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(0)Wilkie Collins
This delightful tale of thwarted ambition and forbidden love follows the adventures and fortunes of an endearing young rogue, Frank Softly. Originally appearing serialized in Household Words in 1859, the rogue is one of Collins' most richly comic creations.
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, Frank finds working life a challenge,
...George and Mary were childhood friends. But then George's father discovers his thirteen-year-old son feels true passion for his bailiff's daughter. Determined to end the affair, George's father sacks the bailiff and takes his son to America. Years later George returns to his native Suffolk to trace his lost love. Though she has long gone, George is determined to find Mary at any cost.
William, the narrator and faithful servant to rich widow, Mrs. Norcross, tells the story of his mistress' unhappy second marriage to James Smith. A detective lawyer's clerk, Mr. Dark, both confirms Smith's bigamous remarriage and, following his disappearance, proves Mrs. Norcross and William innocent of murder. Dark also recovers jewelry stolen by the maidservant and establishes her guilt. William's amiable relationship with the experienced detective
...The Yellow Mask, a gothic romance filled with mystery and suspense, will hold you riveted from beginning to end.
A scheming priest, Father Rocco of Pisa, decides the inheritance and great wealth of Count Fabio d'Ascoli was stolen from the church many generations ago and aims to steal it back. In order to do so, the priest manipulates Fabio's true love, the sweet model Nanina, to leave Pisa. Father Rocco then engineers a wedding between
...A fascinating short story by the renowned author of The Woman in White
Captain Stanwick and Lionel Varleigh are old friends, but after falling out over their attentions to Bertha Laroche, they fight an illegal duel in Herne Wood. Stanwick, wrongly convinced he has killed Varleigh, goes mad and attempts to kill himself with a razor ... when his supposed victim returns like an apparition from the dead.
When the Countess Narona meets Agnes Lockwood, the woman jilted by her fiancé, she feels a great sense of foreboding. After Countess Narona's marriage, she moves with her husband, Lord Montbarry, to Venice. There, disowned by his family, the lord apparently becomes a recluse and falls fatally ill. As much as Agnes tries to forget the episode of her broken engagement, her fate and that of the countess seem to be inextricably woven. Both are
...The third of CSA Word's popular women's short story collections
CSA Word's collections of 'stories by or about women', narrated by such excellent readers as Rosalind Ayres, Juliet Stevenson and Harriet Walters are consistently fascinating – The Times
Nine unabridged works by time-honoured female and male writers exploring what love, family, and marriage mean. This collection brings together stories by Edith...