Showing titles in Historical

A disturbing tale of a young man's uncanny ability to remain both young and beautiful while descending into a life of heartless debauchery, The Picture of Dorian Gray was considered proof of both Wilde's genius and his perversion. Oscar Wilde's scandalous best seller of 1891 was one of the most damning pieces of evidence used against him in the trial that brought about his downfall.

"If it were I who were to be always young and the picture to grow old, I would give my soul for it." So says Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde's brilliant creation who sells his soul for youth and beauty.

Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked out streets, illicit liaisons, sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch is the work of a truly brilliant and compelling storyteller. This is the story of four Londoners, three women and a young man with a past, drawn with absolute truth and intimacy.

Can two outcasts find refuge in one another's hearts? Dr. Vance Phelps lost everything in the War Between the States - her career and her faith in herself. Mae is a frontier madam, used to standing and fighting alone. She guards the well-being of the lost young women who come under her care - she just never expected one of them to be a doctor. A bold story of redemption amidst the wild landscape of the heart, where lost promises find new hope.

A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK (BOOKER PRIZE GEMS) London 1862. Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, grows up among petty thieves - fingersmiths - under the rough but loving care of Mrs Sucksby and her 'family'. But from the moment she draws breath, Sue's fate is linked to that of...

Bloomsbury presents The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley, read by Thomas Judd. Escape into the enchanting world of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. This extraordinary sequel transports readers to Japan, where time, destiny and love collide to electrifying effect 'A Japan that...

** Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2015 ** To find yourself, sometimes you must lose everything. A privileged elder son, and stammeringly shy, Harry Cane has followed convention at every step. Even the beginnings of an illicit, dangerous affair do little to shake the foundations of his...

Based on a real-life scandal that gripped England in 1864. From the bestselling author of Room, Emma Donoghue's The Sealed Letter is a delicious tale of secrets, betrayal, and forbidden love. Helen Codrington is unhappily married. Emily 'Fido' Faithfull hasn't seen her once-dear friend for years...

“Luke” Hamilton has always been sure she’d never marry. She accepted that she would spend her life alone when she chose to live her life disguised as a man. After working in a brothel for three years, Nora Macauley has lost all illusions about love. She no longer hopes for a man who will sweep her off her feet and take her away to begin a new, respectable life. But now, they find themselves married and on the way to Oregon in a covered wagon, with 2,000 miles ahead of them.

Brought to you by Penguin. Welcome to England, 1809. London is a violent, intolerant city, exhausted by years of war, beset by soaring prices and political tensions. By day, John Church preaches on the radical possibilities of love to a multicultural, working-class congregation in Southwark. But...

At 18, Brian, like so many other promising young gay men, arrived in New York City without much more than a love for the freedom and release from his past that it promised. But within six short years, AIDS would claim his lover, his friends, and his future. With nothing left in New York but memories of death, Brian decides to write his mother a letter asking to come back to the place, and family, he was once so desperate to escape. 

Set in and around the women's prison at Milbank in the 1870's, Affinity is an eerie and utterly compelling ghost story, a complex and intriguing literary mystery, and a poignant love story with an unexpected twist in the tale. Following the death of her father, Margaret Prior has decided to pursue some 'good work' with the lady criminals of one of London's most notorious gaols. Surrounded by prisoners, murderers, and common thieves, Margaret feels herself drawn to one of the prison's more unlikely inmates.

Sunday Times Novel of the Year Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize A magnificent, century-spanning saga about a love triangle that spawns a myth, and a family mystery, across generations. In the late summer of 1913, George Sawle brings his Cambridge friend Cecil Valance, a charismatic young poet...

The heartbreaking story of the love of two women – Anne Lister, the real-life inspiration behind Gentleman Jack, and her first love, Eliza Raine – from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder. 'A rich and spellbinding 19th-century story of forbidden love' – The Independent 'Donoghue...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Confessions of Frannie Langton, written and read by Sara Collins. They say I must be put to death for what happened to Madame, and they want me to confess. But how can I confess what I don't believe I've done? 1826, and all of London is in a frenzy...

New York City, 1943. From jazz clubs to back alleys, passion and peril collide in this slow-burn sapphic love story that simmers through every twist and turn. Nightclub singer–turned–OSS spy Kathryn Hammond has a past she can’t outrun and a mission she can’t afford to fail. But when fearless reporter Jenny Ryan becomes her assignment, sparks fly and everything starts to unravel.

Bloomsbury presents A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago, read by Sarah Durham. Longlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award A GUARDIAN SUMMER READING PICK ‘Sumptuous … If you’re feeling bereft after finishing The Mirror and the Light, let Jago transport you to the Jacobean...

In a world of bare-knuckled ideology and secret dossiers, Timothy Laughlin, a recent college graduate and devout Catholic, is eager to join the crusade against Communism. An encounter with a handsome State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, leads to Tim's first job and, after Fuller's advances, his first love affair.

 Kimiâ Sadr fled Iran at the age of 10 in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now 25 and facing the future she has built for herself, as well as the prospect of a new generation, Kimiâ is inundated by her own memories and the stories of her ancestors, which come to her in unstoppable, uncontainable waves. 

The beautiful young Dorian Gray has his portrait painted by society artist Basil Hallward. Admired by all, the dazzling, wealthy, handsome young man has everything anyone could wish for, or so it appears. Oscar Wilde's novel is a masterly study of moral corruption, a tour-de-force of suspense and surprise.