William Morris initiated the genre of high fantasy in a number of short novels written toward the end of his life. But he had already experimented with the genre much earlier in stories written for the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, which he launched as a student at Oxford University in 1856. Published posthumously in book form, and reprinted as the eighth volume of the celebrated Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library under the title Golden Wings and other Stories, these short stories make an entertaining collection that stands up well against Morris's mature work. - Summary by Phil Benson

Peter Schlemihl is an ordinary man until one day he bargains with the devil: He trades his shadow for a bottomless purse. While this sounds like a good idea at first, it turns out that having no shadow is considered to be so strange by society, that even unlimited wealth cannot repair such a fault. The story of Peter Schlemihl is exceedingly well-known even today, but the original text is not so widely-read as it once was. This very accessible translation by F.H. Hedge may be a good introduction to modern listeners. - Summary by Carolin

The stabbing death of a beautiful young woman in a London park at night and the disappearance of her sister; a shocked and heartbroken young suitor; a terrified landlady and her simple husband; a recently unemployed man, the narrator, who is requested to investigate the crime; and the mysterious title character who, as his name suggests, has a devilishness about him in his psychic ability to read minds and to perform other supernatural acts. These are some of the individuals in this inventive, absorbing mystery by the prolific and popular British author, B. L. Farjeon. There are really two mysteries here: the murder and the strange – person? – known as Devlin.

The Crimson Circle gang spreads fear by extortion and murder. Its members range from rich, powerful bankers to petty criminals, and none of them know each other. A beautiful young woman named Thalia Drummond appears to be involved in the gang too. But who is the leader of the gang, known only as The Crimson Circle? Chief Inspector Parr is on the case, as well as private detective Derrick Yale. - Summary by Anna Simon

A selection of short works about Christmas.

Celestina was adopted by Mrs. Willoughby from a convent in France. No one knows who her parents are. Her secret birth causes problems for her in the marriage market. But this novel is not only a courtship novel. It is about creating and keeping friendships, finding the meaning of family, the difference between love and obsession, and the development of Celestina from a dependent child to a strong woman of virtue. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

THE PERMANENT HUSBAND, also published as The Eternal Husband, is a psychological novella by the acclaimed Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The plot revolves around the intense and complex relationship between Velchaninov and Trusotsky. Velchaninov, the protagonist, is a former lover of the recently deceased wife of Trusotsky, the title character. Some critics have ranked this novella among Dostoeyevsky’s best works because of its style and structure. Alfred Bem has called it "one of the most complete works by Dostoyevsky in regards to its composition and development. – Adapted from Wikipedia An excellent commentary may be found here.

“The Jolly Parisiennes” by Émile Zola is a very clever, brilliant and interesting romance of a “grande passion” with an undercurrent of political intrigue. The plot is ingenious both in conception and execution, while the tone of the novel is exceedingly bright and vivacious. A peculiar phase of Parisian society is most agreeably dealt with. The heroines, Louise Neigeon and Berthe Gaucheraud, are very jolly ladies indeed, but they never forget that they are ladies, even in their merriest and most eccentric moods...

The year 18-- was a momentous one in Great Britain. Not only did the nation receive most of the world's royalty for months on end, but the well-to-do gentleman, Simon Carne spent much of the social season in London. On friendly terms with royalty, sponsored into society by Lord Amberly, formerly viceroy of India, Carne's horse won the Derby and his Yacht the Queen's Cup. But at the same time, a serious of notorious swindles, thefts and other crimes plagued London and the surrounding environs. The mysterious detective Klimo, did a thriving business by attempting to resolve the crimes...

Once Carolyn Wells began, or re-invented her writing career, 'The Clue' was her initial book which strayed from children's writings into mysteries and detective stories. It is also when we are introduced to her most famous of detectives, Fleming Stone. On the eve of her wedding day, Madeleine Van Norman, a beautiful young lady who is soon to come into her family fortune is found dead, apparently stabbed with an ominous blood-stained letter opener found nearby. There is nobody within the household...

In the second book of the Mary Louise Gay mysteries, Mary Lou and her best friend Jane are thrilled to be spending a whole month of their summer together at Shady Nook. But when suspicious fires threaten their relaxing holiday, they jump into their sleuthing ways to find the culprit. With so many interesting residents in this small town, they have their work cut out for them! - Summary by Cari Shorrock

Elective Affinities was Goethe's third novel. It depicts human relationships in a Romantic crucible, and is the sourcebook and inspiration for many literary and filmic adaptations and variations. - Summary by Nicole Lee

Two London gentlemen ponder the evolution of humankind as they investigate a modern-day murder committed with an ancient tool. - Summary by Wanda White

The Dark Other is a horror novel by Stanley G. Weinbaum. The novel concerns Patricia Lane who is in love with Nicholas Devine, a quiet and gentle writer. Devine undergoes sudden changes becoming cold and calculating. Frightened by this, Lane consults psychologist Dr. Carl Horker who rescues her from Devine. Devine again attacks Horker, and overcomes him. He is then shot by Lane and rushed to a hospital where a surprise is found.

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.

The Garden God: A Tale of Two Boys is Forrest Reid’s tender, bracingly tragic reflection on adolescence, pantheism, Platonism, and homoerotic desire. A classic of “Uranian” literature, it tells the story of Graham Iddesleigh, a fifteen year old boy whose early childhood is spent in cloistered seclusion. He idles his time roaming his family’s idyllic country estate, fantasizing about an imagined friendship with an ancient Greek god. But all this changes when his father sends him off to boarding school...

Sixteen Christmas stories or essays.

The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror (1893) is a science fiction novel by English writer George Griffith. It was his first published novel and remains his most famous work. It was first published in Pearson's Weekly and was prompted by the success of The Great War of 1892 in Black and White magazine, which was itself inspired by The Battle of Dorking. A lurid mix of Jules Verne's futuristic air warfare fantasies, the utopian visions of News from Nowhere and the future war invasion literature of Chesney and his imitators, it tells the tale of a group of terrorists who conquer the world through airship warfare...

This book consists of fifty-two very short fictitious stories about cats and kittens, which have been written for children. Many of the stories have been written by cats and address the queen, many of them are commentaries on well known nursery rhymes, and many of them are both.

"Backwater" is the second volume of "Pilgrimage," a series of thirteen autobiographical novels by Dorothy Richardson considered to have pioneered the "stream of consciousness" technique of writing. In a review of the first volume in the series, "Pointed Roofs" (The Egoist April 1918), May Sinclair first applied the term "stream of consciousness" in her discussion of Richardson's stylistic innovations. Richardson, however, preferred the term "interior monologue." Miriam Henderson, the central character in Pilgrimage, is based on the author's own life between 1891 and 1915...

Today the world is awash with “celebrities” whose only accomplishment is being celebrated by the media in all its various forms. Henry James, of course, long pre-dates the multiplicity of media in today’s world, when the press was the main source of adulation, and he was famously averse to giving newspaper interviews himself. For those interested in the sources of celebrity worship, however, his story, “The Papers,” showing how two aspiring London journalists worked with those who were famous simply for being famous, helps to give some idea of how such worship was practiced a century ago. (Nicholas Clifford)

Time is the strangest of all mysteries. Relatively unimportant events, almost unnoticed as they occur, may, in hundreds of years, result in Ultimate Catastrophe. On Time Track Number One, that was the immutable result. But on Time Track Number Two there was one little event that could be used to avert it—the presence of a naked woman in public. So, Skandos One removed the clothing from the Lady Rhoann and after one look, Lord Tedric did the rest!

Arcadia is a prose work by Sir Philip Sidney, a classic of the Renaissance pastoral and a work of high romance, a fleeting vision of a lost world of gallantry and adventure, representing an escape from the realities of politics in the Elizabethan court. It contributes to the ongoing legend of Sidney as the perfect Renaissance man, "soldier, scholar, horseman he/And all he did done perfectly".

The basis on which these myths were selected necessarily excluded those which showed traces of the white man's religion or of the red man's coarseness. Relatively speaking, only a few myths could be selected. These were the creation myths, the origin of the races, the theft of fire, the salmon, and especially those connected with the physical features of the country, such as those of Takhoma, Shasta, the Columbia River, and the group of mountains of the bridge of the gods…. No claim is made...

This is a whimsical, entertaining, tongue in cheek narrative of the author’s purchase of a house, circa 1911.

Twenty-four delightful tales for children. Meet Timothy Mouse, Little Red Doe, Dame Woodchuck, King Moose and Unk-Wunk the Porcupine with their friends. Adventure and humor are skillfully wrapped around these lovable characters.

Gertrude Barrows Bennett was the first major female writer of fantasy and science fiction in the United States, publishing her stories under the pseudonym Francis Stevens. Bennett wrote a number of highly acclaimed fantasies between 1917 and 1923 and has been called "the woman who invented dark fantasy". Citadel of Fear is considered Francis Stevens' masterpiece, by Lovecraft's acclaim. Two adventurers discover a lost city in the Mexican jungle. One is taken over by an evil god while the other falls in love with a woman from the ancient Mexican city of Tlapallan...

An early werewolf novel, praised by H.P Lovecraft. The only weird fiction from an author of mainly crime fiction. Two strange disappearances occur on a road in Sussex. The second involved a member of the aristocracy and a famous actress, so a large, but fruitless investigation is held by Scotland Yard. An American, visiting an old friend, who is of the local gentry, suspects something horrible and begins to investigate to verify his fears..

I am inclined to rank Count Tolstoy not among the realists or naturalists, but rather as an impressionist. He is often careless about accuracy. Numberless incongruities can be pointed out. He is as willing to adopt an anachronism as a medieval painter. I would defy an historian to reconstruct the battle of Austerlitz from Count Tolstoy's description. And yet what a picture of a battle was ever more vivid! It is like a painting where the general impression is true, but a close analysis discovers...

The best of science fantasy meets the best of science fiction as Tedric battles his way through two universes of adventure: In one universe...Tedric the Ironmaster wields the mightiest sword his world has ever seen - and swears to break the power of the evil god Sarpedion, or die in the attempt. This is the second in a series and takes place when Tedric, now a Lord, begins learning how to plan and observe instead of just rushing in to kill. In another universe...only Tedric's strength and daring stand between the dwindling power of the Terran Empire and total alien conquest...

The Dark is a novella about a desperate young man, a “terrorist and nihilist”, trying to avoid arrest by taking refuge in a brothel. The story focuses on his unfolding relationship with a prostitute in the brothel and the internal conflict which torments him. The author, Leonid Andreyev, an acclaimed Russian playwright and writer of short fiction, was noted for the darkness in his work. This book was published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. ( Lee Smalley)

A collection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry on travels in Lancashire, England, with occasional sorties into adjacent counties.