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Published 1800 – 1900

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01/07/2024
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Fairy Fingers

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Chapter: 57 | Listen: 3

Madelaine is the poor cousin of the aristocratic de Gramont family in France of the 1850’s. She is cherished by the beautiful young Bertha and secretly the beloved of the handsome Maurice, but she is barely tolerated by the haughty old countess. When her uncle’s scheming manages to cause a serious rift within the family, Madelaine finds she must rely on the skill of her “fairy fingers” and make her living as a seamstress. She winds up as the sought-after couturier “Mademoiselle Melanie” in Washington, D.C. and has an opportunity to help the now financially-imperiled de Gramonts. – Summary by Kelly S. Taylor     [chương_files]  

01/07/2024
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Oliver Twist (version 7)

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Chapter: 53 | Listen: 10

Orphan boy Oliver is forced into child labor at an early age, and after a simple plea for more food, finds himself alone in the streets of London, where ultimately he becomes the center of attention for a gang of pickpockets. – Summary by Brad “Hamlet” Filippone     [chương_files]  

01/07/2024
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Clayhanger (Version 2)

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Chapter: 68 | Listen: 2

A coming-of-age story about Edwin Clayhanger, who leaves school, has his ambition to become an architect thwarted by his tyrannical father, Darius, and so works in the family printing business. Edwin eventually takes over the business successfully. The story follows Edwin’s relationships with his family and the mysterious Hilda Lessways. It is the first book of four in the Clayhanger series, following Edwin’s life. – Summary by Simon Evers     [chương_files]  

01/07/2024
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Traveller from Altruria

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Chapter: 13 | Listen: 3

Set in the early 1890s, at a fashionable summer resort somewhere on the East Coast of the United States, this book tells the story of Mr. Twelvemough, an author who has been selected to function as host to a visitor from the faraway island of Altruria. The visitor, Mr. Homos, has come all the way to the United States, a country which prides itself on democracy and equality, to experience everyday life in America firsthand, and to see for himself how the principle that “All men are created equal” is being put into practice. Due to Altruria’s secluded existence, very little is known about the island, so Twelvemough and his circle of acquaintances, all of whom are staying at the same resort hotel, seem more eager to learn about Altruria than to explain American life and institutions. To their dismay, it becomes gradually clear that the United States is greatly lagging behind Altruria in practically every aspect of life, be it political, economic, cultural or moral. Summary from Wikipedia     [chương_files]  

01/07/2024
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Tales of Mean Streets

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Chapter: 17 | Listen: 1

This is the first book of a trilogy (A Child of the Jago, To London Town) set in the harsh world of London’s East End. Violence and poverty are everywhere, but the universal human emotions prevail despite the rawness of life. We come to love the characters and suffer with them in their misery, yet share in their joys and minor triumphs. – Summary by Lynne Thompson     [chương_files]  

01/07/2024
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My Flirtations

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Chapter: 13 | Listen: 3

Many novels, most notably Hannah Webster’s The Coquette, focused on how terrible it is for a woman to flirt before her marriage. “I did not speak 20 sentences before sir Robert proposed to me”, explained Lady Bidulph while teaching her daughter how to court properly in “Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph”. A coquette must be a fool, wicked, and immoral. But Peggy is none of these. She sees things as they are, sometimes too much for her own good, and flirts with men she finds interesting. She decides to tell about them, from her point of view. The feelings, the reasons they did not keep in touch, and her “notions” about them. This is her way to examine late Victorian society including the lives of other oppressed minorities. This novel is considered semi autobiographical. – Summary by Stav Nisser.     [chương_files]  

01/07/2024
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Catriona

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Chapter: 31 | Listen:

This is a sequel to Kidnapped. Many thought Kidnapped ended quite abruptly. The reason is Stevenson planned on writing a sequel. Catriona takes up the story of David Balfour on the same day Kidnapped ends. He must now try to clear his name and the name of James Stewart of the Appin murder. This will not be easy because the Campbells want James Stewart to hang. “Catriona: Being Memoirs of the Further Adventures of David Balfour at Home and Abroad, in which are set forth his misfortunes anent the Appin Murder, his troubles with Lord Advocate Grant: captivity on the Bass Rock, Journey into Holland and France, and singular relations with James More Drummond or MacGregor, a son of the notorious Rob Roy, and his daughter Catriona: written by himself, and now set forth by Robert Louis Stevenson.” (Summary by Wayne Cooke and from the title page)     [chương_files]  

01/07/2024
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One Thing Needful

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Chapter: 23 | Listen: 4

Can starving children be grateful for the education they receive if, when they ask for food, rich people give them a stone? This is the question in the heart of this rich psychological novel. Lady Lashmore is a typical lady of her time, ruling every aspect of her household and constantly complaining that the poor people in the factory ten miles away bother her. Things change when her son, Lord Lashmore, falls in love with a poor woman. Only then does he understand what is the one thing they need most. Only then does he mature, develop empathy, and see what are the real important things in life. This is a coming of age story, a love story, but, most of all, a story about prejudice and small revolutions. For the world would never be the same and the young generation sees social classes differently. This novel is perfect for fans of Charlotte Bronte and Elizabeth Gaskell. Readers who love Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s other novels will not be disappointed. – Summary by Stav Nisser.     [chương_files]  

01/07/2024
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Half-Breed: A Tale of the Western Frontier

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Chapter: 9 | Listen: 3

Published anonymously in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (with an earlier draft also appearing as “Arrow-Tip” in The Aristidean), The Half-Breed: A Tale of the Western Frontier is one of the few known works of long-form fiction written by Walt Whitman during the earliest part of his career. It tells the story of Arrow-Tip, a Native American who falls victim to frontier prejudice after the presumed murder of local blacksmith Peter Brown. Despite his presumed innocence, he is soon sentenced to die by hanging — even though there exists evidence that could possibly exonerate him. This narrative is further complicated by the presence of Boddo, a hideously deformed hunchback who is ostracized by the white settlers due to his mixed-race heritage. Fueled by spite and anger, Boddo uses this opportunity to take vengeance upon those who once tormented and humiliated him. – Summary by ChuckW     [chương_files]  

01/07/2024
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Fortune Hunter: A Novel of New York Society

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Chapter: 22 | Listen: 3

Mowatt wrote The Fortune Hunter to be submitted to a contest held by the New World newspaper. (The novel won the $100 prize.) Contest rules dictated that the title of the work, that the setting had to be New York, and that the text had to be completed within six months. So, recycling a few characters from short stories written under the pen name “Helen Berkeley,” Mowatt quickly created a tale that started with two fashionable fellows in search of wealthy wives — Brainard and Ellery. They, in turn, are pursued by the inexorable debt collector, Mr. Badger. Then the reader is introduced to the objects of the bachelors’ chase, the Clinton sisters. The elder sister, Rachel, has become so disgusted with this cynical game of fortune hunting that she has decided to renounce her claim to her portion of her father’s fortune to escape the mendacity of suitors like Brainard and Ellery. Ester, the melodramatic, Byron-quoting, younger sister (who is now trying to go by the name Estelle) is perfectly happy to play the game, as long as it is by the rules she sets. Love is no game to Miss Arria Walton, the penniless orphan ward of the Clinton’s father and best friend of the sisters, who is desperately in love with young Dr. Edgar Chadwick. Rapid twists and turns of fate and sudden reversals of fortune characterize the plot of this comic melodrama that is part Jane Austen, part Charles Dickens, but establishes a delightful Victorian Americana […]