The Fortunes of Philippa is based on the author's mother, Angelica Brazil, who had grown up in Rio de Janeiro and attended an English boarding school at the age of 10, finding the English culture, school life and climate confronting.

This is a collection of thirteen letters from Angelina Grimké on the subjects of abolitionism and human rights in the United States.

The Lives of the Queens of England is a multi-volumed work attributed to Agnes Strickland, though it was mostly researched and written by her sister Elizabeth. These volumes give biographies of the queens of England from the Norman Conquest in 1066. Although by today's standards, it is not seen as a very scholarly work, the Stricklands used many sources that had not been used before.Volume one includes the biographies of Matilda of Flanders, Matilda of Scotland, Adelicia of Louvaine, Matilda of Boulogne and Eleanora of Aquitaine.(Introduction by Ann Boulais)

Consolation of Philosophy (Latin: Consolatio Philosophiae) is a philosophical work by Boethius written in about the year 524 AD. It has been described as the single most important and influential work in the West in medieval and early Renaissance Christianity, and is also the last great work that can be called Classical. Consolation of Philosophy was written during Boethius’ one year imprisonment while awaiting trial, and eventual horrific execution, for the crime of treason by Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great...

In this comic novel written by American author Anita Loos, we follow the adventures of the fictional character Lorelei Lee who is a young blonde flapper. This story takes place in the hedonistic Jazz Age and is written in the form of a diary from Lorelei's viewpoint as she shares stories of the men she entertains in New York City and Europe. “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” was an instant bestseller and has been declared as “the great American novel” by Edith Wharton. - Summary by Jenn Broda

Published in 1847, five years after her epic poem, 'Dionysus the Areopagite', 'Poems For My Children' was Ann Hawkshaw's second collection of poetry. The poems are dedicated to her six children and many are written in an intimate conversational style. 'Ada', the final poem in the collection, is a memorial for her second child, who had died of hydrocephalus shortly before her fifth birthday. Five historical poems, set in the times of the Druids, the Romans the Saxons, the Normans and the Crusades, punctuate the collection and anticipate her later collection, 'Sonnets on Anglo-Saxon History'.

Ann Hawkshaw's fourth and final collection was published privately and named for her young grandson, Cecil Wedgwood. Written for children, the volume alternates prose with poetry and is lighter in tone than her earlier work, although poems such as 'The Discontented Stream' and 'The Ambitious Water-Lily' are tinged with a sense of waste. The final piece in the collection, 'In Memoriam', is a moving elegy on childhood death, which alludes to Hawkshaw's loss of three children including Cecil's mother who died shortly after his birth. - Summary by Phil Benson

The history of Britain up to the Norman Conquest in the form of 100 prose commentaries, each followed by a sonnet. The commentaries set the historical scene, quoting from Bede, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and noted historians of the times, Hawkshaws sonnets are both imaginative and reflective, often casting new light on historical figures and events. Born in Yorkshire, Ann Hawkshaw spent much of her creative life in Manchester, where her husband John Hawkshaw was elected to Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and, as a friend of Elizabeth Gaskell, she was drawn into the intellectual and literary circle of the city.

An early figure in the birth of poetry in industrial Manchester, Ann Hawkshaw published three collections and another was circulated privately. Her first collection. published in Manchester and London in 1842, begins with an epic poem, Dionysius the Areopagite. Based on the New Testament story of the conversion of Dionysius by St Paul, much of the poem centres on the consequences of Dionysius' conversion for his betrothed, Myra, and her sister, Corrina. The collection also includes two of Hawkshaw's most important works, The Past and The Future, and a number of shorter poems on themes of history, loss and faith.

Considered a change agent in early Gothic romance; oft-referenced in later literary works or paid homage to by such authors as Jane Austen (influential novel ready by her heroine, Catherine Morland, in Northanger Abbey); Edgar Allen Poe (borrowed plot elements for the short story The Oval Portrait); and Sir Walter Scott. In The Mysteries of Udolpho, one of the most famous and popular gothic novels of the eighteenth century, Ann Radcliffe took a new tack from her predecessors and portrayed her heroine’s inner life, creating an atmosphere thick with fear, and providing a gripping plot that continues to thrill readers today...

A Sicilian Romance is a Gothic novel by Ann Radcliffe. It was her second published work, and was first published anonymously in 1790. The plot concerns the turbulent history of the fallen aristocrats of the house of Mazzini, on the northern shore of Sicily, as related by a tourist who becomes intrigued by the stories of a monk he meets in the ruins of their doomed castle. The introduction to the 'Worlds Classics' edition notes that in this novel "Ann Radcliffe began to forge the unique mixture of the psychology of terror and poetic description that would make her the great exemplar of the Gothic novel, and the idol of the Romantics"...

The love story between a nobleman and a beautiful lady whom he meets in church leads both of them to unexpected places, as many people would not put up with their love. This novel is considered to be one of the best Gothic novels ever written, by one of the first (and best) writers of the genre. How does an “indecent” love story become a Gothic tale? What is the outcome of this love story? If you want to know, read this book.

In Edwy, Ann Radcliffe gives us a delightful piece of poetic moonshine, whose eponymous hero seeks assistance from the world of faerie in order to spy on his girlfriend, Aura, and see if she really loves him. He does this by venturing unseen into Windsor Forest at night to trap the love-fay, Eda, who, once spellbound, must reveal all and let him remotely view Aura's activities by means of a magic mirror cut from crystal. In addition to this early form of cyberstalking, Edwy, on his night-journey into the forest gets to witness a royal procession of the Fairie Queen, followed by midnight revels of elves and spirits...

Ann Radcliffe is the founder of the gothic novel. This novel is no exception. The wicked baron murdered the good earl's father twelve years before the novel began. Only twelve years later, free from his mother's wishes, can the earl seek revenge. Meanwhile, Mary, the earl's beautiful sister is falling in love with a peasant. Yet her brother was abducted by the baron and he wants to marry her. She may have to wed him in order to secure his return. We see Mary's conflict along with a description of her brother's captivity...

A Gothic novel famously mentioned by Jane Austen in "Northanger Abbey" as an inspiration for the romantic ideals and supernatural fears of Catherine. Ann Radcliffe has been called the "Great Enchantress" of her age and this is one of her finest novels. Supernatural eerie thrills, midnight explorations of draughty corridors and mysterious partly burned notes all play their parts. There are noblemen in disguise, a duel, a trial, a dangerous illness, a deathbed confession and, of course, a dark and handsome hero with a fatal secret! - Summary by Beth Thomas This project was proof-listened by Betty M. and Mary in Arkansas.

Described by author Liza Daly as a "strange masterpiece of outsider art," Arqtiq is a bizarre, borderline hallucinatory work of feminist utopian fiction. Equal parts sci-fi adventure, philosophical tract, and pro-Symmesian pamphlet, Anna Adolph’s strange, self-published novella centers its narrative around an aviator who, along with a ragtag group of family and friends, charts an expedition to the North Pole in a retro-futuristic airship of her own invention. There, Anna and her crew travel into the hollow earth, encounter a race of telepathic giants, and uncover secrets about God and the universe...

or Socialism a Reality In the year 2050, Wolfgang travels to the socialist city of New York. He writes enthusiastically to his friend Hannevig describing the wonders of the journey and vastness of the city. He then turns his eye and pen to the effects of true equality of the sexes and freedom from work. Unfortunately for the New Yorkers, they do not create the desired utopia but just the opposite.

Mowatt wrote The Fortune Hunter to be submitted to a contest held by the New World newspaper. Contest rules dictated that the title of the work, that the setting had to be New York, and that the text had to be completed within six months. So, recycling a few characters from short stories written under the pen name “Helen Berkeley,” Mowatt quickly created a tale that started with two fashionable fellows in search of wealthy wives -- Brainard and Ellery. They, in turn, are pursued by the inexorable debt collector, Mr...

Mimic Life; or Before and Behind the Curtain is a collection of three narratives about life in the theater based on Mowatt’s career on stage. The stories, “Stella,” “The Prompter’s Daughter,” and “The Unknown Tragedian” reveal the every-day challenges faced by Victorian theatrical workers and argue against prejudices against this profession still held by many people at that time. - Summary by Kelly S. Taylor

Anna Cora Mowatt was the author of the first Broadway comedy hit written by a woman. Her 1845 play “Fashion” is still performed today. She was also the first woman to professionally perform solo public readings of literature in the U.S. In pre-Civil War America, she was a popular novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, and correspondent. Autobiography of an Actress tells the dramatic story of her life and her struggles to overcome the anti-theatrical prejudices of her day. - Summary by Kelly S. Taylor

Sylvie de la Roche is the daughter of a destitute former nobleman and his wife living in the slums of Paris circa 1847. Her magnificent singing voice is discovered by the irascible, but equally impoverished, old musician, Maître Beaujeu. Under his guidance and training, she is well-prepared when an opportunity comes for her to sing with the great tenor, Lablanche. Overnight, aristocrat patrons are all at her feet – in particular a very intriguing young nobleman and his lady companion. On the eve of her greatest triumph, though, Sylvie loses her wondrous contralto voice. Will it ever be recovered? - Summary by Kelly S. Taylor

A mix of short works written by Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie during her residence in Florence from 1864-65, this collection was edited and prepared for publication by her sister, Mary Thompson, wife of artist, Cephas Giovanni Thompson, after her death. It contains short stories, legends, historical sketches, profiles of noted Italian performers and foreign literati, and even an account of a devastating flood of the Arno that the author witnessed. - Summary by Kelly S. Taylor

Evelyn is a two-volume novel told in an epistolary style – alternating between letters from the point of view of a trusted, unmarried female friend of the young, naïve heroine of the novel and those of the feckless adventurer who decides that he must seduce the beautiful Evelyn. The author, actress/novelist/playwright Anna Cora Mowatt, was a fan of the works of Fredericka Bremer . This narrative is heavily influenced by that writer’s style. Like Mowatt’s hit comedy, “Fashion,” the plot centers on the misadventures of nouveau riche family social climbing in New York society of the late 1830’s...

“Gulzara, The Persian Slave” is a rare example of a script for a Victorian melodrama that was intended as a private theatrical – to be performed by a limited cast of amateurs in a home or school, not on a public stage. Rarer still, “Gulzara” was written by a female author to be performed by a cast of women. The only male character, Amurath, was a “breeches role,” played by a young girl. Thus this drama, set in a harem in Constantinople, in addition to spinning a yarn about the abduction of Sultan Suliman’s son, gives us an unusual peek at the lives of young women in the U...

Although almost completely obscure today, this romantic melodrama was arguably a bigger hit for actress/playwright Anna Cora Mowatt than her theatre history-making comedy “Fashion” Wisely cashing in on the craze for settings and characters made popular by Alexander Dumas’ “Musketeer” novels still being published in serial form when the play debuted, this drama focuses on the adventures of sweet, beautiful, peasant maiden Blanche, who discovers she may be the illegitimate daughter of the scheming Duke de Richelieu...

This is the first book in the Betty Baird Series of boarding school books, a genre which was popular among young girls in the early 1900s. Our heroine, Betty Baird, who is herself obsessed with reading boarding school books, is sent away to The Pines, a boarding school where at first she is ridiculed by some of the wealthier and more popular students. As time goes on, Betty silences her foes with her unique and captivating personality, and she and her new friends have many lighthearted adventures during their days at The Pines...

Betty has graduated from the Pines and is now with her parents at their new home on Long Island. When Betty finds out that her father is having trouble paying the mortgage, she decides to spread her entrepreneurial wings and help with the family finances. But can a young girl in 1907 earn enough money to make a difference? Does Betty have the spirit and determination to stick with her plans, even when others try to discourage her?

It seems that all the people close to Betty are going through major life changes. Lois is certainly spending a lot of time with Dunmore Lane these days. Is Betty about to lose her friend and confidante forever? Even Miss Minturne is behaving strangely. If she's falling in love, as Betty suspects, what will happen to the income that Betty is depending on to pay off the mortgage on the farmhouse? Meanwhile, before Betty is even aware of it, her friends have begun to wonder if someone is falling in love with her...

1862 Anna Leonowens accepted an offer made by the Siamese consul in Singapore, Tan Kim Ching, to teach the wives and children of Mongkut, king of Siam. The king wished to give his 39 wives and concubines and 82 children a modern Western education on scientific secular lines, which earlier missionaries’ wives had not provided. Leonowens sent her daughter Avis to school in England, and took her son Louis with her to Bangkok. She succeeded Dan Beach Bradley, an American missionary, as teacher to the Siamese court...

volunteers bring you 16 recordings of A Mother's Song by Anna Hempstead Branch. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for May 3, 2020. ------ A tribute to Mothers everywhere. Taken from The shoes that danced, and other poems by Anna Hempstead Branch, - Summary by David Lawrence

Horatio Leavenworth, an immensely wealthy bachelor, is a retired merchant who enjoys great social position and respect. His two orphan nieces, Mary and Eleanor live with him in a luxurious mansion in New York's upscale Fifth Avenue. One morning, he is found mysteriously dead in his study, shot neatly through the back of his head. His will, written some time earlier, is discovered, in which he has left his entire fortune to one of the nieces, while cutting out the other completely. The building, which had remained locked throughout the night, houses a number of servants besides the two young ladies...

A perplexing mystery novel published in 1897, That Affair Next Door focuses on a mysterious murder that has occurred in a quiet neighborhood, incidentally in the house next door to the home of the curious Miss Butterworth. Consequently, the middle-aged spinster becomes directly involved in the unraveling of the gruesome crime, instigated by her inquisitive and resolute nature. The story sets into motion with the introduction of its protagonist, Miss Amelia Butterworth, an admirable woman in her fifties, who has never experienced the doubtful bliss of marriage, but nevertheless is quite contempt with her respected status in the inner circle of New York society and her comfortable home...