John Ferguson has a terrifying dream of his neighbor being violently torn to shreds by an unknown attacker. When he wakes up, he sees a strange and bloodied woman climbing through his window, suffering from amnesia. These strange occurrences are brought to a chilling climax when, the next day, Ferguson learns that his dream came true, and his neighbor was indeed brutally murdered during the night! With suspicion mounting against the mysterious woman, Ferguson sets out to uncover her true identity and find the vicious killer in the process...

This story ran as a serial in 1852 in the New York Sunday Dispatch, and for more than 160 years was buried in obscurity, unknown to the world as novel written by Walt Whitman. Zachary Turpin, a graduate student specializing in Whitman's works, had seen in his notes a sketch of a novel including the characters Covert, Wigglesworth, Smytthe and Jack Engle, but no work including these characters had ever been found. After poring over endless pages of newspapers of the era however, Turpin found this advertisement for an upcoming serial: “A RICH REVELATION...

Old Mrs. Solomon Smith considers herself "nothing but an ignorant old woman" who didn't have the advantages others did when growing up. However, those around her know that she's actually full of biblical wisdom and the experience of walking with Christ through the years. She shares her wisdom -- and more importantly, Christ -- to those she meets in everyday life, in a wise and gentle manner. She touches lives wherever she goes. But can her life and example touch the heart of Laura, a young woman who loves and respects her, but doesn't seem interested in religion?

Following a shipwreck Stella is preparing to die but is unexpectedly rescued. A love triangle of an unusual sort develops where an inventor of the mobile phone, back in 1900, who is engaged, becomes involved with a woman who has a passionate mystical influence on him. The story explores the nature of death and how we should look forward to it as being a great step to a greater world.

Malcolm MacPhail has lived, for all of his twenty or so years, in a fishing village on the north coast of Scotland. He lives with his grandfather and, though he has never met his parents, has no curiosity about the details of his birth. However, others in the town have their own curiosity, and their own suspicions, about where this highland man and his infant grandson came from, those twenty or so years ago. When the local marquis and his daughter come to live in their grand estate just outside the town, unoccupied for many years, events begin to move which introduce to them the humble Malcolm, and which may shed some light on Malcolm's past while changing the course of his future.

The Bryant family - widowed Mrs. Bryant and her children Benjamin, Caroline , and little Daisy - is on the thin edge of poverty due to debt incurred when Mr. Bryant was alive. We follow the family, especially Ben and Daisy, as they help shoulder some of the burden. Prominent in the story are children's dolls, which are the means to some of the family's income. - Summary by TriciaG

The Markets of Paris is a remarkable work, and is the one which Zola calls his very best novel, and of which he is far more proud than of any others in his Rougon-Marquart series – prouder than of L’Assommoir. It must have been in his early manhood, when poor and friendless, he lived among the people, that much of the information which makes these pages so startlingly vivid, was acquired. How many mornings, long before dawn, must he have visited these markets – how many hours and days must he have spent there, to have mastered the habits, manners and ways of these people, who are a class by themselves, and of whom we do not lose sight, from the beginning to the end of the book...

A widow has been murdered in the home of a relative on a foggy night in London town when all residents were off on to the theatre, and one to run an errand involving the title bauble. Who done it? Old dark house mystery full of period cliches is pulp fun for the new year. - Summary by Matt Pierard

The industrial revolution led to the rise of manufacture and, thus, the cotton mill factories. This important novel tells about the plight of Michael Armstrong, one of the boys who is forced to work there. The aim of the novel was to expose the public to the conditions of thousands of "infant labourers" around the northern mill towns. The novel drew much criticism, of course. Yet, nonetheless, it is a forgotten masterpiece, perfect for fans of Oliver Twist and North and South. It is a brave novel, full of truth and honesty, yet probably not for the faint of heart. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

This is a collection of the parables of the new testament. - Summary by Lynda Marie Neilson

The Pink Shop operates outside the limits of the law by a mysterious woman concealed under a black veil. Follow the twists and turns as you unravel the secrets hidden behind the closed doors of The Pink Shop. Ask yourself: what would you give to retain eternal beauty?

"If, two years ago, when I was sixteen, I hadn’t wanted money to buy a white frock with roses on it, which I saw in Selfridge’s window, a secret crisis between the United States and Mexico would have been avoided; and the career of a splendid soldier would not have been broken.” Read here what happened to the girl, the soldier, and the white frock. - Summary by Carolin

Arkady Dolgoruky, is a 19-year-old intellectual. He is the illegitimate son of a landowner and dreams to become rich. In his quest to fulfil his dream, he meets people who teach him many kinds of ideologies. Thus, the work reflects Russian society. - Summary by Stav Nisser and Wikipedia.

A classic Victorian sensation novel filled with romance, mystery, and murder with the emphasis on romance. -summary by Celine Major

A classic Victorian sensation novel filled with romance, mystery, and murder with emphasis on romance. - summary by Celine Major

A classic Victorian sensation novel filled with romance, mystery, and murder with emphasis on romance. - summary by Celine Major

Strangers and Pilgrims follows the journey of Elizabeth Lutterell from a vain, beautiful and self-centred although good-hearted 19 year old to a mature woman. She begins her journey to maturity when she meets the Rev. Malcolm Forde, whose influence opens her eyes to the trivial and selfish ways of the wealthier levels of society. When her genuine love for Malcolm Forde is thwarted and she becomes trapped in a cold, loveless marriage of convenience, she suffers illness, tragedy and regret. Will she find ultimate happiness? A hugely prolific and popular author, M...

When an Oxford undergraduate meets by chance, a mysterious stranger, during a walking tour of France, he does not know that the unusual charismatic being he has made the acquaintance of, is in fact a disguised alien being, named Aleriel. Coming from the planet of peace, Venus, this space traveler claims to be visiting Earth for the first time. Thus begins an unusual interplanetary friendship, that takes our Oxford graduate on an amazing adventure, first into the war-torn streets of Paris, then across the English Channel, to busy London and finally on to tranquil Oxford...

This is a 1913 collection of ten short detective stories by a not well known writer. Jack Lanagan is a police reporter for a daily newspaper in San Francisco, who has the confidence of the chief of police and access to all sorts of levels of city life. - Summary by David Wales

Sequel to Miss Dee Dunmore Bryant. Being 20 minutes late after a day out with the Kedwins and Ben and Daisy, her siblings, starts a series of events in motion that lead Caroline Bryant to Philadelphia...and to people and situations she could never have foreseen. - Summary by TriciaG

Honora Klaper is beautiful, distinguished, smart, and charming. A woman who turns heads. She is on an errand. No, it is not an errand to get a man. No, it is not an errand to make money. It is a revolutionary errand: to get an education! Not just "an education", she wants to be educated in Cambridge University. Set in a time when education of women was uncommon, and written by a lady who was educated in Cambridge herself, this book tells about the rewards and the struggles of a woman to win an education. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

The second original tragedy written by Gothic writer Matthew Lewis, Adelgitha; or, The Fruits of a Single Error is a markedly more serious affair than his melodramatic output, dealing as it does with a fallen woman who is mercilessly blackmailed by a ruthless tyrant when she spurns his advances. Set in Otranto during the High Middle Ages, and featuring fictionalized depictions of historical rulers Robert Guiscard and Michael Ducas , Adelgitha is an archetypal Gothic drama that, while not especially refined or meritorious in terms of quality, still manages to thrill in that deliciously overwrought way that Lewis knew how to sell...

Young Dr Ellis, a struggling new physician, is enjoying a quiet evening smoking and enjoying conversation with his journalist friend Cass, when their mysterious neighbour, Mrs Moxton, bursts in upon them with startling news - her husband has been murdered! Rushing to the scene, the two men discover Mr Moxton, stabbed in the back. They investigate the body thoroughly, but find no real clues to his assailant except for a mysterious series of markings, scrawled in blood on the dead man's sleeve. - Summary by Don W. Jenkins

Written by one of the most prolific authors of the 19th century The Fatal Three although not as sensational as some of her other novels serves up some very fascinating characters. It also raises some very interesting questions regarding moral & religious education, Victorian marriage laws, mental illness and how one's upbringing can determine one's fate. Delightful country homes and exquisite scenery provide the usual perfect backdrop for this enjoyable read by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. - Summary by Celine Major

"The Hemlock Avenue Mystery" is one of a series of mysteries written by Lily Augusta Long using the pseudonym Roman Doubleday. A lawyer is accused of killing a rival lawyer, both having battled in court on numerous occasions. A newspaper reporter following the case is bent on determining the facts behind the murder. As it happens, there are two women also suspected of participating in the crime, and a third who was apparently utterly unconscious of what had occurred. It's up to the reporter turned detective to unravel the clues, few as they are. - Summary by Roger Melin

"Baseball Joe" Matson's great ambition is to become a professional baseball pitcher. The Baseball Joe series follows his career as he seeks to attain his goal. In this fourth volume, Joe accepts a contract to play baseball professionally, and leaves Yale to play on the Pittston team for the Central League, a "bush league" in the professional baseball hierarchy. Joe's career is helped by "Pop" Dutton, a famous pitcher now down on his luck, and hindered by a rival pitcher on the team, while at home, Joe's father is blinded by a chemical accident, and requires an expensive operation, which, if successful, will regain his sight...

The vain, flirtatious and presumptuous husband hunting Mrs. Barnaby delves into high-class society of which she knows very little leading to some rather awkward and moments and ridiculous mistakes. Add the love and distresses of her lovely and demure niece Agnes, Mrs. Trollope's sharp wit, and you have the perfect recipe for a lighthearted Victorian romance.

"More Newspaper Articles by Mark Twain" fills in the gaps left by the first collection of newspaper articles: "Newspaper Articles by Mark Twain" . The missing articles, collected by twainquotes.com, consist of works printed in the Muscatine Journal, the Keokuk Daily Post, the New York Sunday Mercury, the Golden Era, the Californian, The Daily Dramatic Chronicle, San Francisco Bulletin, the New York Herald and travel letters originally printed in the Chicago Daily tribune. The earliest articles first appeared in 1853...

The tales of King Arthur and his Knights are of Celtic origin. The Celts were the people who occupied Britain at the time when the history of the country opens, and a few words are necessary to explain why the characters in the stories act and speak as though they belonged to a later age. These stories are adapted from the Book of Romance by ANDREW LANG. It is believed that King Arthur lived in the sixth century, just after the Romans withdrew from Britain, and when the Britons, left to defend themselves against the attacks of the marauding Saxons, rose and defeated them at Mount Badon, securing to themselves peace for many years...

Volume 2 of a ten volume collection of amusing tales, observations and anecdotes by America's greatest wordsmiths. This work includes selections by such household favorites as Ambrose Bierce, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mark Twain and Bret Harte.