Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (Illustrated)

ELIZABETH GASKELL THE COMPLETE WORKS (Worldwide Bestseller)

All the Works of Elizabth Gaskell in their Complete, Unabridged, Definitive Edition for Kobo

Includes MARY BARTON, CRANFORD, NORTH AND SOUTH, WIVES AND DAUGHTERS, BIOGRAPHY OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE

EXCERPT

"He paused. Margaret went very white, and compressed her lips a little more. Otherwise not a feature moved. With the quick insight into character, without which no medical man can rise to the eminence of Dr. Donaldson, he saw that she would exact the full truth; that she would know if one iota was withheld; and that the withholding would be torture more acute than the knowledge of it. He spoke two short sentences in a low voice, watching her all the time; for the pupils of her eyes dilated into a black horror and the whiteness of her complexion became livid. He ceased speaking. He waited for that look to go off,—for her gasping breath to come. Then she said:—

'I thank you most truly, sir, for your confidence. That dread has haunted me for many weeks. It is a true, real agony. My poor, poor mother!' her lips began to quiver, and he let her have the relief of tears, sure of her power of self-control to check them.

A few tears—those were all she shed, before she recollected the many questions she longed to ask.

'Will there be much suffering?'

He shook his head. 'That we cannot tell. It depends on constitution; on a thousand things. But the late discoveries of medical science have given us large power of alleviation.'

'My father!' said Margaret, trembling all over.

'I do not know Mr. Hale. I mean, it is difficult to give advice. But I should say, bear on, with the knowledge you have forced me to give you so abruptly, till the fact which I could not with-hold has become in some degree familiar to you, so that you may, without too great an effort, be able to give what comfort you can to your father. Before then,—my visits, which, of course, I shall repeat from time to time, although I fear I can do nothing but alleviate,—a thousand little circumstances will have occurred to awaken his alarm, to deepen it—so that he will be all the better prepared.—Nay, my dear young lady—nay, my dear—I saw Mr. Thornton, and I honour your father for the sacrifice he has made, however mistaken I may believe him to be.—Well, this once, if it will please you, my dear. Only remember, when I come again, I come as a friend. And you must learn to look upon me as such, because seeing each other—getting to know each other at such times as these, is worth years of morning calls.' Margaret could not speak for crying: but she wrung his hand at parting."

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• MARY BARTON
• RUTH
• NORTH AND SOUTH
• SYLVIA'S LOVERS
• WIVES AND DAUGHTERS
• ROGER HAMLEY’S CONFESSION
• THE MOORLAND COTTAGE
• MR. HARRISON'S CONFESSIONS
• THE POOR CLARE
• MY LADY LUDLOW
• LOIS THE WITCH
• A DARK NIGHT'S WORK
• COUSIN PHILLIS
• LIBBIE MARSH’S THREE ERAS
• - VALENTINE’S DAY.
• - WHITSUNTIDE.
• - MICHAELMAS.
• THE SEXTON'S HERO
• CHRISTMAS STORMS AND SUNSHINE.
• HAND AND HEART
• THE WELL OF PEN-MORFA
• MARTHA PRESTON
• THE HEART OF JOHN MIDDLETON
• THE DESERTED MANSION
• THE SHAH'S ENGLISH GARDENER
• THE OLD NURSE’S STORY
• BESSY’S TROUBLES AT HOME.
• THE SQUIRE'S STORY
• BRAN
• THE SCHOLAR'S STORY
• HOUSEHOLD WORDSMORTON HALL
• MY FRENCH MASTER
• UNCLE PETER
• COMPANY MANNERS
• LIZZIE LEIGH
• HALF A LIFE-TIME AGO
• AN ACCURSED RACE
• A VISIT TO ETON
• RIGHT AT LAST
• THE MANCHESTER MARRIAGE
• THE DOOM OF THE GRIFFITHS
• THE CROOKED BRANCH
• ROUND THE SOFA.
• THE HALF-BROTHERS
• A FEAR FOR THE FUTURE
• CURIOUS, IF TRUE
• EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM RICHARD WHITTINGHAM, ESQ.
• THE GREY WOMAN
• SIX WEEKS AT HEPPENHEIM
• SHAMS
• AN ITALIAN INSTITUTION
• THE CAGE AT CRANFORD
• CROWLEY CASTLE
• SOME PASSAGES FROM THE HISTORY OF THE CHOMLEY FAMILY
• TWO FRAGMENTS OF GHOST STORIES
• SKETCHES AMONG THE POOR, NO. 1
• CLOPTON HALL
• THE LAST GENERATION IN ENGLAND
• DISAPPEARANCES
• CUMBERLAND SHEEP SHEARERS
• TRAITS AND STORIES OF THE HUGUENOTS
• MODERN GREEK SONGS
• THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE
• FRENCH LIFE

ABOUT ELIZABETH GASKELL

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson (29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor, and as such are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature.

On 30 August 1832 Elizabeth married minister William Gaskell in Knutsford. They spent their honeymoon in North Wales, staying with Elizabeth's uncle, Samuel Holland, who lived near Porthmadog. The Gaskells then settled in Manchester, where William was the minister at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel. Manchester's industrial surroundings would influence Elizabeth's novels in the industrial genre. Their first child, a daughter, was stillborn in 1833. A son, William, (1844–45), died in infancy, and this tragedy became the catalyst for Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton.

Mary Barton, was published anonymously in 1848. The best known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her ghost stories are quite distinct, in the "Gothic" vein, from her industrial fiction.

Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions (including signing her name "Mrs. Gaskell"), Gaskell usually frames her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes: her early works focused on factory work in the Midlands. She always emphasised the role of women, with complex narratives and dynamic female characters.

In addition to her fiction, Gaskell also wrote the first biography of Charlotte Brontë, which played a significant role in developing her fellow writer's reputation.

* Illustrated
* Author Biography
* Interactive Table of Contents
* Free Audiobook Download

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin [ Illustrated ] [ Free Audiobooks Download ]

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the traditional name for the unfinished record of his own life written by Benjamin Franklin from 1771 to 1790; however, Franklin himself appears to have called the work his Memoirs. Although it had a tortuous publication history after Franklin's death, this work has become one of the most famous and influential examples of an autobiography ever written.
Franklin's account of his life is divided into four parts, reflecting the different periods at which he wrote them. There are actual breaks in the narrative between the first three parts, but Part Three's narrative continues into Part Four without an authorial break (only an editorial one).

27 works of William Makepeace Thackeray
English novelist of the 19th century (1811-1863)

This ebook presents a collection of 27 works of William Makepeace Thackeray. A dynamic table of contents allows you to jump directly to the work selected.

Table of Contents:
- A Little Dinner at Timmin's
- Ballads
- Barry Lyndon
- Burlesques
- Catherine - a Story
- George Cruikshank
- Henry Esmond - The English Humourists - The Four Georges
- John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character
- Men's Wives
- Notes on a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo
- Roundabout Papers
- The Bedford-Row Conspiracy
- The Book of Snobs
- The Christmas Books of Mr. M.A. Titmarsh
- The Fatal Boots
- The Fitz-Boodle Papers
- The History of Pendennis
- The History of Samuel Titmarsh and the Great Hoggarty Diamond
- The Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush
- The Newcomes - Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family
- The Paris Sketch Book of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh
- The Rose and the Ring
- The Second Funeral of Napoleon
- The Tremendous Adventures of Major Gahagan
- The Virginians
- The Wolves and the Lamb
- Vanity Fair

This Book Contains :

PERSUASION

   NORTHANGER ABBEY

   MANSFIELD PARK

   EMMA

   LADY SUSAN

   LOVE AND FREINDSHIP AND OTHER EARLY WORKS

   PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

   SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature. Her realism and biting social commentary have gained her historical importance among scholars and critics.
Austen lived her entire life as part of a close-knit family located on the lower fringes of the English landed gentry. She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers as well as through her own reading. The steadfast support of her family was critical to her development as a professional writer. Her artistic apprenticeship lasted from her teenage years into her thirties. During this period, she experimented with various literary forms, including the epistolary novel which she then abandoned, and wrote and extensively revised three major novels and began a fourth.[B] From 1811 until 1816, with the release of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began a third, which was eventually titled Sanditon, but died before completing it.
Austen's works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century realism. Her plots, though fundamentally comic, highlight the dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and economic security. Her work brought her little personal fame and only a few positive reviews during her lifetime, but the publication in 1869 of her nephew's A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced her to a wider public, and by the 1940s she had become widely accepted in academia as a great English writer. The second half of the 20th century saw a proliferation of Austen scholarship and the emergence of a Janeite fan culture.
Biographical information concerning Jane Austen is "famously scarce", according to one biographer. Only some personal and family letters remain (by one estimate only 160 out of Austen's 3,000 letters are extant), and her sister Cassandra (to whom most of the letters were originally addressed) burned "the greater part" of the ones she kept and censored those she did not destroy. Other letters were destroyed by the heirs of Admiral Francis Austen, Jane's brother. Most of the biographical material produced for fifty years after Austen's death was written by her relatives and reflects the family's biases in favour of "good quiet Aunt Jane". Scholars have unearthed little information since.

The Woman in White is an epistolary novel written by Wilkie Collins in 1859, serialized in 1859–1860, and first published in book form in 1860. It is considered to be among the first mystery novels and is widely regarded as one of the first (and finest) in the genre of 'sensation novels'.
The story is considered an early example of detective fiction with the hero, Walter Hartright, employing many of the sleuthing techniques of later private detectives. The use of multiple narratives draws on Collins's legal training, and as he points out in his Preamble: 'the story here presented will be told by more than one pen, as the story of an offence against the laws is told in Court by more than one witness'. In 2003, Robert McCrum writing for The Observer listed The Woman in White number 23 in "the top 100 greatest novels of all time", and the novel was listed at number 77 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

Walter Hartright, a young art teacher, is walking from Hampstead to London late one summer's evening, when he meets a mysterious woman dressed in white, apparently in deep distress. He helps her on her way to London, but later learns that she has escaped from an asylum. The next day he travels north to Limmeridge House, having been hired as a drawing master to the residents of the house; he had been recommended for the job by his friend, Pesca, an Italian language professor. The Limmeridge household comprises Mr Frederick Fairlie, and Walter's students: Laura Fairlie, Mr Fairlie's niece, and Marian Halcombe, her devoted half-sister. Several days after he arrives, Hartright is shocked to realize that Laura bears an astonishing resemblance to the woman in white, called Anne Catherick. The mentally disadvantaged Anne had lived for a time in Cumberland as a child and was devoted to Laura's mother, who first dressed her in white.
Walter and Laura quickly fall in love. Laura, however, has promised her father that she will marry Sir Percival Glyde, and Marian – knowing that Laura loves Walter in return – advises Walter to forget his love, and leave Limmeridge. Anne, after sending a letter to Laura warning her against Glyde, meets Hartright who becomes convinced that Glyde was responsible for shutting Anne in the asylum. Despite the misgivings of the Fairlie's lawyer over the financial terms of the marriage settlement, Laura and Glyde marry in December 1849 and travel to Italy for 6 months. Hartright also leaves England, joining an expedition to Honduras. After their honeymoon, Sir Percival and Lady Glyde return to his family estate, Blackwater Park, in Hampshire; they are accompanied by Glyde's friend, Count Fosco (who is married to Laura's aunt). Marian Halcombe is also living at Blackwater and learns that Glyde is in financial difficulties. Sir Percival unsuccessfully attempts to bully Laura into signing a document which would allow him to use her marriage settlement of £20,000. Determined to protect her sister, Marian crawls out onto a roof overlooking Percy and Fosco whilst they plot; but it begins to rain, and Marian, completely soaked, falls into a fever which shortly turns into typhus.
While Marian is ill, Laura is tricked into travelling to London. Her identity and that of Anne Catherick are then switched. Anne Catherick dies of a heart condition and is buried in Cumberland as Laura, while Laura is drugged and placed in the asylum as Anne Catherick. When Marian recovers and visits the asylum, hoping to learn something from Anne Catherick, she finds Laura, supposedly suffering from the delusion that she is Lady Glyde.
Marian bribes the nurse and Laura escapes. Hartright has safely returned from Honduras, and the three live together in obscure poverty, determined to restore Laura's identity. After some time Walter discovers Glyde's secret, which is that he was illegitimate, and therefore not entitled to inherit his parents' property. This secret was known only to Anne's mother, and while Anne never knew the secret, she spoke and acted as if she did. Many years earlier, Glyde had forged an entry in the marriage register at Old Welmingham Church to conceal his illegitimacy and hence unlawful inheritance of estate and title. Believing Walter either has discovered, or will discover his secret, Glyde attempts to destroy the register entry, but the church vestry catches fire and he perishes in the flames. Confronting Anne's mother, Hartright discovers that Anne was the illegitimate child of Laura's father, which accounts for their resemblance. On returning to London to resume his battle with Fosco, Hartright marries Laura. When he secretly tails Fosco to investigate him, Hartright also discovers that Fosco belongs to, and has betrayed, an Italian secret society (dubbed "The Brotherhood"), of which Pesca is a high-ranking member with enough authority to dispatch him. Using Fosco's weakness as bargaining chip, Hartright now has the power to force a written confession from Fosco and Laura's identity is restored. Fosco departs from England in haste, only to be discovered by the Brotherhood's agents some time later and murdered. Since Hartright and Laura have married, on the death of Frederick Fairlie, their son becomes the Heir of Limmeridge.

Characters

Walter Hartright—A poor young man who earns his living as a drawing master.
Frederick Fairlie—A fanciful, selfish invalid, owner of Limmeridge House in Cumberland. Laura's uncle. His irresponsibility in handling matters concerning Laura's welfare as her guardian is one of the key factors that lead to the success of Count Fosco's plan.
Laura Fairlie—Mr Fairlie's gentle, pretty niece, an heiress and an orphan.
Marian Halcombe—Laura's half-sister and companion, not attractive but intelligent and resourceful. She is described as one "of the finest creations in all Victorian fiction" by John Sutherland.
Anne Catherick ("The Woman in White")—A young woman said to be of disordered wits. It's heavily implied that she's an illegitimate daughter of Laura's father.
Mrs Catherick—Anne's unsympathetic mother, who is in league with Sir Percival Glyde in committing her daughter to the asylum.
Sir Percival Glyde—Laura's fiancé and then husband, he is an unpleasant baronet with a secret. He is able to appear charming and gracious when he wishes, but his true character appears soon after his marriage to Laura. Walter later discovers that his secret is that his inheritance of his title and estate was unlawful because his parents had never married, and to obtain it he forged a false marriage register entry.
Count Fosco—Sir Percival's closest friend, his full name is revealed to be Isidor Ottavio Baldassare Fosco. A grossly obese Italian with a mysterious past, he is eccentric, bombastic, urbane, but also unfathomably intelligent and menacing. He takes especial interest in little animals, and keeps many birds and mice as pets. The Count greatly admires Marian for her intellect, so much that he is willing to compromise several weak points in his plan (such as allowing Marian to retrieve Laura from the asylum) for her sake.
Countess Fosco—Laura's aunt, once a giddy girl but now humourless, cold and in thrall to her husband and his schemes.
Professor Pesca—A teacher of Italian, and a good friend of Hartright. The professor finds Hartright the Limmeridge job, introducing him to Laura and Marian, and proves to be Fosco's unexpected nemesis.

Adaptations

Theatre
1975 Tim Kelly stage melodrama Egad, the Woman in White
2004 Andrew Lloyd Webber stage musical The Woman in White
2005 Constance Cox stage play The Woman in White
Film and television
two 1912 American silent films
The Woman In White at the Internet Movie Database
The Woman in White
two 1917 American silent films
The Woman In White at the Internet Movie Database
Tangled Lives
1929 British silent film adapted by Robert Cullen starring Haddon Mason as Walter Hartright and Louise Prussing as Marian Halcombe
The Woman in White
The 1940 film Crimes at the Dark House (1940) directed by George King is loosely based on The Woman in White with Tod Slaughter playing the part of the false Sir Percival Glyde and Hay Petrie as Count Fosco.
1948 Hollywood film adapted by Stephen Morehouse Avery starring Gig Young as Walter Hartright, Alexis Smith as Marian Halcombe, Eleanor Parker as Laura Fairlie/Anne Catherick and Sydney Greenstreet as Count Fosco.
The Woman In White at the Internet Movie Database
1971 - "Die Frau in Weiß" German TV miniseries, adapted by Herbert Asmodi, directed by Wilhelm Semmelroth, starring Christoph Bantzer as Walter Hartright and Heidelinde Weis as Laura Fairlie/Anne Catherick
1982 BBC miniseries adapted by Ray Jenkins starring Daniel Gerroll as Walter Hartright and Diana Quick as Marian Halcombe
The Woman In White at the Internet Movie Database
1982 Soviet film under the Russian title Zhenshchina v belom, directed by Vadim Derbenyov and starring Aleksandr Abdulov as Walter Hartright and Lithuanian actress Gražina Baikštytė as both Laura Fairlie and Anne Catherick
Zhenshchina v belom at the Internet Movie Database
1997 BBC TV series adapted by David Pirie starring Andrew Lincoln as Walter Hartright and Tara FitzGerald as Marian Halcombe; also broadcast on PBS television in 1998
The Woman In White at the Internet Movie Database
Literature
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child published the novel Brimstone (2004), featuring a modern re-imagining of the villain Count Fosco.
James Wilson, The Dark Clue (2001): a "sequel" to The Woman in White
Computer Games
"Victorian Mysteries: Woman in White" created by FreezeTag Games (2010)

35 works of Walter Scott
Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet (1771-1832)

This ebook presents a collection of 35 works of Walter Scott. A dynamic table of contents allows you to jump directly to the work selected.

Table of Contents:
- A Legend of Montrose
- Bride of Lammermoor
- Chronicles of the Canongate
- Dryden's Works Volume III
- Guy Mannering
- Ivanhoe
- Kenilworth
- Lady of the Lake
- Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
- Marmion
- Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border Volume II
- My Aunt Margaret's Mirror
- Old Mortality Complete Work
- Peveril of the Peak
- Quentin Durward
- Red Gauntlet
- Rob Roy Complete Work
- Some Poems
- St. Ronan's Well
- The Abbot
- The Antiquary Volume I
- The Antiquary Volume II
- The Betrothed
- The Black Dwarf
- The Dramatic Works of John Dryden Volume I
- The Fair Maid of Perth Or St. Valentine's
- The Fortunes of Nigel
- The Heart of Mid-Lothian Complete Work
- The Journal of Sir Walter Scott
- The Monastery
- The Surgeon's Daughter
- The Talisman
- Trial of Duncan Terig alias Clerk and Alexander Bane Macdonald
- Waverley Or 'Tis Sixty Years Hence
- Woodstock or the Cavalier