Publisher: Charles River Editors
John Buchan was a Scottish writer and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. Buchan wrote a vast amount of books including the Richard Hannay novels that have recently been turned into a popular British television show. This edition of The Watcher by the Threshold includes a table of contents.
Greek poet Homer established the standard for tales of epic quests and heroic journeys with the Odyssey. Crowded with characters, both human and nonhuman, and bursting with action, the Odyssey details the adventures of Ulysses, king of Ithaca and hero of the Trojan War, as he struggles to return to his home and his waiting, ever-faithful wife, Penelope. Along the way Ulysses encounters the seductive Circe, who changes men into swine; the gorgeous water-nymph Calypso, who keeps him a "prisoner of love" for seven years; the terrible, one-eyed, man-eating giant Cyclops; and a host of other ogres, wizards, sirens, and gods. But when he finally reaches Ithaca after ten years of travel, his trials have only begun. There he must battle the scheming noblemen who, thinking him dead, have demanded that Penelope choose one of them to be her new husband-and Ithaca's new king. Often called the "second work of Western literature" (the Iliad, also by Homer, being the first), the Odyssey is not only a rousing adventure drama but also a profound meditation on courage, loyalty, family, fate, and undying love. More than 3,000 years old, it was the first story to delineate carefully and exhaustively a single character arc-a narrative structure that serves as the foundation and heart of the modern novel.Show book
A wise man once said ‘The safest place for a child is in the arms of his mother’s voice’. This is a perfect place to start our anthology of female short stories. Some of our earliest memories are of our mothers telling us bedtime stories. This is not to demote the value of fathers but more to promote the often-overshadowed talents of the gentler sex. Perhaps ‘gentler’ is a word that we should re-evaluate. In the course of literary history it is men who dominated by opportunity and with their stranglehold on the resources, both financial and technological, who brought their words to a wider audience. Men often placed women on a pedestal from where their talented words would not threaten their own. In these stories we begin with the original disrupter and renegade author Aphra Behn. A peek at her c.v. shows an astounding capacity and leaves us wondering at just how she did all that. In those less modern days to be a woman, even ennobled, was to be seen as second class. You literally were chattel and had almost no rights in marriage. As Charlotte Smith famously said your role as wife was little more than ‘legal prostitute’. From such a despicable place these authors have used their talents and ideas and helped redress that situation. Slowly at first. Privately printed, often anonymously or under the cloak of a male pseudonym their words spread. Their stories admired and, usually, their role still obscured from rightful acknowledgement. Aided by more advanced technology, the 1700’s began to see a steady stream of female writers until by the 1900’s mass market publishing saw short stories by female authors from all the strata of society being avidly read by everyone. Their names are a rollcall of talent and ‘can do’ spirit and society is richer for their works. In literature at least women are now acknowledged as equals, true behind the scenes little has changed but if (and to mis-quote Jane Austen) there is one universal truth, it is that ideas change society. These women’s most certainly did and will continue to do so as they easily write across genres, from horror and ghost stories to tender tales of love and making your way in society’s often grueling rut. They will not be silenced, their ideas and passion move emotions, thoughts and perhaps more importantly our ingrained view of what every individual human being is capable of. It is because of their desire to speak out, their desire to add their talents to the bias around them that we perhaps live in more enlightened, almost equal, times. Within these stories you will also find very occasional examples of historical prejudice. A few words here and there which in today’s world some may find inappropriate or even offensive. It is not our intention to make anyone uncomfortable but to show that the world in order to change must reconcile itself to the actual truth rather than put it out of sight. Context is everything, both to understand and to illuminate the path forward. The author’s words are set, our reaction to them encourages our change. 01 - The Female Short Story. A Chronological History - An Introduction - Volume 2 02 - Conversation on Conversation by Harriet Beecher Stowe 03 - Aunt Hetty on Matrimony by Fanny Fern, the writing pseudonym for Sarah Payton Parton 04 - Reality or Delusion by Mrs Ellen Wood 05 - The Little Skeleton by Mary Anne Atherstone writing as M A Bird 06 - Napoleon and the Spectre by Charlotte Bronte 07 - The Knitted Collar by Mary Anne Hoare 08 - The Palace of Death by Emily Bronte 09 - The Lifted Veil - Part 1 by George Eliot 10 - The Lifted Veil - Part 2 by George Eliot 11 - The Peterkins Decide to Learn the Languages by Lucretia Peabody Hale<p&gShow book
Mr. Polly, also known as Alfred Polly, is a fictional character created by the renowned English writer H.G. Wells in his 1910 novel "The History of Mr. Polly." The novel follows the life of Mr. Polly, an ordinary and discontented middle-aged man living in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mr. Polly is a relatable figure who embodies the struggles and frustrations of the average person in the face of societal expectations and personal dissatisfaction. Set against the backdrop of the Edwardian era, "The History of Mr. Polly" offers a profound exploration of the human condition. Mr. Polly's life is characterized by a series of disappointments, failed ventures, and a general sense of aimlessness. Frustrated with his monotonous existence and a loveless marriage, he reaches a breaking point, deciding to escape the confines of his mundane life and pursue a different path. Wells paints a vivid portrait of Mr. Polly's journey of self-discovery and reinvention. The narrative takes readers through a range of emotions, from the bleakness of Mr. Polly's initial struggles to the optimism and hope that emerges as he embarks on a new adventure. Ultimately, "The History of Mr. Polly" serves as a thought-provoking exploration of the universal human desire for freedom, happiness, and the pursuit of a meaningful existence in an ever-changing world.Show book
Charles Dickens' classic morality tale for Christmastide, first published in 1843. Elderly miser Ebenezer Scrooge receives an unexpected visit from a series of otherworldly advisors... Narrated by Robin Reads.Show book
Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 - April 24, 1942), published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables. The book was an immediate success. The title character, orphan Anne Shirley, made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following.The Old Fellow's Letter: Ruggles and I were down on the Old Fellow. It doesn't matter why and, since in a story of this kind we must tell the truth no matter what happens or else where is the use of writing a story at all? I'll have to confess that we had deserved all we got and that the Old Fellow did no more than his duty by us.Show book
A highly decorated English soldier and an acclaimed poet and novelist, Siegfried Sassoon won fame for his trilogy of fictionalized autobiographies that wonderfully capture the vanishing idylls of Edwardian England and the brutal realities of war. In this first novel of the semiautobiographical George Sherston trilogy, Sassoon wonderfully captures the vanishing idylls of the Edwardian English countryside. Never out of print since its original publication in 1928, when it won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Sassoon's reminiscences about childhood and the beginning of World War I are channeled through young George Sherston, whose life of local cricket tournaments and fox-hunts falls apart as war approaches and he joins up to fight. Sassoon's first novel, though rife with comic characters and a jaunty sense of storytelling, presents his own loss of innocence and the destruction of the country he knew and loved.Show book
