„The heart of a man is full of hypocrisy; the heart of Nature is utterly without guile”. Harold Preston discovers this when he goes prospecting for gold in the uncharted bush with a rival he considered a friend. This is a fairly decent tale of jealousy, betrayal and vengeance written by a prolific British journalist and author of mystery and horror fiction James Edward Preston Muddock also known as „Dick Donovan” (28 May 1843 – 23 January 1934).
„Paul Clifford” is a novel published in 1830 by Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803-1873) who was an English novelist, playwright, and politician. It tells the life of Paul Clifford, a man who leads a dual life as both a criminal and an upscale gentleman. Paul Clifford tells the story of a chivalrous highwayman in the time of the French Revolution. This is the novel that first used the opening line ’’It was a dark and stormy night...’’
The story is set around the Wentworth mention, a small boarding house in Bolton Spa and its owners and lodgers. They are quite unlikable, mainly upper-middle-class English people who came to the Spa to cure their body illnesses, but also to fill the time and escape boredom despite having no passions, interests and work. A delightful book for anybody familiar with Benson’s work, full of all the usual light, wit and satirical caricatures that Benson does so well.
The third novel in the series, „Lucia in London” continues the adventures of Benson’s famously irrepressible characters, and bring them into hilarious conflict. Using her best social-climbing instincts and refusing to be embarrassed, Lucia sets out to conquer London and mingle with the beau monde. Soon a secret group of ’Luciaphiles’ springs up; the social climbers who make up its rank never tire of watching her get into and out of all kinds of trouble.
Found and Fettered – A Series of Thrilling Detective Stories is a collection of short stories dates from 1894 written by British journalist and author of mystery and horror fiction J. E. Preston Muddock. For a time his detective stories were as popular as those of Arthur Conan Doyle. Between 1889 and 1922 he published nearly 300 detective and mystery stories. This varied collection includes material that gives readers a 19th century view of the world.
A novel series by G.K. Chesterton of four intertwined novellas whose central characters appear to be involved in murder, fraud, theft and treason. Are these friends involved in crimes? Are these individuals faultless as the book’s title suggests? A good book for people who love suspenseful novels that features mind-blowing twists, awesome plots, and events that will keep you engaged page by page.
Meet the widow anxious to bury her husband before the autopsy, the artist who’s brushes have never been used, the bedridden drunk who contracts lead poisoning from a pub miles away. These strange stories are designed to baffle the mind and entertain the crime buff and newcomer alike. Set in the early days of the nineteenth century, the six tales here take place in various parts of rural England -- wherever the young physician-detective’s assignments take him.
Written by British journalist and author of mystery and horror fiction J. E. Preston Muddock. In these thrilling stories, Muddock writes under the guise of his fictional alter ego – the private detective Dick Donovan. From the murky underworld of Victorian London to the grand houses of the upper classes, Donovan investigates crime in all its forms, recovering priceless jewels, exposing villainous conspiracies and solving dastardly murders!
An old secret and a lovely woman and three men: Barr Radison, an American adventurer, searching for the mysterious source of black and silver fox pelts, Macferris Montenay, a ruthless giant of a man, trying to carve out his own kingdom in the wilderness, and Jean Nichemus, a halfbreed and Montenay’s henchman, harboring his own sinister plans. „Ghost Hills” is one of the adventure stories of a prolific H. Bedford-Jones who is rightly called the „King of Pulps”.
Again the strange Sphinx Emerald came to the scene to play its part in the unrolling historic drama. This series about the Sphinx Emerald constitutes, as has been said, a veritable Outline of History – or perhaps „Highlights of History” would be more accurate. For this reason the greatest event in all history could not be left out.
Don Lorenzo and Arnold Neville lead separate expeditions to the South American interior whereupon they encounter the exiled king of the underground world. But can Neville help him reclaim his throne when the arch-priestess, Alloyah, raises an army of the dead? The sequel to „The Devil-Tree of El Dorado” and „A Queen of Atlantis”, „King of the Dead” is a novel among the most famous „lost race” novels written by the British author Frank Aubrey.
Written in the cycle of tales by H. Bedford-Jones, „Lady in Chain Mail” continues amazing series about the Sphinx Emerald. From the hand of a dead Mameluke after the battle of the Pyramids, a civilian scientist with Napoleon’s army took the Sphinx Emerald... and though the Mameluke’s militant daughter offered to buy back the gem at a price high indeed, swift tragedy followed.
First published in 1928, „Last Post” is part four of Ford Madox Ford’s hugely successful „Parade’s End” tetralogy. It is about Christopher Tietjens and his life, with World War I as the backdrop. This book is set during a few hours of a day in June, where Tietjens is making a living as a dealer of old furniture. The series has taken the reader from before the war, to during it, and this final novel explores the legacy of it.
Readers are treated to authentic historical dramas, all centering on the mysterious jewel that seems to contain a miniature image of the sphinx. This image hypnotizes its owners and inspires them to make history-changing decisions. That malign and magic jewel the Sphinx Emerald comes again on the scene to play its part in a stirring drama of the Crusades.
Behind this rather prim title lies the hilarious fictional diary of a disaster-prone lady of the 1930s, and her attempts to keep her somewhat ramshackle household from falling into chaos. Written with humour, this charming novel is full of the peculiarities of daily life. As witty and delightful today as when it was first published in 1930, „Diary of a Provincial Lady” is a brilliantly observed comic novel and an acknowledged classic.
„Dr. Delmore’s Secret” is an absorbing tale of mystery by Fenton Ash, author of at least three Lost-World novels. Little is known about Aubrey/Atkins. He was involved in a scandal at the turn of the century and sentenced to nine months imprisonment for obtaining money by deception. After leaving prison he dropped the name Frank Aubrey and – in his early 60s, following a three-year hiatus – began writing as Fenton Ash.
Much the best of the Atkins adventures, with an imaginative sweep that causes one to forget momentarily the plot and character cliches. Altogether, „Ethel Verney” (1911) is a fairly good specimen of its class written by Francis Henry Atkins – a British speculative fiction writer, mainly under two pseudonyms in sequence. He wrote under the pseudonyms Frank Aubrey and Fenton Ash.
Set during the time of the Reform Act of 1832, the story centers on an election contested by Harold Transome, a local landowner, in the „Radical cause”, contrary to his family’s Tory traditions. Contrasting with the opportunism of Transome is the sincere, but opinionated, Radical Felix Holt. Against this background, the author George Eliot tells a love story and weaves a plot which has many elements of the sensation novel, such as illegitimacy, blackmail, and the discovery of...
Published soon after Fitzgerald’s debut novel „This Side of Paradise”, the novel that had made him famous at the age of twenty-three, „Flappers and Philosophers” was the author’s first iconic collection of short fiction. In these pages we meet Fitzgerald’s trademark characters: the beautiful, headstrong young women and the dissolute, wandering young men who comprised what came to be called the Lost Generation. This collection evokes 1920s America through the eyes of a writer ...
H. Bedford-Jones’ „D’Artagnan” is a sequel to the first Musketeer book of Alexandre Dumas. It continues the rollicking romantic romp through pre-revolutionary France by following the further pursuits of the famous musketeer D’Artagnan. Bedford-Jones reunites the young Gascon with his old comrades-in-arms Athos, Porthos and Aramis to defend again the honor of the queen in an intrigue of Cardinal Richelieu. Highly recommended for everyone who fell in love with these unforgettab...
Crushed by a loveless marriage to the cruel and arrogant Grandcourt, Gwendolen Harleth seeks salvation in the deeply spiritual and altruistic Daniel Deronda. But Deronda, profoundly affected by the discovery of his Jewish ancestry, is ultimately too committed to his own cultural awakening to save Gwendolen from despair. George Eliot’s radical dual narrative constantly challenges all solutions and ensures that the novel is as controversial now, as when it first appeared....
Before Sherlock Holmes there was Dick Donovan. The name struck terror into the hearts of thieves, murderers, fences, swindlers and criminals of every class, and his exploits gave delight to millions worldwide from 1888 onwards. This second volume of the Dick Donovan adventures collects three novels and a short story, written by British journalist and author of mystery and horror fiction J. E. Preston Muddock. For a time his detective stories were as popular as those of Arthur...
”We are surrounded by hidden enemies – many of them deadly creatures... „ Meet another short science fiction novel from a British writer of „pulp fiction” Francis Henry „Frank” Atkins (1847-1927), who contributed widely to the pre-sf Pulp magazines, writing at least three Lost-World novels along with much else. He wrote under the pseudonyms Frank Aubrey and Fenton Ash.
1926. A Novel. The third in a series that includes „Some Do Not” and „No More Parades”. It chronicles the life of Christopher Tietjens, „the last Tory”, a brilliant government statistician from a wealthy landowning family who is serving in the British Army during World War I. The novel opens on Armistice Day and follows the fortunes of Tietjens and Valentine Wannop, until their paths finally cross again in post-war London.
