Following a shipwreck Stella is preparing to die but is unexpectedly rescued. A love triangle of an unusual sort develops where an inventor of the mobile phone, back in 1900, who is engaged, becomes involved with a woman who has a passionate mystical influence on him. The story explores the nature of death and how we should look forward to it as being a great step to a greater world.

On duty with Lloyds of London in NYC, young Richard Minot is sent to the St Augustine-ish town of San Marco to ensure that a wealthy young lady, Cynthia Meyrick marry his firm's client, Lord Harrowby. Then, in a meet-cute on a slow-moving train, Minot meets the very enticing Miss Meyrick and... reconsiders his duty. - Summary by Matt Pierard

Anne Elliot, a young Englishwoman of 27 years, whose family is moving to get out of debt, rents their home to an Admiral. The brother of the Admiral's wife, Captain Frederick Wentworth, had been engaged to Anne years earlier and now they meet again. Both are still single and unattached. This sets the scene for a second chance at love for the two of them.

Our Valentine Poem is by Arthur William Symons, a British poet, critic and magazine editor., taken from his collection Silhouettes . - Summary by David Lawrence

We see another facet of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's amazing talent in Dead Love Has Chains, written in her seventies. Focusing on character and human psychology rather than detection and crime, this is one of her most interesting novels. Pregnant and unmarried Irene Thelliston is sent home from India to live with her Aunt in Ireland. On her sea voyage she reveals her secret to Lady Mary Harling who swears to keep her confidence. Several years later to the horror of Lady Mary she becomes engaged to her son Conrad who has his own rather questionable past...

'Philomène’s Marriages' is a story of French life, located in Normandy, and also in Paris, and is a translation from the French of a new work by the gifted and popular authoress, Henry Gréville, whose works have become so famous and popular, that they no longer require any elaborate introduction to the reading public. The heroine’s life in this charming story is one of every-day occurrences, made up of the never-ending round of country pleasures and duties, narrated in a most fascinating manner,...

Valancy Stirling, plain, twenty nine, and as yet unsought, is given a year to live by a great heart specialist. This is the story of her year in which she finds a blue castle of happiness in the Canadian woods. The Blue Castle is a 1926 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, best known for her novel Anne of Green Gables.

Published in 1924, Precious Bane is a novel by Mary Webb which touches on ambition, prejudice and hatred but also on the power of love. Prue Sarn is a farm girl in rural Shropshire during the period of the Napoleonic Wars and is viewed with suspicion by the local community because of having been born with a harelip. Her ambitious and domineering brother betrays her and her superstitious neighbours accuse her of witchcraft. An itinerant weaver Kester Woodseaves, makes his living by weaving for the local people in their homes. Like Prue, he loves the natural world and comes to recognises Prue's inner strength and beauty.

"This book is in turns funny and sad. Violet Osborne is a very beloved child with no financial problems. She is both beautiful and good, and of course she must be happy. Yet, as we learn, she is a manipulative and overbearing woman who would do anything to get her way. This book tells us about her life as a girl, and takes us through her marriage and motherhood. It is a pleasant read, as the book is so witty and charming and the descriptions are very realistic". Summary by Stav Nisser.

A saucy little poem commenting upon all men that Ms. Parker didn't marry, perhaps implying that upon marrying, the husband becomes far more special than all the other men in the world. It's sort of the same theme embodied in Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, who was saddened to discover that his rose was like any other rose, except when he further realized that his rose depended upon him alone for her care, and was the only rose that belonged to him. ~ Summary by Michele Fry

Jim, an axe-man for a sawmill, who is a hard-knuckled, two-fisted fighting man when he has to be, but is shy around women, longs to find a wife and settle down. Two women, one a mercenary widow of the country town, the other a classy city girl, both set their caps for Jim. Will true love triumph? Will Jim's dog ever get his dinner? Will Jim ever get his tongue untied? These and other questions are answered in this story in rhyme. - Summary by Son of the Exiles

Fresh from school, mistreated and neglected by her father and stepmother, sixteen-year-old Dawn consents to marry a friend of her father's whom she has only met, but the wedding does not go as planned. Scared and confused, she runs away after the ceremony. Many adventures follow lovely and resourceful Dawn on her journey to becoming an independent woman. - Summary by karlkzumich

A classic with a pinch of romance, a pinch of gothic, and a dash of mystery, are you interested yet? When young Alice Maybell’ father dies she is taken in by Squire Fairfield, a widower with two handsome young sons, Charles and Harry. As Alice grows into a lovely young woman she attracts the attentions of more than one admirer, not all welcome. She marries the man she loves whilst fleeing the home she grew up in, but the blissful happiness that follows is short-lived. She finds herself pulled into the middle of the secrets of her husbands family’s past...

This award-winning book tells the coming of age story of Joanna Bannerman. Considered largely autobiographical, it shows Joanna with all her complexities and contradictions, some of which are faced by women almost 100 years later. Perfect for those who love sharp and witty novels. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

It is an ideal honeymoon of an ideal couple. But somehow, the wife cannot stop dreaming that her husband would be shot and killed. He dismisses her dreams until they come true. Who commited the murder? How would the wife take it? - Summary by Stav Nisser

Love stories make perfect short stories. This collection contains 16 different short stories on the different ways a love affair can play out. - Summary by Carolin

Marriage is a big adventure. It makes for great stories, too: both in case of a happy marriage and in case of an unhappy one. Eleven of these stories are collected in this collection, concerning all the different obstacles that a couple may face during courtship, engagement, wedding, and the actual marriage. - Summary by Carolin

A World War 1 spy vs spy novel. Oh! And perhaps I should also mention, a bit of romance? "I am sorry,” he said coolly, "awfully sorry. As you know, I would have had things different. You may still doubt me when I say that what I have done is the hardest task that I ever undertook in my life. But that is true. You were the only person in England who jeopardized my existence there. I had to take you away. I regret the necessity of having to use force. I shall do what I can here upon the Sylph to counteract the unpleasant impression of my brutality...

A young society woman travels to the country to visit her aunt, only to end up as the unwilling guest of a neighboring family. The daughter is not so sure how to deal with this unpleasant circumstance. The young man of the household has met her before. Through them, she gains new perspectives on life, faith, and love. - Summary by LikeManyWaters

This is a collection of twelve original and entertaining little romances. Literature is an important anchor that helps us understand society in the American Gilded Age in the late ninteenth century, and these stories allow us to understand the marriage market of the time. - Summary by Carolin"Miss Ticknor, well known as one of the most promising of the younger school of American writers, has never done better work than in the majority of these clever stories, written in a delightful comedy vein." - The Publisher

"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...

"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."

Back from the Great War, a penniless and disillusioned young soldier finds himself in the home of Miss Marilla Chadwick, a sweet old lady who is expecting her nephew for dinner. Mary Amber, Miss Marilla's neighbor, is also there. He hates girls. She hates men. What will be the result? He will fight girl in the concrete! - Summary by LikeManyWaters

“Digger Smith” is a series of narrative poems about an Australian soldier coming home in the closing months of the Great War minus a leg and with “ANZAC eyes” ... what a later war would call “The Thousand Yard Stare”. Despite his post-traumatic stress disorder, Digger Smith sets about ministering to everybody’s troubles but his own ... his internal conviction that his amputee status will make him seem “half a man” in the eyes of the lady love he left behind when he went off to the War. Oh Digger Smith, how little faith you have in woman... - Summary by Son of the Exiles

"Then was there war in the house of Baxendale. Guy had made up his mind to wed the fair daughter of the forester; while Sir Stephen and Dame Alice his wife had made up their minds — with equal firmness — that no son of their noble name should mate with a daughter of the people". A rumor started that the girl was a witch and so she was burned. However before she was burned she cursed the family who condemned her: "First by the King, and then by the State, And thirdly by that which is thrice as great As these, and a thousandfold stronger and higher Shall Baxendale Hall be made fuel of fire"...

Rich and sophisticated Arthur Tracy returns to Tracy Park after several years abroad confused and mentally unstable. Initially claiming that Gretchen accompanied him on the boat and train back he then expects her to arrive at any moment. Meanwhile a child is found at the side of a woman frozen to death in the Tramp House nearby. Arthur's brother Frank believes he knows the child's identity but keeps it a secret fearing that his elaborate lifestyle could be in jeopardy. This is a heartwarming story with just the right mix of suspense and romance. - Summary by Celine Major

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...

Giovanna and Costantino Ledda are a happily married couple living with their young child in a Sardinian country village close to their extended family. Costantino is wrongly convicted of murdering his wicked uncle and with no way of supporting herself, Giovanna reluctantly divorces him and is driven to marry Brontu Dejas, a wealthy but brutish drunkard who has always lusted after her. As well as enduring a marriage amounting to slavery, Giovanna is derided by villagers for having two husbands...

This is a less known, but not less beautiful, novel by the author of The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, The Lost Prince, Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Shuttle, and many more. There is something different about miss Lysbeth Crespigny. Raised by three maiden aunts and sheltered from the world, she leaves them for the first time in order to explore the world. Yet she is often misunderstood. The world she discovers is more complicated and confusing then she anticipates. She is only 18 when the book starts. However the choices she has to make have consequences which she learns to navigate and become the strong woman she can be. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

This novel is subtitled A Temperance Story, which identifies explicitly the focus of the work. Frances Harper is a Christian moralist and uses her writings for didactic purposes. Here she contrast two couples, one, Belle and Paul, who do not drink and whose lives are happier and more productive, and the other, Jeanette and Charles, who lives are destroyed by the demon rum.

Kit Orchardson, an apprentice produce grower in Sunbury, England describes for us a time in his youth in which he fell in love with Kitty, a young lady of higher status, endeavored to secure her love and ventured to solve her mysterious disappearance shortly after they were joined in marriage. Through Kit's perspective, we get a wonderful view of life in 1860 England where people's attitudes were maneuvering between their societal status and their character.

Genji Monogatari, or The Tale of Genji, is a Japanese classic novel from the eleventh century. Supposedly commissioned by members of the Imperial Family, it tells the story of the son of the Emperor's favorite concubine and his role as a privileged boy and man, but not quite recognized as royal. He is placed in a loveless marriage, but continues a number of 'friendships' with the women of the court. This translation brings us the first seventeen chapters, and there is some dispute over the authorship of later chapters. The book gives us a fascinating insight into court life of the period. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

Published in 1796, this novel tells the trials and tribulations of Amanda and Oscar FitzAlan, brother and sister who have to navigate the world with no money or status, and hardly any connections. They find love, yet, again and again, things block the way to happiness and, worse, destroy Amanda's reputation. This is the story of abuse of power, loyalty, and, ultimately, love in many forms. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

Beau Brocade is a historical fiction set in England in the early 1700's. The hero Beau is a wanted highwayman, who takes from the rich to help the poor. - Summary by Deon Gines

On the surface, Mary is the typical literary heroine: Beautiful, animated, and accomplished. She will be rich, too, when she inherits her aunt's large fortune. There is only one problem: Mary is required to marry before her twenty-third birthday or her inheritance will be forfeited... and she is already violently in love with her girlfriend, Felice.

Can starving children be grateful for the education they receive if, when they ask for food, rich people give them a stone? This is the question in the heart of this rich psychological novel. Lady Lashmore is a typical lady of her time, ruling every aspect of her household and constantly complaining that the poor people in the factory ten miles away bother her. Things change when her son, Lord Lashmore, falls in love with a poor woman. Only then does he understand what is the one thing they need most...

As the title suggests, this work does flirt with the supernatural. Yet it is essentially a political novel—a utopian experiment in a fictitious Balkan country, the Land of the Blue Mountains. The story spans the years from 1892 to 1909. It includes a beautiful love story and an adventure tale—a double rescue requiring strength, cunning, and cutting-edge technology. These various aspects are unified by the character of the hero, a purely admirable individual whom we love and admire from the very first and who acquires immense power...

Netta Syrett was the niece of Grant Allen and a "new woman" in her own right. Educated at the University of Cambridge, she tried to make a career in teaching before becoming a novelist and playwright. This novel, The Day's Journey, tells the story of an ideal marriage which turns up side down when the husband falls in love with another woman. - Summary by Stav Nisser

Dick Brewster is implicated in a murder and comes to his aunt's farm to hide. His Aunt Sarah stands by him in his need and they all move to the city in the effort to clear his name. She investigates on her own account and.... - Summary by The Author Cast list: Lily Ann, Help at the farm: Devorah Allen Aaron Flint, the hired man: Alan Mapstone Mrs. Brewster, from New York: TJ Burns Helen Brewster, her daughter: Jenn Broda Leonard Fillmore, a young country lawyer: skypigeon Sarah Newcomb, sister of Mrs...

The Chichester family have just gone bankrupt due to bank failure. Their situation looks gloomy until Mrs. Chichester learns of the death of her brother Nathaniel. While Nathaniel hasn't left them any money, he put a clause into his will stating that, if the daughter of his other sister can receive a proper education and become a lady, the family who raised her will receive a considerable sum of money every year. This daughter is named Peg. - Summary by ambsweet13 The Characters in the Comedy: Mrs...

Things look bleak for Lesbia Hales. Her father does not let her marry the man she loves. Her mother is dead. She has to keep secrets in order to promote what she wants for herself. One day, her lover, George Walker, is injured in her home and someone stole the expensive amethyst cross. Who could have done that and why? - Summary by Stav Nisser.

Galsworthy's classic The Dark Flower is a study of love. Spring is the beginning when all is new and full of hope. However, the woman Lennan has fallen for is out of reach, a forbidden love. Can he overcome the challenges? As he matures, he discovers two different loves: the first is platonic, comfortable, and one that can last a lifetime. The other is crazy, passionate, and dangerous. As he matures, he settles into a somewhat boring and safe marriage, but then excitement and danger re-emerge in the form of a young mistress...

Caroline is a very intelligent woman. She received a good convent education until her father lost his fortune in a failed venture and died soon after. While her sister marries, Caroline has to go to Paris to support herself as a lady companion. In Paris, she is exposed to a privileged world she cannot dream to take part in. Or can she? Can her love for the good Marquis of Villemer win over social class and prejudice? - Summary by Stav Nisser.

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...

Newlyweds Betty Revere and Peter Van Zandt are completely smitten with each other. Their wedding is said to have been one of the most beautiful ever seen in New York. A conflict between the couple causes a series of events to take place which isn’t rectified till years later by a special little boy looking for Christmas happiness. - Summary by Jenn Broda

“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...

Daphnis and Chloe is an Ancient Greek prose work, probably written during the second century CE, by Longus. It tells the story of two young people, Daphnis and Chloe, both abandoned at birth along with some identifying tokens. A goatherd named Lamon raises the boy Daphnis as his son, and a shepherd called Dryas finds Chloe, and also decides to raise her. They both grow up as neighbors herding the flocks in the island of Lesbos. They fall in love with each other, but have to go through many adventures and hardships, including abduction and pirate attacks, until they find their happy ending.

The House of Mystery is based upon the complicated plot involving two women who look exactly alike, one rich and one poor, and so mistaken identities bring about comic and tragic madness.

This tragic love story begins by meeting the passionate Anna Acquaviva who is willing to leave her position in society to elope with her lover after her guardian Cesare Dias will not give his consent to the marriage. Things do not turn out quite like she expected, and Anna is left to deal with the fact that she did what “respectable girls don’t do”. Will Anna find true love after heartache or will she be forced say farewell to love forever? - Summary by Jenn Broda

Set in 1925, this is a novel of the Jazz Age; of ambition, of the careless rich, of wild parties and flappers and bootleg booze; and the efforts of a dreamer to reunite with his lost love. - Summary by Kara

Kate Cephane, now living in self-imposed exile in France, left her three-year-old daughter Anne behind when she fled her impossibly unhappy marriage for a brief affair. When Anne asks her to return because she is getting engaged, Kate risks the scorn and scandal of New York elite society to be reconciled. When she finds out the identity of her daughter's fiancé, Kate is caught in the dilemma of how to prevent the marriage without revealing her past. Either way she will risk losing her daughter once more.

Lady Huntworth is in disguise and under cover as a cook. She entertains a number of men and the comedy ensues.- Summary by Michele Eaton Stage Directions: wib66 Captain Dorvastan: adrianstephens Reverend Audley Pillenger: toddhw Reverend Thorsby: Tchaikovsky Gandy: alanmapstone Newspaper Boy: David Purdy Mr Crayll: Larry Wilson Miss Hannah Pillenger: Annie Mars Lucy Pillenger: Matea Bracic Keziah: April6090 Caroline Rayward: Adrienne Prevost

Betrothed to one woman but married to another whose heart will be broken. Summary by Michele Eaton

Jilted by the man she loves, Xenie Carroll has determined that no matter the cost she will exact the ultimate revenge on he who broke her heart.  She is tempted over and over with opportunities that she believes will allow her to complete her revenge but instead sets off a series of events that only make things more complicated.  This melodramatic dime novel is full of twists and turns that keeps the reader wondering what improbable thing will happen next? - Summary by Jenn Broda

Loosely based on a true story, this is the tale of Clyde Griffiths. At a young age, Clyde realizes that money and influence can get him the finer things in life. As a young man, he finds himself torn between the poor but virtuous Roberta, and Sondra the wealthy socialite. Can there be a happy resolution to this love triangle? Follow Clyde throughout his young life as he struggles to figure out whether he can truly have everything he wants. This is volume 1 of 2. - Summary by Tatiana Chichilla

In the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite uprising, the young Andrew Boyd meets a fugitive from the redcoats, a man whom Andrew soon grows to admire. Andrew and his father take the man in, but then the redcoats arrive to search the house... Besides being a historical adventure this reads, to a modern reader, as a sweet gay romance, though it's not explicit. Indeed the author was gay himself and anonymously recommended his own book as an example of homoerotic fiction in The Intersexes, his 700-page defense of homosexuality under another pen name. - Summary by Elin

Will love conquer all? An entertaining novel of growth in light of societal pressures of propriety, finance and inheritance of 19th century France. Intriguing events and turns of phrase abound.

During the turbulent moment in English history involving King James 1 and 6, Nigel Olifaunt, a Scottish lord, seeks to protect his family home and holdings, but meets with recalcitrance and treachery, which eventually results in his imprisonment. But there are forces of good that help to set him free and right injustices.

Raoul des Sablières, a French parole prisoner in England during the Napoleonic Wars, becomes enmeshed in a complicated tangle where his honour conflicts with his parole, and is sent to prison. Juliana Forrest, for whose sake he broke his parole, does her utmost to save him, and in his adventures and misfortunes, Raoul eventually also finds help from an unlikely source. This is a fun adventure story and romance, written in a style similar to Georgette Heyer. - Summary by Elin

The saga of Clyde, Roberta, and Sondra continues in volume 2 of 2. Social-climbing Clyde Griffiths wants nothing more than to marry the wealthy Sondra Finchley and ascend to the highest levels of Upstate New York society. However, there is a glaring obstacle in his way: Roberta's pregnancy. Both had hoped to keep their illicit relationship a secret, but if Clyde can't find a doctor willing to help them, something must be done. Perhaps something drastic . . . The tense and thrilling conclusion to Dreiser's genre-defining novel of love, pain, the law, and the spirit. - Summary by Tatiana Chichilla