Simon Vance
Author
Series
Chronicles of Barsetshire volume 6
Language
English
Formats
Description
The Last Chronicle of Barset is a novel by Anthony Trollope, published in 1867. It is the final book of a series of six, often referred to collectively as the Chronicles of Barsetshire. The Last Chronicle of Barset concerns an indigent but learned clergyman, the Reverend Josiah Crawley, the perpetual curate of Hogglestock, who stands accused of stealing a cheque. The novel is notable for the non-resolution of a plot continued from the previous novel...
Author
Series
Chronicles of Barsetshire volume 4
Language
English
Formats
Description
The enduring love story and satirical comedy by a master of the English novel. A young vicar's ambition drives him into a costly bargain in this classic tale from one of the Victorian era's finest novelists. Set in rural England in the fictitious county of Barsetshire, the fourth novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire brilliantly examines the intersection of romance and social class. Mark Robarts is a young, ambitious vicar from the village of Framley,...
Author
Series
The Palliser novels volume 3
Language
English
Formats
Description
For an ambitious, keenly intelligent woman, lying proves to be the easiest way to get through life, in this Victorian-era classic. Lizzie Greystock is a woman of rare cunning and determination-both of which she uses to better her lot in life. This is especially true when she manages to convince the ailing Sir Florian Eustace to marry her shortly before his demise, leaving Lizzie both a wealthy widow and the mother to Florian's young son. A born...
Author
Series
Chronicles of Barsetshire volume 5
Language
English
Formats
Description
The classic tale of romance and betrayal from a distinguished master of English satire. The fifth novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire epitomizes the wit, attention to detail, and thoughtful analysis of class and gender issues that made Anthony Trollope one of Victorian England's most beloved novelists. The Small House at Allington moves away from the earlier books' overt ecclesiastical concerns to focus on a small dower house on the edge of Christopher...
Author
Series
The Palliser novels volume 1
Language
English
Formats
Description
This revealing romp through proper society follows three different women who dare to defy Victorian standards. Can You Forgive Her? comically intertwines the stories of three very independent-minded women who each desires to decide her own fate in a world where love comes second to obedience and familial expectations set them apart from their peers. First and foremost is the spirited Alice Vavasor, whose indecision and repeated rejections of two...
6) Swann's way
Author
Language
English
Description
The first volume of Proust's seven-part novel "In Search of Lost Time," also known as "A Remembrance of Things Past," "Swann's Way" is the auspicious beginning of Proust's most prominent work. A mature, unnamed man recalls the details of his commonplace, idyllic existence as a sensitive and intuitive boy in Combray. For a time, the story is narrated through his younger mind in beautiful, almost dream-like prose. In a subsequent section of the volume,...
Author
Series
The Palliser novels volume 6
Language
English
Formats
Description
Plantagenet Palliser must face new challenges and a changing world if he is to hold his family together in the final installment of the Palliser Novels. After losing his devoted wife, Glencora, Duke Plantagenet Palliser takes on a task he has never had the time or skills to bother with before: dealing with his children. Palliser has never been a doting father, what with the responsibilities of title and duty constantly beckoning him away, but now...
8) The Warden
Author
Series
Chronicles of Barsetshire volume 1
Language
English
Formats
Description
The first novel of Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series, this work introduces the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and many of its clerical inhabitants. Originally published in 1855, the story centers on Mr. Septimus Harding who has been granted the comfortable wardenship of Hiram's Hospital, an almshouse from a medieval charity of the diocese. Mr. Harding, a fundamentally good man and an excellent musician, conscientiously fulfills his...
9) Phineas Finn
Author
Series
The Palliser novels volume 2
Language
English
Formats
Description
An adventurous Irishman sets out to find his fortune among proper English society in this classic novel from Anthony Trollope. Sent to London to become a lawyer, young Phineas Finn proves himself to be a disappointing student but truly gifted in the ways of charm, culture, and fine appearance. It is the discovery of these talents that ultimately leads him to what he believes is his true calling: English Parliament. Through sheer luck and pluck, dashing,...
10) Phineas Redux
Author
Series
The Palliser novels volume 4
Language
English
Formats
Description
Phineas Redux Anthony Trollope - When Phineas's wife dies, he becomes discontented with his life as a minor government functionary and longs to return to his exciting former career of politics in London. His luck is as strong as ever; his party is seeking to return to power with fresh blood, and with its support, he is once again elected to Parliament.
However, he makes a bitter enemy within his own party, Mr. Bonteen. When Bonteen is murdered, there...
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Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
First published serially between January and December of 1878 in the sensationalistic monthly London magazine "Belgravia", Thomas Hardy's "The Return of the Native" is the author's sixth published novel. Set in Egdon Heath, an area of Thomas Hardy's fictionalized Wessex known for the thorny evergreen shrubs, called furze or gorse, which are cut there by its residents for fuel. When the story begins, on Guy Fawkes Night, we find Diggory Venn, a merchant...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"The Mayor of Casterbridge" is an 1886 novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy. One of Hardy's "Wessex" novel (a fictional region of Britain that Hardy invented), the book is generally acknowledged as one of the author's masterpieces.
The story, set in the town of Casterbridge, concerns a married young farmer named Michael Henchard who, one drunken night, auctions off his wife Susan and baby daughter Elizabeth-Jane to a passing sailor,...
Author
Series
Chronicles of Barsetshire volume 2
Language
English
Formats
Description
Barchester Towers is the second novel in Anthony Trollope's series known as the "Chronicles of Barsetshire". Among other things it satirises the then raging antipathy in the Church of England between High Church and Evangelical adherents. Barchester Towers concerns the leading clergy of the cathedral city of Barchester. The much loved bishop having died, all expectations are that his son, Archdeacon Grantly, will succeed him. Instead, owing to the...
Author
Series
The Palliser novels volume 5
Language
English
Formats
Description
The Palliser family comes to the forefront in a classic novel of politics and propriety from the series that inspired the BBC serial The Pallisers. With the Whigs and Tories at a standstill in attempts to form a working government, a compromise is finally reached, and the hardworking-and hardheaded-Plantagenet Palliser is installed as prime minister. But even as he gets used to the power and privilege of the high office, Palliser slowly and distressingly...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
The Trumpet-Major is a novel by Thomas Hardy published in 1880, and his only historical novel. It concerns the heroine, Anne Garland, being pursued by three suitors: John Loveday, the eponymous trumpet major in a British regiment, honest and loyal; his brother Bob, a flighty sailor; and Festus Derriman, the cowardly nephew of the local squire. Unusually for a Hardy novel, the ending is not entirely tragic; however, there remains an ominous element...
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Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
The Riddle of the Sands is a 1903 novel by Erskine Childers. The book, which enjoyed immense popularity in the years before World War I, is an early example of the espionage novel and was extremely influential in the genre of spy fiction. It has been made into feature-length films for both cinema and television. The novel "owes a lot to the wonderful adventure novels of writers like Rider Haggard, that were a staple of Victorian Britain". It was a...
17) Sons and Lovers
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
When Gertrude Coppard, a refined young woman, meets Walter Morel, a rough coalminer, at a Christmas party dance, they feel immediately drawn to each other. After a short romance defined by physical attraction, the couple decide to marry. However, Gertrude soon realizes the financial difficulties of trying to survive off of Walter's measly salary. These troubles quickly cause the two to fight and grow apart. Walter begins to drink the little money...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The Man in the Iron Mask is the name given to an unidentified prisoner who was arrested in 1669 or 1670 and subsequently held in a number of French prisons, including the Bastille and the Fortress of Pignerol (modern Pinerolo, Italy). Recent research suggests that his name might have been "Eustache Dauger", but this still has not been completely proven. He was held in the custody of the same jailer, Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, for a period of...
19) Kim
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
In Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel Kim an orphan boy of poor Irish parents makes his living on the streets of Lahore running errands. After befriending a Tibetan monk, Kim undertakes several adventures which ultimately put him at the heart of The Great Game the geopolitical struggle between Britain and Russia for the control of India and Afghanistan. Notable for its vivid descriptions of the people, culture and landscape of India.
20) Titus Groan
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
As the novel opens, Titus, heir to Lord Sepulchrave, has just been born. He stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle. Meanwhile, far away and in the kitchen, a servant named Steerpike escapes his drudgework and begins an auspicious ascent to power.
Inside of Gormenghast, all events are predetermined by complex rituals, the origins of which are lost in time. The castle is peopled by dark characters in half-lit...