The Spark (The 'Sixties)

Edith Wharton

Synopsis

YOU idiot!” said his wife, and threw down her cards.
I turned my head away quickly, to avoid seeing Hayley Delane’s face; though why I wished to avoid it I could not have told you, much less why I should have imagined (if I did) that a man of his age and importance would notice what was happening to the wholly negligible features of a youth like myself.
I turned away so that he should not see how it hurt me to hear him called an idiot, even in joke—well, at least half in joke; yet I often thought him an idiot myself, and bad as my own poker was, I knew enough of the game to judge that his—when he wasn’t attending—fully justified such an outburst from his wife. Why her sally disturbed me I couldn’t have said; nor why, when it was greeted by a shrill guffaw from her “latest,” young Bolton Byrne, I itched to cuff the little bounder; nor why, when Hayley Delane, on whom banter always dawned slowly but certainly, at length gave forth his low rich gurgle of appreciation—why then, most of all, I wanted to blot the whole scene from my memory. Why?

Disponible depuis: 05/03/2022.

D'autres livres qui pourraient vous intéresser

A Girl with a Knife

Alina Rubin

Winner of the Illinois Soon To Be Famous Author Contest 
 
 
 
After the heartbreaking loss of her mother and a cruel attack by her drunken father, Ella Parker decides that dishonesty is fine when it serves her needs. Ella escapes her luxurious but lonely life and meets an eccentric ship surgeon who allows her to assist him during a surgery. 
 
 
 
Compelled by Ella's intelligence and interest in medicine, the doctor prepares her for a medical career, but there's a catch: in early nineteenth century England, women are not accepted into universities. To fulfil her dream of becoming a doctor, Ella must disguise herself as a young man. After changing her look and name, Ella finds her footing as she performs dissections, conducts experiments, and cares for patients. She also tutors Oli, a kind but struggling fellow student, but she must take caution. Even in her loneliest moment, she cannot trust anyone. 
 
 
 
As Ella continues to excel in her studies, saving the life of a patient, she becomes a top contender for the apprenticeship with a famed professor. Dogged by fear of discovery, she must choose between truth and lies, and distinguish between real and false friends, before her pretense is uncovered.

Voir livre

Fannie

Rebecca F. John

1815. Life is hard for Fannie, working at the factory with only sweet memories of her 'gentleman' and daughter to sustain her. But when she is revealed to be an unmarried mother and dismissed, she is forced to take greater and greater risks to provide for her child.

A story of desperation, but also of love and the soaring power of hope.

A haunting reimagining of Les Misérables' Fantine.

Voir livre

A Radical Affair - A Scottish...

Louise Mayberry

What harm could one night of pleasure do?
Cybil Bythesea is imprisoned in a marriage that ended ten years ago. That’s when she fled the cruelty of her husband, Lord Falstone, and took refuge at her father’s estate in Northumberland. Since then, her family’s money has kept the villain at bay, and she’s been able to pursue her creative passion—writing. But freedom, true freedom, has been beyond her grasp.
Except for her clandestine liaisons with Will.
Will Chisolm is haunted by the past, the tragedy of his family’s eviction from their ancestral Highland farm, then his own foolish descent into political radicalism. Even now that he’s gained wealth and respectability as the manager of a set of spinning mills in Glasgow, he’s burdened with more responsibility and guilt than anyone knows.
But there’s something about Cybil—a lightness, a kinship that, at least temporarily, makes all Will’s troubles fade away. It’s a dangerous game. Cybil is his employer’s sister, the wife of his political enemy and for the last four years, his lover.
She’s also with child. Will’s child. And their world, their lives, will never be the same.
“...an achingly beautiful world of love, desperation, intrigue, a reckoning with the past, and a twisty, emotional journey. I loved it from start to finish and continue to think about it days later in the best possible ways.” - Reader review
A Radical Affair is the first book in the Darnalay Castle Series, although all of the books in the series can be read as standalones. It contains strong language and several spicy open-door scenes.

Voir livre

Emma - A Final Fragment

Jane Austen

Charlotte Brontë, one of the best known and widely read novelists of the nineteenth century, surely needs no introduction, her Gothic masterpiece Jane Eyre appearing on curricula and book lovers' shelves alike; but few have encountered her unfinished novels and shorter works.


The final words to flow from Charlotte Brontë's pen, and published shortly after her death, Emma is a compelling and powerful short work that stands on its own two feet, and leaves the reader to dream where the great writer was headed to next.

Voir livre

The Patriots

Vivian Stuart

The fifteenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams.
 
After being accused of high treason, Michael Wexford seeks revenge upon those who took everything from him.
 
It is 19th century Australia: Irishman Michael Wexford is unravelling his existence in the penal colonies after defying the justice system. Considered a criminal beyond reform or redemption, Michael plots his revenge. Meanwhile, siblings Kitty and Patrick Cadogan venture out to the Norfolk Island in search of their brother, praying that he is not the miscreant everyone makes him out to be.

Voir livre

The Surgeon's House

Jody Cooksley

London, 1883. The brutal murder of Rose Parmiter seems, at first glance, to be a random and senseless act. Rose was the beloved cook at Evergreen House, a place of refuge for women and children, a place from which they can start their lives afresh. Proprietor Rebecca Harris, is profoundly shocked by the death of her dear friend and alarmed at the mysterious events which begin to unfold shortly afterwards. Could the past be casting a shadow on the present? The malign legacy of the Everley family who called Evergreen home, cannot be ignored. After two further deaths it becomes clear there is an evil presence infecting their sanctuary, and Rebecca must draw out the poison of the past so the Evergreen residents can finally make peace with the darkness in their lives.

Voir livre