Lawrence’s first novel is set in Nethermere (his name for the real-life Eastwood in Nottinghamshire). The plot is narrated by Cyril Beardsall and focuses in particular on the relationship of his sister Lettie with two admirers, the more handsome and down to earth George and the more effete gentleman Leslie. She eventually marries Leslie although she is sexually attracted to George. George marries the conventional Meg and both marriages end in unhappiness. The countryside of the English midlands is beautifully evoked and there is powerful description also of the impact of industrialisation on both town and country.

Following the short story collections, Clog Shop Chronicles and Beckside Lights, John Ackworth completed the adventures of clogger Jabez Clegg and his Beckside cronies with a novel. Jabez's niece, the young and vivacious Doxie Dent, has grown up in 'Lunnon'. Arriving in the Lancashire village that is cloggers home, she delights the villagers with her southern ways, but Jabez remains unimpressed...

The eyes of the Légionnaire, now grown accustomed to the glow of the light, made sure that the figure had not moved, nor was aware of his silent and furtive approach. Two plans of action suggested themselves, one to move behind the foliage to the right and intercept the monk with the lantern should he attempt to flee toward the lights of the house nearby, the other to risk all in a frank statement, a plea for charity and asylum. (A selection from Chapter 1. )

This is a unique sequel to the book Titus: A Comrade of the Cross written in a very different style, though none the less memorable, full of excitement and suspense! The author combines several stories together with great skill and ease, creating tension, making you wonder how things can play out until the very climax is reached. A blind girl and her brother just barely surviving in Egypt, threatened by the slave trade, almost without hope, one day hear about miracles happening in Jerusalem. They fly for their lives, hoping against hope and when they finally get there they find themselves at the foot of the cross. Is it too late? Was all their suffering for nothing?

In 1647, Poland is a land facing complete destruction with fire and sword. It may come from without, as the Tartar hordes swarm over the steppes, turning cities to ash and the Poles to slaves. It may come from within the country’s bounds, as the traitor Hmyelnitski leads the Cossacks in a devastating revolt. Or it may come simply because the nation’s leaders and nobility have become selfish, lazy, and complacent, and are ill-equipped to face the horrors coming their way. If Poland is to survive, it will depend on the heroes who rise in her time of need...

"Never have bright romance and black scandal been more attached to the name of lovely woman," writes a quaint and susceptible chronicler, " than to that of fair Anne Boleyn." Certainly no girl ever flashed so meteor-like above the satellites of an English court, and no woman ever went to her doom under more awful accusations. Since fiction could not be half so amazing as the facts of Anne Boleyn's story, I have kept this novel of her fortunes true to those facts, and have gone, for their knowledge, not only to the histories written of this period, but in many cases to the sources of those histories...

The novel begins with the arrival of a family staking a claim in the black delta of the Deep South. Whitlaw is a brutish sort who bullies his cowering wife into working herself to death. Shortly after giving birth to a strapping man-child, the wife, Portia, dutifully dies. Her sister-in-law, Clio, takes over the responsibilities of raising the young Whitlaw and tending to every need and whim of her brother. Jonathan Jefferson grows up to be shrewd, conniving, and sly, driven – as Trollope thought most Americans were – by a compulsion for financial success...

This is a group of Imaginary Conversations by Walter Savage Landor. It is a series of dialogues of historical and mythical characters. Marcellus and Hannibal, Queen Elizabeth and Cecil, Peter the Great and Alexis, Louis XIV and Father La Chaise, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are just a few of the delights on offer. Plenty to choose from and some great reads. - Summary by Michele Eaton Cast List: Landor: pjmorgan Marcellus: SirQueezle Hannibal: bala The Surgeon: CharlieOldfield Gaulish...

Marie Antoinette lives a happy life in a glittering court as Queen of France, but that soon changes as the revolution begins. Her son is Louis Charles, and his whole life changes with the death of his parents. But, that life is not what the people of France would expect.

1870's rural Massachusetts communities became famous as “Oldtown” in Harriet Beecher Stowe's 7th novel and national bestseller. Based partially on her husband Rev. Calvin Stowe's childhood memories and other old timers' recollections, this story of growing up in rural New England just after the American Revolution is one of the earliest examples of local color writing in New England. Young Horace Holyoke, the novel's narrator, describes life during the early Federalist years, capturing its many rich ideas, customs, and family lore...

Edward the Confessor is very weak and will die soon. But with no son to succeed him, who will gain the throne? The common folk and loyal Saxon barons in England want Harold, while the Norman barons and the people in Normandy, France want Duke William. They claim Edward gave William the throne. Who is right? Will Britain be Normanized? - Summary by Esther ben Simonides Cast List King Edward the Confessor: Beth ThomasHarold, Earl of Wessex: Adele de PignerollesGyrth, brother to Harold; Cecilia, daughter...

Zola's original French publication, Au Bonheur des Dames , published 1882, is the eleventh novel in his Rougon-Macquart series. This English translation by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly, was published in 1886. It's a glitzy, fast paced Parisian drama depicting life at the world's first department store, revealing its many innovative marketing concepts, fashion, glamour, lust, greed, courage, deception, human foibles, and the vision and financial risk-taking that led to a world transformation in shopping -- one that set all the little shop keepers on their heads...

Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh is the first in the series of Doctor Syn novels by Russell Thorndike and inspired a Disney movie called the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh starring Patrick Patrick McGoohan. In this story we are introduced to the complex Christopher Syn, the kindly vicar of the little town of Dymchurch. Dr Syn seems pleasant, but is he much more than he seems? Although published first, this book is the last of the series chronologically. The town is located near the Romney Marsh, an ideal location for smuggling operations...

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

Juan and Carlos Meñaya have longed to find their father ever since they were little. Their dream starts to get lost, though, as they grow up and go separate ways. Juan goes off to war and falls under the influence of a Huguenot prisoner while Carlos becomes a monk and begins to discover the Bible for himself. - Summary by Adele de Pignerolles Dramatis Personae Narration by Adele de Pignerolles and Rapunzelina Carlos, read by Joseph Tabler Juan Rodrigo, read by Aaron Rivera Dolores, read by Sonia Fray...

Preface note by George Gibbs: There were no more vivid episodes in the colonization of the New World than those resulting from the attempts of the French people to gain a permanent foothold on our shores.... The most thrilling chapter in all this history, strangely neglected or overlooked by the romantic writers, is that of the struggle between the Spanish and French colonists for dominion over our own land of Florida. To me, whose profession it is to see pictures in the words of other men and...

The Fortune of the Rougons , originally published in 1871, is the first novel in Émile Zola's monumental twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. In his introduction Zola indicates that this series is intended to demonstrate the interaction of heredity and environment along the lines of natural selection and evolution. While Zola's metascience is questionable, this novel is successful in its analysis of the interaction of momentous social and political events and the everyday lives and aspirations of a provincial society...

Hans of Iceland was written in 1821 and is the very first novel written by young Victor, years before he became the great Hugo. It has all the ingredients of a gothic novel: dreadful murders by the hand of a human monster, a young hero in love with the destitute heroine, royal court-intrigues and rebellious uprising, all set in dungeons, dark towers and the untamed nature of Norway.This audio-book has been recorded as Dramatic Reading with all the voices performed by one single reader, including laughs, sobs, groans, occasional screams and a lot of growls. I hope you will enjoy listening to this adventurous journey just as much as I enjoyed recording it. - Summary by Sonia

This is an exciting sequel to the earlier books Titus: A Comrade of the Cross and Stephen: A Soldier of the Cross. It tells the story of the apostle Paul, from his conversion through his imprisonment.

Ivan Matveich, the most ordinary person you might hope to meet, is swallowed alive by a crocodile at a sideshow. Finding life inside the belly of the beast quite comfortable, he makes a home for himself there. His disquisitions on the state of the world from inside the crocodile make him quite a name for himself; while all the while the discussion rages outside as to whether the beast is going to be cut open to release him or not, its value as a sideshow attraction having massively increased owing to the presence of the human voice buried inside it. One of Jorge Luis Borges' seven most favourite stories. - Summary by Tony Addison

Subtitled "The Throne, The Tomb, and The Scaffold - An Historical Play in 3 Acts From the Celebrated Play of that Name by Alexandre Dumas" - How can you resist a play about English history - the doomed fifth wife of Henry the 8th - by the celebrated French author of The Musketeers?? - Summary by ToddHW Cast list: Henry VIII, King of England: Larry Wilson Athelwold, Duke of Northumberland: Paul Simonin Archbishop Cranmer: alanmapstone Duke of Sussex: KHand Duke of Norfolk: tovarisch Grand Chamberlain:...

The Philosophical Studies from The Human Comedy are a series of works that are intended as a reflection on history in part through the use of fiction. 'Catherine de Medici' is one such 'study', and features, alongside detailed history sections, elements of the 'story' are fictionalised. In particular, this happens through dialogue that describes the feelings of the characters and what they are doing, these parts in the manner of a novel. In particular, Catherine de Medici , was depicted by historians as a bad ruler...

This historical novel is set in the 1100s in France and Jerusalem, following the First Crusade. Part of the story of Guy of Lusignan is told through the eyes of his fictional sister, Elaine. Guy travels to the Holy Land to reclaim it from the Saracens. Elaine follows afterward, finding upon arrival that her brother has fallen in love with Sybil, the sister of the leper king of Jerusalem. Queen Sybilla, a real historical character, is surrounded by political intrigue as she prepares to ascend the throne, which threatens her upcoming marriage to Guy of Lusignan...

When spunky 'Tilda Jane isn't allowed to keep her beloved dog with her at the orphanage, she decides to set out on her own in search of a home where the inseparable pair will be accepted. Throughout her weary travels she encounters many people, both rich and poor, kind and cantankerous -- but will she ever find family? Set in the Canadian wilderness and coast of Maine, 'Tilda Jane is a story of true grit, forgiveness, and unlikely friendship.

One soft summer evening, when Woodville was crowned with the glory and beauty of the joyous season, three strangers presented themselves before the Grant family, and asked for counsel and assistance. The party consisted of two boys and a girl, and they belonged to that people which the traditions of the past have made the "despised race;" but the girl was whiter and fairer than many a proud belle who would have scorned her in any other capacity than that of a servant; and one of the boys was very nearly white, while the other was as black as ebony undefiled...

Written by a fictitious first-person narrator, this book puts a humorous spin on encounters with several famous people of the time. "I set forth from my office in London upon my pilgrimage to the shrines of the world's illustrious. Readers everywhere are interested in the home life of men who have made themselves factors in art, science, letters, and history, and to these people I was commissioned to go." -- Summary by TriciaG and from the book.

In his mid-70s, Philippe Aubert de Gaspé took on the project of recording the culture and heritage of French Canada, especially that of the late 1700s, the world of his youth. The result, published in French in 1863, was the historical fiction "Les Anciens Canadiens . In this book, inspired by the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott, Aubert de Gaspé collects the customs, traditions, folk tales, superstitions, and songs of the Quebec people, weaves in memories of life in his own ancestral home, and sets all this within the momentous historical events that transformed Canada in the 18th century...

Sentimental Education is a novel by Gustave Flaubert, that is considered one of the most influential novels of the 19th century. The story focuses on the romantic life of a young man at the time of the French Revolution of 1848. - Summary by Wikipedia

The world knows the fate of the classic lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony, so there is no need to announce a spoiler alert. Georg Ebers was a German Egyptologist who deftly applied his comprehensive knowledge of Rome and Egypt into a fictionalized account of the ill-fated romance between the Egyptian Queen and her Roman lover Mark Antony.

This play was produced in 1698 at Drury Lane Theatre. From the bustle of its plot, the variety of its incidents, and the sustained humour of its dialogue, it met with so favourable a reception that Farquhar henceforth devoted himself to writing for the stage. - Summary by Alex. Charles Ewald Cast list: Roebuck, an Irish Gentleman, of a wild roving temper, newly come to London: Algy Pug Lovewell, his friend, sober and modest, in love with Lucinda: ToddHW Mockmode, a young Squire, come newly from...

Colonel Tempest , his wastrel son Archie and beautiful daughter Diana are dismayed when they are cut out of the will of old Mr Tempest, Colonel Tempest’s brother. All of the Tempest fortune and estates at Overleigh pass to son John. However, everyone except John knows that he is illegitimate. Colonel Tempest, enraged, agrees in a drunken stupor to a bounty of £10,000 on John’s head although he later comes to bitterly regret this. Meanwhile, Di, who is strong and independent, has vowed she will never marry...

A stranger rides across the Kentish countryside when his attention is called to a cottage where violence is being done to an elderly couple. The knight, for such he appears to be, rushes to their aid. Soon after, the strange and prophetic Sir Cesar appears on the scene and foretells of danger ahead. We follow this knight as he encounters an evil landowner; the good and faithful Longpole, son of the elderly couple; the beneficent Duke of Buckingham--or is he a traitor?; and the coquettish Lady Katrine...