Oliver is a hard-working, committed priest, and he has one gift - that of the exorcism of 'divining spirits'. The Archbishop tells Oliver that Lady Seaton, owner of Candleton Hall in Norfolk, has appealed to the Church for assistance in allaying the terrifying and haunting experiences taking place at the Hall. Father Oliver goes to Candleton and within hours, he and his sister Emma have first-hand experience of the phenomena: pools of blood form on the floor, a woman dressed in black walks the Long Gallery, the sound of knocking, cries in the night and hurried footsteps and, above all, a sense of malevolence which seeps through the house. Painstakingly, Oliver, a natural scholar, delves into the family secrets of the Seatons and finds chilling truths which span four centuries.

    Then she sees the man in black, galloping through the Egyptian desert on a pure white steed. Desdemona could not have conjured a more dashing savior in her wildest fantasies. But an unlikelier hero would be impossible to find: Harry Braxton is a rogue, a scoundrel, and a born opportunist—who has already broken Desdemona’s heart once before. As brilliant as she is beautiful, Desdemona still hasn’t learned how to stay out of trouble—which suits Harry just fine. Running from a painful past, and rumored to be involved in nefarious endeavors, Harry will never be a proper match for Desdemona. But when she catches the eye of his cousin, the irritatingly honorable Lord Blake Ravenscroft, Harry vows to claim his one true desire, once and for all.

    Stanley Weintraub, biographer of Queen Victoria and other major figures of her era, here unveils for the first time the largely hidden role of Prince Albert, establishing him as one of the greatest men of his days.Drawing on previously unexplored sources, Weintraub's Uncrowned King delves into Prince Albert's political, familial, financial, medical, and sexual life.

    Salvation arrives in the form of Adam Cooper, who is fascinated by this proud yet vulnerable girl. He marries her, but life still has some shocks in store for them both.

    Over their tightly laced corsets and billowing crinolines, the models wear sweeping skirts — some with lavishly festooned bustles — accented by dainty fans, gloves, bonnets, and parasols. A must for fashion historians and lovers of Victoriana. Captions.

    A simple offer of work as a model proves to be the catalyst for complete change, taking Anna from the sunny beaches and liberal attitudes of an artist's colony in Brittany to the struggle to survive and make good in the immigrant community of downtown New York. Anna learns her lessons well, and she finds herself still making chains, but now chains of restaurants, leading to wealth if not happiness. Then comes Prohibition, and Anna's decisions involve her in a gangland feud which threatens her family and friends in a frightening web of intrigue and violence. How do we recover from the agony of a lover's betrayal? What is true love anyway? Can we befriend lawbreakers without getting hurt? These questions are at the core of this unusual and compelling book. Written with humour, colour and passion, Helen Spring weaves an absorbing tale of obsession and complex emotions, and their far-reaching consequences.

    This immensely usable archive of vintage illustrations not only offers a wonderful window on the goods and merchandise of a bygone era, but is an absolute treasure trove of easily reproducible graphic art as well.Some 2,300 cuts culled from such rare nineteenth-century periodicals as The Art Journal, The Illustrated London News, The Scientific American, and The Youth's Companion have been organized in convenient categories: clothes, furniture, kitchenware, toys and games, musical instruments, stationery supplies, domestic accessories, and much more.Among them are detailed and highly reproducible illustrations of fans, corsets, toiletry kits, jewelry, roller skates, a baby carriage, bicycles, baseball gloves, a pencil sharpener, crayons, fountain pen, typewriter, drafting tools, compass, microscope, feather duster, parasol, small table with smoking paraphernalia, high-topped "storm slippers," and hundreds of other objects.

    By comparing the fictional representations with the lived experience of thenew woman, Ledger's book makes a major contribution to an understanding of the 'woman question' at the fin de siecle. She alights on such disparate figures as Eleanor Marx, Gertrude Dix, Dracula, Oscar Wilde, Olive Schreiner and Radclyffe Hall. Focusing mainly on the last two decades of thenineteenth century, the book's later chapters project forward into the twentieth century, considering the relationship between new woman fiction and early modernism as well as the socio-sexual inheritance of the 'second generation' new woman writers.

    The journeys proved to be pivotal in both their writing careers. Under the tutelage of their brilliant teacher Constantin Heger, the young authors penned the twenty-eight essays (devoirs) collected for the first time in this volume. Each essay, presented in its original French, is accompanied by an English translation and commentary to establish historical and literary context. Where M. Heger made comments, they are reproduced in full. Nine of the essays have never been published before.Sue Lonoff offers a mine of information on the Brontes and their Brussels experience, exploring why the months in Belgium meant so much to the sisters and how their writing exercises affected their developing prose styles. In an introduction and extensive annotations, Lonoff investigates the Brontes' interests, imaginations, stylistic concerns, and methods of work at this key point in their writing careers. So important was the Brussels experience for Charlotte, Lonoff contends, that she might never have become a major novelist had she missed it. Lonoff's commentary also illuminates the strong reactions each of the sisters had to their mentor and the impact on their lives of their relations with him. For scholars of the Victorian period, women's studies, and English literature, and for general readers interested in the Brontes and women's education of the time, this book is compelling reading.

    His voice is like midnight fog, shivering along her skin. Yet Felicity Mayfield must marry hard, cold Hunter Claybourne, or goto debtor's prison. Boldly, she proposes a bargain to the wealthy financier: she'll become his wife in name only for one brief year -- if he allows her the freedom to continue living an independent life. Surely her newspaper scribblings are a matter of indifference to him.He never suspected a wife would be such a nuisance. It was supposed to be a simple business arrangement. Instead, she has invaded his cavernous home -- rearranging the furniture, winning over his servants, blinding him with sunlight. Her constant presence is unsettling, her vanilla scent everywhere, her skin a soft temptation. Suddenly it seems only right that she should wear his ring ... and share his bed. After all, she is his wife. Yet even as Felicity opens a chink in Hunter's heart, her exposé of the scandalous workhouses threatens to uncover his darkest secret, forcing him to choose between his hard-won empire and the miracle of love.

    Containing a selection of the best of Charlotte Bronte's early creative writing transcribed directly from her manuscripts, here is an enlightening look at what Bronte called her "long apprenticeship in writing." In the Introduction, Juliet Barker illuminates Bronte's childhood, bringing to life the imaginary worlds and delightful characters Charlotte and her siblings created.

    Challenging the prevailing view of a modern English culture besotted with its history and its aristocracy, Mandler portrays instead a continuously changing and modernizing society in which both popular and intellectual attitudes toward the aristocracy—and its stately homes—have veered from selective appreciation to outright hostility and only recently to thoroughgoing admiration.With great panache, Mandler adds the missing pieces to the story of the country house. Going beyond its architects and its owners, he brings to center stage a much wider cast of characters—aristocratic entrepreneurs, anti-aristocratic politicians, campaigning conservationists, ordinary sightseers and voters—and a scenario full of incident and local and national color. He traces attitudes toward the stately homes, beginning in the first half of the nineteenth century when public feeling about the aristocracy was mixed and divided. Criticism of the "foreign" and "exclusive" image of the typical aristocratic country house was widespread. At the same time, interest grew in those older houses that symbolized an olden time of imagined national harmony. The Victorian period also saw the first mass tourist industry, and a strong popular demand emerged for the right to visit all the stately homes. By the 1880s, however, hostility toward the aristocracy made appreciation of any country house politically treacherous, and interest in aristocratic heritage declined steadily for sixty years. Only after 1945, when the aristocracy was no longer seen as a threat, was a gentle revival of the stately homes possible, Mandler contends, and only since the 1970s has that revival become a triumphant appreciation. He enters today's debate with a discussion of how far people today—and tomorrow—are willing to see the aristocracy's heritage as their own.

    Exotic plants and animals poured into London from all corners of the Empire, while revolutionary theories such as the radical idea that humans might be descended from apes drew crowds to heated debates. Men and women of all social classes avidly collected scientific specimens for display in their homes and devoured literature about science and its practitioners. Victorian Science in Context captures the essence of this fascination, charting the many ways in which science influenced and was influenced by the larger Victorian culture. Contributions from leading scholars in history, literature, and the history of science explore questions such as: What did science mean to the Victorians? For whom was Victorian science written? What ideological messages did it convey? The contributors show how practical concerns interacted with contextual issues to mold Victorian science—which in turn shaped much of the relationship between modern science and culture.

    In Alien Nation Cannon Schmitt moves away from these models of the genre to chart, instead, the ways in which Gothic fictions and conventions gave shape to a sense of English nationality during the century in which British imperial power was stretching out its greatest reach.

    As mentor and father-figure to the young Queen Victoria, he exerted considerable influence over the first few years of her reign. In this, the first biography in twenty years, Leslie Mitchell uses the Melbourne family papers to explore the man behind the politician at the heart of early Victorian politics.

    The letters, written amid scenes of horror and chaos, to officials, family and friends, express her hopes and fears and the doubts and frustrations of her arduous service.

    Well know artists such as James Barry, David Wilkie and Jack Yeats feature, but more in the context of how they referred to Ireland in their work than in terms of overall assessment of their works.

    Published to accompany a major exhibition organized by the Tate Gallery, London, this is the first publication to explore the impact of British art on the international symbolist movement

    Emphasizing         the intimacy engendered by shared reading and writing in these groups,         Anne Ruggles Gere contends that these literacy practices meant that club         members took an active part in reinventing the nation during a period         of major change. Gere uses archival material that documents club members'         perspectives and activities around such issues as Americanization, womanhood,         peace, consumerism, benevolence, taste, and literature--and offers a rare         depth of insight into the interests and lives of American women from the         fin de siècle through the beginning of the roaring twenties.       Intimate Practices is unique in its exploration of a range of         women's clubs--Mormon, Jewish, white middle-class, African American, and         working class--and paints a vast and colorful multicultural, multifaceted         canvas of these widely-divergent women's groups.