Historical Humor

Mortimer’s father, a philandering titan in the shipping business, has been murdered, leaving Mortimer as the unbefitting benefactor of the Centennial Shipping Line. However, Mortimer’s singular mission in life is to attain the title Admiral (issued by the Bottle Boat Club of Chicago) and remove himself from society.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every man in possession of a wife must be in want of a son. Seventeen eighty-five was to be the most marvelous year of Marianne's life until an unfortunate turn of events left her in a compromised state and desperate for a husband to care - or rather cover - for her. Now she is stuck in an undesirable marriage to Mr. Edward Bennet, a man desperate in his own way for a male heir.

The once impoverished medical student Agnes Glock is now the fabulously wealthy Mrs Mulberry. Her estate in the mountains is magnificent, a haven for those too ravaged by the Great War to cope with the society that first condemned them to battle and which now shuns them. The War has, however, stolen Agnes's chance to graduate as a doctor, as well as the fiance she adored. Her husband, Douglas Mulberry, remains shellshocked and unable to speak. Their scandalous marriage is a farce, an act of kindness to keep Douglas's fortune from his uncle's grasp.

"Mort de Dama" és la primera novel·la escrita per Llorenç Villalonga i Pons i és considerada una de les primeres novel·les modernistes de les Illes Balears. La novel·la és una sàtira de la societat mallorquina i gira entorn de l'agonia d'Obdúlia de Montcada, una viuda que representa l'aristocràcia, una dona avariciosa i de caràcter fort. La viuda fa d'eix temàtic amb la resta de personatges que mostren els diferents vessants de la societat de l'illa, des dels terratinents nobiliaris i aristòcrates al món intel·lectual i literari.

Geraldine, Emilia Mae, and Alice Wingo couldn't be more different from each other. Geraldine is a fiery beauty, turning heads while running the local bakery with her devoted husband, Earle - but she never quite takes to motherhood. Her daughter, Emilia Mae, spends her life chasing her mother's affection and goes looking for love in all the wrong places. So when she gives birth to her own daughter, Alice - the girl with the quick laugh and music running through her veins-she vows to do things differently.

Blandford Candy is sent to London, after an illicit affair, and joins the Roundhead army to fight against the King, taking part in the Battle of Edgehill. A reluctant hero if ever there was one, he becomes a spy for the cause - and, through luck or judgement, uncovers more than one Royalist plot. His love of wine and the fairer sex prove both a curse and a blessing for the agent. Blandford soon earns the enmity of the King’s spy mistress Jane Whorwood, and patronage of the great parliamentarian leader John Hampden.

December, 1939. Having solved the case of the Suffolk Vampire, Inspector Betty Church and her colleagues at Sackwater Police Station have settled back down to business. There's the elderly Mr Fern, who keeps losing his slippers, Sylvia Satin's 13th birthday party to attend and the scintillating case of the missing bookmark to solve. Though peace and quiet are all well and good, Betty soon finds herself longing for some cold-blooded murder.

Summer 1989: Gunther Fahnstiel, once a tough cop who wasn't averse to taking a little side money from a certain madam, has just escaped the dementia ward of his Wichita nursing home. He's not exactly sure where he wants to go, but wherever it is, it has to do with the bag full of cash belonging to the man he accidentally backed over with his RV in 1979. During his search, Gunther begins to relive the violent fallout of that madam's sex lottery 40 years ago. As Gunther's memories unravel, his past and present will collide in a devastating reckoning.

It is the dawn of the twentieth century when the beautiful, budding feminist Katherine Dexter falls in love with Stanley McCormick, son of a millionaire inventor. The two wed, but before the marriage is consummated, Stanley experiences a nervous breakdown and is diagnosed as a schizophrenic sex maniac. Locked up for the rest of his life at Riven Rock, the family's California mansion, Stanley is treated by a series of confident doctors determined to cure him.

From the author of My Cousin Vinny comes a tale worthy of The Princess Bride. There has never been a greater storytelling classic than The Princess Bride. To this day, the tale of Buttercup and Westley still resonates with fans young and old. The Treasure is a saga evocative of Goldman's masterpiece, a story within a story, a fantasy wrapped in a mystery that will have you laughing out loud.

Sembrerebbe impossibile, perché la posizione è invidiabile, ma anche al caffè dell'imbarcadero di Bellano capita che per una giornata intera entri solo qualche sparuto cliente. Come martedì 5 marzo 1935. Per tirare sera l'oste Gnazio Termoli deve inventarsele tutte, fino a lavare e rilavare bicchieri già puliti. E poi sbadigliare all'ingresso del bar deserto. Eppure questa è una data che non potrà dimenticare, né lui né l'intero paese.

It's the heatwave summer of 1976 and 14-year-old would be poet Jackie Chadwick is newly fostered by the Walls. She desperately needs stability, but their insecure, jealous teenage daughter isn't happy about the cuckoo in the nest and sets about ousting her. When her attempts to do so lead to near-tragedy—and the Walls' veneer of middle-class respectability begins to crumble—everyone in the household is forced to reassess what really matters.

Una sola lettera e anche il terzo segretario bellanese del partito finirebbe nel ridicolo. Le rive del lago di Como sono punteggiate di paesi e paesini accomodati ai piedi delle montagne dove non succede granché. Tranne a Bellano. Nell'ultimo anno e mezzo circa, il Federale del fascio ha dovuto sostituire già due segretari della sezione locale del partito. Il primo a saltare è stato Bortolo Piazzacampo, detto Tartina, per una vicenda legata alle bizzarrie di un toro chiamato Benito in cui il Tartina si è distinto per insipienza.

Movimenti sospetti nella notte a Bellano: forse allucinazioni, forse faccende private, forse non proprio reati. Forse. "Un uomo in mutande?" chiese il maresciallo Ernesto Maccadò. Nessuna traccia di sorriso. Anzi, un'espressione che valeva un punto interrogativo. Il Misfatti l'aveva messa sullo scherzo, ma quello, niente, aveva preteso i dettagli invece di riderci su. "Si spieghi meglio, appuntato", disse il Maccadò. "Dicevo tanto per..." annaspò il Misfatti. "L'ascolto comunque", insisté il maresciallo.

Dopo la nomina a senatore, Peppone organizza un viaggio premio in Unione Sovietica per tutti gli iscritti del Partito Comunista locale. Venutolo a sapere, don Camillo non vuole perdere l'occasione di mettere i bastoni tra le ruote al suo miglior nemico. Così, travestendosi da tipografo, don Camillo partirà per la Russia con il resto della comitiva. Un'avventura comica e rocambolesca, colorata dalle solite dinamiche che animano l'amicizia dei più famosi rivali della narrativa italiana, immortalati al cinema da Fernandel e Gino Cervi.

Mit präzisem Blick für die tragische Komik des Lebens stolpert Herr Lehmann durchs Leben. Durch jahrelange, ausgefuchste Ausweichmanöver und heroische Trägheit hat der arglistfreie, bis ins Mark ambitionslose Bierzapfer erfolgreich Ansprüche von Eltern, Vermietern, Nachbarn und Frauen ausgesessen. Nun, wir schreiben das Jahr 1989, lebt er weitgehend störungsfrei in seiner Eineinhalbzimmerwohnung in Kreuzberg, wenn er nicht in die nächste Kneipe geht. Doch plötzlich bricht eine unvorhergesehene Störung nach der anderen in seinen heißgeliebten Alltagstrott...

York, 1988. Dr Tom Frith is beginning his first term as a tutor at the University of Eboracum. After teaching primary school children for several years, he's sure shaping the minds of young adults will be a welcome change. But that's before considering the pressures he'll face outside the lecture hall, from helping three hapless students who've been surviving exclusively on porridge, to fielding inappropriate propositions from students chasing higher grades. And then there's the particular challenge of Edna Wallop, the Acting Head of Faculty.

Raising the literary bar to a new level, Jerome Charyn re-creates the voice of Theodore Roosevelt, the New York City police commissioner, Rough Rider, and soon-to-be 26th president through his derring-do adventures, effortlessly combining superhero dialogue with haunting pathos. Beginning with his sickly childhood and concluding with McKinley's assassination, the novel positions Roosevelt as a "perfect bull in a china shop," a fearless crime fighter and pioneering environmentalist who would grow up to be our greatest peacetime president.

The setting is Seattle's Lake City neighborhood during the 2001 holiday season. In the wake of the 9/11 tragedy and at the peak of Seattle's first wave of tech-boom gentrification - a wave that never quite made it to his neighborhood - Lane Bueche schemes how to win back his wife (and her trust fund). In his childhood bedroom in his mother's decrepit old house, the idealistic but self-serving striver Lane licks his wounds and hatches a plot.

1968. Jean a six ans quand il est confié du jour au lendemain à sa grand-mère. Pour l'été. Pour toujours. Il n'a pas prévu ça. Elle non plus. Mémé Lucette n'est pas commode, mais dissimule un cœur tendre. Jean, véritable moulin à paroles, est un tourbillon de fraîcheur pour celle qui vivait auparavant une existence paisible, rythmée par ses visites au cimetière et sa passion pour le tricot. Chacun à une étape di-éreinte sur le chemin de la vie - elle a tout vu, il s'étonne de tout -, Lucette et Jean vont s'apprivoiser.