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 an old myth of a hero who renewed his strength each time he touched the earth, and finally was overcome by being raised in the air and crushed. Whether or not the Angles risked a like fate as they raised themselves away from the primitive virtues that had been their life and strength, no one can tell; but... read more »
It is what happened after the death of Louis XVII, that is so amazingly interesting. Through various entries Cardinal Beneventy's diary, we can follow the drama step by step and I have taken the liberty of forming from these fragments a coherent story—the life story not of the rescued Dauphin himself, for that was... read more »
It happened first in the history of the New World lands that the Northman Biorn Herjulfsson saw them when he had lost his way in journeying to Greenland. But he lacked the adventuresomeness to go ashore and explore them. Then Leif the Lucky, son of Eric the Red of Greenland, heard of the omission and set out to... read more »
Monsieur le Vicomte is a remarkable man - not least because, for all concerned, he had been guillotined along with numerous French aristocrats. Yet by some twist of fate he managed to escape and seek refuge in Turin, out of the jurisdiction of the French authorities. But by an even more perverse twist of fate, he is... 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 »
The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel has disguised themselves as a group of shabby second-rate musicians, in order to save an innocent family from death. But Citizen Chauvelin is hot on their heels, and still looking for revenge against his bitter enemy. The Pimpernel's plans are, however, complicated by betrayal of... read more »
Set in 1938, this novel tells the story of the Corbetts, a family preparing for the coming war. As the world begins to collapse around them, they decide to chance their one means of escape and take to their small yacht on the Solent. Peter Corbett, a local lawyer, his wife, Joan, and their three children make the... read more »
Historical adventure novel set during the French Revolution On the rare occasions when Lady Chartley was “at home,” the whole of the élite of Cannes society and of the neighbourhood got into its motors and drove over to the beautiful Château de Pertuis. These were memorable afternoons. There had only been... read more »
Orczy tells of those three—the woman, and the two men—playmates, enemies, lovers in turn. It seemed well-nigh impossible to attempt the isolation of the one sentimental thread from the tangled skein of passions and of hate which seventeenth century England hath flung to us out of the whirlpool of civil war and... read more »
Set against the religious struggles and civil wars of seventeenth century Scotland, John Buchan's gripping atmospheric tale in the spirit of Stevenson and Neil Munro. As a moderate presbyterian minister, young David Sempill disputes with the extremists of his faith, as all around, the defeated remnants of Montrose's... 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 »
The story is set in Hungary and the scene is laid in a village close to the Maros. On this particular fourteenth of September it is Andor's turn to go unwillingly into the army for three years. On the eve preceding it, at the village merrymaking, as the whole population spends its last happy hours trying to forget... 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 »
When Don Pedro is shipwrecked and captured by the formidable Lady Margaret Trevanion, he doesn't expect is to fall in love and run away with her. And he certainly hadn't expected that the officers of the Spanish Inquisition would be so ruthless that the lovers are forced to enlist the help of the Queen of England... read more »
Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins. When she is captured she joins a group of other European women and children whom the Japanese force to march for miles through the jungle - an experience that leads to the deaths of many. Due to her courageous spirit and... read more »
The first in Zola's famous Rougon-Macquart series of novels. In it we learn how the two branches of the family came about, and the origins of the hereditary weaknesses passed down the generations. Murder, treachery, and greed are the keynotes, and just as the Empire was established through violence, the "fortune" of... read more »
Buchan skillfully weaves the story of young clerk Peter Pentecost, who has a claim to the throne, and a tale of intrigue against King Henry VIII, where 'under the blanket of the dark all men are alike and all are nameless'. Buchan's description of the ruthless king is compelling. His knowledge of the time of Henry's... 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 »
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 »
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 »
After their recent defeat, the hamlets and villages of Derbyshire are no longer ringing with the wild shouts of Bonny Prince Charlie's Highland Brigade; instead troops loyal to King George are looking for those accused of high treason and are offering a reward of twenty guineas for the death of any traitor or rebel... read more »
Peyton Farquhar, a confederate sympathizer, stands to be hanged for his role in a plot to demolish Owl Creek Bridge. As he awaits death, Farquhar considers the possibility of escape; the chances of slipping his bonds, swimming to safety, and returning to his family. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge recounts the... 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 »
Kat Howard--intelligent, beautiful, naively outspoken, and passionately idealistic--catches the eye of Henry VIII and improbably becomes his fifth wife. A teenager who has grown up far from court, she is wholly unused to the corruption and intrigue that now surround her. It is a time of great upheaval, as... read more »
This fifth novel in the Herries Chronicle, set against the background of the turmoil and politics of Elizabethan England, tells the tale of one family's experiences of divided loyalties and thwarted love. Being the first part of the prequel to the Herries Chronicles. read more »
The League is up to their old tricks again, but this time they have the help of a local simple girl from the country, Fleurette. When she and her love fall into danger for her help, the League decides these two innocents must be rescued as well. But matters are complicated when the Pimpernel discovers that Fleurette... 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 »
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 »
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 »