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"Abandoned by her parents, bookish and sheltered Georgiana Ellers is spending the summer with her stodgy aunt and uncle at their home in the English countryside. At a particularly dull party, she meets the enigmatic Frances Campbell, a wealthy member of the in-crowd who delights Georgiana with her disregard for so-called "polite society." Lonely and vulnerable, Georgiana quickly falls in with Frances and her wealthy, wild, and deeply improper friends,...
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In "Felix Holt, the Radical", an opportunistic bid for power sparks a dramatic love triangle.
It's the early 1830s in England, and the town of Treby is gearing up for an election. Harold Transome, a radical candidate, is leading the pack. The problem is that he's lacking in real beliefs-he's in politics for the fame. As the election draws nearer, Treby becomes a powder keg of tension. And to make matters worse, Harold and Felix Holt, a man with very...
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Sketches by "Boz," Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People (commonly known as Sketches by Boz) is a collection of short pieces published by Charles Dickens in 1836 accompanied by illustrations by George Cruikshank. The 56 sketches concern London scenes and people and are divided into four sections: "Our Parish", "Scenes", "Characters", and "Tales". The material in the first three of these sections is non-fiction. The last section comprises...
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When their father's death leaves them with no money and a dim future, the Madden sisters, Alice, Virginia, and Monica, must negotiate the gender roles and class constraints of Victorian London in the 1890s. Virginia and Alice have aged out of the possibility of marriage and seemingly the idea of love itself and find themselves with few prospects and little hope. Remaindered in the marriage equation, these "odd women" face a great deal of scrutiny,...
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Deborah Grantham, mistress of her aunt's elegant gaming house, must find a way to restore herself and her aunt to respectability, preferably without accepting either of two repugnant offers. One is from an older, very rich and rather corpulent lord whose reputation for licentious behavior disgusts her; the other from the young, puppyish scion of a noble family whose relatives are convinced she is a fortune hunter. The young suitor's uncle, Max Ravenscar,...
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a harrowing critique of social class and the powerlessness of women. Tess, a beautiful young woman, is pushed on her rich "relatives" by her grasping father. When the young Lord does with her as he likes, Tess's whole life falls into ruins from which she attempts to free herself. The novel met with mixed reviews upon publication, because it challenged the precepts of society. It is now considered a classic of
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While you were sleeping... With her brother Thomas injured on the battlefront in the Colonies, orphaned Cecilia Harcourt has two unbearable choices: move in with a maiden aunt or marry a scheming cousin. Instead, she chooses option three and travels across the Atlantic, determined to nurse her brother back to health. But after a week of searching, she finds not her brother but his best friend, the handsome officer Edward Rokesby. He's unconscious...
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"Two On A Tower" (1882) is a tale of star-crossed love in which Hardy sets the emotional lives of his two lovers against the background of the stellar universe. The unhappily married Lady Constantine breaks all the rules of social decorum when she falls in love with Swithin St. Cleeve, an astronomer who is ten years her junior. Her husband's death leaves the lovers free to marry, but the discovery of a legacy forces them apart. This is Hardy's most...
10) My Lady Ludlow
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Lady Ludlow is a complex and fascinating character, who embodies the contradictions and tensions of her time. On the one hand, she is a deeply traditional and conservative figure, who believes in the strict hierarchy and social codes of her class. On the other hand, she is also a compassionate and caring woman, who is committed to helping the poor and vulnerable members of her community. As the story unfolds, Lady Ludlow becomes embroiled in a series...
11) I thee wed
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At Ware Castle, lady companion Emma Greyson ducks into a cupboard to avoid a lecher, and who should she meet hiding there, but the dashing Lord Edison Stokes. He is in the castle on a secret mission and together they solve a murder. A Regency romance.
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"'Many men write well and tell a story well, but few possess the art of giving individuality to their characters so happily and easily as you ... '" "Thus wrote the publisher John Blackwood in February 1857 to a shy and ambitious new author, whom he had not yet met, George Eliot. Shielded by this pseudonym, Mary Ann Evans made her fictional debut when Scenes of Clerical Life appeared in Blackwood's Magazine the same year. These stories contain Eliot's...
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Samuel Butler was an individualistic Victorian era writer who published a variety of works. He is also known for examining Christian orthodoxy, considerable studies of evolutionary thought, studies of Italian art, and works of literary history as well as criticism. Butler even made prose translations of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" which remain some of the most popular to this day. His authority on literature came through his posthumous novel, "The...
14) Wessex tales
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Ironic short stories. "Stockdale, a lonely young fellow, who had for weeks felt a great craving for somebody on whom to throw away superfluous interest, and even tenderness, was not sorry to join her." A collection of six novellas, written in the 1880s and 1890s, about the true nature of nineteenth century marriage and its inherent restrictions.
15) The Illusionists
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London 1870. A terrifying place for a young, beautiful woman of limited means. But Eliza is modern before her time. Not for her the stifling if respectable conventionality of marriage, children, domestic drudgery. She longs for more. Through her work as an artist's model, she meets the magnetic and irascible Devil - a born showman whose dream is to run his own theatre company. Devil's right-hand man is the improbably-named Carlo Bonomi, an ill-tempered...
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Hailed by The Times as "Hugely entertaining, marvelously light-footed", in celebration of Jane Austen's 250th anniversary, writer/comedian Alison Larkin brings you an audiobook unlike any other.Larkin's award-winning narrations of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are followed by Songs from Regency England, Poems, Stories and Plays by a teenage Jane Austen. Other bonus material includes...
18) The lady he lost
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Lucky ladies of London volume 1
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When Lieutenant Eli Williams reappears after being lost at sea for two years, Miss Jane Bishop, as he tries to make amends for a past mistake, must decide if she can let go of the past to build a future with him or risk losing him for good
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Bedwyn saga volume 6
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All of London is abuzz over the imminent arrival of Wulfric Bedwyn, the reclusive, cold-as-ice Duke of Bewcastle, at the most glittering social event of the season. Some whisper of a tragic love affair. Others say he is so aloof and passionless that not even the greatest beauty could capture his attention. But on this dazzling afternoon, one woman did catch the duke's eye-and she was the only female in the room who wasn't even trying. Christine Derrick...





