Showing results by narrator "Lillian Rachel" in All Categories

As the generating force of its plot, Twelfth Night uses a device which has since become a staple in comedy: gender confusion. Viola and her twin brother Sebastian, are shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, a country ruled by the melancholy Duke Orsino. The twins are separated and Viola is led to believe that her brother has perished. She disguises herself as a male under the name of Cesario and makes her way to the ducal court, where Orsino employs her as a messenger, to communicate his love to the reclusive lady, Olivia—who is not willing to return his affection.

Michael Blake, a straitlaced English nobleman, desperately needs to marry an heiress. When he discovers that his intended bride - and her much-need dowry - has been romanced away from him by his own brother, he is forced to turn to the only other great heiress on the market. Emma Marks is an American adventuress who has spent the last few years traveling the world - a bargain she made with her father in return for her promise to marry a titled aristocrat by the time she's 25.

Freydis Eiriksdatter, one of the most remarkable women of the Viking age, leads a harsh life amongst the towering cliffs and great glaciers of Greenland. She has the warrior spirit of her father, Eirik the Red, and as Christianity conquers Greenland, she continues to worship the old Norse gods. Like her brother, Leif Eiriksson, she’s cursed with an adventurer’s soul. Her biggest desire is to become a legendary explorer. Driven by ambition, curiosity—a restless hunger for more—she sets out on a hazardous voyage to Vinland.

Plagued by misfortune, Ingrid Norling treks into the woods to clear her head. She emerges a monster-slayer, the shaken executioner of a creature so ferocious that even the king's strongest warriors could not destroy it. In a land that reveres swords and worships strength, this accidental heroism earns Inge an audience at court and an ill-fated prize: King Halvard impulsively adopts her and names her as his heir.

Felicity Carrol is interested in everything - except being a proper young matron of Victorian society. Brilliant and resourceful, Felicity took refuge in science and education after her mother died and her father abandoned her to servants. Now, all he wants is for her to marry into a family of status and money. Felicity has other ambitions - but her plans shudder to a halt when her mentor is murdered at the British Museum and his priceless manuscript of King Arthur lore is stolen.

Abandoned by her allies, the Republic of Venice holds out as the last beacon of resistance against the hobgoblin armies. Armed with new weapons the Southern Horde drives upon the floating city by land and sea. The Northern Horde drives deep into the heart of Europa and all fall before it. The Horde is vast beyond measure. Assassin daggers lurk in every shadow. Necrotic evil seeps and infects.

Felicity Carrol would rather be doing just about anything other than attending balls or seeking a husband. What she really wants to do is continue her work using the latest forensic methods and her photographic memory to help London police bring murderers to justice. So when her friend Scotland Yard Inspector Jackson Davies, weak from injury, discovers a murder in a wild mining town in Montana that echoes the terrible crimes in England, Felicity decides to go herself.

Everyone knows the headmistress is destined to be a spinster. Well . . . everyone but the Marquess of Ainsley. The Marquess isn't certain why the elegant and resourceful Miss Grayson is so determined to remain unmarried. But he means to change her mind over the holidays. How will he coax the refined beauty out of her shell?

In 1896, H.G Wells was stimulated to compose this dystopian fantasy about an obsessed scientist and his efforts to artificially accelerate the intellectual development of animals using bizarre medical procedures involving vivisection.  Wells described the book as "an exercise in youthful blasphemy."

Some things are better left in the past, but Eliza has spent years running from hers. When the man who upended her life re-enters it in the most unexpected way, Eliza must decide if reacquainting herself with Nicolas is worth the heartache.

Francis Raven awakens on the eve of his birthday, frightened by the appearance of a woman attempting to murder him. He is continually haunted by this woman and years later marries Alicia Warlock, who looks strikingly identical to the figure from his dream. Is this Dream Woman simply an apparition or will her attempts to kill Francis become reality? Also known as The Ostler in earlier versions, The Dream Woman is another of Collins' finest detective stories.

A Christmas Anthology of several of the best Christmas Novellas you have never heard from authors who were prolific in their time. Including the author of the Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms series, the Little Bear children's series, Charles Dickens & Howard Hughes' award winning novelist/playwright brother.

Virginia Woolf's 1925 novel takes place over the course of a single June day in the lives of some very different Londoners: wealthy society hostess Clarissa Dalloway, who is preparing for a party; her old friend Peter Walsh, recently returned from India, whose proposal of marriage Clarissa rejected years ago; Septimus Warren Smith, a WWI veteran suffering from shell shock; and his Italian-born wife, Rezia, who is trying to care for him as best she can. Woolf's beautiful prose captures the minds and souls of these vivid characters.

Prayer & Praise is a treasure trove of thought-provoking messages inspired by the lines of Austen's three preserved prayers. Atop a solid foundation of scripture, these 50 devotional segments (each finishing with prayer and praise) enlist familiar characters and situations from Austen novels to illustrate spiritual principles - in creative, often surprising, ways!

Frances Hodgson Burnet's 1911 novel is about Mary Lennox, an unloved orphan who journeys from India to Yorkshire to live at Misselthwaite Manor, the home of her uncle Archibald Craven. Under the influence of the beautiful countryside and its kind inhabitants, Mary begins to blossom. She soon discovers there are secrets of many kinds both inside and outside her uncle's estate. In particular, she longs to discover the key to a hidden garden that has been shut away for 10 years. 

During the Middle Ages, a peasant's superstition held that a mother mourning the death of her child could "sell her sorrow" by selling a nail from her child's coffin to a peddler. Lady Celeste is overwhelmed with grief when her infant son dies. Desperate to find relief, she escapes the convent where her husband has sent her to recover and begs a passing peddler to buy her sorrow. Jean, the cynical peddler she meets, is nobody’s fool; he does not believe in superstitions and insists Celeste include the valuable ruby ring on her finger along with the nail in return for his coin. 

The Invisible Man was the fourth sci-fi novel written by Wells in the 1890s. The main character, Griffin, is one of the intimidating villains in all popular literature. The archetypal "mad scientist," Griffin devotes himself to an obsessive study of optics and realizes his ambition to render livings things permanently invisible. After making a cat invisible, he successfully applies the procedure to himself. After causing chaos in London, he travels to the village of Iping in Sussex and takes up residence in a local hotel.

Quinton Errington is perfectly happy teaching at Cambridge, with his elder brother carrying the duties of being the duke of Wesley. But when a trip to celebrate his brother’s last week of bachelorhood ends in tragedy, Quinton, now the duke of Wesley, would give anything to have his brother back. Now, under the most heartbreaking of circumstances, Wesley's would-be bride, Catherine Greatheart, is left wanting. Her only protection left, her grandmother, has fallen ill, and Catherine has nowhere left to turn but to the family she was so close to being part of.

Marianne Mowbrey is a responsible country rector’s daughter who longs for the novelty and excitement she reads about in novels. When her crusty Aunt Harriet agrees to give her a season in London, Marianne vows to dazzle the world, win a husband, and never go home again. But the Londoners who determine social success are inclined to pass over plain Marianne in favor of her beautiful, reckless younger sister. In a world of ambition, fashion, flattery, and deceit, how can Marianne stay true to her real self - when she is not even sure what that real self is?

Some people don’t feel they’ve ever been loved or even feel that they are worthy of love. The truth is, God loves you. You were chosen and his love is eternal and never-ending. His love will fill and satisfy you until you become transformed by it. Sonnets for the Soul is a celebration of hope while encountering his grace through scripture. Sonnets for the Soul is God’s love letter to your mind, heart, soul, and body. Enjoy your journey through the 31 sonnets and have your heart awakened to your father’s love for you.