Hagar's Daughter was first published serially in "The Colored American Magazine" in 1901-1902 by Pauline E. Hopkins, a prominent African-American novelist, journalist, historian, and playwright. The book was described as "a powerful narrative of love and intrigue, founded on events which happened in the exciting times immediately following the assassination of President Lincoln: a story of the Republic in the power of Southern caste prejudice toward the Negro." (From the January, 1901, issue of "The...

"Harold Transome is a landowner who goes against his family's political tradition (much to his mother's distress), while Felix Holt is a sincere radical. The setting of the book, the 1832 parliament election, is used to discuss the social problems of that time. A secondary plot involves Esther Lyon, the stepdaughter of a minister who is the real heiress to the Transome estate, with whom both Harold Transome and Felix Holt fall in love. Esther loves poor Felix Holt, but would she choose a comfortable life with Harold Transome?"

”War and Peace” is a panoramic novel: It is its own justification, and perhaps needs no introduction. It always reminds the translator of a broad and mighty river flowing onward with all the majesty of Fate. On its surface, float swiftly by logs and stumps, cakes of ice, perhaps drowned cattle or men from regions far above. These floating straws, insignificant in themselves, tell the current. Once embark upon it, and it is impossible to escape the onward force that moves you so relentlessly. What landscapes you pass through, what populous towns, what gruesome defiles, what rapids, what cataracts! The water may be turbid, or it may flow translucent and pure, – but still it rushes on...

"A Mid-Victorian Christmas Tale"; tells of a night time encounter between relatives who had never before met, resulting in minor injuries, embarassment, and Trollope's usual 'nice' social interactions.

Aristopia (published 1895) is truly an alternative history. It is an imagination of how the continent of North America might have developed if one man with the vision, altruism and determination to build a state for the benefit of all its people had been in the happy position of having wealth enough to make his dream a reality. It is an interesting book which deserves its place in literary history largely for being the first novel-length example of its genre. It is written, not as a novel, but as unvarnished history...

Jabez Clegg, the Manchester man, floats into this historical novel in 1799, carried downstream by the River Irk in flood. Jabez's rise to commercial success mirrors the rise of the city at the heart of the industrial revolution. Mrs George Linnaeus Banks (nee Isabella Varley) weaves a web of historical fact and fiction in a fast-paced story built around the rivalry between the Jabez and his nemesis Laurence Aspinall, and the fate of Augusta Ashton, who is loved by both but loves only one. An entertaining fictional journey through the early 19th century history of the city of Manchester, the book also has serious points to make about women's choices and domestic violence.

Young Azerole Montoux and her brother Leon find themselves separated from their family by the religious persecutions of 1686. Threatened by the authorities and forced to depend on strangers, they must decide whether they can trust God to make sense out of the riddle of their lives.

The scene is Rome, 935 A.D. Thirty-year-old Tristan, dressed as a pilgrim, overhears a conversation between Basil, the Grand Chamberlain, and Il Gobbo, his assistant. After the two have left, Tristan continues to observe the revelry on the Eve of St. John. Suddenly a chariot containing a beautiful woman stops before him. They exchange words. He kisses her hand. Then she moves on, leaving him to ponder her beauty as he returns to the inn where he is staying. That night he has an enchanting and haunting dream of him together with another woman...

A weary survivor of the Great War, Major Rane Smith wanders in a great ennui amidst the mystical beauties of the fjords of Norway after the War, seeking a spiritual renewal. Deep in the forest he stumbles fatefully upon the strange, almost elvish home of Karl Ingman, an iconoclastic old Ibsen scholar. There Major Smith meets Ingman's two beautiful young daughters and his eldritch wife Rosa, entering into long days of profound dialogue with each member of the family. A rare and exquisite gem of...

The first in a trilogy of the Reconstruction era - The Leopard's Spots (1902), The Clansman (1905), and The Traitor (1907), parts of this novel were incorporated in the 1915 silent movie classic, "The Birth Of A Nation". Set in North Carolina, the book explores the extreme social and racial tensions of the period as Confederates attempt to fight off "reconstructionist" policy, rebuild the war-torn South's economy, and grapple with the rampant "race question" of the day, whether the black and white races can ever live side by side as equals, i...

Dixon lived through Reconstruction, and believed it ranked with the French Revolution in brutality and criminal acts. The Traitor (1907), the final book in his trilogy which also includes The Leopard’s Spots (1902), and The Clansman (1905), spans a two-year period just after Reconstruction (1870-1872), and covers the decline of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina. Dixon, whose father was an early Klan leader, maintained that the original Klan, the “reconstruction Klan” was morally formed in desperation to protect the people from lawlessness, address Yankee brutality, and save southern civilization...

Despised by Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, What Is To Be Done? is a fascinating, sympathetic story of idealistic revolutionaries in mid-nineteenth century tsarist Russia; translator Nathan Haskell Dole affirms in his preface his conviction that it is a thriller that no one can put down once s/he begins it. Its variegated cast of characters includes Vera Pavlovna, a boldly independent woman in a time of great oppression, and the inspirational radical Rakhmetov. The author wrote the novel from the depths of the infamous Peter & Paul Fortress of St...

The daughter of a minister, Deborah Alcock wrote novels on a Christian theme. The Spanish Brothers is set in the sixteenth century and deals with Protestant martyrdom during the Spanish Inquisition. Follow the fortunes of brothers Juan and Carlos as they face the trials and pressures of remaining true to their faith despite hardship, imprisonment, torture and even the agonizing deaths of those dear to them.

Mrs. Warren's Daughter is a continuation, in novel form, of George Bernard Shaw's controversial play, Mrs. Warren's Profession. In the play, Vivie Warren, an emancipated young woman recently graduated from University, disavows her mother Kitty when she learns that Kitty's fortune comes from an ownership share in an international string of brothels, and that Kitty herself was once a prostitute. This novel, written by a world renowned botanist, explorer, and colonial administrator, follows Vivie's personal and political adventures through her involvement in the Suffragist movement and the years leading up to and during World War I.

A fictionalized version of the self-discovery of primitive man, including: fire, cooking, defense and protection, architecture, community, communication, religion, government, and social interaction

Written from the midst of the struggle for female suffrage, Constance Elizabeth Maud’s novel No Surrender (1911) is a Call to Arms. It is a dramatic narrative portraying key players and historical events in the battle for the Vote for Women in Britain. Jenny Clegg is a Lancashire millgirl working long, hard hours under unhealthy conditions in order to support her mother and younger siblings, only to have her father take possession of her savings. In order to seek the rights to improved work conditions, equal pay, and many other human rights, she joins the movement of women seeking political representation...

I am inclined to rank Count Tolstoy not among the realists or naturalists, but rather as an impressionist. He is often careless about accuracy. Numberless incongruities can be pointed out. He is as willing to adopt an anachronism as a medieval painter. I would defy an historian to reconstruct the battle of Austerlitz from Count Tolstoy's description. And yet what a picture of a battle was ever more vivid! It is like a painting where the general impression is true, but a close analysis discovers...

A fine adventure set in 10th-century England at a time when everyday life in north was made hazardous by wars and shifting alliances among Saxon, British and Norse rulers. Thorstein, like his father Swein before him, is a peaceful Norse settler but brave and ready for battle when the time comes. His adventures as child and man will appeal to younger listeners, while older listeners can enjoy a history lesson into the bargain. W. G. Collingwood, artist and antiquarian, set the story in his adopted...

A dark tale of adventure, piracy, murder, and revenge set on a rugged Cornish island in the mid-1700s. Told with the literary excellence to be expected from the author of The Four Feathers, the tale begins with a dangerous youth who sat in the stocks, and a girl named Helen, and a gang of men watching a granite house at the edge of the sea. NOTE: Contains some language that would be considered offensive to the modern ear. (Christine Dufour)

Joel, a crippled boy, cannot play with the children and has nothing to care about. Rabbi Phineas helps him to find something he can do and tells him the reason that he is so kind is because of a boy from his hometown of Nazareth. Soon stories are going about everywhere of miracles, and some people think that the Messiah has come. Then someone tells Joel he should ask for his back to be healed. Will Joel be able to find the miracle worker?

World War I stories, as told through the eyes of someone who was there, but leavened with humour and an eye for the ridiculous side of human nature. This is a collection of McNeile's early short stories, drawing on his experiences with the Royal Engineers Corps. These are the memoirs which describe the experiences that made him who he was, and gave him his famous name "Sapper". The first half is made up of separate stories, the second half is selected accounts from the life of "Jim Denver" in Ypres and France.

Lawrence’s first novel is set in Nethermere (his name for the real-life Eastwood in Nottinghamshire). The plot is narrated by Cyril Beardsall and focuses in particular on the relationship of his sister Lettie with two admirers, the more handsome and down to earth George and the more effete gentleman Leslie. She eventually marries Leslie although she is sexually attracted to George. George marries the conventional Meg and both marriages end in unhappiness. The countryside of the English midlands is beautifully evoked and there is powerful description also of the impact of industrialisation on both town and country.

Following the short story collections, Clog Shop Chronicles and Beckside Lights, John Ackworth completed the adventures of clogger Jabez Clegg and his Beckside cronies with a novel. Jabez's niece, the young and vivacious Doxie Dent, has grown up in 'Lunnon'. Arriving in the Lancashire village that is cloggers home, she delights the villagers with her southern ways, but Jabez remains unimpressed...

The eyes of the Légionnaire, now grown accustomed to the glow of the light, made sure that the figure had not moved, nor was aware of his silent and furtive approach. Two plans of action suggested themselves, one to move behind the foliage to the right and intercept the monk with the lantern should he attempt to flee toward the lights of the house nearby, the other to risk all in a frank statement, a plea for charity and asylum. (A selection from Chapter 1. )

This is a unique sequel to the book Titus: A Comrade of the Cross written in a very different style, though none the less memorable, full of excitement and suspense! The author combines several stories together with great skill and ease, creating tension, making you wonder how things can play out until the very climax is reached. A blind girl and her brother just barely surviving in Egypt, threatened by the slave trade, almost without hope, one day hear about miracles happening in Jerusalem. They fly for their lives, hoping against hope and when they finally get there they find themselves at the foot of the cross. Is it too late? Was all their suffering for nothing?

In 1647, Poland is a land facing complete destruction with fire and sword. It may come from without, as the Tartar hordes swarm over the steppes, turning cities to ash and the Poles to slaves. It may come from within the country’s bounds, as the traitor Hmyelnitski leads the Cossacks in a devastating revolt. Or it may come simply because the nation’s leaders and nobility have become selfish, lazy, and complacent, and are ill-equipped to face the horrors coming their way. If Poland is to survive, it will depend on the heroes who rise in her time of need...

"Never have bright romance and black scandal been more attached to the name of lovely woman," writes a quaint and susceptible chronicler, " than to that of fair Anne Boleyn." Certainly no girl ever flashed so meteor-like above the satellites of an English court, and no woman ever went to her doom under more awful accusations. Since fiction could not be half so amazing as the facts of Anne Boleyn's story, I have kept this novel of her fortunes true to those facts, and have gone, for their knowledge, not only to the histories written of this period, but in many cases to the sources of those histories...

The novel begins with the arrival of a family staking a claim in the black delta of the Deep South. Whitlaw is a brutish sort who bullies his cowering wife into working herself to death. Shortly after giving birth to a strapping man-child, the wife, Portia, dutifully dies. Her sister-in-law, Clio, takes over the responsibilities of raising the young Whitlaw and tending to every need and whim of her brother. Jonathan Jefferson grows up to be shrewd, conniving, and sly, driven – as Trollope thought most Americans were – by a compulsion for financial success...

This is a group of Imaginary Conversations by Walter Savage Landor. It is a series of dialogues of historical and mythical characters. Marcellus and Hannibal, Queen Elizabeth and Cecil, Peter the Great and Alexis, Louis XIV and Father La Chaise, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are just a few of the delights on offer. Plenty to choose from and some great reads. - Summary by Michele Eaton Cast List: Landor: pjmorgan Marcellus: SirQueezle Hannibal: bala The Surgeon: CharlieOldfield Gaulish...

Marie Antoinette lives a happy life in a glittering court as Queen of France, but that soon changes as the revolution begins. Her son is Louis Charles, and his whole life changes with the death of his parents. But, that life is not what the people of France would expect.

1870's rural Massachusetts communities became famous as “Oldtown” in Harriet Beecher Stowe's 7th novel and national bestseller. Based partially on her husband Rev. Calvin Stowe's childhood memories and other old timers' recollections, this story of growing up in rural New England just after the American Revolution is one of the earliest examples of local color writing in New England. Young Horace Holyoke, the novel's narrator, describes life during the early Federalist years, capturing its many rich ideas, customs, and family lore...

Edward the Confessor is very weak and will die soon. But with no son to succeed him, who will gain the throne? The common folk and loyal Saxon barons in England want Harold, while the Norman barons and the people in Normandy, France want Duke William. They claim Edward gave William the throne. Who is right? Will Britain be Normanized? - Summary by Esther ben Simonides Cast List King Edward the Confessor: Beth ThomasHarold, Earl of Wessex: Adele de PignerollesGyrth, brother to Harold; Cecilia, daughter...

Zola's original French publication, Au Bonheur des Dames , published 1882, is the eleventh novel in his Rougon-Macquart series. This English translation by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly, was published in 1886. It's a glitzy, fast paced Parisian drama depicting life at the world's first department store, revealing its many innovative marketing concepts, fashion, glamour, lust, greed, courage, deception, human foibles, and the vision and financial risk-taking that led to a world transformation in shopping -- one that set all the little shop keepers on their heads...

Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh is the first in the series of Doctor Syn novels by Russell Thorndike and inspired a Disney movie called the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh starring Patrick Patrick McGoohan. In this story we are introduced to the complex Christopher Syn, the kindly vicar of the little town of Dymchurch. Dr Syn seems pleasant, but is he much more than he seems? Although published first, this book is the last of the series chronologically. The town is located near the Romney Marsh, an ideal location for smuggling operations...

The sequel to "Chicot the Jester" and final book of the "Valois Romances." This story begins six years after the famed "Duel of the Mignons" between the favorites of the courts of King Henry III and Henry the Duke of Guise . Dumas concludes his historical fiction on the War of the Three Henries while detailing the formation of the Forty-Five Guardsmen , following Chicot the Jester as he stays loyal to the failing regency of King Henry III, and continuing the story of Diana . - Summary by jvanstan

Juan and Carlos Meñaya have longed to find their father ever since they were little. Their dream starts to get lost, though, as they grow up and go separate ways. Juan goes off to war and falls under the influence of a Huguenot prisoner while Carlos becomes a monk and begins to discover the Bible for himself. - Summary by Adele de Pignerolles Dramatis Personae Narration by Adele de Pignerolles and Rapunzelina Carlos, read by Joseph Tabler Juan Rodrigo, read by Aaron Rivera Dolores, read by Sonia Fray...

Preface note by George Gibbs: There were no more vivid episodes in the colonization of the New World than those resulting from the attempts of the French people to gain a permanent foothold on our shores.... The most thrilling chapter in all this history, strangely neglected or overlooked by the romantic writers, is that of the struggle between the Spanish and French colonists for dominion over our own land of Florida. To me, whose profession it is to see pictures in the words of other men and...

The Fortune of the Rougons , originally published in 1871, is the first novel in Émile Zola's monumental twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. In his introduction Zola indicates that this series is intended to demonstrate the interaction of heredity and environment along the lines of natural selection and evolution. While Zola's metascience is questionable, this novel is successful in its analysis of the interaction of momentous social and political events and the everyday lives and aspirations of a provincial society...

Hans of Iceland was written in 1821 and is the very first novel written by young Victor, years before he became the great Hugo. It has all the ingredients of a gothic novel: dreadful murders by the hand of a human monster, a young hero in love with the destitute heroine, royal court-intrigues and rebellious uprising, all set in dungeons, dark towers and the untamed nature of Norway.This audio-book has been recorded as Dramatic Reading with all the voices performed by one single reader, including laughs, sobs, groans, occasional screams and a lot of growls. I hope you will enjoy listening to this adventurous journey just as much as I enjoyed recording it. - Summary by Sonia

This is an exciting sequel to the earlier books Titus: A Comrade of the Cross and Stephen: A Soldier of the Cross. It tells the story of the apostle Paul, from his conversion through his imprisonment.

Ivan Matveich, the most ordinary person you might hope to meet, is swallowed alive by a crocodile at a sideshow. Finding life inside the belly of the beast quite comfortable, he makes a home for himself there. His disquisitions on the state of the world from inside the crocodile make him quite a name for himself; while all the while the discussion rages outside as to whether the beast is going to be cut open to release him or not, its value as a sideshow attraction having massively increased owing to the presence of the human voice buried inside it. One of Jorge Luis Borges' seven most favourite stories. - Summary by Tony Addison

Subtitled "The Throne, The Tomb, and The Scaffold - An Historical Play in 3 Acts From the Celebrated Play of that Name by Alexandre Dumas" - How can you resist a play about English history - the doomed fifth wife of Henry the 8th - by the celebrated French author of The Musketeers?? - Summary by ToddHW Cast list: Henry VIII, King of England: Larry Wilson Athelwold, Duke of Northumberland: Paul Simonin Archbishop Cranmer: alanmapstone Duke of Sussex: KHand Duke of Norfolk: tovarisch Grand Chamberlain:...

The Philosophical Studies from The Human Comedy are a series of works that are intended as a reflection on history in part through the use of fiction. 'Catherine de Medici' is one such 'study', and features, alongside detailed history sections, elements of the 'story' are fictionalised. In particular, this happens through dialogue that describes the feelings of the characters and what they are doing, these parts in the manner of a novel. In particular, Catherine de Medici , was depicted by historians as a bad ruler...

This historical novel is set in the 1100s in France and Jerusalem, following the First Crusade. Part of the story of Guy of Lusignan is told through the eyes of his fictional sister, Elaine. Guy travels to the Holy Land to reclaim it from the Saracens. Elaine follows afterward, finding upon arrival that her brother has fallen in love with Sybil, the sister of the leper king of Jerusalem. Queen Sybilla, a real historical character, is surrounded by political intrigue as she prepares to ascend the throne, which threatens her upcoming marriage to Guy of Lusignan...

When spunky 'Tilda Jane isn't allowed to keep her beloved dog with her at the orphanage, she decides to set out on her own in search of a home where the inseparable pair will be accepted. Throughout her weary travels she encounters many people, both rich and poor, kind and cantankerous -- but will she ever find family? Set in the Canadian wilderness and coast of Maine, 'Tilda Jane is a story of true grit, forgiveness, and unlikely friendship.

One soft summer evening, when Woodville was crowned with the glory and beauty of the joyous season, three strangers presented themselves before the Grant family, and asked for counsel and assistance. The party consisted of two boys and a girl, and they belonged to that people which the traditions of the past have made the "despised race;" but the girl was whiter and fairer than many a proud belle who would have scorned her in any other capacity than that of a servant; and one of the boys was very nearly white, while the other was as black as ebony undefiled...

Written by a fictitious first-person narrator, this book puts a humorous spin on encounters with several famous people of the time. "I set forth from my office in London upon my pilgrimage to the shrines of the world's illustrious. Readers everywhere are interested in the home life of men who have made themselves factors in art, science, letters, and history, and to these people I was commissioned to go." -- Summary by TriciaG and from the book.

In his mid-70s, Philippe Aubert de Gaspé took on the project of recording the culture and heritage of French Canada, especially that of the late 1700s, the world of his youth. The result, published in French in 1863, was the historical fiction "Les Anciens Canadiens . In this book, inspired by the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott, Aubert de Gaspé collects the customs, traditions, folk tales, superstitions, and songs of the Quebec people, weaves in memories of life in his own ancestral home, and sets all this within the momentous historical events that transformed Canada in the 18th century...

Sentimental Education is a novel by Gustave Flaubert, that is considered one of the most influential novels of the 19th century. The story focuses on the romantic life of a young man at the time of the French Revolution of 1848. - Summary by Wikipedia

The world knows the fate of the classic lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony, so there is no need to announce a spoiler alert. Georg Ebers was a German Egyptologist who deftly applied his comprehensive knowledge of Rome and Egypt into a fictionalized account of the ill-fated romance between the Egyptian Queen and her Roman lover Mark Antony.

This play was produced in 1698 at Drury Lane Theatre. From the bustle of its plot, the variety of its incidents, and the sustained humour of its dialogue, it met with so favourable a reception that Farquhar henceforth devoted himself to writing for the stage. - Summary by Alex. Charles Ewald Cast list: Roebuck, an Irish Gentleman, of a wild roving temper, newly come to London: Algy Pug Lovewell, his friend, sober and modest, in love with Lucinda: ToddHW Mockmode, a young Squire, come newly from...

Colonel Tempest , his wastrel son Archie and beautiful daughter Diana are dismayed when they are cut out of the will of old Mr Tempest, Colonel Tempest’s brother. All of the Tempest fortune and estates at Overleigh pass to son John. However, everyone except John knows that he is illegitimate. Colonel Tempest, enraged, agrees in a drunken stupor to a bounty of £10,000 on John’s head although he later comes to bitterly regret this. Meanwhile, Di, who is strong and independent, has vowed she will never marry...

A stranger rides across the Kentish countryside when his attention is called to a cottage where violence is being done to an elderly couple. The knight, for such he appears to be, rushes to their aid. Soon after, the strange and prophetic Sir Cesar appears on the scene and foretells of danger ahead. We follow this knight as he encounters an evil landowner; the good and faithful Longpole, son of the elderly couple; the beneficent Duke of Buckingham--or is he a traitor?; and the coquettish Lady Katrine...

This is the first volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part I include China, Korea, Japan and the Islands of the Pacific. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for The Sorrows of...

In this third installment from the “Ragged Dick” series by Horatio Algers, Jr., the reader is reacquainted with some old friends and meets young Mark Manton. Mark is a match boy plagued by bad luck and an even worse guardian. But, with new friends, hard work, and smart choices, Mark may just find his luck taking a turn for the better. summary by tfaulder

G.P.R. James was a historian and novelist, who took well-documented historical events and characters and wove stories around minor or imaginary actors in the events. In this work, set in seventeenth century France, we follow the adventures of young Louis, heir to the Count of Bigorre, after an encounter with the vindictive Marquis de Saint Brie forces him into exile. The tale wends its way inexorably towards the Battle of Marfee in the 30 years War and the death of the Count of Soissons in a failed coup against the much hated minister, Cardinal de Richelieu. Young love, a brush with the law, card sharks, a deadly avalanche-- life is definitely interesting for the young adventurer.

One hundred years before the current hit musical Hamilton, Mary Hamlin wrote this historical play for Broadway with a big actor of the day, George Arliss, as co-author playing the leading role. It was made into a movie in 1931 with Arliss also playing the lead. - Summary by ToddHW Cast list: Alexander Hamilton: Tomas Peter General Schuyler: Amelia Chesley Thomas Jefferson: Wolfgang Bas James Monroe: Aleacia Messiah William B. Giles: Donald Gilmore Count Tallyrand: Delmar H Dolbier John Jay, Chief Justice: Joseph Tabler Zekiel: EJWiley James Reynolds: Chuck Williamson Colonel Lear: Campbell Schelp First Man: Nemo Second Man: Eva Davis Betsy Hamilton: Availle Angelica Church: TJ Burns Mrs...

This is the second volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part II include India, Siam, Afghanistan, Persia, Mesopotamia and Palestine. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for Sakoontala, or the lost ring: King: Tomas Peter First Attendant: Eva Davis Second Attendant: TJ Burns Child: lorda Sakoontala: Monika M...

This epic about French coal miners and the burgeoning labor movement is considered one of Zola's finest novels. - Summary by Matt Pierard

What if the Confederacy had won the American Civil War? It’s July 1864 and three oh-so-young Union troopers are assigned to a mountaintop in Tennessee to be a link in a chain of flag signalers across a ridge of mountains. They encounter a dizzying gorge with a rickety bridge, bears, aching heartache, freezing cold, avalanche, bats, skeletons, deserted cabins, puzzling mysteries, starvation, and more.

General Order No. 11 has been issued by Union General Thomas Ewing in 1863. The goal was to deprive pro-Confederates in western Missouri of power and resources. The consequences are far reaching, still affecting the four counties until this very day. The novel, Order No. 11, A Tale Of The Border, tells about the order through the eyes of people who, with little choice, had to leave behind everything they knew. The book was a regional best seller. But the order is little known today. So here is a link to more information, just in case you want to learn more: https://en...

Imagine a world in which there were no major revolutionary upheavals , there was no Victorian Age, the Great War went unfought. No Cold War, no United States, no Soviet Union; in short, no world as we have known it. Such is the vision presented in this counterfactual historical work.Originally written by Samuel Madden in 1763, the work is a prospective look at events in Europe from 1900-1925, the reign of Madden's "George VI." Taking the social, political, and economic trends of the eighteenth century and projecting their impact in the twentieth, this work is written in the style of a history of the first quarter of the twentieth century...

Fourteen mysteries from the pages of the Saturday Evening Post, the Metropolitan, Red Book, and Pictorial Review magazines featuring Uncle Abner, who solves crimes in the pre-Civil War West Virginia hill country. His weapons are keen observation, logic, and a fundamentalist’s belief in the victory of good over evil. Post’s historical mysteries have been favorably compared to those of his fellow American Edgar Alan Poe. - Summary by Winston Tharp

This is the third volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part III include Egypt, Northern, Western and Central Africa, South Africa and Arabia. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for The Death of Cleopatra: Dolabella: Tomas Peter Charmian: Monika M...

This adventure historical fiction novel is set in Angus, Scotland during the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. It has all the elements of a good war novel: spies, betrayals, politics, and even a love story . This is a smart novel with wise insights into human nature, the different choices people make during a conflict, and the coping mechanisms of those who were left behind. This novel will make you laugh, cry, and fall in love with the landscape of Scotland. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

"The letters of Hon. William Bradley, Ex-Governor and former veteran of practical politics, written to his friend and protege Ned who is still busy 'carving a career back in the old state.'" This is a novel filled with humorous political anecdotes by the main character, the Honorable William Bradley, told for the benefit of his protege, Ned. It conveys a sense of the ironic and humorous side of politics in Washington and back in their home state.

This is the fourth volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part IV include Greek mythology, the classical Greek period and the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for The sacrifice of Iphigenia: Iphigenia: Devorah Allen / Chorus: alanmapstone / Messenger: Foon / Clytemnestra: Monika M...

Join Rough and Ready for his adventure on the streets of New York City. Working as a newsboy, Rough and Ready tries to support himself and his sister on his meager earnings. Unfortunately, their stepfather is seeking to kidnap little Rose, getting an education is hard work, swindlers are trying to trick him out of his money, and thieves are planning nefarious deeds. Luckily for Rough and Ready, he makes some good friends along the way. Summary by Tori Faulder

Here are six stories, each one describing a disaster afflicting London, that were popularly serialized during 1903-1904 in Pearson’s Magazine. The tales depict a deep freeze and unprecedented snowfall; a heavy, blinding, paralyzing blanket of fog; a widespread killer virus; a fraudulent scheme causing financial panic; a minor electrical accident in a tunnel that spirals into catastrophe; and most of the city’s water supply, reportedly contaminated with deadly bubonic bacillus, puts the population in great fear of plague. Is the word “doom” in the book's title accurate, or is it just hyperbole?

Edward wakes up on board a ship crossing the Atlantic, on his return from the Great War – however, he finds that his memory of who he is and where he comes from is only fragmentary. The book follows his fascinating journey back to health and his growing realisation about what effect the War and its aftermath has had on him and also on the people he meets - as well as his family.

Nothing seems to be known about Mr and Mrs William Platt, the writers of Stories of the Scottish Border. What they produced is an eccentric guidebook and history, seen partly through the ballads of the region. The book recounts the military stratagems, treachery and courage of those who struggled for control of the Border lands and of the whole country, and tells of the triumphs or tragic fate of those who took part on both sides. It also tells us stories of the Border Reivers, raiders who lived by riding out and stealing their neighbours’ livestock...

A group of upper class men and women gather together in an English country house to discuss their ideas for a utopia . The novel is a satire mocking most of the important figures at Oxford University at the time of publication, with regards to aestheticism and Hellenism. Some of the famous characters that are depicted are Violet Fane/Lady Mary Montgomery Currie , Thomas Huxley , William Money Hardinge , Thomas Carlyle , and Walter Pater . The latter is of particular interest, as his characterisation in this novel helped ruin his reputation as well as his career at Oxford University...

This is the fifth volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part V include Italian painters and poets, the French Revolution, the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese explorers. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for A supposed street scene in Verona in the fourteenth century: Gregory: Nemo / Sampson: Tomas Peter / Abraham: Monika M...

The Roots of the Mountains was the second in a projected series of three historical novels set in a pre-medieval Germanic world . It follows the themes of House of the Wolfings, which was published in the same year, into a later generation. A loose alliance of Dalesmen, Woodlanders and Shepherds who have lived in peace around the valley of Burgdale for so long that they barely remember war, find their peace disturbed by the Sons of the Wolf and the invading Dusky Men. Morris’s exploration of the social and economic organization of this fictional pre-medieval world reflects his socialism; the figure of the Dusky Men reflects the racial politics of his times...

1812 is the year and Portugal the location for this adventure. The characters for the most part are British officers. Lord Strathern sends for his daughter Lady Mabel Stewart presently in Scotland to join him in Elvas where he has stationed his brigade for the winter. The debonair Colonel l'Lisle is the hero of our story. The author provides a vivid look into the landscape, history and people of this era and often touches on liturgy...sometimes controversial among the characters. Very informative it is more travelogue than romance however. Enjoy!!

"As the noblest attribute of man, family pride had been cherished time immemorial by the noble race of Rossville. Deep and incurable, therefore, was the wound inflicted on all its members by the marriage of the honorable Thomas St. Clair, the youngest son of the Earl of Rossville, with the humble Miss Sarah Black, a beautiful girl of obscure origin and no fortune." And so the stage is set for our plot, which focuses on the implications and complications of the return from France to Scotland of the Rossville widow and her daughter-heiress Gertrude, who must suffer the onslaught of relations and suitors as well as a mysterious, threatening stranger who plagues her mother...

Arthur West has been taken as a prisoner of war by Colonel Hetherhill of the Confederate States of America, and imprisoned at Fort Defiance, where an oddly small number of soldiers are stationed. More odd than the size of the fort's company, however, is the fact that the Civil War ended thirty years prior to West's capture. This is the story of West's attempts to regain his freedom. - Summary by David Gore

The book starts with Annette Georges choosing between two fates: suicide and running away with a disreputable stranger. She is rescued by a kind woman who looks after her until she can go to live with her maiden aunts in a village in the English countryside. There she meets and makes friends with various people and, almost coincidentally, the facts of her past come back to play a crucial part in the story. - Summary by Simon Evers

This is the sixth volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part VI include the Russian Empire, the fights for independence in Hungary and the Balkan states and the politics of early Turkey...

"He was a stranger in Matcham, a 'foreigner' as the villagers called such alien visitors. He had never been in the village before, knew nothing of its inhabitants or its surroundings, its customs, ways, local prejudices, produce, trade, scandals, hates, loves, subserviencies, gods, or devils , and yet henceforward he was to be closely allied with Matcham, for a certain bachelor uncle had lately died and left him a small estate within a mile of the village."

A young man travels to South Africa to find his Mother and sister. He wants to be a clergyman and a farmer when he arrives there. This story includes accounts of the Zulu-Boer wars. - Summary by Ingrid Kennedy

Between the former site of old Fort Dearborn and the present site of our newest Board of Trade there lies a restricted yet tumultuous territory through which, during the course of the last fifty years, the rushing streams of commerce have worn many a deep and rugged chasm. These great canons—conduits, in fact, for the leaping volume of an ever-increasing prosperity—cross each other with a sort of systematic rectangularity, and in deference to the practical directness of local requirements they are in general called simply—streets...

The complete collection of works using this title. Other versions, including the Project Gutenberg version, have been radically shortened. Mark Twain published several collections of his short stories and essays. This collection, like the others, dramatically demonstrates the eclectic nature of his work and the depth of his humanistic thinking. Each essay stands alone. Listeners will find many instances where modern times come to mind.

This is the seventh volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part VII include the stories from the Nibelungen saga of the Germans, masterpieces of the Dutch Painters and the famous apple-shooting episode from Schiller's drama William Tell...

Set in a small town in Edwardian England, Regiment of Women is about the relationship between two teachers at a private girls' school. One of them, Clare Hartill, is in her mid-thirties and runs the school in all but name. Most of the girls are devoted to Hartill and gladly suffer under her strict but charismatic rule. The other teacher is Alwynne Durand, an attractive nineteen-year-old woman who lives with Elsbeth Loveday, her unmarried aunt and guardian. When Durand starts teaching at the school she is immediately popular with her students but also excites Hartill's attention...

A romantic, political adventure story set in the late 1500's, during the Spanish rule over the Netherlands, in the city of Ghent. Leatherface is an Orangist and emerges to lead the Ghent citizens to rebel and win back their freedom.

This is a story that is set in 16th century Germany. Characters representing the various classes of the remnants of feudalism and the rising bourgeois class struggle against each other. Placed in the light of the very recent and polarizing Protestant Reformation, the characters' tensions increase. - Summary by Joel Kindrick

Pitou lost his mother when he was small. He was raised by a stern aunt who did not really love him. He starts knowing the world by going to service. How can this man, Pitou the Peasant go on to influence the whole state? How can he go on and take a part in the French revolution? Can his motivation, coming from what he did not have, be enough? - Summary by Stav Nisser

Anne of Geierstein, or The Maiden of the Mist is a novel by Sir Walter Scott. It is set in Central Europe, mainly in Switzerland, shortly after the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury . It covers the period of Swiss involvement in the Burgundian Wars.

A story of repentance and forgiveness set in the times of the the coal mines. Follow a blind boy and his brother determined to get him cured but also determined to live up to a moral code even if that mean years of blindness for Benny. See self sacrifice and family togetherness in this classic tale. - Summary by Luke Castle Cast List Narrator: Sky AsimaruDoctor: lordaJack: Andrew JamesBennie, Judge: larryhayes7Lawyer Pleadwell: Adam BielkaTom: NavinSandy: RockyOctopusDistrict Attorney, Lawyer Summons: Alan MapstoneRandom Testifying Guy, Sheriff: Michael LMicheal Carolann, Irishman: Wayne CookeCourt Clerk, Little Fellow: ambsweet13Mother: LilyLewis G...

The Brown Brethren tells the story of friends and comrades who fought together during World War I on the Western Front. The principal characters belong to the London Irish Rifles, a volunteer regiment whose 1st Battalion was mobilized immediately with the outbreak of the war. The 1st Battalion, to which this story's characters belong, especially distinguished itself at the Battle of Loos in 1915. This book takes the men up through the Battle of the Somme - Summary by KevinS

Volume 3 of The d'Artagnan Romances is divided into three parts. In this, the final part, d’Artagnan’s fortune is near its height; having become the illustrious Captain of the Musketeers, he is now the chief defender of King Louis XIV. Fortune has also smiled on his three companions: Aramis is a wealthy bishop and the powerful, secret Superior General of the Jesuit Order ; Athos is the premier nobleman of France; and Porthos becomes a Duke with the proud but garishly long-winded title of “du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds...

"This is the true story of a negro who was discontented and the circumstances that were the outcome of that discontent." While considered a novel, this largely autobiographical story is based on the author's experience as an African-American pioneer in South Dakota.

Anne of Geierstein, or The Maiden of the Mist is an adventure and romance novel by Sir Walter Scott. It is set in Central Europe, mainly in Switzerland, shortly after the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury . It covers the period of Swiss involvement in the Burgundian Wars.

The charming story of “Gudrun” is a romance of the old heroic period, written by some unknown poet of Austria or Bavaria in the thirteenth century. Next to the "Nibelungen Lied," it is the most important of the German epic poems...The same elemental passions are depicted. The men are brave, vigorous heroes, rejoicing in battle and feats of prowess; the women are beautiful, constant, and courageous. There are many fine delineations of character in the original, as well as vigorous sketches of northern scenery...

Woolf wrote this novel based on his experience as a government agent for British imperialist-controlled Ceylon in the early part of the twentieth-century. He focuses his story on one poor family in a jungle village as they struggle to survive, not just faced with a very harsh environment but with their own human prejudices, superstitions, jealousies, violence, ignorance, and greed. In the background is the other enemy: the foreign government that controls them but does not really understand or care for these uncivilized, not really human beings. It was an important work because its point of view was sympathetically a native one. JL

The background of this collection of sketches and stories is the country through which flowed one of the most interesting of our western rivers before its destruction as a natural waterway. This book is not a history. It is intended as an interpretation of the life along the river that the author has come in contact with during many years of familiarity with the region. Names of places and characters have been changed for the reason that, while effort has been made to adhere to artistic truth, literary liberties have been taken with facts when they have not seemed essential to the story. - Summary by Earl H. Reed

Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw about 15th-century French military figure Joan of Arc. Premiering in 1923, three years after her canonization by the Roman Catholic Church, the play reflects Shaw's belief that the people involved in Joan's trial acted according to what they thought was right. He wrote in his preface to the play: “There are no villains in the piece. Crime, like disease, is not interesting: it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is all [there is] about it...

Stowe wrote over 30 books. This one is a fascinating collection of her post Civil War musings on a variety of cultural topics, staged mostly as conversations between Christopher Crowfield , and his wife, their son Ben, daughter Jenny, their friends, and various neighbors who drop in to chat around the fireside. Lively topics include women's suffrage & their education, entertainment, fashion, the economy during reconstruction, youth entertainment, and how society and its institutions should prepare young women for useful, meaningful lives besides getting married or simply depending on other family members to support them while they do little or nothing, or worse, fall into a street life...

This is the first volume of Dumas' Marie Antoinette Romances . This historical fiction chronicles the strange events surrounding the fall of the French monarchy and rise of revolutionaries so terrifying that the period is still called "The Reign of Terrors" . In this volume, a renowned magician, Count Alessandro di Cagliostro , employs various occult tactics, like hypnotism and necromancy, to gain state secrets. Balsamo claims to be plotting against the Bourbons, but one must wonder whether this 3000 year old sorcerer has an ulterior motive... - Summary by jvanstan