This is a very cute children's book. Mr. West's half-sister Matilda is orphaned and she comes staying with the family for a while. It looks like Mr West doesn't like her very much, her being "blue" and all. What this means is an entirely unknown concept to his children, but they also anticipate that they won't like her very much either. But then Matilda arrives and neither her skin nor her hair are blue at all, and she turns out very very nice - winning the hearts of the children in no time. - Summary by Carolin

The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American settlers caught up in the “westering fever” of the 1840s. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846–1847, some of the emigrants resorted to cannibalism. Although this aspect of the tragedy has become synonymous with the Donner Party in the popular imagination, it actually was a minor part of the episode. The author was about 4 at the time. The first part of the book accounts the tragic journey and rescue attempts; the last half are reminiscences of the child orphan, passed from family to family while growing up.

In this memoir written by Betsy Balcombe, who was a precocious 14 year old at the time of events, we are provided with a rare account of the character, the moods and humanity of Napoleon Bonaparte. She recalls her initial shock and fear at the arrival of the famous, exiled prisoner on the remote Island of St. Helena where she and her family resided. And how surprised she was when Napoleon decided he wanted to live with them at "the Briars" until his home in Longwood would be made ready for him. She relates from memory how she came to think of him as a friend, a delightful companion, and a remarkable man. - Summary by Celine Major

In November 1889, the New York World announced that it was sending its reporter Nellie Bly around the world, in a bid to beat Phileas Fogg's fictitious 80-day journey in Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Catching wind of this publicity stunt, John Brisben Walker, who had just purchased the three-year-old and still-fledging Cosmopolitan, decided to dispatch Bisland on her own journey.] Six hours after being recruited, Bisland departed westward from New York. Meanwhile, Bly left on a steamer headed to Europe, both on the same day—November 14, 1889...

A fascinating account of the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. She writes of her struggles in being accepted to a medical school . She details her experiences while in the process of obtaining her degree, and her work both with patients and administratively, helping to found medical schools and hospitals for women. Summary by Phyllis Vincelli

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the premier movers in the original women’s rights movement, along with Susan B. Anthony, her best friend for over 50 years. While Elizabeth initially stayed home with her husband and many babies and wrote the speeches, Susan went on the road to bring the message of the women’s rights movement to an often hostile public. When black men were given the vote in 1870, Susan and Elizabeth led the women’s rights establishment of the time to withhold support for a bill that would extend to black men the rights still denied for women of all colors...

Elizabeth Bancroft went to England with her husband, historian George Bancroft, for three of the most dynamicy years in European hstory. As Ambassador to England from the United States, George moved in the highest circles. In his wife’s letters to their sons, her uncle, her brother, and Mrs. Polk (the President’s wife), we see glimpses not only of early Victorian English life, but also of Queen Victoria herself! Mrs. Bancroft speaks of dinners with Benjamin Disraeli, visits to Wordsworth, weekends in the country with Louis Napolean and Sir Robert Peel with such matter of fact aplomb that one cannot help being impressed.

The compiler of [this book] having entered early in life upon a train of duties, was frequently embarrassed by her ignorance of domestic affairs. For, whilst receipt books for elegant preparations were often seen, those connected with the ordinary, but far more useful part of household duties, were not easily procured; thus situated, she applied to persons of experience, and embodied the information collected in a book, to which, since years have matured her judgment, she has added much that is the result of her own experiments...

When Portia Blake and her family came back to Gone-Away Lake, it was to move into an old house locked up tightly for nearly half a century. Next to discovering Gone-Away the summer before, nothing so exciting had ever happened to Portia and her cousin Julian. Then began an enchanted summer of exploration and discovery, as the old house slowly revealed its surprises and its treasures. This is the sequel to the book, Gone-Away Lake, by Elizabeth Enright.

Charlotte Brontë was a British author, the eldest of the three famous Brontë sisters who have become standards of English literature. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, one of the greatest classics of all time. Just two years after Charlotte’s death, her friend Elizabeth Gaskell wrote her biography. Want to know more about Charlotte Brontë? If you do, please read this biography.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964) was a leading American socialist and feminist. Her book “Sabotage, the conscious withdrawal of the workers’ industrial efficiency” was written to explain the utility and legality of sabotage.

This is the autobiography of Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave who bought her freedom with the money she earned as a seamstress. She eventually worked for Mary Lincoln. It is a fascinating book, filled with many recollections of her own life and her interactions with the Lincolns and other members of the government elite.

John Jacob Astor was pre-eminently the opener of new paths, a breaker of trails. From his first tramp alone through the Black Forest of Baden, at sixteen, his life never lost this typical touch. In America, both shores of the Hudson, and the wilderness to the Northwest knew his trail. The trees of the forests west of the Mississippi were blazed by his hunters and trappers; and his partners and agents planted through this vast region the flag of the American Fur Company. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were invisibly lined by the path of his vessels...

Author Elizabeth Latimer synthesizes notes from a variety of sources to produce this summary of the nation of France in the 19th century. (Summary by Cathy Barratt)

“If you have visions of a middle-aged parasol-bearing lady smiling sweetly from her carriage as she tours Bendigo think again. In 1852, 20 year old clergyman’s daughter Ellen and her brother boarded ship for Melbourne then set off to walk to Bendigo. Dressed in her blue serge skirt which doubled as nightwear, she camped under a tent made of blankets, had mutton, damper and tea most meals and on arrival lent her hand to gold washing. And seemed to enjoy it !And amongst other things she tells of colonial life , transportation, emigration and other gold-fields.But you will need to listen to hear more about bush-rangers and orphans as well as what she did with her parasol.”

This is the story of Sydney Stuart who is sent to a girls' boarding school with all its difficulties and adventures. Sydney Stuart and her school roomate/rival Bertha Macy vie for the friendship of schoolmate Anne Talbot. Summary by Lynda Marie Neilson

Isabel Carnaby returns from India. She starts looking for a place in upper class British society. At the begining, people are sceptical of her because she is an orphan. But she will surprise everybody. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

This is a sequel to "Concerning Isabel Carnaby". Isabel and Paul Seaton are now happily married. This book tells about their trials and tribulations, their little son, and, of course, their love for each other. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

Ellen Gould White (1827 – 1915) was a prolific Christian writer, authoring 40 books in her lifetime. She was active in the Millerite movement, and was one of the principle founders of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.Steps to Christ, first published in 1892, is her most popular book. It has been translated into more than 70 languages. The theme of the book is how to come to know Christ better.

The wry humor of Ellis Parker Butler, who gave us the classic Pigs Is Pigs, takes us into his own married life where Marthy and Hiram live quietly in their Colorado town. They don't have trouble with anyone of their neighbors. Why should they, as they don't have any kids that could cause the neighbors trouble? And oh, luckily they don't have kids because how could Hiram otherwise afford to give his wife, Marthy a new silk dress? Really lucky. The neighbors kids are cute and all but ugh, they are much better off without kids and their expenses and sicknesses and trouble...

In this popular American book from the 1920s, accomplished public speaker and self-help charlatan Elsie Lincoln Benedict outlines her pseudo-scientific system of "Human Analysis". She proposes that, within the human race, five sub-types have developed through evolutionary processes, each with its own distinct character traits and corresponding outward appearance. She offers to teach the reader how to recognise these five types of people and understand their innate differences. Her ideas have never been taken seriously by the scientific community, but this book is considered a classic within its genre and remains in print today. Summary by Carl Manchester.

A guide for women to complement their dress to their surroundings, be it in their own home, on outings or on stage. Please note that there is a separate chapter with the captions of the fashion plates which can be found in the online text.

“Many who scoff at a book of etiquette would be shocked to hear the least expression of levity touching the Ten Commandments...” Thus opens the introduction to one of the most popular American non-fiction books – one that was avidly studied by both men and women, children and adults, leaders of society and those who yearned to be part of the charmed circle! Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home by Emily Post was first published in 1922 and became an instant bestseller...

Chicago, May 4, 1886. In the Haymarket region of the city, a peaceful Labor Day demonstration suddenly turns into a riot. The police intervene to maintain peace, but they soon use violence to quell the mob and a bomb is thrown, resulting in death and injuries to scores of people. In the widely publicized trial that followed, eight anarchists were condemned to death or life imprisonment, convicted of conspiracy, though none of them had actually thrown the bomb. A young Russian immigrant, Emma Goldman, had arrived just the previous year in the United States...