Prester John

John Buchan

South Africa, 1900. After his father dies, nineteen-year-old David Crawfurd is sent off to South Africa to earn his living as a storekeeper in the back of beyond. A strange encounter on the journey suggests that dark deeds and treacherous intrigues are afoot all bound up with the mysterious primeval kingdom of Prester John. Laputa is a charismatic leader of an incipient native uprising, secretly preaching the incendiary creed of Africa for the Africans, and proclaiming himself heir to the mantle of Prester John, a legendary 15th-century Christian king of Ethiopia. We participate in many thrilling adventure chases in the wild country, deal with nasty villains, narrow escapes, impossible climbs up rock walks, a secret cave of massive proportions with a hidden switch to open a boulder door, stores of diamonds to fund the uprising, a valuable and ancient ruby necklace and the courageous love of a gigantic dog.

The Freaks of Mayfair

E.F. Benson

From the Mayfair society, everyone is a prominent representative of high society. Sir Louis and Lady Mary the Tagetes transform snobbery into an art form. Mr. Sandow, the secular vicar, who seems to be interested in everything but real spirituality. Everyone eagerly fights for social status in high society, unnoticing many dangerous details.

Lefty Locke Pitcher-Manager

Burt L. Standish

Burt L. Standish wrote another excellent sports history. Lefty is a pitcher in the baseball team. The dream of every coach. His dedication in the game hit every fan in the stands. However, things are not so simple, baseball is not just a sports game. Each opponent wants to knock out the best player from game.

The Shy Plutocrat

E. Phillips Oppenheim

Young Maurice Teyl, just turned 21, shy, non-drinker, non-smoker and the richest man in America, has been raised by his rigid Grandmother on a remote ranch in California but he shuns the limelight. So when a world tour is arranged by his guardian he is none too keen. He misses his train to begin the jaunt and meets up with a young English actress, Lucy Compston, and so begins a friendship and the slight deception, as he does not want her to know exactly who he is. He then goes undercover and forgoes his millionaire status in order to try and win her favor. Love, transatlantic voyages, Paris, and London ensue. A 1941 novel by Edward Phillips Oppenheim, with touches of humor, and consistent characters.

Vendetta

Honoré de Balzac

Fans of Romeo and Juliet will delight in the novella Vendetta, Honoré de Balzacs unique take on the timeless theme of star-crossed lovers. This short novel is a story of love and revenge, dealing with the vendetta between two families of Corsican origin, set in early 19th century Paris just after the fall of Napoleon. It relates the tragic fate of Ginevra Piombo, the daughter of proud Corsican immigrants, who has the misfortune of falling in love with another Corsican Luigi Porta. When it becomes known that Luigi is the sole survivor of a massacre in which the rest of his family were the victims of a bloody vendetta with Ginevras family, Ginevras father Bartolomeo is determined to complete the act of vengeance by having him killed. But Ginevra refuses to yield to her fathers demands and she and Luigi are married...

The Tower of the Elephant

Robert E. Howard

Torches flared murkily on the revels in the Maul, where the thieves of the east held carnival by night. In the Maul they could carouse and roar as they liked, for honest people shunned the quarters, and watchmen, well paid with stained coins, did not interfere with their sport. Along the crooked, unpaved streets with their heaps of refuse and sloppy puddles, drunken roisterers staggered, roaring. Steel glinted in the shadows where wolf preyed on wolf, and from the darkness rose the shrill laughter of women, and the sounds of scufflings and strugglings.

King Alfred of England

Jacob Abbott

Its a brief review of the life of King Alfred, but with very detailed events. A truly moving account of one of Englands greatest heroes. The author, in turn, was again able to passionately convey those events, that atmosphere of that time. Explains why he has been named and considered so "great." Alfred really deserved the title.

Names in the Black Book

Robert E. Howard

Three unsolved murders in a week are not so unusual--for River Street, grunted Steve Harrison, shifting his muscular bulk restlessly in his chair. His companion lighted a cigarette and Harrison observed that her slim hand was none too steady. She was exotically beautiful, a dark, supple figure, with the rich colors of purple Eastern nights and crimson dawns in her dusky hair and red lips. But in her dark eyes Harrison glimpsed the shadow of fear. Only once before had he seen fear in those marvelous eyes, and the memory made him vaguely uneasy.