This story takes place during the occupation of Netherlands in 1570's by Spain and describes the battle for Ghent...."It lacked two hours before the dawn on this sultry night early in September. The crescent moon had long ago sunk behind a bank of clouds in the west, and not a sound stirred the low-lying land around... read more »
An immortal story of love, adventure, chivalry, treachery and death. Le Morte D'Arthur is Sir Thomas Malory's unique and splendid version of the Arthurian legend. Mordred's treason, the knightly exploits of Tristan, Lancelot's fatally divided loyalties and his love for Guenever, the quest for the Holy Grail; all the... read more »
The legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table have inspired some of the greatest works of literature--from Cervantes's Don Quixote to Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Although many versions exist, Malory's stands as the classic rendition. Malory wrote the book while in Newgate Prison during the last... read more »
This story by Henryk Sienkiewicz, is of interest as it can be considered the germ, so to speak, of Quo Vadis, which is among one of the most noteworthy of novels and has won a large audience as well in Europe as in America. It is the tale of Cains Septimus Cunia, a Roman patrician, rich, splendid, luxury-loving... read more »
The nineteenth century dawns and the Napoleonic Wars rage as Horatio Hornblower is ordered to the Caribbean and dangerous waters. New Lieutenant Hornblower's latest ship is HMS Renown, a sound vessel whose captain is unfortunately of rather unsound mind. When ordered to attack a Spanish anchorage, the chain of... read more »
Weary of the war that he has waged nearly his entire life, Hornblower finds himself assigned an especially dangerous and dubious new task; to rescue a man he knows to be a tyrant from the mutiny of his crew in the Bay of the Seine. This risky adventure, coinciding with reports that the tide of war may be turning-as... read more »
Lord Antony Dewhurst is 'a splendid fellow - a fine sportsman, a loyal gentleman'. The young gallant is also Percy's close friend and a lieutenant in the League. The year is 1793 and in Nantes, France, the hunting of aristocrats goes on. And over in England, the enemy has kidnapped Lord Tony's wife, Yvonne. It falls... read more »
Louise de la Valliere is the middle section of The Vicomte de Bragelonne or, Ten Years After. Against a tender love story, Dumas continues the suspense which began with The Vicomte de Bragelonne and will end with The Man in the Iron Mask. It is early summer, 1661, and the royal court of France is in turmoil. Can it... read more »
Get set for a rip-roaring yarn. Set in early modern Italy, Love-At-Arms skillfully combines all of the elements that have won Rafael Sabatini's work a worldwide following: non-stop action, surprising plot twists, and plenty of swoon-worthy romance. Settle in with Sabatini's Love-At-Arms for an exceptionally... read more »
Marian expects that Robin Hood and his Merry Men can help her gain information that can secure her liberty. What she doesn't expect is to fall in love with the leader of that merry band. Despite their political differences, which sometimes result in fierce arguments between the sharp-tongued duo, the lovers hatch a... read more »
Set in Manchester in the 1840s, Mary Barton depicts the effects of economic and physical hardship upon the city's working-class community. Paralleling the novel's treatment of the relationship between masters and men, the suffering of the poor, and the workmen's angry response, is the story of Mary herself--a... read more »
Eleanor H. Porter's novel Mary Marie tackles an issue that is as relevant as ever: divorce and its impact on the children in the family that has been torn asunder. Groundbreaking at the time of its original publication, the novel tells the story of a young girl whose divorced parents can't agree on anything about... read more »
In 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie's rebel army is marching south into England. Alastair Maclean, one of the Prince's most loyal supporters, is sent ahead to carry out a secret mission. He is befriended by two extraordinary men-Dr. Samuel Johnson, an aspiring man of letters, and the shadowy figure known only as... read more »
The classic action-adventure romance Mistress Wilding offers something for every Rafael Sabatini fan. Set amidst the turmoil of King James' reign, the tangled love triangle at the center of the novel is beset on all sides by conflict, treachery and intrigue. Will the chivalrous protagonist Anthony Wilding be able to... read more »
The novel is set in a fishing village in Dorset during the mid 18th century. The story concerns a 15 year old orphan boy, John Trenchard, who becomes friends with an older man who turns out to be the leader of a gang of smugglers. A much-loved classic story about a boy's adventures among smugglers and thieves as he... read more »
Aboard a fishing boat named “Genevieve,” a small group of British officers and French fishermen—armed only with a flame thrower and small arms—plan a secret commando mission against the might of the German army after the fall of France in World War II. Each man has experienced a terrible loss of one kind or... read more »
The year is 1793, the eve of the Napoleonic Wars, and Horatio Hornblower, a seventeen-year-old boy unschooled in seafaring and the ways of seamen, is ordered to board a French merchant ship and take command of crew and cargo for the glory of England. Though not an unqualified success, this first naval adventure... read more »
After the death of his parents, Jim is sent to live with his grandparents on the Nebraska plains. By chance on that same train is a bright-eyed girl, Antonia, who will become his neighbor and lifelong friend. Her family has emigrated from Bohemia to start a new life farming but soon lose their money and must work... read more »
Nada the Lily is the thrilling story of the brave Zulu warrior Umslopogaas and his love for the most beautiful of Zulu women, Nada the Lily. Young Umslopogaas, son of the bloodthirsty Zulu king Chaka, is forced to flee when Chaka orders his death. In the adventures that ensue, Umslopogaas is carried away by a lion... read more »
Eleanor H. Porter is best known for writing children's books, including Pollyanna, however, Oh, Money! Money! is written for adults. It is the story of a millionaire who gives a large amount of money to his cousins and then comes to live with them incognito. Will one of the cousins be worthy of inheriting the rest... read more »
Set in 1679 during the Scottish populist rebellion known as the Covenanter uprising, The Tale of Old Mortality is one of the outstanding historical fictions of the nineteenth century. Henry Morton of Milnewood is compelled to take up arms against the royalists, who are led by Claverhouse, a true villain in Scottish... read more »
At the heart of Dickens's second novel is a story as much about crime and poverty as it is about justice and charity. Orphaned at birth, Oliver Twist grows up under the loveless, relentless watch of a workhouse. He runs away with hopes for a better life in London, only to become–at the hands of the unforgettable... read more »
An intimate story of young man's life. Claude Wheeler's stormy youth, his enigmatic marriage, and the final adventure which releases the baffled energy of the boy's nature, are told with almost epic simplicity. World War I offers him even more, but he may crave excitement more than life itself can allow. Wanting it... read more »
This historical novel is told from the point of view of first-century Christian Onesimus, a slave mentioned in the book of Philemon. Enter the mind of one of the most unusual scholars of the late Victorian era, whose interests ranged from the Four Gospels to the fourth dimension. Abbott wrote many books of New... read more »
On Forsyte 'Change deals in the main with the older Forsytes before the events chronicled in The Man of Property. Galsworthy states in a Foreword that "They have all been written since Swan Song was finished but in place they come between the Saga and the Comedy...". By way of explanation he says that "It is hard to... read more »
"The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman," writes Willa Cather in O Pioneers! The country is America; the woman is Alexandra Bergson, a fiercely independent young Swedish immigrant girl who inherits her father’s farm in Nebraska. A model of emotional strength, courage, and resolve... read more »
The thrill of reading Virginia Woolf’s Orlando is the feeling of looking into a whirlpool just as something utterly extraordinary materializes for the first time: an exhilarating hallucination of surreal and beautiful images that remain in memory long after you put the book down. Orlando has it all: life, death... read more »
When Prince Oroonoko's passion for the virtuous Imoinda arouses the jealousy of his grandfather, the lovers are cast into slavery and transported from Africa to the colony of Surinam. Oroonoko's noble bearing soon wins the respect of his English captors, but his struggle for freedom brings about his destruction... read more »
The institution of marriage, that gives to a man all the rights over a woman, is a theme once again visited by Galsworthy. Clare Charwell has just fled her sadistic husband to England. Along the way she met the charming Tony Croom, but when she refuses to return to her husband he falsely accuses her of adultery in a... read more »
Vigorous, self-reliant, amazingly resourceful, and moral, Natty Bumppo is the prototype of the Western hero. A faultless arbiter of wilderness justice, he hates middle-class hypocrisy. But he finds his love divided between the woman he has pledged to protect on a treacherous journey and the untouched forest that... read more »