John Lang was Australia's first locally born novelist, publishing early work in Sydney in the 1840s and going on to write several bestsellers. The Forger's Wife (1856) is a lively adventure novel, set in an unruly colonial Sydney where everyone is on the make. The forger's wife is a young woman who follows her rakish husband out to Australia and struggles to survive as her marriage falls apart. She soon meets detective George Flower, a powerful man with a cavalier sense of justice and retribution. Flower literally controls the fortunes of the colony: taking on the local bushrangers, instructing colonial authorities, and helping himself to the spoils along the way.
First serialised in Fraser's Magazine in 1853, The Forger's Wife was popular in its day and was reprinted many times over. It is Australia's first detective novel – and most likely, the first detective novel in the Anglophone world.
This ebook edition includes an introduction by Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver, and a translation of the appendix by Sophie Zins. The text includes both the lightly modernised text of the print edition as well as the unamended original text.
'It is a powerful, if occasionally painful, book. It sells even now in all the colonies and in England by the thousand...'
'Rolf Boldrewood on Australian Literature', The Advocate (Melbourne), 20 May 1893
The Man Who Was Thursday is one of G.K. Chesterton's most well-known novels, a metaphysical thriller full of mystery, disguised identities and suspense.A member of Scotland Yard’s secret anti-anarchist police corps, Gabriel Syme infiltrates the local European anarchist council only to discover that the group is not what it presents itself to be. Acting as Thursday, one of the elite central council, Syme has access to the innermost secrets and goals of the organization, and, as he races to stop the president, Sunday, from unleashing anarchy in Europe, discovers to his surprise that he is not alone in his mission.
An Author's Republic audio production.
this audiobook is sent out to induce people to look at their own eyes, to pick up the gold in their laps, to study anatomy under the tutorship of their own hearts. One could accumulate great wisdom and secure fortunes by studying his own finger-nails. This lesson seems the very easiest to learn, and for that reason is the most difficult. The lecture, "The Silver Crown," which the author has been giving in various forms for fifty years, is herein printed from a stenographic report of one address on this general subject. It will not be found all together, as a lecture, for this book is an attempt to give further suggestion on the many different ways in which the subject has been treated, just as the lecture has varied in its illustrations from time to time. The lecture was addressed to the ear. This truth, which amplifies the lecture, is addressed to the eye.
Introducing "Mark Twain - Short Stories"
Dive into the timeless wit and captivating narratives of Mark Twain brought to life in this extraordinary collection of short stories, now available in an engaging digital audiobook format. Step into Twain's world and experience the brilliance of his storytelling with these remarkable tales:
"Californian's Tale" - Immerse yourself in this classic as Twain unfolds a captivating story set against the backdrop of California.
"A Curious Dream" - Embark on a surreal journey through the whimsical and thought-provoking landscape of Twain's imagination.
"A Day at Niagara" - Experience the wonder and adventure as Twain paints a vivid picture of a day spent at the magnificent Niagara Falls.
"A Dog’s Tale" - Explore the world from a canine perspective in this heartwarming and poignant tale of loyalty and friendship.
"The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut" - Discover Twain's unparalleled wit and satire in this intriguing story that delves into the curious aspects of crime and society.
At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies: To whom should I dedicate this book, but to you, to whom I owe my visit to the West Indies? I regret that I could not consult you about certain matters in Chapters XIV and XV; but you are away again over sea; and I can only send the book after you, such as it is, with the expression of my hearty belief that you will be to the people of Mauritius what you have been to the people of Trinidad.
The Ramsey family, with house guests, visit the Isle of Skye at least twice. The plot is not at all the point though, as this is a book about how people think and feel and relate. There’s insight into the world of childhood thought and emotion, and a variety of views of adult care and perceptions. I hope this doesn’t make it sound ‘difficult’, it doesn’t need to be – just let the sentences flow and make your own sense of the words. It’s perhaps as close as a novel can come to the highly individual experience of looking at a painting.
Virginia Woolf was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in using stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born into an affluent household in South Kensington, London, the seventh child of Julia Prinsep Jackson and Leslie Stephen in a blended family of eight which included the modernist painter Vanessa Bell. She was home-schooled in English classics and Victorian literature from a young age. From 1897 to 1901, she attended the Ladies' Department of King's College London, where she studied classics and history and came into contact with early reformers of women's higher education and the women's rights movement.
Encouraged by her father, Woolf began writing professionally in 1900. After her father's death in 1904, the Stephen family moved from Kensington to the more bohemian Bloomsbury, where, in conjunction with the brothers' intellectual friends, they formed the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group. In 1912, she married Leonard Woolf, and in 1917, the couple founded the Hogarth Press, which published much of her work.
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton's most famous novel, is a love story, written immediately after the end of the First World War. Its brilliant anatomization of the snobbery and hypocrisy of the wealthy elite of New York society in the 1870s made it an instant classic, and it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. Newland Archer, Wharton's protagonist, is charming, tactful, enlightened-a thorough product of this society. He accepts its standards and abides by its rules, but he also recognizes its limitations. His engagement to the impeccable May Welland assures him of a safe and conventional future, until the arrival of May's cousin Ellen Olenska. Independent, free-thinking, and scandalously separated from her husband, Ellen forces Archer to question the values and assumptions of his narrow world. As their love for each other grows, Archer has to decide where his ultimate loyalty lies.