Queen of the Black Coast

Robert E. Howard

Hoofs drummed down the street that sloped to the wharfs. The folk that yelled and scattered had only a fleeting glimpse of a mailed figure on a black stallion, a wide scarlet cloak flowing out on the wind. Far up the street came the shout and clatter of pursuit, but the horseman did not look back. He swept out onto the wharfs and jerked the plunging stallion back on its haunches at the very lip of the pier.

The Blithedale Romance

Nathaniel Hawthorne

A group of people is a powerful mixture of competing ambitions, and its idealism finds little satisfaction in agriculture. Instead of changing the world, Blithedale community members individually follow selfish paths that ultimately lead to tragedy. Hawthornes tale simultaneously mourns and saturates a rural idyll, not unlike the history of America in the 19th century as a whole.

A Certain Dr. Thorndyke

R. Austin Freeman

John Osborne is a young gentleman who has left England for some, as of yet, unknown reason. He settles in Adaffia, an ends-of-the-earth type of town on the Gold Coast. Almost immediately he gets into a fight defending the only other white man in town, a drunken trader. And we see that Osborne is a tremendous fighter skilled at ju-jitsu, boxing, wrestling and strategy. These skills will come into play again and again, in a mutiny, a rebellion and other struggles with formidable opponents. His adventures at one point throw him into the company of a willful young lady who has an appetite for danger, and she and Osborne fall in love. Meanwhile back in England, a certain Dr. Thorndyke is investigating the crime that Osborne is supposed to have committed. This second half of the book is just as much fun as the first, involving bizarre searches for clues and meticulous examinations of minutiae, from mustache hairs to wormwood dust.

Tono-Bungay

Herbert George Wells

Considered one of Wells most successful attempts at a social novel in the vein of Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, Wellss tale is a panoramic view of an unravelling society. A semi-autobiographical satire of Edwardian advertising and patent-medicines. The story follows the life of a young man, George, and his Uncle Edward. Edward invents an elixir called TONO-BUNGAY and hires his nephew George to help build the company. The medicine becomes a huge commercial success, causing George to reflect on the sickness at the heart of a society that lets itself be so easily duped. He begins to search for a new order to replace the old one, a quest that leads him to dangerous aeronautical experiments. At the end of the novel, George sails down the River Thames to the open sea, toward the hopeful new world that awaits him.

The Wanderers Necklace

H. Rider Haggard

The book is full of unforeseen incidents. At the heart of the story is a guy who is much more honest and bolder than he seems. And of course there is love. Love leads this story, love strengthens it, and also corrupts it in a cunning way. This is a power struggle, a story about kindness, true friendship, sacrifice, conspiracy, and so on.

Grey Timothy

Edgar Wallace

The renowned family Callander receives a very unwelcome visit from their Australian relative, nephew Brian Pallard of family patriarch Peter Callander. Unwelcome because Pallard cultivates a rather dubious way of life and made his considerable fortune on the races. Upon arrival, Pallard proves charming and witty, so that daughter Gladys immediately gets a crush on him, but he also has rivals who do not shy away from bad deed like killing a horse with tse tse flies to manipulate a horse-race... Entertaining mix of social comedy, melodrama and lightweight detective novel by Edgar Wallace who was a prolific author of crime, adventure and humorous stories.

Smoky Cell

Edgar Wallace, Robert Curtis

The novel of Edgar Wallaces famous play told by Robert Curtis. Smoky Cell:... At ten oclock that night the guards outside the prison walls were doubled and among them they had enough machine-guns to play havoc with a battalion. The warden of the prison had announced that he was taking no chances. Ben Guinney, he had said, might have escaped from Canyon City prison without his due dose of high-power juice, but he wasnt going to jump this dump. Rumors of an attempt at rescue had reached him and his reputation as warden was at stake...

More Educated Evans

Edgar Wallace

The further escapades of the incorrigible Evans, Edgar Wallaces? cockney hero of the Turf feature in these twelve tales. The Educated Evans stories combine Wallaces talent for humor with his hallmark detective story themes. His story of Evans is full of amusing incidents of love and adventure set amidst the bustle and excitement of the racecourse. There are bets, bookmakers, horses, tip-offs, winners, journalists and women. There is banter, humor and much fun to be had along the way. It is not only race-lovers who will love Evans, but lovers of life itself. Experience the stories as only Edgar Wallace could write it!

The Doctor Who Held Hands

Hulbert Footner

As well as penning some of the most popular detective fiction, Conan Doyle also wrote thrilling adventure stories. Rodney Stone is a combination of both. Nelson, Beau Brummell, Fox and King George III himself appear in a tale at the heart of which is, as one character says, a pretty conspiracy a criminal, an actress and a prize-fighter, all playing their parts. The book is narrated by Rodney, in 1851 thinking back over the events 1803, when Rodney was 17 and his best friend, Boy Jim, was 19. This is the year Rodneys uncle comes to introduce the boy to London society. Sir Charles is a dandy, and a friend of Beau Brummell and the Prince of Wales. But Rodneys father has hopes for his son going into the Royal Navy. Boy Jim also has a life decision to make. He has been raised by Champion Harrison as a blacksmith, but after befriending an alcoholic ex-actress, he yearns to see more of the world, at least London.

Raiders of Spanish Peaks

Zane Grey

Laramie Nelson and partners Lonesome Mulhall and Ted Tracks Williams work their way out to eastern Colorado to Spanish Peaks Ranch. There they meet a family from Ohio that has come west to start a new life and hopefully allow the husband and father to get well in the high and dryer climate. They purchase a ranch and then are in the process of loosing everything. As they soon find out, though, this deserted fort is equally suited for both protection and imprisonment. In fact, theyve been swindled into buying the longtime headquarters and hideout for a band of thieves and rustlers. Laramie, Lonesome and Tracks want to save this family. But in a place where there is no law but the law of the gun, can they? First published in 1938, the greatest writer of the American West, Zane Grey, brings a classic tale of drama on the frontier. Raiders of Spanish Peaks is a thrilling tale of a how a mans home is truly his castle.

The Protector

Harold Bindloss

Vayne was 27 years old. And nine of which he spent on scott, canoeing, chopping trees and searching for minerals. He and his friend discovered valuable mineral property several months earlier. They were aiming for a better life and wanted to grow their business. However, not everything is so easy.

The Great Court Scandal

William Le Queux

The Ladybird will refuse to have anything to do with the affair, my dear fellow. It touches a womans honour, and I know her too well. Bah! Well compel her to help us. She must. She wouldnt risk it, declared Harry Kinder, shaking his head. Risk it! Well, well have to risk something! Were in a nice hole just now! Our traps at the Grand, with a bill of two thousand seven hundred francs to pay, and the Ladybird coolly sends us from London a postal order for twenty-seven shillings and sixpenceall she has!

The Lord of the Sea

M.P. Shiel

The story is of Richard Hogarth, a man of lofty spirit who on discovering a cache of giant diamonds inside a fallen meteor undertakes a bold project to re-shape the human condition on a global scale. He builds huge steel forts with his wealth, places diamonds at the cross-roads of the earths oceans to control all sea-traffic for tribute to benefit the citizens of his mammoth iron islands. The Lord of the Sea (1901) develops a network of mid-19th-century motifs incredible coincidences, swapped babies, hidden identities, chance-found incredible wealth, documents in a trunk, festering revenges, elaborate prison escapes, frustrated romance, Napoleonic megalomania yet, though written to an aesthetic outdated for its time, in embodies that aesthetic with enormous elan and vitality.

The Outlaws of the Air

George Griffiths

George Griffiths is a lover of classic adventure novels. The Outlaws of the Air tells the story of the future of air battles and the creation of a utopian colony in the Pacific. Here, as always, there are many unusual things: Utopians, Anarchists, War Ships of the Air, ultra fast Sea Vessels and even the hokey-named Anarchite super-explosive. This story captures readers from the front pages.

Kriminalgeschichten

Edgar Wallace

Dieses Buch ist eine Sammlung von Edgar Wallace schönsten Geschichten: Der Fall Stretelli, Das Diamantenklavier, Doktor Kay, Der Selbstmörder, Indizienbeweis. Edgar Wallace hat zeigte einmal mehr seine Fähigkeiten als großer Schriftsteller.

When the Gangs Came to London

Edgar Wallace

Set in the late 1920s-early 1930s, When the Gangs Came to London is rated as one of Edgar Wallaces best work by fans of his genre of crime fiction. Two rival gangs from Chicago coming to London and competing to blackmail rich men into paying up to prevent being killed. When a lull ensues, Captain Jiggs Allermain of the Chicago Detective Bureau suspects the rival gangs of forming an uneasy alliance. Suddenly a shot rings through the House of Commons, unleashing an outburst of terror even more bloody. Wallace wrote this one towards the end of his life, he may even have been in Hollywood when he wrote it which could explain the very old school Hollywood gangsters!

Dziewczę ze Słonecznego Wzgórza

Bjrnstjerne Bjrnson

Opowieść Bjrnstjerne Bjrnsona przenosi nas do norweskiej wioski połowy XIX wieku, gdzie splatają się losy dziewczyny o imieniu Synnve tytułowego dziewczęcia ze Słoneczego Wzgórza i chłopca o imieniu Torbjrn. Ich młodzieńcza miłość oraz towarzyszące jej perturbacje ukazane są na tle wiejskich zwyczajów, kultury ludowej Norwegii i działań sekty Haugego, która determinuje ich życie.

Madame Bovary. Murs de province

Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary un grand roman de lécrivain français Gustave Flaubert. Le personnage principal, Emma Bovary, souffre de lincapacité de réaliser ses rves dune vie sociale brillante et pleine de passions romantiques. Au lieu de cela, elle mene la vie monotone de la femme dun pauvre médecin de province. Mais toutes ses tentatives pour sortir du monde sombre sont vouées léchec.

The Exploits of Danby Croker

R. Austin Freeman

What would you do if your doppelganger were committing crimes and making the police believe you were the perpetrator? In Danby Crokers case, he decides to retaliate! But that is only one of the problems besetting him in this set of interlinked stories. Given a job as an antique dealer, can he resist the temptations of earning some easy money through a bit of fencing and counterfeiting? And what on earth is he doing going round London dressed as a suffragette?! R. Austin Freemans The Exploits of Danby Croker involves mistaken identities, art forgery, antique swindles, and even a little cross-dressing. There is a price to be paid for breaking the law, but whos going to pay it? Originally written in 1911 by the great author of detective stories R. Austin Freeman, this is a comic novel that may surprise those who know Freemans work only through the Dr. Thorndyke stories! This rare collection of stories is an enjoyable romp through crime and romance.

The Purple Cloud

M.P. Shiel

The Purple Cloud, The Lord of the Sea (both 1901), and The Last Miracle (1906) is a trilogy of science fiction; and at least the first two are considered early masterpieces in the genre. The Purple Cloud is widely hailed as a masterpiece of science fiction and one of the best last man novels ever written. A deadly purple vapor passes over the world and annihilates all living creatures except one man, Adam Jeffson. Adam adventures to the North Pole; on returning he realizes the entire population of the world has been destroyed by a cloud of cyanogen; he tours with world as master of all he sees, reveling and destroying as he will.

The Confessions of Arsene Lupin

Maurice Leblanc

Originally published in 1913, this grippling collection of Lupin short stories presents more puzzling criminal involvements of the classic French hero-thief and his men. It has been a fortnight since the baroness Repstein disappeared from Paris, taking with her a fortune in jewels stolen from her husband. French detectives have chased her all over Europe, following the trail of gemstones like so many precious breadcrumbs, but she has eluded their efforts. When Arsene Lupin finds her, she will not escape so easily. In these thrilling stories, he uses his wit and courage to outsmart criminals, pull wool over the eyes of the French police, and solve terrifying mysteries, always making sure to pocket something for himself.

In the Days of the Comet

Herbert George Wells

In the Days of the Comet is set in early 20th century England and covers Willie, a socialist who is angry and frustrated with everything to do with the world he lives in. The only thing Willie finds beautiful and tranquil is the love of his life, Nettie. The story follows Willie and his lust for Nettie as he finds himself perplexed by what the love of his life decides to do. The comet is referred back to quite often and eventually, when it hits, it brings some sort of cleansing gas with it, ridding the world of hatred and jealousy. People can finally see the world for what beauty it really is. A fantastic tale of the worlds beauty and unity after the Great Change occurs. The novel is divided into three parts: Book I: The Comet; Book II: The Green Vapours; and Book III: The New World and each are distinctive in style, tone and mood.

Na polu chwały

Henryk Sienkiewicz

Na polu chwały to romans historyczny, którego akcja toczy się w czasach króla Jana III Sobieskiego, parę miesięcy przed bitwą pod Wiedniem. Na ziemi radomskiej, w majątku Bełczączka, mieszka Gedeon Pągowski ze swoją wychowanką, sierotą, panna Anulą Sienińską. W dziewczynie kocha się mieszkający po sąsiedzku Jacek Taczewski. Pan Gedeon mimo że starszy od wychowanicy o dobrych kilka lat także się w niej podkochuje. Co więcej, pragnie pannę Sienińską poślubić. Podstępnie oczernia Taczewskiego przed ukochaną. W konsekwencji ta odrzuca uczucie młodego szlachcica i postanawia oddać rękę opiekunowi. Utwór w znakomity sposób portretuje życie codzienne i obyczaje drobnej i zubożałej szlachty zamieszkującej ówczesną Rzeczpospolitą.

Behind a Mask. Or, A Womans Power

Louisa May Alcott

Originally published in 1866 under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard. Louisa May Alcotts novel of romance and sexual intrigue is one of her lesser-known gems. Behind a Mask, or A Woman Power is a controversial novella; its tone and characterizations strike a markedly different chord from her best-known works, such as Little Women and Little Men. The plot of the novella is focused upon Jean Muir, who works as a governess for one of the rich families of Coventry to their sixteen-year-old daughter. She employs intrigues and manipulation to gain success in the society, starting from the family she works for. But is the beguiling Miss Muir all that she seems to be? Alcott beautifully delivers a sick and twisted tale of a woman and her arts. She put a completely new spin on Victorian literature, which could only be accomplished in American.