Of none is this more true than of his 1883 novel Heart and Science, which Collins himself placed alongside his masterpiece The Woman in White.Heart and Science turns on the fate of the orphaned Carmina Graywell, who is left in the charge of her aunt and guardian Mrs. Gallilee when her fiancé is forced to take an extended trip to Canada’s drier climes in order to recover his health. Over the issue of her inheritance Mrs. Gallilee schemes to manipulate, control and ultimately destroy the naïve but strong-willed Carmina. The story is complicated by the machinations of Dr. Benjulia, a dark genius whose passionate devotion to the study of diseases of the brain leads him to encourage the progress of Carmina’s life-threatening brain illness for the sake of scientific observation; the narrative builds to a pair of spectacularly lurid climactic scenes.Collin’s novel tackles the debate over what he termed ‘the hideous secrets of Vivisection’ with a passionate intensity aroused in large part by the sensational 1880s case of a doctor who was acquitted on charges laid under the new Cruelty to Animals Act of having practiced live experimentation on animals without a license. Excerpts from a contemporary account of this trial, together with other documents relating to the vivisectionist controversy and a variety of contemporary reviews of the book, are included among the appendices of this volume. The edition also includes a full introduction, chronology, explanatory notes and a note on the text.Heart and Science’s story of the struggle between strong-willed women will strike chords of sympathetic understanding with modern readers—as will its vivisectionist theme, with it’s clear parallels to the animal welfare/ animal rights debates of today.

    Wormwood (1890) is a lurid tale of unrequited love, betrayal, vengeance, murder, suicide, and addiction. The novel recounts the degeneration of Gaston Beauvais, a promising young Parisian man who, betrayed by his fiancée and his best friend, falls prey to the seductive powers of absinthe. The impact of Gaston’s debauchery and addiction on himself, his family, and his friends is graphically recounted in this important contribution to the literature of fin de siècle decadence. This Broadview edition includes a critical introduction and a generous selection of contextualizing documents, including excerpts from Corelli’s writings on art and literature, nineteenth-century degeneration theories, and clinical and artistic views on absinthe.

    Even after 200 years of intensive research and the publication of hundreds of books and articles on the battle, the French perspective and many of the primary French sources are underrepresented in the written record. So it is high time this weakness in the literature – and in our understanding of the battle – was addressed, and that is the purpose of Andrew Field’s thought-provoking new study. He has tracked down over ninety firsthand French accounts, most of which have never been previously published in English, and he has combined them with accounts from the other participants in order to create a graphic new narrative of one of the world’s decisive battles. Virtually all of the hitherto unpublished testimony provides fascinating new detail on the battle and many of the accounts are vivid, revealing and exciting.

    Yet her history is full of fatal accidents and three of Dark Echo's owners met tragic, violent deaths. Now she has been rebuilt, crossing the Atlantic with new owners. Only the truth about Harry Spalding, the man who built her, can save them from the same fate.

    The vet lives with his bedridden wife and shy daughter Alice in a sinister London suburb. He works constantly, captive to a strange private fury, and treats his family with brutality and contempt. After his wife’s death, the vet takes up with a crass, needling woman who tries to refashion Alice in her own image. And yet as Alice retreats ever deeper into a dream world, she discovers an extraordinary secret power of her own.Harrowing and haunting, like an unexpected cross between Flannery O’Connor and Stephen King, The Vet’s Daughter is a story of outraged innocence that culminates in a scene of appalling triumph.

    Discover the events that have shaped your Clan and hear about the people who form part of your Scottish ancestry.

     Casey Barrow and a group of co-workers were looking forward to a few days of rest and camaraderie at a Catskill Mountains retreat away from their demanding careers. Reunited with a man she turned down years ago when working in Chicago, she hopes to make up for lost time during this getaway. However, rather than unwinding, the group becomes stranded in the dreary mountain mansion. By morning, four people have disappeared without a trace. Someone carrying a grudge has lured them there and cut off every means of escape. Running out of time, the captives face a new danger at every turn to liberate themselves. With the men injured from their efforts, Casey realizes it is up to her to find help before the killer returns to finish the rest of them off one by one. ** If you haven't read the first two books in the series and plan to, be warned of Major Spoilers in the Epilogue.**

    It is a wonderfully atmospheric piece that combines narrative, poetry, song, and descriptive writing to great effect. The character of Dick Turpin that we know today - the dashing highwaymen and unmatched horseman - can be said to stem directly from this novel, as the most famous part of the book (often published on its own in the past), Turpin’s Ride To York, is devoted to him. Although seemingly little known to a modern audience, Ainsworth’s "Rookwood" gave the world the image of the highwayman with which we are all so familiar. (Summary by paulc)

    Lives, both ordinary and privileged, changed forever. 1815, Sumbawa Island, IndonesiaMount Tambora explodes in a cataclysmic eruption, killing thousands. Sent to investigate, ship surgeon Henry Hogg can barely believe his eyes. Once a paradise, the island is now solid ash, the surrounding sea turned to stone. But worse is yet to come: as the ash cloud rises and covers the sun, the seasons will fail.1816.In Switzerland, Mary Shelley finds dark inspiration. Confined inside by the unseasonable weather, thousands of famine refugees stream past her door. In Vermont, preacher Charles Whitlock begs his followers to keep faith as drought dries their wells and their livestock starve. In Britain, the ambitious and lovesick painter John Constable struggles to reconcile the idyllic England he paints with the misery that surrounds him. In the Fens, farm labourer Sarah Hobbs has had enough of going hungry while the farmers flaunt their wealth. And Hope Peter, returned from Napoleonic war, finds his family home demolished and a fence gone up in its place. He flees to London, where he falls in with a group of revolutionaries who speak of a better life, whatever the cost. As desperation sets in, Britain becomes racked with riots - rebellion is in the air.The Year Without Summer is the story of the books written, the art made; of the journeys taken, of the love longed for and the lives lost during that fateful year. Six separate lives, connected only by an event many thousands of miles away. Few had heard of Tambora - but none could escape its effects.

    A strange and elusive child with powers of prophecy, she grew into an even stranger woman. From those around her she inspired love and admiration or furious hatred. Nothing in between. And somehow Jassy could transform even those who loved her into her enemies. Barney Hatton, the disposessed heir of Mortiboys, loved her but not enough. Lindy, a servant girl who worked there, loved her too much. Elizabeth Twysdale, who taught Jassy her lessons, hated her more with every passing day. And because of the people around her, the people who loved or loathed her, Jassy's life was destined to be one of passion and anguish.

    She wants to sell the family’s cattle station and return to Sydney and her fiancé as quickly as possible. Sarah doesn’t want anyone to find out what she’d done in the past. She wants to close this chapter of her life for good and then there will never be a reason to return to this dusty one horse town. Ethan Wade, her first love claims that he owns half of Munro Station but Sarah wants him out. As they try to settle their differences, a raging attraction ignites. Will Sarah and Ethan find each other again as Sarah's past creeps back from her storehouse of regrets? Outback Heat was previously published under the title of Heat in the Outback. Blurb:

    But their wonderful lifestyle comes to a dramatic end when Mick's business runs into trouble and he suddenly disappears. Faced with poverty and homelessness, Jane discovers she has unexpected strengths and is capable of being more than just a housewife...

    After getting into trouble with the Witching Police, she's sent back to her sleepy home village of Bone Bridge, on magical probation for thirty days. Banned from using magic and under the watchful eye of her younger sister, Ari is all set for a quiet month. That's when a body is found at the village fair. The sleepy little village of Bone Bridge hasn't seen a murder in 200 years, and now a body has been found in the most unusual way. Ari and her sister can't help but find themselves swept up into a murder investigation, and try as she might, Ari starts to realize that there's no avoiding trouble, even if she wants to. Solving the murder is one thing, but Ari’s convinced that there are other mysteries afoot as well. She suspects she’s being framed for the ‘trouble’ that landed her back home in the first place, but everyone else thinks she’s stark raving mad. Being back home is certainly weird, it's been three years since Ari was last in town and her ex-boyfriend and police Sergeant, Dave, only seems to have grown more handsome in that time. With a murderer on the loose, prize pumpkins being stolen, and a curious magical mystery at the center of her house, staying out of mischief and having a quiet probation might just prove to be more difficult than Ari thought.

    From ice-cream defecation to sleazy liaisons in cinemas, you will love BOWLING BALL if you like Irvine Welsh, Chad Kultgen or Escobar Walker.

    They have a million followers who check out their channel for pranks and couple travel videos. Chloe thinks life is perfect until she finds out that her prince charming is cheating. Humiliated and disrespected, Chloe gives up her YouTube channel and is back at square one, living on her best friend Layla’s sofa. Without Eric she feels like she can’t go on; that is until she runs into a handsome stranger, Cole Lewis, that reignites her need to create. What she doesn’t know is that her new boo is one of the most feared men in Atlanta. He runs the city with an iron fist and likes to be low-key, which doesn’t fit into Chloe’s public lifestyle. Somehow they learn to manage their relationship, but not without a few hiccups (like Eric trying to coming back in the picture and online haters who don’t want Chloe to be happy). 
 Layla has always been there for her best friend and that doesn’t stop when Chloe is at her lowest. Layla encourages Chloe to move on and forget about Eric. She wants her friend to be happy and she knows that Cole would be perfect for her. While trying to play match maker she goes through changes of her own with her high-school-sweet-heart-turned-fiancé, Ken. He is not the man that she thought he was. While dealing with a broken heart, she meets a man that takes her breath away, causing her to face a difficult question. Will she leave the love she’s known for years and try something new, or continue to hold her man down even though he hurt her? 
 Giving My Heart to the King of Atlanta is filled with love and drama. Chloe and Layla must go through their fair share of trials to get their happy endings.