An African Millionaire. Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay

Grant Allen

Colonel Cuthbert Clay is a master of disguise and an ingenious con man who sets his sights on the South African Millionaire, Sir Charles Vandrift, a millionaire owner of diamond mines in Africa. Each chapter brings new cringing on the readers part as we realize before Charles does that he is about to be a victim anew. As his South African diamond fortune takes hit after hit from the quick-witted master of disguise, the author leaves even the reader guessing: who can you trust? Colonel Clay has a female sidekick, Madame Picardet, whose charms are not wasted on Charles, no matter what appearance she takes. He repeatedly falls for her distractions as Colonel Clay primes him for the next sting. Twelve clever, extremely readable and entertaining tales about the first important rogue in short crime fiction. A classic of crime and adventure, Grant Allens An African Millionaire is perfect for fans of books such as Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Thief.

Linnet. A Romance

Grant Allen

Originally published in 1900, Linnet, A Romance is a classic romance novel by noted author Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen. Two young English tourists come to a little mountain village Tyrol where they find the Tyrolese in all their native simplicity; the young men, with the pride and aspirations of the hunter, who dance wildly and make love fiercely, and the maidens of easy virtue who tend their cows in the summer and serve a master in the village through the long winter. One of these is Linnet, the heroine, an innocent, modest girl among her bold associates, who possesses a marvelous voice. Both tourists are charmed with the lovely singer, but while one is selfish and conceited and pays her meaningless compliments, the other, who is quiet and undemonstrative really wins her love. The love story is told with much charm and grace, and when the scene changes to London the contrast in character and national traits between that city and the land of the Tyrol is strikingly shown.

Milioner w opałach

Grant Allen

Starcie dwóch charakterów. Pułkownik Cuthbert Clay jest genialnym oszustem i mistrzem maskarady. Sir Charles Vandrift to z kolei biznesmen z krwi i kości, właściciel kopalni diamentów w Afryce. Pierwszy ma chrapkę na majątek drugiego - by przejąć miliony, sięga po najwymyślniejsze środki. Ma też asa w rękawie, pomocnicę Madame Picardet, której wdziękom nie sposób się oprzeć. Dla miłośników powieści awanturniczo-kryminalnej spod znaku Edgara Wallace'a.

The Woman Who Did

Grant Allen

In 1895, this scandalous book titled The Woman Who Did by Grant Allen promulgating certain startling views on marriage and kindred questions, became a bestseller. The book told the story of an independent, young, self-assured middle-class woman who has a child out of wedlock. Herminia Barton, Cambridge-educated daughter of the Dean of Dunwich, is more determined than most to arrange her own life. She accordingly enters into a relationship outside marriage with one of her own free and advanced kind, the lawyer Alan Merrick. The consequences of that decision test her resolve to the very limit. The author was sympathetic to the feminist cause and saw his novel as a means to propagate womens rights. However, the novel was controversial right from the start, with conservative readers as well as feminists criticizing Allen for the heroine he had invented.