Best of
19th-Century

2014

Sister of Mine


Sabra Waldfogel - 2014
    Little do they know that this place has an unusual history.Twelve years prior, Adelaide Mannheim—daughter of Mordecai, the only Jewish planter in the county—was given her own maid, a young slave named Rachel. The two became friends, and soon they discovered a secret: Mordecai was Rachel’s father, too.As the country moved toward war, Adelaide and Rachel struggled to navigate their newfound sisterhood—from love and resentment to betrayal and, ultimately, forgiveness.Now, facing these Union soldiers as General Sherman advances nearer, their bond is put to the ultimate test. Will the plantation be spared? Or will everything they’ve lived for be lost? Revised edition: Previously published as Slave and Sister, this edition of Sister of Mine: A Novel includes editorial revisions.

A Feather to Fly With


Joyce Harmon - 2014
    But Cleo Cooper has come to London with a different idea – she’s going to make her fortune by stealing it. Raised abroad by unconventional parents, Cleo has no use for the rules and strictures of the ton. She’ll pretend to fit in, but she has a secret scheme.Arthur Ramsey, Duke of Winton, is in the market for a wife. He imagines a sweet, conformable young lady who will gracefully fill the role of Duchess, secure the succession with an heir, and not interfere with his scientific pursuits. That’s what he’s looking for – but what he finds is Cleo.(Author's Note: A Feather To Fly With is a traditional Regency. If it were a movie, it would be rated PG, or even G.)

The Fault in Our Stars: by John Green -- Sidekick


BookBuddy - 2014
    Meet Hazel, 16 years of age and dealing with thyroid cancer, and Augustus, a 17-year-old amputee and former basketball player in remission. After meeting at a support group for children living with cancer, they fall in love and together face the complex realities of their respective illnesses, fears, desires, and the ultimate questions of life and death. The Fault in Our Stars is an engaging, moving mix of romance, tragedy, and comedy that will have readers rethinking the question of what one leaves behind. This sidekick surveys the novel's universal themes of love and loss, sickness and health, life and death. John Green's artfully written saga is part poignant love story, part existential tragedy. As their relationship deepens, Hazel and Augustus travel to Amsterdam and meet Hazel's idol, author Peter van Houten, who challenges their ideas of what it means to live a life of purpose. Use the chapter-by-chapter analysis in this sidekick of The Fault in Our Stars to explore the story's deeper philosophical themes, as the relationship between Hazel and Augustus unfolds and veers to its inevitable resolution. Fans of John Green's previous works will find The Fault in Our Stars to be a mesmerizing and haunting read from the first page to the last.

Return to Quail Crossings


Jennifer McMurrain - 2014
    She had dreams of Hollywood stardom, not dirty diapers and pigs. But when Robert Smith, a country boy from head to toe, offers her and her daughter a chance at a normal life, reputation intact, Evalyn can’t help but accept. Little does Robert know, Evalyn is keeping a huge secret. While Evalyn’s family members deal with prejudice in 1940s Texas, fertility, changes of the heart, and even a ghost come back from the dead, Evalyn must fight for her family or lose everything she has grown to love.

Going Home


James D. Shipman - 2014
    As he grows older, he finds his kind nature exploited by others—including an alluring young woman named Lucy—until he gets swept away by the conflict that divides a nation.After the bloody siege of Petersburg, Joseph floats in and out of consciousness at a Union army hospital. Keeping vigil at his side is Rebecca Walker, a nurse and widow all too familiar with the horrors of war. As Joseph fights for his life and Rebecca struggles to follow her heart, both face a devastating choice: whether to hang on to the wounds of the past or move on to an uncertain future.From the fields of Ireland to the metropolis of Quebec to the battlefields of Virginia, Going Home follows one man’s quest for his place in a world still healing from the wreckage of war.

Eleanor Marx: A Life


Rachel Holmes - 2014
    Hers was the first English translation of Flaubert's Mme Bovary. She pioneered the theatre of Henrik Ibsen. She was the first woman to lead the British dock workers' and gas workers' trades unions. For years she worked tirelessly for her father, Karl Marx, as personal secretary and researcher. Later she edited many of his key political works, and laid the foundations for his biography. But foremost among her achievements was her pioneering feminism. For her, sexual equality was a necessary precondition for a just society.Drawing strength from her family and their wide circle, including Friedrich Engels and Wilhelm Liebknecht, Eleanor Marx set out into the world to make a difference - her favourite motto: 'Go ahead!' With her closest friends - among them, Olive Schreiner, Havelock Ellis, George Bernard Shaw, Will Thorne and William Morris - she was at the epicentre of British socialism. She was also the only Marx to claim her Jewishness. But her life contained a deep sadness: she loved a faithless and dishonest man, the academic, actor and would-be playwright Edward Aveling. Yet despite the unhappiness he brought her, Eleanor Marx never wavered in her political life, ceaselessly campaigning and organising until her untimely end, which - with its letters, legacies, secrets and hidden paternity - reads in part like a novel by Wilkie Collins, and in part like the modern tragedy it was.

The Emerald Comb


Kathleen McGurl - 2014
    The house may be crumbling today, but it was once the intimidatingly opulent residence of the St Clairs, Katie’s ancestors. Arriving here two hundred years later, emotion stirs in Katie: a strange nostalgia for a place she’s never seen before... and when Kingsley House comes up for sale, Katie is determined that her family must buy it.Surrounded by the mysteries of the past, Katie’s pastime becomes a darker obsession, as she searches through history to trace her heritage. But she soon discovers that these walls house terrible secrets. And when forgotten stories and hidden betrayals come to light, the past seems more alive than Katie could ever have imagined.Moving between the 21st and 19th centuries, The Emerald Comb is a hauntingly evocative novel, perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Rachel Hore.

The Gemma Doyle Trilogy (Gemma Doyle, #1-3)


Libba Bray - 2014
    It's the only way to get all three of Libba Bray's critically acclaimed novels in one bundle.A Great and Terrible Beauty: Gemma Doyle finds an icy reception at the Spence Academy in London, where she becomes entangled with the leader of the school's most powerful clique and discovers her own mother's connection to a shadowy group called the Order.Rebel Angels: Gemma is looking forward to spending time in London over Christmas, but her troubled visions of three girls dressed in white are intensifying and only the enchanted realms can give Gemma the answers she needs.The Sweet Far Thing: In a world where rules are everything, can a girl like Gemma survive? The conclusion to the bestselling series.

12 Years A Slave: True story of an African-American who was kidnapped in New York and sold into slavery - with bonus material: Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe


Solomon Northup - 2014
    Against all odds, Northup eventually manages to get word to his family – and the ensuing rescue from the drunken and sadistic Mr Epps and subsequent legal cases are no less shocking than the rest of the tale.Northup’s meticulous first-hand recordings of slave life, written in conjunction with a white lawyer called David Wilson, provide a true-life testament to tremendous courage and resolve in the face of unspeakable injustice.Now a major Hollywood film, nominated for Best Picture at the 2014 Academy Awards, and directed by Steve McQueen – starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender and Benedict Cumberbatch.

The Mammoth Book of the Lost Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes


Denis O. Smith - 2014
    In that spirit, The Mammoth Book of The Lost Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes brings together some of the more than two dozen stories that Denis O. Smith—regarded as the best Holmes storyteller after Doyle—wrote since the publication of “The Adventure of the Purple Hand” in 1982.

Far as the Eye Can See


Robert Bausch - 2014
    After the war, he sets his sights on California, but only makes it to Montana. As he stumbles around the West, from the Wyoming Territory to the Black Hills of the Dakotas, he finds meaning in the people he meets-settlers and native people-and the violent history he both participates in and witnesses. Far as the Eye Can See is the story of life in a place where every minute is an engagement in a kind of war of survival, and how two people-a white man and a mixed-race woman-in the midst of such majesty and violence can manage to find a pathway to their own humanity.Robert Bausch is the distinguished author of a body of work that is lively and varied, but linked by a thoughtfully complicated masculinity and an uncommon empathy. The unique voice of Bobby Hale manages to evoke both Cormac McCarthy and Mark Twain, guiding readers into Indian country and the Plains Wars in a manner both historically true and contemporarily relevant, as thoughts of race and war occupy the national psyche.

Lord Somerton's Heir


Alison Stuart - 2014
    can a new love heal their wounds? A tale of second chance love in aristocratic Regency England, for lovers of all things Bridgerton.Sebastian Alder's sudden elevation from penniless army captain to Viscount Somerton is the stuff of fairy tales, but the cold reality of an inherited estate in wretched condition leaves him little time for fantasy, and the memory of his wife's brutal death haunts his every moment. When he learns of the mysterious circumstances of his cousin's demise, he must also look for a potential murderer ... surely not Isabel, his cousin's ladylike widow?Isabel, Lady Somerton, is desperate to bury the memory of her unhappy marriage by founding the charity school she has always dreamed of. Her hopes are shattered from beyond the grave when she is left not only penniless but once more bound to the whims of a Somerton ... although perhaps the new Lord Somerton is a man she can trust ... or even care for?Suspicion could tear them apart ... honesty and courage may pull them together.(Winner of the 2012 Romance Through the Ages Award for an unpublished manuscript - Romance Writers of America Historical Chapter)

A Noble Pair of Brothers


Suzanne Downes - 2014
    When C. H. Underwood arrives in the village of Bracken Tor in the spring of 1820, he intends only to visit his brother, the vicar, and take a long rest from his work as a Classics tutor at Cambridge University. However, almost as soon as he arrives he finds himself intrigued by an unsolved murder, committed the year before. The headless corpse of a young woman was found in woods belonging to the local landowner and Magistrate, Sir Henry Wynter. Underwood finds the notion that the body lies in a grave marked “Unknown” to be abhorrent. He decides to use his free time to discover the identity of the victim – and if possible bring her killer to justice. His brother begs him to proceed with caution, as the murder had roused feelings of a controversial nature amongst the villagers. Before long he has uncovered not only the girl’s final movements before her death, but also the possibility of two other murders having taken place in Bracken Tor. His task is not made any less complicated by his developing relationship with Charlotte, one of Sir Henry’s daughters, and by the myriad characters he comes across in his investigation. The theory that the girl had been killed as some sort of barbaric ritual is only one of his difficulties, and when a young man arrives in the midst of a cricket match, claiming to be the victim’s husband, the whole village becomes privy to the fact that Underwood is attempting to solve the mystery. When the newcomer is shot through the heart whilst in Underwood’s company, he finds himself not only universally reviled for his interference, but also accused of murder himself. It takes all his ingenuity to extricate himself from the chaos he has caused, but he always has Verity Chapell, governess to the Wynter girls, to help him in his quest to find the murderer.

Heart of a Dove


Abbie Williams - 2014
    Civil War, this passionate opening volume of a projected series successfully melds historical narrative, women’s issues, and breathless romance with horsewomanship, trailside deer-gutting, and alluring smidgeons of Celtic ESP." ~ Publishers Weekly______________________The Civil War has ended, leaving the country with a gaping wound. Lorie Blake, a southern orphan sold into prostitution at fifteen, has carefully guarded her aching soul from the disgrace forced upon her every evening. Two years have passed, leaving her with little hope of anything more. Meanwhile, three men – longtime friends – and a young boy with a heart of gold are traveling northward, planning to rebuild their lives in the north and leave behind the horrors of their time as soldiers in the Confederate Army.Fate, however, has plans of its own, causing their lives to collide in a river town whorehouse. Forced to flee, Lorie escapes and joins them on the journey north. But danger stalks them all in the form of a vindictive whorehouse madam and an ex-Union soldier, insane and bent on exacting revenge. At last, Lorie must come to terms with her past and devastating secrets that she cannot yet bear to reveal.Heart of a Dove is the first book in a gripping, sweeping romantic saga of pain, unbearable choices, loss and true love set against the backdrop of a scarred, post-Civil War America.

Anton Chekhov's Selected Stories (Norton Critical Editions)


Anton ChekhovHarvey Pitcher - 2014
    6,” “The Lady with the Little Dog,” “Anna on the Neck,” “The Name-Day Party,” “The Kiss,” An Incident at Law,” and “Elements Most Often Found in Novels, Short Stories, Etc.” This edition features twenty-five brand-new translations, commissioned expressly for this volume from Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, Peter Constantine, Rosamund Bartlett, Michael Henry Heim, among others. Twenty translations have been selected from the published work of such master translators as Patrick Miles and Harvey Pitcher, Ann Dunnigan, and Ronald Hingley. Seven additional translations are by Constance Garnett, substantially revised by Cathy Popkin. All stories are annotated to clarify unfamiliar material and to point out differences in the translators’ strategies."Life and Letters" includes a rich selection of Chekhov’s letters, some in English for the first time, some with previously redacted passages restored, as well as Aileen Kelly’s portrait of Chekhov.“Criticism” explores the wide range of approaches and interpretations in two sections. “Approaches” juxtaposes five different perspectives on how to read Chekhov, represented by Peter Bitsilli, Alexander Chudakov, Robert Louis Jackson, Vladimir Kataev, and Radislav Lapushin. “Interpretations” contains ten divergent readings of stories in this edition. Case studies include Michael Finke on “At Sea”; Cathy Popkin on “[A Nervous] Breakdown”; Julie de Sherbinin on “Peasant Women”; Liza Knapp on “Ward No. 6”; Robert Louis Jackson on “Rothschild’s Fiddle” and “The Student”; Wolf Schmid on “The Student”; John Freedman on “Man in a Case,” “Gooseberries,” and “About Love”; Caryl Emerson on “A Calamity,” “Anna on the Neck,” “About Love,” and “The Lady with the Little Dog”; and Rufus Mathewson on “The Lady with the Little Dog” and “The Beauties.”A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included, as is a postscript on the translators and their work. A special section, “Comparison Translations,” gives passages from selected stories in multiple translations.

The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women's Suffrage Movement, 1848-1898


Lisa Tetrault - 2014
    The standard account credits founders such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott with defining and then leading the campaign for women's suffrage. In her provocative new history, Lisa Tetrault demonstrates that Stanton, Anthony, and their peers gradually created and popularized this origins story during the second half of the nineteenth century in response to internal movement dynamics as well as the racial politics of memory after the Civil War. The founding mythology that coalesced in their speeches and writings--most notably Stanton and Anthony's "History of Woman Suffrage"--provided younger activists with the vital resource of a usable past for the ongoing struggle, and it helped consolidate Stanton and Anthony's leadership against challenges from the grassroots and rival suffragists. As Tetrault shows, while this mythology has narrowed our understanding of the early efforts to champion women's rights, the myth of Seneca Falls itself became an influential factor in the suffrage movement. And along the way, its authors amassed the first archive of feminism and literally invented the modern discipline of women's history.

Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived And Will Never Die


Alex Werner - 2014
    Ever since his creation, Sherlock Holmes has continued to enthrall his readers and audiences: he is the world's favourite fiction detective and is indelibly linked to London. From the handsome cabs hurtling through the city streets and thick fogs shrouding long lines of terraced houses, this was Sherlock's London. It was a city at the nexus of a vast Empire and one of the wealthiest, largest and most populous of its day.Through early film, photography, paintings and original artifacts, the book explores the real Victorian London which was the backdrop for many of Conan Doyle's stories. Richly illustrated by the museums unrivalled collection and authoritatively written by Alex Werner, David Cannadine and other leading authorities on London, this book appeals to anyone who loves this beguiling city and wants to explore it as it was when Sherlock Holmes was brought to life.

One Dark Night


Anna Faversham - 2014
    Lucy Yorton, dragged away from her privileged early life, must slave, friendless, on a bleak, run-down farm. Those around her suspect she is a spy and treat her accordingly. Her problems increase when two men enter her life.Lieutenant Karl Thorsen, sworn to avenge the murder of his father, is a King's man. He is determined to stop the violent smugglers, hang them, and hang and gibbet one in particular. Daniel Tynton has smuggling in his blood. Undaunted by Thorsen's threats, he is respected and feared. The choices we make determine our futures and Lucy is torn between two determined men as the secrets and lies undermining her life are exposed. How will she ever love and trust again?Reviews from Goodreads: 'Have added Anna Faversham to my favorite authors’ list! Great plot, interesting characters and an inspirational story. Looking forward to the next book.''Rich with historical descriptions, this story of a girl's tough life really drew me in. Great uplifting story.''Very exciting and a good book.''A great read and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.'‘I fell in love with Daniel from the very start.’Also includes Twenty Questions for Book Clubs

Uncle Vanya


Anton Checkhov - 2014
    Baker practices astonishing verbal magic over and over again." - Clancy Martin, Paris Review"Strikingly intimate... Free of the stilted or formal locutions that clutter up some of the more antique-sounding translations... Ms. Baker has given the play a natural but distinctly contemporary American sound." - Charles Isherwood, New York Times"Devastatingly beautiful... People are going to be talking about this one for years." - Jacob Gallagher-Ross, Village Voice"More than a modern-dress treatment of a classic work, it's a fresh rethinking of the material from the perspective of a modern mind." - Marilyn Stasio, VarietyAnnie Baker, one of the most celebrated playwrights in the United States, lends her truthful observation and elegant command of the colloquial to Anton Chekhov's despairing masterpiece Uncle Vanya. A critical hit in its sold-out Off-Broadway premiere, Baker's telling is a refreshingly intimate and modern treatment of a Chekhovian classic.Annie Baker's plays include The Flick (The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Obie Award), The Aliens (Obie Award), Circle Mirror Transformation (Obie Award) and Body Awareness. Her work has been produced at more than a hundred theaters in the U.S. and in more than a dozen countries internationally. Recent honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Steinberg Playwright Award and New York Drama Critics Circle Award. She is a resident playwright at the Signature Theatre.

The Adventure of the Yellow Coat: A classic Sherlock Holmes pastiche


Adela Torres - 2014
    Doctor John H. Watson, recently married and with a new practice, hasn't seen his friend Sherlock Holmes in a while. But a strange encounter gives him the perfect excuse to go back to the 221B of Baker Street: an apparently trivial incident that leaves Watson as the owner of a coat of a peculiar colour. Watson tells Holmes the story simply to amuse his friend. Holmes, however, thinks there's more to the incident that meets the eye and Watson will soon have motives to regret that he ever came into the possession of the yellow coat.

In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon's Wars, 1793–1815


Jenny Uglow - 2014
    Illustrated by the satires of Gillray and Rowlandson and the paintings of Turner and Constable, and combining the familiar voices of Austen, Wordsworth, Scott, and Byron with others lost in the crowd, In These Times delves into the archives to tell the moving story of how people lived and loved and sang and wrote, struggling through hard times and opening new horizons that would change their country for a century.

The Black War: Fear, Sex and Resistance in Tasmania


Nicholas Clements - 2014
    It was by far the most intense frontier conflict in Australia’s history, yet many Australians know little about it. The Black War takes a unique approach to this historic event, looking chiefly at the experiences and attitudes of those who took part in the conflict. By contrasting the perspectives of colonists and Aborigines, Nicholas Clements takes a deeply human look at the events that led to the shocking violence and tragedy of the war, detailing raw personal accounts that shed light on the tribes, families, and individuals involved as they struggled to survive in their turbulent world. The Black War presents a compelling and challenging view of Australia’s early contact history, the legacy of which reverberates strongly to the present day.

Overruled: The Long War for Control of the U.S. Supreme Court


Damon Root - 2014
    Judicial deference is not only a touchstone of the Progressive left, for example, it is also a philosophy adopted by many members of the modern right. Today's growing camp of libertarians, however, has no patience with judicial restraint and little use for majority rule. They want the courts and judges to police the other branches of government, and expect Justices to strike down any state or federal law that infringes on their bold constitutional agenda of personal and economic freedom.Overruled is the story of two competing visions, each one with its own take on what role the government and the courts should play in our society, a fundamental debate that goes to the very heart of our constitutional system.

Alethea or A Solemn Vow


Catherine J. Bowness - 2014
    She is a lively girl who loses her temper on the slightest provocation, especially with the Earl of Knill, who seems to take particular pleasure in teasing her.Her cousin, Eleanor, on the shelf at 31, is resigned to becoming a governess, until she falls in love, when she is cast into despair.London Society turns out to be a lot more fun than either had expected until their romantic entanglements grow increasingly complicated and Alethea unwittingly becomes involved in a sinister intrigue.

The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World


Greg Grandin - 2014
    They weren’t. Having earlier seized control of the vessel and slaughtered most of the crew, they were staging an elaborate ruse, acting as if they were humble servants. When Delano, an idealistic, anti-slavery republican, finally realized the deception, he responded with explosive violence.Drawing on research on four continents, The Empire of Necessity explores the multiple forces that culminated in this extraordinary event—an event that already inspired Herman Melville’s masterpiece Benito Cereno. Now historian Greg Grandin, with the gripping storytelling that was praised in Fordlandia, uses the dramatic happenings of that day to map a new transnational history of slavery in the Americas, capturing the clash of peoples, economies, and faiths that was the New World in the early 1800s.

Retribution Road


Antonin Varenne - 2014
    Arthur Bowman, a sergeant in the East India Company, is sent on a secret mission during the Second Anglo-Burmese War. But the expedition is foiled - his men are captured and tortured. Throughout their ordeal, a single word becomes Bowman's mantra, a word that will stiffen their powers of endurance in the face of unimaginable suffering: "Survival". But for all that, only a handful escape with their lives.Some years later in London, battling his ghosts through a haze of alcohol and opium, Bowman discovers a mutilated corpse in a sewer. The victim appears to have been subjected to the same torments as Bowman endured in the Burmese jungle. And the word "Survival" has been daubed in blood by the body's side. Persuaded that the culprit is one of the men who shared his captivity, Bowman resolves to hunt him down.From the Burmese jungle to the slums of London to the conquest of the Wild West, Antonin Varenne takes us on a thrilling journey full of sound and unabated fury, reviving the lapsed tradition of the great writers of boundless adventure. Sergeant Bowman belongs to that breed of heroes who inhabit the imaginations of Conrad, Kipling, Stevenson . . . Lost soldiers who have plunged into the heart of darkness and will cross the globe in search of vengeance and redemption. Translated from the French by Sam Taylor

Doctor Kinney's Housekeeper


Sara Dahmen - 2014
    It is soft and undulating but it is dry and I wonder how it smells. Is there a smell to dust? I will know soon enough. The train is sure of itself and pulls me toward my next purpose. I am unlike many of the people I meet. Like the train, so many pull themselves toward a perceived life, taking charge of whatever they can to make things better, easier. I am perhaps not so cunning or so sure of myself, only knowing I must have purpose. There are no sensibilities about life, only calm action, whether it be easy or hard. My musings are cut short as the train comes to a stop. Another town, another crossing, but it is not yet mine. Jane's practiced sense and uncomplicated nature is laid bare as she methodically lists out her journey. From nursemaid to widow to housekeeper to cook, she finds herself always watching, wondering, and observing, rarely partaking in the action of life around her, surprised when she matters to others. It's a thoughtful and singular journey taken during the newly minted years of the Dakota Territories, when settlers were pouring in and the Native Americans were moved out. Be part of Jane's psyche as she experiences intolerance, acceptance, love and death, and find a bit of your own self in her story.

The Calling of the Raven


Jenny Lloyd - 2014
    Megan is resolved to tell Eli of the affair she had before they married and of her illegitimate daughter, Fortune, which her brother, Morgan, and Mam stole from her to save the family from shame. Before Megan has a chance to tell Eli, her plans are scuppered by a chance meeting with her old lover; the ne'er-do-well, Iago. Megan's life again takes a turn for the worse and there seems to be no mending the damage Iago has caused. Meanwhile, the new milkmaid arrives. Her name is Branwen, beautiful raven, though Megan can see no beauty in her at all, and it transpires that Branwen is no stranger to Eli. Once Branwen gets her foot in the door, there is no shifting her. The events which follow take Megan to the edges of insanity and her liberty and life are threatened.

Sherlock Holmes and the King of Clubs (A Sherlock Holmes Mystery)


Steve Hayes - 2014
    Holmes has retired to Sussex, to keep bees, and Watson, recently widowed, has returned to general practice. But when Watson, desperate for distraction, agrees to accompany his old friend to Vienna, to visit eminent neurologist, Sigmund Freud, it is not long before the pair are pulled back into the murky world of ruthless criminals bent on abduction, intimidation, and murder. A shadowy terrorist group, The Black Hand, is plaguing the city, and when the tentacles of a crime committed in England reach across to Vienna to cil around Harry Houdini, the famous American escapologist, the Great Detective and his Boswell relish the chance of solving yet another puzzle.

Capturing Jack The Ripper: In the Boots of a Bobby in Victorian London


Neil R.A. Bell - 2014
    Some called him the Whitechapel Monster, while locals referred to him as Leather Apron, but to the world he was known as Jack the Ripper.The responsibility of capturing this murderous fiend fell upon the men of London s Metropolitan and City police forces. Capturing Jack the Ripper will investigate the working lives of these men, and see what it takes to become one of Queen Victoria s police constables, from recruitment to training and on to life as a bobby.This book provides an insight into police life, as well as an in-depth view of the investigation at the height of the Ripper murders; it provides a rare look at the men who protected the streets, who faced very real dangers every night, who often suffered severe physical injury and who sometimes died; men who faced life in the raw in one of the worst parts of London and who were the first on the scene after a killer had struck. Join the police as they go out into the dank, crime-infested, gas-lit abyss known as Whitechapel, and try to capture Jack the Ripper."

Lucy Stone: An Unapologetic Life


Sally G. McMillen - 2014
    Anthony, and Lucretia Mott. Historically, the inscription beneath the marble statue notes, these three stand unique and peerless. Infact, the statue has a glaring omission: Lucy Stone. A pivotal leader in the fight for both abolition and gender equality, her achievements marked the beginning of the women's rights movement and helped to lay the groundwork for the eventual winning of women's suffrage. Yet, today most Americanshave never heard of Lucy Stone.Sally McMillen sets out to address this significant historical oversight in this engaging biography. Exploring her extraordinary life and the role she played in crafting a more just society, McMillen restores Lucy Stone to her rightful place at the center of the nineteenth-century women's rightsmovement. Raised in a middle-class Massachusetts farm family, Stone became convinced at an early age that education was key to women's independence and selfhood, and went on to attend the Oberlin Collegiate Institute. When she graduated in 1847 as one of the first women in the US to earn a collegedegree, she was drawn into the public sector as an activist and quickly became one of the most famous orators of her day. Lecturing on anti-slavery and women's rights, she was instrumental in organizing and speaking at several annual national woman's rights conventions throughout the 1850s. Sheplayed a critical role in the organization and leadership of the American Equal Rights Association during the Civil War, and, in 1869, cofounded the American Woman Suffrage Association, one of two national women's rights organizations that fought for women's right to vote. Encompassing Stone'smarriage to Henry Blackwell and the birth of their daughter Alice, as well as her significant friendships with Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and others, McMillen's biography paints a complete picture of Stone's influential and eminently important life and work.Self-effacing until the end of her life, Stone did not relish the limelight the way Elizabeth Cady Stanton did, nor did she gain the many followers whom Susan B. Anthony attracted through her extensive travels and years of dedicated work. Yet her contributions to the woman's rights movement were noless significant or revolutionary than those of her more widely lauded peers. In this accessible, readable, and historically-grounded work, Lucy Stone is finally given the standing she deserves.

The World Duology


Lance Morcan - 2014
    Their dramatic adventures span sixteen years and see them engage with Native American Indians, Barbary Coast pirates, Aborigines, Maoris and Pacific Islanders as they travel around the world – from America to Africa, from England to the Canary Islands, to Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji. In book one, World Odyssey, ambitious American adventurer Nathan Johnson, sheltered English missionary Susannah Drake and irrepressible Cockney Jack Halliday each follow very different paths. Nathan’s journey begins when runs away to sea and finds himself the slave of a Northwest American Indian tribe after his ship founders on the rocky coast; Susannah’s journey begins after she agrees to accompany her clergyman father to Fiji to help him run a mission station there, and they must endure a nightmare voyage they’re lucky to survive; Jack’s journey begins when he’s sentenced to seven years’ hard labor in the British penal colony of New South Wales after stealing hemp from an unscrupulous employer. After traveling thousands of miles and experiencing the best and worst that life can offer, these three disparate individuals eventually end up in the remote archipelago of Fiji, in the South Pacific, where their lives intersect. In book two, Fiji: A Novel, Jack sets himself up to trade Fijian kauri to European traders while Nathan trades muskets to the same natives Susannah and her father are trying to convert to Christianity. Conflict’s inevitable. Susannah despises Nathan, but is also attracted to him. She soon finds she’s torn between her spiritual and sexual selves. When their lives are suddenly endangered by marauding cannibals, all three are forced to rely on each other for their very survival.

Queen Victoria's Grandsons (1859-1918)


Christina Croft - 2014
    Some died in childhood, some were killed in action, and others lived to see grandchildren of their own. There were heroes and villains, valiant soldiers and dissipated youths, but their lives were interconnected through the tiny Queen for whom their welfare and happiness was a constant preoccupation. As part of a wide, extended family, they lived through the halcyon days of the late nineteenth century European monarchies, witnessing the most spectacular and the most tragic events of the age.

Purgatory


Rosetta Allan - 2014
    No one can hear her, just us boys. We're the dead Finnegans – Ma, Thomas, Ben and me.Ten-year-old John Finnegan can't leave his garden. Ever since they were murdered he, his brothers and his ma have been stuck there, caught between the worlds of the living and the dead. Unseen and unnoticed, he watches the events after his life unfold – including the actions of his murderer.James Stack is born dirt-poor on an Irish tenant farm and the great famine shadows his childhood. But his clever sister's lace making may save the family – until Aileen is sent to the other side of the world on a convict ship. To save her, James joins the redcoats and follows her across dangerous waters to a hopeful new land. But can he ever leave the death and hunger of his homeland behind?Based on the 1865 Otahuhu murders, Purgatory is a startling, gripping novel from an immensely talented new author.

From Slavery to the Cooperative Commonwealth: Labor and Republican Liberty in the Nineteenth Century


Alexander H. Gourevitch - 2014
    These "labor republicans" derived their definition of freedom from a long tradition of political theory dating back to the classical republics. In this tradition, to be free is to be independent of anyone else's will - to be dependent is to be a slave. Borrowing these ideas, labor republicans argued that wage laborers were unfree because of their abject dependence on their employers. Workers in a cooperative, on the other hand, were considered free because they equally and collectively controlled their work. Although these labor republicans are relatively unknown, this book details their unique, contemporary, and valuable perspective on both American history and the organization of the economy.

The Descent of the Lyre


Will Buckingham - 2014
    When his bride-to-be is abducted the night before his wedding, Ivan Gelski takes to the hills and turns to banditry to seek revenge. But a chance encounter with a travelling guitarist, and the bloodshed that follows, set him on a musical journey through fame, martyrdom and legend. In this remarkable reinvention of the tale of Orpheus, Will Buckingham plunges us into the music and folklore of Bulgaria, in a parable about storytelling, sainthood and myth-making.

Lincoln Raw


D.L. Fowler - 2014
    people do.Included in the Lincoln Collection of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential LibraryAbraham Lincoln is inescapably human, reliving the gauntlet of tragedy and abuse that should have consumed him, exposing his private reasons for standing firm on the brink of war.Seven-year-old Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood dies when his father drags their family from the relative comfort of Kentucky into an unforgiving Indiana wilderness. While suffering rebuke for teaching himself to read and write, Abraham endures rumors of illegitimate birth, escapes death a half-dozen times, labors to repay his father’s debts, and grieves the deaths of his infant brother, angel mother, precious sister, and beloved sweetheart.By his early thirties, he casts off his parents’ religion, becomes estranged from his closest friend, and loses faith in his own character when he breaks an engagement to marry a woman he doesn’t love. He spirals into life-threatening depression. In the prime of life, unable to keep a pledge made to his dying mother to become someone special, he wrestles with self-doubt, abandons politics, and resigns himself to a life of mediocrity. But when his long-time rival opens the door for slavery’s expansion across half the globe, Lincoln faces the greatest challenge of his life—his beloved country is being ripped apart.Grounded in historical record, the story is enriched by insights gleaned from the works of prominent Lincoln biographers—Harold Holzer, Michael Burlingame, Douglas Wilson, Allen Guelzo, and Joshua Shenk, to credit a few.

A History of America in Thirty-Six Postage Stamps


Chris West - 2014
    From George Washington's dour gaze to the charging buffalo of the western frontier and Lindbergh's soaring biplane, American stamps are a vivid window into our country's extraordinary and distinctive past. With the always accessible and spirited West as your guide, discover the remarkable breadth of America's short history through a fresh lens.On their own, stamps can be curiosities, even artistic marvels; in this book, stamps become a window into the larger sweep of history.

James' Journey


Helen Lundström Erwin - 2014
    As fierce slavery debates are dividing the country, James Waynewright breaks family tradition and travels to New York to study. Having grown up on a tobacco plantation in Virginia he never questioned how his family’s wealth is generated. In the beginning he is shocked by what he feels are radical ideas of abolition and feels that Northerners have been subject to propaganda. As time goes on, James begins to understand their point of view, and he realizes that he no longer condones slavery. James falls in love with Katherine Greenfield, an upper class New Yorker and an abolitionist. Due to unforeseen circumstances they hastily marry and return to the plantation. Intending to free their slaves, James and Katherine begin leading double lives in order to help runaways that are escaping north, at the same time having to navigate their neighbors’ increasing suspicion and the slave laws of their state.

The Pocket Haiku


Matsuo Bashō - 2014
    Based on images from nature, the poems address the themes of joy, temporality, beauty, wonder, loneliness, and loss. Haiku may be the most popular and widely recognizable poetic form in the world. In just three lines a great haiku presents a crystalline moment of image, emotion, and awareness. Elements of compassion, silence, and a sense of temporality often combine to reveal a quality of mystery. Just as often, haiku may bring a startling insight into the ordinary, or a flash of humor. Collected here are over two hundred of the best haiku of Japanese literature--written by the great masters of the genre.The featured poets are Bashō, Buson, Issa, Moritake, Sōin, Sanpū, Kikaku, Ransetsu, Kyorai, Raizan, Kakei, Onitsura, Taigi, Chiyo, Sogetsuni, Sogi, Fuhaku, Teiga, Kikusha-ni, Tayo-jo, Sōchō, Shōha, and Shiki.     This is a pocket-size reissue of The Sound of Water (Shambhala, 1995).

The Lady's Ghost


Colleen Ladd - 2014
    If mice in the walls and holes in the roof aren't bad enough, someone wants her to believe the place is haunted. But Portia doesn't scare that easily, even if catching sight of the brooding ghost leaves her strangely breathless. When he was accused of murdering his fiancée a decade ago, Giles Ashburne fled the country to his supposed death. Now he’s returned to the Hall to uncover the evidence that will exonerate him, only to find himself playing a ghost in his own home. Nothing he does drives Portia away, and worse, the stubborn chit is starting to grow on him. The more Portia learns about Giles Ashburne, the more certain she becomes that her ghost is not only innocent, but far from dead. When she sets out to prove it, she puts herself on a crash course with not only Giles, but the real killer. If Giles and Portia don't learn to stop striking sparks off each other and work together, there will soon be two ghosts at Ashburne Hall.

La Belle Créole: The Cuban Countess Who Captivated Havana, Madrid, and Paris


Alina García-Lapuerta - 2014
    She befriended aristocrats and artists alike, including Balzac, Baron de Rothschild, Rossini, and the opera diva La Malibran.A daughter of the creole aristocracy, Mercedes led a tumultuous life, leaving her native <!--?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /-->Havana as a teenager to join her mother in the heart of Madrid’s elite society. As Napoleon swept Spain into the Peninsular War, Mercedes’ family remained at the center of the storm, and her marriage to French general Christophe-Antoine Merlin tied her fortunes to France. Arriving in Paris in the aftermath of the French defeat, she re-created her life, ultimately hosting the city’s premier musical salon. Acknowledged as one of the greatest amateur sopranos of her day, she nurtured artistic careers and daringly paved the way for well-born singers to publicly perform in lavish philanthropic concerts. Beyond her musical renown, Mercedes achieved fame as a writer. Her memoirs and travel writings introduced European audiences to nineteenth-century Cuban society and contributed to the debate over slavery. Scholars still quote her descriptions of Havana life and recognize her as Cuba’s earliest female author.Mercedes epitomized an unusually modern life, straddling cultures and celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic. Her memoirs, travel writings, and very personal correspondence serve as the basis for this first-ever English-language biography of the passionate and adventuresome Belle Créole.<!--?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /-->

Rainbows on the Moon


Barbara Wood - 2014
    I flout convention. I am a New Woman on a holy purpose." Newlywed Emily Stone and her husband, Isaac, are young missionaries who have traveled from New England to Honolulu to share the Gospel with the Hawaiian natives. Gentle, adventurous, well-bred, and beautiful, Emily soon finds herself struggling with intense homesickness but remains determined to share her faith . . . and ignore her growing feelings for handsome Captain MacKenzie Farrow. As unexpected tragedies threaten to force her off the island, Emily must make a decision that could destroy everything she knows and loves including her own sanity. With richly imagined characters and spellbinding scenery, Rainbows on the Moon is a masterful depiction of the beauty of human emotion.

Maximilian and Carlota: Europe's Last Empire in Mexico


Mary Margaret McAllen Amberson - 2014
    Civil War. France viewed this as a chance to seize Mexican territory in a moment they were convinced the Confederacy would prevail and take over Mexico. With both sides distracted in the U.S., this was their opportunity to seize territory in North America. In 1867, with aid from the United States, this movement came to a disastrous end both for the royals and for France while ushering in a new era for Mexico.In a bid to oust Juárez, Mexican conservatives appealed to European leaders to select a monarch to run their country. Maximilian and Carlota’s reign, from 1864 to 1867, was marked from the start by extravagance and ambition and ended with the execution of Maximilian by firing squad, with Carlota on the brink of madness. This epoch moment in the arc of French colonial rule, which spans North American and European history at a critical juncture on both continents, shows how Napoleon III’s failure to save Maximilian disgusted Europeans and sealed his own fate.Maximilian and Carlota offers a vivid portrait of the unusual marriage of Maximilian and Carlota and of international high society and politics at this critical nineteenth-century juncture. This largely unknown era in the history of the Americas comes to life through this colorful telling of the couple’s tragic reign.

Work / Eight Cousins /Rose in Bloom / Stories & Other Writings


Louisa May Alcott - 2014
    This second volume of The Library of America’s Alcott edition gathers these works for the first time, revealing a fascinating and inspiring dimension of a classic American writer.The first of a trio of novels written over a fruitful three-year period, Work: A Story of Experience (1873) has been called the adult Little Women. It follows the semi-autobiographical story of an orphan named Christie Devon, who, having turned twenty-one, announces “a new Declaration of Independence” and leaves her uncle’s house in order to pursue economic self-sufficiency and to find fulfillment in her profession. Against the backdrop of the Civil War years, Christie works as a servant, actress, governess, companion, seamstress, and army nurse—all jobs that Alcott knew from personal experience—exposing the often insidious ways in which the employments conventionally available to women constrain their self-determination. Alcott’s most overtly feminist novel, Work breaks new ground in the literary representation of women, as its heroine pushes at the boundaries of nineteenth-century expectations and assumptions.Eight Cousins (1875) concerns the education of Rose Campbell, another orphan who, in her delicate nature and frail health, seems to embody many of the stereotypes of girlhood that shaped Alcott’s world. But with the benefit of an unorthodox, progressive education (one informed by the theories of Alcott’s transcendentalist father Bronson Alcott) and the good and bad examples of her many crisply drawn relations—especially her seven boy cousins—Rose regains her health and envisions a career both as a wife and mother and as a philanthropist.In Rose in Bloom (1876), the sequel to Eight Cousins, Rose, now twenty, comes out into society and must navigate its perils while choosing between several suitors, including two of her cousins. Further advancing Alcott’s passionate advocacy of women’s rights, Rose insists that she will manage her own fortune rather than find a husband to do it for her.This Library of America edition includes several noteworthy features. All three novels are presented with beautifully restored line art from the original editions and are supplemented by seven hard-to-find stories and public letters (two restored to print for the first time in more than a century), an authoritative chronology of Alcott’s life, and notes identifying her allusions, quotations, and the autobiographical episodes in her fiction.

Complete Works of Stephen Crane


Stephen Crane - 2014
    Having won international acclaim in 1895 for his Civil War novel ‘The Red Badge of Courage’, Crane was prolific throughout his short life, creating notable works in the Realist and American Naturalism traditions. Now readers can enjoy Crane’s complete published works for the first in publishing history in a single volume. This comprehensive eBook presents numerous illustrations, rare texts, informative introductions and a wealth of bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Crane's life and works * Concise introductions to the novels and other texts * ALL 6 novels, with individual contents tables * Includes the scarce novel GEORGE’S MOTHER, available in no other digital collection * Images of how the books were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * All the short story collections, including the rare THE OPEN BOAT AND OTHER TALES OF ADVENTURE, appearing in this digital collection for the first time * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the short stories * Easily locate the short stories you want to read * Includes Crane's posthumously published non-fiction work GREAT BATTLES OF THE WORLD, fully illustrated * Special ‘Contextual Pieces’ section, with many essays and reviews evaluating Crane’s contribution to literature and his life and times * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres Please note: some rare uncollected short stories, poems and news reports cannot appear in this collection due to copyright restrictions. When these texts enter the public domain, they will be added to the collection as a free update. Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles CONTENTS: The Novels MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE GEORGE’S MOTHER THE THIRD VIOLET ACTIVE SERVICE THE O’RUDDY The Short Story Collections THE LITTLE REGIMENT AND OTHER EPISODES FROM THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR THE OPEN BOAT AND OTHER TALES OF ADVENTURE THE MONSTER AND OTHER STORIES WHILOMVILLE STORIES WOUNDS IN THE RAIN: WAR STORIES THE MONSTER The Short Stories LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER The Poetry Collections THE BLACK RIDERS AND OTHER LINES WAR IS KIND The Non-Fiction GREAT BATTLES OF THE WORLD Contextual Pieces LIST OF ESSAYS AND REVIEWS Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles

Bodies of Light


Sarah Moss - 2014
    Ally (older sister of May in Night Waking), is intelligent, studious and engaged in an eternal - and losing - battle to gain her mother's approval and affection. Her mother, Elizabeth, is a religious zealot, keener on feeding the poor and saving prostitutes than on embracing the challenges of motherhood. Even when Ally wins a scholarship and is accepted as one of the first female students to read medicine in London, it still doesn't seem good enough. The first in a two-book sequence, Bodies of Light will propel Sarah Moss into the upper echelons of British novelists. It is a triumphant piece of historical fiction and a profoundly moving master class in characterisation.

Under the Almond Trees


Linda Ulleseit - 2014
    Under the Almond Trees is the novelized account of three ordinary women who lived extraordinary lives in early California. One learns independence when she is widowed and must lead men. Another desires a career in a man’s field. The third wants only a traditional family—until her husband refuses to pay for their daughter’s college education. Their legacy resounds beyond the family. I am proud to be their relative and honored to share their story.

The Pariah Problem: Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India


Rupa Viswanath - 2014
    They belong to India's most subordinated castes, face overwhelming poverty and discrimination, and provoke public anxiety. Drawing on a wealth of previously untapped sources, this book follows the conception and evolution of the "Pariah Problem" in public consciousness in the 1890s. It shows how high-caste landlords, state officials, and well-intentioned missionaries conceived of Dalit oppression, and effectively foreclosed the emergence of substantive solutions to the "Problem"—with consequences that continue to be felt today.Rupa Viswanath begins with a description of the everyday lives of Dalit laborers in the 1890s and highlights the systematic efforts made by the state and Indian elites to protect Indian slavery from public scrutiny. Protestant missionaries were the first non-Dalits to draw attention to their plight. The missionaries' vision of the Pariahs' suffering as being a result of Hindu religious prejudice, however, obscured the fact that the entire agrarian political-economic system depended on unfree Pariah labor.Both the Indian public and colonial officials came to share a view compatible with missionary explanations, which meant all subsequent welfare efforts directed at Dalits focused on religious and social transformation rather than on structural reform. Methodologically, theoretically, and empirically, this book breaks new ground to demonstrate how events in the early decades of state-sponsored welfare directed at Dalits laid the groundwork for the present day, where the postcolonial state and well-meaning social and religious reformers continue to downplay Dalits' landlessness, violent suppression, and political subordination.

Pedestrianism: When Watching People Walk Was America's Favorite Spectator Sport


Matthew Algeo - 2014
    Inside sold-out arenas, competitors walked around dirt tracks almost nonstop for six straight days (never on Sunday), risking their health and sanity to see who could walk the farthest—500 miles, then 520 miles, and 565 miles! These walking matches were as talked about as the weather, the details reported from coast to coast.This long-forgotten sport, known as pedestrianism, spawned America’s first celebrity athletes and opened doors for immigrants, African Americans, and women. The top pedestrians earned a fortune in prize money and endorsement deals. But along with the excitement came the inevitable scandals, charges of doping—coca leaves!—and insider gambling. It even spawned a riot in 1879 when too many fans showed up at New York’s Gilmore’s Garden, later renamed Madison Square Garden, and were denied entry to a widely publicized showdown.Pedestrianism: When Watching People Walk Was America’s Favorite Spectator Sport chronicles competitive walking’s peculiar appeal and popularity, its rapid demise, and its enduring influence, and how pedestrianism marked the beginning of modern spectator sports in the United States.

Esprit Montmartre: Bohemian Life in Paris around 1900


Max Hollein - 2014
    In contrast with the wide boulevards and well-tended parks of Haussmann’s Paris, Montmartre possessed stretches of still-vacant land, strolling flâneurs, and the infamousmaquis packed with the makeshift homes of les misérables. As a bohemian refuge from the relentlessly modern metropolis, Montmartre played an important role for Van Gogh, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, and the many other creatives who called the hilltop neighborhood home. While the works of the earlier impressionists tended to mirror the well-heeled bourgeois lifestyle to which they were accustomed, this new generation of post-impressionists captured the idyllic landscapes and quaint corner cafés of Montmartre as well as its harsh realities, including the lives of vagabonds and prostitutes. The more than three hundred paintings reproduced in this volume are organized thematically, with chapters that collect works portraying everyday street scenes, the “rural city” and the effects of urbanization, and the raucous Montmartre nightlife, including paintings of the Moulin de la Galette and the legendary Moulin Rouge. The paintings are accompanied by maps and historical photographs, including works by Eugène Atget.             A critic of the time once commented on Montmartre that “the quarter resembles a huge studio.” Esprit Montmartre explores this rich period of artistic production, the contexts that influenced it, and how these contexts continue to influence the image of the artist and subject today.

The Hidden Hills Saga: Book I: Ice Whispers


K. Willow - 2014
    . .Marissa Kristofferson can taste freedom. Her long years of suffering at the hands of her sadistic husband, Lance, are coming to an end as he lies dying. But she is stunned when he reveals the contents of his will and what she must do to keep Kristofferson Plantation, and how he plans to keep her bound to him even beyond the grave.The beautiful slave Lolley has always envied Marissa’s life, and after learning that the master has also ordered her freed after his death, she is determined to reach for the life she wants by becoming the mistress of Marissa’s son, Shane, though she does not realize the lengths Marissa will go to to prevent the match, or the far-reaching consequences that will follow.And Shelby, the plain and dutiful slave of free blacks, is unwittingly caught in the shocking drama that unfolds as a family is torn apart. Used as a pawn in a game of rivalry, deception, and betrayal, hers is a fight for survival while attempting to remain true to herself.Three women—so very different but each carrying dark secrets that are closely intertwined, caught in a world between slave and free, a world which is becoming more fragile and precarious as war threatens and alliances shift, and each harboring seemingly impossible dreams of a better future.In this first book of a dark historical saga, K. Willow paints a lush, emotional portrait of scandal, murder, injustice, and the ties that bind in the antebellum South.

A History of Early Modern Southeast Asia, 1400-1830


Barbara Watson Andaya - 2014
    Proceeding chronologically, each chapter covers a specific time frame in which Southeast Asia is located in a global context. A discussion of general features that distinguish the period under discussion is followed by a detailed account of the various sub-regions. Students will be shown the ways in which local societies adapted to new religious and political ideas and responded to far-reaching economic changes. Particular attention is given to lesser-known societies that inhabited the seas, the forests, and the uplands, and to the role of the geographical environment in shaping the region's history. The authoritative yet accessible narrative features maps, illustrations, and timelines to support student learning. A major contribution to the field, this text is essential reading for students and specialists in Asian studies and early modern world history.

New World Drama: The Performative Commons in the Atlantic World, 1649-1849


Elizabeth Maddock Dillon - 2014
    Moving from England to the Caribbean to the early United States, she traces the theatrical emergence of a collective body in the colonized New World—one that included indigenous peoples, diasporic Africans, and diasporic Europeans. In the raucous space of the theatre, the contradictions of colonialism loomed large. Foremost among these was the central paradox of modernity: the coexistence of a massive slave economy and a nascent politics of freedom. Audiences in London eagerly watched the royal slave, Oroonoko, tortured on stage, while audiences in Charleston and Kingston were forbidden from watching the same scene. Audiences in Kingston and New York City exuberantly participated in the slaying of Richard III on stage, enacting the rise of the "people," and Native American leaders were enjoined to watch actors in blackface "jump Jim Crow." Dillon argues that the theater served as a "performative commons," staging debates over representation in a political world based on popular sovereignty. Her book is a capacious account of performance, aesthetics, and modernity in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world.

Anna Howard Shaw: The Work of Woman Suffrage


Trisha Franzen - 2014
    Challenging traditional gender boundaries throughout her life, she put herself through college, worked as an ordained minister and a doctor, and built a tightly-knit family with her secretary and longtime companion Lucy E. Anthony.Drawing on unprecedented research, Franzen shows how these circumstances and choices both impacted Shaw's role in the woman suffrage movement and set her apart from her native-born, middle- and upper-class colleagues. Franzen also rehabilitates Shaw's years as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, arguing that Shaw's much-belittled tenure actually marked a renaissance of both NAWSA and the suffrage movement as a whole.Anna Howard Shaw: The Work of Woman Suffrage presents a clear and compelling portrait of a woman whose significance has too long been misinterpreted and misunderstood.

Lives in Common: Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Hebron


Menachem Klein - 2014
    Menachem Klein offers an illuminating alternative by telling the intertwined histories, from street level upwards, of three cities-Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Hebron-and their intermingled Jewish, Muslim and Christian inhabitants, from the nineteenth century to the present. Each of them was and still is a mixed city. Jerusalem and Hebron are holy places, while Jaffa till 1948 was Palestine's principal city and main port of entry.Klein portrays a society in the late Ottoman period in which Jewish-Arab interactions were intense, frequent, and meaningful, before the onset of segregation and separation gradually occurred in the Mandate era. The unequal power relations and increasing violence between Jews and Arabs from 1948 onwards are also scrutinised. Throughout, Klein bases his writing not on the official record but rather on a hitherto hidden private world of Jewish-Arab encounters, including marriages and squabbles, kindnesses and cruelties, as set out in dozens of memoirs, diaries, biographies and testimonies.Lives in Common brings together the voices of Jews and Arabs in a mosaic of fascinating stories, of lived experiences and of the major personalities that shaped them over the last 150 years.Most books dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict see events through the eyes of policy-makers, generals or diplomats. Menachem Klein offers an illuminating alternative by telling the intertwined histories, from street level upwards, of three cities-Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Hebron-and their intermingled Jewish, Muslim and Christian inhabitants, from the nineteenth century to the present. Each of them was and still is a mixed city. Jerusalem and Hebron are holy places, while Jaffa till 1948 was Palestine's principal city and main port of entry. Klein portrays a society in the late Ottoman period in which Jewish-Arab interactions were intense, frequent, and meaningful, before the onset of segregation and separation gradually occurred in the Mandate era. The unequal power relations and increasing violence between Jews and Arabs from 1948 onwards are also scrutinised. Throughout, Klein bases his writing not on the official record but rather on a hitherto hidden private world of Jewish-Arab encounters, including marriages and squabbles, kindnesses and cruelties, as set out in dozens of memoirs, diaries, biographies and testimonies. Lives in Common brings together the voices of Jews and Arabs in a mosaic of fascinating stories, of lived experiences and of the major personalities that shaped them over the last 150 years.

Bride of the Wild


Carré White - 2014
    Having been in mourning following her mother's death, she eagerly anticipates a marriage proposal, although her pa isn't all that fond of the fair-haired young man.Looking for work, after having been a wagon master and trapper, Micah Blaylock and his Indian friend, Deer Runner, arrive in Fern Valley during an outbreak of rabid bear attacks. As the town struggles to protect itself from these vicious, diseased animals, Saffron and her family face certain peril.After a hunting party is formed, Saffron is the only woman allowed to join, having proven herself a good shot. Accompanied by her beau, Silas, and Micah, a bond forms between the brunette beauty and the mysterious mountain man. The group soon finds itself in dire circumstances, which will test the mettle and faith of each person on the journey. The Rocky Mountains, although wild and beautiful, hold a danger far greater than rabid bears.

The Covered Deep


Brandy Vallance - 2014
    Finding a man that meets the requirements of her “must-have” list in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains has proven impossible. Bianca’s mama insists that there’s no such thing as a perfect true love, and that Bianca’s ideal man is pure fiction. On the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, Bianca discovers a devastating statistic: her chance of marrying is now only eighteen percent. Unwilling to accept spinsterhood, Bianca enters an essay contest that propels her into a whirlwind search for her soulmate. Via the opulence of London and the mysteries of the Holy Land, Bianca’s true love will be revealed, but not without a heavy price.

Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven


Mark Twain - 2014
    By his stern lights I judged he was bearing about northeast-and-by-north-half-east. Well, it was so near my course that I wouldn't throw away the chance; so I fell off a point, steadied my helm, and went for him. You should have heard me whiz, and seen the electric fur fly! In about a minute and a half I was fringed out with an electrical nimbus that flamed around for miles and miles and lit up all space like broad day. The comet was burning blue in the distance, like a sickly torch, when I first sighted him, but he begun to grow bigger and bigger as I crept up on him. I slipped up on him so fast that when I had gone about 150,000,000 miles I was close enough to be swallowed up in the phosphorescent glory of his wake, and I couldn't see anything for the glare. Thinks I, it won't do to run into him, so I shunted to one side and tore along. By and by I closed up abreast of his tail. Do you know what it was like? It was like a gnat closing up on the continent of America. I forged along. By and by[...].

The Congress of Vienna: Power and Politics After Napoleon


Brian E. Vick - 2014
    Historians have nevertheless generally dismissed these spectacular festivities as window dressing when compared with the serious, behind-the-scenes maneuverings of sovereigns and statesmen. Brian Vick finds this conventional view shortsighted, seeing these instead as two interconnected dimensions of politics. Examining them together yields a more complete picture of how one of the most important diplomatic summits in history managed to redraw the map of Europe and the international system of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.The Congress of Vienna investigates the Vienna Congress within a broad framework of influence networks that included unofficial opinion-shapers of all kinds, both men and women: artists and composers, entrepreneurs and writers, hosts and attendees of fashionable salons. In addition to high-profile negotiation and diplomatic wrangling over the post-Napoleonic fates of Germany, Italy, and Poland, Vick brings into focus other understudied yet significant issues: the African slave trade, Jewish rights, and relations with Islamic powers such as the Ottoman Empire and Barbary Corsairs. Challenging the usual portrayal of a reactionary Congress obsessed with rolling back Napoleon's liberal reforms, Vick demonstrates that the Congress's promotion of limited constitutionalism, respect for religious and nationality rights, and humanitarian interventions was influenced as much by liberal currents as by conservative ones.

Boston and the Civil War: Hub of the Second Revolution


Barbara F. Berenson - 2014
    Before the war, Bostonians were bitterly divided between those who supported the Union and those opposed to its endorsement of slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act brought the horrors of slavery close to home and led many to join the abolitionists. March to war with Boston's brave soldiers, including the grandson of Patriot Paul Revere and the Fighting Irish. The all-black Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment battled against both slavery and discrimination, while Boston's women fought tirelessly against slavery and for their own right to be full citizens of the Union. Join local historian and author Barbara F. Berenson on a thrilling and memorable journey through Civil War Boston.

Nixon and Dovey: The Legend Returns


Jay W. Curry - 2014
    Now, in the backdrop of southern antebellum slavery, it’s a deadly game of passion, murder, and revenge.Facts: In 1818 Nixon Curry became entangled in one of the most sensationalized murder/love stories in early American history. As a result, Nixon Curry became arguably the most notorious and widely publicized criminal in America’s first half century. His fame derived not from the brutality or number of his crimes but from the determination of the Charlotte aristocracy to hang him. His remarkable talents, undying love for Dovey Caldwell, and the outright audacity of his exploits made him an early American legend.Story: Nixon Curry, a talented farm boy, accepts a job at a horse racing stable, where his riding skills soon rival those of his mentor, Ben Wilson. The fierce rivalry becomes confrontational at the 1816 Race of Champions. During prerace festivities, the dashing, young Nixon meets the beautiful Dovey Caldwell, daughter of the state’s wealthiest and most influential senator. Finding Nixon unworthy of Dovey’s affection, Senator Caldwell betroths his daughter to Nixon’s nemesis, Ben. The announcement sets in motion a clash of cultures, talents, and passions leading to murder, mayhem, and revenge.

Thomas Clarke


Helen Litton - 2014
    He was a member of the Supreme Council of the IRB from 1915 and was one of the rebels who planned the 1916 Rising. He was the first signatory of the Proclamation of Independence and was with the group that occupied the GPO. He was executed on the 3rd of May 1916.This accessible biography outlines Clarke's life, from joining the Republican Brotherhood as an eighteen year old, to his execution at the age of fifty-nine.

Tolstoy's False Disciple: The Untold Story of Leo Tolstoy and Vladimir Chertkov


Alexandra Popoff - 2014
    At sixty-nine, Russia's most celebrated writer was being treated like a major criminal. Prominent Russians were always watched, but Tolstoy earned particular scrutiny. Over a decade earlier, when his advocacy on behalf of oppressed minorities angered the Orthodox Church and the Tsar, he was placed under permanent police surveillance. Although Tolstoy was wearing his peasant garb, people on the streets had no trouble recognizing him from his portraits. He was often seen in the company of his chief disciple, Vladimir Chertkov. A man of striking appearance, twenty-five years younger, Chertkov commanded attention. His photographs with Tolstoy show him towering over the writer. Close to the Tsars and to the chief of the secret police, Chertkov represented the very things Tolstoy had renounced ––class privilege, unlimited power, and wealth. Yet, Chertkov fascinated and attracted Tolstoy. He became the writer's closest confidant, even reading his daily diary, and by the end of Tolstoy's life, had established complete control over the writer and his legacy. Tolstoy’s full exchange with Chertkov comprises more than 2,000 letters, making him the writer’s largest correspondent. The Russian archives have suppressed much of this communication as well as Chertkov’s papers for more than a century. The product of ground-breaking archival research, Tolstoy's False Disciple promises to be a revelatory portrait of the two men and their three-decade-long clandestine relationship.

Albania's Mountain Queen: Edith Durham and the Balkans


Marcus Tanner - 2014
    But Edith Durham was no ordinary lady. In 1900, at the age of 37, Durham set sail for the Balkans for the first time, a trip which changed the course of her life. Her experiences kindled a profound love of the region which saw her return frequently in the following decades. She became a confidante of the King of Montenegro, ran a hospital in Macedonia and, following the outbreak of the First Balkan War in 1912, became one of the world's first female war correspondents. Her popularity in the region earned her the affectionate title 'Queen of the Mountains' and she is fondly remembered in Albania until this day. Marcus Tanner here tells the fascinating story of Durham's relationship with the Balkans, painting a vivid portrait of a remarkable, if sometimes formidable, woman.

Jack the Ripper at Last? The Mysterious Murders of George Chapman


Helena Wojtczak - 2014
    The two detectives had hunted the fiend of Whitechapel fourteen years previously, but failed to catch him. George Chapman, a man facing the death penalty for poisoning his girlfriend, had a secret past. Born Seweryn Klosowski in Poland, he’d lived in London’s East End during the Ripper’s killing spree in 1888. Former Chief Inspector Abberline had ‘a score of reasons’ for naming Chapman as the Ripper. And Arthur Neil, former Superintendent of Scotland Yard, agreed with him. Chapman had committed ‘a series of murders which for sheer heartlessness are almost unprecedented in the annals of crime’. He was described as ‘one of the most loathsome murderers in criminal history, and the director of public prosecutions stated that his ‘cruelty, hypocrisy and daring’ had rarely, if ever, been equalled.

On Slavery and Abolitionism


Sarah Grimké - 2014
    Yet their close proximity to inhumane cruelty bred their revulsion towards the practice of slavery, and both sisters rejected their upbringing, moved to Philadelphia and embraced Quakerism.Led by Angelina's gifted oration, they toured the country as the American Anti-Slavery Society's first female agents. They passionately demonstrated the ability of women to make valuable contributions to political and social change, setting a precedent that would reverberate through the 20th century.

An Able and Faithful Ministry: Samuel Miller and the Pastoral Office


James M. Garretson - 2014
    While Miller is most commonly remembered for his writings on church office, he also played a significant role instructing students and shaping their theology of preaching and pastoral ministry. In the present volume, Jim Garretson highlights the narrative of Miller’s life and the major ministerial emphases found in his published writings, sermons, and unpublished lecture notes. As a result, readers will come to know the spiritual convictions of Miller’s heart and understand the theology of ministry he imparted over the course of his lifetime.

Legends of the Tide


Neelan Govender - 2014
    They pioneered seine-net fishing in South Africa in 1865, 5 years after being released from their indenture contract, and founded the Durban fishing industry. An orchestra of oarsmen and spotters chased, netted and hauled hundreds of tons of fish to the shore. They gave Durban the indelible taste of fish curry and sardine fever and orchestrated one of the biggest civilian rescues in 1917 when 6 fishermen in a single boat saved 175 people from drowning when the banks of the Umgeni River burst. upon their stage, world class sporting heroes strutted their stuff, colourful characters roamed the beaches and impressive temples and schools were raised. Eventually, under the Group Areas Act they were forced to moved away from their fishing grounds and their vibrant enterprise was destroyed. Features over 250 rare photos, stories of whaling, shark fishing, and the sardine run. Includes genealogies of the pioneer fishing families. Foreword by Kumi Naidoo, International Director of Greenpeace.

Swift Currents


David Bruce Grim - 2014
    She has become a valuable asset to her cruel master, Daniel Bowen, but Callie, her two brothers, and her young daughter struggle to cope with the outrages of enslavement. Change occurs suddenly on November 7, 1861, when the Union Navy attacks Port Royal Sound in South Carolina. Slavery ends across the surrounding sea islands after the planters flee. Ten thousand newly freed people, like Callie and her family, begin life under the authority of the US government. A historical novel based on actual events from 1861 to 1863, Swift Currents describes the slaves' transition from bondage to freedom through the lens of Callie and her two brothers. As they and others pursue education, work for wages, fight for freedom, and become landowners, their lives intersect with civilian and military authorities. Callie's story seeks to help the nation come to terms with its racial history and serves to provide a greater understanding of shared stories, thus lessening the inherited prejudice of generations.

Three German Invasions of France: The Summer Campaigns of 1870, 1914 and 1940


Douglas Fermer - 2014
    Three times that hostility led to war and the invasion of France - in 1870, 1914 and 1940. The outcomes of the battles that followed reset the balance of power across the continent. Yet the German invasions tend to be viewed as separate events, in isolation, rather than as connected episodes in the confrontation between the two nations. Douglas Fermer s fresh account of the military campaigns and the preparations for them treats them as part of a cycle of fear, suspicion, animosity and conflicting ambitions extending across several generations. In a clear, concise account of the decisive opening phase of each campaign, he describes the critical decision-making, the maneuvers and clashes of arms in eastern France as German forces advanced westwards. As the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War approaches, this is a fitting moment to reconsider these momentous events and how they fit into the broad sweep of European history.REVIEWS Three German Invasions of France is excellent book for anyone who knows little about these campaigns, this can also be read with profit by the seasoned of the subject.Strategy Page"

Across A Deadly Field: The War in the East


John Hill - 2014
    The scenarios cover a number of the most famous battles of the Eastern Theater, including 1st Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Brandy Station and Gettysburg, and offer both modestly sized and larger battles to the player. The smaller scenarios focus not only on smaller battles, but also on engagements within a larger encounter, while the larger scenarios present a wider view of a battle. For example, Antietam offers the three distinct corps-level actions in the north, center and the south at Burnside's Bridge, as well as the full battle. This offers Across A Deadly Field players a versatility that can accommodate their preferences and collections without sacrificing either playability of historical accuracy.

The Passenger Pigeon


Errol Fuller - 2014
    The flocks were so large and so dense that they blackened the skies, even blotting out the sun for days at a stretch. Yet by the end of the century, the most common bird in North America had vanished from the wild. In 1914, the last known representative of her species, Martha, died in a cage at the Cincinnati Zoo.This stunningly illustrated book tells the astonishing story of North America's Passenger Pigeon, a bird species that--like the Tyrannosaur, the Mammoth, and the Dodo--has become one of the great icons of extinction. Errol Fuller describes how these fast, agile, and handsomely plumaged birds were immortalized by the ornithologist and painter John James Audubon, and captured the imagination of writers such as James Fenimore Cooper, Henry David Thoreau, and Mark Twain. He shows how widespread deforestation, the demand for cheap and plentiful pigeon meat, and the indiscriminate killing of Passenger Pigeons for sport led to their catastrophic decline. Fuller provides an evocative memorial to a bird species that was once so important to the ecology of North America, and reminds us of just how fragile the natural world can be.Published in the centennial year of Martha's death, The Passenger Pigeon features rare archival images as well as haunting photos of live birds.

The Spoils of Avalon


Mary F. Burns - 2014
    Written in alternating chapters between the two time periods, The Spoils of Avalon creates a sparkling, magical mystery that bridges the gap between two worlds that could hardly be more different-the industrialized, Darwinian, materialistic Victorian Age and the agricultural, faith-infused life of a medieval abbey on the brink of violent change at the hands of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell. First in a new series of historical mysteries, The Spoils of Avalon introduces two unlikely detectives and life-long friends-beginning as young people on the verge of making their names famous for the next several decades throughout Europe and America: the brilliant and brittle Violet Paget, known as the writer Vernon Lee, and the talented, genial portrait painter John Singer Sargent.

As Good as Any Man: Scotland's Black Tommy


Morag Miller - 2014
    The diary entries, which range from May 1917 until March 1918, were written by one Arthur Roberts while he served with the King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB). They went into great detail about what it was like for him during World War I; such as how he survived the Battle of Passchendaele, and one incident where he escaped unscathed when a German shell killed a dozen men around him. Yet Arthur Roberts was an otherwise unknown man, and little else was known about him. Now, Morag Miller and Roy Laycock have painstakingly researched Roberts' life history and filled in the gaps. From his birth in Bristol to his life in Glasgow and time at the front, they provide here much more than just a war memoir, but the unique history of one man's remarkable life.

Fair Play and Foul: A Society Romance Set in 1890


Susan Leona Fisher - 2014
    Against her better judgement she is persuaded to act as chaperone to an eighteen-year-old society girl to see her safely through a summer on the continent before her coming out season. Caught up in the parry and thrust of society match-making, she has no thought of herself becoming an object of interest, particularly to Hugh Wentworth, heir to a duke and reportedly a philanderer who makes his living by gambling. How unfortunate that circumstances keep throwing her in his path. When he becomes the victim of scurrilous rumour, will she have the courage to come forward and tell what she knows?

The Jane Austen Files: A Complete Anthology of Letters Family Recollections


Helen Amy - 2014
    Memories of Jane were increasingly recorded as her reputation and fame grew in the nineteenth century. This book brings together these memories and all of Jane's own letters.

Crime, Punishment and Redemption: A Convict's Story


June Slee - 2014
    John Ward, writing whilst incarcerated on Norfolk Island, tells a story of thwarted love that-he claims-led him to a life of crime: including theft, sexual assault and more. In telling the candid story of his downfall he exposes his own ruthlessness and lack of empathy. This book, using the diary as its base, is fascinating on so many levels. It is an insight into the criminal mind, ably examined by author June Slee. It is a glimpse into 19th-century aristocratic life-dress, food, pastimes and prejudices-from a servant's perspective (Ward was a groom to an officer gentleman). And it is a unique record, perhaps the only extant diary ever written during the Australian penal era whilst its convict writer was imprisoned. Plus, Ward records a particular moment in our history: not only life aboard prison hulks which he describes in detail but also the timing of his arrival in Sydney when convicts were no longer being accepted; he was sent straight to Norfolk Island where we get a fascinating insight into the rule of Captain Alexander Maconochie. Moconochie believed in a system of improvement for convicts based on a marks system for good behaviour rather than humiliating punishment. In this way, Ward gained access to writing materials for his diary. It's all in this book: love, history, convicts, crime and criminology, Norfolk Island ... The author weaves the diary-Ward's own words-into her text seamlessly to tell a gripping story.

Japan, The Great Power: Industrialization Through The Lens Of Zaibatsu


Josh Schenkein - 2014
    However, few scholars identify the role played by large, family-owned conglomerates known as zaibatsu. I analyze the nature and structure of these firms and how their business strategies, capital accumulations and organizational structure impacted their development. These features of zaibatsu are used as a lens to identify their specific impact on Japanese industrialization during the Meiji period. I use research from historians, economists and zaibatsu corporate records to complete my analysis. I argue that characteristics associated with zaibatsu were instrumental in the nature and speed of Japanese industrialization and were responsible for Japan’s ascent to great power status by 1922, as represented by the Washington Naval Treaty.

Across A Deadly Field: Regimental Rules for Civil War Battles


John Hill - 2014
    However, both approaches have drawbacks. The pure regimental approach - such as in Johnny Reb - can make it difficult to fight a very large battle, while the brigade approach often fails to capture the unique feel of the CW where the actions of one regiment - such as the 20th Maine at Little Round Top - could turn a battle. Across A Deadly Field offers a game system that enables gamers to fight large battles in a relatively compact space, yet maintains the regimental focus and flavor appropriate to the conflict.Across A Deadly Field uses a scale that can be described as a "telescoped" version of Johnny Reb III - with twice the ground and figure scale, and has individual regiments and batteries as the base element of maneuver:- Ground Scale: 1" = 100 yards- Time Scale: 1 turn = 20 minutes- Regiment Scale: Two stands/bases per regiment- Figure Scale: 1 figure = 60 men- Gun scale: 1 gun = 1 batteryThe big advantage of this approach is that the gamer is not required to rebase any figures from his existing Johnny Reb army, allowing for much easier conversion from the older game to Across A Deadly Field. The existing four-stand regiments become two different regiments of two stands each - his miniature army has, for gaming purposes, just doubled. This will hold an appeal for many gamers - they can either recreate smaller engagements in half the space that would once have been needed, or can game huge battles on a table that would once have only accommodated a small skirmish. In essence, Across A Deadly Field offers two games with a single, consistent basing system.

The Kashmiri Shawl


Joanne Dobson - 2014
    India, 1857: Anna Wheeler Roundtree, missionary wife, flees her husband's pious tyranny, leaving the safety of the Protestant Mission in which she's spent most of the past decade. Her timing is bad: the train carrying her to freedom steams into the midst of the brutal Indian Rebellion. She is, however, plucked from danger by Ashok Montgomery, a wealthy Anglo-Indian tea planter. Together they escape the angry mobs and find the shelter of an isolated mountain cave. There, for the first time, Anna learns the true nature of love. New York City, 1860: Now a successful poet featured in national magazines, Anna Wheeler is astonished to learn that the daughter she bore upon her return was not stillborn, as she was told, but has been kidnapped. When Anna hears the baby described as "dark-skinned," she realizes that Ashok, the man she'd left behind in the tumult of the rebellion, is the true father, not her blond, fair-skinned husband. In her own racially inflamed nation on the verge of its own war, Anna throws respectability to the wind, learns to take risks, break rules, and trust strangers in a determined search for the little girl. Then a deranged voice arises from her tormented past, making demands that compel her back to India. Anna must confront the evil that set her running in the first place. Will her daring quest for her child, and for the love of her life, end in triumph or in heartbreak?

Genealogy of the Tragic: Greek Tragedy and German Philosophy


Joshua Billings - 2014
    The book argues that the idea of the tragic arose in response to a new consciousness of history in the late eighteenth century, which spurred theorists to see Greek tragedy as both a unique, historically remote form and a timeless literary genre full of meaning for the present. The book offers a new interpretation of the theories of Schiller, Schelling, Hegel, Holderlin, and others, as mediations between these historicizing and universalizing impulses, and shows the roots of their approaches in earlier discussions of Greek tragedy in Germany, France, and England. By examining eighteenth-century readings of tragedy and the interactions between idealist thinkers in detail, Genealogy of the Tragic offers the most comprehensive historical account of the tragic to date, as well as the fullest explanation of why and how the idea was used to make sense of modernity. The book argues that idealist theories remain fundamental to contemporary interpretations of Greek tragedy, and calls for a renewed engagement with philosophical questions in criticism of tragedy.

Tolkien in the New Century: Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey


John William Houghton - 2014
    Also included are brief memoirs by Shippey's colleagues and friends in academia and fandom, and a bibliography of Shippey's work"--

Rush of Shadows


Catherine Bell - 2014
    The epic greed and violence of the 1850's and 60's has been brushed aside by history, conveniently forgotten in the pride of conquest. Willful ignorance and cruelty, terror and desperation were common in that time, but there were moments too of nobility and compassion, ingenuity and forgiveness, qualities which might have prevailed if certain things had been different. Rush of Shadows brings to life two freethinking women, Mellie, a white, and Bah

Women in the Peninsular War


Charles J. Esdaile - 2014
    In history, however, with its focus on high politics and military operations, they are invisible—a situation that Charles J. Esdaile seeks to address. In Women in the Peninsular War, Esdaile looks beyond the iconography. While a handful of Spanish and Portuguese women became Agustina-like heroines, a multitude became victims, and here both of these groups receive their due. But Esdaile reveals a much more complicated picture in which women are discovered to have experienced, responded to, and participated in the conflict in various ways. While some women fought or otherwise became involved in the struggle against the invaders, others turned collaborator, used the war as a means of effecting dramatic changes in their situation, or simply concentrated on staying alive. Along with Agustina Zaragoza Domenech, then, we meet French sympathizers, campfollowers, pamphleteers, cross-dressers, prostitutes, amorous party girls, and even a few protofeminists. Esdaile examines many social spheres, ranging from the pampered daughters of the nobility, through the cloistered members of Spain’s many convents, to the tough and defiant denizens of the Madrid slums. And we meet not just the women to whom the war came but also the women who came to the war—the many thousands who accompanied the British and French armies to the Iberian peninsula. Thanks to his use of copious original source material, Esdaile rescues one and all from, as E. P. Thompson put it, “the enormous condescension of posterity.” And yet all these women remain firmly in their historical and cultural context, a context that Esdaile shows to have emerged from the Peninsular War hardly changed. Hence the subsequent loss of these women’s story, and the obscurity from which this book has at long last rescued them.

The Compassionate Englishwoman: Emily Hobhouse in the Boer War


Robert Eales - 2014
    Concerned, she went to South Africa to investigate and assist. She threaded her way through the conflict, all on her own and undaunted by the danger, discomfort and considerable difficulties. What she found was very disturbing. But her government did not want to listen when she told them what she had found and they did not want her to tell anyone. They did not want the world to know what they were doing. This book tells the remarkable story of a courageous woman who, in a dark moment in British history, confronted the leaders of her nation – military, political and administrative – to uphold the values we all cherish. Her courageous and committed work would be acclaimed around the world if she were alive today. Carefully researched and beautifully written, this thought-provoking book has been highly commended.

Secret Traces of the Soul of Mileva Maric-Einstein


Svetlana Alter - 2014
    Why not, when virtually all works, scientific or other, pay tribute to the achievements of this man? Given that he had done so much for humanity who then would venture to question his own mortal being? The entire endeavor, then must seem unorthodox. We seek to learn of this man's contributions and cringe at the slightest mention of a possible shortcoming. Such traces, perhaps would breach the very fabric of space-time itself, where perhaps now rests the soul of the man. Most of us might be inclined to say to ourselves, if Einstein himself had any issue about his own past, it must have been, at a small price in comparison to his achievements. In Secret Traces of the Soul of Mileva Maric Einstein, Svetlana Alter documents the influence of Mileva on Albert as partner, pillar, and physicist, in her own right; continually supporting her beloved husband in the shadows. Alter provides an insightful understanding of the life untold of the woman behind the man, accepting, but all the while playing a Madam Curie to her husband, unknown and unrecognized. About the Author Svetlana Alter, a native of Sremska Mitrovica, attended the same highschool as Albert Einstein's wife, Mileva Maric. Svetlana was born, only days after Mileva passed away. Recognizing the significance of this woman's contributions to the success of her husband, Svetlana began documenting the details of Maric-Einstein's life from interviews conducted with relatives. Svetlana Alter is author of twelve books published in English and Serbian language.

The Glory of the Redeemer


Octavius Winslow - 2014
    In The Glory of the Redeemer, Winslow delivers a devotional Christology that will excite the believer’s soul. He examines the person and work of Christ: tracing Jesus’s glory from the eternal existence of His divine nature, through the Old Testament types and shadows His humiliation and exaltation in the New Testament, even up to and including His second coming. Read Winslow’s treatment of our great redeemer and see how good theology naturally leads to hearty doxology!Table of Contents:The Pre-Existent Glory of the RedeemerThe Redeemer, the Revelation of the Father’s GloryThe Typical Glory of the RedeemerThe Prophetical Glory of the RedeemerThe Glory of the Redeemer in His HumiliationThe Glory of the Redeemer in His ResurrectionThe Glory of the Redeemer in His Ascension and ExaltationThe Glory of the Redeemer in His PeopleThe Holy Spirit Glorifying the RedeemerThe Glory of the Redeemer in His Second Coming

Guns of Outlaws: Weapons of the American Bad Man


Gerry Souter - 2014
    Authors Gerry and Janet Souter peer into these criminals' choices of derringers, revolvers, shotguns, rifles, machine guns, and curious hybrids, giving us a glimpse into the minds behind the trigger fingers. With over 200 illustrations, Guns of Outlaws gives a unique look at the lives and the hardware of the most infamous outlaws in American history, and of the law enforcement officers who hunted them.As settlers moved further west, away from authority and soft city life into the Great Plains, the push for survival through the endless prairies and jagged isolating mountain ranges bred ruthless men. Most outlaws were technology freaks who seized upon the latest weapon innovations developed in the industrious East to provide an edge in the life-and-death cosmosof the Wild West. Outlaws tinkered with their guns, creating unique hardware that became their calling cards. Attempts by lawmen to take control sparked a weapons race, pitting gunmen and bandit gangs against home-grown lawmen and vigilante "posses." By the late 1930s and early 1940s, outlaws on horseback had given way to marauding bank robbers. Using fast cars and faster guns, they became folk heroes of the Great Depression, even as the law was hard on their tails.

A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective


Steven L. Taylor - 2014
    But is the American way more or less efficacious than comparable democracies in Asia, Latin America, or Europe? What if the United States had a prime minister instead of (or in addition to) a president, or if it had three or more parties in Congress instead of two? Would there be more partisan animosity and legislative gridlock or less? These are the kinds of questions that thinking about U.S. government in comparative perspective helps us to analyze.   This valuable contribution to political studies takes a unique approach to a much-studied subject, looking at the U.S. government from a comparative point of view. Four distinguished scholars in the field examine the Constitution, the two-party system, the division of power between state and federal governments, and other major features of the American political system in terms of how they differ from other democracies, and they explore what those differences ultimately mean for democratic performance. By merging two important fields of study, American government and comparative political systems, this essential text offers a new and refreshingly insightful view of American exceptionalism.

Castle Orchard


E.A. Dineley - 2014
    As the new owner takes possession of Castle Orchard, Caroline and Captain Allington must somehow find a way to save the estate from the brink of disaster, and control their developing feelings for one another.Castle Orchard hauntingly evokes the Georgian period, combining rich historical detail with romance and drama.

Murderous East Anglia: Casting a flickering candle over a miscellany of dark and nefarious deeds resulting in bloodshed…


Joanna Elphick - 2014
    The criminal intent behind these nefarious deeds stem from places deep within the human psyche, places of greed and jealousy that will send a shiver down your spine. So, journey down the rabbit-hole of crime and punishment – if you dare – and discover the secret history of a region with more suspicious deaths per capita than central London. Among these historical tales, read about the grizzly story of the death of Rose Harsent, a maid at Providence House in Peasanhall and the electrifying murder mystery that followed; how a young man tired of his lover hid his criminal intent by asking her to run away with him; the mystery and suspense following the hunt for the Bootlace Beach killer. In all these true crime and murder thriller short stories, echoes of the past resound into the present, whether it be through the ghostly footsteps of the helpless victims, or in the amendments made to laws of crime and punishment as a result of these tragedies. So, dare you delve into the shadowy history of ‘Murderous East Anglia’? Check out the LOOK INSIDE feature and discover the fascinating world of the macabre.

Driv'n by Fortune: The Scots' March to Modernity in America, 1745–1812


Sam Allison - 2014
    Simon Fraser, chief of the Clan Fraser of Lovat, raised the 78th Highlanders, a regiment that also played a major role in defeating the French on the Plains of Abraham. Sam Allison tackles the myths embedded in nationalistic history and in fictional accounts of the Highlanders and dispels much misinformation about these soldier-settlers. The impact of the 78th Fraser's Highlanders, which extended far beyond Scotland and far beyond the Canada of their times, is finally being told.

The Reconstruction Years: The Tragic Aftermath of the War Between the States


Walter Coffey - 2014
    Like the War Between the States itself, Reconstruction lasted longer and produced more tragedy than ever anticipated. This work explores the era's important events in a year-by-year digest. These events reflect the unintended and tragic consequences of excessive government intervention in the liberties of the people. They also illustrate how such intervention has helped transform America from a constitutional republic to the centralized empire that it is today. Key events that shaped both Reconstruction and subsequent American history include: The subjugation of former Confederates through the military and corrupt state governments, followed by the subjugation of former slaves through Jim Crow laws The new alliance between business and government, which introduced the crony capitalist economic system that flourishes today The rise of organized labor, women's suffrage, and other special interest groups seeking recognition The political intrigues and unprecedented scandals that undermined the people's trust in government The westward expansion that encroached on the land of Native Americans and virtually annihilated their way of life The complex Reconstruction era laid the groundwork that would establish America as a world power by the beginning of the 20th century. The fundamental and permanent changes that both the Civil War and Reconstruction brought to America are explored, as well as how such changes have posed a threat to individual freedom ever since. As a resource guide to a vital yet often misunderstood era in American history, this is essential reading. "

The Afterlife of "Little Women"


Beverly Lyon Clark - 2014
    make Laurie marry Beth, I will never read another of your books as long as I live." Not to mention Miss Manners, a Little Women devotee, who announced that the book taught her an important life lesson: "Although it's very nice to have two clean gloves, it's even more important to have a little ink on your fingers." In The Afterlife of Little Women, Beverly Lyon Clark, a leading authority on children's literature, explores these and other after-tremors, both popular and academic, as she maps the reception of Louisa May Alcott's timeless novel, first published in 1868.Clark divides her discussion into four historical periods. The first covers the novel's publication and massive popularity in the late nineteenth century. In the second era--the first three decades of the twentieth century--the novel becomes a nostalgic icon of the domesticity of a previous century, while losing status among the literary and scholarly elite. In its mid-century afterlife (1930-1960), Little Women reaches a low in terms of its critical reputation but remains a well-known piece of Americana within popular culture. The book concludes with a long chapter on Little Women's afterlife from the 1960s to the present--a period in which the reading of the book seems to decline, while scholarly attention expands dramatically and popular echoes continue to proliferate.Drawing on letters and library records as well as reviews, plays, operas, film and television adaptations, spinoff novels, translations, Alcott biographies, and illustrations, Clark demonstrates how the novel resonates with both conservative family values and progressive feminist ones. She grounds her story in criticism of children's literature, book history, cultural studies, feminist criticism, and adaptation studies. Written in an accessible narrative style, The Afterlife of Little Women speaks to scholars, librarians, and devoted Alcott fans.

The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb and Other Cases


Arthur Conan Doyle - 2014
    The Penguin English Library editionAs usual with the Sherlock Holmes stories it is very hard to say which are the best - but there are many stories here which would get the vote - ranging from The Boscombe Valley Mystery to the wonderful Adventure of Silver Blaze, from the Adventure of the Norwood Builder to A Case of Identity, but above to the uniquely strange and macabre Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb.

Nothing But Murder


William Roughead - 2014
    Henry James himself once urged Roughead: Keep on with them all please, and continue to beckon me along the gallery that I can t tread alone and where, by your leave, I link my arm fraternally in yours: the gallery of sinister perspective just stretches in this manner straight away. Here you will find such Roughead classics as My First Murder: Featuring Jessie King, the crime that fortuitously set Mr. Roughead s steps toward matters criminous, Locusta in Scotland, a familiar survey of poisoning as practiced in the realm. The Fatal Countess, a Jacobean royal flush of didoes in high places; Physic and Forgery: A Study in Confidence, and many more capital crimes old and new, but all revealed with that dry wit and mellow artistry that is the mark of fine wine or writing. Above all you must not miss Mr.Roughead s ensemble by the entire company entitled, An Academic Discussion wherein his best known murders sit in judgment on the qualities of their crimes and discuss the artistry of their chosen metier."

Champagne and Chocolate


Denyse Bridger - 2014
    Intelligent and educated, Austin enjoys all of the best life has to offer. A gambler, a gunslinger, and a man who has plans to taste the sweetest prize at The Palace Casino and Saloon - the lovely owner, Chantille L'Amour, the most sought after jewel on the Barbary Coast.Running a high-class brothel and casino isn't exactly the life she was born to but Chantille is determined to overcome the ruin her family was left in once the Civil War ended. But, she has chosen a difficult path... one that demands much and leaves her lonely. She's noticed the handsome man who comes into her world from time to time, and when she chooses to give in to desire, the passion evoked by Austin's touch may change her life forever....

The Trials Of Oscar Wilde


Merlin Holland - 2014
    Less than 100 days later, he found himself a common prisoner sentenced to two years hard labour. So what happened during the trials and what did Wilde say? Was he persecuted or the author of his own downfall? Using the actual words spoken in court, we can feel what it was like to be in the company of a flawed genius - as this less than ideal husband was suddenly reduced to a man of no importance.

The Adventures of Jane Waterford


Susan Leona Fisher - 2014
    A friendly widow takes Jane under her wing, but their carriage overturns on the road and after that things never go quite as Jane intended. Unwittingly she takes a job as secretary to the grandmother of the Duke of Grantley, the mysterious stranger who rescued them after the accident. When Jane at last realises who he is she clashes with him over a number of things, since they are poles apart politically. Little does she know that the Duke is taking more than a passing interest in her developing business, concerned at the lengths she is willing to go to in order to achieve success. Little does he know what Jane will be capable of when she discovers his own subterfuge.