Simon Vance
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English
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The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1908) is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. Originally serialized in L'Illustration from September to November 1907, The Mystery of the Yellow Room marked the first appearance of popular character Joseph Rouletabille, a reporter and part-time sleuth who features in several of Leroux's novels. Originally a journalist, Leroux turned to fiction after reading the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe. Often...
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Chronicles of Barsetshire volume 6
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English
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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...
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Chronicles of Barsetshire volume 4
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English
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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,...
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The Palliser novels volume 3
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English
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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...
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Benvenuto Cellini started getting onto trouble at a young age. By age sixteen, he had already been exiled from his hometown for six months due to a public assault of another citizen. As a man with endless talents- sculpting, drafting, writing, music, Cellini enjoyed dabbling in many different art forms, a career that enabled him to travel to various major cities. After apprenticing for a goldsmith, Cellini moved to Rome at age nineteen. There, Pope...
6) Swann's way
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English
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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,...
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English
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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...
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Chronicles of Barsetshire volume 2
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English
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The beloved ecclesiastical satire and enduring political novel, by one of the finest English authors of the nineteenth century. Part social commentary, part high comedy, the second installment in the Chronicles of Barsetshire is one of Anthony Trollope's most beloved novels, and cemented the author's reputation as the preeminent chronicler of Victorian England. When the well-regarded bishop of Barchester Cathedral unexpectedly passes away, the Evangelical...
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English
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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...
10) Sons and Lovers
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English
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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...
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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...
12) Uneasy Money
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English
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William FitzWilliam Delamere Chalmers, Lord Dawlish, is hard-up for money. When he is unexpectedly bequeathed a million pounds by an American he once helped at golf, and furthermore learns that the millionaire left his niece and nephew only twenty pounds, he is uneasy. He endeavours to approach them (in then-rural Long Island) and see if he can fix up something, like giving them half the inheritance. He discovers that it can be difficult to give money...