The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz was edited in 1616 in Strasbourg (annexed by France in 1681). It is the third of the original manifestos of the mysterious "Fraternity of the Rose Cross" (Rosicrucians). NOTE: It was translated into English for the first time in 1690 by E. Foxcroft. This translation became the source for many of the modern attempts to improve the original. The translation presented here is that of E. Foxcroft. Although the book first appeared in 1616, the story takes place over 150 years earlier...

If you have read any accounts of adventure in Africa, you will know that travelers never mention animals of any kind that are gifted with the faculty of speech, or gazelles that are overseers for native princes, or hares that eat flesh. No, indeed; only the native-born know of these; and, judging by the immense and rapid strides civilization is making in those parts, it will not be long before such wonderful specimens of zoölogy will be as extinct as the ichthyosaurus, dinornis, and other poor creatures who never dreamed of the awful names that would be applied to them when they were too long dead to show their resentment...

Christina is a story of two people: Christina, a strong young and poor woman, who searches for work and finds more than she bargained for, and Rupert, a middle class man, who is pressured to marry and settle down. These two people meet frequently and start to confide in each other. But can they really help one another put their wounds from the past to rest and start a new life? And will their new life include one another? Lucy Gertrude Moberly was an English popular novelist whose wonderful writing style deserves attention.

A group called the Scorpions, eight Oxford undergraduates, find a letter Kathleen wrote a letter to Joe at Oxford. They build up an image of Kathleen and Joe from the letter and set out to find and meet Kathleen. The competition between them leads to many entertainingly funny scenarios.

This is a collection of short stories and fairy tales by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the author of The Secret Garden and A Little Princess.

Yee-hawww! The Pony Rider Boys are on the trail again! In the second book of this series, Professor Zepplin has taken the young men to San Diego, Texas, to experience the life of a cowboy. The cattle drive will take them across the great state of Texas, where they will meet many dangers and adventures.

"In the course of time a very considerable public feeling was aroused in the United States and Canada over this state of affairs. The lack of reciprocity in it seemed unfair. It was felt (or at least I felt) that the time had come when some one ought to go over and take some impressions off England. The choice of such a person (my choice) fell upon myself. By an arrangement with the Geographical Society of America, acting in conjunction with the Royal Geographical Society of England (to both of whom I communicated my proposal), I went at my own expense."And from thence follow the impressions of Canadian political economist and humourist, Stephen Leacock, after a lecturing visit to England.

"Mäzli" may be pronounced the most natural and one of the most entertaining of Madame Spyri's creations. The atmosphere is created by an old Swiss castle and by the romantic associations of the noble family who lived there. Plot interest is supplied in abundance by the children of the Bergmann family with varying characters and interests. A more charming group of young people and a more wise and affectionate mother would be hard to find. Every figure is individual and true to life, with his or her special virtues and foibles, so that any grown person who picks up the volume will find it a world in miniature and will watch eagerly for the special characteristics of each child to reappear...

The Austrian nobility in Rome forms a very close circle, into which only those of high rank and wealth are admitted. They managed to get along with Cecil Sterzl, who, although not one of their own, is regarded as quite an amiable man. However, when he brings his younger sister Zinka into that circle, she is received very coldly at first, if at all. And when, with her fresh and unaffected manners, she wins one heart after another, especially that of the handsome Count Sempaly, she also excites jealousy and contempt in many members of that "set"...

M. E. Francis was born Mary E. Sweetman in Dublin and moved to Lancashire on her marriage to Francis Nicholas Blundell, of the Blundell family, who remain squires of Little Crosby, the last Catholic recusant village in England, which lies a few miles north of Liverpool. Blundell died young and Mary went on to write more than 50 books, using her husband's Christian name as pen name, including this collection of 12 stories set in Little Crosby (‘Thornleigh’). A romantic portrait of mid-19th century...

By Zorra, in the following sketches, is meant a little district in Oxford county, Ontario, some ten miles square, composed of part of East and part of West Zorra, and containing a population of about fourteen hundred. It was settled about the year 1830, chiefly by Highlanders from Sutherlandshire, Scotland.Within the last forty years there have gone from this district over one hundred young men who have made their mark in the world. With most of these it has been the writer's good fortune to be personally and intimately acquainted; and companionship with some of them has been to him a pleasure and a benefit...

Peter and Wendy tells the classic story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and his adventures on the island of Neverland with Wendy and her brothers, the fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, the Indian princess Tiger Lily, and the pirate Captain Hook. (Introduction modified from Wikipedia)

Harold Bindloss, while born in England, based most of his novels in western Canada, and The Protector is based primarily in and around Vancouver and Victoria.There is often danger involved in the mining and timber industries north of Vancouver, and there is also danger in the trust given to people who own and operate these mines and timber lands. And finding one's way in locating them can be equally as difficult as well. Wallace Vane and his trusted friend Carroll seemed to encounter these dangers in a seemingly endless journey both for business purposes and for adventure in their search for adequate timber land which they had inadvertently heard of...

Rameau's Nephew, or the Second Satire (French: Le Neveu de Rameau ou La Satire seconde) is an imaginary philosophical conversation written by Denis Diderot, probably between 1761 and 1772. It was first published in 1805 in German translation by Goethe, but the French manuscript used has subsequently disappeared. The German version was translated back into French by de Saur and Saint-Genies and published in 1821. The first published version based on French manuscript appeared in 1823 in the Brière edition of Diderot's works...

These 14 short stories about animals are superb examples of Roberts smooth storytelling style. Knows as the Father of Canadian Poetry, he loved to also write in prose about the wilderness and the personalities of the animals to be found there as well as the exciting things they are capable of. Bears, White Wolves, Lynxs, hawks and yes, cattle are just a few of the animals written about.

An inside look into the wild world of silent movie cowboy William S. Hart... as narrated by his horse! This is a fascinating (if fictionalized) behind-the-scenes look into the wild, action-packed world of a Hollywood cowboy and stuntman. TOLD UNDER A WHITE OAK TREE is a charming children's book that not only gives us a fanciful account of Hart's career as Hollywood's premier western hero, but also tells a rousing adventure story of his exceptional (if somewhat smart-alecky) equine companion, who strives to become as renowned a screen legend as his master...

Eugene Onéguine is a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes (so-called superfluous men). It was published in serial form between 1825 and 1832. The first complete edition was published in 1833, and the currently accepted version is based on the 1837 publication.Almost the entire work is made up of 389 stanzas of iambic tetrameter with the unusual rhyme scheme "AbAbCCddEffEgg", where the uppercase letters represent feminine rhymes while the lowercase letters represent masculine rhymes...

At a certain committee meeting held in the spring of 1916, it was agreed that fourteen leading American authors, known to be extremely generous as well as gifted, should be asked to write a composite novel....Third, to have the novel finished and published serially during the autumn Campaign of 1917.The carrying out of these requirements has not been the childish diversion it may have seemed. Splendid team work, however, has made success possible.Every author represented, every worker on the team, has gratuitously contributed his or her services; and every dollar realized by the serial and book publication of "The Sturdy Oak" will be devoted to the Suffrage Cause...

Delightful fables, collected by a devotee of Indian lore, recounts many of the legends told to him by tribal members, among them intriguing explanations of "Why the Chipmunk's Back is Striped," "How the Otter Skin Became Great Medicine," "How the Man Found His Mate," and "Why Blackfeet Never Kill Mice."

This is an essay on decision biases and a critique on prejudices, neatly written and thought provoking.

With her usual wit and charm, Ms. Repplier recalls her days at Eden Hall, the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Torresdale, north of Philadelphia. She shares the highlights (and some of the low lights) of her time there. Perhaps this sharp eye, nurtured by her willfulness and independent spirit, was the reason she was not invited to return to Eden after her second year. Not only Catholics or boarding school alumnae will find this book entertaining; anyone who went to school or who looks back on their childhood will see their own experience somewhere in this memoir.

Myrtle Reed may always be depended upon to write a story in which poetry, charm, tenderness and humor are combined into a clever and entertaining book. Her characters are delightful and she always displays a quaint humor of expression and a quiet feeling of pathos which give a touch of active realism to all her writings. In "A Spinner in the Sun" she tells an old-fashioned love story, of a veiled lady who lives in solitude and whose features her neighbors have never seen. There is a mystery at the heart of the book that throws over it the glamour of romance.

Amanda McKittrick Ros, a Northern Irish writer, did for the novel what William McGonagall did for poetry and Florence Foster Jenkins for the coloratura voice. She published a number of novels (all at her own expense) and in addition to being a novelist was a poet, her best known being 'Visiting Westminster Abbey' which beginsHoly Moses!Take a look!Flesh decayed in every nook!Some rare bits of brain lie here,Mortal loads of beef and beer.C.S. Lewis, J.R. Tolkien and The Inklings were admirers and held competitions to see who could read her work for the longest time whist keeping a straight face...

A year in the life of a New England farm boy at the end of the 19th century (Introduction by LC)

American writer Edith Wharton is known for her novels of manners set in old New York; yet much of her adult life was spent in France. She lived in Paris throughout World War I and was heavily involved in refugee work. Her 1918 novella The Marne dramatizes the events of the war as seen through the eyes of 15-year-old Troy Belknap, an American boy who longs to join up and save his beloved France.

Dark times for British Catholics hung over England in the days of King Henry VIII. Henry, influenced by the hated Thomas Cromwell, fell into opposition with them, suppressing them, and closing religious houses. In that period a famous shrine, erected centuries earlier at Walsingham and dedicated to our Lady, drew people from far and near for it was a favorite place of pilgrimage and the site of many miracles.On their grandmother's and uncle's farm, far removed from this scene of persecution, were Jemmy Reynolds and his sister Joan...

This is the second book in the “Angel Food” series by the author. It consists of a series of short sermons for children, in the form of a charming story. The author was a Catholic parish priest in New York for many years during the mid 1900’s. He was the author of several books for children, the most well known being the books in what is considered the “Angel Food” series.

The fourth book in the Elsie Dinsmore series, Elsie grows into a young woman. She marries her father's old friend, Edward Travilla, and together start a family. The latter half of the book occurs during the Civil War.

Dulcibel is a young, pretty and kind-hearted fictional character charged with Witchcraft during the infamous Salem Witch trials. During this time there is a group of "afflicted girls" who accuse Dulcibel and many others of Witchcraft, and during their trials show "undoubtable" proof that these people really are Witches. Will Master Raymond, Dulcibel's lover, be able to to secure Dulcibel's release from jail? Or will Dulcibel's fate be the gallows like so many other accused Witches of her time?

Padre Ignacio has been the pastor of California mission Santa Ysabel del Mar for twenty years. In 1855 a stranger rides into the mission bringing news and a spiritual crisis. It's really more of a novella than a novel.

Ten-year old Peggy Clayton and her two younger brothers, Teddy and Harry, live with their father, Dr. Clayton, and Nurse, a woman who has taken care of them since the death of their mother when Peggy was five. Peggy is a sweet and kind little girl with a big imagination and a great sense of fun. Peggy's Trial follows her adventures with her friends at school, the mischief she and her brothers cause poor old Nurse, and even Peggy’s being chased by a bull. But nothing can prepare Peggy, Teddy and Harry when they fear they may lose their beloved father to a stepmother.

“Thy Soul shall bear Witness” (Körkarlen) by the Swedish Nobel Laureate Selma Lagerlöf is a kind of spooky Novel. It was first published in 1912 and in English in 1922, the same year as the international release of the Silent Movie “The Phantom Carriage”, today considered a classic movie, and one that strongly influenced the Swedish Director Ingmar Bergman. A second Movie based on the Novel was made again in 1958. In English the Novel is today very rare, very few copies are said to exist...