Love’s Dazzling Glitter by May Agnes Fleming

Love’s Dazzling Glitter - A sequel to "Carried by storm"

Love’s Dazzling Glitter - A novel by May Agnes Fleming. Author of "Wedded, Yet no Wife," "A Wonderful Woman," "Silent and True," "Norine's Revenge," "Carried by Storm." The ideal romances of American life, published in the New Eagle Series.

Excerpt:
With the rising of the morning's frosty sun, Joanna's new life in the city may be fairly said to begin.
It was rather late. She descended to the room with cooking stove, which the kitchen, parlor, dining room, and children's sleeping room inclusive. The little black stove so superheated it that the windows were open. Two or three pots of hardy rose geraniums flourished on the sills. They made a pleasant spot of color to the country girl's eyes, with their vivid green leaves and pink blossoms. Sunlight found the room tidy as lamplight. Mrs. Gibbs stood over a tub in the corner, washing, a little boy and girl of five toddled about, each with a doll made out of a bottle. This the home scene that greeted Joanna.
"Good morning," Mrs. Gibbs said. "How did you rest, my dear?"

The Master of Man by Hall Caine

The Master of Man: The Story of a Sin.

The Master of Man - a best-selling 1921 novel by Hall Caine.

The fictional story set on the Isle of Man and is concerned with Victor Stowell, the Deemster's son. He commits a romantic indiscretion and then gives up on all of his principles in order to keep it a secret. However, in the face of the mounting consequences, Victor confesses publicly to his crime and punished. But redemption comes through a woman’s love.
The penultimate of Caine's novels, it is romantic and moralistic, returning to his regular themes of sin, justice. And atonement, whilst also addressing "the woman question." It adapted for a film entitled Name the Man in 1924 by Victor Sjöström.

The central idea for the plot of The Master of Man. She came from a correspondence which Hall Caine had in September 1908. Following a performance of the theatrical version of his earlier novel, The Christian, Caine identified as a likely signatory in a petition against the harsh punishment of a woman named Daisy Lord. After giving birth to a child out of wedlock the young woman had killed the child secretly. But discovered and arrested. At the trial she explained that "I thought I would put an end to it so that it should not have the trouble I have had." Caine signed the petition but he kept the accompanying letter as a record of its story.

The Green Glow of Death by Stanley G. Weinbaum

The Green Glow of Death - A short story by Stanley G. Weinbaum.

The Green Glow of Death Excerpt:
The excitement of sailing left him indifferent from long experience, so he sought out the passenger list. A Miss Arlene Lowell was listed, true enough; her stateroom was on the same side as his, and the third door away, which was doubtless Gordon’s doing. Simon’s had ample influence to encompass such matters.
And Gordon’s hand appeared again at luncheon. Bill found himself at the table with the chief engineer, a tall gaunt Scot named McKittric, but five minutes after the commencement of the meal he was staring into a pair of cool laughing, violet eyes, and listening nonplussed to McKittric’s gruff introduction of Miss Lowell.

Back on deck in the afternoon, he scowled inwardly over his thoughts. Insurance is a queer proposition; people otherwise strictly honest will often cheat an insurance company without a qualm. Any sort of insurance; you dent a fender and have the whole car overhauled. In Bill’s line one had to suspect anybody, but he growled to himself that there were common sense limitations to any general thesis, and if there were any crooked work in this proposition, one thing he’d swear to was that Arlene Lowell wasn’t in it.

Goldfish by Raymond Chandler

Goldfish - Classic Marlowe short story.

Goldfish follows private eye Philip Marlowe through a world of pool hall informants on the hunt for stolen pearls. Along the way, Marlowe and his characters spit out all the short, snappy, now clichéd lines that Chandler invented. You can almost smell the stale smoke hanging in the air and the cheap whiskey on Marlowe's breath.

The Leander pearls were stolen nineteen years ago. The thief caught, but the pearls were never found. But there is still a $25,000 reward for anyone who finds them. Then somebody comes to private detective Carmady with a story about a guy. This guy knows where the pearls are hidden.Carmady agrees to talk to the guy who says he knows. But he finds him dead in his bed, with burned feet. And it seems there are quite a lot of people in Los Angeles who have heard the story, and who are out looking for the Leander pearls...

The White Prophet by Hall Caine

The White Prophet - A story of Egypt and the Soudan, with its principal scenes in Cairo and Khartoum.

The White Prophet published in 1909. It anticipated by many years some racial, political and religious problems which are now agitating those countries. The glamour and mystery of the East are the background of turmoil, in strong contrast to the stark simplicity of the scenes of Hall Caine’s Manx and Icelandic stories.

A later novel by the author who lived on the Isle of Man, and served as Dante Gabriel Rossetti's secretary. Many of Caine's works were adapted to film, including The Christian, The Manxman, and The Eternal City. He also wrote the script for a propaganda film commissioned by Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

Many erroneous statements made in the press during the serial publication of this story. This statements bind its characters and incidents with distinguished living persons and recent public events. So make it necessary to say that "The White Prophet " intended to be read as a work of fiction only.

Excerpt:
Then his father died, without leaving a will, as the cable of the solicitors informed him. And he returned to England to administer the estate. Here a thunderbolt fell on him, for he found a younger brother. With whom he had nothing in common and had never lived at peace, preparing to dispute his right to his father's title and fortune. On the assumption that he was illegitimate—that is to say, was born before the date of the marriage of his parents.

A Man's Life by Arthur Adams

A Man's Life - A novel by Arthur Adams.

A Man's Life Excerpt:
The nurse looked at him. A man of sixty, perhaps, with clear-cut features. His clothes were good. Perhaps a gentleman. Some money in his pocket. She was somewhat curious; she wondered who he was.
Well, she said again to herself, he's gone, poor thing!

She was to be forgiven, with all her experience in the casualty ward, in thinking that the man was dead. True, she could see no sign of life in that still warm body. But the nurse was alive; and the living do not know what the dying think.

For in that final flash of Life there had surged into the man's consciousness one thing after the other that he had done or thought of since childhood. His whole life flashed up in disconnected scenes, pictures startlingly vivid leaping into his mind, and as abruptly dying.

Arthur Henry Adams (1872-1936) - a journalist and author.
His works include: Maoriland, and Other Verses (1899), Tussock Land (1904), The New Chum (1909), Galahad Jones (1910), The Collected Verses of Arthur H. Adams (1913), Mrs. Pretty and the Premier (1914), Double Bed Dialogues (1915), Australian Nursery Rimes (as editor) (1917), The Australians (1920) and A Man's Life (1929).

Fury by Henry Kuttner

Fury - A classic science ficiton novels.

Fury - A truly under-rated work that deserves a lot more recoginition than it gets. Clearly, Henry Kuttner's best work (with some uncredited help from his wife, C.L. Moore. Classic Science Fiction at its best and a ton of fun.

The Earth long dead and the human survivors live in huge citadels beneath the Venusian seas, ruled by the Immortals, genetic mutations with a lifespan of 1000 years. Sam Reed was born an immortal, but his deranged father had him mutilated as a baby. He determined to overthrow the immortals and lead the people of Earth off of the floor of the oceans of Venus.

The premise that mankind, having settled down into a luxurious Eden of the future. With no challenges left, would slowly strangle in its own inertia if, out of somewhere, a deliverer did not come with a flaming sword to drive them back to life.
In this case, life the almost intolerable condition on the continents of Venus. The full of the fury of mindless animal and vegetable and insect life gone wild with growth and death. Even the soil and the air are alive with fierce bacterial forms in constant struggle for survival with every other life-form on the planet.
How Sam fulfills this challenge, by the most complex methods, for the worst of motives, is the story of FURY.

The Bindles on the Rocks by Herbert Jenkins

The Bindles on the Rocks - The last of the Bindle stories.

The Bindles on the Rocks - Some further incidents in the life of mr and mrs Bindle.

Poor old Bindle struck an unlucky patch and lost his job. For weeks he had been out of work and for weeks he had tramped London from early morning until late at night without food, beer or tobacco. He suffered considerable pain from what he called his "various" veins; but Joseph Bindle was a great-hearted little man, who realised to the full his domestic responsibilities and, with the aid of his friends, he pulled through.

In this volume reappear gloomy Ginger, Dick Little, Mr. and Mrs. Hearty, and many others. It tells how Bindle stops a "Prohibition" meeting, pays a visit to the "Zoo," with Mrs. Bindle as militant as ever.

Excerpt:
The critic was silenced, and henceforth held her peace. She prided herself upon her knowledge of the Scriptures; but the reference to the Sea of Galilee puzzled her. She hesitated to confess her ignorance of an incident which seemed to come so easily to Mrs. Bindle's tongue.
Long and patiently this woman had searched Holy Writ for something that seemed even remotely to condone labouring upon the seventh day; but without success. In consequence she disliked Mrs. Bindle even more than before; but her dislike was henceforth tinctured with respect.

A Thousand Miles an Hour by Herbert Strang

A Thousand Miles an Hour - A Tale by Herbert Strang.

A Thousand Miles an Hour Excerpt:
The little tent in which he spent the nights with Pedro had been pitched on a rocky bluff a few yards above the level of the river. Juan and the Indian crews were camped a short distance away. Below them the three canoes were moored to trees on the bank. On both sides stretched the forest-not such immense trees as Derrick had admired lower down, but trees which, though smaller, grew more closely together, and were thickly festooned with creepers and climbing plants. At this point the stream was about two hundred yards broad. The opposite bank also was densely wooded; whichever way he looked Derrick's eyes met nothing but sluggish muddy water, green vegetation dotted with bright spots of colour, and the heavy grey sky above.

While he and Pedro waited for their supper, a sudden jabbering broke out among the Indians beyond the bluff. Presently they came running up, their leader holding something in his outstretched hand. He halted in front of the two young men and began to pour out a torrent of shrill discordant cries, to Derrick incomprehensible.

Herbert Strang was the pseudonym of two English authors, George Herbert Ely and Charles James L'Estrange. They specialized in writing adventure stories for boys. Ely and L'Estrange have been classified as "popular writers of imperial fiction" and "successors of G. A. Henty...."

Honour First by Herbert Strang

Honour First - A Tale of the 'Forty-five.

Honour First - Historical novel for teenagers about the adventures of a young man just before and during the Battle of Culloden of 1746, the culminating event of the Jacobite Rising, during which Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in Scotland with the help of the French, invaded England, and tried to take the British Crown.

Excerpt:
One of his shoelaces snapped.
'Hang old Capplethwaite!' he said explosively, throwing the broken end across the floor.
He sought a new lace, and threaded the eyes with a roughness that threatened another break. Every now and then his lips murmured. Had he uttered his thoughts aloud they would have composed a long tirade against 'old Capplethwaite'. 'Why did my father make him my guardian? What has he ever done for me? Paid my school fees—with my father's money. Paid John Seddon for my keep—with my father's money. What else? Nothing: the old skinflint. Keeps my father's money snug, he says, till my coming of age. I wish I were twenty-one to-day instead of sixteen. He wouldn't keep me here another hour.'
'Hang old Capplethwaite!' he said explosively, throwing the broken end across the floor.
A woman's voice called him from below.

Children of the Wind by M. P. Shiel

Children of the Wind - Adventure novel in which a lost heiress takes over an African tribe.

Children of the Wind - A story of adventure in South Central Africa. An English scientist learns that the "White Queen" of the Wa-Ngwanyas is his own cousin and heiress to a fortune of which she is being kept in ignorance.

A pre-pubescent white girl shipwrecked in Africa becomes the merciless queen of the fictional kingdom of Wo'Ngwanya. She is also the heir to a fortune so upon learning where she is, her exceptionally dim-witted cousin goes in search of her.

Believe it or not her people have given her the name Speciewegiehotiu, which Cobby, her cousin, shortens to 'Hot Spice.' That really tells you all you need to know about the tone and quality of this stupid and sordid excrescence of a novel.

Of course the teenage queen acts like a coquettish brat even as she orders death and destruction; of course Cobby and Macray, the villain who has stolen her inheritance, alternately patronise and lech over her; and of course she has a similarly young, black lesbian lover named Suella, just for the sheer prurience of it.

Matthew Phipps Shiel (1865–1947) was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent.

M. P. Shiel is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work published as serials, novels, and as short stories. The Purple Cloud (1901) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel.

The Evil That Men Do by M. P. Shiel

The Evil That Men Do - A Novel of Mystery.

The Evil That Men Do - A Novel of Mystery about Hartwell from birth, does he inherit his fathers traits? Do great men have great sons and how much does one's own life's experiences cause variance to this question?

Although Mr. Shiol as usual indulges in a fantastic situation, his book is at least free from the glaring faults of taste which have disfigured some of his former writings. To the ordinary reader there will seem (until his marvellously sudden " conversion ") very little in point of morality to choose between Robert Harts-ell and the villainous millionaire whom a strange facial resemblance enables him to impersonate. Mr. Shiel does not, and probably does not aspire to, draw pictures of everyday life as it is. But there is always something ingenious in his situations, and in this book, at any rate, he has contrived to avoid the developments which disfigured at least one of his earlier novels.

Matthew Phipps Shiel (1865–1947) was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent.

M. P. Shiel is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work published serials, novels, and short stories. The Purple Cloud (1901) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel.

The Lost Viol by M. P. Shiel

The Lost Viol - A Fantasy classic.

The Lost Viol - A classic tale by author of classic SF novel, "The Purple Cloud".

Matthew Phipps Shiel (1865–1947) was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent.

M. P. Shiel is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work was published as serials, novels, and as short stories. The Purple Cloud (1901) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel.

Excerpt:
Kathleen now went up a lane on the left leading to her own place, "The Hill," while Sir Peter and the footman went on down yew and hawthorn hedges, till the light of Woodside Farm appeared; and great was the wonder of the old farmer and of Mrs. Langler when they saw Sir Peter come to see Hannah, for the baronet was a rather crusty and rusty type — tall, with a stoop and an asthmatic chest — from whom a jerk of the head was about all that people on the estate expected in the way of friendliness.

Sir Peter saw Hannah, who lay unconscious from her drenching, stayed a little with the old couple and old Dr. Williams, and then trudged back to the Hall.

He sat up so late that night, sniffing his three dried apples, that Bentley, his old house-steward, became uneasy. He was writing a long letter; for his discovery that night that Hannah Langler was twenty-four, not twenty-three, as he had somehow thought, was now hurrying him to an action which for fifteen years had lain planned in his heart.

The Pale Ape by M. P. Shiel

The Pale Ape - a ghost story.

The Pale Ape - a ghost story with a tragic denouement set in an English country house, and also a magnificently atmospheric adventure of confused identity and abnormal psychology.

Sharing much with the atmospheric terror of the traditional ghost story, wherein established reality is invaded by outside forces -- albeit with a vastly different style and approach. "The Pale Ape" is a minor supernatural masterwork, mirroring in its tragic plot and emotional authenticity a sense of helplessness.

Matthew Phipps Shiell, also known as M. P. Shiel, was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent. His legal surname remained "Shiell" though he adopted the shorter version as a de facto pen name. He is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work was published as serials, novels, and as short stories. The Purple Cloud (1901; 1929) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel.

Excerpt:
Yesterday again I stood and looked at Hargen Hall from the lake; and it is this that has brought me to write of my life in it. Wintry winds were whistling through the withered bracken and the branches, whirling withered birch-leaves about the south quadrangle; and no birds sang.
When I first entered it I was a girl, one might say—gay enough; but now I have known what one never forgets; and the days and the hairs grow grey together.

The Yellow Danger by M. P. Shiel

The Yellow Danger - Shiel's most successful book during his lifetime.

The Yellow Danger - a part of a relatively new literary genre, the British speculative future war novel. Interpretated in many ways - fin-de-siecle, technophobia, critiques of British imperialism - they anticipated modern science fiction.

The book takes great pains to explain the “character” of the Chinese and Japanese. Much made of the Chinese love of money, nationalism, and cruelty (the later becomes key when we get to the invasion of Europe) and the idea that a single race must dominate the Earth. The British character explored too, in more glowing terms, our hero a genius sailor named John Hardy who also has a meteoric rise.

Much of the book blown on sea-battles in the English channel, which I guess are supposed to display Hardy's tactical genius. Despite diagrams and a lot of ship stats, you might say I was “all at sea” during these parts.

Aside from the expected racism in this kind of text, a real new level of cringe reached. When John Hardy finally meets Dr. Yen How and tries to talk to him in “pidgin-english”, even after How speaks to him in proper English. It makes some of the torture scene that follow pretty sweet.

Unto the Third Generation by M. P. Shiel

Unto the Third Generation - the history of Edward Denman, heir to a treasure.

Unto the Third Generation compounded of distinct elements of mystery. Adventure, and romance narrative. The history of the efforts of the ubiquitous Hagen clan to seize Denman's hidden treasure.

Barnes, a railroad engineer, a martyr to the romance. He suffers meekly thru the fabulous antics of his social superiors. The Denman treasure walled in a vault with literally countless doors of impregnable construction. It proves impossible to locate the treasure by breaking open the doors. Hagens concentrate on finding the hidden code showing the number of the vault which holds the jewels. Their machinations involve marriages of convenience, mayhem, and train - wrecks. The maimings, and schemings against obstacles galore.

Excerpt:
‘ Never. I fancy the question has been on the tip of his tongue several times, but he has never asked it. Pride, I s’pose.’
‘ He may guess though that you know. Suppose he has you followed when you come to see me ?’
‘Have no fear of that, Lucy. You know already my views about your leaving your husband, however good your reasons may have been, but inasmuch as you have bound me over to secrecy, no one is ever going to find you out through me : I’m too old a hand for that, by a long way.

Love’s Dazzling Glitter by May Agnes Fleming

Love’s Dazzling Glitter - A sequel to "Carried by storm"

Love’s Dazzling Glitter - A novel by May Agnes Fleming. Author of "Wedded, Yet no Wife," "A Wonderful Woman," "Silent and True," "Norine's Revenge," "Carried by Storm." The ideal romances of American life, published in the New Eagle Series.

Excerpt:
With the rising of the morning's frosty sun, Joanna's new life in the city may be fairly said to begin.
It was rather late. She descended to the room with cooking stove, which the kitchen, parlor, dining room, and children's sleeping room inclusive. The little black stove so superheated it that the windows were open. Two or three pots of hardy rose geraniums flourished on the sills. They made a pleasant spot of color to the country girl's eyes, with their vivid green leaves and pink blossoms. Sunlight found the room tidy as lamplight. Mrs. Gibbs stood over a tub in the corner, washing, a little boy and girl of five toddled about, each with a doll made out of a bottle. This the home scene that greeted Joanna.
"Good morning," Mrs. Gibbs said. "How did you rest, my dear?"