Showing results by narrator "Peter Joyce" in All Categories

A collection of short... stories by W W Jacobs. Serpents, skinflints, skivers, suitors and sundry sailors take the foreground in these stories about the East End of London and the mythical village of Claybury at the turn of the century.

This is a sensible book. I want you to understand that. This is a book to improve your mind. In this book, I tell you all about Germany – at all events all I know about Germany – and the Ober-Ammorgau Passion Play. I also tell you about other things. I do not tell you all I know about all these other things because I do not want to swamp you with knowledge. I wish to teach you gradually. I should only be defeating my own object that I, by making you think too much at first, give you a perhaps lasting dislike to the exercise.

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?

Newly born Judith is found in by eccentric Squire Gauntry in the chilled sombre ruin of a house on a bitter winter's night, her parents having died at her birth. With such a tenuous start, the child grows up to have an intense lust for life and curiosity for every new experience. She is the natural heir to both her parents' temperaments. With the wilfulness of her mother and the stubbornness of her father, she is redeemed by a compulsion to tell the truth and a willingness to help anyone she loves in time of trouble or distress.

Edward Malone, an enthusiastic and ambitious columnist for the Daily Gazette, is urged by the woman he loves to undertake a heroic deed so that he may earn her love in return. In a few weeks, he is bound for the shores of South America in the company of the irascible academic Summerlee and debonair adventurer Lord John Roxton on an expedition to prove the claims of a bombastic genius. They venture to an isolated prehistoric land on top of a huge mountain in the tropical rain forests of the Amazonian jungle.

Twenty years have passed since their first adventure in Africa, but Leo assures Holly that Ayesha is alive and imploring him to find her. They search through Asia and eventually arrive in the city of Kaloon, ruled by the mad Khan Rassen and his devious wife, the Khania Atene. The people live under an uneasy truce with the followers of the Priestess of Hes, who dwells on the Mountain, a huge volcano that dominates the region.

Written in 1926... and published posthumously [without the authors customary revision] in 1930, The Virgin and the Gypsy is a minor masterpiece in short story writing. It provides an excellent introduction to Lawrence’s work, being a succinct distillation of his ideas about sexuality and its ability to transcend class barriers.

Helen Rathbone meets her elderly uncle, James Ollerenshaw, in Bursley Park, after an estrangement of several years. Both are very strong-willed, independent characters. Helen has an extravagant lifestyle and likes to spend money while the old man has lived a thrifty life and intends to continue in the same way. However, they develop a friendship which progresses rapidly, and Helen moves in to James' house to look after him.

Walter Herries establishes himself in Keswick and constructs an imposing property overlooking Uldale, further encroaching upon the peaceful lives of Jennifer and the children. Adam resolves to pursue a career in London, much to his mother's displeasure. He meets the Chartist campaigner Caesar Kraft and lives with him and his daughter Margaret. On a visit to the capital, Elizabeth Herries chooses the opportunity to escape from her unhappy life but is finally pursued by John.

Vanessa Paris is besotted with Benji, the devil-may-care son of John and Elizabeth Herries. Despite returning her all-consuming passion, Benji will not commit himself to marriage because he fears he can never remain constant and will eventually betray her. Benji's actions finally prompt Vanessa to leave Cumbria and seek a life in London. She stays at Hill Street with the ever persistent Ellis, who worships her.

"To Paragot I owe everything. He is at once my benefactor, my venerated master, my beloved friend, my creator." Thus begins the story of one of the greatest characters of English Literature - Paragot the lovable Bohemian and celebrated Bon Vivant. A young urchin from the London slums is adopted by the hero and given an adventurous education traveling through Europe, tambourine player in a group of ragamuffin musicians.

Love and Mr Lewisham is a hugely uplifting tale from the pen of one of our greatest writers. Wells drew on his own experience as a young teacher to provide the background and, one suspects, the emotional drama. The plot enables him to satirise the educational establishment and deliver many wry observations on Victorian morality and the obsession with the supernatural. One day Mr Lewisham sits at his makeshift desk at his lodgings. He is an assistant master at Whortley proprietary school.

This painfully funny slice of Cuban-American life in the suburbs is a cross between a Hispanic soap opera and an ethnic comedy with political overtones. This deft play can turn serious or silly in an instant and you’ll need a scorecard to keep track of the cascading and frequently arboreous calamities. A full-cast performance featuring: Max Casella, Peter Michael Goetz, Valerie Harper, Alexuna Lambros, Anna Sophie Loewenberg, Jonathan Silverman, and Joyce Van Patten.

Includes 'Titbottoms Spectacles' by George William Curtis, 'The First Piano in Camp' by Samuel Davis, 'Mr Tolman' by Frank R. Stockton, 'Mrs Bullfrog' by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 'Against His Judgement' by Robert Grant, 'A Desperate Adventure' by Max Adeler, 'Occurence at Owl Creek' by Ambrose Bierce, 'The Stout Gentleman' by Washington Irving, 'Clothes 'by Gustav Kobbé and 'Negative Gravity' by Frank R. Stockton.

Grace Melbury, the timber merchant's daughter, comes back to Little Hintock after some years at finishing school. She was the childhood sweetheart of Giles Winterborne, a compassionate, caring man who works in the village. Melbury senior has promised himself that Grace and Giles will be married to recompense for him taking Giles' father's betrothed many years before. However, Grace is a different woman now, a sophisticated creature, and the suave, knowledgeable local doctor Fitzpiers takes an interest in her.

'The manuscript was submitted to me by a young officer of the R.F.A., home from the front on leave. He explained that he had brought with him from France a bundle of papers which he had found in one of the dug-outs of an abandoned gun position. He discovered the papers secreted in a dark corner wedged in between a post and the wall of one of the bunks.' (Extract from the preface by John Lane, publisher)

London Lavender is not a story; it is a party. It is a party at which Mr Lucas invites his readers to meet all sorts of interesting and unusual seeming guests, and lets them tell their queer and quaint and funny ideas about life, and gives little sketches of their history.

Ten daring stories from the Booker Prize-shortlisted Philip Hensher. Backdrops vary in this collection of stories from the author of The Northern Clemency - from turmoil in Sudan following the death of a politician in a plane crash to Southern India, where a Soho hedonist starts to envisage the crump and soar of munitions. Each story, regardless of location, reveals a great writer at the peak of his powers.

A romantic adventure yarn of plotting and corruption largely set against the panorama of Imperialist Russia but with some of the skulduggery taking place in the major capitals of Europe. An old Etonian and half Russian, Prince Paul Alexis, inherits the Osterno estate in the Steppes. Naive and honest, but helped by experienced campaigner Steinmetz, he forms a progressive but illegal Charity League to succour the needs of the starving uneducated peasantry who are ravaged by cholera.

Summer, 1942. For the people of Malta, suffering daily bombing raids, the British are the last line of defence against the Nazis. And it is Max Chadwick's job as the information officer to ensure the news the islanders receive maintains morale. So when Max is given proof suggesting a British officer is murdering local women, he knows the consequences of discovery are dire.