Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
Insight edition with engaging side notes that offer background on social customs, thoughts on the book's themes of faith, and other engaging information.
W. W. Jacobs (1863-1941) is well known for humorous stories and for the most grisly of horror stories. The Interruption belongs very much in the latter category.Spencer Goddard's wife has died suddenly after a short and intense illness. Finally Goddard has his freedom and full use of his wife's wealth. But before he can begin to enjoy his new-found freedom, Hannah the cook begins to behave rather oddly. Goddard realizes that Hannah knows his secret...and a terrible power struggle begins.Show book
Three Men on the Bummel is the story of a Victorian bicycle trip gone wrong-then wrong and wrong again! A trio of British gentlemen attempt a cycling expedition in Germany's Black Forest. Confusion about the differences in language and culture get them into continual trouble, whether it's boarding a train, buying a present for an aunt, or simply trying to get safely from one place to another. Will they ever get back to their own lives-and will they really want to? Reprising the characters from Jerome's hugely popular Three Men in a Boat, this gently humorous book will delight anyone who has ever had an unpredictable vacation.Show book
A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843. It recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol during a period when the British were exploring and re-evaluating past Christmas traditions, including carols, and newer customs such as Christmas trees. He was influenced by the experiences of his own youth and by the Christmas stories of other authors, including Washington Irving and Douglas Jerrold. Dickens had written three Christmas stories prior to the novella and was inspired following a visit to the Field Lane Ragged School, one of several establishments for London's street children. The treatment of the poor and the ability of a selfish man to redeem himself by transforming into a more sympathetic character are the key themes of the story. There is discussion among academics as to whether this is a fully secular story, or if it is a Christian allegory.Published on December 19, the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve; by the end of 1844 thirteen editions had been released. Most critics reviewed the novella favorably. The story was illicitly copied in January 1844; Dickens took legal action against the publishers, who went bankrupt, further reducing Dickens's small profits from the publication. In 1849 he began public readings of the story, which proved so successful he undertook 127 further performances until 1870, the year of his death. A Christmas Carol has never been out of print and has been translated into several languages; the story has been adapted many times for film, stage, opera and other media.Show book
This collection includes: "The Cat-hood of Maurice", "The Mixed Mine", "Accidental Magic", "The Princess and the Hedge-Pig", "Septimus Septimusson", "The White Cat", "Belinda and Bellamant", "Justnowland", "The Related Muff", "The Aunt and Anabel, "Kenneth and the Carp", "The Magician's Heart".Show book
The transitory mental aberration of Sidney Davidson, remarkable enough in itself, is still more remarkable if Wade's explanation is to be credited. It sets one dreaming of the oddest possibilities of intercommunication in the future, of spending an intercalary five minutes on the other side of the world, or being watched in our most secret operations by unsuspected eyes. It happened that I was the immediate witness of Davidson's seizure, and so it falls naturally to me to put the story upon paper.Show book
Written in 1906, Before Adam is a bit of a departure from London's other novels. Still an adventure novel, this one revolves around the dreams of a young boy, dreams that involve racial memories and the knowledge of his prior existence as a man-like creature named Big Tooth living in prehistoric times. "These are our ancestors, and their history is our history. Remember that as surely as we one day swung down out of the trees and walked upright, just as surely, on a far earlier day, did we crawl up out of the sea and achieve our first adventure on land."Show book
