15-year-old Mary Peveril and her widowed clergyman father seem to be everything to each other - until he rather suddenly decides to marry a young woman in her twenties. Mary is all at once pushed into the shade, and jealously watches the other Mary take her place in her father's heart. Even Mary's first experience in love is complicated by the nearness of the other Mary. As originally serialised in four parts, the first two parts deal with the relationship...

When the aged Curate in Charge of Brentburn parish church loses his position of 20 years, he is too overwhelmed to act for himself - it will be up to his two daughters to determine how to support the family of five (which includes two little boys from a second marriage). The eldest sister Cecily is the practical one, who must determine how to plan and work for the family's future, even if it means being reduced to a lower social status. Cecily feels...

This early novel centres on the Atheling family, especially on the three young people Agnes, Marion, and Charlie. Each has a special gift: Agnes has genius as a writer, Marion has beauty, and Charlie will find his gift in the course of the story. The novel is told mostly from Agnes' point of view. She has written a novel and found a publisher; and on the heels of her book's modest success, she and Marion are invited into society, which leads to some...

Kate Courtney, fifteen, is an heiress with a house in the country - and a rather inflated idea of what her position entails. But she has no one who cares anything about her. She believes she has found happiness when she goes to live with her aunt Mrs. Anderson and her cousin Ombra (whose name means Shadow) in a cottage on the Isle of Wight. But Ombra does not feel the same fondness - she had been the center of attention in her little world before...

The three stories in the Little Pilgrim series all take place in the Afterlife. The series is based on the Christian religion, but has a universal appeal in its view of heaven and the lower worlds of the Afterlife. The first story was inspired by the death of Margaret Oliphant's close friend and neighbour Eleanor Clifford, known to Mrs. Oliphant's children as Aunt Nelly. In several stories the little Pilgrim (Nelly) sees or encounters people she knew...

A woman tells delightful accounts of her neighbours and friends from the village of Dinglefield Green. A book of excellent character studies of people in the Victorian era, much of which is still relatable today.

This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.

This early novel has many story lines. Central character Anne Ross is still young at age 23, but her maturity and reserve lead some to think she is already a confirmed spinster. Anne is determined to clear up a mystery about a murder, and thereby to clear the name of her brother Norman who vanished long ago. She goes for emotional support to Mrs. Catherine, a strong single woman who is at the head of a large estate (in effect she is the laird), and...

There stands in one of the northern counties of Scotland, in the midst of a wild and wooded landscape, with the background of a fine range of hills, and in the vicinity of a noble trout-stream, a great palace, uninhabited and unfinished. It is of the French-Scottish style of architecture, but more French than Scotch - a little Louvre planted in the midst of a great park and fine woods, by which, could a traveller pass, as in the days of Mr. G.P.R....

She was very old, and therefore it was very hard for her to make up her mind to die. I am aware that this is not at all the general view, but that it is believed, as old age must be near death, that it prepares the soul for that inevitable event. It is not so, however, in many cases. In youth we are still so near the unseen out of which we came, that death is rather pathetic than tragic,-a thing that touches all hearts, but to which, in many cases,...