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By: Anonymous

Book cover Young Girl's Diary

The diary of an upper middle class Austrian girl, this book describes her life between the ages of eleven and fourteen. It's a coming of age story full of angst, boys, and questions.

By: Charles Ball (1780-?)

Book cover Fifty Years in Chains; or The Life of an American Slave

This is the story of Charles Ball, an American slave who was born in 1780 and remained a slave for fifty years thereafter. Ball told his story to a lawyer who turned it into this written work.

By: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865)

Book cover Mr. Harrison's Confessions

It is asserted that the inspiration for Elizabeth Gaskell's marvellous stories of Cranford was her childhood home of Knutsford, a small town in Cheshire and to where she returned for a while as a young woman. This assertion is born out by an essay she wrote in 1849 entitled The Last Generation in England, in which she writes about "The town in which I once resided ...". There can be little doubt when reading this that it provided her with the template for Cranford.In 1851 the year she began to write Cranford, she also wrote a novella entitled Mr...

By: Fanny Kelly (1845-1904)

Book cover Narrative of My Captivity Among the Sioux Indians

"Narrative of my captivity among the Sioux Indians: with a brief account of General Sully's Indian expedition in 1864, bearing upon events occurring in my captivity" "I was a member of a small company of emigrants, who were attacked by an overwhelming force of hostile Sioux, which resulted in the death of a large proportion of the party, in my own capture, and a horrible captivity of five months' duration. Of my thrilling adventures and experience during this season of terror and privation, I propose...

By: Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)

Book cover Demian, The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth

Somewhat autobiographical, this "coming of age" novel unfolds an introspective boy's formative years in pre-World War 1 Germany, from grade school through college. Hesse likens this confusing process to a giant bird struggling to break out of its egg , to be reborn as an individuated adult with his own goals, ideas and ideals. Much importance is given to dreams and their interpretation, Fate vs individual choice, Gnosticism , opening up to one's unconsciousness, all showing the influence of Carl Jung's psychology...

By: Marcel Proust (1871-1922)

Book cover Swann's Way (Version 2)

Swann's Way is the first book in the seven-volume work In Search of Lost Time, or Remembrance of Things Past, by Marcel Proust. It is a novel written in the form of an autobiography. Proust's most prominent work, it is popularly known for its length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine."

Book cover Within a Budding Grove

"In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower" is the second volume of Proust's heptalogy, "In Search of Lost Time" . Shadow insightfully deals with adolescent longing, and continues Proust's profound meditation on the nature of memory. The original French version was awarded the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1919. NOTE: This book contains language that would have been considered appropriate at the time and which may not be appropriate today.

By: Mary Anne Barker (1831-1911)

Book cover Station Life in New Zealand

Station Life in New Zealand is a collection of cheerful and interesting letters written by Lady Mary Anne Barker (nee Mary Anne Stewart) that is a New Zealand "classic". These letters are described in the Preface as "the exact account of a lady's experience of the brighter and less practical side of colonisation". The letters were written between 1865 and 1868 and cover the time of her travel with her husband (Frederick Broomie) to New Zealand and life on a colonial sheep-station at their homestead "Broomielaw", located in the Province of Canterbury, South Island of New Zealand...

Book cover Station Amusements in New Zealand

Station Amusements in New Zealand is a collection of vignettes about life on a sheep station in colonial New Zealand during the 1860s and is a further embellishment of events presented in Mary Anne Barker’s first book "Station Life in New Zealand". Mary Anne Barker and her husband Frederick Broomie lived at their sheep station “Broomielaw” under the foothills of the Southern Alps of Canterbury, New Zealand for three years from 1865 – 1868. Mary Anne Barker wrote in Chapter I: “I purpose therefore in these sketches to describe some of the pursuits which afforded us a keen enjoyment at the time, --an enjoyment arising from perfect health, simple tastes, and an exquisite climate...

By: Murasaki Shikibu

Book cover Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji, Version 2)

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

By: Various

Book cover Tim Bobbin: A View of the Lancashire Dialect

A comic dialogue written in John Collier's idiosyncratic version of the 18th century South Lancashire dialect together with a collection of 19th century texts on Collier and his work. Egged on by Meary (Mary), Tummus (Thomas) recounts the series of misadventures that ensue when he makes a trip to Rochdale on an errand for his master. First published in 1746, the text grew over subsequent editions as Collier expanded the story, added a preface in which he berates publishers who had pirated his work, and inflated and amended his glossary...

By: A. Edward Newton (1864-1940)

Book cover Doctor Johnson: A Play

The life of Doctor Johnson, told in his own words and those of others around him. "Anyone with a teaspoonful of imagination can read this play with pleasure; with two teaspoonsful, I will not be responsible for results. He, or she, may be disappointed, for there is no plot to speak of. But there is talk - about as good talk as has ever been reported, and James Boswell as a reporter has never had an equal. " - Summary by ToddHW Cast list: ACT 1: Mr. STEWART: James Thomas Mr. MAITLAND: Tomas Peter Mr...

By: Aaron Smith (?-1862)

The Atrocities of the Pirates by Aaron Smith The Atrocities of the Pirates

In 1822, Aaron Smith, a young English seaman, was taken captive by Cuban pirates when his ship was boarded en route from Jamaica to England. Forced to work as a navigator and as a member of pirate boarding parties, he witnessed unspeakable acts of murder and torture. Befriended by a young Cuban woman, he managed to escape with his life, but was arrested as a pirate in Havana and sent back to England in chains. There, he found himself on trial for his life at the Old Bailey courthouse—with the attorney general himself leading the prosecution. Smith's dramatic account of his personal experience is a brutally honest, unromanticized [sic] look at piracy in the 19th century.

By: Abraham Tomlinson

The Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, 1758-1775 by Abraham Tomlinson The Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, 1758-1775

“Perceiving that much of the intrinsic value of these Journals would consist in a proper understanding of the historical facts to which allusions are made in them, I prevailed upon Mr. Lossing, the well-known author of the “Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution” to illustrate and elucidate these diaries by explanatory notes. His name is a sufficient guaranty for their accuracy and general usefulness”

By: Adam G. De Gurowski (1805-1866)

Book cover Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862
Book cover Diary from November 12, 1862, to October 18, 1863

By: Agnes Repplier (1855-1950)

Book cover In Our Convent Days

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.

By: Agnes von Blomberg Bensly

Our Journey to Sinai by Agnes von Blomberg Bensly Our Journey to Sinai

Fortress-walled Saint Catherine's monastery on the Sinai peninsula has been a pilgrimage site since its founding by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. According to tradition, the monastery sits at the base of the mountain where Moses received the Tablets of the Law. Set in rugged country, accessible in times past only by a many days journey by camel across barren desert, the monastery survived intact through the centuries, and, as a result, became a rich repository of religious history—told through its icons, mosaics, and the books and manuscripts in the monastery library...

By: Alan Gray (1857-1934)

Book cover Gentle Persuasion

Twelve stories from the author's life in Scotland, by Robert Cuthbert Johnstone, writing as Alan Gray. For more information on the author see his biography by the Manitoba Historical Society.

By: Albert Millican

Book cover Travels and adventures of an orchid hunter: An account of canoe and camp life in Colombia, while collecting orchids in the northern Andes

This is quite the adventure tale and travelog. We see cities, peoples, plants and wildlife of Columbia and the ports our intrepid 'hunter' visits on the way there and back. It is an interesting period; a canal is being cut through Columbia to the city of Panama by the French . The characterisation is appropriate to the time - Europeans and the South American elite are seen as admirable, especially in comparison to the natives and blacks. Indeed, the deaths of several of Millican's native support staff along the way seem to be of minor concern...

By: Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

Book cover Memoirs of Journeys to Venice and the Low Countries

By: Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)

Marguerite de Valois by Alexandre Dumas Marguerite de Valois

A historical fiction novel set in Paris (1572) during Charles IX's reign and the French Wars of Religion. Marguerite de Valois, daughter of deceased Henry II, is the novel's protagonist set against the infamous schemes of the Catholic power player, Catherine de Medici.

Book cover Chicot the Jester

This sequel to Dumas' “Marguerite de Valois” begins four years after the sudden death of King Charles IX and succession of his brother Henry III. The reign of King Henry III was plagued with rebellion and political intrigue due to the War of the Three Henries, where his regency was challenged by King Henry of Navarre (leader of the Huguenots) and Henry I, Duke of Guise (leader of the Catholic League). Dumas weaves two main storylines through this turbulent backdrop: one of the love ignited between le Comte de Bussy and la Dame de Monsoreau, and another of the friendship between King Henry III and his truly unique jester, Chicot (Jean-Antoine d'Anglerais).

Book cover d'Artagnan Romances, Vol 3, Part 3: The Man in the Iron Mask (version 2)

Volume 3 of The d'Artagnan Romances is divided into three parts. In this, the final part, d’Artagnan’s fortune is near its height; having become the illustrious Captain of the Musketeers, he is now the chief defender of King Louis XIV. Fortune has also smiled on his three companions: Aramis is a wealthy bishop and the powerful, secret Superior General of the Jesuit Order ; Athos is the premier nobleman of France; and Porthos becomes a Duke with the proud but garishly long-winded title of “du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds...

Book cover Forty-Five Guardsmen

The sequel to "Chicot the Jester" and final book of the "Valois Romances." This story begins six years after the famed "Duel of the Mignons" between the favorites of the courts of King Henry III and Henry the Duke of Guise . Dumas concludes his historical fiction on the War of the Three Henries while detailing the formation of the Forty-Five Guardsmen , following Chicot the Jester as he stays loyal to the failing regency of King Henry III, and continuing the story of Diana . - Summary by jvanstan

By: Alexandre Exquemelin (c. 1645-1707)

The Pirates of Panama by Alexandre Exquemelin The Pirates of Panama

This volume was originally written in Dutch by John Esquemeling, and first published in Amsterdam in 1678 under the title of De Americaeneche Zee Roovers. It immediately became very popular and this first hand history of the Buccaneers of America was soon translated into the principal European languages. The first English edition was printed in 1684. Esquemeling served the Buccaneers in the capacity of barber-surgeon, and was present at all their exploits. Little did he suspect that his first hand observations would some day be cherished as the only authentic and true history of the Buccaneers and Marooners of the Spanish Main...

By: Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935)

Five Years of My Life 1894-1899 by Alfred Dreyfus Five Years of My Life 1894-1899

Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish captain in the French Army was court martialed in 1894 on a trumped up charge of treason and condemned to life imprisonment on Devil’s island, a penal colony off French Guiana. His prison diary, published as Five Years of My Life in 1901 is a heroic tale of survival against daunting odds: isolation, deprivation, torture . . Alfred left behind in Paris his wife Lucie, who, forbidden to join her husband in exile, struggled to protect their two children from the rampant anti-Semitism that swirled about them, while she begged her husband to hold onto life as she tried to clear his name...

By: Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (ca. 1490/1507 - ca.1557/1579)

The Journey of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca The Journey of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

Few stories of shipwreck and survival can equal that of the 16th century Spaniard Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca who, cast ashore near present day (USA) Tampa Bay, Florida, in 1528, survived eight years of hand-to-mouth existence among the Indians of the South and Southwest, and who walked on foot across the plains to the Pacific Coast, arriving in Mexico in 1536. In 1542 he published an account of his adventures, and the present reading is based on Fanny Bandelier’s English translation of that text...

By: Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913)

Iconoclastic Memories of the Civil War by Ambrose Bierce Iconoclastic Memories of the Civil War

At the outset of the American Civil War, [the writer Ambrose] Bierce enlisted in the Union Army's 9th Indiana Infantry Regiment....In February 1862 he was commissioned First Lieutenant, and served on the staff of General William Babcock Hazen as a topographical engineer, making maps of likely battlefields. Bierce fought at the Battle of Shiloh (April 1862), a terrifying experience that became a source for several later short stories and the memoir, "What I Saw of Shiloh". In June 1864, he sustained a serious head wound at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, and spent the rest of the summer on furlough, returning to active duty in September. He was discharged from the army in January 1865.

By: Amelia B. Edwards (1831-1892)

Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys by Amelia B. Edwards Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys

Amelia B. Edwards wrote this historical travelogue in in 1873. The book describes her travels through a relatively un-visited area in the South Tyrol district of Italy. The Dolomites are a part of that most famous of mountain chains, the Alps.In this book, the Writer and her friend and companion, L., travel from Southern Italy, having over-wintered there, to visit the Dolomite district. Her chatty style, dry sense of humor, accuracy of facts, and sympathy for humanity set her works apart. The slice of Victorian British life presented is quite captivating...

By: Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

Book cover Tales of King Arthur and the Round Table (version 2)

The tales of King Arthur and his Knights are of Celtic origin. The Celts were the people who occupied Britain at the time when the history of the country opens, and a few words are necessary to explain why the characters in the stories act and speak as though they belonged to a later age. These stories are adapted from the Book of Romance by ANDREW LANG. It is believed that King Arthur lived in the sixth century, just after the Romans withdrew from Britain, and when the Britons, left to defend themselves against the attacks of the marauding Saxons, rose and defeated them at Mount Badon, securing to themselves peace for many years...

By: Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie (1819-1870)

Book cover Autobiography of an Actress; or Eight Years on the Stage

Anna Cora Mowatt was the author of the first Broadway comedy hit written by a woman. Her 1845 play “Fashion” is still performed today. She was also the first woman to professionally perform solo public readings of literature in the U.S. In pre-Civil War America, she was a popular novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, and correspondent. Autobiography of an Actress tells the dramatic story of her life and her struggles to overcome the anti-theatrical prejudices of her day. - Summary by Kelly S. Taylor


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