Fiction

“There is a part of the soul that stirs at night, in the dark and soundless times of day, when our defenses are down and our daylight distractions no longer serve to protect us from ourselves,” writes beloved author, Joan Chittister. “It’s then, in the still of life, when we least expect it, that questions emerge from the damp murkiness of our inner underworld…These...

Miss Arnott's Marriage is one of the much under-rated Richard Marsh's long stories. The plot revolves around the events which occur after Violet Arnott's husband, Bob Champion (not the Grand National winner, obviously!)  is sent to prison.  Violet decides to revert to her maiden name and forget about her wayward spouse.  Initially, her task seems to be made easier as she comes...

The Law and the Lady is a detective story, published in 1875 by Wilkie Collins. It is not quite as sensational in style as The Moonstone and The Woman in White. Valeria Brinton marries Eustace Woodville despite objections from Woodville's family leading to disquiet for Valeria's own family and friends. Just a few days after the wedding, various incidents lead Valeria to suspect her husband is...

In the year 1860, the reputation of Doctor Wybrow as a London physician reached its highest point. It was reported on good authority that he was in receipt of one of the largest incomes derived from the practice of medicine in modern times. One afternoon, towards the close of the London season, the Doctor had just taken his luncheon after a specially hard morning's work in his consulting-room,...

"Sir Henry Curtis, as everybody acquainted with him knows, is one of the most hospitable men on earth. It was in the course of the enjoyment of his hospitality at his place in Yorkshire the other day that I heard the hunting story which I am now about to transcribe. Many of those who read it will no doubt have heard some of the strange rumours that are flying about to the effect that Sir Henry...

The third installment in H. Rider Haggard's Zulu trilogy, Finished is a detailed historical account of the decline of the once-mighty Zulu nation, recounted from the perspective of globe-trotting adventurer Allan Quatermain. From the thrill of the safari to battlefield play-by-plays, this novel will not disappoint fans of the classic action-adventure genre.

Child of Storm is a 1913 novel by H. Rider Haggard featuring Allan Quatermain. The plot is set in 1854-56 and concerns Quatermain hunting in Zululand and getting involved with Mameema, a beautiful African girl who causes great turmoil in the Zulu kingdom. The novel is the second in a trilogy by Haggard involving the collapse of the Zulu kingdom and featuring the dwarf Zikali. The first book is...

This book is a compilation of interviews, the author Max Miller tells us about his first serious assignment in New York. They present his first professional work as a journalist. Max Millard went to New York City in November 1976, when he was 26 years old. He went with the intention to become a full-time writer. For his articles and columns written for small local papers were not paid. He was...

When old Mikolai on his death-bed left Hania to my guardianship and conscience, I was sixteen years of age; she was younger by almost a year, and was also just emerging from childhood. I had to lead her from the bed of her dead grandfather almost by force, and we both went to my father's domestic chapel. The doors of the chapel were open, and before the old Byzantine image of the Mother of God...

Modern Essays is thirty-three epitomal English and American personal essays chosen by Christopher Morley - a novelist who conceived the reader of his anthology as “a friend spending the evening in happy gossip along the shelves.”

The title of this book in the original is Rodzina Polanieckich (The Family of the Polanyetskis); Children of the Soil has been substituted, because of the difficulty of the Polish title for American and English readers, because the Polanyetskis are called children of the soil in the text of the volume, and because all the other characters are children of the soil in the same sense. For most...

Allan and the Holy Flower is a 1915 novel by H. Rider Haggard featuring Allan Quatermain. It first appeared serialised in The Windsor Magazine. The plot involves Quatermain going on a trek into Africa to find a mysterious flower. Brother John, who has been wandering in Africa for years, confides to Allan a huge and rare orchid, the largest ever found. Allan arrives to England with the flower and...

Montezuma's Daughter, first published in 1893, is a novel written by the Victorian adventure writer H. Rider Haggard. Narrated in the first person by Thomas Wingfield, an Englishman whose adventures include having his mother murdered, a brush with the Spanish Inquisition, shipwreck, and slavery. Eventually, Thomas unwillingly joins a Spanish expedition to New Spain, and the novel tells the...

The Ivory Child is a novel by H. Rider Haggard featuring Allan Quatermain.

Allan's Wife - The story of Allan Quatermain's wife and further adventures of Allan Quatermain. Allan’s Wife, as the title suggests centers around Quatermain’s life with his wife Stella who is the mother of his son Harry. The story revolves around Allan’s early life before his famous adventures in the heart of Africa and helps flesh out the adventurer as a man before he...

The White Company is a historical adventure by Arthur Conan Doyle set during the Hundred Years' War. The story is set in England, France, and Spain, in the years 1366 and 1367, against the background of the campaign of Edward, the Black Prince to restore Peter of Castile to the throne of the Kingdom of Castile. The climax of the book occurs before the Battle of Nájera. Doyle became...

Songs Of The Road - The second of two poetry collections by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, best known as the author of Sherlock Holmes. This volume consists of narrative and philosophic verses and songs, including his "Bendy's Sermon."

King Solomon's Mines (1885) is a popular novel by the Victorian adventure writer and fabulist Sir H. Rider Haggard. It tells of a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the missing brother of one of the party. It is the first English adventure novel set in Africa, and is considered to be the genesis of the Lost World literary genre. Allan...

The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales is a volume collecting 10 short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle and first published by Longmans, Green & Co., 6th march 1890.

The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (1826) is a historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper. It is the second book of the Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. The Pathfinder, published 14 years later in 1840, is its sequel. The Last of the Mohicans is set in 1757, during the French and Indian War (the Seven Years' War), when France and Great...