Billed as a satire concerning the dishonest advertising and business practices of the day, it tells the tale of an upstart clothing business doomed from the get-go to utter failure. Its senior partner (the elderly Brown, who provides the investment) is far too timid for business. His son-in-law (Jones, who runs the store) is stealing from the till, and the junior partner, Robinson (who writes advertisements for the store) is so obsessed with the idea that advertising alone will drive the business, he uses up every last penny of the capital investment in a series of increasingly ludicrous ad campaigns and publicity stunts...

As usual, Trollope creates a nice variety of characters of different English classes, sentiments and positions. The primary themes are the inheritance of property, extravagance or reason in the spending of assets, the mating of young people, and the electoral practices of the time. The election chapters are based on Trollope's own experiences when he ran for Parliament.There are, of course, many subplots which allow Trollope to express, through dialog, his opinions about greed, snobbery, work ethics and dandyism...

A romance set in Prague between a Catholic and a Jew. In this short novel, Trollope moves away from his usual milieu to explore a theme which has universal resonance.

"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.

This book is set in 1980 in the Republic of Britannula, which is a fictional island near New Zealand. It deals with euthanasia as a radical solution to the problem of the aged. The novel is in the form of a personal account written by the President of Britannula about the island's recent history. It has often been said that when the book came out Trollope had reached the age of 67. Interesting is the fact that this is the exact age at which all Britannulans are required by law to retire from their worldly affairs and begin a year of preparation for death.

This is the first of thirteen volumes of Anton Chekhov’s short stories, translated by Constance Garnett. Anton Chekhov was a Russian doctor who turned to fiction as a hobby, and quickly blossomed into one of the masters of the short story genre. Though he is arguably best known for his dramatic works, such as The Cherry Orchard, his stories are widely considered to be some of the most perfect examples of short fiction ever written. Constance Black Garnett was an English housewife who taught herself Russian as a hobby, and subsequently introduced the English-speaking world to some of the greatest Russian authors, including Chekhov and Dostoevsky...

The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on directing the play as a tragedy. Since this initial production, directors have had to contend with the dual nature of this play. The play concerns an aristocratic Russian woman and her family as they return to the family's estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry orchard) just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage...

The plot centres around Laevsky, who is living in a small seaside town in the Caucasus after running away with another man's wife, Nadyezhda Fyodorovna, amid dreams of starting a new life.The dreams have come to nothing as Laevsky idles away his life drinking and playing cards, and Nadyezhda begins to have other affairs.Laevsky's scheme to run away again, this time without his mistress, brings him into conflict with the rationalist Von Koren, who believes in Darwinian principles of natural selection and extinction of the weak and useless.Matters come to a head when an outburst from Laevsky leads to a duel. Von Koren is determined to teach Laevksy a lesson.(Introduction by Phil)

Anton Chekhov, perhaps better known as a world famous classical playwright for works such as "Uncle Vanya" and "The Cherry Orchard" was also a prolific short story writer. "The Schoolmaster and Other Stories" is one of several of his collections. It's a compilation of 30 short stories. Some bizarre, some comical but all very interesting.

Little Yegorushka goes off to school for the first time, setting out on the journey in the company of his Uncle Ivan, the local priest Father Christopher, and the fun-loving servant Deniska. Along the way they meet an extraordinarily colorful array of characters, named and nameless: the innkeeper Moisey Moisevitch, the beautiful Countess Dranitsky, the mysterious Varlamov, Emelyan the voiceless singer, Tit the steppe waif, and many more. But the most colorful and extraordinary character of all is the Steppe itself in every mood and weather, painted stroke-by-masterly-stroke by Chekhov in all its wild, musical, redolent, flowering, chirruping, infuriating exuberance. (Expatriate)

Laptev, the rich but unattractive scion of a merchant, renounces his independent-minded, intelligent, devoted, but equally unattractive mistress Polina in order to marry the beautiful young gold-digger Yulia. Their life together quickly deteriorates into a loveless agony, Laptev seeking some sort of meaning in his life while Yulia whiles away her youth with the sparkling young Moscow social scene. The compelling question of the story is whether or not Laptev and Yulia can redeem something of lasting value from what seems to be a hopelessly empty relationship...

In "An Anonymous Story," Chekhov continues to explore his favorite themes of superfluous men, ironic rakes, exploited women, and the dangers of social conventions to human happiness. The Anonymous Narrator is a feckless, would-be revolutionary who gets himself hired on as a flunkey in the household of the young useless aristocrat Orlov, hoping to spy out some useful information for the Cause. Orlov seduces the beautiful Zinaida Fyodorovna away from her husband but quickly tires of her. The Narrator, another in the long line of Russian literary superfluous men, allows Orlov to use him to deceive Zinaida Fyodorovna, hating himself for it all the while...

A provincial youth of wealth and noble status refuses to employ himself in the typical occupations of the higher classes, thus acquiring a reputation as a lazy good-for-nothing. In reality, he is intensely sensitive to the injustices perpetrated by his social class upon the working classes of town and country, and resolves to become a common laborer, taking employment as a house painter and ikon gilder. All classes of society around him respond to this revolutionary action with bewilderment and ridicule, even the lowest workmen feeling threatened by this insolent shaking of the cosmic structure...

The Author sings the praises of Chocolate. “By the wise and Moderate use whereof, Health is preserved, Sicknesse Diverted, and Cured, especially the Plague of the Guts; vulgarly called _The New Disease_; Fluxes, Consumptions, & Coughs of the Lungs, with sundry other desperate Diseases. By it also, Conception is Caused, the Birth Hastened and facilitated, Beauty Gain’d and continued.”

Aphra Behn was the first woman writer in England to make a living by her pen, and her novel Oroonoko was the first work published in English to express sympathy for African slaves. Perhaps based partly on Behn’s own experiences living in Surinam, the novel tells the tragic story of a noble slave, Oroonoko, and his love Imoinda. The work was an instant success and was adapted for the stage in 1695 (and more recently by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1999). Behn’s work paved the way for women...

“I have promised to introduce you today to the fairy-land of science — a somewhat bold promise, seeing that most of you probably look upon science as a bundle of dry facts, while fairy-land is all that is beautiful, and full of poetry and imagination. But I thoroughly believe myself, and hope to prove to you, that science is full of beautiful pictures, of real poetry, and of wonder-working fairies…” (From the Introduction to The Fairyland of Science)

A charming collection of short stories, dealing with ghosts, magic, and other-worldly events that even the faint of heart will enjoy. 1. The Intoxicated Ghost - a woman tries to outsmart a ghost to save the family from financial ruin. 2. A Problem In Portraiture - can a man's portrait influence the man he becomes? 3. Knitters In The Sun - will a father's curse keep two lovers apart? 4. A Comedy In Crape - the death of the town playboy causes a dispute over who is entitled to be chief mourner 5. A Meeting Of The Psychical Club - who is the hooded stranger, and are his powers real? 6...

The ‘Card’ in question is Edward Henry Machin – his mother called him ‘Denry.’This light-hearted story is of his rise from humble beginnings as the son of a washerwoman and sempstress in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, in the pottery towns (which Arnold Bennett christened ‘The Five Towns’) of the English Midlands; how, by his own wits, enterprise and ‘nerve’ he rose to wealth, married bliss and public recognition as the youngest-ever mayor of his home town. “’And yet,’ demanded Councillor Barlow, ‘what’s he done? What great cause is he identified with?’‘He’s identified,’ said the speaker, ‘with the great cause of cheering us all up’.”

Rachel Louise Fleckring works for the elderly Mrs Maldon, and although with the woman for only a short time, she is taken into the heart of the family. She falls in love with one of Mrs Maldon’s descendents, but along the way, she has to come to terms with the fact that he isn’t, perhaps, the perfectly honest man she thought he was.

The Old Wives’ Tale is a novel by Arnold Bennett, first published in 1908. It deals with the lives of two very different sisters, Constance and Sophia Baines, following their stories from their youth, working in their mother’s draper’s shop, into old age. It is generally regarded as one of Bennett’s finest works. It covers a period of about 70 years from roughly 1840 to 1905, and is set in Burslem and Paris.

Arnold Bennett describes a method for enjoying literature, and suggests the contents of a comprehensive library. Chapters 1-10 and 14 describe his method for learning to enjoy literature. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 contain detailed lists of the 337 volumes required to complete a comprehensive library of English works. This reading is from the 1913 version at Project Gutenberg, and so does not contain the revisions made by Swinnerton for the 1939 edition, which included authors of the early Twentieth Century. Swinnerton’s revisions are available from Wikipedia.

This is a selection of short stories recounting, with gentle satire and tolerant good humour, the small town provincial life at the end of the nineteenth century, based around the six towns in the county of Staffordshire, England, known as the Potteries. Arnold Bennett chose to fictionalize these towns by changing their names and omitting one (Fenton) as he apparently felt that “Five Towns” was more euphonious than “Six Towns”. The real town names which are thinly disguised in the novel are: Hanley, Longton, Burslem and Tunstal, the fifth, Stoke became “Knype”...

The plot centers on Anna Tellwright, daughter of a wealthy but miserly and dictatorial father, living in the Potteries area of Staffordshire, England. Her activities are strictly controlled by the Methodist church. Having escaped her father by marrying the respectable and attractive Henry, she attempts in vain to help Willy, son of a drunken and bankrupt business associate of her father's.

'The Regent' is, if not a sequel to 'The Card', then a 'Further Adventures of' the eponymous hero of that novel.Denry Machin is now forty-three and begins to feel that he is getting old, that making money and a happy home life are not enough and that he has lost his touch as the entrepreneur and entertainer of the 'Five Towns'.In fact, as he says to himself 'What I want is change - and a lot of it too!'. A chance meeting at the local theatre leads to his going to London and then...

Bennett's essays always provide food for thought and bring a wry smile to the lips. Human nature, it appears, changes little over the ages, and Bennett's writing stands the test of time, though in the case of some of the essays in this eclectic collection, it is well to remember that they were written at the time of the First World War and the fight for women's suffrage.

This book is the second in Bennett’s four books about life in the Five Towns (the real life Potteries in Staffordshire). It tells the story of Hilda before her marriage to Edwin Clayhanger (from the first book). Bennett explores Hilda's ambition to make a career for herself, her coming of age and her working experiences as a shorthand clerk and keeper of a lodging house in London and Brighton. He also shows her intensifying relationship with the enigmatic George Cannon that ends in her disastrous bigamous marriage and pregnancy, and finally her reconciliation with Edwin Clayhanger

This first of a trilogy of novels is a coming-of-age story set in the Midlands of Victorian England, following Edwin Clayhanger as he leaves school, takes over the family business, and falls in love.The books are set in Bennett's usual setting of "the 5 Towns", a thinly-disguised version of the six towns of "the Potteries" which amalgamated (at the time of which Bennett was writing) into the borough (and later city) of Stoke-on-Trent.In one of the earlier chapters in the book, Bennett writes that...

The novel opens with Carl Foster, a recently qualified doctor, coming to London to try and make his fortune. He meets a famous tenor, Signor Alresca, who suffers a dreadful injury backstage and Foster tends to him. He thus meets the lead soprano, Rosetta Rosa, and falls hopelessly in love with her.Alresca takes Foster under his wing and they travel to Alresca's home in Bruges. It is clear to Foster that Alresca has some strange obsession. Foster also notices a stranger who seems to be dogging his footsteps.Things take an even more sinister turn when Alresca inexplicably dies. . .

Hilda is saved from destitution by Edwin Clayhanger who marries her. The two, with Hilda's son by her disastrous 'marriage' to George Cannon, are living in Bursley. Edwin does not enjoy an entirely happy marriage with Hilda because of her outspokenness. Hilda has strong opinions on matters which at the time were considered to be a male preserve – for example, on Edwin’s business. She also does things without telling him. As a consequence, Edwin has his doubts about their marriage and is angered by his wife just as he had been by his father...

"The Roll-Call" is the sequel to the Clayhanger trilogy. This book concerns the young life of Clayhanger's stepson, George. George Edwin Cannon (he quickly dropped the surname Clayhanger), is an architect, in many ways representing the ambitions held by his stepfather, Edwin. However, he possesses an arrogance endowed by family wealth and Bennett examines with some aplomb the difficulty of bringing up children without spoiling them. George eventually joins the army and this is a fitting finale to this fine series.

Arnold Bennet's masterly novel is a gritty tale about a bookseller whose life and love of a woman are afflicted by miserliness. It is set in London's characterful Clerkenwell district shortly after the First World War. - Summary by Anthony Ogus

Published in 1917, this is a collection of a novella and seven short stories by one of the cleverest authors of the early twentieth century. ‘In Queen's Quorum , a survey of crime fiction, Ellery Queen listed Bennett's The Loot of Cities among the 100 most important works in the genre. This collection of stories recounts the adventures of a millionaire who commits crimes to achieve his idealistic ends. Although it was "one of his least known works," it was nevertheless "of unusual interest, both as an example of Arnold Bennett's early work and as an early example of dilettante detectivism".’ - Summary by David Wales

This is a jolly little book about a little boy, a dog, a train and a house. But not an ordinary train, oh no, and not an ordinary house either! And there are songs, too. The Preface is short, dull and only for the grown-ups.

But he was afraid. He had failed twice already. He could not afford to fail a third time. If he failed ruin faced him, and disgrace. His father had warned him that the money he had saved for his education had come to an end. Ruin for his father and his little sister! He had no idea how deeply Rupert was in debt. Rupert himself had only just realised it. And in desperation he had gambled to save himself. (Excerpt from 1st chapter by Arthur Applin)

The Film Mystery is one of eighteen detective novels by Arthur B. Reeve starring his best known character Professor Craig Kennedy and his trusty sidekick Walter Jameson, a newspaper reporter. The pair bears an unmistakable resemblance to the more famous British master sleuth and his doctor friend. The setting of this mystery is the early days of movie making, and the murder victim is Stella Lamar, “the beautiful idol of the screen, beloved of millions”, who collapses and dies during the filming of a scene for her latest movie.

While Harry Houdini didn’t rise to fame as a screen actor, silent film makers of the day sought to capitalize on his fame. The Master Mystery was Houdini’s first such attempt, and it was embraced by the viewing public, leading to other screen roles following. The hero (or superhero) is Quentin Locke, scientist, agent of the U.S. Justice Department, and not surprisingly, an escape artist extraordinaire. The Master Mystery follows agent Locke through many pitfalls, in true serial fashion, as he...

The Exploits of Elaine It tells the story of a young woman named Elaine who, with the help of a detective, tries to find the man, known only as “The Clutching Hand”, who murdered her father. (Wikipedia)

The many adventures of Professor Craig Kennedy were chronicled by Arthur B. Reeve (October 15, 1880 - August 9, 1936). Reeve was an American mystery writer who created 82 Craig Kennedy mystery stories. The stories have a very Sherlock Holmes type feel, In fact Kennedy has been referred to as the "American Shelock Holmes". Along with his reporter friend, Walter Jameson, Kennedy solves many crimes and unveils mysteries using science. Each story features a facinating look at life in the early 20th century, and even includes some action along the way.

The many adventures of Professor Craig Kennedy were chronicled by Arthur B. Reeve (October 15, 1880 - August 9, 1936). Reeve was an American mystery writer who created 82 Craig Kennedy mystery stories. The stories have a very Sherlock Holmes type feel, In fact Kennedy has been referred to as the "American Sherlock Holmes". Along with his reporter friend, Walter Jameson, Kennedy solves many crimes and unveils mysteries using science. This book contains twelve of Professor Kennedy's adventures. The interesting thing about these stories is Kennedy uses newly discovered science from his time period, which we take for granted today...

This is a collection of 12 detective short stories by American fiction writer Arthur B. Reeve . What makes these stories so interesting is that each crime is solved with the Sherlock-Holmes-like clever deductions and scientific methods of Professor Craig Kennedy. - Summary by Sonia

The passengers in the sleeping car of the Rome Express were just woken and informed that they will reach Paris soon, and a general bustle fills the train. Only one passenger cannot be awoken by the porter, no matter how loudly he knocks on the compartment door. At last, when the door is forced open, the occupant of the compartment is found dead - stabbed to the heart! The murderer must be found among the passengers...

The Shrieking Pit is one of Arthur Rees's earlier works, and is a good old fashioned murder mystery story. Grant Colwyn, a private detective, is holidaying in East Anglia when he notices a young man at a nearby table behaving peculiarly. The young man later leaves the hotel without paying his bill, and turns up in a nearby hamlet in the Norfolk marshes where he takes lodgings at the village inn. The next day, another guest at the inn is found dead, and the young man is missing. Can Colwyn sort out the mystery and prove the young man's innocence one way or the the other?

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...

First of the famous Rover Boys books by future Hardy Boys creator Edward Stratemeyer (under the pseudonym Arthur M Winfield), this is an introduction to the fun-loving teenage Rover Brothers -- Dick, Tom & Sam. Virtual orphans, they are sent by their prudish Uncle Randolph to a military boarding school and their adventures soon begin!

Third entry in the then-popular boys' adventure series has the Rover brothers (Tom, Dick, & Sam) heading to Africa to search for their long-missing father, after a few more adventures at their upstate New York boarding school, Putnam Hall.

Despite the title, the Rover Brothers spend several chapters -- over half the book -- back East, against arch-nemeses Josiah Crabtree and the Baxter family. Formulaic fun was dated even by the 1940's when Orson Welles satirized it on the radio.

The continuing saga of those rambunctious Rover Boys, brothers Dick, Tom, and Sam, takes them to the Great Lakes region of the northern U.S.. Expect the usual adventure and ultimately heroic encounters with bad apples, like arch-enemies the Baxter clan and simpering Josiah Crabtree.

Literary critics see Arthur Machen’s works as a significant part of the late Victorian revival of the gothic novel and the decadent movement of the 1890s, bearing direct comparison to the themes found in contemporary works like Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. The White People is a highly influential horror story of a young girl’s discovery of ancient magic. It was written in the late 1890s as part of a longer unfinished novel, some sketches from which went into his book Ornaments in Jade. Fans of supernatural fiction often cite this story as a classic in the genre.

"The Great God Pan" is a novella written by Arthur Machen. A version of the story was published in the magazine Whirlwind in 1890, and Machen revised and extended it for its book publication (together with another story, "The Inmost Light") in 1894. On publication it was widely denounced by the press as degenerate and horrific because of its decadent style and sexual content, although it has since garnered a reputation as a classic of horror. Machen’s story was only one of many at the time to focus on Pan as a useful symbol for the power of nature and paganism...

The Angels of Mons is a popular legend about a group of angels who supposedly protected members of the British army in the Battle of Mons at the outset of World War I. The story is fictitious, developed through a combination of a patriotic short story by Arthur Machen, rumours, mass hysteria and urban legend, claimed visions after the battle and also possibly deliberately seeded propaganda.

Three friends in a large old dilapidated house are laughing. They seem as giddy as an acting troupe at closing night. But their laughter is callous, cruel; you might say, evil. One of them, a young woman described as piquant rather than beautiful with eyes of a shining hazel, carries a neatly wrapped parcel. She says it is for the doctor's museum. It is dripping. Do you want to know why? Then, listen! There's more than one tale told, but what is the truth? My dears, are you sure you want to know?

Two London gentlemen ponder the evolution of humankind as they investigate a modern-day murder committed with an ancient tool. - Summary by Wanda White

Arthur George Morrison (1 November 1863, Poplar, London - 4 December 1945, Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire) was an English author and journalist known for his realistic novels about London's East End and for his detective stories. Morrison's most famous novel is A Child of the Jago, published in 1896, The novel described in graphic detail living conditions in the East End, including the permeation of violence into everyday life (it was a barely fictionalized account of life in the Old Nichol Street Rookery). (Introduction by Wikipedia and Algy Pug)

Arthur Ransome is best known for his ‘Swallows and Amazons’ series of children’s books. This is the only example of his fiction in the public domain. These stories are all from Russian folklore, some comparatively well-known, others less so. Ransome spent some years in Russia as a newspaper correspondent fir the ‘Daily News’ and the ‘Manchester Guardian’ and was peripherally involved in the revolution. In the late twenties he married Evgenia Shvelpina, Trotsky’s secretary, retired from newspapers and started writing his children’s books.

Arthur Scott Bailey (1877 – 1949) was author of more than forty children’s books. Bailey’s writing has been described thusly by the Newark Evening News: “Mr. Bailey centered all his plots in the animal, bird and insect worlds, weaving natural history into the stories in a way that won educator’s approval without arousing the suspicions of his young readers. He made it a habit to never ‘write down’ to children and frequently used words beyond the average juvenile vocabulary, believing that youngsters respond to the stimulus of the unfamiliar.”

Summary text (Arthur Scott Bailey (1877 – 1949) was author of more than forty children’s books. He was born on November 15, 1877, in St. Albans, Vermont, United States, the second child of Winfield Scott Bailey and Harriet Sarah Goodhue. THERE was great excitement in the neighborhood of Farmer Green’s house. Rusty Wren had found some strange tracks. And nobody knew whose they were. Now, when they were puzzled like that the field- and forest-folk usually went straight to Mr. Crow for advice...

One of Bailey’s “Sleepy-Time Tales,” this is the story of Timothy Turtle, a grumpy old turtle trying to live his life alongside Black Creek. Timothy’s adventures lead him to encounters with other Black Creek creatures, Fatty Coon, Mr. Crow, Brownie Beaver, Peter Mink, Ferdinand Frog, and even the local boy, Johnnie Green.

Arthur Scott Bailey was the author of more than forty children’s books.Mr. Bailey centered all his plots in the animal, bird and insect worlds, weaving natural history into the stories in a way that won educator’s approval without arousing the suspicions of his young readers.

Mr. Bailey centered all his plots in the animal, bird and insect worlds, weaving natural history into the stories in a way that won educator’s approval without arousing the suspicions of his young readers. He made it a habit to never ‘write down’ to children and frequently used words beyond the average juvenile vocabulary, believing that youngsters respond to the stimulus of the unfamiliar.”

This volume in the series, Sleepy-Time Tales, follows the adventures of Master Meadow Mouse as he moves his home to various (safer) places, and tells how he cleverly avoids creatures such as Fatty Coon, Mr. Crow, and Mr. Great Blue Heron, just to name a few.

Bailey’s writing has been described thusly by the Newark Evening News: “Mr. Bailey centered all his plots in the animal, bird and insect worlds, weaving natural history into the stories in a way that won educator’s approval without arousing the suspicions of his young readers. He made it a habit to never ‘write down’ to children and frequently used words beyond the average juvenile vocabulary, believing that youngsters respond to the stimulus of the unfamiliar. (Wikipedia)

Arthur Scott Bailey (1877 – 1949) was the author of more than forty children’s books. “Mr. Bailey centered all his plots in the animal, bird and insect worlds, weaving natural history into the stories in a way that won educator’s approval without arousing the suspicions of his young readers. He made it a habit to never ‘write down’ to children and frequently used words beyond the average juvenile vocabulary, believing that youngsters respond to the stimulus of the unfamiliar.” (Wikipedia)

Arthur Scott Bailey (1877 – 1949) was the author of more than forty children’s books.Bailey’s writing has been described thusly by the Newark Evening News: “Mr. Bailey centered all his plots in the animal, bird and insect worlds, weaving natural history into the stories in a way that won educator’s approval without arousing the suspicions of his young readers. He made it a habit to never ‘write down’ to children and frequently used words beyond the average juvenile vocabulary, believing that youngsters respond to the stimulus of the unfamiliar.”

Arthur Scott Bailey was the author of more than forty children’s books, centered all his plots in the animal, bird and insect worlds, weaving natural history into the stories in a way that won educator’s approval without arousing the suspicions of his young readers. The Tale of Brownie Beaver is another adventure of the friends and neighbours of Pleasant Valley. You will hear how Brownie keeps a house safe from a Freshet and how he receives his weekly newspaper and not to forget the making of a new suit.

The rats and the mice thought that Miss Kitty Cat was a terrible person. She was altogether too fond of hunting them. They agreed, however, that in one way it was pleasant to have her about the farmhouse. When she washed her face, while sitting on the doorsteps, they knew—so they said!—that it was going to rain. And then Mrs. Rat never would let her husband leave home without taking his umbrella. As a rule Miss Kitty Cat didn't look at all frightful. Almost always she appeared quite unruffled, going about her business in a quiet way and making no fuss over anything...

"All the four-footed folk in the neighborhood agreed that Dickie Deer Mouse was well worth knowing. Throughout Pleasant Valley there was no one else so gentle as he . . . He was always tastefully dressed in fawn color and white. And except sometimes in the spring, when he needed a new coat, he was a real joy to see. For he both looked and acted like a well-bred little person."In one of Bailey's "Sleepy-Time Tales", we follow a polite little mouse called Dickie as he hunts for a summer home, finds food, and avoids various predators...

Buster Bumblebee and his family move into a new home. Excitement and buzzing abound. Buster meet a strange fellow called a carpenter bee, way too many chirpy crickets, and even finds his own long lost sister. Later in his adventurous life, Buster learns of another kind of Bee, a Raising Bee and how much food is available for everyone there. All in all, this tale will bring smiles and grins to listeners young and old as it tells of Buster Bumblebee, a young bee with a lot to learn but a heart of gold.

Have you ever seen a LadyBug and wondered what the cute little bug with the dots on her back was thinking? And why she seemed in such a rush? Well here is your chance to peek into her thoughts and enjoy some of her daily triumphs and disasters. "Little Mrs. Ladybug was a worker. Nobody could deny that. To be sure, she had to stop now and then to talk to her neighbors, because Mrs. Ladybug dearly loved a bit of gossip. At the same time there wasn't anyone in Pleasant Valley that helped Farmer Green more than she did...

The Tale of Henrietta Hen is a cute children's book filled with the adventures of a hen named Henrietta.

"When Johnnie Green sent him along the road at a trot, Twinkleheels' tiny feet moved so fast that you could scarcely have told one from another. Being a pony, and only half as big as a horse, he had to move his legs twice as quickly as a horse did in order to travel at a horse's speed. Twinkleheels' friends knew that he didn't care to be beaten by any horse, no matter how long-legged. "It's spirit, not size, that counts," Farmer Green often remarked as he watched Twinkleheels tripping out of the yard, sometimes with Johnnie on his back, sometimes drawing Johnnie in a little, red-wheeled buggy...

A manhunt for a bank robber takes a determined and fixated New York City detective on a gripping, globe-spanning adventure, with many plot twists along the way. Arthur Stringer was a novelist, screenwriter and poet. He published 45 works of fiction and 15 other books in addition to writing numerous film scripts and articles. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stringer_(writer) This book is unrelated to the 1930s and 1940s pulp magazine and radio series of the same name. (Lee Smalley)

Many librarians have felt the need and expressed the desire for a select collection of children's Christmas stories in one volume. This book claims to be just that and nothing more. Each of the stories has already won the approval of thousands of children, and each is fraught with the true Christmas spirit. It is hoped that the collection will prove equally acceptable to parents, teachers, and librarians.

This charming book has many stories that deal mostly with the holiday of Thanksgiving, perfectly suited for family listening and reading. and gathers in one volume tales of tasty turkeys, festive parties, generous gestures, and holiday cheer. The stories featured include works by such writers as Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Eliot, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and others. So if you want to listen to some great stories that bring out gratitude for life and a thanksgiving attitude, here are a bunch of the best.

A young idealistic civil servant, Arvid Falk, leaves the drudgery of bureaucracy to become a journalist and author. As he explores various social activities — politics, publishing, theatre, philanthropy, and business — he finds more hypocrisy and corruption than he thought possible. He takes refuge with a group of "bohemians", who meet in a red dining room in Berns Salonger to discuss these matters. (Introduction adopted from Wikipedia)

The account of some adventures in the professional experience of a member of the Imperial Austrian Police. (from the text)

A man is found shot dead and the man to whom all evidence points insists he is innocent.

Sixteen year old Leslie Crane has come to the New Jersey shore as a companion to ailing Aunt Marcia, whose doctor has sent her there for a some quiet rest and recuperation. While the beach is lovely in October, Leslie quickly finds herself getting lonely with no one her own age to talk to. Little does she realize that she will not only soon make a new friend, but that they will both end up in the midst of a puzzling mystery centered around the closed up bungalow next door. Augusta Huiell Seaman is the author of over 40 historical fiction and mystery novels for older children most of which are currently out of print. The Dragon’s Secret was originally published in 1921.

A mysterious girl, a mysterious pool, and a mysterious businessman combine to send two Florida teens to adventureland in this pre-Nancy Drew tale for young people

When fourteen year old Sally Carter decides to share the secret she has discovered on Slipper Point with her new friend Doris Craig, she couldn’t possibly imagine where the solution to this intriguing mystery will lead them! Augusta Huiell Seaman is the author of over 40 historical fiction and mystery novels for older children most of which are currently out of print. The Slipper Point Mystery was originally published in 1919.

What is the secret of the old boarded up house? And what is the answer to the mystery of the long lost letter that is found in it? Best friends Joyce and Cynthia - along with their dog "Goliath", are determined to find out in this pre-Nancy Drew juvenile mystery for girls.Augusta Huiell Seaman was the author of over 40 historical fiction and mystery novels for older children.

Marcia Brett has noticed unusual activity at the ramshackle and seemingly abandoned mansion next door: a mysterious, veiled lady is seen coming and going out the front door, a different woman is glimpsed through a shuttered window, and most mysterious of all, a pretty, blond girl is seen briefly looking forlornly out an upper window! Along with her best friend, Janet McNeil, the two girls are determined to learn the secrets of the old house and befriend the young girl, but once they do, the secrets only increase. The girl has no idea why she is at this house or even who the women she is living with are! Has she been kidnapped? Are they relatives? No one seems to know.

A Joseph Muller Mystery originally published in 1905 in German as "Die blaue Dame" . Translated by American writer and translator, Grace Isabel Colbron in 1922 as The Lady in Blue. A mysterious old house, an unexplained scream in the night, the death of a beautiful young girl. Was it suicide? Or something more sinister at work? - Summary by J.M.Smallheer

A baffling disappearance. A bedroom door locked from the inside. A housekeeper with something to hide. Will retired policeman turned private detective, Joseph Muller, be able to sort out the clues and solve this locked room mystery? Summary by J. M. Smallheer

Young Adult historical fiction of a young man joining the Union Army and taking part in the Great Locomotive Chase.

The title 'Anthem' is derived as an anthem to sense of self and self-governing thoughts. Anthem is a story of Equality 7-2521 who is a young man living in some unspecified future time and place. In this future era freedom and individual rights have been eradicated. The starring character of the novel is an inquisitive street cleaner. He lives in a society where people have lost their knowledge of individualism, to the extreme that people do not know words like 'I' or 'mine'. All the people live and work for their livelihood in collective groups, along with the people with power, namely the 'Councils'...

Is a defense attorney bound to defend his client, or with his conscience, when he knows that the man he is defending is guilty of the charges against him after the trial has already commenced? And if friends hold a belief that he may have been aware of it before the trial commenced, yet they are endeared to the man and his family as upstanding and of the highest grade? Might it not become cause for blackmail, and therefore potential retribution? "The House of White Shadows" brings these issues to the forefront, while the reader learns of the background of the advocate, his family history, and the house in question...

The stabbing death of a beautiful young woman in a London park at night and the disappearance of her sister; a shocked and heartbroken young suitor; a terrified landlady and her simple husband; a recently unemployed man, the narrator, who is requested to investigate the crime; and the mysterious title character who, as his name suggests, has a devilishness about him in his psychic ability to read minds and to perform other supernatural acts. These are some of the individuals in this inventive, absorbing mystery by the prolific and popular British author, B. L. Farjeon. There are really two mysteries here: the murder and the strange – person? – known as Devlin.

Cattleman J.G. Whittemore, owner of the Flying U ranch in Montana, trusts the task of meeting his sister at the train to only one man, Chip. Chip’s not too keen on women. In his experience they come in only a few types: prissy “sweet young thing”, annoying cowgirl, or old maid that wants to drag him to church. He isn’t prepared for Miss Della Whittemore, the “Little Doctor.” She turns the ranch upside down, but can she turn Chip head over heels?

Phil Thurston was born on the range where the trails are dim and silent under the big sky. It was the place his father loved, the place he had to be. After the death of his father when he was five, his mother brought him back to the city, where he grew up and became a writer. To revive his stale writing, he returns to the West, and may just find what he is really missing.

The Young Crusoe, or The Shipwrecked Boy (1829) Novel. At the novel's opening, Charles Crusoe, thirteen years of age, asks his mother if he is related to the famous Robinson Crusoe, and is told that he is not. His future adventures, however, strongly resemble those of the earlier Crusoe.

Matilda Sophia Hanson, whose father has recently died in their country of Barbadoes in the West Indies, must live for a time with family friends in England. The Harewood family is astonished at how spoiled, rude, and uneducated the child is. However, with seemingly endless patience and love, they help Matilda work to conquer her bad temper, and become a sensible, good, and well-informed young lady. This story reminds children and adults alike, though you have many battles with yourself, you must never relinquish hope and be assured you will find every victory easier than the last...

Niels Klim’s Underground Travels, originally published in Latin as “Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum” (1741) is a satirical science-fiction/fantasy novel written by Ludvig Holberg, a Norwegian-Danish dramatist, historian, and essayist, born in Bergen, Norway. It was his first and only novel. It describes a utopian society from an outsider’s point of view, and often pokes fun at diverse cultural and social topics such as moral, science, sexual equality, religion, governments, and philosophy.

A sequel to the stories published in The Old Man in the Corner, this second book in the series includes twelve new mysterious cases that The Old Man in the Corner unravels over his milk and cheesecake at the ABC Tea Shop, all the while tying and untying knots in a bit of string. His audience is Polly Burton, a young journalist, who has to begrudging admit that the Old Man's solutions are indeed plausible explanations to these cases which have baffled both the police and coroner. Orzy's Old Man is an early 20th century example of the armchair detective. Summary by J. M. Smallheer

Baroness Emma Orczy (full name: Emma (”Emmuska”) Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orczi) (September 23, 1865 – November 12, 1947) was a British novelist, playwright and artist of Hungarian noble origin. She was most notable for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel. Castles in the Air, a short novel or perhaps more like a collection of short stories with memories of a French rogue in the early 19th century Paris, was published in 1921 and about it I quote from the foreword: In very truth my good friend Ratichon is an unblushing liar, thief, a forger–anything you will; his vanity is past belief, his scruples are non-existent...

Lady Molly of Scotland Yard is a collection of short stories about Molly Robertson-Kirk, an early fictional female detective. It was written by Baroness Orczy, who is best known as the creator of The Scarlet Pimpernel, but who also invented two immortal turn-of-the-century detectives in The Old Man in the Corner and Lady Molly of Scotland Yard. First published in 1910, Orczy’s female detective was the precursor of the lay sleuth who relies on brains rather than brawn. The book soon became very popular, with three editions appearing in the first year...

This is a sequel novel to the Scarlet Pimpernel. The second Pimpernel book written by Orczy, it comes (chronologically) third in the series and should be read after Sir Percy Leads the Band and before The Elusive Pimpernel.

The last of the famous "Scarlet Pimpernel" books, the "Triumph" tells the story of the final confrontation between the Scarlet Pimpernel and his nemesis, Chauvelin. Set at the end of the Reign of Terror, the fortunes of all rise and fall along with the French Revolutionary government.

A gentle, yet deliciously humourous series of anecdotes following the life of the main character and his wife, Eliza.

Barry Pain's parody takes a sharp knife to ASM Hutchinson's best selling novel 'If Winter Comes'.We follow the professional and marital decline of long suffering (and loving it), Luke Sharper, as his marriage to Mabel flounders while his love for Jona flourishes. It could only end in tears.....Or could it? (

A rollicking parody of the Margot Asquith memoirs, in which Pain’s character, Marge, beguiles us with the most personal details of her dysfunctional family, and delights in relating every cringing, if not wholly accurate, minutiae of her exciting private life.