The Forsyte Saga chronicles the ebbing social power of the upper-middle-class Forsyte family through three generations, beginning in Victorian London during the 1880s and ending in the early 1920s. The saga begins with Soames Forsyte, a successful solicitor who buys land at Robin Hill on which to build a house for his wife, Irene, and future family. Eventually, the Forsyte family begins to disintegrate when Timothy Forsyte, the last of the old generation, dies at the age of one hu...

"The diary which Samuel Pepys kept from January 1660 to May 1669…is one of our greatest historical records and…a major work of English literature," writes the renowned historian Paul Johnson.A witness to the coronation of Charles II, the Great Plague of 1665, and the Great Fire of 1666, Pepys chronicled the events of his day. His diary provides an astonishingly frank and diverting account of political intrigues, naval, church, and cultural affairs, as well as a quotidian journal of...

Thrilled by rumors of a lost civilization, three Englishmen decide to travel to the heart of Africa with their Zulu guide, where they meet with continual peril: an attack by a cruel warrior tribe, the scorch of underground volcanic fires, and an encounter with a huge species of ferocious black crab. Exhausted and depleted of supplies, the men at last arrive at a mysterious city in the highlands of the interior. The people, called the Zu-Vendi, enjoy a civilization suggesting Egyptian origi...

Here are the most unforgettable stories of a master writer who saw all of life and rejected none of it.In The Kiss, a lonely, love-starved soldier keeps a secret rendezvous for another man and becomes enamored with a woman he is never to see again. The Duel describes the collisions between men and women in hopeless relationships, and how two men are driven to settle the score in a clandestine meeting on a bridge, pistols in hand. In all of these stories, Chekhov’s...

In the days when England and Spain struggled for the supremacy of the sea, a young lad sails with Sir Francis Drake, the daring sixteenth-century privateer, in this action-packed story based on true historical events. Drake’s superb navigational skill enabled him to outrun or outmaneuver his incessant pursuers. He escaped so often and so ingeniously that he became legendary and was assumed by some to have supernatural powers—even the Spanish tended to have admiration rather than hatred in ...

The "unsinkable" Titanic was four city blocks long, with a French "sidewalk cafe," private promenade decks, and the latest, most ingenious safety devices—but only twenty lifeboats for the 2,207 passengers and crew on board.Gliding through a calm sea, disdainful of all obstacles, the Titanic brushed an iceberg. Two hours and forty minutes later, she upended and sank. Only 705 survivors were picked up from the half-filled boats of "the ship that God...

Beyond the gardens of Hamilcar’s palace, beyond the walls of Carthage, the Roman hordes stood waiting to annihilate the noblest city of ancient Africa. Within the city, all was madness—the houses were filled with the screams of women and the streets teemed with terrified men. The veil of the goddess Tanit, sacred to Carthage, had fallen to Matho, Roman soldier-of-fortune.But when Salambo, the exquisite daughter of Hamilcar, rode into the Roman camp, into Matho’s tent, to exchange h...

This volume presents some of Arthur Conan Doyle’s unduly neglected masterworks of suspense. Each begins in a quietly factual way, which makes all the more dramatic the crescendo of fear and puzzlement that ensues as each startling new circumstance is revealed. Even without his supremely logical brainchild Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle shows that his tales are unbeatable for thrills and excitement. This is a great opportunity for the listener to discover a new facet of the master’s ability t...

Jason was born the son of a king, his destiny to rule Iolcus. But his uncle, King Pelias, who has taken over the throne, is not willing to give it up, so he cunningly persuades Jason to accept a dare to bring back the famous Golden Fleece of Colchis. Jason accepts the challenge, unaware that he is being conned into a dangerous and perhaps fatal journey far from the land he loves.Jason sets out, along with Heracles and Theseus, Perseus and Atalanta, and the sorceress Medea, on a won...

In burnished, driving prose, John Keegan chronicles the 1944 invasion of Normandy, from D-day to the liberation of Paris. At the same time, he furthers his exploration of the "role which warfare and its institutions play in social life" by showing how each of the six armies, while resembling one another in purpose and authority, is a mirror of its own nation's values. Each army is shown at successive stages of the invasion in a battle sequence testing them to the utmost: the Americans in t...

Originally published in 1918, this book considers topics that remain of vital interest to today’s readers, including monogamy and polygamy, the double standard, sexual harassment, and declining marriage rates. Written in Mencken’s characteristic no-nonsense manner, In Defense of Women crackles with controversy and caustic wit.“The truth is that neither sex, without some fertilization by the complementary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human e...

The books on Fraser Island all draw to a great extent on the reminiscences and records of people who have long lived TWO DECADES BEFORE Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) set foot on Fraser Island in 1971. The Maryborough Chronicle 20, August 1952: WARNED: GOD FORBID THAT ANY ATTEMPT SHOULD BE MADE TO TURN [Fraser Island] INTO A TOURISTS PARADISE WHICH WOULD RUIN ITS CALM SERENITY, ITS NATURAL BEAUTY AND ITS FISHING. visitors had an occasional sight of wild horses and although th...