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Romance Novels |
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By: George Gascoigne (1535-1577) | |
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![]() This story presents through letters, poems and third-person commentary the love affair between a young man named Freeman Jones and a married woman named Elinor, lady of the castle he is visiting in Scotland. Events in the affair are traced from initial attraction through seduction to (somewhat) graphic sexual encounters and their aftermath. (Allegedly based on a real-life scandal, the author, in re-issuing his story two years later, transplanted the action to Italy, renaming the principals Fernando Jeronimi and Leonora.) |
By: Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915) | |
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![]() This is an exquisite and heartbreaking love story. Violet Tempest and Roderick Vawdrey, otherwise known to each other as Vixen and Rorie, are childhood sweethearts. However, Rorie's family wants him to marry elsewhere. You may think it is the old story all over again, but nothing in this novel is what it seems. It is far too realistic for that. Many books talk about falling in love. This book starts after that stage, and speaks about the harder stage of a relationship: loving earnestly but understanding that love - even in the truest and purest sense - is not everything in life... |
By: Rosa Campbell Praed (1852-1935) | |
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![]() The Rebel Rose is the story of Mary Stuart Beaton, a descendant of Mary Queen of Scots who has come to London in the hope of having her family claims legitimized. The Pretendress -- as she is called, finds herself caught up in the devices of her own personal guardians as well as a scheming London society woman scorned by a powerful member of Parliament who has become an admirer of the Princess. Apart from the claims of royalty, Mary Beaton knows where her worth is found and she proves to be a formidable opponent for all those scheming for and against her. | |
By: Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) | |
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![]() Sybil is one of the most prominent political novels of the mid-nineteenth century, taking as its subject the "condition of England" question. That phrase was first used by Thomas Carlyle in an essay of 1839 on Chartism, a working-class protest movement that plays a prominent role in this novel. The two nations are the rich and the poor, and the increasing gulf between them, and their condition also inspired such writers as Charles Dickens and Mrs. Gaskell, among others (one of whom, Friederich Engels, was the disciple of Karl Marx, and in his The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 described the appalling effects of the industrial revolution a year before Sybil appeared)... |
By: Arthur W. Marchmont (1852-1923) | |
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![]() The young Count von Rudloff got himself into so much trouble with the Imperial Family in Berlin, that he sees no other way out of it than to fake his own death. Stumbling through different identities, he finally assumes - quite against his will - the identity of the Prince von Gramberg. At Gramberg Castle, he finds a web of intrigue, which threatens the safety of the young and beautiful Countess Minna. The Count von Rudloff decides to save the girl, but the intrigue is more complicated than it first appeared, and there are old enemies who are still waiting for their revenge... |
By: George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) | |
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![]() This is one of three plays Shaw published as Plays Unpleasant in 1898; they were termed "unpleasant" because they were intended, not to entertain their audiences—as traditional Victorian theatre was expected to—but to raise awareness of social problems and to censure exploitation of the laboring class by the unproductive rich. In this play, Dr. Harry Trench becomes disillusioned when he discovers how his fiancee's father, Mr. Sartorius, makes his money. However, it is soon revealed that Trench's own income is far from untainted. |
By: Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) | |
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![]() In Edwy, Ann Radcliffe gives us a delightful piece of poetic moonshine, whose eponymous hero seeks assistance from the world of faerie in order to spy on his girlfriend, Aura, and see if she really loves him. He does this by venturing unseen into Windsor Forest at night to trap the love-fay, Eda, who, once spellbound, must reveal all and let him remotely view Aura's activities by means of a magic mirror cut from crystal. In addition to this early form of cyberstalking, Edwy, on his night-journey into the forest gets to witness a royal procession of the Fairie Queen, followed by midnight revels of elves and spirits... |
By: Charlotte Lennox (1730-1804) | |
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![]() Henrietta is a strong willed young lady who will not give in to her aunt and marry the suitors she proposes. She runs away and adventure ensues. However she meets one young man who she is quite taken with but he does not share all about himself and Henrietta finds herself in some tricky situations. |
By: Harry Clifford Fulton | |
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![]() A late 19th-century stage adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables in English, The Shadow of the Law dramatizes the struggles of Hugo's legendary characters: Jean Valjean, the former convict; his relentless pursuer, Javert; Fantine, the tragic mother; her daughter Cosette; the greedy Thenardiers; the doomed revolutionaries. |
By: William Shakespeare (1554-1616) | |
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![]() Much Ado About Nothing is generally considered one of Shakespeare’s best comedies, because it combines elements of robust hilarity with more serious meditations on honor, shame, and court politics. Much Ado About Nothing chronicles two pairs of lovers: Benedick and Beatrice (the main couple), and Claudio and Hero (the secondary couple). Benedick and Beatrice are engaged in a very "merry war"; they are both very witty and proclaim their disdain of love. In contrast, Claudio and Hero are sweet young people who are rendered practically speechless by their love for one another... |
By: Edward Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) | |
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![]() Vicar and his two daughters move to a small, quiet country village and soon learn that their neighbor in the yellow house holds secrets that will change everything they thought to be real in their lives. |
By: Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774) | |
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![]() By the playwright of the more popular She Stoops to Conquer, The Good-Natured Man is the comedic story of misguided philanthropy, mistaken identity, and secret romance. Will Honeywell, The Good-Natured Man, see through the lies and trickery surrounding his generosity? Will Leontine and Olivia's true relationship be found out? And just what is that Lofty guy up to...? |
By: Louis Couperus (1863-1923) | |
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![]() 23 year old Cornélie de Retz is a Dutch Divorcee who goes to Italy to start a new life and most part of the novel is filled with the details of romantic conversations, emotions and finally the Inevitable follows. Find out what the Inevitable is and immerse yourself in the explicit and delicate details of the author as he takes you round the world of Cornélie de Retz. |
By: Sybil G. Brinton (1874-1928) | |
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![]() Generally acknowledged to be the first sequel to the work of Jane Austen, Old Friends and New Fancies incorporates characters from each of Austen's six major novels into one unified story, as well as those of Brinton's own invention. The novel generally focuses on various parings of lovers and the challenges that their unions create. |
By: Earl Derr Biggers (1884-1933) | |
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![]() A young man came to Lloyds of London. He knew they took out policies on unusual risks... And what he wanted was love insurance. What follows is a comic novel, by the creator of the Chinese detective - Charlie Chan! |
By: George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) | |
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![]() Love Among the Artists was published in the United States in 1900 and in England in 1914, but it was written in 1881. In the ambience of chit-chat and frivolity among members of Victorian polite society a youthful Shaw describes his views on the arts, romantic love and the practicalities of matrimony. Dilettantes, he thinks, can love and settle down to marriage, but artists with real genius are too consumed by their work to fit that pattern. The dominant figure in the novel is Owen Jack, a musical genius, somewhat mad and quite bereft of social graces... |
By: Edmund John Eyre (1767-1816) | |
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![]() At the request of Mr. Siddons, Manager and Patentee of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, the following Performance was composed. I am very sensible that Mr. Scott’s Poem of “The Lady of the Lake” afforded material for a much superior Drama than the one here presented to the public; but as Mr. Siddons, in all his correspondence with me on the subject, urged expedition, I was more attentive to the interest of a Friend than to the fame of an Author; and the whole piece was arranged, written, and copied in the short space of ten days... |
By: Florence Roma Muir Wilson (1891-1930) | |
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![]() A weary survivor of the Great War, Major Rane Smith wanders in a great ennui amidst the mystical beauties of the fjords of Norway after the War, seeking a spiritual renewal. Deep in the forest he stumbles fatefully upon the strange, almost elvish home of Karl Ingman, an iconoclastic old Ibsen scholar. There Major Smith meets Ingman's two beautiful young daughters and his eldritch wife Rosa, entering into long days of profound dialogue with each member of the family. A rare and exquisite gem of... |
By: Lewis Theobald (1688-1744) | |
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![]() This play is based on story told in Cervantes' Don Quixote, and some believe it is a reconstruction of a lost play by Shakespeare and Fletcher. Duke Angelo and his son Roderick are concerned about the activities of the duke's younger son, Henriquez. They enlist his friend, Julio, as a spy. Before Julio left for the court, he foolishly asks Henriquez to secure his marriage to Leonora. |
By: Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) | |
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![]() A short and sweet romance by the author of "Anne of Green Gables", Kilmeny of the Orchard is a story about a schoolteacher (Eric) who goes to Prince Edward Island and meets a beautiful but mysterious girl. Who is she? Why doesn't she speak? Why don't her guardians ever let her out? As Eric explores the answers to these questions, he slowly but surely falls in love with the mysterious girl. Will she ever speak to him? |
By: Mrs. E. Burke Collins (1848-1902) | |
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![]() A story of obsessive love and desperation that hid many secrets. This cliffhanger will keep you guessing until the very end. |
By: Edith Nesbit (1858-1924) | |
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![]() "The Lark" has all the charm and freshness which have made Miss Nesbit's former novels so justly popular, and yet the story ts entirely new and original. Two girls, Jane and Lucilla, are led by Jane's guardian to entertain high hopes. The fortune, however, which Jane was to have inherited, has been lost by unlucky speculations, and the two girls have to set about earning their own livings. They experience many adventures and ups and downs of fortune before they meet with the two men who ensure their happiness and prosperity. A delightful story, well worth reading. |
By: Richard Doddridge Blackmore (1825-1900) | |
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![]() Cradock Nowell: a Tale of the New Forest is a three-volume novel by R. D. Blackmore published in 1866. Set in the New Forest and in London, it follows the fortunes of Cradock Nowell who is thrown out of his family home by his father following the suspicious death of Cradock's twin brother Clayton. It was Blackmore's second novel, and the novel he wrote prior to his most famous work Lorna Doone. ( Wikipedia) *Warning: Some listeners may be offended by some of the language. Words that were considered acceptable in the nineteenth century are not always politically correct today. |
By: S. Baring-Gould (1834-1924) | |
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![]() The Pennycomequicks is the charming and witty story of a dysfunctional English family in the late 19th century, scattered to the winds, scarred and battered by human and Divine tragedy, struggling for sustenance of the material and / or immaterial kind. |
By: Richard Doddridge Blackmore (1825-1900) | |
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![]() Cradock Nowell: a Tale of the New Forest is a three-volume novel by R. D. Blackmore published in 1866. Set in the New Forest and in London, it follows the fortunes of Cradock Nowell who, at the end of Volume 1, is thrown out of his family home and disowned by his father following the suspicious death of Cradock's twin brother Clayton, their father's favorite. In Volume 2, the story picks up with those left behind at Nowelhurst and the question of who is now heir apparent to the Nowell fortune. Meanwhile, Cradock discovers life independent of the Nowell name and fortune is not easy... |
By: Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) | |
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![]() Arcadia is a prose work by Sir Philip Sidney, a classic of the Renaissance pastoral and a work of high romance, a fleeting vision of a lost world of gallantry and adventure, representing an escape from the realities of politics in the Elizabethan court. It contributes to the ongoing legend of Sidney as the perfect Renaissance man, "soldier, scholar, horseman he/And all he did done perfectly". |
By: Albert Bigelow Paine (1861-1937) | |
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![]() While riding a stage back to the city late in the summer, a youngster had no money to spend, and so gives his lucky piece as payment to a young girl selling berries by the roadside. As time passes, in the Adirondack mountains of northern New York state, a tale unfolds involving two young women, two young men, and a bevy of characters the likes of which lend to a series of events which make up a fascinating story. Constance was one not to be controlled, she was a free spirit, as in fairy tales, wont to follow the moment rather than ideas presented to her by others... |
By: Margaret O. Oliphant (1828-1897) | |
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![]() One of the so-called "Chronicles of Carlingford", of which there were two short stories and five novels written from 1861 to 1876 by Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant. The Chronicles originally appeared in the famous Blackwood's Magazine. Mrs. Oliphant wrote prolifically in her career, and many of her main characters were independent, resourceful women. In fact, Miss Marjoribanks has been occasionally cited as the successor to Jane Austen's Emma, albeit Miss Marjoribanks is more focused, less pliable and a decidedly more strategic thinker than dear Emma. |
By: Eliza Haywood (c.1693-1756) | |
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![]() This has been said to be the first female development novel in English. Betsy leaves her emotionally and financially abusive husband Munden and experiences independence before she decides to marry again. The novel has marital advice told via quips from Lady Trusty. |
By: Stendhal (1783-1842) | |
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![]() This book is more often called The Charterhouse of Parma in English, because "Charterhouse" is the English word for a Carthusian monastery, whereas "Chartreuse" is the French word. The book tells the life of a Lombard nobleman, born soon after the appearance of Napoleon's army in Italy. He has many adventures in love, war, politics, and the Church. The politics and the Church part of his life result from his doting aunt's becoming the Prime Minister's mistress, and the power behind the throne, in the Duchy of Parma... |
By: Harry Stillwell Edwards (1855-1938) | |
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![]() “Clearly he was one of those rare beings who can radiate energy standing still and convey the impression of impetuous force without motion, a trick of the eyes, a refusal to sag…. King saw her first as she started across Cherry Street from the far corner, a slender figure moving with grace and assurance through the dangerous procession of motor cars, still handled in the South as new toys,…” What is the secret that may keep these two, meant for each other, apart? Book quote and David Wales |
By: Myrtle Reed (1874-1911) | |
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![]() This is another work by the author Myrtle Reed who is also the author of "The Spinster Book" and "Old Rose and Silver" and was a best-seller during 1903. |