Haggard tells the story of Cleopatra from the viewpoint of an Ancient Egyptian priest who is given the responsibility of overthrowing the supposed impostor Cleopatra. Haggard, who often employed hints of adventure and exoticism, portrayed Cleopatra as witty and devious, and she has an overwhelming presence that all... read more »
1812 and the fate of Europe lies in the hands of newly appointed Commodore Hornblower. Dispatched to northern waters, Hornblower will protect Britain's Baltic interests and halt the advance of Napoleon's empire into Sweden and Russia.\n\nFirst he must battle the terrible Baltic weather; fog, snow and icebound... read more »
Sir Walter Scott was a master of diverse talents. He was a man of letters, a dedicated historian and historiographer, a well-read translator of foreign texts, and a talented poet. Deriving most of his material from his native Scotland, its history and its legends, Scott invented and mastered what we know today as... read more »
A portrait of the residents of an English country town in the mid nineteenth century, Cranford relates the adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged spinster sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances. Through a series of vignettes, Elizabeth Gaskell portrays a community governed... read more »
Bertram Greene, brilliant student, aesthete, intellectual and shy, decides to make his military father proud of him at last and joins the colonial Indian Army Reserve as a second Lieutenant at the start of Great War. Feeling a complete fish out of water, he is dispatched to India without any training whatsoever, and... read more »
There is something epic--and almost mythic--about this sparsely beautiful novel by Willa Cather, although the story it tells is that of a single human life, lived simply in the silence of the desert. In 1851 Father Jean Marie Latour comes as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. What he finds is a vast territory of red... read more »
Close on the heels of the magnificent With Fire and Sword and The Deluge, comes this impassioned tale of love, war, heroism, treason and betrayal, with which the great classic Trilogy of Poland's most popular 19th century writer is brought to an end. Fire in the Steppe is the final book of Sienkiewicz's literary... read more »
Dinny Cherrell has been proposed to numerous times. But no one has ever come close to touching her independent spirit. That is, until she encounters Wilfred Desert. They had first met at Fleur and Michael Mont's wedding and the spark of attraction felt all those years before develops into a deep, all-consuming love... read more »
Virginia Woolf's humorous biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's spaniel is charming yet also radical. A work of sensuous imagination, it opens up a range of questions about class, society, and cultural attitudes which are woven throughout the whole of Woolf's writing. read more »
Forced to surrender his ship, the Sutherland, after a long and bloody battle, Captain Horatio Hornblower now bides his time as a prisoner in a French fortress. Within days he and his first lieutenant, Bush, who was crippled in the last fight, are to be taken to Paris to be tried on trumped-up charges of violating... read more »
London 1665 is no place for Randal Holles, a former soldier in Cromwell's army, now that the monarchy has been restored and the exploits of the Republicans are being condemned in the highest degree. Holles, desperate for an escape from his hopeless situation and almost certain execution, sees no option but to accept... read more »
Tomorrow is another day ... Set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Civil War, Margaret Mitchell's magnificent historical epic is an unforgettable tale of love and loss, of a nation mortally divided and a people forever changed. Above all, it is the story of beautiful, ruthless Scarlett O'Hara and the... read more »
Full of enthusiasm, young English schoolmaster Mr. Chipping came to teach at Brookfield in 1870. It was a time when dignity and a generosity of spirit still existed, and the dedicated new schoolmaster expressed these beliefs to his rowdy students. Nicknamed Mr. Chips, this gentle and caring man helped shape the... read more »
Grey Weather is the first collection of sketches from John Buchan, author of The Thirty-nine Steps. The subtitle, Moorland Tales of My Own People, sets the theme of these fourteen stories. Shepherds, farmers, herdsmen and poachers are Buchan's subjects and his love for the hills and the lochs shines through. read more »
Guy Mannering is set in the exotic highlands of Scotland, this is an interesting novel by Walter Scott. Narrating the story of Harry and his adventures, this amazing work dwells on the ups and downs he faced throughout his life. As Mannering, the student of astrology, foresees this child's future, everything appears... read more »
A fascinating fictionalised biography of the life of Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, defeated by William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. This interesting novel is a strange mix of romanticism and research, featuring both witchcraft and scholarly footnotes. read more »
January 1808, Hornblower is called upon to act as a bargeman while traveling with his wife and baby son to London where he is to take command of the Atropos. Skippering the flagship for Nelson's funeral on the Thames is not Hornblower's idea of thrilling action. But soon his orders come, and he sets sail for the... read more »
The Peace of Amiens is breaking down. Napoleon is building ships and amassing an army just across the Channel. Horatio Hornblower, who, at age twenty-seven, has already distinguished himself as one of the most daring and resourceful officers in the Royal Navy-commands the three-masted Hotspur on a dangerous... read more »
Pirates, Buccaneers, Marooners, those cruel but picturesque sea wolves who once infested the Spanish Main, all live in present-day conceptions in great degree as drawn by the pen and pencil of Howard Pyle….It is improbable that anyone else will ever bring his combination of interest and talent to the depiction of... read more »
Separated from his wife Irene for some years now, Soames Forsyte has resigned himself to the fact that she's never coming back. But as he grows older and richer, he yearns for an heir. When he confronts Irene, the raw wounds of his past passion are exposed and he will do anything to claim back what is his. Then his... read more »
In Ivanhoe, Scott fashioned an imperial myth of national cultural identity that has shaped the popular imagination ever since its first appearance at the end of 1819. With the secret return of King Richard and the disinherited Saxon knight Ivanhoe, Scott confronts his splendid and tumultuous romance, featuring the... read more »
It's 1783 and wealthy Paul Déroulède has offended the young Vicomte de Marny by speaking disrepctfully of his latest infatuation, Adèle de Monterchéri. Déroulède had not intended to get into the quarrel but has a tendency to blunder into things -- "no doubt a part of the inheritance bequeathed to him by his... read more »
In 1429, a 17-year-old peasant girl receives a message from Heaven that she is to rescue France from its English oppressors. Within two years this most unlikely of heroines leads a ragtag army to victory, sees the king crowned, and dies at the stake, martyred by traitors. America's most famous storyteller, Mark... read more »
Regarded by many as the most luminous example of Twain's work, this historical novel chronicles the French heroine's life, as purportedly told by her longtime friend — Sieur Louis de Conté. A panorama of stirring scenes recount Joan's childhood in Domremy, the story of her voices, the fight for Orleans, the... read more »
Set partly in Revolutionary Paris, and partly in romantic Cumbria, Judith Paris is the story of the two very different men who love Walpole's most delightful heroine. Daughter of Francis Herries and Mirabell Starr, Judith was described on publication as 'the most delightful of Walpole's heroines'. As impetuous... read more »
Her name was Katherine Christian--but many called her the Devil's own handmaiden. Born of a proud English beauty and a roving gypsy, she was mistress to many men but slave to none as she climbed toward wealth and power. Rashleigh and Peter were brothers, members of the great Herries clan. But their ties of blood... read more »
Scott's imagination created Kenilworth, a romance novel of conflicting characters. He has brought to life the character of Queen Elizabeth with the most brilliant and enchanting effect. The novel tells the story of the secret, tragic marriage of Amy Robsart to Robert Dudley that is marred by ambition. The theme of... read more »
Set in Scotland after the Jacobite rebellion, young David Balfour leaves home and goes to the sinister House of Shaws. There, he finds himself kidnapped, the victim of his uncle's plot to cheat him of his inheritance, aboard a ship bound for America. He teams up with the Jacobite loyalist and spy, Alan Breck and... read more »
In 1809, New Yorkers were buzzing about a series of classified ads concerning the whereabouts of Dutch historian Diedrich Knickerbocker. They were unaware that Washington Irving had invented the man entirely and placed the ads himself. Knickerbocker's purported manuscript, A History of New York, was Irving's own... read more »
Set in Russia, it is the story of Ainsely Fothergill, an Englishman who served as a British spy and was exiled to Siberia for eight years. The book reminds us that James Hilton was one of the best storytellers of our era, and that a good story never loses its appeal. read more »