Best of
19th-Century

1866

Wives and Daughters


Elizabeth Gaskell - 1866
    When he remarries, a new step-sister enters Molly's quiet life – loveable, but worldly and troubling, Cynthia. The narrative traces the development of the two girls into womanhood within the gossiping and watchful society of Hollingford.Wives and Daughters is far more than a nostalgic evocation of village life; it offers an ironic critique of mid-Victorian society. 'No nineteenth-century novel contains a more devastating rejection than this of the Victorian male assumption of moral authority', writes Pam Morris in her introduction to this new edition, in which she explores the novel's main themes – the role of women, Darwinism and the concept of Englishness – and its literary and social context.

The Toilers of the Sea


Victor Hugo - 1866
    A new translation by Scot James Hogarth for the first unabridged English edition of the novel, which tells the story of a reculsive fisherman from the Channel Islands who must free a ship that has run aground in order to win the hand of the woman he loves, a shipowner's daughter.

Pages from the Goncourt Journals


Edmond de Goncourt - 1866
    But the brothers’ talents found their most memorable outlet in their journal, which is at once a chronicle of an era, an intimate glimpse into their lives, and the purest expression of a nascent modern sensibility preoccupied with sex and art, celebrity and self-exposure. The Goncourts visit slums, brothels, balls, department stores, and imperial receptions; they argue over art and politics and trade merciless gossip with and about Hugo, Baudelaire, Degas, Flaubert, Zola, Rodin, and many others. And in 1871, Edmond maintains a vigil as his brother dies a slow and agonizing death from syphilis, recording every detail in the journal that he would continue to maintain alone for another two decades.

Poems and Ballads & Atalanta in Calydon


Algernon Charles Swinburne - 1866
    ATALANTA IN CALYDON is a drama in classical Greek form, which revealed Swinburne's metrical skills and brought him celebrity. POEMS AND BALLADS brought him notoriety and demonstrates his preoccupation with de Sade, masochism, and femmes fatales. Also reproduced here is 'Notes on Poems and Reviews', a pamphlet Swinburne published in 1866 in response to hostile reviews of POEMS AND BALLADS.

Life and Campaigns of Lieutenant General Thomas J. Jackson


Robert Lewis Dabney - 1866
    But no one has labeled Thomas Jonathan Jackson a "marble man," as impenetrable as the statues which commemorate his valor, because his pious Christian character, his service to the church and teaching vocation, his unwavering commitment to duty, his affectionate role as husband and father, as well as his magnificent service to Virginia and the Southern Confederacy were carefully recorded by his close friend and confidant Robert Lewis Dabney. Dr. Dabney understood, far better than most subsequent biographers, the animating principles of Stonewall Jackson's life - his personal faith in Jesus Christ and his absolute trust in the Providence of God. Labeled by some a religious fanatic, General Jackson was simply a consistent biblical Christian who lived out his faith every day, seriously and without compromise.

The Garden of Proserpine


Algernon Charles Swinburne - 1866
    I am tired of tears and laughter, And men that laugh and weep ;Of what may come hereafter For men that sow to reap :I am weary of days and hours,Blown buds of barren flowers,Desires and dreams and powers And everything but sleep. Here life has death for neighbour, And far from eye or earWan waves and wet winds labour, Weak ships and spirits steer ;They drive adrift, and whitherThey wot not who make thither ;But no such winds blow hither, And no such things grow here. No growth of moor or coppice, No heather-flower or vine,But bloomless buds of poppies, Green grapes of Proserpine,Pale beds of blowing rushesWhere no leaf blooms or blushesSave this whereout she crushes For dead men deadly wine. Pale, without name or number, In fruitless fields of corn,They bow themselves and slumber All night till light is born ;And like a soul belated,In hell and heaven unmated,By cloud and mist abated Comes out of darkness morn. Though one were strong as seven, He too with death shall dwell,Nor wake with wings in heaven, Nor weep for pains in hell ;Though one were fair as roses,His beauty clouds and closes ;And well though love reposes, In the end it is not well. Pale, beyond porch and portal, Crowned with calm leaves, she standsWho gathers all things mortal With cold immortal hands ;Her languid lips are sweeterThan love’s who fears to greet herTo men that mix and meet her From many times and lands. She waits for each and other, She waits for all men born ;Forgets the earth her mother, The life of fruits and corn ;And spring and seed and swallowTake wing for her and followWhere summer song rings hollow And flowers are put to scorn. There go the loves that wither, The old loves with wearier wings ;And all dead years draw thither, And all disastrous things ;Dead dreams of days forsaken,Blind buds that snows have shaken,Wild leaves that winds have taken, Red strays of ruined springs. We are not sure of sorrow, And joy was never sure ;To-day will die to-morrow ; Time stoops to no man’s lure ;And love, grown faint and fretful,With lips but half regretfulSighs, and with eyes forgetful Weeps that no loves endure. From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free,We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may beThat no life lives for ever ;That dead men rise up never ;That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea. Then star nor sun shall waken, Nor any change of light :Nor sound of waters shaken, Nor any sound or sight :Nor wintry leaves nor vernal,Nor days nor things diurnal ;Only the sleep eternal In an eternal night.

Armadale


Wilkie Collins - 1866
    Her malicious intrigues fuel the plot of this gripping melodrama: a tale of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, money—and murder. The character of Lydia Gwilt horrified contemporary critics, with one reviewer describing her as "One of the most hardened female villains whose devices and desires have ever blackened fiction." She remains among the most enigmatic and fascinating women in nineteenth-century literature and the dark heart of this most sensational of Victorian "sensation novels."

Poems and Ballads


Algernon Charles Swinburne - 1866
    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

The Reformation In England, Volume 1 of 2


Jean-Henri Merle d'Aubigné - 1866
    His Spiritual insight remains unsurpassed.

The Liberal Illusion


Louis Veuillot - 1866
    Catholics who read The Liberal Illusion will grasp, once and for all, that the crisis is primarily due not to Vatican II, but to a centuries-long struggle between Revelation and Revolution. Vatican II was merely a decisive moment in that struggle when power within the Church passed from the servants of Revelation to the deluded victims of the Revolution. This edition offers readers a pictographic overview and outline in the form of a unique fold-out insert to provide them with a thread to connect together the 38 chapters. Bishop Williamson helped us to prepare this book to be studied. The Schema at the front unfolds so the chapter numbers are exposed, giving the reader Main Parts, Subdivisions, Tickets for Chapters, and One-line Summaries. This chart gives a horizontal breakdown of the book. The Game Plan is available on the reverse side. This chart-like analysis is a vertical breakdown of the main principles (whether they be right or wrong) and their consequential sub-principles which have become the battle cries of modernity. Each short chapter is preceded by a crunch paragraph summarizing its contents authored by Bishop Williamson.

Pope Joan: Translated & Adapted from the Greek


Emmanuel Rhoides - 1866
    When Papissa Joanna was first published in Athens in 1886 it created a sensation. The book was banned and its author excommunicated. It nevertheless brought him immediate fame and the work established itself securely in the history of modern Greek literature. Subsequently Durrell, one of the most important British writers of the 20th century, created a masterpiece in its own right—a dazzling concoction presented with the deftest touch.