This second volume of the biography of Lord Cochrane deals with his fall from grace, imprisonment for debt, loss of honours, and attempts to clear his name. It has had a marked influence on naval fiction, most obviously on some of the novels by Patrick O'Brian. - Summary by Timothy Ferguson

Ibn Battuta , was a Moroccan explorer. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands. His journeys included trips to North Africa, West Africa, the Horn of Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. Battuta is generally considered one of the greatest travellers of all time. This is a journal/record of his travels, omitting the translator's note and preface. NOTE: The material contains racial terms and ideas that are objectionable today. The final section speaks of cannibalism with the natives as the victims, for example.

Fully titled My Experiences in a Lunatic Asylum, by a Sane Patient, this memoir describes its author's, Herman Merivale's, experience in one of England's countryside asylums during the 1860's. The main subject - in this case, the author - is less than justly sentenced to a facility for the mentally disturbed. Literally crazy caricatures abound, prisoner and jailer alike. Lofty psychology experts float in and out of Merivale's stay, some more respectable than others, but mostly clueless to patients' real needs...

This is a collection of broadsides from London. Broadsides are short, popular publications, a precursor to today's tabloid journalism. The collection contains sensationalist and sometimes comical stories about criminal conduct, love, the Royal Family, politics, as well as gallows' literature. Gallow's literature were often sold at the execution. As a collection these broadsides are a reminder of how important the printer was at this time -- it is surely no coincidence that the printers are printed at the end of every broadside, while the authors remain anonymous. - Summary by kathrinee

The sequel to "Chicot the Jester" and final book of the "Valois Romances." This story begins six years after the famed "Duel of the Mignons" between the favorites of the courts of King Henry III and Henry the Duke of Guise . Dumas concludes his historical fiction on the War of the Three Henries while detailing the formation of the Forty-Five Guardsmen , following Chicot the Jester as he stays loyal to the failing regency of King Henry III, and continuing the story of Diana . - Summary by jvanstan

An review essay of "Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay". The Edinburgh Review, January, 1843. Reprinted in vol. iii of Macaulay's Critical and Historical Essays. "Hundreds of remarkable persons had passed in review before her....The account which she has given of the King's [George III] illness contains much excellent narrative and description, and will, we think, be as much valued by the historians of a future age as any equal portion of Pepys's or Evelyn's Diaries..." Her novels were "the precursors" of those of Jane Austen. - Summary by barbara2

George Cary Eggleston's Civil War memoir begins with a separate essay on the living conditions and political opinions of Virginia’s citizenry before secession. The body of the work contains vivid descriptions and accounts of the men and women of the South during the time of the Confederacy. Eggleston praises its war heroes, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jeb Stuart, but is highly critical of Jefferson Davis and of his government’s inefficiencies, red-tape, and favoritism. The book concludes with the war's end and a tribute to the character of the newly freed slaves...

It is asserted that the inspiration for Elizabeth Gaskell's marvellous stories of Cranford was her childhood home of Knutsford, a small town in Cheshire and to where she returned for a while as a young woman. This assertion is born out by an essay she wrote in 1849 entitled The Last Generation in England, in which she writes about "The town in which I once resided ...". There can be little doubt when reading this that it provided her with the template for Cranford.In 1851 the year she began to write Cranford, she also wrote a novella entitled Mr...

First to the South-seas, Thence to the East-Indies, and Homewards by the Cape of Good Hope. Begun in 1708, and Finish'd in 1711. Containing a Journal of All the Remarkable Transactions; Particularly, of the Taking of Puna and Guiaquil, of the Acapulco Ship, and Other Prizes; an Account of Alexander Selkirk's Living Alone Four Years and Four Months in an Island; and a Brief Description of Several Countries in Our Course Noted for Trade, Especially in the South-sea. With Maps of All the Coast, from the Best Spanish Manuscript Draughts...

Hard Tack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life is a memoir by John D. Billings, a veteran of the 10th Massachusetts Volunteer Light Artillery Battery in the American Civil War. Hard Tack and Coffee is not about battles, but rather about how the common Union soldiers of the Civil War lived in camp and on the march. It covers the details of regular soldier life, including enlisting, how soldiers were sheltered, Army rations, offenses and punishments, a day in camp, boxes from home, foraging , the army mule, hospitals and ambulances, clothing, breaking camp and marching, and other similar topics...

This book continues Sentimental Tommy, also in the catalogue. Tommy grows up and marries Grizel. But life is not only roses and rainbows. This book has all the elements of a good love story, but it is also a book about growing up and finding out your distinct voice in the world. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

Two diaries from Middle St. John’s, Berkeley, South Carolina, February – May, 1865. Journals kept by Miss Susan R. Jervey and Miss Charlotte St. Julien Ravenel, at Northampton and Poooshee Plantations, and reminiscences of Mrs. Henagan. With two contemporary reports from Federal officials. Published by the St. John’s Hunting Club, Middle St. Johns, Berkeley, South Carolina, 1921. - Summary by Book title and david wales

Volume 2 of Aubrey's sparkling gossipy biographical pieces on his contemporaries, including Bacon, Jonson and Shakespeare, Brief Lives' glimpses into the unofficial side of these towering figures has won it an undying popularity, with Ruth Scurr's recent reimagined "autobiography" of Aubrey, breathing new life into this classic for the next generation of readers - Summary by Nicole Lee

This book is often described as an instruction manual on the subject of rat-catching. It does indeed contain a good deal about rats, ferrets and dogs, but it is much more than that. Barkley fills the book with humour, sharp observation, and his sheer joy of living in the countryside. The framework of the book is indeed a course by fictional rat-catcher Bob Joy, who suggests that rat-catching might be a suitable alternative career for boys at Eton, Harrow and the other major English public schools...

For many people, the name Caroline Herschel will be unfamiliar, but she was one of the most significant women on the English scientific scene during the late 18th and early 19th century. Sister of the well known William Herschel , she first worked as his assistant in his astronomical works, and then went on to become a noted astronomer in her own right. She discovered eight new comets in her lifetime, and was the first woman to be paid for her contribution to science, and was awarded a Gold Medal...

Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230. The name Heimskringla was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts . Heimskringla is a collection of sagas about the Norwegian kings, beginning with the saga of the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings, followed by accounts of historical Norwegian rulers from Harald Fairhair of the 9th century up to the death of the pretender Eystein Meyla in 1177...

Samuel Rogers was a renowned conversationalist who associated with the most distinguished persons of his time. This volume contains fascinating source material for the social and literary history of Great Britain over the span of his long life. - Summary by barbara2

This is quite the adventure tale and travelog. We see cities, peoples, plants and wildlife of Columbia and the ports our intrepid 'hunter' visits on the way there and back. It is an interesting period; a canal is being cut through Columbia to the city of Panama by the French . The characterisation is appropriate to the time - Europeans and the South American elite are seen as admirable, especially in comparison to the natives and blacks. Indeed, the deaths of several of Millican's native support staff along the way seem to be of minor concern...

A lively picture of the origin and completion of the Suez Canal and his architect, Vicomte de Lesseps. This is the translation of a lecture given before the Societe de Gens Lettres in Paris, in April 1870 by de Lesseps himself.

Arguably one of America's greatest writers, Washington Irving is the author of such classics as "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," "Bracebridge Hall," and "Knickerbocker's History of New York." This book is a concise and extremely entertaining biography of this unique author. Note to the listener: There are a couple of typos in this text. Chapter 33 should have been numbered as chapter 32, and there are two chapter 35's. The readers have keep the typos in the reading, therefore, there is no chapter 32, and the two chapter 35's are designated at "the first" and "the second." - Summary by Greg Giordano

This is the first volume of Chateaubriand's Memoires d'Outre Tombe, in a Victorian translation. It covers the period from his birth, including the extraordinarily evocative childhood years and his travels in America, the source of some of his later writing, up to his return to France in 1800. Writer, politician and the father of French Romanticism, Chateaubriand lived close to the heart of the France's travails in the nineteenth century and engaged with them passionately. His frankness, fluency and the tumultuous times in which he lived make his Memoirs one of the enduring monuments of the art of autobiography. - Summary by Nicole Lee

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

An aristocratic Frenchwoman's personal record of the dazzling extravagance of the Ancien Régime, of the court of Marie Antoinette, of the Revolution, of her life in exile and of the court of Napoleon Bonaparte. This famous historically valuable memoir, written for her son, ends with Napoleon's return from Elba in 1815.

John Jewitt , a blacksmith by trade, spent the years 1803-1806 as a slave among the Nuu-chah-nulth people of Nootka Sound, off the Pacific Coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, after the trading vessel on which he served as armorer was attacked and its crew murdered by the native tribal chief Maquinna. Maquinna spared Jewitt's life on condition that the Jewitt would be his slave, would repair his muskets and make daggers, knives, and fishing gear for him. Jewitt's memoir is a considered a major source of information about the customs of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. - Summary by Sue Anderson

“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...

"Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada" is a memoir by Clarence King of his adventures and work with the California Geological Survey. King later led a major survey along the 40th Parallel in the American West and then was appointed the first director of the new U.S. Geological Survey.King's 1872 "Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada" exhibits a modern sense of timing and insight, and his accounts of hand-and-foot rock climbing seem as fresh as last week's blog post. He was part of the Victorian wave...

As one of the first two bishops of the Methodist church in America and one of the most well-known circuit riders during the spread of Methodism, Francis Asbury kept a journal of his travels and activities. His journal begins with his prayerful decision to come to America in 1771 and continues to December of 1815, a few months before his death. In the meantime, we travel with Rev. Asbury across the ocean, over mountains, through rivers, and up and down the whole length of the fledgling United States of America. - Summary by Devorah Allen

This work details personal memories of Mary Emily Donelson Wilcox, adopted granddaughter of Rachel Donelson Jackson, wife of President Andrew Jackson, and assumed to be the first baby born in the White House. The book focuses on three Christmas memories--the first of a Christmas in the White House during the 1830's and Jackson's Presidency; the second, a Christmas in Prussia at the home of the Crown Prince, to which she was invited because her father was US minister to Berlin; the last story, a Christmas in Texas in the 1830s...

The Hundred Years' War: a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of France, over the succession to the French throne. It was a time of intrigue, plot, murder and romance. Agnes Sorel, aged 20, became the favorite mistress of the King of France, wielding much influence over him and earning many enemies. Her untimely death at the age of 28, just days after bearing him a fourth child, was blamed on dysentery...

Peter Randolph was born a slave in 1825 , was freed before the American Civil War, and became a clergyman in the Baptist tradition, dying in 1897. This is his 1893 autobiography. The latter third of the book is a slightly edited re-publication of a pamphlet he published in 1855 entitled “Sketches Of Slave Life." This recording omits chapter fourteen of "From Slave Cabin To Pulpit" because it is only a several-pages-long list of friends of the author with no narrative.

"The death of a patriarch, unexpected inheritance of a second son, dark and stormy castle, faithful retainers, scary governess who never speaks, star-crossed lovers -- I could go on, but that would involve spoilers! All you'd want and expect from a Gothic romance. One more thing -- real men do cry!"

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...

Volume II of Chateaubriand's Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb, translated by Teixeira de Mattos. This volume covers the period from his return to France to fight, reluctantly, for the King, his early literary successes with many portraits of the great and the good, including Napoleon, through to his travels in the Near East in the first decade of the 19th century, all through with his characteristic blend of mordant wit and melancholy. - Summary by Nicole Lee

In 1908-1909, Mary Blair Beebe and her husband, C. William Beebe made two private expeditions to Venezuela and British Guiana, exploring and collecting live birds for the New York Zoological Park. They then collaborated on a book about their "search for a wilderness," with Mary Blair doing the bulk of the writing. The Beebe's supplemented tropical birding with visits to gold mines in British Guiana and a lake of pitch, which was being mined in the middle of the Venezuelan jungle. Mary Blair's take on things is evident...

"The sending of a Women’s Convoy Corps to the Balkans was the result of Mrs. Stobart’s keen desire to demonstrate the ability of women to render signal service under war conditions and without the direction and assistance of men. This record of their achievements, therefore, provides a strong vindication of the claims of women to inclusion in the Territorial Defence Scheme".

The third volume of Teixeira de Mattos' translation of Chateaubriand's Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb covers the spectacular fall, exile, and death of Napoleon, and is replete with the author's trenchant views on the some of the most significant figures of his era, tinged with his signature melancholy. - Summary by Nicole Lee

Charles Quintard was an Episcopal priest who, in spite of his pro-Union stance, volunteered to be a chaplain in the Confederate army in the American Civil War. A sympathetic, warm, intellectual man loved by soldier and civilian alike, he volunteered because he felt that the soldiers from his local area needed him more than his local parish. Within four months of the end of the war, he was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee, an election ratified by the Episcopal Church's General Convention in October...

After the extinction of Napoleon's comet on St Helena, Chateaubriand covers the Bourbon Restoration in this volume, meeting a dazzling array of literary and political figures, as his diplomatic career advances. - Summary by Nicole Lee

"This book is in turns funny and sad. Violet Osborne is a very beloved child with no financial problems. She is both beautiful and good, and of course she must be happy. Yet, as we learn, she is a manipulative and overbearing woman who would do anything to get her way. This book tells us about her life as a girl, and takes us through her marriage and motherhood. It is a pleasant read, as the book is so witty and charming and the descriptions are very realistic". Summary by Stav Nisser.

"The letters of Hon. William Bradley, Ex-Governor and former veteran of practical politics, written to his friend and protege Ned who is still busy 'carving a career back in the old state.'" This is a novel filled with humorous political anecdotes by the main character, the Honorable William Bradley, told for the benefit of his protege, Ned. It conveys a sense of the ironic and humorous side of politics in Washington and back in their home state.

Botanical Piracy! A French botanist plots to steal red dye cochineal insects from Spanish Mexico and transplant them and their cacti hosts to the French Caribbean. The year is 1776. Nicolas-Joseph Thiéry de Menonville is a fast talker and a quick thinker. Botanist and physician by training, he insinuates his way from Port-au-Prince, first to Havana and then to the Mexican mainland on the ruse that he is searching for a botanical cure for gout. In Vera Cruz, however, his passport is confiscated, and the Viceroy orders him to leave Mexico on the first available ship...

Tom Petrie , explorer and grazier, arrived in the then convict settlement of Moreton Bay in 1837. His reminiscences of what was to become the colony of Queensland were recorded by his daughter, Constance, in 1904. The book includes a fascinating record the life and customs of the aboriginal population, whose dialect he spoke and in whose activities he was invited to participate. An Australian classic and an important source for researchers of early Aboriginal / White settler conflict. - Summary by barbara2

“Come, Dora! I shall never be ready, if you don’t make haste. They will be here in ten minutes, and my hair is not half so nice as it ought to be, thanks to your carelessness.” “You are very good to ignore my own claims to attention so utterly. I have been helping you this half-hour and have barely time enough left to change my frock. To make my own hair presentable is impossible now.” “Why, what does it matter how your hair is dressed, or what sort of a gown you put on? You may just as well spare your pains, for unfortunately nothing that you can do seems to mitigate your ugliness...

Throughout the First World War, members of the Royal Army Medical Corps provided constant support for British and Allied military troops whether they were fighting on the frontline or engaged in other operations within all areas of the conflict. With the Great War continuing unabated and the battlefront extending through Europe into the Middle East and beyond, a rapid increase in military medical support facilities and infrastructure was urgently implemented to handle the ever increasing number of wounded, maimed and sick troops evacuated from the combat zone that needed to receive urgent medical and life-saving care...

The memoirs of Chateaubriand continue in Volume 5, with the author, now a grand hommes des lettres, still in the thick of political events, telling his story with his trademark acerbity and melancholy, interspersed with extracts from his voluminous correspondence with the literary, intellectual and political stars of his age.

On 26 November 1922, after eight years of work in the Valley of the Kings, archeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen, a pharaoh of the 18th dynasty . Different than all the tombs hitherto excavated, this was the first to be virtually undisturbed, and Carters words on a first look inside "Wonderful things!" have gone down in history. Excavating the tomb in full took eight years, and most of the 5,398 items that were found there are now on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, with the exception of the mummy of Tut-Ankh-Amen that remained where it had been laid to rest...

The Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition was the famous survey that took place in 1913-14 to follow the path of the Rio da Dúvida in the Amazon basin. The expedition was jointly led by Theodore Roosevelt, the former President of the United States, and Colonel Cândido Rondon, the Brazilian military engineer known for his explorations of the Western Amazon Basin and his lifelong support of Brazilian indigenous populations. Almost from the start, the expedition was fraught with problems: diseases...

In this memoir, Meriel Buchanan links the history of Russia to powerful, lingering memories of her years living there. She was the daughter of the man who turned out to be the last British ambassador to Imperial Russia. As a young adult, in her role as the ambassador’s daughter, she had regular access to the court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, providing her with unusual experiences and impressions. She describes first hand the sights, sounds, and some of the activities she remembers from this elevated and sheltered vantage point. The family left Russia in 1918, and the author’s memories are filled with nostalgia and longing for the Russia she experienced. - Summary by Jan M.

Con Price recalls the 1870s through the 1940s, growing up in Iowa and South Dakota before heading out on a cattle drive into Montana. Never dull, his life was full of experiences from cattle drives to Indian encounters to cattle wars to frontier romance. - Summary by Gary Clayton

In 1884, Professor Treves saw Joseph Merrick in a shop across the road from the London Hospital. Being also a teacher at the University, he brought Merrick to the London Hospital as a teaching case, and Merrick lived there until his death in April 1890. This book of "reminiscences" includes the story of the "Elephant Man" as well as other interesting cases from Sir Treves' practice as a doctor.

The life of Doctor Johnson, told in his own words and those of others around him. "Anyone with a teaspoonful of imagination can read this play with pleasure; with two teaspoonsful, I will not be responsible for results. He, or she, may be disappointed, for there is no plot to speak of. But there is talk - about as good talk as has ever been reported, and James Boswell as a reporter has never had an equal. " - Summary by ToddHW Cast list: ACT 1: Mr. STEWART: James Thomas Mr. MAITLAND: Tomas Peter Mr...

Somewhat autobiographical, this "coming of age" novel unfolds an introspective boy's formative years in pre-World War 1 Germany, from grade school through college. Hesse likens this confusing process to a giant bird struggling to break out of its egg , to be reborn as an individuated adult with his own goals, ideas and ideals. Much importance is given to dreams and their interpretation, Fate vs individual choice, Gnosticism , opening up to one's unconsciousness, all showing the influence of Carl Jung's psychology...

A brief, personal recounting of the 332nd Infantry in World War I, including training in America, a brief billet in France, activities in Italy, and the return to America. Summary by KevinS

Austen Henry Layard is best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Nineveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs known, and in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal. The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian Empire, is a collection of thousands of clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BC. Among its holdings was the famous Epic of Gilgamesh.In this work, he describes his experiences upon his return to the region for a second expedition. - Summary by Soupy Proof-listened by Elijah Fisher and TriciaG.

Mattia Pascal grew up in a small Italian town not dissimilar to that of the author's upbringing. Pascal leads a somewhat feckless boyhood, allowing opportunities to slip away from him and living on the accumulated but dwindling resources of his family. As a young man he finds himself duped into poverty and an unhappy marriage made sadder by grief. He escapes on an adventure at Monte Carlo where he submits himself to Fortune which provides him with an extraordinary erasure of his old identity and the funds to maintain a new one...

Robert James Manion was a Canadian doctor who volunteered in the Canadian medical corps during World War I. This book is his memoir of the war. After the war he entered politics and served in several Canadian governments. The listener may note a lack of mention of the United States soldier; this is because the memoir was written before the entry of that country into the war. - Summary by David Wales

Volume 3 of The d'Artagnan Romances is divided into three parts. In this, the final part, d’Artagnan’s fortune is near its height; having become the illustrious Captain of the Musketeers, he is now the chief defender of King Louis XIV. Fortune has also smiled on his three companions: Aramis is a wealthy bishop and the powerful, secret Superior General of the Jesuit Order ; Athos is the premier nobleman of France; and Porthos becomes a Duke with the proud but garishly long-winded title of “du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds...

Freddie Threepwood and his uncle are in difficulties. Freddie wants a thousand pounds to start a bookmaker’s business and to marry Eve, while his uncle wants to raise three thousand pounds, unbeknown to his wife, to help a runaway daughter. Freddie persuades his uncle to steal his wife’s necklace and sees Psmith’s advertisement in a daily paper. Freddie enlists the services of Psmith to steal the necklace. There are plots and counterplots. This is the fourth book in the "PSmith" series, following on from "Mike and PSmith", "PSmith in the City" and "PSmith, Journalist".

Hamlet is Jeremy’s dog. This 1923 book is Hugh Walpole’s second volume in his Jeremy semi-autobiographical trilogy , Jeremy at Crale ), about a ten-year-old English boy. One commentator wrote this of the first book: “With affectionate humor, Mr. Walpole tells the story of Jeremy and his two sisters, Helen and Mary Cole, who grow up in Polchester, a quiet English Cathedral town…. Mr. Walpole has given his narrative a rare double appeal, for it not only recreates for the adult the illusion of his own happiest youth, but it unfolds for the child-reader a genuine and moving experience with real people and pleasant things...

Henry Dawson has written several vignettes of railroad men from the days of steam locomotives. His goal is to show the reader that they are not just rough men, but are also brave and heroic men through descriptions of divers dangers encountered on the tracks.