Mrs Oliphant
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Margaret Oliphant's novel 'The Athelings, or The Three Gifts' was originally published in 1856. This early novel centers on the Atheling family, especially on the three young people Agnes, Marion, and Charlie. Each has a special gift: Agnes has genius as a writer, Marion has beauty, and Charlie will find his gift in the course of the story. The novel is told mostly from Agnes' point of view. She has written a novel and found a publisher; and on the...
42) Two Strangers
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And who is this young widow of yours whom I hear so much about? I understand Lucy's rapture over any stranger; but you, too, mother-" "I too-well, there is no particular witchcraft about it; a nice young woman has as much chance with me as with any one, Ralph-" "Oh, if it's only a nice young woman-" "It's a great deal more," said Lucy. "Why, Miss Jones at the school is a nice young woman-don't you be taken in by mother's old-fashioned stilts. She...
43) A Rose in June
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A woman tells delightful accounts of her neighbours and friends from the village of Dinglefield Green. A book of excellent character studies of people in the Victorian era, much of which is still relatable today.
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Two narrators each tell their own story in segments, and eventually their stories will merge. First is Milly Langham, née Mortimer, who tells of her orphaned childhood and how she came to marry Lieutenant Harry Langham. The second narrator is Millicent Mortimer, who resides with her sister at their large estate in Cheshire. The sisters are looking for a long-lost cousin to be their heir. Meanwhile the elder of the sisters, Sarah, is disturbed after...
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Margaret Oliphant's novel 'At His Gates' was originally published in 1872. Helen is married to painter Robert Drummond. Over time she has become somewhat disillusioned, realizing that Robert will never be a great painter; but their marriage is otherwise very happy. Before her marriage Helen had turned down the marriage proposal of her rich cousin Mr. Burton; and now he comes forward to "help" Robert with his investments. Later, after a series of dramatic...
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Lily Ramsay, age twenty-two, is the ward of her dour uncle, Sir Robert Ramsay. Sir Robert will leave her his fortune, but only if she is obedient in every way. When she falls in love with a poor barrister, Ronald Lumsden, Sir Robert not only disapproves of Ronald, but sends Lily away from Edinburgh to a lonely Highland moor where he has an old house, Dalrugas. Lily, who cares nothing for the money, at first has faith that Ronald will simply marry...
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It would have been hard, however, to have looked upon the face of Mrs. James Ogilvy as she went about her little household duties in the morning, or took her walks about the garden, or knitted her stocking in the placid afternoon, and to have thought of her as discontented or struggling with fate. She was about sixty, a little woman but trim in figure, with a pleasant colour, and eyes still bright with animation and interest. Perhaps you will think...
49) Sir Tom
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Lucy Trevor, now Lady Randolph, and her husband Sir Tom are very happy together - made even more so by the birth of their little boy. When Lucy's younger brother Jock comes for a long visit, he reminds her of their father's requirements that she give away half her fortune - an idea that is not appreciated by Sir Tom: "A man may have the most liberal principles about women, and yet feel a most natural indignation when his own wife shows signs of desiring...
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Walter Methven is an indolent young man of twenty-four. To the despair of his widowed mother, he prefers a circle of friends led by the shifty Captain Underwood to the regular pleasant society of their town. It is known that Walter is a distant relation of the Scottish Lord Erradeen; but it comes as a shock to him and his mother to learn that due to several deaths in the family, he has succeeded to the title. He vows to put aside his aimless past...
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This early novel has many story lines. Central character Anne Ross is still young at age 23, but her maturity and reserve lead some to think she is already a confirmed spinster. Anne is determined to clear up a mystery about a murder, and thereby to clear the name of her brother Norman who vanished long ago. She goes for emotional support to Mrs. Catherine, a strong single woman who is at the head of a large estate (in effect she is the laird), and...
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Excerpt: "The old house of Earl's-hall stands on a long strip of land between two rivers, in that county affectionately known to its inhabitants as the kingdom of Fife. It is not a great house, but neither is it an insignificant one, though fortune has brought the family low which once held some primitive state in it: a quaint, gray dwelling, not formed for modern wants. To make an ordinary dining-room and drawing-room in it would be as impossible...
53) Young Musgrave
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Excerpt: "Not even in the centre of the old arched en trance which had been filled up, which gave a certain air of disreputable irregularity to the pale and stern old dwelling-place. Ivy and other clinging growths fortunately hid a great deal of this, and added importance to the four great stacks of chimneys, which, mantled in its short, large leaves and perpetual greenness, looked like turrets, and dignified the house. A lake behind somewhat coldly...
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Excerpt: "The sun had set upon the last evening of a cold and bleak December, and from the frosty sky, a few stars looked down upon the crowded streets of one of the largest towns in England; a motley scene, in which the actors, both gay and sorrowful, went whirling and winding onwards, altogether unconscious of other scrutiny than from the busy eyes of their fellows. It was still early, and the whole scrambling restless world of the great town was...
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I remember well my first meeting with Mrs. Oliphant a dozen years ago, how she "ordered" me to Windsor where she was then living (I like to think that it was an order, and obeyed as such by her very loyal subject), and that I was as proud to go, and as nervous, as those must be who make the same journey by command of another lady resident in the same place. I have an odd recollection too of buying my first umbrella for this occasion - for no reason...
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When John Erskine was still a child he had inherited the house and estate of Dalrulzian in Scotland; but he had moved to England at age 13 when his mother remarried. Now twenty-five, he has come home at last - though everything is quite a bit smaller than he remembered it. He thinks fondly of a girl he met two years ago while travelling in France - Edith Lindores, then only sixteen - and wonders if her family ever visit their relation, his neighbour...
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Excerpt: "There was a considerable number of people in the little parlour-to wit, Mr. Bates in his big chair on one side of the fire, sipping rum-and-water, and reading a newspaper which was soft and crumpled with the usage of the day at the nearest public-house; and Mrs. Bates on the other, seated between the fireplace and the table, mending the stockings of the family. Charley was reading an old yellow novel behind his mother, and Matilda was making...
59) Hester
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Hester (1883) is a dramatic story of female power and family tensions within Victorian society. Using her own money, Catherine Vernon manages to save the family bank from collapse after her cousin John absconds with some of its money. As the matriarch of Redborough, Catherine is used to commanding authority, but this is challenged with the arrival of John's strong and capable teenage daughter, Hester. Ignorant of her father's conduct, Hester takes...
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This selection of horror stories has been published for Halloween 2014. It includes the very first publication of "Night Should Be Black," by classic WEIRD TALES author Everil Worrell - an unpublished story found among her papers after her death. Good stuff!
Included are:
"The Eyes," by Edith Wharton
"Mysterious Maisie," by Wirt Gerrare
"The Open Door," by Margaret Oliphant
"The Moonlit Road," by Ambrose Bierce
"Night Should Be Black," by Everil...