Evelyn is a two-volume novel told in an epistolary style – alternating between letters from the point of view of a trusted, unmarried female friend of the young, naïve heroine of the novel and those of the feckless adventurer who decides that he must seduce the beautiful Evelyn. The author, actress/novelist/playwright Anna Cora Mowatt, was a fan of the works of Fredericka Bremer . This narrative is heavily influenced by that writer’s style. Like Mowatt’s hit comedy, “Fashion,” the plot centers on the misadventures of nouveau riche family social climbing in New York society of the late 1830’s...

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

“Gulzara, The Persian Slave” is a rare example of a script for a Victorian melodrama that was intended as a private theatrical – to be performed by a limited cast of amateurs in a home or school, not on a public stage. Rarer still, “Gulzara” was written by a female author to be performed by a cast of women. The only male character, Amurath, was a “breeches role,” played by a young girl. Thus this drama, set in a harem in Constantinople, in addition to spinning a yarn about the abduction of Sultan Suliman’s son, gives us an unusual peek at the lives of young women in the U...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aurora Floyd is the spoiled, impetuous, but kind hearted daughter of Archibald Floyd, a wealthy banker and his wife, an actress who died shortly after Aurora's birth. As a teenager she is sent away to finishing school in Paris. This is volume two of the story which tells of Aurora's life with her husband John Mellish. This is a story of love, murder and the search for justice. - Summary by Michele Eaton

The story begins with ... “Old age will be served,” said Mrs. Carteret grimly. “But I suppose you think I am a long time dying.” This author has written many novels, sometimes controversial as she was strong willed and independent: Gothic and romance novels being the genre of those writings. She is also known well for frequent mentions of California as that was her home state. This fictional book is PD, 50 chapters. -

When Matilda's husband James dies, she marries rich Dr. Kennedy thinking he will provide a good home for her daughter Maude. However, the doctor is a miser and assumes that Matty will be his housekeeper. They have a little boy who is crippled and the doctor ignores him. Maude is totally devoted to him and on her mother's deathbed promises to look after him always. The story then evolves with Maude meeting her stepsister Nellie's cousins JC and James. Nellie has set her sights on JC who is after her money while Maude develops strong feelings towards James...

Excerpt: "Saltash was thoroughly cosmopolitan in his tastes; he liked amusement but he abhorred boredom. He was never really wicked unless he was bored. And then- que voulez vous? He did not guide the star of destiny." On his last night in Valrosa, Saltash returns to his luxurious yacht to find a stowaway, a young woman disguised as a boy. She pleads to be kept by him in order to escape from her abuser. Although ill used by life she is still very pure and Saltash falls head over heels in love with her...

Rosario is reading a sentimental novel, A Spring Romance. "Into a life may come visions and phantoms, envoys and heralds of the true love that still delays... But on that divine night, when...." Suddenly, a tremendous lightening flash, a burst of thunder, and there appears at her window --- - Summary by ToddHW Cast list: Rosario: Jenn Broda Dona Barbarita: WendyKatzHiller Maria Pepa: Sonia Irene: Joanna Michal Hoyt Amalia: Mira Williams The Apparition: ToddHW Emilio: Greg Giordano Mario: Alan Mapstone Pepe: James R. Hedrick Don Juan: Adrian Stephens Guillermo: Jake Malizia Stage Directions: TR Love Editing: ToddHW

The story of Innocencia, an 18-year-old girl who lives in the prairies of Brazil, is a twist on the traditional love triangle. The plot has been compared to the more famous "Paul and Virginie" and "Romeo and Juliet", but it takes place on the dropback of the loneliness of the sparsely populated backregions in 19th century Brazil, visited by a German naturalist in search of new species of insects, Dr. Meyer, who unsuspectedly finds himself caught in a complicated maze of jealousy, love and distrust. Inocencia was the first book by a Brazilian writer to be translated into English, as the translator states in his preface. - Summary by Leni

A story of two sets of lovers and the development of their relationships, set in rural France in the mid 19th century. - Summary by PeterTucker

Delightful and charmingly predictable, this sweet romance will make you reflect one minute and laugh out loud the next. It's the kind of cozy read that will make the ideal companion on a dreary afternoon or snowy winter's evening. Enjoy!! - Summary by Celine Major

First performed in 1830, this was once described as a play on which the "romantic school centered its hopes". The Classicists at the time felt that this play was a threat to everything they deemed important in literature. Set in 16th century Spain, Hernani is a tale of romance and intrigue. Described in 1912 thusly: "The performance was permitted, so tradition says, in the expectation that the play would discredit the romantic school once and for all. The principal actress, Mlle. Mars, was outraged by Hugo’s imagery, and refused point blank to call Firmin [actor] her ‘lion, superb and generous...

Paradoxically, it is variety that unites the tales you are about to read. They take place in widely separated countries and historical periods, and their outcomes—fortunate or tragic—cannot always be predicted with accuracy. The characters too speak with varied voices; even the narrative voice is not uniform, for the author often frames story within a story, using a character in one tale to narrate another. The reader will sometimes feel as though the author is extending an invitation to enter his workshop to observe him at his trade and admire his craftsmanship...

Everything changed when Ordynov, a secluded young thinker, stepped out of his old lodgings in search of another corner. The ailing landlord watched from a distance, while the beautiful landlady came close... A tale of love, murder, and sorcery, The Landlady is one of a kind among Fyodor Dostoevsky's works. Written at the age of 26 before he was sent to Siberia, preceded only by The Double and Poor Folk, this novella draws inspiration from Russian folklore as well as stories by Pushkin and Gogol. It anticipates some of the writer's most important ideas to be developed in his later writings.

In this prequel to "Charles Rex'' by Ethel M. Dell you will meet the aristocratic blackguard Lord Saltash for whom our distressed heroine Maude Brian still holds deep feelings. Dedicated to the care of her younger crippled brother whom she adores, Maude eventually agrees to a marriage of convenience in order to escape from a home which has become unbearable after her mother marries a brutish hotel owner. Jake, an honest, strong and silent type, agrees to the marriage because he is secretly in love with her but refrains from showing it which leads to many regrettable misunderstandings...

Threatened with isolation in a sanitorium for tuberculosis, a young soldier escapes and finds himself healing in a paradisal bee-garden by the ocean, tending bees which he knows nothing about, and other unlikely charges who in their circuitous ways, challenge him to discover love.

This beautifully written book imagines the lives of Igraine and Uther Pendragon before the legend of Arthur began.

Monica was happy at Trevlyn, with her father and step-brother. But what would happen to them when the estate passed to a distant cousin, entailed as it was to the male line? Could she bear to see her invalid brother torn from his home? Should she marry this distant cousin, and thus ensure her and her brother the right to remain at Trevyln? Could she love him? And what about his dislike of her old childhood friend? Was there more to the situation than she knew?