Emily Fox-Seton is a young woman of good birth but no money who works as a companion and assistant for various members of the upper class. She lives in a rented room in a boarding house owned and run by Mrs. Cupp and her daughter, Jane. Her chief employer is Lady Maria Bayne, who is both very selfish and very funny, although she does come to care for Emily. One day, Lady Maria invites Emily to come to a country house party-and to act as Lady Maria's companion, which means she gets to participate in the social activities. The most important guest at the party is Lady Maria's cousin, the marquis James Walderhurst. Emily finds out that he lost his first wife and son many years ago, and if he wants an heir to inherit his title and estates, he must remarry and have another son. During the preparations for the party, a letter arrives at the estate with the news that Mrs. Cupp is selling the house where Emily lives and she breaks in tears. Moved by Emily's unfortunate destiny, Walderhurst takes pity and proposes her.
"The Head of the House of Coombe" - Lord Coombe is considered to be the best-dressed man in London. During one of his social forays, he meets a selfish young woman named 'Feather' with the face of an angel and he slowly drifts into her circle. Feather has a daughter named Robin, of whom she takes little notice. Robin hates Coombe because he separates her from her only friend, a little boy named Donal. Lord Coombe, however, grows fond of Robin and secures her a bright future, but only one person knows the secret of Coombe's determination to watch over her. "Robin" is a sequel to The Head of the House of Coombe. It is the eve of the Great War and British soldiers are leaving to fight the Kaiser. Robin and Donal are destined to find each other again after being parted after their first meeting as children about 15 years earlier. Their love blossoms, but now they have to part again, as Donal is the prime cannon fodder and leaves off to war. After some time, the word comes that Donal is missing and presumed dead, leaving Robin shattered, with a child on the way.
"A Lady of Quality" - Set in the 17th century England, the novel relates the life of young Clorinda, girl raised by her harsh and utterly disreputable father. He forces to wear boys clothes, teaches her to ride horse like a man, her language is crass and her behavior is unconventional for a lady. Tired of such life, Clorinda decides she must change if she wants to attract a decent man and provide a decent life for herself. When she does meet a man she thinks is good for her, the trouble appears in the form of a former lover she no longer wants. "His Grace of Osmonde" is the sequel to A Lady of Quality. Duke Gerald of Osmond is a well-built, handsome, gracious, and kind nobleman who has all the gifts nature can bestow. When he sets his eyes on Clorinda for the first time, she is a gorgeous mess - the swearing, boisterous tomboy daughter of a reckless and wasteful father. Gerald is patient, knowing that fate and nature will tame her and bring them together, but he also fears that his futur bride will be ruined by the world before she settles with him.
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is a Christmas Classic written in 1816, by E. T. A. Hoffmann on which the famous ballet The Nutcracker is based. In the story young Marie Stahlbaum's favorite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls. The story begins on Christmas Eve at the Stahlbaum house. Marie, seven, and her brother, Fritz, eight, sit outside the parlor speculating about what kind of present their godfather, Drosselmeyer, who is a clockmaker and inventor, has made for them. They are at last allowed in, where they receive many splendid gifts...
Will'm and Libby Branfield are young children who live with their Grandma Neal in the town of Junction. As the Christmas is approaching they find out that their father has remarried and that they need to leave Grandma Neal and go live with their new stepmother they fear. On Christmas Eve the children set off on the way sad and frightened, but they miraculously meet Miss Santa Clause who tries to help them solve their family situation.
"The pine forest is a wonderful place. The pine-trees stand in ranks like the soldiers of some vast army, side by side, mile after mile, in companies and regiments and battalions, all clothed in a sober uniform of green and grey. But they are unlike soldiers in this, that they are of all ages and sizes; some so small that the rabbits easily jump over them in their play, and some so tall and stately that the fall of them is like the falling of a high tower. And the pine-trees are put to many different uses. They are made into masts for the gallant ships that sail out and away to distant ports across the great ocean. Others are sawn into planks, and used for the building of sheds; for the rafters and flooring, and clap-boards and woodwork of our houses; for railway-sleepers, and scaffoldings, and hoardings. Others are polished and fashioned into articles of furniture. Turpentine comes from them, which the artist uses with his colours, and the doctor in his medicines; which is used, too, in the cleaning of stuffs and in a hundred different ways. While the pine-cones, and broken branches and waste wood, make bright crackling fires by which to warm ourselves on a winter's day. But there is something more than just this I should like you to think about in connection with the pine forest; for it, like everything else that is fair and noble in nature, has a strange and precious secret of its own."
A Christmas Posy is a wonderfully selected collection of beloved children's stories: "Grandmother Dear's" Old Watch My Pink Pet An Honest Little Man The Six Poor Little Princesses Basil's Violin The Missing Bon-bons Lost Rollo The Blue Dwarfs
Karen is a little girl who lives with her grandmother in the Flemish city of Bruges, where at Christmas time children set their little shoes on the hearth and these they expect the Christ-child himself to fill with gifts. One Christmas, Karen decides that she wants to give a present to a Christ-child because it's unfair that he doesn't get any. She goes out with her grandmother and buys an earthenware porringer which gets stolen by a notorious Bruges thief Han, only to serve as a fine set up for a Christmas miracle.
Lloyd Sherman is an adorable little girl who bears the nickname "The Little Colonel" because of resemblance to her grandfather and army veteran "The Old Colonel." When she comes back home from the boarding school, she is brought down by a flu and unable to enjoy her time at home. Comes Christmas time, even though she is not fully recovered, The Little Colonel refuses to obey nurse's orders and decides to take pleasure in Christmas festivities.
Falkner charts a young woman's education under a tyrannical father figure. As a six-year-old orphan, Elizabeth Raby prevents Rupert Falkner from committing suicide; Falkner then adopts her and brings her up to be a model of virtue. However, she falls in love with Gerald Neville, whose mother Falkner had unintentionally driven to her death years before. When Falkner is finally acquitted of murdering Neville's mother, Elizabeth's female values subdue the destructive impulses of the two men she loves, who are reconciled and unite with Elizabeth in domestic harmony.
The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck tell the life story of Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to the English throne, who claimed to be Richard of Shrewsbury, the second son of Edward IV and one of the so-called "princes in the tower". After the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, with the aid of John de la Poole, Richard, Duke of York hides with Mynheer Jahn Warbeck, a Flemish moneylender who had previously housed him and pretended that Richard was his deceased son, Perkin Warbeck. Under the alias of Perkin, Richard starts paving his way to English throne.
Lodore focuses on the microcosm of the family. The central story follows the fortunes of the wife and daughter of the title character, Lord Lodore, who is killed in a duel, leaving a trail of legal, financial, and familial obstacles for the two "heroines" to negotiate. Lodore's daughter, Ethel, is raised to be over-dependent on paternal control while his estranged wife, Cornelia, is preoccupied with the norms and appearances of aristocratic society. They are both contrasted with the intellectual and independent Fanny Derham.
Valperga is a historical novel which relates the adventures of the early fourteenth-century despot Castruccio Castracani, a real historical figure who became the lord of Lucca and conquered Florence. His armies threaten the fortress of Valperga, governed by Countess Euthanasia, the woman he loves. He forces her to choose between her feelings for him and political liberty.
Pharos is a very old Egyptian, at least ninety-years old, extremely knowledgeable about Egyptian antiquities. He meets Sir William Betford, a peer living in England, who owns an extensive collection of Egyptian antiquities collected earlier by his father, an historian and archeologist who focused on ancient Egypt. The meeting was contrived by Pharos because he wanted to retrieve a mummy he had been searching for a long time, which is now in Betford's collection. Pharos manages to lure Sir Betford into his sphere of influence, and eventually persuades Englishman to accompany him on a trip to Egypt, where it turns out that Pharos is not who he seems to be.
"Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a grotesque, sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. At the same time, it is an early example of science fiction. It has had a considerable influence in literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories, films and plays. "The Last Man" is a post-apocalyptic novel which tells of a future world that has been ravaged by a plague. Lionel Verney or The Last Man is the orphan son of an impoverished nobleman. Lionel is originally lawless, self-willed, and resentful of the nobility for casting aside his father. When he is befriended by Adrian, son of the last King of England, he embraces civilization and particularly scholarship.
Ghosts and Family Legends is a collection of 26 horror stories and supernatural tales told by a group of people closed in a large country mansion, during one cold winter, over several scary nights. Round the Fire Stories: The Lover's Farewell The Appointment Kept The White Cat Passing Spirits The Garde Chasse The Carrier Rehearsals, etc Prophetic Dreams The Vigil The Strange Dog The Scotch Minister The Radiant Boy The Prediction Haunted Houses The Justification The German Inn The Benighted Traveller My own Visit to a Haunted House Mr. G.'s Adventure Conclusion to First Part Legends of the Earthbound: The Italian's Story The Dutch Officer's Story The Old Frenchman's Story The Swiss Lady's Story The Sheep Farmer's Story My Friend's Story
Maud Ruthyn is an heiress who lives with her somber, reclusive father Austin Ruthyn in their mansion at Knowl. Through her father and her worldly, cheerful cousin, Lady Monica Knollys, she gradually learns more regarding her uncle, Silas Ruthyn, a black sheep of the family whom she has never met. Once an infamous rake and gambler, he is now apparently a fervently reformed Christian. His reputation has been tainted by the suspicious suicide of a man to whom Silas owed an enormous gambling debt, which took place within a locked, apparently impenetrable room in Silas's mansion at Bartram-Haugh.
The Jewel of Seven Stars tells the tale of Malcolm Ross, a young barrister, pulled into an archaeologist's plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptian mummy. Malcolm is awakened in the middle of the night and summoned to the house of famous Egyptologist Abel Trelawny at the request of his daughter, Margaret. Once Malcolm arrives at the house, he learns why he has been called - Margaret, hearing strange noises from her father's bedroom, woke to find him unconscious and bloodied on the floor of his room, under some sort of trance. Margaret reveals that her father had left a letter of strange instructions in the event of his incapacitation, stating that his body should not be removed from his room and must be watched at all times until he wakes up. The room is filled with Egyptian relics, and Malcolm notices that the "mummy smell" has an effect on those in the room.
Pietro Zastrozzi, an outlaw, and his two servants, Bernardo and Ugo, disguised in masks, abduct Verezzi from the inn near Munich where he lives and take him to a cavern hideout. Verezzi is locked in a room with an iron door. Chains are placed around his waist and limbs and he is attached to the wall. Verezzi is able to escape and to flee his abductors, and finally settles in Venice, but Zastrozzi is driven by the blind hatred and doesn't give up on ruining Verezzi's life.
Ambrosio is an extremely devout monk about 30 years old. He was found left at the Abbey doorstep when he was too young to tell his tale and monks took him and raised him in the monastery. When his constant companion, a novice named Rosario, admits that he is a woman named Matilda, who disguised herself so that she could be near him, begins a struggle in Ambrosio between his religious vows and his personal temptations and ambitions, which leads to abuse, violence, incest and murder.
"Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a grotesque, sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. At the same time, it is an early example of science fiction. It has had a considerable influence in literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories, films and plays. "St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian" is a Gothic horror novel which retells the destiny of Wolfstein, a solitary wanderer and a disillusioned outcast from society who seeks to kill himself. After he is saved by the monks, he encounters Ginotti, an alchemist of the Rosicrucian, or Rose Cross Order who seeks to impart the secret of immortality.
The Republic is a Socratic dialogue, written by Plato around 380 BC, concerning justice, the order and character of the just city-state, and the just man. It is Plato's best-known work, and has proven to be one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and historically. In the book's dialogue, Socrates discusses with various Athenians and foreigners about the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man. They consider the natures of existing regimes and then propose a series of different, hypothetical cities in comparison, culminating in Kallipolis, a hypothetical city-state ruled by a philosopher king. They also discuss the theory of forms, the immortality of the soul, and the role of the philosopher and of poetry in society.
"Meditations" is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from second century, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius wrote the Meditations as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. The Meditations is divided into 12 books that chronicle different periods of Marcus' life. A central theme to Meditations is the importance of analyzing one's judgment of self and others and the development of a cosmic perspective. The style of writing that permeates the text is one that is simplified, straightforward, and perhaps reflecting Marcus' Stoic perspective on the text.
"Eight Pillars of Prosperity" - In this book Allen mentions that Prosperity rests on eight pillars - Energy, Economy, Integrity, System, Sympathy, Sincerity, Impartiality, and Self-reliance. "As a Man Thinketh" - presents the power of thought, and particularly the use and application of thought to achieve happiness, personal goals and defeat our deepest issues. The book is simple, so that all can easily grasp and follow its teaching, and put into practice the methods which it advises. It shows how, in its own thought-world, every person holds the key to every condition, good or bad, that enters into their life, and that, by working patiently and intelligently upon their thoughts, they can remake their life, and transform their circumstances.
Contents: - The Wolf and the Kid - The Tortoise and the Ducks - The Young Crab and His Mother - The Frogs and the Ox - The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox - Belling the Cat - The Eagle and the Jackdaw - The Boy and the Filberts - Hercules and the Wagoner - The Kid and the Wolf - The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse - The Fox and the Grapes - The Bundle of Sticks - The Wolf and the Crane - The Ass and His Driver - The Oxen and the Wheels - The Lion and the Mouse - The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf - The Gnat and the Bull - The Plane Tree - The Farmer and the Stork - The Sheep and the Pig - The Travelers and the Purse - The Lion and the Ass - The Frogs Who Wished for a King - The Owl and the Grasshopper - A Raven and a Swan - The Two Goats - The Monkey and the Camel...
"As a Man Thinketh" presents the power of thought, and particularly the use and application of thought to achieve happiness, personal goals and defeat our deepest issues. The book is simple, so that all can easily grasp and follow its teaching, and put into practice the methods which it advises. It shows how, in its own thought-world, every person holds the key to every condition, good or bad, that enters into their life, and that, by working patiently and intelligently upon their thoughts, they can remake their life, and transform their circumstances. This edition also includes the sequel to this famous book, "Out from the Heart."
The Freedom of the Will is a work by Christian reformer, theologian, and author Jonathan Edwards which uses the text of Romans 9:16 as its basis. It was first published in 1754 and examines the nature and the status of humanity's will. The book takes the classic Calvinist viewpoint on total depravity of the will and the need of humanity for God's grace in salvation. Although written long before the modern introduction and debate over Open Theism, Edwards' work addresses many of the concerns that have been raised today over this view. Edwards responded that a person may freely choose whatever seems good, but that whatever it is that seems good is based on an inherent predisposition that has been foreordained by God.
Ethics is perhaps the most ambitious attempt to apply the method of Euclid in philosophy. Spinoza puts forward a small number of definitions and axioms from which he attempts to derive hundreds of propositions and corollaries, such as "When the Mind imagines its own lack of power, it is saddened by it"; "A free man thinks of nothing less than of death"; and "The human Mind cannot be absolutely destroyed with the Body, but something of it remains which is eternal."
The story takes place in Texas soon after the War with Mexico. Louise Poindexter, a beautiful newcomer, is courted by two men - the arrogant and vindictive Cassius Calhoun and the dashing but poor mustanger Maurice Gerald. Calhoun plots to eliminate his rival when tragedy strikes: Louise's brother, the young Henry Poindexter, is murdered. All clues point to Maurice Gerald as the assassin. At the same time a headless rider is spotted in the environs of the Poindexter plantation.
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