Historical Classics

From the magical mysteries of India to the gaslit streets of Victorian London, Mercedes Lackey's unique departure from her Valdemar series follows a young woman doctor as she searches for the secret behind the sorcery in her blood.

Dark curls and an unforgettably sweet laugh were all he knew of his sister's rescuer. Later, a second glimpse showed her to be lovely, and he heard her melodious laugh again. Darcy wondered what it would be like to meet this remarkable, and remarkably lovely, young woman. Would the spirit that caused her to go to the aid of a stranger be able to bring some joy to his lonely life? Would they ever meet, or would he always be left wondering?

The four Grace sisters love their quiet life in the country village of Chevis Green. To some, their insular world might seem dull, but the sisters never seem to run out of conversation, jokes, and pleasant ways to pass the time together. They truly are the happiest of families. That is, until Aunt Rona comes to town. Rona intends to stay with the Graces indefinitely, and her meddlesome attitude immediately sets the sisters' teeth on edge. Throw in another unexpected houseguest, some potential suitors and a case of mistaken intentions, and the members of the Grace family suddenly find themselves quite out of their element.

A haunting and enigmatic tale that will keep you awake and wondering long after you've finished this classic mystery. Everyone agreed that the day was just right for the picnic to Hanging Rock - a shimmering summer morning warm and still, with cicadas shrilling.... St Valentine’s Day, in the midst of the hot summer of 1900, a party of schoolgirls went on a picnic to Hanging Rock. Some were never to return....

"Une journée d'Ivan Denissovitch", c'est celle du bagnard Ivan Denissovitch Choukhov, condamné à dix ans de camp de travail pour avoir été fait prisonnier au cours de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Le récit nous montre sa journée depuis le coup sur le rail suspendu dans la cour qui marque le lever, jusqu'au court répit du soir et au coucher, en passant par les longues procédures de comptage, la peur des fouilles, les bousculades au réfectoire, les travaux de maçonnerie par un froid terrible dans l'hiver kazakhe, les menues chances et malchances de la journée.

When the young orphan called Pip encounters the escaped convict Magwitch, the child's life is altered forever - in ways he cannot even imagine. In the course of his story, Pip encounters such memorable characters as the eccentric Miss Havisham and her beautiful ward Estella - and a mysterious benefactor. This recording includes both of the endings Dickens wrote for this classic novel.

In 1931, a young woman writer living in Germany was inspired by Anita Loos's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes to describe pre-war Berlin and the age of cinematic glamour through the eyes of a woman. The resulting novel, The Artificial Silk Girl, became an acclaimed bestseller and a masterwork of German literature, in the tradition of Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories and Bertolt Brecht's Three Penny Opera. Like Isherwood and Brecht, Keun revealed the dark underside of Berlin's "golden twenties" with empathy and honesty.

Diamond Head, Hawaii, 1941. Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt is a champion welterweight and a fine bugler. But when he refuses to join the company's boxing team, he gets "the treatment" that may break him or kill him. First Sgt. Milton Anthony Warden knows how to soldier better than almost anyone, yet he's risking his career to have an affair with the commanding officer's wife. Both Warden and Prewitt are bound by a common bond: the Army is their heart and blood...and, possibly, their death.

"Znachor" to wzruszajaca historia chirurga, profesora Rafala Wilczura, który zrozpaczony odejsciem zony i córeczki szuka ukojenia w alkoholu. Bedac kompletnie pijanym, zostaje okradziony i pobity, w wyniku czego traci pamiec. Po latach wlóczegostwa kradnie dokumenty i pod nazwiskiem Antoniego Kosiby znajduje schronienie u mlynarza. Zyskuje slawe znachora po udanej operacji. Miejscowy lekarz, zazdrosny o jego sukcesy, grozi Kosibie sadem za wykonywanie praktyki lekarskiej bez zezwolenia.

Sexually innocent Jude Fawley is trapped into marriage by seductive Arabella Donn, but their union is an unhappy one and Arabella leaves him. Jude's welcome freedom allows him to pursue his obsession with his pretty cousin Sue Bridehead, a brilliant, charismatic free-thinker who would be his ideal soul-mate if not for her aversion to physical love. When Jude and Sue decide to lead their lives outside marriage they bring down on themselves all the force of a repressive society.

Charlotte Dean enjoys nothing more than the solitude of her London flat and the monotonous days of her work at a travel bookshop. But when her younger sister unceremoniously bursts into her quiet life one afternoon, Charlotte's world turns topsy-turvy. Beloved author D. E. Stevenson captures the intricacies of post-World War I England with a light, comic touch that perfectly embodies the spirit of the time. Alternatively heartbreaking and witty, The Young Clementina is a touching tale of love, loss and redemption through friendship.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that one false step can involve a lady in endless ruin. On a rainy November day in 1811, Miss Elizabeth Bennet finds herself wondering why no one ever bothered to tell her about this. A few blithe steps on a morning walk taken after a succession of rain lead to unexpected events that irrevocably change the course of Elizabeth's life, placing her fate in the hands of the haughty and conceited Mr. Darcy - the last man in the world she had ever thought to marry.

"Make me beautiful." That's what Marci wants from the old woman, not "inner beauty", but real, physical attractiveness to save her from being a teenage outcast. The woman offers a gift in the form of a story, a strange tale from 1940s Bosnia about a group of soldiers who terrorize a town of women and children, brutalize their priest, and murder a child.

With well over 200 million copies sold, this novel ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature. It depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period.

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'; so the recording begins and ends with some of Dickens's best-known words, and between those lines is every Briton's view of the worst excesses of the French Revolution. Set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution, the audiobook tells the story of a French doctor who is imprisoned for 18 years in the Bastille in Paris. Upon his release, he moves to London with his daughter, Lucie, whom he had never met.

It sounds idyllic: a leisurely drive through the sun-drenched landscape of Provence. But Charity's dream holiday turns into a nightmare when she becomes embroiled in a sinister plot to kidnap a young boy. She soon finds herself in a deadly pursuit and must uncover whom to trust...and whom to fall for.

A Story of God and All of Us is a sweeping narrative that dramatizes some of the most important events and characters in the Bible. The book is narrated like a fine novel, dramatizing the sweep of biblical events, making the men and women of scripture come alive in vivid detail and dialogue. All are historically and theologically accurate. A 10-hour miniseries on the History Channel will be based on the story, and the script has been reviewed by a number of Christian church leaders and seminarians for authenticity.

Originally serialized in 1868 and collected as a book in 1871, At the Back of the North Wind is the magical story of Diamond, the son of a poor coachman, who is swept away by the North Wind – a radiant, maternal spirit with long, flowing hair – and whose life is transformed by a brief glimpse of the beautiful country – at the back of the north wind.

On the midnight shift at a hospital in rural Maine, Dr. Luke Findley is expecting another quiet evening of frostbite and the occasional domestic dispute. But the minute Lanore McIlvrae—Lanny—walks into his ER, she changes his life forever. A mysterious woman with a past and plenty of dark secrets, Lanny is unlike anyone Luke has ever met. He is inexplicably drawn to her...despite the fact that she is a murder suspect with a police escort.

Based loosely on the tale of Puss in Boots, Reserved for the Cat takes place in 1910 in an alternate London. A young dancer, penniless and desperate, is sure she is going mad when a cat begins talking to her mind-to-mind. But her feline guide, actually an Elemental Earth Spirit, helps her to impersonate a famous Russian ballerina and achieve the success she's been dreaming of.