Showing results by narrator "David Thorn" in All Categories

The wonderful adventure story of two boys, one the son of a mysterious impoverished grandee and the other a handicapped son of a n'eer-do-well drunkard, who together travel through Europe on a secret mission to save Samavia from its wicked rulers.

Dick Heldar is a war correspondent and an artist, well known for the drawings he sends home to the London papers from wars in exotic places like Sudan. When he returns to London, he attempts to make a career for himself as a serious artist and re-encounters his childhood sweetheart, Maisie. He then learns that a minor problem with his eyes is actually the onset of an incurable blindness, the result of a head injury during the war.

Claimed as the first detective story in the English language, Wilkie Collins weaves his classic mystery through a series of often "meandering" narratives by various characters in the book who had first hand knowledge surrounding the disappearance of a large valuable yellow diamond (the Moonstone) from the room of it's young owner, Rachel Verinder.

Based on historical fact, full of intrigue and chivalry at a time when Normandy was not part of France, this is the romantic childhood history of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy. After his father was assassinated, when he was just nine years old, he is kidnapped and imprisoned by Louis of France, who wanted to annex Normandy. But thanks to the bravery and daring of Richard's loyal squire and knight, Osmond de Centeville, he makes good his escape.

Henry James' short but much acclaimed suspenseful novel, set in Venice, concerns an American editor's determination to acquire a collection of unpublished letters to the former mistress of a famous deceased poet. This Miss bordereau is now very elderly, living modestly in a dilpidated old palazzo with her shy, awkward and uncomely niece Tita, an unwitting "pawn" in the plot.

Set and written in 1726, This is a marvelously imaginative tale of the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver. He finds himself shipwrecked and the prisoner of captors ranging in size from 6 inches tall to 60 feet tall and of various other persuasions. But this is just the beginning of a story written, strangely enough to satirize the foolishness and vices of modern men as they were perceived at the time. No one, young or old, can ever forget the Lilliputians and the Yahoos that starred in these wonderful and riveting stories of long ago.

For many enlightened, liberal-minded thinkers today, and for most on the political left, evil is an outmoded concept. It smacks too much of absolute judgements and metaphysical certainties to suit the modern age. In this witty, accessible study, the prominent Marxist thinker Terry Eagleton launches a surprising defence of the reality of evil, drawing on literary, theological, and psychoanalytic sources to suggest that evil, no mere medieval artefact, is a real phenomenon with palpable force in our contemporary world.

In the setting of what is present-day Kazakhstan, Tolstoy examines two psychological problems. The first dilemma is that of a young man who desires both fulfilling love and a place as a respected member of society. The other is the difficulty of a primitive society to accept domination by a higher culture that has no understanding of the traditions it asks its colonists to cast aside.

Return to Virga, a bubble universe artificially separated from our own future universe, and the setting of Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce. Chaison Fanning, the admiral of a fleet of warships, has been captured and imprisoned by his enemies, but is suddenly rescued and set free. He flees...

Here is Henrietta Marshall's entertaining biography of this larger than life personality. She takes us through Napoleon's colorful life, from military campaigns to his solitary end on Elba.

From quarks to computing, this fascinating introduction covers every element of the quantum world in clear and accessible language. Drawing on a wealth of expertise to explain just what a fascinating field quantum physics is, Rae points out that it is not simply a maze of technical jargon and philosophical ideas, but a reality which affects our daily lives.

Robert Louis Stevenson's brilliant short story of a well intentioned physician who experiments with potions of his own invention to create a monstrouly evil alter ego. Written in 1866, the title of this classic of horror tales lives on, of course, in our daily colloquialisms.

Entertaining stories of nature with a moral lesson thrown in for good measure are fun as well as thought provoking. Children will be enthralled with the intimate look into the lives of the woodland creatures and their way of life. Subtleness in making a moral point is always a strength in Ms. Gatty’s stories.

A five part series telling The Story of Great Britain from its earliest beginnings to World War I. Our Island Story, originally published in 1905 and later updated, details the history of Britain up to World War I (including some myths and legends associated with British history). Author H. E. Marshall based the book on her answers to her children's questions about the history of their "home island" (Great Britain).

Edith Nesbit re-tells the stories of William Shakespeare's plays, making them accessible to children, while evoking the drama and excitement of the originals.

The Sunless Countries is the fourth novel in the Virga series of hard science fiction space opera adventures In an ocean of weightless air where sunlight has never been seen, only the running lights of the city of Pacquaea glitter in the dark. One woman, Leal Hieronyma Maspeth, lives and dreams...

When a dragon is discovered up on the Downs, the Boy is not in the least surprised. He's always known the cave there was a dragon cave, so it seems only right for a dragon to be living in it. The Boy decides to pay a visit to the cave, and he thinks he knows just what to expect. But this particular dragon is not a bit like the ones in fairy tales!

This Vatican thriller is the first novel of a trilogy that will have you on the edge of your seat. Set in "future history" but as a parallel timeline to our own, the story begins with the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of an unknown Spanish bishop. Francis I takes it upon himself to reverse 50 years of changes foisted upon the Catholic Church by a cadre of various subversives. Written from an insider's perspective, the story, although fictional, was crafted upon verifiable facts as its foundation.

This Series, in seven parts, tells the story of America from the earliest founding through the days of Woodrow Wilson and The Great War (World War I). In this volume, you'll hear stories of explorers and pioneers.

This extraordinary account of Wolsey's rise and fall from power was written between 1554-1558 by his gentleman usher, George Cavendish. This rare document was edited by former Royal Holloway College (University of London) faculty member and Tudor period authority, Roger Lockyer.