Simon Evers
Lady Anna
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Anthony Trollope
When it appeared in 1874, Lady Anna met with little success, and positively outraged the conservative - `This is the sort of thing the readi…
John Caldigate
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Anthony Trollope
After a rather dissolute youth and having been disowned by his father, John Caldigate sets sail for Australia with his friend Dick Shand hop…
The Well-Beloved
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Thomas Hardy
'The Well-Beloved' tells the story of Jocelyn Pierston and his love for three generations of women - the grandmother, her daughter and grand…
Huntingtower
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John Buchan
Dickson McCunn, a respectable, newly retired grocer, plans a walking holiday in the hills of south-west Scotland. He meets a young English p…
The Hand of Ethelberta
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Thomas Hardy
Ethelberta was raised in humble circumstances but became a governess and consequently, at the age of 18, married well. However, her husband …
Hilda Lessways
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Arnold Bennett
This book is the second in Bennett’s four books about life in the Five Towns (the real life Potteries in Staffordshire). It tells the story …
These Twain
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Arnold Bennett
Hilda is saved from destitution by Edwin Clayhanger who marries her. The two, with Hilda's son by her disastrous 'marriage' to George Cannon…
The Pretty Lady
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Arnold Bennett
‘The Pretty Lady’ is considered to be one of Bennett's most revealing and under-rated works. It is the story of a French prostitute, Christi…
Buried Alive
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Arnold Bennett
The hero is Mr Priam Farll, a painter of considerable ability. He is, however, extremely shy – so shy that when his valet, Henry Leek, dies …
The Roll-Call
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Arnold Bennett
"The Roll-Call" is the sequel to the Clayhanger trilogy. This book concerns the young life of Clayhanger's stepson, George. George…
The Ghost: A Modern Fantasy
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Arnold Bennett
The novel opens with Carl Foster, a recently qualified doctor, coming to London to try and make his fortune. He meets a famous tenor, Signor…
The Beloved Vagabond
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William John Locke
The vagabond, Paragot, a truly eccentric bohemian and a wandering scholar with a mysterious past, adopts a London street urchin (whom he cal…
The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne
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William John Locke
Marcus Ordeyne is a middle aged bachelor schoolmaster who has inherited both money and a title and thus is able to lead a life of leisure. O…
The Wild Olive
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Basil King
Norrie Ford, having been unfairly convicted of murder, has escaped. A lucky chance finds him being rescued by a mysterious girl (the Wild Ol…
Castle Richmond
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Anthony Trollope
Set against the background of the Irish famine in the 1840’s, the novel tells of the tangled relationships between Clara Desmond, Herbert Fi…
A Laodicean
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Thomas Hardy
The Laodicean (someone whose religious beliefs are “lukewarm”) of the title is Paula Power who bought the ancient castle De Stancy which she…
Beyond
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John Galsworthy
Gyp, the daughter of ex-Major Charles Claire Winton, at the age of 23 marries Fiorsen, a Swedish violin virtuoso. Her mother, the wife of an…
The Patrician
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John Galsworthy
The book revolves around the story of two love affairs. Miltoun (an aspiring politician) proposes to Mrs Audrey Noel, only to find that she …
Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite
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Anthony Trollope
Sir Harry Hotspur’s only son and heir dies young which means that the title goes to a cousin, George Hotspur. Sir Harry wants the ancestral …
A Great Man: a Frolic
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Arnold Bennett
Subtitled 'A Frolic', this light-hearted book follows the fortunes of Henry Shakespeare Knight who, rather to his own surprise, writes a bes…
Simon the Jester
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William John Locke
Simon de Gex, a wealthy and successful MP, is diagnosed with a terminal illness and decides to use his last few months using his wealth and …
Fraternity
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John Galsworthy
A satire of middle-class complacency and artistic aspiration. It is the story of a strange bohemian upper-class love triangle, and of a myst…
Red Pottage
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Mary Cholmondeley
The book follows a period in the lives of two friends, Rachel West and Hester Gresley. Rachel is a wealthy heiress who falls in love with th…
The Marriage of William Ashe
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Mary Augusta Ward
William Ashe, an up and coming politician, impulsively marries Kitty, a young, flighty and strange girl who, far from supporting her husband…
The Inner Shrine
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Basil King
At the opening of this story Diane Eveleth returns from a party in Paris to her mother-in-law, who tells her that her husband George Eveleth…
Leonora
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Arnold Bennett
Leonora Stanway is 40 and lives a comfortable middle-class life with her unsympathetic and dull husband, John. Her three daughters are rapid…
Diana Tempest
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Mary Cholmondeley
Colonel Tempest , his wastrel son Archie and beautiful daughter Diana (Di) are dismayed when they are cut out of the will of old Mr Tempest,…
Mr. Prohack
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Arnold Bennett
Mr Prohack, an ordinary official in the Treasury and leading a hum-drum life, suddenly and unexpectedly inherits a large sum of money which,…
Septimus
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William John Locke
The book concerns the tangled lives of four people: Zora, a young widow who seeks some purpose in her life; Septimus Dix, an other-wordly bu…
Max
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Katherine Cecil Thurston
On a trans-continental train journey into Paris, Max, a young adventurer determined to make his way as an artist, meets Blake, a well-to-do …
Lilian
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Arnold Bennett
Lilian works in a typewriting office owned by Felix Grig, a middle-aged man of means. The office is run by his spinster sister, Miss Grig, w…
The Empty Sack
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Basil King
The book follows the fortunes of Jennie Follett, a New York artist’s model, and Teddy, her brother. After their father’s dismissal from his …
Clayhanger (Version 2)
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Arnold Bennett
A coming-of-age story about Edwin Clayhanger, who leaves school, has his ambition to become an architect thwarted by his tyrannical father, …
The Thread of Flame
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Basil King
Edward wakes up on board a ship crossing the Atlantic, on his return from the Great War – however, he finds that his memory of who he is and…
The Dust Flower
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Basil King
Rashleigh Allerton, a wealthy New Yorker, quarrels with his well-to-do fiancée Barbara and impetuously says that he will marry instea…
Linda Tressel
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Anthony Trollope
Linda Tressel lives a lonely life with her domineering aunt, Madame Staubach, in a large house in Nuremberg. Madame Staubach takes in the od…
Notwithstanding
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Mary Cholmondeley
The book starts with Annette Georges choosing between two fates: suicide and running away with a disreputable stranger. She is rescued by a …
The Side of the Angels
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Basil King
The book is set in New England in the early 20th century in an old established community where times are rapidly changing but nonetheless th…
Harry Heathcote of Gangoil
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Anthony Trollope
Harry Heathcote is an English ‘squatter’ who runs a huge sheep station at Gangoil in Queensland, Australia. His wife Mary and her older sist…
Jaffery
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William John Locke
The book follows the lives of Hilary, the narrator, and three of his friends whom he met at Cambridge. One soon dies - another (Adrian) writ…
The Wonderful Year
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William John Locke
Martin Overshaw and Corinna Hastings are leading dull and unproductive lives in Paris, having fled humdrum England. They fall in with Fortin…
The Rough Road
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William John Locke
The book tells the story of "Doggie" Trevor, who, having been wrapped in cotton wool since babyhood, becomes a snobbish rich dilet…
The Mountebank
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William John Locke
Andrew Lackaday, an English orphan, was born and brought up in a French circus. He becomes a highly skilled mimic and juggler. He plies his …
The Masquerader (Version 2)
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Katherine Cecil Thurston
In the London fog, two men bump into each other one night. They are immediately unnerved by their exact resemblance to each other. Jack Chil…
The Gambler (version 2)
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Katherine Cecil Thurston
The book follows the life of Clodagh Asshlin, an Irish girl brought up with her younger sister by her spendthrift father in the wilds of the…
The Astonishing History of Troy Town
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Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
A humorous story about some of the extraordinary inhabitants of a British seaside town. - Summary by Simon Evers
Delia Blanchflower
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Mary Augusta Ward
Delia Blanchflower’s father has died, leaving her a considerable inheritance. However, she has become caught up in the militant wing of the …
The Nebuly Coat
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John Meade Falkner
Westray, a young architect, is sent to the town of Cullerne to oversee repairs to the tower of the minster there. He lodges in the town in t…
Where Love Is
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William John Locke
Norma Hardacre is a member of smart London society. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to a penniless artist named Jimmie Padgate. However…
The Glory of Clementina Wing
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William John Locke
The book follows the adventures of two main characters - Clementina Wing, a talented artist in her mid 30's with no social graces and Ephrai…
Lady Connie
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Mary Augusta Ward
Constance Bledlow is a beautiful monied 20 year old with the world at her feet. She arrives in Oxford to spend a few months with her impover…
Robert Elsmere
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Mary Augusta Ward
Essentially the book covers the life of Robert Elsmere, a boyishly intellectual clergyman. The first part covers his meeting with and eventu…
Self-Control: A Novel (version 2)
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Mary Brunton
Laura Montreville is a well-born and religious girl, brought up in Scotland by her widowed father. She is pursued by Colonel Hargrave, a lib…
The Gods and Mr Perrin
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Hugh Walpole
The book is probably better known under the title ‘Mr Perrin and Mr Traill’, later made into a well-known film in 1948. Perrin and Traill ar…
The Duchess of Wrexe
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Hugh Walpole
Rachel, a spirited young girl, has to choose between Francis Breton, her difficult cousin who has been disowned by the family, and Roddy Sed…
The Green Mirror
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Hugh Walpole
Three generations of the Trenchard family, ruled over by the indomitable Mrs Trenchard, live together in comfortable domesticity until Kathe…
The Tale of Triona
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William John Locke
Olivia is a newly orphaned young woman looking for adventure and excitement. She rents out her house to Blaise Olifant whose friend Alexis T…
The House of Baltazar
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William John Locke
Twenty years ago, John Balthazar, a notable and brilliant Cambridge mathematician, left England abruptly as he found himself falling in love…
Helen with the High Hand
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Arnold Bennett
James Ollerenshaw is a middle-aged, wealthy bachelor who lives in Bursley, one of the Five Towns. A chance encounter with Helen, his great s…
The Money Moon (version 2)
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John Jeffery Farnol
George Bellew, an American millionaire is in London, where he is jilted by his ladylove. He sets off to travel on an aimless adventure throu…
The White Dove
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William John Locke
Sylvester Lanyon, a doctor, is mourning the early death of his wife. His young daughter Dorothy is living with his father, Matthew, also a w…
Lady Rose's Daughter (Version 2)
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Mary Augusta Ward
Julie le Breton is the illegitimate daughter of Lady Rose, who severed her relations with her aristocratic family when she had the baby and …
The Courtship of Susan Bell
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Anthony Trollope
Susan lives with her overbearing sister in a boarding house in Saratoga Springs run by their timid mother. A knock on the door brings an une…
The Freelands
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John Galsworthy
The Freelands family is a mixture: Tod Freeland is an uncommunicative gentle giant, his wife Kirsteen passionate and free-spoken, Felix is a…
Saint's Progress
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John Galsworthy
Edward Pierson is the widowed vicar of a London church. He has two daughters, Eve and Noel, who is 17. In essence, the novel follows the bat…
The Island Pharisees
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John Galsworthy
Richard Shelton is wrestling with his conscience. As a member of the upper class at a time when the British Empire is at its height, he sees…
Stella Maris
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William John Locke
Stellamaris is a young paralysed girl who is confined to a bed in the Channel House overlooking the English Channel. She is cared for by her…
Viviette
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William John Locke
Viviette is a headstrong young girl who is pursued by two brothers: Austin, a headstrong man of the world and a barrister in London, and Dic…
Idols
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William John Locke
The novel centres around four people: Gerard and Irene Merriam, their inseparable friend Hugh Colman who once saved Gerard’s life, and Minna…
At the Gate of Samaria
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William John Locke
The novel is set in the 1890’s. Clytie Davenant is a headstrong young woman who escapes from the stultifying country life of her family to m…
A Study in Shadows
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William John Locke
Among the mixture of people spending the summer in a pension (boarding house) in Geneva are Felicia, a 20-year-old, and Katherine (30) who b…
Missing
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Mary Augusta Ward
It is 1915 and Nelly and Lieutenant George Sarratt have recently married. After a blissful but brief honeymoon in the Lake District, George …
The History of David Grieve
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Mary Augusta Ward
The book follows the life and times of David Grieve, from his childhood on a remote farm in the Peak District to Manchester, Paris and back …
Sacred and Profane Love
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Arnold Bennett
Carlotta Peel is an unusual young woman – clever, self-opinionated, a brilliant author and yearning to love and be loved but also to serve h…
A Man from the North
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Arnold Bennett
Richard Larch, a young man from the north of England, arrives in London to seek his fortune. By day he works as a clerk in an office but has…
Simon Called Peter
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Robert Keable
Peter, a conventional Anglican priest, becomes a padre in northern France during the First World War. He is posted to a hospital on the coas…
Recompence
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Robert Keable
The book is a sequel to ‘Simon called Peter’ by the same author. It picks up the separate stories of Peter and Julie, at first in South Afri…
The Coryston Family
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Mary Augusta Ward
Lady Coryston has inherited her husband’s estate but surprisingly has not left it on her death to Coryston (known as Corry) her oldest son. …
Marriage à la Mode
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Mary Augusta Ward
While travelling in the USA, Roger Barnes, a handsome Englishman, meets and falls in love with Daphne Floyd, a rich and determined American.…
The Street Called Straight
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Basil King
Henry Guion, a rich and successful American businessman, faces complete ruin and jail as he has embezzled all his client’s money. He tells h…