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Set in late 1600's England, the story follows the life of a woman living an unconventional life. The loves of her life and all of its ups and downs are included. (Summary by Linda Andrus)...

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Historical Fiction, Romance

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The novel follows the lives of Rose and her widowed Aunt, Madame Francesca Bernard, along with young visitor and cousin Isabel, whose lives are changed by the return of an old friend and neighbour Colonel Kent, and his grown son, Allison. Other characters that help shape their lives in significant ways are the Crosby twins, unconventional and uninhibited youths that set society at naught, and an unconventional doctor who specializes in the impossible. Through the limited wide-scope descriptions the reader is not sure of the historical setting or even in which decade it's set, but it helps to understand the focus of the story; after all it's about their own little world, and how their own hearts and lives fit together in the tight confines of their town, their garden, their friendships and lives. (Summary by wikipedia.org)...

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Fiction, Historical Fiction

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The book is a breezy, first-person account of a 2 month summer tour of the U.S. states of Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas when Parkman was 23.

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Adventure, History

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His Grace of Osmonde, being the portions of that nobleman's life omitted in the relation of his Lady's story presented to the world of fashion under the title of 'A Lady of Quality'(Summary by Frances Hodgson Burnett)...

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Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance

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Black Heart and White Heart , is a story of the courtship, trials and final union of a pair of Zulu lovers in the time of King Cetywayo. (Introduction by H. Rider Haggard)...

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Romance, Fiction, Adventure

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Love's Labour's Lost is an early comedy by William Shakespeare. The King of Navarre and his three friends take a vow of study and seclusion for three years, during which they are forbidden to see or speak to women. Their vows are immediately tested by the arrival of the Pricess of France and her three ladies to the King's court. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

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Play, Comedy

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This is volume 4 of 5. -- An ex-convict breaks parole and starts a new life as a righteous man, but is pursued by a police inspector. Along the way, the ex-convict joins a revolution, adopts a daughter, and beats people up. Hooray. (Summary by smileyman457)...

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Fiction, Romance

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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother. The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness – from overwhelming grief to seething rage – and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption....

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Fiction, Play, Literature

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The Man Who Would Be King tells the story of two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. It was inspired by the exploits of James Brooke, an Englishman who became the white Raja of Sarawak in Borneo, and by the travels of American adventurer Josiah Harlan, who claimed the title Prince of Ghor. The story was first published in The Phantom Rickshaw and other Tales (Volume Five of the Indian Railway Library, published by A H Wheeler & Co of Allahabad in 1888). It also appeared in Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories in 1895, and in numerous later editions of that collection. It is the basis for John Huston’s 1975 film of the same name, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine as the kings, and Christopher Plummer as Kipling. (Interim summary by Wikipedia adapted by Philippa)...

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Adventure, Fiction, Short stories, Literature

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A fictionalized biography of George Mackay (1844-1901), an influential Presbyterian missionary in northern Taiwan. (Summary by Edmund Bloxam)

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Historical , Historical Fiction

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This book is an attempt to tell some of the stories of King Arthur and his Knights in a way which will be interesting to every boy and girl who loves adventures. (Introduction by Henry Gilbert)...

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Fiction, Teen/Young adult, Adventure

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Romeo and Juliet is perhaps the most famous of Shakespeare’s plays and is thought to be the most famous love story in Western history. It concerns the fate of two very young lovers who would do anything to be together. The Montagues and the Capulets of Verona, Italy, are in the midst of a long-standing feud when Romeo Montague drops in on a masquerade party at the Capulets’. While there he meets and woos the daughter of the house, Juliet. She likewise returns his passion, and their secret meeting later that night on her bedroom balcony begins a series of tragic events that no one could have foretold. (Summary by Becky Crackel)...

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Romance, Tragedy

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Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ Book 1 gives a sideline view of events taking pace around the days of Christ. Book 1 gives the account of Christ's birth. (Summary by MHAIJH85)...

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Historical Fiction

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The year is 1752. Devil, the Duke of Andover, and highwayman Jack, the Earl of Wyncham are at odds over a country squire's beautiful daughter. Cheating at cards, the marital problems of the younger sister of the Duke and the younger brother of the Earl, and debts beyond imagination form the backdrop for this romance, Heyer's first work and the only one in the public domain. (Summary by Sibella Denton)...

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Romance, Historical Fiction

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The Black Tulip, written by Alexandre Dumas père and published in 1850, is a historical novel placed in the time of Tulipmania in the Netherlands. The novel begins with the 1672 politically motivated mob lynching of the de Witt brothers and then follows the story of Cornelius van Baerle, godson of Cornelius de Wit. Cornelius Van Baerle has joined the race to breed a truly black tulip – and to win the prize of 100,000 guilders, as well as fame and honour. As he nears his goal he is jailed and then of course rescued – by the beautiful Rosa, daughter of the jailer....

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Literature, Fiction, Adventure

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The Histories was written between 110 and 100 B.C. It covered the Year of Four Emperors following the downfall of Nero, the rise of Vespasian, and the rule of the Flavian Dynasty up to the death of Domitian. Only the first four books and 26 chapters of the fifth book have survived, covering the year 69 and the first part of 70. The work is believed to have continued up to the death of Domitian on September 18, 96. As a prelude to the account of Titus's suppression of the Great Jewish Revolt, Book 5 features a short ethnographic survey of the ancient Jews as seen from the Roman point of view. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia.)...

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History

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David Elginbrod was George Macdonald's first real success, a novel of Scottish country life. Published in 1862, it was dedicated to the memory of Lady Noel Byron.(Summary from wikipedia)...

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Historical Fiction

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The tragedy is based on the mythological story of King Pentheus of Thebes and his mother Agavë, and their punishment by the god Dionysus (who is Pentheus' cousin) for refusing to worship him....

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Play, Tragedy

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Stories of King Arthur and His Knights Retold from Malory's Morte dArthur

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Fairy tales, Myths/Legends, Fiction

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This is the final installment in Sophocles's Theban Plays, following Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. Oedipus's daughter Antigone deliberately breaks the laws of Thebes when she buries her brother's body and is sentenced to death. She clashes with Creon, the King of Thebes, over what constitutes justice and morality: the laws of the state or the laws of the individual. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

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Tragedy, Play