Showing results by narrator "Wanda McCaddon" in All Categories

It is 1887, and an unsettled London is preparing for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. For Maribel Campbell Lowe, the beautiful, bohemian wife of a maverick politician, it is the year she plans to make her own mark on the world. But her husband's outspoken views inspire enmity as well as admiration - and the wife of a member of parliament should not be hiding the kind of secrets Maribel has buried in her past. When a notorious newspaper editor begins to take an uncommon interest in her, Maribel fears he will destroy not only her husband's career but both of their reputations.

When Isabel Archer, a young American woman with looks, wit, and imagination, arrives in Europe, she sees the world as "a place of brightness, of free expression, of irresistible action". She turns aside from suitors who offer her their wealth and devotion to follow her own path.

This is the story of a lifelong friendship between two women that passionately lasts despite long separations and differences in time, geography, and lifestyle. Deirdre and Bernadette, who share a childhood and an Australian convent school education, each make different choices, landing them in places as diverse as Vietnam, England, and Argentina, but they remain alert and emotionally connected through their friendship.

Written when she was 26, Agnes Grey is Anne Bronte's first novel. It tells the story of a rector's daughter who has to earn her living as a governess. Drawing directly from her own experiences, Anne Bronte set out to describe the immense pressures that the governess' life involved: the frustration, the isolation, and the insensitive and cruel treatment on the part of employers and their families.

Maggie Tulliver, whose father owns a mill perched on the banks of the River Floss, is intelligent and imaginative beyond the understanding of her community, her relatives, and particularly her brother Tom. Despite their opposite temperaments, Maggie and Tom are united by a strong bond. But this bond suffers when Tom's sense of family honor leads him to forbid her to associate with the one friend who appreciates her intelligence and imagination.

The Mill on the Floss, first published in 1860, tells the story of Maggie Tulliver and her brother Tom as they grow from children to young adults in the small rural town of St. Ogg's, England. Intelligent and passionate, Maggie yearns to develop her mind and break free of the constraints of her provincial village. Though she loves her brother above anyone else, Tom's rigid, pragmatic personality often conflicts with Maggie's headstrong nature, with increasingly tragic consequences.

Sarah Crewe is treated like a princess at Miss Minchin's boarding school - until her father dies, leaving her peniless. Now she must struggle as a servant to evil Miss Minchin, but the intellgent, kind-hearted girl never loses hope. From her garrett, she soon makes friends and finds incredible adventures. And good will and imagination ultimately triumph by this book's glorious ending. This beloved classic has been continuously in publication since 1905.

February, 1571. Ursula is once more plunged into affairs of the state when she escorts her foster daughter Margaret to the Netherlands to meet her suitor. The queen’s spymaster, Sir William Cecil, learns that the wealthy Italian banker Roberto Ridolfi will be hosting their forthcoming wedding - a man who he fears may once again be plotting to put Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne.

Mary, unloved and selfish, finds friendship and happiness helping her neurotic, invalid cousin become strong and healthy. Nature's powerful magic touches both children as they toil to revive their secret garden. The story alludes to some very modern themes including the ability of mental beliefs to create health, the strength of group optimism, and the restorative power of nature.

Taught the art of lace-making during her orphanage childhood, Heather Blackstone managed to earn her living in a Nottingham factory. But the legend of her ancestry haunted her dreams. When a gypsy-fortune teller predicted a journey, Heather knew that her destiny was clear: she must find a way to reclaim the castle that bore her family name and the fortune that was rightfully hers.

John Brown's biography of John Bunyan remains the standard, despite the lapse of over 100 years since it was first published. The author was one of Bunyan's successors as minister of the church in Bedford. He shows that many of the scenes familiar to readers of Pilgrim's Progress reflect local places and events and personal experience in the trials and joys of the Christian life.

In My Greek Drama, Gianna Angelopoulos - known in her home country simply as "Gianna" - has written a memoir that is as much about Greece's journey as her own. From her childhood in Crete, to law school in Thessaloniki, to Athens, where she overcame male-dominated legal and political cultures to help redefine public service in Greece, Gianna worked her way into becoming one of the most respected women in Greek public life.

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the setting for Julian Fellowes’s Emmy Award-winning PBS show Downton Abbey, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Catherine Wendell. In this transporting companion piece to...

An intimate portrait of the life and marriage of Leonard and Virginia Woolf - and their pet marmoset monkey called Mitz - from the National Book Award-winning author of THE FRIEND 'A perfect little gem of a book' NIGEL NICOLSON 'Nunez takes us beneath the surface to the essential mysteries of...

Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award

With rare subtlety, impressive scope, and a keen eye for detail, Gita Mehta lays bare the complexities of Indian culture and history in Raj, the remarkable story of a woman of royal birth coming of age during India’s fight for independence.

This classic biography should be mandatory listening for all academicians. Winsor, a historian, poet, literary critic, and fiction writer, retraces every important aspect of Columbus' fascinating life, from his family origins to his beliefs and convictions. Columbus emerges as a living, breathing human being with passions and ideas: a man possessing intellect and imagination enough to believe that the earth was round, not flat. Winsor's opus represents an honest search for the truth.

Thomas Hardy's moving story of star-crossed lovers shows human beings at the mercy of forces beyond their control, setting a tragic drama of human passion against a backdrop of space and scientific discovery. Unhappily married, Lady Constantine defies social standards when she falls in love with the youthful and socially inferior Swithin St. Cleeve. In an ancient monument converted into an astronomical observatory, they isolate themselves from society and create their own private universe.

The beautiful, much-desired Lily Bart has been raised to be one of the perfect wives of the wealthy upper class, but her spark of character and independent drive prevents her from becoming one of the many women who will succeed in those circles. Though her desire for a comfortable life means that she cannot marry for love without money, her resistance to the rules of the social elite endangers her many marriage proposals.