Jack Benson and Hal Hastings arrive in Dunhaven, looking for adventure. But in a sleepy, little town, they might not find much. When they find out that there is a submarine in the shipyard, they decide that this is what they have been looking for.

The torpedo submarine's inventor, Jack Farnum, is looking for investors to help him kick his new shipyard into high gear. He already has his crew set, with sixteen year old Jack Benson as the captain, and his friend Hal Hastings running the engines. But, there may be some changes to the crew of the Pollard on the horizon.

Captain Jack Benson and Hal Hastings have been sailing in torpedo submarines a while now. But, there is new danger that they will have to get used to, having the actual torpedoes onboard! They will be trying out a new boat, named after Hal, with the Navy watching closely. But trouble is always close by. (Ann Boulais)

It is a wonderful December day in Spruce Beach, FL, and everyone is waiting, waiting for something special that has been promised. The "Benson", the fast submarine built by the Pollard Submarine Boat Company, is set to arrive. But, there are more people who are interested in the "Benson" than those picnicking on the beach. Who could they be? (Ann Boulais)

A most popular Jacobs character, a night watchman along the English coast, remembers troubles his friends got into during shore leave. At least part of the fault lay with those friends, who were both careless and naïve. But not all the stories are linked to just shore leave even though they relate to the sea in some way. Included are a ghost story, a warehouse worker playing sick, a couple sparring for new income, and even a makeover story. (Bill Boerst based on Wikipedia)

A little bee is born in a large and busy hive. At that time, the hive is going through a period of unrest and there are fears that it will become subdivided into separate colonies. The little new-born, Maya, is under the care of a strict but loving teacher. One day, driven by curiosity and rebellion, Maya escapes from the safe environs of the hive and flies into the forest. Here, she encounters all sorts of interesting, exciting, frightening and funny things. The Adventures of Maya the Bee is the story of the intriguing days that follow...

Clement Seadon is a young man of free spirit and a lust for a life of independence. However after receiving an odd request from a lawyer he is compelled to involve himself in the prevention of a dangerous plot to swindle an heiress. - Summary by Howard Skyman

The Frozen Deep is a story of a love triangle between Clara, Frank and Richard, spiced up with dangerous expeditions, mysterious visions and life-threatening circumstances. The end is as surprising and unexpected as we are (or are not) accustomed to in Collins' books.

A Voyage to the South Sea, undertaken by command of His Majesty, for the purpose of conveying the Bread-fruit tree to the West Indies, in His Majesty’s ship The Bounty, commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh. Including an account of the Mutiny on board the said ship, and the subsequent voyage of part of the crew, in the ship’s boat, from Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to Timor, a Dutch settlement in the East Indies.

Sailing adventure with storms, icebergs, shipwrecks, treasure, and the reawakening of a pirate frozen in suspended animation for nearly fifty years

This book was published in 1897. When cabin passenger Mr. Catesby climbs into the rigging of the Ruby in search of cooler air, he is struck full in the face and chest by an errant seabird bearing a sealed tin box tied about its neck. What he finds in that box leads him to unexpected encounters with a wrecked ship, chests of gold, thirst, desperation, and some curiously courteous cutlass-carrying cutthroats . It projects a rather different take on the familiar bloodstained swashbuckling sea story. - Summary by Steven Seitel

In his novel Indian Summer, William Dean Howells presents a mellow but realistic story that has the complete feel of that delightful time of the year, although the plot actually spans several seasons. The Indian summer aspect applies to a sophisticated gentleman, Theodore Colville, who has just entered his middle years as he returns to a scene, Florence, Italy, that played an important part in his early manhood. It was here twenty years earlier that he first fell in love, seemingly successfully until a sudden and harsh rejection...

The novel describes the downfall of Ferdinando Falkland, a British squire, and his attempts to ruin and destroy the life of Caleb Williams, a poor but ambitious young man that Falkland hires as his personal secretary. Caleb accidentally discovers a terrible secret in his master’s past. Though Caleb promises to be bound to silence, Falkland, irrationally attached (in Godwin’s view) to ideas of social status and inborn virtue, cannot bear that his servant should possibly have power over him, and sets out to use various means–unfair trials, imprisonment, pursuit, to make sure that the information of which Caleb is the bearer will never be revealed...

William Henry Hudson (August 1841 – 1922) was an author, naturalist and ornithologist. Hudson was born of U.S. parents living in the Quilmes Partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, where he spent his youth studying the local flora and fauna and observing both natural and human dramas on what was then a lawless frontier. ‘Far Away and Long Ago’ is a classic memoir of a boy, fascinated by nature, on the Pampas in the 19th century.

A rich and complex Gothic-Romance centring on the murky deeds of an ancient family. It is a wonderfully atmospheric piece that combines narrative, poetry, song, and descriptive writing to great effect. The character of Dick Turpin that we know today – the dashing highwaymen and unmatched horseman – can be said to stem directly from this novel, as the most famous part of the book (often published on its own in the past), Turpin’s Ride To York, is devoted to him. Although seemingly little known to a modern audience, Ainsworth’s ‘Rookwood’ gave the world the image of the highwayman with which we are all so familiar.

Book 1 - Ann Boleyn. The focus of the novels is on the events surrounding Henry VIII's replacing Catherine of Aragon with Anne Boleyn as his wife. During Henry's pursuit of Boleyn, the novel describes other couples, including the Earl of Surrey and Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, a match Henry does not support. However, some of the individuals oppose Henry and his desires for Boleyn, including Thomas Wyat who wants her for himself and Cardinal Wolsey, who uses his own daughter, Mabel Lyndwood, to lure Henry away from Boleyn...