Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Publishing" in Classics

On the northern shore of Sicily, a tourist visiting the ruins of the once-magnificent castle of the house of Mazzini uncovers the noble family’s turbulent history. The Marquis Mazzini’s daughters, Emilia and Julia, are beautiful and accomplished young ladies. Julia quickly falls in love with the young and handsome Italian Count Hippolitus de Vereza, but, to her dismay, her father decides that she should marry Duke de Luovo instead. On the night before her wedding, Julia flees to elope with Hippolitus, but the marquis ambushes them and seemingly kills Hippolitus.

This compilation features the title novella Michael Kohlhaas, the tale of a man forced to crime in order to gain back the horses that were stolen from him; “The Earthquake in Chile,” a love story that takes place in the chaos of the 1647 Santiago earthquake; along with five other stories and a dramatized reading of selected scenes from The Prince of Homburg.

Murasaki Shikibu, born into the middle ranks of the aristocracy during the Heian period (794-1185 CE), wrote The Tale of Genji - widely considered the world’s first novel - during the early years of the 11th century. Expansive, compelling, and sophisticated in its representation of ethical concerns and aesthetic ideals, Murasaki’s tale came to occupy a central place in Japan’s remarkable history of artistic achievement and is now recognized as a masterpiece of world literature.

In “A Smile of Fortune”, a ship’s captain meets the seemingly genial Mr. Jacobus and his irritable brother while embarking in the tropics. One a respectable businessman with a considerable reputation, the other a confessed rogue and entrepreneur with no reputation left to lose, the captain is at a loss to determine which he should befriend. In this masterly tale of misplaced loyalty, family feuds, and illicit bargaining, the captain finds himself the unwitting partner in a deeply unorthodox transaction.

Dedicated to keeping her home immaculate and organized, Evangeline Knapp runs a tight ship, with the Knapp family constantly on edge. Meanwhile, her husband Lester, a dreamer, drifts through his bookkeeping job. Both feel depressed and out of place. Suddenly, after a near-fatal accident, their roles are reversed: Lester is confined to home in a wheelchair and his wife must work to support the family. Evangeline dedicates herself to improvement and customer service, something she learned working in her father’s store as a child.

La Reine Margot is a novel of suspense and drama which recreates the violent world of intrigue, murder, and duplicity of the French Renaissance. Dumas fills his canvas with a gallery of unforgettable characters, unremitting action, and the engaging generosity of spirit which has made him one of the world’s greatest and best-loved storytellers.

Born at the time of Waterloo in the wild countryside of Shropshire, England, Prudence Sarn is a passionate girl, cursed with a harelip - her “precious bane”. She is cursed for it, too, by the superstitious people among whom she lives. Prue loves two things: the remote countryside of her birthplace and, hopelessly, Kester Woodseaves, the weaver. The tale of how Kester gradually discerns Prue’s true beauty is set against the tragic drama of Prue’s brother, Gideon, a man who is out of harmony with the natural world and whose recklessness may ensnare them all in tragedy.

In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, Lanny Budd’s financial acumen and his marriage into great wealth enable him to continue the lifestyle he has always enjoyed. But the devastation the collapse has wrought on ordinary citizens has only strengthened Lanny’s socialist ideals. In Germany to visit relatives, Lanny encounters a disturbing atmosphere of hatred and jingoism. But Lanny’s gravest fear is the threat a national socialist government poses to the German Jewish family of Hansi, the musician husband of Lanny’s sister, Bess.

South African adventurer and big-game hunter Allan Quatermain finds a village in the middle of the continent ruled by a huge, pale man with a strange knowledge of future events. Allan travels to the hidden lake protected by the Dabanda tribe.

The deadly dimensions over London have been sealed, and the monsters have departed. But word has come to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson of a more terrifying creature still - the great Cthulhu has been sighted off the waters of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. Only Holmes can defeat him. And in the muddy village of Innsmouth, surrounded by villagers who are more sea-monster than human, Holmes meets again his nemesis, Moriarty, and yet greater foes: Amelia Scarcliffe and Maria Fitzgerald, harbingers of Dagon, who have called forth Cthulhu.

Originally published in 1886, the nine stories in this collection encapsulate Sarah Orne Jewett’s love and reverence for nature; her affinity for understanding complex, nuanced, and often strained relationships; and—just as her father encouraged her—her ability to write not about things, but to “write the things themselves just as they are.”

Assembled and edited by Julian Hawthorne and first published in 1907, the Old Time English volume of The Lock and Key Library features ten classic mysteries and ghost stories by Charles Dickens, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Thomas de Quincey, Charles Robert Maturin, Laurence Sterne, and William Makepeace Thackeray. This volume of The Lock and Key Library is sure to haunt and charm fans of ghost and detective mysteries alike.

The story follows the undoing of Peter Willems, a dishonorable man on the run from a scandal of his own making. After leaving Macassar, he takes refuge in a remote village and river post. The native people of the village take him in and serve as benefactors to Peter, but he seems doomed to fail each test of his character.

Just as the lovely Alvina Houghton comes of age, her widowed father’s business starts to dry up. In a drastic effort to regain his fortune and secure his daughter’s standing in society, James Houghton buys, of all things, a theater. Her father’s plans and dreams go misunderstood in the town, but the theater itself does quite well...for a time. One of the traveling players employed at the theater, a sensual Italian man named Ciccio, catches Alvina’s eye, and she finds herself intensely attracted to him.

On the eve of the First World War, sociology student Vandyck Jennings goes on an expedition with two of his friends to search for a society rumored to consist only of women. On the way to what they will name “Herland,” Van and his friends ponder the type of women they hope or expect to see when they get there … but they find no fantasies when they arrive. Herland is an all-female, community-driven utopia. Van and his friends are skeptical of a society that doesn’t even need men to procreate, but women and girls who live there have been raised in a world removed the patriarchy of the world.

For years d’Artagnan shared his adventures with his three comrades - Athos, Porthos, and Aramis - but now, in Between Two Kings, the First Musketeer returns to the forefront. This is truly d’Artagnan’s novel, bringing to a dramatic climax the story that began when he first arrived in Paris 30 years earlier in The Three Musketeers.

The setting is London, 1895, and the Devil is on the loose, in the guise of the handsome and charming Prince Lucio Rimânez. He is searching for someone morally strong enough to resist temptation, but there seems little chance he will succeed. Britain is all but totally corrupt. The aristocracy is financially and spiritually bankrupt, church leaders no longer believe in God, Victorian idealism has been banished from literature and life, and sexual morality is being undermined by the pernicious doctrines of the “New Woman”.

Summer vacation isn’t all fun and hanging out when you’re a wizard-in-training. For partly reformed warlock Chance Fortunato, it’s even worse. In addition to the constant study and training, he has to prove he’s ready to be a full-fledged apprentice before he starts at the Franklin Academy. Plus, he’s beginning to think someone has it out for him. If things weren’t bad enough with a snooty proctor monitoring his every move and demons trying to capture him, his father finally makes his first attempt to get his wayward son back under his control by trying to frame his mom.

Tommo has been aboard a whaling ship for six grueling months when he decides, with his friend Toby, to escape and hide on a wild island. They are not alone. The island is home to a tribe called the Typees known for being cannibals. But when Tommo breaks his leg, they can no longer avoid the valley the Typees call home. They venture down into the tribe’s territory, but instead of violence, the Typees greet them happily with food and shelter. Tommo and Toby quickly become accustomed to life in the tribe and even prefer aspects of island life to their so-called “civilized” society.

When French scientist Professor Aronnax agrees to investigate a series of attacks by a mysterious sea monster, he begins an incredible underwater journey, taking along his loyal assistant Conseil and master harpooner Ned. They eventually join Captain Nemo and traverse a distance of thousands of leagues throughout many seas, finding exotic settings, surprise encounters, and unforeseen dangers in their epic adventure, a tour-de-force of imagination.