Showing results by author "Beauty_23" in All Categories

Three Towers Hall was a boarding school for girls For a short time after Billie arrived there all went well. But then the head of the school had to go on a long journey and she left the girls in charge of two teachers. sisters. who believed in severe discipline and in very. very plain food and little of it - and then there was a row! (From original advertisement) This is the second book in the "Billie Bradley" series, a mystery series for girls.

These lesser known stories were penned by Conan Doyle during the period between killing off Sherlock Holmes in 1893 and reluctantly resurrecting him some ten years later. The swashbuckling, eponymous hero, Etienne Gerard, is one of Napoleon's gallant French Hussars, who considers himself the finest of them all. Through these "Boys Own Adventures", Conan Doyle pokes gentle fun at both the French and the English. This is the second volume containing eight adventures. (Summary by Phil)

This is the handwritten book that Carroll wrote for private use before being urged to develop it later into Alice in Wonderland. It was generously illustrated by Carrol and meant to entertain his family and friends. When a sick child in a hospital enjoyed it so much, the mother wrote him saying it had distracted her for a bit from her pain and led eventually to Carroll expanding the story. The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed in a boat, on 4 July 1862, up the Isis with the three young daughters of Henry Liddell, (the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford ...

Henry IV, King of France and Navarre (1553-1610) was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon. He was raised in the Protestant faith, barely escaped death in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, and led the Protestant forces against the Catholic armies in the French Wars of Religion. Declaring that "Paris was well worth a mass," he abjured the Calvinist faith, which brought an end to the pitiless strife that was destroying France. "Good King Henry" is remembered for his courage in battle, his geniality, and his great concern for the welfare of his subjects. A survivor of multiple ...

I should have thought that no preface would have been required to introduce Mrs. Seacole to the British public, or to recommend a book which must, from the circumstances in which the subject of it was placed, be unique in literature. If singleness of heart, true charity, and Christian works; if trials and sufferings, dangers and perils, encountered boldly by a helpless woman on her errand of mercy in the camp and in the battle-field, can excite sympathy or move curiosity, Mary Seacole will have many friends and many readers. She is no Anna Comnena, who presents us with a verbose history, but a...

Typee is Herman Melville's first book, recounting his experiences after having jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands in 1842, and becoming a captive of a cannibal island tribe. It was an immediate success in America and England, and was Melville's most popular work during his lifetime. It was not until the end of the 1930's that it was surpassed in popularity by Moby Dick, more than thirty years after his death. The story provoked harsh criticism for its condemnation of missionary efforts in the Pacific Islands. Many sought to discredit the book, claiming that it was a work of fiction, but this...

In 1960 when this was published, the Cold War was at its height. Communism and Free Enterprise (Democracy) were locked in a ferocious struggle to prove that their political ideology was the best form of government for human kind. No holds were barred in this fight; propaganda was poured forth by both sides in a constant push to be seen as better, more progressive, more productive. Nuclear war was a constant threat. I know, I lived through that time. Thankfully the world came through that stressful time without a hot war but the question was not really settled: which is the better system? This ...

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is an assortment of twelve brief tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, including his made up criminal investigator Sherlock Holmes. Every one of the tales are told in a first-individual style according to the perspective of Dr. Watson, Holmes' partner and companion. The accounts detail Holmes and Watson's different undertakings in settling cases that bewilder others inside policing. This book is an assortment of twelve of Doyle's #1 Sherlock Holmes stories

This is a detailed biography of the life and adventures of Daniel Boone. His accomplishments are brushed over in history classes these days and not given the recognition they deserve. This biography clearly paints a picture of the benevolent person of Daniel Boone as well as the achievements he made in furthering European settlement in America. (Summary by Allyson Hester)

This well-written novel is a fictional account of a true historical rescue mission. In 1719, at the age of 17, when she was on her way across Europe to marry James Stuart, the Catholic pretender to the British throne, Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska was kidnapped and held prisoner by Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, with the approval of his ally, the Protestant king of England. The king feared that the marriage would produce heirs who might raise a rebellion against the Crown, though Stuart’s own rebellion had failed four years earlier. But Irish soldier of fortune and Stuart's ablest spy, ...

Robin Hood is the archetypal English folk hero; a courteous, pious and swashbuckling outlaw of the mediæval era who, in modern versions of the legend, is famous for robbing the rich to feed the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny. He operates with his "seven score" (140 strong) group of fellow outlawed yeomen – named the Merry Men. He and his band are usually associated with Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire.The Victorian era generated its own distinct versions of Robin Hood. The traditional tales were often adapted for children, most notably in Howard Pyle's Merry Adventures of ...

Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) was a prolific American writer of popular mysteries. The Circular Staircase was originally published in 1908 and includes all the elements of the classic whodunit – mysterious events, ghostly apparitions, things that go bump in the night and murder. (Summary by J. M. Smallheer)

Buck is living a happy life in California until he is sold to pay a gambling debt. Taken to the Klondike to become a sled dog, Buck must toughen up and learn the harsher rules of survival in the North. One of the first of these is how to deal with being harnessed in the same team as a dog that wants to kill him.Large, strong and smart, Buck toughens to his new life. But even the toughest dog can be worn down by constant work, and after 3,000 miles of pulling sleds, Buck nears the end of his rope.Cast away as no longer useful, Buck is acquired by greenhorns whose inexperience nearly kills him, ...

The purpose of this book is to give to its readers a living knowledge of some of the wonders of the country and continent in which they live. Upon a personally conducted tour they are taken by the author through the most characteristic parts of the North American continent. They travel through the United States, British America, Mexico, and Central America, studying the most interesting features of life and work among the people of each country, learning how they are governed, and what they do in order to live. Much information is also given concerning the natural resources and the physical ...

The Silver Fox patrol find themselves on a boat, quietly travelling on the Rhine from Mainz. Bumpus' mother is sick in Antwerp, and they are trying to visit her. Of course, an adventure awaits them in Germany, with the advent of the Great War fast approaching, which is happening much faster than the boys could know! Herbert Carter is one of many pseudonyms used by St George Rathborne.

David Balfour, a lad of seventeen and newly orphaned, is directed to go and live with his rich uncle, the master of the estate of Shaws in the lowlands of Scotland near Edinburgh. His uncle, Ebenezer (as close a miser as Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge), is shocked to suddenly have his young relative descend on him and tries to rid himself of David with an arranged accident. Failing that, he pays the captain of a brig to kidnap David and sell him into slavery in Carolina. A collision in the fog brings onboard the brig a survivor, Alan Breck Stewart, who is carrying a dangerous amount of gold on his ...

Witty spy adventure set during the Boer Wars of the late 19th Century. - Summary by BellonaTimes

Buck, a magnificent mix of St. Bernard and Scotch shepherd dog, rules contentedly at Judge Miller’s place in California’s Santa Clara Valley. But 1897 brings the Klondike Gold Rush, and Buck is the perfect kind of dog to service sleds—so he is stolen and spirited away to the Northland. There he learns a hard life at the hands of tough men and competing sled dogs, which sharpen his instincts and survival skills. Thousands of miles of grueling sled travel and toil nearly wear Buck out, until chance in the form of John Thornton saves him. This “ideal master” proves the only man worthy ...

Albert Bigelow Paine was Samuel Langhorne Clemens' (Mark Twain's) biographer. He lived with Twain, collecting ideas and material for a biography, for a few years before Twain's death in 1910. Six years later Paine published this "story of a man who made the world laugh and love him". For those who have read or listened to Mark Twain's works, Paine's work is an invaluable resource to better understand Twain, the stories behind his stories and his life with those he loved and with whom he worked. (Summary by John Greenman)

A series of loosely related short stories of the early adventures of France's famous gentleman burglar, Arsène Lupin, as told by an admirer and trusted friend. (Cate Barrat)