Regular price: £20.29
“Wake up! Wake up, there! Murder!” A hostler spits out these vehement words while he turbulently sleeps. He is haunted by a phantasm. It is a phantasm with a droop in the left eye, long flaxen hair, and a long buckhorn clasp knife.
Jamaica Inn stands alone on Bodmin Moor, stark and forbidding, its walls tainted with corruption. Young Mary Yellon soon learns of her uncle Joss Merlyn's strange trade here. But does he deal in blacker secrets still?
Finding so young and pretty a girl as Amanda wandering unattended, Sir Gareth Ludlow knows it is his duty as a man of honour to restore her to her family.
But it is to prove no easy task for the Corinthian. His captive in sprig muslin has more than her rapturous good looks and bandboxes to aid her - she is also possessed of a runaway imagination...
In this late romantic novel, the author explores the powers of telepathy while telling a skilful tale that interweaves suspense with the familiar ingredients of Victorian melodrama.
In this fast-paced novella, we encounter attempted murder, a clandestine marriage, and fraud.
Mary and George love each other in early childhood, but George's father tears them apart, not believing that Mary, a bailiff's daughter, will be a fit match for his son. The family travel to America to pursue the father's dream of wealth. During George's absence, Mary moves to Scotland and, in order to survive, is forced into a marriage of convenience. George returns after 10 years to search for his promised bride and becomes obsessed and infatuated with a Mrs Van Brandt. Is the pursuit beginning to affect his sanity?
“Wake up! Wake up, there! Murder!” A hostler spits out these vehement words while he turbulently sleeps. He is haunted by a phantasm. It is a phantasm with a droop in the left eye, long flaxen hair, and a long buckhorn clasp knife.
Jamaica Inn stands alone on Bodmin Moor, stark and forbidding, its walls tainted with corruption. Young Mary Yellon soon learns of her uncle Joss Merlyn's strange trade here. But does he deal in blacker secrets still?
Finding so young and pretty a girl as Amanda wandering unattended, Sir Gareth Ludlow knows it is his duty as a man of honour to restore her to her family.
But it is to prove no easy task for the Corinthian. His captive in sprig muslin has more than her rapturous good looks and bandboxes to aid her - she is also possessed of a runaway imagination...
In this late romantic novel, the author explores the powers of telepathy while telling a skilful tale that interweaves suspense with the familiar ingredients of Victorian melodrama.
In this fast-paced novella, we encounter attempted murder, a clandestine marriage, and fraud.
Mary and George love each other in early childhood, but George's father tears them apart, not believing that Mary, a bailiff's daughter, will be a fit match for his son. The family travel to America to pursue the father's dream of wealth. During George's absence, Mary moves to Scotland and, in order to survive, is forced into a marriage of convenience. George returns after 10 years to search for his promised bride and becomes obsessed and infatuated with a Mrs Van Brandt. Is the pursuit beginning to affect his sanity?
In this haunting tale, Gerald Roylake returns home after his father's death. He becomes reacquainted with Christal Toller, the millkeeper's daughter, but is challenged at every turn by the man who is known only as the Lodger.
Lady Audley is universally adored: Beautiful, kind and charming, she enamors all whom she meets. It is not until the strange disappearance of widower George Talboys that her behavior takes an odd turn. George's friend, Robert Audley, Lady Audley's nephew-in-law, is on the case; an upper-class layabout turned detective, he is determined to get to the bottom of things.
George Eliot’s last, most controversial novel opens as the spoiled Gwendolen Harleth, poised at a roulette table about to throw away a small fortune, captivates Daniel Deronda. As their lives become intertwined, they are also transformed by suffering, misfortune, revelations and Daniel’s fascination with the Jewish singer Mirah. Daniel Deronda shocked Victorian readers with its portrayal of the Jewish experience in British society, and remains a moving and epic portrayal of human passions.
This swashbuckling romance transports a droll young English gentleman from his comfortable life in London to a fast-moving adventure in a mythical country steeped in political intrigue. Rudolf Rassendyll, pondering his life’s purpose, sets out on a journey to the tiny European kingdom of Ruritania, where he discovers that he bears a marked physical resemblance to the king.
Arnold Bennett was an English novelist and author. Among his most popular novels are The Grand Babylon Hotel and Anna of the Five Towns. However, none of his novels approached the popularity of his little book, "How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day." It caused a sensation when first printed and continues to be printed and widely read today. In it, he offers practical advice on how one might live (as opposed to just existing ) within the confines of 24 hours a day.
Left unfinished after Dickens died in 1870, The Mystery of Edwin Drood centers on Edwin Drood’s uncle, John Jasper, and his love for Rosa Bud, Edwin’s fiancée. Set in the dark, fictional cathedral city of Cloisterham, the novel is awash with guilt, disguise and mystery. It contains some fine writing, and just before his death, Dickens left an indication of where the plot was going, which is included.
Propelled into society by his ever-hopeful father, Frank is introduced to a variety of professions in order to make his fortune. Not industrious by nature, however, Frank finds working life a challenge, and by his 25th birthday, he has failed medicine, portrait-painting, caricaturing, and even forgery. Disenchanted with life, he despairs of ever finding something to commit to — until he meets Alicia Dulcifer and her inexplicably wealthy father.
Proffering his own take on picaresque storytelling — and with many a grain of truth for 20-somethings today — this is Wilkie Collins at his entertaining best.
I have just finished listening to this book and immediately had to post a review! I loved it! Starts off slightly slow at the beginning, but soons racks up the tension into a quite fast paced story. It reminds me slightly of Jonathan Swift, a bit satirical and pointing the finger at classes and conventions of the time cleverly. Some laugh out loud moments as well. The narrator occasionally sounded like he might be eating, or losing his teeth, but otherwise very well done.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Any additional comments?
I bought this book over 4 years ago and didn't finish it and decided to try it again. this time I finished it.
it was alright, not as good as the woman in white or even the two destinies.
it was slow to start and only stepped up the pace when the rogue fell in love and became involved in a crime..
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
This is a fun book! Having recently finished The Moonstone and The Lady in White (several times), I thought I had a handle on Mr. Wilkie Collins' style and subject matter. Was I ever so wrong. This book is written as if autobiographical as he looks back on his well meaning and hard-working youthful self who just couldn't get things to work out. He stumbled out of one career and scrape into another with sometimes alarming frequency. He got tossed out of the house by his family, thrown into debtor's prison, took up forging old masters paintings. Then he meets his dream woman, lost her, had to search the country for her, then his life really took a turn for the unexpected and sometimes bizarre. The author writes in a matter-of-fact, self-deprecating manner about the most trying turn of events and dramatic setbacks. The narrator, Bernard Mayes, is splendid. I wouldn't characterize his style as BBC World Service where the most catastrophic events are reported as calmly and detached as possible but it is something of that nature. In any case, Mr. Mayes is perfect for A Rogue's Life.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
A very enjoyable listen. The narrator is great. Not at all your usual Wilkie Collins. Nothing supernatural, or dark. Just a well-writing, funny, romantic, sometimes satirical story of a charming young man with no particular calling making an unconventional beginning in life
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Sometimes so much so that one is put in mind of the TV character Buzz Killington. Nonetheless, there are giggles to be had here. It would have been better if the author had used more "showing" and less telling. It is in "journal" form more than fictional form (dialogue, rich details, etc.) For good droll British humor, George Grossman's TALES OF A NOBODY is better.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Sit back and enjoy. Very entertaining the scrapes that main character gets into, with the final one in the name of love. First chapters set the stage, and albeit are a little slow, but hang on, you get sucked in and can't wait to find out what happens next.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
This story is simply delightful and fun. You can't help but be entertained by the path and career choices of the main character Frank. Pleasantly amoral, he gets into one scrape after another and always land of his feet but never for long. This is Wilkie Collins at his comical best! Like is very good friend Charles Dickens, Collins would write any genre brilliantly. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!