At bleak Port Arthur, Tasmania, Ensign Harcourt Lowther broods over the life he believes he deserves: wealth, rank, admiration, and the grand career denied to him by exile. Handsome, gifted, and vain, he is trapped in a convict settlement he despises, while his only constant companion is Francis Tredethlyn, the cheerful soldier assigned as his valet. Lowther calls him a clod, yet Francis proves literate, capable, and quietly independent, moving with equal ease among convicts, animals, and ...

In the glittering, treacherous world of Mohawks, love, reputation, and power are bound together by scandal and secrecy. Lord Lavendale returns from Ringwood Abbey more captivated than ever by Judith, now Lady Topsparkle, while directing his deepest hatred toward her husband, a man whose polished manners seem to hide a sordid, possibly criminal past. As Irene is drawn back into London society, she enters a realm of gambling, vanity, and ruthless performance, where beauty and wealth matter l...

In Mount Royal, the celebrated author of Lady Audley's Secret turns to a deeply Victorian world of love, regret, and the inescapable power of memory. Christabel's life is shaped by two men and two kinds of sacrifice: Angus Hamleigh, whose illness and conscience force him to renounce their engagement, and Leonard Tregonell, whose cool self-interest and jealousy shadow the life that follows. A tender letter, a doctor's grim warning, and a final farewell transform romance into renunciation, w...

From the haunted quiet of Fairmile Court to the glittering, morally restless streets of London, Mohawks opens as a Victorian tale of secrecy, passion, and emotional entanglement. A proud squire returns to find a nameless waif beside his sickly daughter, and their uncanny resemblance, along with a mysterious burn, hints at buried histories that will shape the household's fate. Around them move figures of striking contrast: the formidable Barbara Layburne, once from a different world and now...

Mary Crofton arrives at Albury Lodge, a bleak school for governesses, already conscious that she must earn her living and endure the hard discipline of a future she never chose. Rain-soaked, homesick, and overwhelmed by the bare schoolroom and severe Miss Susan Bagshot, she finds her first comfort in Emily "Milly" Darrell, a beautiful, wealthy parlour-boarder whose sympathy and charm soften the loneliness of Mary's new life. Their friendship deepens through shared confidences, and Mary lea...

Mount Royal is a dark Victorian tale of passion, betrayal, and the ruinous cost of hidden sins. In the aftermath of Angus Hamleigh's death, Christabel Tregonell struggles to preserve her dignity, protect her son, and endure grief that reaches into every corner of her life. At Mount Royal, social gatherings shimmer with wit and flirtation, yet beneath the tea, picnics, and private theatricals lie jealousy, divided loyalties, and the uneasy knowledge of a death that will not stay buried. As ...

In this dark Victorian tale of passion, jealousy, and revenge, secret marriages and buried histories collide with the rigid demands of class, pride, and family ambition. Irene's runaway union with Durnford is thrown into turmoil by her furious mother, Mdlle. Latour, while the influence of Mrs. Layburne and the discovery of old letters hint at a deeper mystery surrounding Irene's birth, her resemblance to a long-vanished portrait, and a hidden chain of guardianship and inheritance. At the s...

Mount Royal begins as a rich Victorian romance, but its true drama lies in the collision between private devotion and public duty. Against the wild beauty of Cornwall, Christabel Courtenay and Angus Hamleigh settle into a brief, tender happiness marked by walks, boating excursions, and the hope that his health may recover in the sea air. Yet their love is shadowed by uncertainty: Mrs. Tregonell delays the wedding, London society awaits, and Christabel senses how fragile joy can be when rep...

In a rain-dark Victorian world of secrets, illness, and restrained longing, Geoffrey Hossack arrives at Mrs. Bertram's door bearing Lucius Davoren's letter and the hope that another man may succeed where his own love has failed. Her response opens a devastating confession: as a gifted young woman, Janet was drawn into a clandestine marriage with the magnetic musician Bertram, only to discover too late that he was already married, morally corrupt, and unworthy of her trust. Cast off pennile...

In the frozen Canadian far west, three unlikely companions—serious surgeon Lucius Davoren, adventurous ex-Oxford athlete Geoffrey Hossack, and comic, food-haunted sailor Absalom Schanck—endure a perilous amateur expedition on the edge of starvation. Their Indian guide has vanished with the lost trail, supplies are nearly gone, and Lucius alone keeps disciplined notes as the others fight off despair with wit, improvisation, and dreams of home. Just when the hut seems sealed in silence and h...

«World's Greatest Horror Stories», by Chase Cooper, W. F. Harvey, E. F. Benson, Eleanor Scott, Harriet Prescott Spofford, M. R. James. This digital edition brings together the text and its chapter structure for continuous reading. Contents include: World's Greatest Horror Stories, Narrated by Chase Cooper ; August Heat, by W. F. Harvey ; Berenice, Edgar Allan Poe ; Casting the Runes, M. R James ; Caterpillars, by E. F. Benson.

A vanished lover on a lonely coast, a letter of wounded jealousy, and a trail of social reinvention set this novel's emotional machinery in motion. From the first panic over C.'s disappearance to the revelation that she has fled to E. in heartbreak, the story exposes a narrator whose romantic imagination is always at odds with real feeling. As H. pursues the truth, he finds Madame Carlitz transformed: she has abandoned the stage, sold her theatre lease, and is preparing to marry Lord V., a...