Best of
Victorian

2012

Teach Me


Cassandra Dean - 2012
    Three years a widow, she boldly employs the madam of a brothel for guidance but never had she expected her education to be conducted by a coldly handsome peer of the realm.To the Earl of Malvern, the erotic tutelage of a skittish widow is little more than sport, however the woman he teaches is far from the mouse he expects. With her sly humor and insistent joy, Elizabeth obliterates all his expectations and he, unwillingly fascinated, can’t prevent his fall.Each more intrigued than they are willing to admit, Elizabeth and Malvern embark upon a tutelage that will challenge them, change them, come to mean everything to them…until a heartbreaking betrayal threatens to tear them apart forever.

The Murder of Patience Brooke


J.C. Briggs - 2012
     But he is shocked when the matron’s assistant – Patience Brooke – is found hanging outside the property, covered in blood. Desperate to protect the reputation of the Home and to stop a scandal from spreading, Dickens takes the investigation into his own hands. With the help of his good friend, Superintendent Sam Jones of Bow Street, and a description of the suspect as ‘a man with a crooked face’, Dickens's search takes him deep into the filthy slums of Victorian London. Can Dickens save his reputation? Will he find out the secrets of Patience Brooke’s troubled past? Or will the killer strike again …? The Murder of Patience Brooke is the first urban mystery in J. C. Briggs' literary historical series, the Charles Dickens investigations, a traditional British detective series set in Victorian London.The Charles Dickens Investigations Series: BOOK ONE: The Murder of Patience Brooke BOOK TWO: Death at Hungerford Stairs BOOK THREE: Murder by Ghostlight BOOK FOUR: The Quickening and the Dead

The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London


Judith Flanders - 2012
    In only a few decades, the capital grew from a compact Regency town into a sprawling metropolis of 6.5 million inhabitants, the largest city the world had ever seen. Technology--railways, street-lighting, and sewers--transformed both the city and the experience of city-living, as London expanded in every direction. Now Judith Flanders, one of Britain's foremost social historians, explores the world portrayed so vividly in Dickens' novels, showing life on the streets of London in colorful, fascinating detail. From the moment Charles Dickens, the century's best-loved English novelist and London's greatest observer, arrived in the city in 1822, he obsessively walked its streets, recording its pleasures, curiosities, and cruelties. Now, with him, Flanders leads us through the markets, transport systems, sewers, rivers, slums, alleys, cemeteries, gin palaces, chop-houses, and entertainment emporia of Dickens' London, to reveal the Victorian capital in all its variety, vibrancy, and squalor.

Silent Revenge


Laura Landon - 2012
    And when that happens, her stepbrother Colin will swoop in to take it all—along with her freedom. The only solution: find a husband strong enough to stand up to Colin. But even if she’s able to find someone able to protect her, what man will marry her once they discover her secret?Not only is Simon Westland, Earl of Northcote, bankrupt, but the London gossip continues to speculate that he had a hand in the untimely death of his wastrel father. Now he is desperate to find a woman to keep him from losing everything. But what woman will want to marry a suspected murderer?Thrown together by sheer necessity, Jessica and Simon agree that theirs will be a marriage of convenience. But no legal document can protect Jessica’s heart when she learns of Simon’s hidden motive for marrying her. For despite her best intentions, Jessica has fallen in love with her husband. And love is the last thing either of them wants—though it may be exactly what they both need.

Intimate Deception


Laura Landon - 2012
    In Victorian England, a woman possesses only one item of value: her virtue. Without it, Fentington will not want her—nor will any other man. But at least she will be free. Now she must find a man with whom to pass the fateful night, a man who will ask no questions, make no other demands. Because for a woman preparing to risk everything, no ordinary man will do…After losing two wives in childbirth, Vincent Germaine, Duke of Raeburn, vows never to marry again. Racked with guilt over the lives lost in his quest for an heir, he is careful now to take his pleasure only with London’s most discreet courtesans. Yet when he learns that a passionate encounter with a bewitching stranger may have put yet another life at risk, Vincent sets out to find the unsuspecting girl—and discovers a woman of incomparable courage, beauty, and strength. But can two strangers brought together by desperation find true love against all odds?

Kathleen Kirkwood Collection #1: Romancing The Unexplained


Kathleen Kirkwood - 2012
    . . A mysterious Viscount: Twice wed and twice widowed, Adrian Marrable is implicated in both his wives’ untimely deaths. Now the golden beauty captivates his interest and he desires that she never leave . . . Royal Sherringham: The ancient seat of the viscounts Marrable. As the family gathers after years apart, its unseen residents stir, revealing past secrets, shade upon shocking shade . . . A SLIP IN TIME A Highland Chieftain: Recently freed from captivity in London Tower, Rae Mackinnon returns to the turbulent Highlands and claims his place as laird of Dunraven Castle. As he grapples with clan rivalries and divisiveness within his own family, he is confronted with a startling discovery — a beautiful woman from a distant future, delivered through the portals of Time and into his bed . . . A Victorian Lady: Swept up in the summer social rounds, Julia Hargrove accompanies her aunt and cousins on an excursion to Scotland, to an ancient castle which has hosted no visitors for two decades — until now. Rumors abound of unusual occurrences at Dunraven Castle — occurrences that are centered in the bedchamber Julia now occupies, where a rugged Highland warrior materializes from the past . . . Drawn irresistibly through the portals of Time: What mysteries does Dunraven hold? What secret opens the temporal door, allowing Julia and Rae to reach across the centuries to claim a few stolen moments and nurture a blossoming love? But how long can the rules of Time be broken before the door shuts forevermore?

The Candle Man


Alex Scarrow - 2012
    It all starts in Whitechapel, London in 1888, as the Ripper murders began.

Dickens's Victorian London: 1839-1901


Alex Werner - 2012
    Setting Dickens against the city that was the backdrop and inspiration for his work, it takes the reader on a memorable and haunting journey, discovering the places and subjects which stimulated his imagination. Here are captivating photographs of famous landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square and Westminster Abbey, alongside coaching inns, the Thames before the Embankment was built, the construction of the Metropolitan Underground Line, the docklands that studded the river and the many villages that make up London today.Authoritatively written and beautifully illustrated, this book will appeal to anyone who loves this beguiling city and wants to explore it as it was in Dickens' day.

Scrooge, The Year After (The Scrooge Years #1)


Judy La Salle - 2012
    He can still be bull-headed and brash, but his new personality includes a lively sense of humor, generosity, insight, and the willingness to take risks. He is also a bit of a Romantic, which is fitting, since women now find him attractive – even though he is out of practice when it comes to courting. It is another new dimension for Scrooge – one that brings unique challenges and rewards. He faces other, darker challenges, as well. In November 1844, Scrooge embarks on a quest to discover the truth of his sister Fan’s death, which occurred in 1819. He needs only a few suggestions of foul play and he is driven to uncover the painful facts, particularly since he feels overwhelming guilt and regret where she is concerned. He also has one business enemy, in particular, who will do everything in his power to ruin Scrooge. Thankfully, the ghost of Jacob Marley continues to play a role in his old partner’s life, and Scrooge needs all the assistance he can get if he is not to revert to his former withdrawn and miserable self.

Dickens at Christmas


Charles Dickens - 2012
    This elegant collection gathers together not only Dickens' Christmas Books but also stories that Dickens wrote for the special seasonal editions of his periodicals All the Year Round and Household Words, and the hilarious festive episodes from The Pickwick Papers. A must-have for Christmas, this book is as necessary to seasonal festivities as holly, mistletoe, and silver bells.

Once Upon a Wedding Boxed Set


Kelly McClymer - 2012
    But when an attempt to help her star-crossed brother goes awry, she finds herself married to the Duke of Kerstone. Can the hopeless romantic Miranda prove to her impeccably proper husband that fairy tales really do come true?The Star-Crossed BrideEver a gentleman, Viscount Valentine Fenster steps aside when the woman he loves, Lady Emily Wertherly chooses another man. When he discovers Emily's fiance is a fortune-hunting murderer, Valentine tosses caution—and decorum—to the wind to save her. But he’ll have to move fast since the headstrong and highly-imaginative Emily is intent on saving herself…The Unintended BrideShy Hero Fenster loves two things—books and Arthur Watterly. But Arthur, the heir to a dukedom and pledged to another since birth, is the one thing she can never have—that is until the quest for a rare Arthurian manuscript and a night of passion in a bookshop change everything.The Infamous BrideNotorious flirt Juliet Fenster enjoys the delights of the London season far too much to consider settling down—particularly with a stuffy American like Romeo “RJ” Hopkins. But when the unlikely pair are cast in an amateur production of Romeo and Juliet, they find themselves doing far more than “playing” at love…

The Pre-Raphaelites: Their Lives and Works in 500 Images: A Study of the Artists, Their Lives and Context, with 500 Images, and a Gallery Showing 300 of Their Most Iconic Paintings


Michael Robinson - 2012
    This impressive new book opens by looking at key Pre-Raphaelite artists in turn, documenting the artists' lives and the development of their talents. Includes a stunning gallery of more than 290 Pre-Raphaelite works.

The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens


Jenny Hartley - 2012
    This volume offers the first selection to be made from the magisterial twelve-volume British Academy Pilgrim Edition of his letters. From over fourteen thousand, editor Jenny Hartley has cherrypicked four hundred and fifty to give readers the essence of the Sparkler of Albion. This eagerly awaited selection takes us straight to the heart of his life, to show us Dickens at first hand. Here he is writing out of the heat of the moment: as a novelist, journalist, and magazine editor; as a social campaigner and traveler in Europe and America; and as friend, lover, husband, and father. These letters were an outlet for his high spirits, sparkling wit, and caustic commentary--striking glimpses of the world around him, as seen through his highly individual and acutely observing eye. Whether you dip in or read straight through, this selection of his letters captures anew the brilliance of Dickens and the sheer pleasure of being in his company.

A Study in Seduction


Nina Lane - 2012
    The one challenge she can’t top? Managing the most infuriating man she’s ever met.Alexander Hall, Viscount Northwood, has purchased a one-of-a-kind locket from a pawnshop, unaware of the priceless sentiment it holds for Lydia. If he were a gentleman, he would simply return it to her. But Alexander is curious to see just how bold this brilliant beauty will be.What began as a playful wager quickly escalates. As their sizzling attraction grows, even Lydia can’t account for the feelings Alexander arouses in her with his smile or the fire he ignites with his touch. But when a dark family secret is suddenly thrown into the equation, it just might divide them forever.*An earlier edition of this book was published under the name Nina Rowan by Grand Central Publishing

Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde


Timothy J. Barringer - 2012
    Today the works of the Pre-Raphaelites are among the best known of all English paintings, and yet they have sometimes been dismissed as Victoriana or mere escapism. This book corrects that view. Accompanying a major international touring exhibition, it examines works in a wide variety of media, demonstrating the broad scope of the movement's revolutionary ideas about art, design and society. Led by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, the Pre-Raphaelites rebelled against the art establishment of their day and were committed to the idea of art's potential to change society. Their unflinchingly radical style, inspired by the purity of early renaissance painting, defied convention, provoked critics and entranced audiences. Many of the most famous Pre-Raphaelite paintings are featured, including Millais' "Ophelia" and Madox Brown's "The Last of England", alongside less familiar works. In contrast with previous Pre-Raphaelite surveys, this book also includes sculpture, photography and the applied arts, the latter showing the important role the "Brotherhood" played in the early development of the Arts and Crafts movement and the socialist ideas of the poet, designer and theorist, William Morris (1834-1896). Extensively illustrated, with essays by leading international authorities in the field, this will be the key work on the Pre-Raphaelites for years to come.

A Lesson in Chemistry with Inspector Bruce


Jillian Stone - 2012
    Undervalued and overworked, the brilliant young man has no time for a social life—that is, until the heroine's father, a noted chemist in his own right, offers Archie a deal. He will modify a secret latex compound that will transfer fingerprints from the crime scene to the lab. In exchange, Archie must agree to tutor his charming but exasperating daughter, Miss Fiona A. Rose, for the major pharmacy exam.But as Archie and Fiona attempt to study for the major, they can't help but get involved in a bit of sleuthing. Was the fire in the opium den accidental or deliberately set? Who was behind the lab explosion? Not to mention the strange and haunting memory of a masquerade ball and a very seductive kiss...Amidst the pop quizzes and danger, Fiona and Archie ultimately find the force of attraction too tempting to resist.

The Heart Gem


Isabella Macotte - 2012
    Convention never appealed to Hallie Pinefoy. But plans for financial independence through a successful doll-making venture have one impediment. She's inherited a curiosity shop and a handsome business partner who's proving to be a delicious distraction. When Bremen Tyler inherits a shop in coastal England, he breaks from the mystical Ancestral clan to live a normal life. The only way to guarantee a permanent break is to marry his Heart Match, a perfect soul mate. Bremen recognizes the captivating Hallie as his true love, but she isn't cooperating with his courtship. If he can retrieve the stolen Heart Gem, an Artifact of Love, he can use it to prove their match. The surface of the Gem reflects the essence of a couple's future life, but the risks are great. More importantly, will Hallie realize true love doesn't need proof?

The Most to Lose


Laura Landon - 2012
    Three years later, Jonah returns from the Crimea as a war hero and London’s most eligible bachelor, setting the gossip afire and fanning Hadleigh’s long-simmering rage into an inferno. Hadleigh has not forgotten his old friend’s betrayal, and now that Jonah has returned, he will take his revenge.Lady Cecelia Randolph has loved Jonah Armstrong for as long as she can remember. The moment they share a passionate kiss, she dares to hope that he feels the same for her and that his attention is driven by more than his desire to taunt her brother or his desperation for her dowry. It isn’t until Hadleigh’s quest for vengeance nearly destroys her that she realizes that Jonah loves her enough to risk everything to protect her.

Miss Abigail's Room


Catherine Cavendish - 2012
    It was the way it kept coming back…As the lowest ranking parlor maid at Stonefleet Hall, Becky gets all the dirtiest jobs. But the one she hates the most is cleaning Miss Abigail’s room. There’s a strange, empty smell to the place, and a feeling that nothing right or Christian resides there in the mistress’s absence. And then there’s the blood, the spot that comes back no matter often Becky scrubs it clean. Becky wishes she had somewhere else to go, but without means or a good recommendation from her household, there is nothing for her outside the only home she’s known for eighteen years. So when a sickening doll made of wax and feathers turns up, Becky’s dreams of freedom and green grass become even more distant. Until the staff members start to die.A darning needle though the heart of the gruesome doll puts everyone at Stonefleet Hall at odds. The head parlor maid seems like someone else, the butler pretends nothing’s amiss, and everyone thinks Becky’s losing her mind. But when the shambling old lord of the manor looks at her, why does he scream as though he’s seen the hounds of hell? Genre: Paranormal Horror

Lord Greyton's Fall From Grace


K.R. Richards - 2012
    The author recommends you read Lord Greyton’s Fall from Grace either before or after Lords of Honor, as it is a companion novella, and the back-story of Owen and Grace, who were originally introduced in Lords of Honor. Lords of Honor is where Owen and Grace’s Happily Ever After ending occurs. There is no Happily Ever After ending in Lord Greyton’s Fall from Grace, as it was written after Lords of Honor was released when readers requested the back-story of Owen and Grace. The novella also touches on the back-stories of some of the other characters in the Lords of Avalon series. There are appearances from some of the major Lords of Avalon characters in Lord Greyton’s Fall from Grace, all taking place in 1830, four years before the events in the Lords of Avalon series occur. Grace Brackenridge returns from London a year after her father sent her to find a husband. No man in London compares to the man of her dreams, Owen Darrington, Viscount Greyton, in Hartland, Devon. Grace returns to Hartland still unmarried but determined to marry Owen. Owen realizes how attracted to Grace he truly is during her long absence. When she returns to Hartland unmarried, he pursues her with the intention of marrying her. He is leaving in two weeks time to work on an archaeological excavation in Italy on behalf of the Avalon Society. He will be gone for three months. He decides he must win her heart quickly to ensure she will wait for him while he is away. Grace’s father, Squire Brackenridge has other ideas. He prefers his daughter marry another. Knowing Grace is intelligent and willful, he sets his own plan in motion to make certain things will not work out the way Owen and Grace want them to. Is Owen and Grace’s love strong enough to survive the trickery and deceit that threatens to tear them apart forever? The entire Lords of Avalon series is available on Amazon Kindle; Lord of the Abbey, Lords of Honor, Lords of Retribution and Lords of Atonement, along with the LOA series companion novella, Lord Greyton’s Fall from Grace.

Terrifying Transformations: An Anthology of Victorian Werewolf Fiction


Alexis EasleyClemence Housman - 2012
    W. M. Reynolds, Wagner, the Wehr-WolfThis collection brings together fifteen chilling stories of lycanthropy and murder written from 1838 to 1896, all taken from their original appearances in Victorian periodicals and story collections, many of them reprinted here for the first time. This edition includes a new introduction by Alexis Easley and Shannon Scott, explanatory notes, and numerous rare Victorian werewolf illustrations.This collection contains: "Hugues, the Wer-Wolf" (1838) by Sutherland Menzies, "The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains" (1839) by Frederick Marryat, "A Story of a Weir-Wolf" (1846) by Catherine Crowe, excerpts from Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf (1846-47) by George W. M. Reynolds, "Lycanthropy in London; or, The Wehr-Wolf of Wilton-Crescent" (1855) by Dudley Costello, "The Gray-Wolf" (1871) by George MacDonald, "The Were-wolf of the Grendelwold" (1882) by F. Scarlett Potter, "The White Wolf of Kostopchin" (1889) by Gilbert Campbell, "A Pastoral Horror" (1890) by Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Mark of the Beast" (1890) by Rudyard Kipling, "The Were-Wolf" (1890) by Clemence Housman, "Dracula's Guest" (ca. 1892) by Bram Stoker, "The Other Side: A Breton Legend" (1893) by Eric Stenbock, "Morraha" (1894) by Joseph Jacobs, and "Where There is Nothing, There is God" (1896) by William Butler Yeats. An appendix of contextual materials is also included, featuring nonfiction articles from Victorian periodicals dealing with lycanthropy, Rosamund Marriott Watson's poem "A Ballad of the Were-wolf" (1891), excerpts from Sabine Baring-Gould's "The Book of Were-Wolves" (1865) and Laurence Housman's illustrations for Clemence Housman's "The Were-wolf" (1896).

Loveland


Andrea Downing - 2012
    Headstrong and willful, Alex tries to overcome a disastrous marriage in England and be free of the strictures of Victorian society --and become independent of men. That is, until Jesse Makepeace saunters back into her life...Hot-tempered and hot-blooded cowpuncher Jesse Makepeace can't seem to accept that the child he once knew is now the ravishing yet determined woman before him. Fighting rustlers proves a whole lot easier than fighting Alex when he's got to keep more than his temper under control.Arguments abound as Alex pursues her career as an artist and Jesse faces the prejudice of the English social order. The question is, will Loveland live up to its name?

A Gentlewoman's Chronicles


Michael Coorlim - 2012
    This collection of three novelletes takes her all the way from London, to the jungles of Mexico, to the Ottoman Empire.This collection includes:SKY PIRATES OVER LONDONLondon has been besieged by strange powerful airships targeting the city's shipping. The poor starve and the rich must ration their luxuries, while the blockaders have made no demands. Parliament and the Home Office have done nothing to rectify the situation, and though it's hardly proper, sometimes a gentlewoman must act while the men debate.THE TOWER OF BABBAGEA motion-picture crew has gone missing in the mysterious jungles of Southern Mexico while filming ancient Mayan ruins. Desperate to learn the fate of an old friend, gentlewoman Aldora Fiske sponsors an expedition into the heart of the rainforest. Little does she realize that the filmmakers were not the only ones interested in the clockwork secrets that Charles Babbage left behind.FINE YOUNG TURKSHer loveless wedding of convenience approaching, gentlewoman Aldora Fiske is among the influential Europeans to accept a handsome nobleman's invitation to show off the Ottoman Empire and its secularist reforms. After she alone escapes the devious plot to kidnap the foreign guests, she's confronted with an Empire where women are given all the rights of men, and a man who treats her like an equal.

The Georgian Bawdyhouse


Emily Brand - 2012
    Alongside the rise of the 'polite society' of Jane Austen's novels, the city of London had long been portrayed as a centre of vice and debauchery. In the shadows of the fashionable public parks and gardens, in alleyways along the banks of the Thames, even at church doors, there lurked a world of criminality and prostitution for which the bawdyhouse became one of the most potent symbols.The book will explore what is was like to run, work in, and frequent these establishments, which ranged from the filthy East End hovel to grand upmarket apartments. Through newspaper reports, criminal trials, political speeches and bawdy pamphlets and prints, it will also explore how they were perceived and, as the nineteenth century dawned, how the threat of disease and Victorian prudery meant that they were increasingly feared by the public and controlled by the legal system - and the 'happy hooker' firmly confined to the past.

Walls of Ash


Amber Newberry - 2012
    In a time when young ladies were bred to wed and follow orders, she finds herself faced with decisions that could lead her into the arms of love, or into danger. With the discovery of harrowing family secrets, Tamsin’s sweet dreams of her mother become dark, terrifying nightmares, warning her of the terrible things to come. A great mystery that surrounds her mother’s disappearance could be the key to the evil that pursues her, but when everything is snatched away, she falls into desperation that only one can save her from. Can he be her salvation, or will it be too late?Heat level- Mild/Appropriate for teensWhat reviewers are saying about 'Walls of Ash':"Newberry draws the reader into this tale of loss and love with a mix of evil and fear." InD'Tale Magazine"Amber Newberry describes a love affair with passion and tenderness." Rose Mary Espinoza, InD'Tale Magazine

Dust, Mud, Soot and Soil : The Worst Jobs in Victorian England


Lee Jackson - 2012
    'We have,' said one journalist in 1889, 'an accumulation of matter in the wrong place unexampled in the world's history'. Fighting this rising tide of dirt were an army of workers, from crossing-sweepers, chimney-sweeps and dustmen, to those in less well-known occupations, such as dust-yard sifters, sewer flushers and street orderlies. This book examines the work of these hard-pressed men and women, using their experience as a prism through which we can observe the inner workings of the Victorian metropolis. Along the way, we will uncover many mundane but fascinating details of daily life: what Victorian householders threw in the rubbish; the colour and composition of London 'mud'; why 'climbing-boys' went barefoot on the streets; the decidedly unhygienic habits of Soho attic-dwellers; the dangers of dust-yard pigs … and a good deal more besides. In particular, I hope this book will appeal to anyone intrigued by social or family history. For those with ancestors in such trades, it will answer the important, often neglected question 'But what did they actually do?' For those without, it will provide clues to whether your great-great-grandparents had a toilet, or where they put their dustbin – small things, indeed, but rather important.

Jim Hawkins and The Curse of Treasure Island


Frank Delaney - 2012
    With his fortune from the South Seas, he has expanded and improved the family inn, the old Admiral Benbow, on the coast of Somerset, where, from behind the bar, he regales travelers with tales of Long John Silver, Ben Gunn, Billy Bones, and the parrot that shrieks "pieces of eight, pieces of eight" - Cap'n Flint. Then one day, the mail coach deposits a beautiful stranger and her young son, and asks Jim to help her find somebody - Joseph Tait, one of the pirates they left behind on Treasure Island.

Walking Dickens' London


Lee Jackson - 2012
    Each entry conjures up forgotten scenes of London life – stage-coaches racing through the Borough; landing a catch at Billingsgate market; the uproar of a hanging outside Newgate Gaol – together with pointers to the most atmospheric, astonishing and esoteric parts of the Victorian metropolis which have survived into the twenty-first century. Step back into the past: savour the opportunity to dine in a nineteenth century chop-house; explore the rookery of Seven Dials; take tea in one of the Inns of Court; visit a Victorian operating theatre – all this and much more. Drawing upon Dickens' life and work, from museums and monuments to hidden alleys, mews and courtyards; from railway stations and riverside taverns to grim slums and gaslight – Dickens' London : A Timetraveller's Guide is an indispensable guide for anyone exploring Victorian London.Dickens' London : A Timetraveller's Guide is written by the acclaimed historical novelist Lee Jackson, whose encyclopaedic website 'The Dictionary of Victorian London' (www.victorianlondon.org) is well-known to all those interested in the history of the capital.

The Novels of Charles Dickens: An Introduction to A Christmas Carol


David Timson - 2012
    Listen to A Christmas Carol narrated by Anton Lesser."A ghostly little book", said Charles Dickens of his famous Christmas novella, which first appeared in 1843. It has become the most famous classic Christmas story of all, with the miserly figure of Scrooge, the epitome of the callous employer; sadly crippled Tiny Tim; and the three spectres: the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future.This audiobook continues the award-winning series of Dickens' works read by leading English classical actor Anton Lesser.

The English Country House Explained


Trevor Yorke - 2012
    They also have vast landscaped gardens, often with lakes and fountains. Recent television series and films (such as Downton Abbey and Gosford Park) have spurred on the public s interest in these grand and glamorous houses which reflect all the splendour of England s glory years. Using original colour drawings, diagrams and photographs, Trevor Yorke takes the reader on a careful tour of the country house and describes its features, exterior and interior, upstairs and downstairs. He looks at the different periods of large country houses from the mid 1500s up to 1914, explaining the changing architectural styles and the tastes of those who had them built. He describes the rooms within the main house and their role over the centuries. There is a glossary of architectural terms and a quick reference time chart, listing country house architects and the notable buildings they designed, with drawings of the period details that help to date the houses.

By Berwen Banks


Allen Raine - 2012
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Young PRB: A Novel of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood


Elisabeth Lee - 2012
    In the year 1848 Europe erupts in turmoil, but Hunt is an art student, with many dreams and limited funds, in a London where revolution is just not done - especially one against the art establishment.Hunt, along with six friends and fellow students - including the prodigy John Everett Millais and the artist-poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti - proclaim themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB). They plan to display their new art at the most prestigious exhibition in the country: The Royal Academy of Art.They were expecting criticism, praise, or even ambivalence. What they were not expecting was the violent abuse hurled at them by the art elite, journalists, and even Charles Dickens. The stale and stodgy art world of mid-Victorian London will not tolerate these upstarts. The defiant PRB will not back down. Now it really is a revolution.Can the young PRB survive the attacks against them? Can their friendship survive growing up?

Queer Others in Victorian Gothic: Transgressing Monstrosity


Ardel Haefele-Thomas - 2012
    In some of these works, as Haefele-Thomas demonstrates, the author or filmmaker fully intended to explore the complicated landscape of queer sexuality and gender identity. In most, however, the author or filmmaker’s intentions are unclear. Haefele-Thomas takes on these works, first employing “queer” in its nineteenth-century historical context, to point to their generally weird, odd, or ill components. She then explores them using “queer” in the complex and politically charged context from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Haefele-Thomas argues that part of what makes these texts Gothic are their covert queer content. She also reveals that queer theory—lacking the gender specificity found in gay and lesbian theories and historiographies—allows room to convey gender, sexuality, race, class, and familial structures in a specific state of anti-categorization. Queers Others in Victorian Gothic will appeal to anyone interested in the intersection of gender, sexuality, and literary criticism.TABLE OF CONTENTS:Acknowledgements1. Introduction2. The Spinster and the Hijra: How Queers Save Heterosexual Marriage in Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White and The Moonstone3. Escaping Heteronormativity: Queer Family Structures in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Lois the Witch and ’The Grey Woman’4. Disintegrating Binaries, Disintegrating Bodies: Queer Imperial Transmogrification in H. Rider Haggard’s She5. ’One does things abroad that one would not dream of doing in England’: Miscegenation and Queer Female Vampirism in J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla and Florence Marryat’s The Blood of the Vampire6. In Defence of Her Queer Community: Vernon Lee’s Decoded Decadent GothicNotesBibliographyIndex

Sins of the Father


Tee Morris - 2012
    In his own manner, the invalid father bestows upon his heir all the pride and respect due to actions in the field. The returning war hero, though, has returned more than a decorated soldier in Her Majesty’s Army; and Arthur collects on an investment spanning across decades.

Merry Christmas, Verity Fitzroy


Pip Ballantine - 2012
    When she endangers her fellow urchins, she begins to question her role in their life.Tales from the Archives are short stories set in the world of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. They explore events mentioned in the novels, characters seen and unseen and may include novel teasers of things to come.

Shaketown: The Madam's Daughter: A Tale of San Francisco's Victorian Underworld


Joanne Orion Miller - 2012
    But dreams are hard to come by south of the slot (Market Street) in San Francisco in 1889. Landing a job as a day servant is an improvement - until her employer begins to prey on her, leaving her terrified and powerless.Wo Sam only wants to earn enough to pay off his passage and return home to China, if he can keep from sinking into despair and away from the roving white gangs and tong soldiers that turn the streets of San Francisco into a bloody battleground. Sometimes survival means turning against everything you’ve always held dear. Based on real characters from San Francisco’s history, "Shaketown: The Madam’s Daughter" received 100% positive reviews on Amazon. Escape to Shaketown today; see if dreams really do come true.“Shaketown is a page-turner! It’s an extraordinary tale…of San Francisco in the years before and after the 1906 earthquake. The author captures and recreates the setting and mood of that era…I couldn’t put it down and didn’t want it to end.” “Shaketown held me captivated. The characters are visual and compelling….” “What a thrilling mix of history, lively characters and a firecracker plot. I loved it.”

The Golden State in the Civil War


Glenna Matthews - 2012
    In addition, the book devotes attention to the ebb and flow of the two political parties and to the little-known fact that nearly 17,000 California men and women volunteered for military service on behalf of the Union. Glenna Matthews broadens understanding of the Civil War era both in terms of geography and in terms of social groupings.

The Cross of Columba


Doc Coleman - 2012
    Agent Teague arrives to find his skepticism of Pennyfarthing’s previous follies on finding a traumatised valet and a dying English lord with an incredible fish story…Tales from the Archives are short stories set in the world of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. They explore events mentioned in the novels, characters seen and unseen, and may include novel teasers of things to come.

Man and Wife, Vol. 2, and Short Stories


Wilkie Collins - 2012
    This volume contains the second, and concluding, part of Man and Wife, in which Collins attacks both Irish and Scottish marriage laws as well as arguing the case for a Married Woman's Property Act, plus two short stories: The Frozen Deep and Miss or Mrs.?

Desire by Blood


Melissa Schroeder - 2012
    Five hundred years of dealing with them teaches the vampire to be very wary of the creatures. Unfortunately, alarming events leave him no choice but to enter the world of the ton to hunt a rogue vampire—one who is making his own army of blood thirsty vampires. Searching for the villain is not the worst of his troubles. That can be laid at the feet of bluestocking Lady Cordelia Collingsworth.A woman on a mission.Cordelia has always been an outcast, even in her own family. She has forged her way in the world with her ability to write, and Nico Blackburn is the focus of her next article. Before she can obtain any information about the mysterious man, she is pulled headlong into a scandal that leaves her with no choice but to marry Nico—a man with dangerous secrets.A passion that consumes them both.Thrust into a world she knows nothing of, Cordelia finds herself falling in love with a man who claims to be a vampire. As their passion grows, so does the danger around them and Nico will have to call on all of his powers to protect the one thing he has realized he cannot live without: his opinionated, infuriating, and thoroughly delectable wife.

Leadership in War: From Lincoln to Churchill


Correlli Barnett - 2012
    

The Victorian Mystery Megapack: 27 Classic Mystery Tales


Wilkie Collins - 2012
    We have taken the liberty of extending the qualifying publication dates to the end of World War I, since that event marked more of a turning point in world literature than the advent of the Edwardian Age. Certainly the spirit of Victorian crime fiction continued beyond Queen Victoria. This volume contains 25 stories and 2 bonus novels, offering hours of reading pleasure.THE LENTON CROFT ROBBERIES, by Arthur MorrisonTHE HOUSE OF CLOCKS, by Anna Katharine GreenMISSING: PAGE THIRTEEN, by Anna Katharine GreenA JURY OF HER PEERS, by Susan GlaspellTHE DONNINGTON AFFAIR, by G.K. Chesterton and Max PembertonINTRODUCING MR. RAFFLES HOLMES, by John Kendrick BangsTHE ADVENTURE OF THE HERALD PERSONAL, by John Kendrick BangsTHE BIG BOW MYSTERY, By Israel ZangwillTHE BURGLAR'S STORY, by W.S. GilbertCHEATING THE GALLOWS, by Israel ZangwillTHE RETURN OF IMRAY, by Rudyard KiplingTHE GREAT RUBY ROBBERY, by Grant AllenPROBLEM OF THE STOLEN RUBENS, by Jacques FutrelleMURDER BY PROXY, by M. McDonnell BodkinTHE BLACK BAG LEFT ON A DOOR-STEP, by Catherine Louisa PirkisTHE MYSTERY OF THE FIVE HUNDRED DIAMONDS, by Robert BarrTHE GREAT PEGRAM MYSTERY, by Robert BarrTHE CASE OF ROGER CARBOYNE, by H. Greenhough SmithTHE LAWYER'S STORY OF A STOLEN LETTER, by Wilkie CollinsTHE PURLOINED LETTER, by Edgar Allan PoeTHE LEOPART MAN'S STORY, by Jack LondonTHREE 'DETECTIVE' ANECDOTES, by Charles DickensTHE CROOKED TELLER, by J.P. BuschlenTHE PROBLEM OF DEAD WOOD HALL, by Dick DonovanTHE BISHOP'S CRIME, by R.C. LehmannTHE MOONSTONE, by Wilkie CollinsTHE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, by Arthur Conan DoyleAnd don't forget to search this ebook store for "Megapack" to see other volumes in the series, from science fiction to ghost stories to mysteries...and many more!

The Ghosts of Blackthorn Hall


linoresearch - 2012
    Set deep among the Yorkshire moors, Blackthorn is a place of mysteries – a wild place, where pale faces appear at the windows, and mad women laugh in the night. Castiel is drawn to the enigmatic Master of Blackthorn and they form an attachment neither of them expected. But there are secrets hidden behind Blackthorn's stone walls, truths that threaten to destroy their fragile happiness, as they are forced to confront the ghosts of their past. This is a Jane Eyre/SPN fusion AU, written for the Dean/Castiel Big Bang 2012.Words:94657 completeArt by azrastiel