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  The Member and the Radical

  John Galt

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  Two novels by the 18th-century Scottish author that “focus on the foibles and fumbles, the humor and waste of people . . . of political ambition” (The National).   Galt’s two great political novels date from around the passing of the Reform Act of 1832. The Member has claims to be the first political novel in the English language and is a tour de force of wit, observation, and a devastating critique of political self-seekings. Its hero is a Scot, newly returned from India, who purchases a seat in a rotten borough. As a study of the corruption of the pre-reform parliament it is unsurpassed.  The Radical is a study of narrow-minded, humor-less fanaticism. Galt’s aim is to demonstrate the fragility of the existing order and the closeness of anarchy to the surface of society. This is the first republication of The Radical since its original edition.   “Galt has dropped from popular currency even more than Walter Scott, but he is an important novelist and warrants reappraisal and new reading.”—The National

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  Under the Knife

  H. G. Wells

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  Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels and often credited as being the father of science fiction.'Under the Knife' is an eerie firsthand account by a patient of a surgical operation he experiences, which he already knows he will not survive.

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  Mary Elizabeth Braddon - A Short...

  Mary Elizabeth Braddon

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  Mary Elizabeth Braddon – A Short Story Collection – An Introduction 
   
  Mary Elizabeth Braddon was born in London on the 4th October 1835. 
   
  At age 5 her parents separated but her ambition to succeed was not daunted.  After being privately educated she took to acting, and the minor roles she obtained where enough to support both her and her mother.  This potential career waned as soon as she began writing and secured an income from it. 
   
  In 1860, she met John Maxwell, a publisher of periodicals, and moved in with him the following year.  At the time Maxwell was already married with five children but his wife was confined to an Irish mental asylum.  On her death they married and she had six children by him. 
   
  Braddon was prolific and wrote over 80 novels, perhaps the most famous is ‘Lady Audley's Secret’ (1862), which won her both sales and a fortune as a bestseller.  She also wrote a number of historical fiction novels which again increased her reputation. 
   
  She was equally prolific as a short story writer, primarily supernatural and ghost stories, all of which continue to be anthologized to this day, such is the high regard they are kept in. 
   
  Braddon founded Belgravia magazine in 1866, its fare being serialised sensation novels, poems, travel narratives and biographies, along with essays on fashion, history and science, all lavishly illustrated.  She also edited Temple Bar magazine. 
   
  Mary Elizabeth Braddon died on 4th February 1915 and is buried in Richmond Cemetery. 
   
  1 - Mary Elizabeth Braddon - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  2 - Colonel Benyon's Entanglement by Mary Elizabeth Braddon 
  3 - The Cold Embrace by Mary Elizabeth Braddon 
  4 - The Face in the Glass by Mary Elizabeth Braddon 
  5 - Eveline's Visitant by Mary Elizabeth Braddon 
  6 - The Higher Life by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

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  The Old Nurse's Story

  Elizabeth Gaskell

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  Elizabeth Gaskell is equally well known as Mrs Gaskell. When her mother died, she was three months old and she was sent to live in Knutsford, Cheshire with her Aunt Hannah, this setting would become the basis for her novel Cranford.  At 22 she married and settled in Manchester to raise her family. Friends with Charlotte Bronte she went on to write her biography and was also highly regarded by a certain Charles Dickens who published her ghost stories in his magazine.  Much of her work views the emerging industrial society of Victorian England through her own moral and religious values and has an uncanny ability to look at and report on the many strata of society.

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  Von Kempelen And His Discovery

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  A newspaper article which claims that a man by the name of Von Kempelen has discovered the alchemical process by which to turn iron into pure gold.

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  The War of the Worlds

  H. G. Wells

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  No one would have believed that planet Earth was being watched by creatures more intelligent than humankind.But planet Earth was not only being watched – soon it would be invaded by monstrous creatures from Mars who strode about the land in great mechanical tripods, bringing death and destruction with them. What can possibly stop an invading army equipped with heat-rays and poisonous black gas, intent on wiping out the human race? This is one man’s story of that incredible invasion, from the time the first Martians land near his home town, to the destruction of London. Is this the end of human life on Earth?Baker Street Readers are retellings of literary classics in 64 pages, with illustrations. These books make classic stories available to intelligent young readers as a bridge to the full texts and to language students wanting access to other cultures.

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