Classics Books

Book SynopsisFirst published in 1799, George Walker’s The Vagabond was an immediate popular success. Offering a vitriolic critique of post-Bastille Jacobinism and sansculotte-style mob rule, its true-to-life satirical portraits of many of the radical men and women who fought in the forefront of the “British Revolution” are nonetheless full of playful banter and farce. With swipes at Hume, Rousseau, Godwin, Wollstonecraft, and Paine; the French Revolution; and the ideas of the noble savage, natural virtue, liberty, equality, and romantic primitivism, The Vagabond offers a unique cross-section of 1790s radicalism. This Broadview edition contains a critical introduction and a wide selection of primary source materials that situate the novel in the context of the revolutionary debate of the 1790s. Appendices include contemporary reviews of the novel and excerpts from the writings of a variety of radicals and reactionaries engaged in the debate, such as Hume, Rousseau, Paine, Thelwall, Wollstonecraft, Godwin, Burke, Playfair, Malthus, and Cobbett, among many others.Trade Review“The Vagabond is a vibrant counterrevolutionary polemic that illuminates a wide range of political controversy in the 1790s—the French Revolution crisis, domestic reform, transatlantic emigration, and the era's heated debates on human nature and its troubling propensity for violence. This accessible edition brings to life for modern readers the novel's turbulent political and philosophical contexts through its wide-ranging introduction and well-researched set of contemporary materials. Expertly edited and vividly presented through these contemporary contexts, The Vagabond is a must-read for those interested in the popular phenomenon of the conservative Romantic-period novel.” — Adriana Craciun, Birkbeck College, University of London“W.M. Verhoeven’s edition of George Walker’s The Vagabond is an essential text for scholars and readers of eighteenth-century and Romantic literature. Verhoeven’s erudite introduction and notes contextualize the anti-Jacobin novel, covering British history and culture from the Glorious Revolution through the Gordon Riots into the revolutionary and post-revolutionary nineties, and his appendices provide valuable material for an understanding of just what was at stake in the period.” — Carol Houlihan Flynn, Tufts UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionA Note on the TextThe VagabondNotesA Note on the AppendicesAppendix A: Sources and Contexts: The Jacobin Side of the Revolutionary Debate From David Hume, “An Abstract of a Book Lately Published, Entitled A Treatise of Human Nature, &c.” (1740) From John James Rousseau [Jean-Jacques Rousseau], The Social Contract (1762) From Joseph Priestley, Disquisitions Relating to Matter and Spirit (1777) From Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, Part One (1791) From Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) From William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness(1793) From Gilbert Imlay, The Emigrants, &c.; or, The History of an Expatriated Family (1793) Writings on “Pantisocracy” From Samuel Coleridge, Collected Letters of Samuel Coleridge From a letter by Thomas Poole to Mr. Hoskins (1794) Two poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge “Pantistocracy” (1794) “On the Prospect of Establishing a Pantisocracy in America” (1794) From John Thelwall, “A Warning Voice to the Violent of All Parties” (1795) From William Godwin, Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798) From William Godwin, Thoughts occasioned by the perusal of Dr. Parr’s Spital Sermon (1801) Appendix B: Sources and Contexts: The Anti-Jacobin Side of the Revolutionary Debate From Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) From Anon., “Proceedings of the Friends to the Abuse of the Liberty of the Press” (1793) From William Playfair, Peace with the Jacobins Impossible (1794) From Peter Porcupine [William Cobbett], Observations on the Emigration of Dr. Joseph Priestley (1794) From Anon., Letters on Emigration. By a Gentleman, Lately Returned from America (1794) From Thomas Robert Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) Appendix C: Contemporary Reviews Analytical Review (February 1799) From the Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine (February 1799) New London Review (April 1799) Critical Review (June 1799) Monthly Magazine (20 July 1799) Monthly Mirror (March 1800) British Critic (April 1800) From the British Critic (October 1800) Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisCharles Dickens’s famous second novel recounts the story of a boy born in the workhouse and raised in an infant farm as he tries to make his way in the world. Intended to raise feeling against the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 (which had emphasized the workhouse as an appropriate means of dealing with the problem of poverty), Oliver Twist also provides a sweeping portrait of London life in the 1830s—including the life of the criminal elements in society.Oliver Twist was first published in serialised form (with illustrations by George Cruikshank) in Bentley’s Miscellany between February 1837 and April 1839. It was issued with some corrections and revisions in ten numbers in 1846 by Bradbury and Evans (which then also issued the same text in a single volume). Each of these ten numbers, including the Cruikshank illustrations and the advertisements, is included in this facsimile reprint of the 1846 edition.This is one of a series from Broadview Press of facsimile reprint editions—editions that provide readers with a direct sense of these works as the Victorians themselves experienced them.

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Book SynopsisA Marriage Below Zero is the first novel in English to explicitly explore the subject of male homosexuality. Written by a British émigré to America, the New York theater critic Alfred J. Cohen, under the pseudonym of “Alan Dale,” this first-person narrative is told by a young Englishwoman, Elsie Bouverie, who gradually discovers that her new husband, Arthur Ravener, is romantically involved with another man. Denounced on publication (“a saturnalia in which the most monstrous forms of human vice exhibit themselves shamelessly” wrote one reviewer), the novel was published during the public exposure of a London homosexual brothel frequented by upper-class men and telegraph boys. A Marriage Below Zero reflected late-nineteenth-century fears and anxieties about homosexuality, women’s position in marriage, and the threat that seemingly new, illicit forms of desire posed to marriageable women and to the Victorian family.This Broadview edition includes excerpts from the era’s pro-homosexual tracts, scientific and legal documents, contemporary feminist commentary on the new “dandyism,” and newspaper accounts of late-Victorian same-sex scandals. Highlights of the volume include excerpts from Charles Dickens’s 1836 account of his visit to Newgate Prison, where he witnessed the last two men in Britain executed for sodomy, George Bernard Shaw’s 1889 unpublished letter attacking the social purity movement’s legislation against homosexual men, and a never-before reprinted 1898 article from Reynolds Magazine, “Sex Mania,” that warned of an increasing number of homosexual men choosing to enter marriages as a cover for an illicit life.Trade Review“A Marriage Below Zero is an invaluable edition of the first novel about homosexuality in English, edited by Richard Kaye, who rediscovered the 1889 text. Kaye’s erudite and entertaining introduction puts it in the context of the late-Victorian sensation novel, a doubly-closeted writer, and the social history of male same-sex relationships, plus a scandalous divorce trial. A fascinating selection of legal, literary, and psychological materials rounds off this splendid seminar in one volume.” — Elaine Showalter, Professor Emerita, Princeton University“The Broadview Edition is excellent … For anyone with an interest in Victorian gender studies, this is the go-to edition.” — Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsIntroductionSame-Sex Scandal in Nineteenth-Century Britain: A Brief ChronologyAlfred J. Cohen: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextA Marriage Below ZeroAppendix A: Contemporary Reviews From The New York World (26 February 1889) From The New York World (22 March 1889) From The New York World (25 March 1889) From The New York Daily Graphic (5 April 1889) From Sacramento Daily Record-Union (20 April 1889) From Belford’s Magazine (June 1889) From Countess Annie De Montaigu, “Hot and Sticky,” Los Angeles Times (11 August 1889) From “Professional Reform,” The San Francisco News Dealer (September 1890) From The Los Angeles Herald (21 February 1891) From The Cincinnati Enquirer (5 March 1891) From the Los Angeles Times (3 December 1891) Appendix B: Two Nineteenth-Century Historical and Literary Instances of Same-Sex Coupledom Charles Dickens, “A Visit to Newgate” (1836) From Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877) Appendix C: Modes of Homosexual Exploration and Advocacy in Nineteenth-Century Britain From Walter Pater, “Conclusion,” Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873) From John Addington Symonds, “Male Love,” A Problem in Greek Ethics and Other Writings (1883) From Sir Richard Burton, “Pederasty,” in the “Terminal Essay” to The Book of a Thousand Nights and One Night (1885) George Bernard Shaw, Letter on “The Cleveland Street Scandals,” Truth Magazine (26 November 1889) From John Addington Symonds, The Memoirs of John Addington Symonds (1892) From Charles Kains Jackson, “The New Chivalry,” The Artist and Journal of Home Culture (2 April 1894) From Edward Carpenter, Homogenic Love, and Its Place in a Free Society (1894) Alan Dale (Alfred J. Cohen), “A Word from the Author,” An Eerie He and She (1889) Appendix D: Late-Victorian Legal and Medical Models and the New Social Panic From Section 11 of the 1885 Criminal Amendment Bill From Richard Krafft-Ebing, “Case 237,” Psychopathia Sexualis: A Medico-Forensic Study (1886) “Sex-Mania,” Reynolds’s Newspaper (21 April 1895) From Olive Schreiner, “The Woman Question,” Cosmopolitan Magazine (1889) Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe Travels of Hildebrand Bowman is an eponymous novel purportedly written by a midshipman left behind in New Zealand’s Queen Charlotte Sound after escaping the infamous Grass Cove massacre. The protagonist is a midshipman on HMS Adventure, the ship that accompanied Cook’s Resolution on his second voyage around the world. The two ships become separated off New Zealand, leading to a group of seamen being sent from the Adventure to gather wild greens at Grass Cove, where they are killed by Maori. The fictional Hildebrand escapes because he has gone off hunting. The remainder of the novel traces his travels through six fictional islands in the South Pacific; echoing eighteenth-century stadial theory, these societies represent human culture gradually ascending from brutish insensibility to the primitive savagery to idealized pastoral economy. The novel is a unique hybrid of historical events and the cultural satire of such works as Gulliver’s Travels. Historical appendices provide an exceptionally broad range of materials on the Grass Cove massacre, the eighteenth-century stadial theory of historical development, cannibalism, and contemporary depictions of the South Pacific and its indigenous peoples.Trade Review“Like a hologram, The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman refracts a variety of eighteenth-century concerns. In his remarkable edition, Lance Bertelsen shows how Bowman, inspired by James Cook’s sensational discoveries in the Pacific Ocean, travel literature, Scottish Enlightenment philosophers, and satire both social and political, explores what it means to be human. In this lively satirical allegory of England’s ‘progress’ over the past 200 years, Bowman asks whether an ideal state of nature can actually exist. Do cultural interventions caused by the global circulation of trade destroy what it means to build up? As humanity embraces ever more sophisticated stages of development, do luxury, decadence, and corruption inevitably lead to decline? A wealth of helpful and accessible knowledge illuminates this fascinating, prophetic, genre-defying book, the first fiction set in New Zealand and a major find for eighteenth-century studies.” — Jocelyn Harris, University of Otago“Part adventure story, part allegory, didactic but never less than entertaining, The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman can be enjoyed on a number of levels. Bowman’s search for Utopia in newly discovered exotic worlds captures the spirit of the Enlightenment imaginatively. For anyone interested in late eighteenth century voyaging and discovery, and in the Old World reaching out towards the New, Bowman’s travels make captivating reading.” —Graeme Lay, Captain Cook SocietyTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroductionA Note on the TextThe Travels of Hildebrand BowmanAppendix A: The Grass Cove Incident From Lieutenant James Burney, Log, 1773 From Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, 16 July 1774 From Frances Burney, Journal, 1774 From Tobias Furneaux, Narrative, 1775 From Lieutenant James King, Journal, 17 February 1777 Appendix B: Descriptions of Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific From Tobias Furneaux, Narrative, 1772 From William Anderson, A Journal of a Voyage Made in His Majestys Sloop Resolution, 28-29 January 1777 From Georg Forster, A Voyage Round the World (1777) From James Cook, A Voyage towards the South Pole (1777) From Frances Burney, Letter to Mr. Crisp, 1 December 1774 Appendix C: Cannibals From Michel de Montaigne, “Of Cannibals” (1580) From Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719) From Voltaire, “Anthropophagi, or Man-eaters” (1765) From James Cook, Journal, 23 November 1773 Appendix D: Stadial Theory and the Scottish Enlightenment From Edward Tyson, Orang-Outang, sive Homo Sylvestris: or, The Anatomy of a Pygmie Compared with that of a Monkey, an Ape, and a Man (1699) From Adam Smith, “Lectures on Jurisprudence” (1762) From Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) From Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767) From John Millar, Observations Concerning the Distinction of Ranks in Society (1771) From Lord Monboddo (James Burnett), Of the Origin and Progress of Language, 2nd ed. (1774) Lord Kames (Henry Home), Sketches of the History of Man (1774) Appendix E: Luxury, Global Trade, and Cross-Cultural Satire From Bernard Mandeville, The Grumbling Hive: or, Knaves Turn’d Honest (1705) From Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726) From Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village (1770) From Tobias Smollett, Humphry Clinker (1771) From An Historic Epistle from Omiah, to the Queen of Otaheite; being his Remarks on the English Nation (1773) From Omiah’s Farewell, Inscribed to the Ladies of London (1776) From William Preston, Seventeen-Hundred and Seventy-Seven; or, A Picture of the Manners and Character of the Age. In a Poetical Epistle from a Lady of Quality in England to Omai, at Otaheite (1777) Appendix F: Flying Fashion and Macaroni Style Louis-Phillipe Boitard, “A Gawrey Extended for Flight,” from Robert Paltock, The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins (1755) The Preposterous Head Dress, or the Feathered Lady (1776) Sir Joshua Reynolds, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (c. 1775) Phaetona or Modern Female Taste (1776) Oh. Heigh. Oh. Or a View of the Back Settlements (1776) The Fly-Catching Macaroni (1772) From Yankee Doodle (c.1765-75) Appendix G: Political Discussion of the American War Onboard Cook’s ResolutionFrom Lieutenant James King, Letter to Jane Burke, 2 July 1776Appendix H. The Great Southern Continent From Alexander Dalrymple, An Account of the Discoveries Made in the South Pacifick Ocean, Previous to 1764, Part 1 (1767) From the Admiralty, Secret Instructions for Capt Cook, Commander of His Majesty’s Sloop Resolution, 25 June 1772 Appendix I: Reviews of Hildebrand Bowman William Bewley, The Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal (1778) From The Critical Review: or, Annals of Literature (1778) From the London Chronicle, 19-21 May 1778 Works Cited and Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisQueen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond—among the most compelling and thought-provoking of Margaret Oliphant’s works of short fiction—tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Lycett-Landon, “two middle-aged people in the fullness of life and prosperity,” and of what becomes of their marriage when Mr. Lycett-Landon becomes uncommunicative while on an extended business trip.In addition to an illuminating introduction, this edition includes a variety of background materials that help to set this extraordinary work in its literary and historical context.Trade Review“This welcome edition of Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond allows readers to experience, perhaps for the first time, Margaret Oliphant’s exquisite skill at depicting ‘marriage [as] a tie which is curiously elastic.’ The novella is one of Oliphant’s many little-known shorter works which explore the ambiguity and psychological complexity of the relations between the genders with a sensitivity that anticipates the novels of Henry James. … Pam Perkins’s edition provides a perfect frame for the novella—an introduction to Oliphant’s life and works, excerpts from other literary tales of Eleanor and Rosamond, selections from bigamy laws and novels of the period that deal with bigamy, contemporary reviews, and contextual background for the novel’s sophisticated representations of class relations, suburbia, and its setting in London and Liverpool.” — Elsie Michie, Louisiana State University“Margaret Oliphant’s works are hard to come by, so for this reason alone Pam Perkins’s edition of Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond is valuable. It is made substantially the more so by Perkins’s clear and helpful annotations and her illuminating and insightful introduction, situating the novella within the framework of contemporary fictional representations of bigamy while also highlighting Oliphant’s unique attention to issues of gender and class. … This is an admirable edition, relevant to those who know Oliphant as well as those encountering her for the first time.” — Emily Morris, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan“It is very good to have one of Margaret Oliphant’s later short stories published in the form of an accessible student text, accompanied by contextual material which helps to explain the significance of her take on the recurrent Victorian subject of bigamous marriages. Long remembered only for her successful mid-century ‘Chronicles of Carlingford’ and her 1862 essay ‘Sensation Novels,’ … [Oliphant here] offers an extraordinary insight into the emotional cost that might be demanded in preserving her long-held belief in the virtue of female self-sacrifice.” — Elisabeth Jay, Oxford Brookes UniversityTable of Contents The Legend of Fair Rosamond from “Fair Rosamond,” Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) from Mary Russell Mitford, Dramatic Scenes, Sonnets, and Other Poems (1827) from Pierce Egan, Fair Rosamond, An Historical Romance (1844) Bigamy Laws Section 22, Offences against the Person Act (1828) Section 57, Offences against the Person Act (1861) Bigamy in Sensation Novels from Wilkie Collins, The Two Destinies (1876) from Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Phantom Fortune (1883) Contemporary Reactions to Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond from “Magazines for January,” “Magazines for February,” The Sunday Times (1886) from “Cornhill Magazine (January, February, March),” The London Quarterly and Holborn Review (1886) from “Recent Short Stories,” The Spectator (1898) J.M. Barrie on Oliphant and on “Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond” J.M. Barrie, Introductory Note to The Widow’s Tale and Other Stories (1898) Victorian London and Liverpool from Isabella Beeton, The Book of Household Management (1861) from George and Weedon Grossmith, Diary of a Nobody (1888-9) from Black’s Guide to Liverpool and Birkenhead (1871) Images of Liverpool

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Book SynopsisMr Marble is in serious debt, desperate for money to pay his family''s bills, until the combination of a wealthy relative, a bottle of Cyanide and a shovel offer him the perfect solution. In fact, his troubles are only just beginning. Slowly the Marble family becomes poisoned by guilt, and caught in an increasingly dangerous trap of secrets, fear and blackmail. Then, in a final twist of the knife, Mrs Marble ensures that retribution comes in the most unexpected of ways ...First published in 1926, C. S. Forester''s gritty psychological thriller took crime writing in a new direction, portraying ordinary, desperate people committing monstrous acts, and showing events spiralling terribly, chillingly, out of control.Trade ReviewThe unsung godfather of English noir. -- Andrew TaylorCompelling. * Sunday Times *Compelling * Sunday Times *C. S. Forester is a splendid storyteller * Guardian *I recommend Forester to every literate I know -- Ernest HemingwayThe unsung godfather of English noir -- Andrew Taylor

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Book Synopsis?It is said that every life has its roses and thorns; there seemed, however, to have been a misadventure or mistake in Stephen?s case, whereby somebody else had become possessed of his roses, and he had become possessed of somebody else?s thorns in addition to his own.?Published originally in weekly installments, Hard Times is focusing on Mr Gradgrind?s flawed model of upbringing and its lifelong impact on the wellbeing and destinies of his children. The novel, in fact, follows two opposing ways an individual can be formed. On the one hand, there is Tom and Louisa whose numerous misfortunes are predetermined by their father?s insistence on knowing bare facts without reaching for the substance. They are ill-equipped for the real world and, as a result, Louisa suffers emotionally having had a marriage of convenience, while Tom intentionally devises to incriminate another for his own misdeed. On the other hand, there is Mr Gradgrind?s student Sissy, whose guardian he becomes upon her father?s disappearance. Despite Mr Grandgrind?s scorn, she approaches things with a genuine sensibility that helps her to lead a happier and more fulfilled life. The readers are prompted to ponder throughout the novel whether Mr Gradgrind will eventually acknowledge his failure as a parent.Hard Times is an unusually short novel for Dickens and the only one not to feature London scenes. Instead, it is set in the North and beside addressing the issues of education, it also exposes the harsh daily living conditions of regular working-class people and the negative side of industrialisation. The author captures the zeitgeist of a new era where the old and new ways have to coexist and where many are continuously being left behind either by being deprived financially or spiritually. While maxims and cold facts are effective for scientific progress and the operations of complex machinery, they are not a prerequisite for human happiness. The volume?s solid subject matter is intertwined with the gripping elements of suspense that will undoubtedly appeal to a diverse audience.The Legend Classics series:Around the World in Eighty Days The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Importance of Being Earnest Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland The Metamorphosis The Railway Children The Hound of the Baskervilles Frankenstein Wuthering Heights Three Men in a Boat The Time Machine Little Women Anne of Green Gables The Jungle Book The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories Dracula A Study in Scarlet Leaves of Grass The Secret Garden The War of the Worlds A Christmas Carol Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Heart of Darkness The Scarlet Letter This Side of Paradise Oliver Twist The Picture of Dorian Gray Treasure Island The Turn of the Screw The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Emma The Trial A Selection of Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe Grimm Fairy Tales The Awakening Mrs Dalloway Gulliver?s Travels The Castle of Otranto Silas Marner Hard Times

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Book SynopsisA sinister Gothic tale in the tradition of The Woman in Black and The Fall of the House of Usher1891. In a remote and crumbling New England mansion, 12-year-old orphan Florence is neglected by her guardian uncle and banned from reading. Left to her own devices she devours books in secret and talks to herself - and narrates this, her story - in a unique language of her own invention. By night, she sleepwalks the corridors like one of the old house''s many ghosts and is troubled by a recurrent dream in which a mysterious woman appears to threaten her younger brother Giles. Sometimes Florence doesn''t sleepwalk at all, but simply pretends to so she can roam at will and search the house for clues to her own baffling past.After the sudden violent death of the children''s first governess, a second teacher, Miss Taylor, arrives, and immediately strange phenomena begin to occur. Florence becomes convinced that the new governess is a vengeful and malevolent spirit who means to do Giles harm. AgTrade Review‘Real atmosphere is increasingly rare in novels and here it is in spades…A darkly glamorous tour de force.’Wendy Holden, DAILY MAIL 'Harding rings enough ingenious changes on James's study of perversity to produce his own full-blown Gothic horror tale. The climax of their struggle… is genuinely exciting and shocking.' THE INDEPENDENT ‘Florence and Giles is an elegant literary exercise worked out with the strictness of a fugue: imagine Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw reworked by Edgar Allan Poe…Nothing prepares you for the chillingly ruthless but inevitable finale.’ THE TIMES 'A tight gothic thriller… The climax becomes unbearably tense. Florence feels the horror of her situation "cheese-grating" her soul, which is just how Harding leaves the reader feeling at the end of this creepily suggestive story.' FINANACIAL TIMES ‘Harding’s creepy, ingenious tale slyly wrongfoots the reader, and its deliciously sinister conclusion is the stuff of troubled nights.’ THE LADY ‘Brilliantly creepy’ DAILY MIRROR ‘An intriguing read’ GRAZIA ‘A good, clever, modern take on old-style American gothic; a creepy haunted house tale in which the living are just as eerie as any real or imagined ghouls.’ NEW ZEALAND HERALD ‘a scarily good story, in an arrestingly unusual narrative voice.’ THE OXFORD TIMES

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Book SynopsisThe History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751) is a novel by Eliza Haywood. Blending tragedy and comedy, Haywood explores the intersection of ambition, family, and desire to reveal how women so often fall victim to the whims of men. The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless has been recognized as one of the first novels in English literature to depict the development of an independent heroine, as well as to move away from the more popular genre of amatory fiction toward the marriage plot. Widely read in the eighteenth century, Haywood influenced such authors as Fanny Burney and Jane Austen. Having completed her education at an all-girls boarding school, Betsy Thoughtless moves to the city of London. For the first time, she finds herself thrust into the orbit of young and marriageable men, whose attention and affections she craves, though remains cautious to reciprocate. Betsy knows the dangers inherent to sexual impropriety—pregnancy out of wedlock would all but guarantee her a life of poverty and misfortune, not to mention the shame it would bring to her aristocratic family. Despite these pressures, Betsy finds a way to enjoy single life while learning to recognize the signs of deceitful, unworthy men. When marriage does come, she soon realizes the institution is far from perfect. Unhappy, she grows as a person and looks for a way to regain her former independence. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Eliza Haywood’s The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisLARGE PRINT EDITION. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady (1925) is a novel by Anita Loos. Adapted from a series of stories written for Harper’s Bazaar, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was an astounding success for Loos, who had mired for over a decade as a screenwriter in Hollywood and New York. An immediate bestseller, the novel earned praise from leading writers and critics of its time, and has been adapted several times for theater and film. Recognized as a defining text of the Jazz Age, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is an absolute classic dubbed “the great American novel” by Edith Wharton. Lorelei Lee is a young flapper living a life of luxury in Manhattan. A mistress for prominent Chicago businessman Gus Eisman, who pays handsomely, Lorelei has far surpassed her roots as a young woman from Little Rock, Arkansas. Despite her talent as an actress, she finds herself held as an object by wealthy, often married men, whom she uses accordingly. Hers is a life of fine cuisine, opulent jewelry, and tickets to the best shows in town. Soon, however, she grows tired of New York, and sets off on a trip to Europe with her friend Dorothy Shaw. Away from the men who had dragged them down, the two women explore London, Paris, and Vienna, where they find new dopes to dupe with the promise of love. A caricature of the Jazz Age woman, Lorelei Lee reflects the libido and materialism of a generation caught between wars, situated in a time of exponential cultural change, yet wary of disaster’s proximity. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisThe Lustful Turk (1828) is an anonymously written pornographic novel. Published by infamous London pornographers John Benjamin Brookes and William Dugdale, The Lustful Turk was adapted into a 1968 film by David Friedman. Notable for its blend of popular literary styles, including the epistolary narrative, the novel of sensibility, and Gothic romance, The Lustful Turk influenced countless authors of erotica from the Victorian era onward. In a series of letters to her friend Sylvia, Emily Barlow recounts her fateful voyage to India. Captured by pirates on the high seas, Emily is taken to the harem of Ali, a regent of Algiers. Held against her will, she is tortured and subjected to sexual acts previously unknown to her. When one of her letters is discovered by Ali, he organizes Sylvia’s abduction and reunites the friends in his harem. As the story unfolds, graphic sex gives way to a plot to violently overthrow Ali and free his many captives. The Lustful Turk is a controversial story that meets time-honored taboos head on, depicting graphic scenes of lust, castration, and rape. Condemned upon publication for obscenity, the novel is recognized today as an important work of Victorian erotica and as a harmful example of orientalist tropes. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Lustful Turk is a classic of pornographic literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisIn Evelina or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World, the title character leaves her isolated country home for vibrant London society. As she stumbles through the city, she encounters many people including the handsome, Lord Orville. Evelina is a young woman who’s spent her entire childhood in seclusion. Although the legitimate daughter of Sir John Belmont, she was raised in the country with Reverend Villars. When Evelina is offered a chance to visit London, she quickly accepts the opportunity. Upon her arrival, her questionable origins and naïveté make her a target for rumors and speculation. Despite her unconventional ways, she catches the eye of nobleman, Lord Orville and tries to navigate formal rules of society and courtship. Evelina or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World is a compelling story bursting with humor and romanticism. The author beautifully weaves multiple characters and arcs into one satisfying narrative. Originally published in 1778, Evelina maintains its refreshing outlook on contemporary life. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Evelina is both modern and readable.

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Book Synopsis “At the end we are steeped through and through with the genius, the vehemence, the indignation of Charlotte Brontë'”-Virginia Woolf “Given the action of Jane Eyre, which is in every sense dramatic, there is a pull, all the same, between action and consciousness.-Raymond Williams “Teaching the true strength of character for generations.”-The Guardian Jane Eyre, (1847) the first novel from Charlotte Brontë, originally published under the pen name “Currer Bell” was an immediate commercial and literary success. This classic work was unprecedented in its forthright reproach towards Victorian social norms, moral duty, and gender inequality; It is likewise one of the most extraordinary stories of love and freedom in the English language. Jane Eyre, which follows a young woman’s passageway into adulthood and the unfolding of her interior emotional states, is a singular work of genre-defying fiction. Its story begins as the eponymous heroine is orphaned and under the care of her aunt, Mrs. Reed, a well-to-do yet heartless guardian. Jane is unfairly punished, and locked into “the red room”, where she collapses in fright after an encounter with the apparent ghost of her deceased Uncle Reed. Following the incident, Jane’s aunt sends her away to “Lowood”, an oppressive school run by the abusive and fraudulent headmaster, Mr. Brocklehurst. After an outbreak of typhoid devastates the school, a new kindly administration is installed. Jane’s life finally turns around; she remains at the school for six years and eventually becomes an instructor. After teaching for several years, Jane takes a position as a governess at Thornfield, the residence of the unbridled yet elegant Edward Rochester. As Jane embraces her duties at the estate, she begins to fall in love with her employer, and much to her surprise he asks for her hand in marriage. On the wedding day it is revealed that Edward possesses deep and dark secrets, and Jane flees for the sake of her own emotional integrity. In the ensuing experiences of her retreat, Jane confronts the procession of experiences and the formidable trials of her new life with the command of her unyielding self-determination. A startling modern classic of pronto-feminism, Jane Eyre is one of the most ingenious romance novels ever written. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Jane Eyre is both modern and readable.

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Book SynopsisA new edition of The Talisman, the second of Tales of the Crusaders, which is set in Palestine during the Third Crusade (1189-92)

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Book SynopsisThe Mystery of Sintra road begins when two friends are kidnapped by several masked men, who, to judge by their manners and their accent are men of the best society. One of the friends is a doctor, and the masked men say that they need him to assist a noblewoman, who is about to give birth. When they reach the house, they find no such noblewoman, only a dead man. Ea de Queiroz wrote this spoof ''mystery'' with his friend Ramalho OrtigÆo, publishing it in the form of a series of anonymous letters in the Dirio de Notcias in 1870.

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Book SynopsisThe Haunted Hotel is a less popular work - a gothic story with fascinating characters, tormented rooms, and outrageous relationships.Without ruining the plot, there is a great deal to making it an exciting read. A secretive marriage, a hated darling, contention between siblings, missing workers, and apparition dreams - a lot of Victorian goodness!Collins makes a considerable lot of compassion toward practically every person in the book. Disdaining any character is difficult. A homicide is committed in the main portion of the book. Our criminal investigator for this situation is the despised sweetheart, accidentally maneuvered into the standard story. As a peruse, you might have proactively arranged your cast into malicious and heavenly, however, one can never be excessively certain.

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Book SynopsisJerry of the Islands: A True Dog Story is a novel by American author Jack London. Jerry of the Islands was at first distributed in 1917 and is one of the last works by Jack London. The novel is set on the island of Malaita, a piece of the Solomon Islands archipelago, which in 1893 turned into a British protectorate. The legend of the novel is Irish terrier Jerry, who was a sibling of canine named Michael, about whom London composed another novel - Michael, Brother of Jerry. In the introduction, Jack London tells about the boat Minota on which he voyaged and which destroyed in the Solomon Islands. Skipper Kellar of Eugenie transport protected Jack London after the wreck yet later passed on by the hands of the man-eaters. London makes reference to a letter that he got from C. M. Woodford, the Resident Commissioner of the British Solomons. In this letter, Woodford expounded on a correctional undertaking on the adjoining island. The second point of the activity was looking for the remaining parts of Jack London's companions. During the journey on Minota, Jack London and his significant other observed a canine on board the boat, an Irish terrier named Peggy. The couple connected to Peggy such a lot of that London's better half took the canine after the disaster area of the boat.

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Book Synopsis'The Valley of the Moon' is an autobiographical portrait of Jack and his wife Chairman leaving working on the Oakland docks to live in Sonoma Valley. The story of Saxon and Billy is a love story that starts off with a boom and then go through difficulties and hard times. Saxon and Billy end up following a wonderful dream. This book is notable for the scenes in which the hero enjoys fellowship with the artists' colony in Carmel, and he settles in the Moon. It is Saxon, London's most fully realised heroine, who embraces these concerns.

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Book SynopsisLeaves of Grass is a wonderful poetry collection written by American poet Walt Whitman. First edition of this collection was published in 1855 with twelve poems. Through out his life, he revised this composition and after four decades, it was compiled in a collection of 400 poems. In these poems he expressed philosophy of life and humanity. He has written praiseworthy poems on nature. He didn't follow rhyme and standard rules for meter and line length rather he set his own style. He emerges as a hero in epic 'Song of Myself'. His incredible writing depicts as he has seen all the world. He has written all sorts of poems like - social, political, personal and sexual in nature. His poetic journey and self exploration are most commendable, represents his philosophy of life. He has shown an impressive comparison between fallen autumn leaves and rebirth of a new life after death. His passionate writing is delightful and pleasure giving. He expresses his deep concern for people's individuality and immortality. 'Song of the Open Road' is such a marvellous composition. In his poems as a true patriotic citizen he sings for glorious America.

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Book SynopsisThe Black Robe is an 1881 epistolary ( series of letters) novel by famous English writer, Wilkie Collins. The book relates the adversities of Lewis Romayne, and is also noted for a recognised anti-Catholic bias. In this amazing novel of relationships, psychological convolutions, and fraud, a priest comes between an responsive man and the young woman he loves. A high ranking Catholic priest plans to recover land knowing Church property. It analyses very patiently a intense friendship between two men, Lewis Romayne and Arthur Penrose, which in some ways transforms in its power the principal heterosexual relationship depicted in the work. The Black Robe is full of Victorian England's religious views and influences Collins' general commentary about domestic issues and the condition of women. Through the description of the Church's spiritual elite, its priests, and characters' comments, England's anti-Catholicism views are apparent. This book is a kind of enigma, though nobody is murdered. It is a combination of realist late-Victorian fiction with an advice of Gothic.

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Book SynopsisBritish author Arthur Conan Doyle's collection of short stories titled The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes was originally released in the latter part of 1893 under the year 1894. It was first released by G. Newnes Ltd. in the UK and Harper & Brothers in the US in February 1894. Following The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, it was the second anthology to feature the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. It featured Sidney Paget's illustrations, the same as the first. The Adventures numbers 13 to 24 were the titles of the twelve tales when they were first published in The Strand Magazine in December 1892 and December 1893. The subtitle XXIV.-The Adventure of the Final Problem was used when The Final Problem was released, for example. With the exception of The Final Problem, which first appeared in McClure's Magazine, all of the pieces were first published in Harper's Weekly in the United States. He was inspired by reader demand to write The Hound of the Baskervilles, a Holmes tale that takes place before The Final Problem, in 1901-1922. The aftermath of The Final Problem, in which it is revealed that Holmes actually survived, serves as the opening episode of a new series the following year called The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

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Book SynopsisWon By The Sword is an interesting novel written by G. A. Henty. This novel is set in France under the reigns of Mazarin, Richelieu, and Anne of Austria. Hector Campbell, orphaned child of a Scottish captain serving in the French Army. Won By The Sword (the 1640s) is described in the book, which also recounts the years when France assumed command of the conflict after the deaths of the generals Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein. A series of adventures that include battles, captures, and escapes, a meeting with Mazarin, and high honors and awards for his prowess and bravery in battle begin with the appointment of young Hector Campbell. How Hector came to the attention of Marshal Turenne and the Prince of Conde? How Hector advanced to the rank of Colonel, and how he was ultimately forced to flee France? The deadly enmity of the Due de Beaufort is all details that this book has and it can engage readers with the utmost interest.

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Book SynopsisThe Rover Boys on the Great Lakes is the fifth volume of the Rover Boys Series for readers of all ages and is a stand-alone novel. The brother's Dick, Tom, and Sam of the rowdy Rover Boys continue their adventure in the northern United States Great Lakes region. Readers can expect the typical adventure and eventually heroic clashes with villains, such as archenemies, in addition to a number of other adventures. This series has thirty novels released between 1899 and 1926, and the books were still available decades later. Published in 1901 was The Rover Boys on the Great Lakes, or, The Secret of the Island Cave. The series frequently included cutting-edge inventions from the time, like the automobile, airplanes (in The Rover Boys in the Air), and current affairs like World War I.

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Book SynopsisThe Rover Boys, also known as The Rover Boys Series for readers of all ages, was a well-known children's book series authored by Edward Stratemeyer using the pen name Arthur M. Winfield. This collection of stories by Arthur M. Winfield attempts to compile many of his classic thoughts and offer them at an affordable price, consolidated in a single draft so that everyone can read them. Some stories are gruesome and bizarre; others softly creep up on you and pull you in. With an eye-catching new cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Rover Boys On Treasure Isle is both modern and readable. The plot has so many twists and turns that can engage a reader.

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Book SynopsisThe Pony Rider Boys in New Mexico is a book of the Pony Rider Boys series which is well-written by Frank Gee Patchin. This collection of ideas by Sir Patchin attempts to compile many of his classic thoughts that are consolidated in a single draft and offer them at an affordable price so that everyone can read them. Some stories are interesting and amazing while others can draw you completely into the book. With an eye-catching cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Pony Rider Boys in New Mexico is both modern and readable. The plot has many twists and turns that can engage a reader to read this book by the end of it. This book has been deemed a classic and has been a great collection of ideas that are comprehended so that people of any age can read this novel. A compendium of ideas delivered by Frank Gee Patchin is interesting and adventurous at the same time!

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