Home from college, Lynn is heartbroken to find her childhood friend Mark, has fallen away from his faith in God. After making some poor life choices, Mark is caught up in a local scandal. Billy, one of the bright young boys from Lynn's Sunday School class, is determined to clear Mark's name. But at what cost? And will Billy's betrayal hurt the people he's trying to protect? - Summary by Emily Grace

Aldous Huxley is best known as a philosopher and novelist – notably as the author of Brave New World. He also wrote poetry, short stories and critical essays. Most of his work is somewhat dark and mildly sardonic, partly because he came of age just after World War I, when all of Europe was in a state of cultural, political and social confusion. His novel, Crome Yellow, is a prime example. Mortal Coils includes four short stories and a play, including one of the author’s most famous short works: "The Gioconda Smile." - Summary by Kirsten Wever

An impossibly imperturbable old sea captain, with two hundred Chinese labourers aboard his steamship, faces a terrifying typhoon for the first time in his life. When emigré Austrian peasant Yanko is washed up on an English beach, he encounters widespread hostility from the local people on account of his foreign ways, and only in time earns a meagre measure of grudging respect. Captain Falk — seemingly half man, half tug boat - desperately loves a shapely young woman, but standing in the way of any possible match is a most delicate question indeed...

Ms. Pinckney says in her "Forward" to this book the following: "It is against this background of the world need that Mrs. Alice Dunbar-Nelson's book is seen to have peculiar significance to the colored race in America. Hers is the first attempt I have known of directly on the part of any Negro to frame a speaker composed entirely of literature produced by black men and women, and about black men and women, and embodying the finest spiritual ideals of the Negro race." And in addition, Alice Dunbar-Nelson includes some very meaningful support from some Caucasian writers.

Set in the stifling world of turn of the century Dutch aristocracy, the second volume of the 'Books of the Small Souls' quartet, begins where the first volume ended. Constance Van der Welcke has returned to The Hague after her twenty-year exile for a scandalous affair in Rome. Hoping for acceptance by her family and the society of her former 'set', Constance and her husband Henri are now estranged from the family and have given up all ambitions of acceptance in society. Determined to live quietly, they form new friendships - Henri with Constance's niece, Marianne, and Constance with Henri's eccentric old friend, Max Brauws - that lead each of them on a journey of self-discovery...

E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India is widely acclaimed as one of the hundred best literary works of 20th century. Time magazine rates it among the top 100 English-language novels of all time. A Passage to India is set at the moment when the lasting supremacy of the British Raj could no longer be taken for granted. Imperial power had been effectively supported by old and deep-seated religious and cultural conflicts between India’s Hindu and Muslim populations, which divided and sapped the local powers ultimately needed to overthrew imperial rule in 1947...

Prince D.S. Mirsky was a prominent Russian literary historian who spent several years in emigration, teaching at the University of London. This book, published in 1925, presents a brief and incisive overview of Russian literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was written in English and meant to be accessible to the general reading public in the West. - Summary by Kazbek

“The Chouans” was the first novel published under Balzac’s own name . It became the first book in the great work of his lifetime — the novel series titled “The Human Comedy.” Balzac was impressed by the writings of Sir Walter Scott. Scott made Scottish history come alive by creating fictions that used real history as backdrop. Balzac’s novel is set in 1799 — the year that Napoleon became First Consul of France. In the far west of France , anti-revolutionary sentiment still simmered...

The third book in Louis Couperus' Books of the Small Souls quartet. The Twilight of the Souls begins some months after the conclusion of The Later Life. Constance Van der Welcke and her husband Henri have settled down to a quieter life in the Hague, sister Bertha and her daughter Marianne have moved to the country, and Mama Van Lowe's Sunday evenings are no longer the gatherings of the whole family they once were. But the family's troubles are far from over. The story shifts to the trials and tribulations of Constance's brothers, Gerrit and Ernst, and Bertha's son and daughter, Henri and Emilie, who have fled together to Paris. - Summary by Phil Benson

'A Man Could Stand Up' is the third, and culminating, part of Ford Madox Ford's 'Parade's End' tetralogy of novels, which begins with 'Some Do Not', followed by 'No More Parades', and whose coda would be 'Last Post'. While 'A Man Could Stand Up' can be appreciated on its own, it will make far better sense to a listener or reader already familiar with its predecessors. It's at once a war story , a story of immense upheaval in social mores, and a passionate, if extraordinarily restrained, love story. Just like, say, Virginia Woofe's 'Mrs Dalloway', published the previous year, Ford's novel is pitched at readers who are assumed to be highly literate and well-educated.

When a few men decide to go for looking for gold in the outback of Australia, days of extreme heat with no water and no rain in sight, make them turn back and give up the trip; all but two of them that is, Smith and Mandeville, aka the "Baker. Smith and Baker decide to tough it out and go after their dreams, chancing their lives to find "their luck". Little do they realize, they will put their lives in grave danger, and this quest for gold will turn into a nightmare. Life threatening food and water deprivation is a constant issue, and they had no idea they would stumble upon an unknown tribe of prehistoric white men that are head hunters and cannibals...

In this classic novella, the life of a drab office clerk named Golyadkin begins to be haunted by his "doppelgänger," a man identical to him possessing all the charm and charisma Golyadkin lacks. This double shows up over and over again, succeeding in the things Golyadkin has failed to do throughout his life. As this double infiltrates himself more and more into Golyadkin's life, the reader is left wondering who he is and what his purposes might be. - Summary by Magda Wilde

Taras Bulba is a romanticised historical novella by Nikolai Gogol set in Russia’s equivalent of America’s wild frontier, what is today Ukraine, a name which means something like “frontier” or “marches”. It was an ill-defined wild border land whose borders were subject to change and whose nominal rulers had allowed it to become a nuisance to them that it might also be a nuisance to the armies of their enemies and an obstacle to their advances. It was a time when men were men and sheep were scared and those men were Cossacks...

Aspiring academic Andrei Kovrin, while summering in the countryside per the advice of a physician, is haunted by the apparition of a black monk that appears only to him and encourages him in his intellectual pursuits. Although Kovrin is the only one who can see the apparition, the monk assures him that, even if he were a creation of the imagination, he would still be a thing of nature and consequently real. Chekhov uses this vehicle for a gothic exploration into scholarly obsession and madness. - Summary by Daniel Davison

The Ordeal of Mark Twain analyzes the literary progression of Samuel L. Clemens and attributes shortcomings to Clemens' mother and wife. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says, Brooks' work "was a psychological study attempting to show that Twain had crippled himself emotionally and curtailed his genius by repressing his natural artistic bent for the sake of his Calvinist upbringing." Also, Brooks says, his literary spirit was sidelined as "...Mark Twain was inducted into the Gilded Age, launched, in defiance of that instinct which only for a few years was to allow him inner peace, upon the vast welter of a society blind like himself, like him committed to the pursuit of worldly success...

This first collection of the correspondence of Oscar Wilde begins with the Irish playwright's earliest extant letter, thanking his mother for the hamper she had sent to him at school. It includes letters about his travels in Italy, his American lecture tour, the staging of his first play , arrangements for the publication of a friend's poetry collection, and exchanges in the press with artist James McNeill Whistler. The letters, some of which have been excerpted or redacted, are sourced from auction catalogues, newspapers, biographies, and other texts in the public domain...

A minor lord is killed and a rich socialite is missing, and they are both tied to the enigmatic Kazmah the Dream Reader, who has also disappeared. New Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Red Kerry scours post-WWI London looking for clues, encountering rich Bohemians, theatre people, landed gentry, sailors, and, stereotypically, sinister Chinese people and sneaky Jews. The story is based on the history of Billie Carleton, a young English actress whose scandalous lifestyle ended with her death from a drug overdose in 1918. - Summary by TriciaG

The eight short stories that comprise South Sea Tales are powerful tales that vividly evoke the early 1900’s colonial South Pacific islands. Tales of hurricanes, missionaries, brotherhood and seafaring are intertwined with enslavement, savagery, and lawless trading to expose the often-barbarous history of the South Pacific islands. You will also gain unsparing insight into the life, culture and relations between natives and Westerners during this period. If you like nautical and sea adventures, if you are interested in the history of the South Pacific islands, and especially if you want to read gripping tales set in the exotic lands, then this book will be perfect for you...

"And God tempted Abraham and said unto him: take Isaac, thine only son, whom thou lovest and go to the land Moriah and sacrifice him there on a mountain which I shall show thee. Genesis 22:1" Soren Kierkegaard wondered how Abraham made the movement of faith that made him the father of faith mentioned in the New Testament . Fear and Trembling is the product of his wonder. Work out your salvation in fear and trembling . One-third of "Fear and Trembling" was translated in 1923 by Lee Hollander in the University of Texas Bulliten. This book has already been read in parts in the Short Nonfiction Collection but I think some might be interested in listening to it as a complete reading.

This is the first volume of Thomas Jefferson's public and private writings edited and compiled by his oldest grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph and published three years after the president's death. There are a total of four volumes in Randolph's set. Summary by Joel Kindrick.

From the noted artist and father of the celebrated Irish poet William Butler Yeats comes this short collection of essays on the literary life of their age. Included are two short biographical remembrances of the author. - Summary by Larry Wilson

Bosanquet was secretary or amanuensis to James from 1907 to his death in 1916. She wrote this essay eight years after his death as part of the series Hogarth Essays by the Hogarth Press. It is a narrative of her experience of his methods, values, and life. - Summary by David Wales

"The Rover: A weekly magazine of tales, poetry and engravings, original and selected" was a magazine started in 1843 by Seba Smith and Lawrence Labree. The editors aimed at a high quality standard in their selection of short stories and poetry. Every half-year, the 26 weekly issues were also published under a bound compilation. This is the very first issue, containing 7 short stories. - Summary by Sonia

We present here ten stories and poems from the master of horror, Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. They are our personal favorites. We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoy presenting them to you. - Summary by cavaet

Anna is the daughter of a clergyman in a small town in Vermont. She is very happy with her lot. But when she goes to nurse a woman in the big city, she starts to discover the world. She sees new places, meets new people, and falls in love. This will test all the resolutions she once held dear. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

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.

"The Rover: A weekly magazine of tales, poetry and engravings, original and selected" was a magazine started in 1843 by Seba Smith and Lawrence Labree. The editors aimed at a high quality standard in their selection of short stories and poetry. Every half-year, the 26 weekly issues were also published under a bound compilation. This second issue contains 6 short stories, including a translation of Victor Hugo's narrative "Claude Gueux". - Summary by Sonia

The time of French king Louis XIV was a time of religious conflict. His father, Louis XIII had tried to suppress the teachings and followers of Calvin but was thwarted by his ministers. The son took a different path. The king was Catholic, and although he was tolerant of others, some in his government were less so, and persecuted the Protestant Huguenots. This is the story of Albert, Count of Morseiul as he treads the tightrope of being a Huguenot landowner and loyal subject and friend of the king.

"The Rover: A weekly magazine of tales, poetry and engravings, original and selected" was a magazine started in 1843 by Seba Smith and Lawrence Labree. The editors aimed at a high quality standard in their selection of short stories and poetry. Every half-year, the 26 weekly issues were also published under a bound compilation. This is the third issue, containing 5 stories. - Summary by Sonia

Many of B. B. Warfield's diverse and erudite theological writings were published as long articles in The Princeton Theological Review, sometimes spanning many issues of the periodical. The articles in this collection showcase the breadth of Warfield's scholarship and interest, his clarity of analysis of cultural trends and his deep Calvinistic piety. The B. B. Warfield Collection, Volume 2 The B. B. Warfield Collection, Volume 3 The B. B. Warfield Collection, Volume 4

This 5th volume of the Marie Antoinette Romances begins after the fall of the Bastille and the March on Versailles, which forced Louis XVI and his court to be escorted back to Paris. In Paris, political factions battle over the fate of the nation, the royal family, and anyone with royalist sympathies. Our heroes and our anti-heroes must navigate the blood-streaked landscape while keeping their necks out of the guillotine. All the while, the prophetic Balsamo urges on the revolution: "the quantity of blood which must be shed before the sun rises on the free world ...

Upon publication of “The Untempered Wind” in 1894, Joanna Wood quickly rose to international prominence, becoming in the next few years the most highly paid fiction-writer in Canada. In this novel, we find a detailed picture of village life. The narrative weaves through a variety of character types: the refined and the coarse, the humble and the self-righteous, the virtuous and the vicious. All these types are measured according to their treatment of Myron Holder, a young unwed mother — a “fallen woman” in the eyes of this “spiteful, narrow-minded village...

"It is so sad when relations don't get on together." "Sadder still when they think they've got a right to trample on you, just because you happen to be an orphan and - I don't want to talk about my relations. I want to forget them. I stood them for nearly six months. I don't want to be reminded of them. I want to forget that they ever existed." She is not going to have her wish. Oh, no, not at all. A comedy. - Summary by ToddHW Cast list: Fanny: Devorah Allen Vernon Wetherell, Lord Bantock...

"Mrs. Dalloway" recounts a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway in the middle of June 1923. Clarissa Dalloway is a high society London lady. On that day, she is hosting a party, meeting people, going to the park, and reflecting on her choices. Where would she have been if she married Peter Walsh and not Richard Dalloway? What if she would not invite this or that person to her party? Her feelings about Peter Walsh grow because on that particular day he returns from India to settle some affairs in London...

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

"The ambition of the editor has been to provide an accurate and complete text, with adequate critical and supplementary matter, of all those plays which can, without entire absurdity, be included in the 'doubtfully Shakespearian' class." This project provides the Preface and Introduction of this book, wherein some 42 candidate Shakespeares are whittled down to some 14 plays "which alone appear entitled, on grounds either of reason or of custom, to a place among the Shakespeare Apocrypha." The book then presents the text of the 14 plays; performances of these play texts will be presented separately in our catalog...

"The Rover: A weekly magazine of tales, poetry and engravings, original and selected" was a magazine started in 1843 by Seba Smith and Lawrence Labree. The editors aimed at a high quality standard in their selection of short stories and poetry. Every half-year, the 26 weekly issues were also published under a bound compilation. This is the fourth issue, containing 7 stories and a poem. - Summary by Sonia

Catherine Vernon has a firm hand on her family and on the family business. Her plans for her young protege Edward, whom she loves like a son, are disturbed by the arrival of Hester, a 14-year-old girl who is just as strong willed. The conflict between Catherine and Hester is resolved through their mutual love for Edward. On one level a love story, Hester is unusual for its time in its portrayal of women in business. - Summary by Anne Erickson

The epigram to this work from Christoher Marlowe applies to the plot of this story: "My men like satyrs grazing on the lawns / Shall with their goat-feet dance the antic hay." The plot follows Huxley and his cohorts in a search for meaning and hope and love in post WWI London.

"The Rover: A weekly magazine of tales, poetry and engravings, original and selected" was a magazine started in 1843 by Seba Smith and Lawrence Labree. The editors aimed at a high quality standard in their selection of short stories and poetry. Every half-year, the 26 weekly issues were also published under a bound compilation. This is the fifth issue, with another interesting mix of poetry and prose texts. - Summary by Sonia

This 1926 Pulitzer Prize winning novel centers on the title character, a promising medical student who, as a doctor and following several intervening ventures, becomes a medical researcher in New York. A widespread killer plague takes him to a Caribbean island to produce and inject sera and do research. Fascinating characters, some professional, others romantic, impact his life. Striking similarities of the epidemic in this novel to the pandemic of the 2020's may today seem prophetic. The author won the 1930 Nobel Prize in literature, chiefly for "Arrowsmith".

"The Rover: A weekly magazine of tales, poetry and engravings, original and selected" was a magazine started in 1843 by Seba Smith and Lawrence Labree. The editors aimed at a high quality standard in their selection of short stories and poetry. Every half-year, the 26 weekly issues were also published under a bound compilation. This is the sixth issue, containing 5 short stories and 3 poems. - Summary by Sonia

"The Rover: A weekly magazine of tales, poetry and engravings, original and selected" was a magazine started in 1843 by Seba Smith and Lawrence Labree. The editors aimed at a high quality standard in their selection of short stories and poetry. Every half-year, the 26 weekly issues were also published under a bound compilation. The seventh issue features five short stories and a poem. - Summary by Sonia

The story of Selina DeJong and her son Dirk, whom she affectionately calls So Big. After the death of her husband, Selina raises So Big on her own while managing her deceased husband's farm in Illinois. When So Big grows up, he moves to Chicago, where he finds himself drawn to the fast-money stock-broker lifestyle of the 1920s. So Big is conflicted: he wants to live in the world of speculation and finance, but he's aware that his mother are disappointed that he hasn't lived up to the hard-working, hardscrabble values instilled by his mother. - Summary by Alexandra Atiya

In 1841 and 1842, Fr. Pierre-Jean DeSmet traversed the wide and wild American West to bring the gospel to the Flatheads, who had sent multiple delegations from Montana to St. Louis, repeatedly requesting a Blackgown priest to instruct them in Christianity. Fr. DeSmet’s letters to his Jesuit Superiors show his heroic religious dedication and selflessness, as he recounts fatigues, hunger, thirst, and dangers that rival those of the apostle St. Paul. He also makes intelligent observations of geography, geology, weather , and the interesting customs of the different tribes he meets...

Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and Whig politician. Today he is most famous for his contributions, with Richard Steele, to the "The Spectator" magazine. In this essay, Macaulay portrays the life and work of this quiet, compassionate man, who amidst the cut and thrust of bitter political and literary rivalries, was always a gentleman, loved by his friends and, in the person of the Spectator, by posterity, as well.

A compendium and analysis of similarities between the Bible and passages in Shakespeare's plays and other works, including Biblical references in Shakespeare and parallels between Shakespeare's characters and plots and Biblical characters and plots, all demonstrating the strong influence of the Bible on Shakespeare's writings. - Summary by Joanne Turner

“The Story of a Modern Woman” is a work of feminist social realism. In its time it was one of the most famous and influential novels to grow out of and shape the “New Woman” movement of the 1890s. It won such attention for its author that Ella Hepworth Dixon was given the nickname “The New Woman.” The story of the novel’s protagonist, Mary Erle, loosely follows the outline of Dixon’s own situation. As the well-educated daughter of a public intellectual, she enters the world of professional writing after his death, partly trading on his name...

Catherine Vernon has a firm hand on her family and on the family business. Her plans for her young protege Edward, whom she loves like a son, are disturbed by the arrival of Hester, a 14-year-old girl who is just as strong willed. The conflict between Catherine and Hester is resolved through their mutual love for Edward. On one level a love story, Hester is unusual for its time in its portrayal of women in business. - Summary by Anne Erickson

"The Rover: A weekly magazine of tales, poetry and engravings, original and selected" was a magazine started in 1843 by Seba Smith and Lawrence Labree. The editors aimed at a high quality standard in their selection of short stories and poetry. Every half-year, the 26 weekly issues were also published under a bound compilation. This is the eighth issue, featuring 5 short stories and 3 poems. "To be good is to be happy" is a short quote from the drama "The Fair Penitent" by Nicolas Rowe and "Passion - its history" is the final part of "Asmodeus at large" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. - Summary by Sonia

John Milton was an English poet, classicist, and fearless advocate for civil liberty, who served the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He is best known for his epic poem "Paradise Lost" , a work of sublime imagery and hidden heresy. In this long essay, Macaulay combines literary criticism with political history, writing that to Milton, almost alone among his contemporaries, belonged "the glory of the battle which he fought for, the species of freedom which is the most valuable, and which was then the least understood, the freedom of the human mind."

Covering some of the plot of Shakespeare's Richard III, Jane Shore focuses on the mistress of the late Edward IV, also known as "The White Queen". In this short tragedy, Jane tries to thwart Richard's rise to power while experiencing love, betrayal, forgiveness, and an unexpected visitor who arrives in disguise. Cast ListLord Hastings: Tchaikovsky Duke of Gloster: ToddHW Belmour: Adrian Stephens Sir Richard Ratcliffe: Wayne Cooke Sir William Catesby: Alan Mapstone Dumont: Tomas Peter Jane Shore: Michele Eaton Alicia: WendyKatzHiller Jane's Servant: Larry Wilson Alicia's Servant: B. Jones Stage Directions: Adrienne Prevost

"The Rover: A weekly magazine of tales, poetry and engravings, original and selected" was a magazine started in 1843 by Seba Smith and Lawrence Labree. The editors aimed at a high-quality standard in their selection of short stories and poetry. Every half-year, the 26 weekly issues were also published under a bound compilation. This is the ninth issue, with yet another interesting mix of poetry and prose texts. - Summary by Sonia

Set immediately before and during the Great War, Some Do Not... is a tale of social cruelty among the English upper classes that pits real honour against shameless duplicity and subjects its principal characters to extremes of mental suffering that appear to be analogous to the physical horrors of the actual fighting. The plot revolves around the mores and desires of the intellectually brilliant but impossibly high-minded Christopher Tietjens, his icy wife Sylvia, and Valentine Wannop, a poor but well-educated young woman who loves Christopher, and is in many ways his moral and intellectual equal...

Darnel Park is situated in a county that thrives on gossip and secrets, and the Darnel family, as it turns out, has many of them. An attempt at Sir Allan Darnel’s life, after various misunderstandings and misdirections, reveals an estranged son and a mysterious fiancée, and the Darnel family scrambles to conceal these new developments from not only the county but the Scotland Yard detective called in to investigate. - Summary by Adrienne Prevost.

Excerpt from Introduction: "Nana" stands third in popularity among the Zola novels. It is a study of the prostitute type and it gives a memorable picture of the life of the tinsel underworld of the Paris theaters, night life, and its parasites. Perhaps Zola pursues Nana a bit too relentlessly: certainly his putting a period to her career by showing her as a putrefying corpse is more symbolic than is wholly necessary; but it remains a novel of truth and beauty, even if a beauty of a drab and often terrible sort. Summary by Burton Rascoe / Celine Major

"The Greeks were the most intellectual people of the old world. … The study of Greek literature is therefore a proper element in a liberal education. The Greek language, naturally flexible and rich in poetical words, becomes in the hands of the great writers a medium of unequalled force, clearness, and adaptability, able to express as well the highest aspirations of the poet as the subtlest shades of philosophical argument or the most abstruse technicalities. The books of Greece have passed the critical selection of the ages, and the student, unencumbered by masses of inferior material, can approach the works of acknowledged masters, the true fountain-head of European culture...

"The Rover: A weekly magazine of tales, poetry and engravings, original and selected" was a magazine started in 1843 by Seba Smith and Lawrence Labree. The editors aimed at a high quality standard in their selection of short stories and poetry. Every half-year, the 26 weekly issues were also published under a bound compilation. This is the tenth issue, with yet another interesting mix of poetry and prose texts. - Summary by Sonia

In this 1912 novel, Mary Hunter Austin draws inspiration from her own life to tell the story of a gifted woman caught between her public ambition and her private desire. Beginning with her post-Civil War Midwestern girlhood, Austin chronicles the tumultuous life -- its romantic and artistic challenges -- of "tragic actress" Olivia Lattimore. With lyrical insight, she explores the many social and economic obstacles talented women like Olivia face in their pursuit of self-fulfillment. In America’s cynical Gilded Age, Austin asks, can a “woman of genius” find both happiness and success? Summary by Amy Dunkleberger

"The Rover: A weekly magazine of tales, poetry and engravings, original and selected" was a magazine started in 1843 by Seba Smith and Lawrence Labree. The editors aimed at a high quality standard in their selection of short stories and poetry. Every half-year, the 26 weekly issues were also published under a bound compilation. This is the eleventh issue with poetry and prose texts. - Summary by Sonia