A Second Home

Honoré de Balzac

In a dark, narrow street in Paris lives an old widow and her pretty young daughter, sit by the window most days. They share a poor but contented existence, supporting themselves through embroidery work. They see a gentleman in a brown coat pass by in the mornings and return in the evenings. The mother always remarks that he appears either over-worked or in delicate health. The daughter ignores most of her remarks as her mother sees every passer-by as a possible protector for the daughter. But soon the gentleman begins to exchange glances with the daughter. A Second Home is a classic French romance novel by the great French novelist, Honoré de Balzac. It is an interesting investigation of a relationship between a normal person and a religious nutter.

The Secret House

Edgar Wallace

The Secret House by Edgar Wallace is a mystery set about 1920 in England. Scandalous periodical The Gossips Corner is run by a supposed blackmailer whose identity has baffled the police. Inspector T.B. Smith of Scotland Yard, a singularly acute Assistant Commissioner, has got a lot to sort out. Introduced as an eccentric, though there is little evidence provided for this assertion, the characterless Smith tangles with dodgy doctors, dangerous criminals and a missing millionaire, as well as the traps and puzzles of the mysterious house, in a frankly barmy plot. A delicious mystery with twists and turns that intrigue, slowly unveiling the Victorian era characters as the indomitable Scotland Yard detective overcomes the evil protagonists.

The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow

Anna Katharine Green

Anna Katharine Green was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America, received praise for her accurate, well plotted stories. Her novels have always been one of the groundworks of mystery and detective fiction and The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow is a great example of the ingenious and thrilling story. In this novel, a young woman is killed by an arrow in the middle of the museum, so all of the other visitors are closed inside while the crime is investigated! A good classic mystery that we recommend very highly!

Serce. Powieść dla chłopców

Edmondo de Amicis

Jedenastoletni Henryk prowadzi pamiętnik, w którym opisuje dziesięć szkolnych miesięcy. Z pozoru zwykłe dziecięce historie w rzeczywistości przemycają wiele pięknych, acz zapomnianych już wartości, jakimi warto kierować się w życiu.

Villette

Charlotte Brontë

Villette is Charlotte Brontes last novel, published in 1853. After an unspecified family disaster, protagonist Lucy Snowe travels to the fictional city of Villette to teach at an all-girls school where she is unwillingly pulled into both adventure and romance. However, the novel is celebrated not so much for its plot as in its acute tracing of Lucys psychology, particularly Brontes use of Gothic doubling to represent externally what her protagonist is suffering internally. This novel is a kind of anguish of the soul, Charlotte Brontes autobiography, her mature thoughts and insights, anguish of minds and stoicism...

Partners of the Out-Trail

Harold Bindloss

Life in British Columbia is primitive, and Jim sometimes felt that he had to fight against the insidious influence of wildlife. He studied at McGill to begin his professional career. However, poverty did not prevent him from traveling, what he liked most to do. Jim was thin with confidence in his eyes. He had to go a lot more to make a new dream come true.

Sir Quixote of the Moors

John Buchan

In the mid-sixteenth century, Jean de Rohaine, a middle-aged French nobleman, journeys to Scotland in search of adventure and a new beginning. In Scotland he meets up with his old friend, Quentin Kennedy, who informs him of a great battle to be waged. Having witnessed Royalist troops butchering suspected Covenanters, he follows the example of godly refugees and escapes to the safety of the hills around Eskdalemuir and the head of Ettrick Water. Whilst staying at the Manse of Lindean, he falls in love but honour forbids he should win a woman he has pledged to protect for another. It is a unique novel of a haunting Scottish lifestyle that differs from Buchans later works, such as The Thirty-Nine Steps. The love story here is also central in a way that it is not to later works by Buchan, so that aspect of the narrative will prove interesting to readers who might be curious about how Buchan examines gender and sexuality in his fiction.

Hill O the Winds

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Clorinda is for everyone except her husband and a few old people. She was so sweet and dignified. However, she was born Cooper. She was a plump woman who, at sixty, still retained the girls questioning look. She was fond of wearing light dresses, which she calmly recognized were too young for her. Now she wore one, a muslin with pink flowers and a lampshade of hats. Despite her age, she was very energetic. This instructive story is a must-read.

The Tempest

William Shakespeare

One of Shakespeares later plays. The plot focuses on the confrontation between the Duke of Milan, the Wizard of Prospero, and his brother Antonio. The latter, with the help of the Neapolitan king, takes power from his brother. Prospero, with his little daughter Miranda, was expelled from Milan. On a dilapidated ship they were sent to the open sea.

Softfoot of Silver Creek

Robert Leighton

Over the laughter of a nearby waterfall, over a long roar the distant herds of bison that crowded the prairie, and over the oily creak of his knife on a sharp stone on his knee, his keen ear knew the sound of her light stepped as she crawled out of the pines into a sunny glade on a bluff. He didnt turn around, he only dropped the stone, threw back the thick locks that retreated, his long black hair, and then, with his thumb, meditatively checked the razor blade his blade Sitting very motionless, he raised his dreamy eyes to look forward through a sparkling stream and a billowing prairie to the dark sky behind the purple mountain.

The Devils Paw

E. Phillips Oppenheim

Julian Orden, son of a British aristocrat attends a dinner party and meets Catherine, a young woman of mixed antecedents British and Russian. She is entrusted with important documents. When she is suspected of being a spy and arrested, she saves herself by giving the papers into the keeping of young Orden. A beautiful, intelligent young woman is she a traitorous spy or a patriot? These two characters become caught up in a plan by the leaders of the working people of Germany and England to force a premature end to World War I. Secret agents, an international conspiracy, and the threat of war make The Devils Paw a thrilling tale of romance and adventure!

Worms of the Earth

Robert E. Howard

The speaker wrapped his purple cloak closer about his powerful frame and settled back into his official chair, much as he might have settled back in his seat at the Circus Maximus to enjoy the clash of gladiatorial swords. Realization of power colored his every move. Whetted pride was necessary to Roman satisfaction, and Titus Sulla was justly proud; for he was military governor of Eboracum and answerable only to the emperor of Rome.

Desperate Remedies. A Novel

Thomas Hardy

Once upon a time there lived in the 19th century a charming young lady from a poor but proud family and a young ambitious gentleman in spirit, but not in origin. And now the boundaries of estates and welfare were ready to be erased under the pressure of the couples feelings and understanding of the girls parents that its not the age of her daughter to attract men and we need to work with what we have. However, the lady turned out to be capricious, fell into a hysteria and forced the family to rush off to hell, as soon as she heard about a marriage proposal from our hero.

The Argonauts of North Liberty

Bret Harte

What starts out as a tale of peaceful domesticity takes a sudden turn when the protagonists are lured from Connecticut to California by the promise of striking it rich. This fascinating novella from American author Bret Harte is an engaging, easy read that will please fans of historical fiction or tales of the Old West. First published in 1888, it keeps the reader engrossed with its fast-paced narrative and surprising twists and turns in the plot. Francis Bret Harte was a prolific American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California. The spirit of Dickens breathes through the poems and stories of Bret Harte just as the spirit of Bret Harte breathes through the poems and stories of Kipling.

Chicot the Jester

Alexandre Dumas

Amidst the conspiracy of the Holy League to make the Duke of Anjou king, Bussy dAmboise falls in love with a lady of the court of Henry III a lady with a very jealous husband! This sequel to Dumas Marguerite de Valois begins four years after the sudden death of King Charles IX and succession of his brother Henry III. Bristling with political plots, secret assignations, mysteries, daring escapes, duels, surprising alliances and betrayals, Dumas orchestrates two plotlines: one of the love ignited between le Comte de Bussy and la Dame de Monsoreau, and another of the friendship between King Henry III and his truly unique jester, Chicot (Jean-Antoine dAnglerais). All these come together in a very scene-driven, absolutely over-the-top novel. Concerning one of Dumass most well-known and marvelously crafted characters, Chicot the Jester is a must-read for fans of Dumass seminal work, and is not to be missed by the discerning collector.

The Elusive Pimpernel

Emmuska Orczy

It is the early days of the French Republic, and Robespierres revolutionaries find their wicked schemes repeatedly being thwarted. It appears that Sir Percy Blakeney the cunning and heroic Pimpernel is more than a match for them all. But Sir Percys spy-catching archenemy, Chauvelin, has devised a plan. Another fun adventure novel, and the sequel to The Scarlet Pimpernel. It continues telling the story of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel as they attempt to save more aristocrats from the Reign of Terror. Sir Percy attempts to smuggle French aristocrats out of the country to safety, while Chauvelin plays out a vile plot to eliminate the Pimpernel and his beautiful wife, once and for all.

Barbara on Her Own

Edgar Wallace

The name, Edgar Wallace, threads through early twentieth century crime fiction like a stream that turns out to be a lot deeper and wider than you thought. This is one of his works. A thrilling tale of commerce and intrigue starring Barbara, god-daughter and Private Secretary to Mr. Maber. Unlike the old-fashioned Maber & Maber department store, the modern Attermans store is a successful, profitable business. At a take-over meeting Barbara gives Messers Atterman and Minkey a piece of her mind. On the evening before the deal is to be finalized something happens to Mr. Maber... the police summon Barbara now she is on her own!

The Square Emerald

Edgar Wallace

Edgar Wallace, The Square Emerald, originally published in 1926 and made in England. The plot involves a young gentleman, secretary to a notable politician, convicted wrongly of forging a check, now released after serving his term in prison, a group of rather sinister society ladies with their sinister butler Druze, who were involved in the check and other activities, and a beautiful young woman detective from Scotland Yard, also from a stylish society background. A female sleuth is one step ahead of everyone, including the reader, and generally has jolly good fun solving the case. A mysteriously complicated plot make this Edgar Wallace book great fun with the twists coming thick and fast.

The Black

Edgar Wallace

Fashionable Londoner James Morlake is a gentleman with many secrets and several particularly valuable skills like terrorizing bankers across the city. His Moorish servant Mahmet has some secrets to hide as well, particularly when his employer gives him the odd task to perform in the dead of night in dark London. A collection of short stories from Edgar Wallace featuring a private detective who tracks down blackmailers. When you do reach the end you will anxiously await a follow on. Black grabs you immediately, then takes you on a high speed international trip at race pace.

The Vintage. A Romance of the Greek War of Independence

E.F. Benson

This is a historical novel. The plot of the struggle of the Greek people against the Turks for independence. All actions revolve around the clan Maniot, Mavromihalov, who are central to the revolution. The action especially focuses on Nicholas Vidalis, a revolutionary leader, and his nephew, Mitsos, who is 18 years old at the beginning of the book, and becomes a fierce fighter.

The Swindler and Other Stories

Ethel M. Dell

The Swindler and Other Stories is a collection of stories first published in 1923 by the hugely successful English writer of popular romances Ethel May Dell. The Swindler: As a young girl Cynthia holds a professional swindler in admiration, since he cleverly swindled her out of five hundred pounds. On a voyage she meets a private detective called West who is bent on capturing this swindler called Nat Verney. Little did Cynthia know what the favor she asked of West would lead to. What follows is a mans lies to save the woman he loves from herself and another mans love for Cynthia, and how far he will go to make her happy, at his own expense. The rest of the stories are love stories and have many surprises.

The Lion of Petra

Talbot Mundy

Despite the fact that Talbot Mandy is more famous for having written the more popular King of Hebrew screws, this story of adventure in the desert will surely please the reader. An Englishman who accompanies the famous American James Graham in a dangerous journey through the Petri desert tells of this in order to resist Ali Higgs cruel and deadly robber in his own fortress. Powerful desert chifthan, Ali Higg terrorizes the Arabs, and does not unite them. Along with James Grim is his wife and companion, as well as a senior thief and his many sons and grandchildren. Will they succeed?

The Four Million

O. Henry

This anthology contains 25 tales of old New York city at the dawn of the 20th century. A collection of O. Henrys short stories bearing his trademark irony, comic misunderstandings, and surprise endings. They also capture his use of coincidence or chance to create humor in the story. O. Henry wrote about ordinary people in everyday circumstances. The true hero of The Four Million is the city of New York, with its energy, compassion and kaleidoscope of human emotions. O. Henry focuses his curious microscope on the diverse lives of various residents of this metropolis. A few protagonists claim idle-rich status, but most represent the middle class or poverty-stricken milieus. He is quoted as once saying, There are stories in everything. Ive got some of my best yarns from park benches, lampposts and newspaper stands.

The Scales of Justice

Fred M. White

This dark story is full of mystery and unsolved mysteries. It was the first real day of Spring, and most people lingered out of doors till the bare branches of the trees melted in the gloaming, and it was possible to see and hear no more, save for the promise of the little black herald singing madly from the blackthorn. In certain places, the lights were grouped into masses, because they lit up a trio of Louis Quatorze card tables, where twelve people played bridge. From time to time, yellow flames revealed some brilliant objects on the walls or on the floor, hinting at the treasures of art, most of which have their own history.