Showing results by narrator "Peter Joyce" in All Categories

As Jolyons condition worsens he writes a letter to Jon explaining the history of the feud, intending to use it only as a last resort. The boy eventually reads his father’s ‘confession’ and Jolyon is brought down by the stress. The young Mont continues to pay court to Fleur. Soames, hedging his bets, researches the boy’s background and finds that an alliance with the nobility might have its attractions.

Robert Michael Ballantyne was one of the most popular adventure story writers during Victoria's reign. He believed that boys should grow up taking risks, and his hero, Martin Rattler, certainly has a thrilling time in this tale. Aunt Dorothy Grumbit thinks him a very bad boy, but Martin possesses all the manly virtues that one expects from a Ballantyne hero, and the story has all the traditional elements of a rollicking yarn: jolly jack tars, pirates, shipwreck, travel up the Amazon, diamond mines and capture by savage tribes.

"He was too imperious, too masterful, too much inclined to think that all things should be made to go as he would have them." Thus Trollope describes his hero Harry Heathcote, a settler and sheep farmer in the untamed bush of Australia in 1871. However, Harry has made enemies. In seeking always to act in the honourable fashion he cannot bend and embrace the weaknesses of others.

Richard Wardour leaves England on a voyage to the African coast under the impression he is engaged to delicate orphan Clara Burnham. Despite sending him a letter stating the contrary Clara is anxious for her honour. She is aware that he may not have received the missive and is now betrothed to another, Frank Aldersley. When Richard returns and is refused, he immediately sets sail on an expedition to the Arctic, unaware that in the same party is Clara's accepted lover.

Arthur Morrison... grew up in the East End of London and was familiar with life on the dockside. He tells the story of ‘The Hole in the Wall’ through the eyes of young Stephen Kemp, taken to live with his grandfather after the death of his mother. Nat Kemp is determined to keep his grandson apart from the seamier side of the Docklands but Stephen has a natural inquisitiveness that will not be quelled.

It is 1899. Old Jolyon has long since been buried at Robin Hill, and with the death of Aunt Susan in 1895 and Roger’s funeral opening this instalment of the Saga, the Forsytes are fast becoming aware of their mortality. Yet more problems beset the family.

Sex, betrayal, murder and corruption form the basis of this sensational novel by one of the leading French authors of the 19th century. Jacques Lantier is a man with a hereditary homicidal lust. When he sees Roubaud and his wife Severine slit the throat of a wealthy nobleman, it is the catalyst for a string of murders in a convoluted plot full of horror and suspense.

The next volume in the series of exciting stories about A. J. Raffles, first class slow bowler and gentleman thief. The author must have been delighted when his fictional character was such a success. Raffles would have said ‘timing is everything’ and the advice should have been delivered to his creator. Hornung made a grave error in finishing the master burglar’s life and career so soon, realised his mistake and brought him back to the printed page.

Dr. Wortle's School... is Trollope's most merciless attack on the false moralising and hypocrisy of the Victorian age. When Dr. Wortle, in good faith, hires a couple as teacher and matron at his school, scandal about their marriage is subsequently brought to light. Will the doctor submit to the social pressures brought to bear on him by the gossip, the local newspaper and the bishop or hold true to his humanism, perhaps losing his respect, school and livelihood as a result?

The resurrected Raffles has his final innings in these whimsical adventurous reminiscences recounted by his accomplice and friend Bunny Manders. The author skillfully manages to tie up a few loose ends from preceding plots and the final revelation is a moving tribute to his fictional hero, the finest slow bowler of his generation and best known gentleman thief in literary history.

The hugely successful romantic adventure story which continues to thrill a century after it was written. It has all the classic ingredients - a twisting plot of betrayal and deception, love interest, great swashbuckling action and a most beguiling villain in Rupert of Hentzau, who captured the public’s imagination and had them begging the author for a sequel. Rudolph Rassendyll visits Ruritania, with whose Royal Family he has a connection because of a scandalous sexual indiscretion in the past.

Possessed of a voracious sexual appetite, bitter and frequently disillusioned by the history of his country and the foibles of its people is not a description that does justice to the tortured soul that was Guy de Maupassant. He was also a compassionate and deeply patriotic man, volunteering to fight for his country in the Franco-Prussian War at the age of 20 and again saw action reporting on the French campaign in Tunisia in 1881.

Hamlet was written between 1597 and 1600, just after the death of Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, one of twins, who died aged 11 in 1596. Despite scholarly argument that this was mere coincidence, it is impossible to believe that a writer as sensitive as Shakespeare would not be questioning the reason for the life and death of his son during those years.This production contends that Hamlet was to a large degree shaped by the answers to those questions.

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.

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.

On one level...Melville’s tale is an historical adventure telling the story of life aboard ship shortly after the mutiny at Spithead in 1797. Billy is taken from a homeward bound merchantman to serve on the ‘Seventy Four’ HMS Indomitable. He falls foul of Claggart, the ‘Master at Arms’, and the final confrontation results in death. Billy becomes an unwilling martyr - what passes for justice must be implemented because of the rebellious climate of the time.

Soames travels to Paris to make one last attempt to regain Irene and the detective agency think they have found the man involved in the affair.Irene returns to London to seek Jolyon’s help and the two become closer while Soames takes out some insurance with Annette’s mother.The spurned husband confronts the lovers at Robin Hill in a meeting which verges on violence and as devastating news comes from the Front more young Forsytes prepare to serve their country.

The columnist of... the New York Post-Dispatch, Miss Lonelyhearts, is initially cynical about the letters he receives for help. They are a joke. Gradually however, the letters start to move him but he is powerless to do anything. Retreating from the pain into a fantasy world he starts to believe that he is a Christ figure, a universal saviour. But Christ died for the sins of others! The pen may be mightier than the sword but the author wields his like a cleaver, splicing images together to present a savagely grotesque world.

In 'Washington Square' James treats on a subject about which he was passionate - the relationship between parents and their children. Dr Sloper, a wealthy man, is in a difficult position. His son has died aged three years old. His wife also dies within two weeks of giving birth to their surviving daughter Catherine. She is a plain awkward child, yet capable of giving immense affection. She becomes fascinated by would-be man of the world Morris Townsend, falling in love with him very swiftly. Is Morris a fortune hunter?

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?