A story of the legendary feats of a man four times accused of cowardice, «The Four Feathers» is a well-crafted, suspenseful novel by British author A. E. W. Mason during the height of England's colonial domination. The tale centers around the exploits of Harry Feversham, whose untimely resignation from his regiment earns him three white feathers from his friends and one from his fiance, all representing his fear and disgrace in their esteem ...
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) is best known as the innovator of the English detective novel, whose sensational novels, plays, and short stories were hugely popular in the Victorian Era. Today, readers enjoy Collins' intricate and suspenseful plots, and his penetrating social commentary on the plight of women and domestic issues of the time. Unfortunately Collins suffered from rheumatic gout, for which he took the opiate laudanum, and which eve ...
"Silas Marner", is the story of its title character, a weaver who when falsely accused of theft retreats to a life of exile focusing on his work in solitude and the amassing of gold from his earnings. After carrying on this way for a period of fifteen years Silas returns one day to his cottage to find his stash of gold stolen. While deeply depressed by the loss of his treasure, Silas soon finds consolation in the unexpected adoption of a lo ...
First published in 1908, «The Magician» is one of the early novels of W. Somerset Maugham, a Frenchman who lived from 1874 to 1965. Although his popularity was at its highest in the 1930s, this novel is a clear precursor of the simplistic, often haunting method of writing that brought him fame. This tale revolves around the magician Oliver Haddo, a man living in the bohemian Paris of the beginning of the twentieth century. Haddo, a caricature of ...
"White Fang" is an adventure story of the great Northwestern Canadian frontier. It the type of story for which Jack London is most well known. White Fang, who is the son of Kiche and One Eye, is born in the wild but comes to live among man in an Indian camp as a cub. White Fang who is essentially a wild animal must learn to live among man as a domesticated animal. The novel deals with the theme of both a domesticated animal learning to live ...
George Eliot, the pen named used by Mary Anne Evans, wrote popular works that mirrored the settings and ideology of contemporary Victorian England. She was brought up in the Church of England, where she developed strong moral convictions that carried over into her fiction. During a visit to Florence in 1860 it was suggested to Eliot that the historical Fra Girolamo Savonarola would make a good subject for a novel, so Eliot spent her visit, and m ...
Considered by many to be one of the greatest adventure novels of all time, «The Thirty-Nine Steps» is John Buchan's most successful work. Set during the First World War, it is the story of Richard Hannay, an ordinary gentleman who finds himself mixed up in a plot to undermine the British war effort. A fugitive from the law, Hannay must race against time to try and stop the plot. «The Thirty-Nine Steps» is an exciting adventure of mystery an ...
G. K. Chesterton's «Manalive» is the story of Innocent Smith, who upon arrival at Beacon House, a London boarding establishment, breathes new life into the residents of the establishment with his games and antics. However it is soon discovered that Smith is a suspected criminal who is to be brought up on charges of burglary, desertion of a spouse, polygamy, and attempted murder. The second half of the book deals with Smith's trial in w ...
"Under the Greenwood Tree" is the story of the romantic entanglement between church musician, Dick Dewey, and the attractive new school mistress, Fancy Day. A pleasant romantic tale set in the Victorian era, «Under the Greenwood Tree» is one of Thomas Hardy's most gentle and pastoral novels. ...
