Frederick Davidson

When a bumbling holy man mistakenly baptizes a colony of penguins, God endows the animals with souls and their formerly peaceful community declines into a maelstrom of violence and sin. This witty allegory lampoons French history from ancient to modern times, taking satirical swipes at socialists, royalists, industrialists, militarists, and even the Dreyfus affair, and concluding with a remarkably prescient view of the future. Indeed, more than a...

Psmith (the p is silent) is a man of contrasts. He is overly confident, but smart, and prone to mischief, but resourceful enough to get himself out of trouble. Down on his luck and out of a job, Psmith meets Eve Halliday in the middle of a downpour. Immediately drawn to her beauty, Psmith decides to help Eve get out of the rain. After he borrows an umbrella from a nearby club without asking, Psmith offers it to Eve, so that she is able to finish her...

From the author of 1984, George Orwell narrates the journey of a writer among the down-and-out in two great cities in this sobering, truthful portrayal of poverty and society. Famous for its realistic and unsentimental description of poverty, Down and Out in London and Paris follows the adventures of a penniless British writer who finds himself rapidly descending into the seedy heart of two great European capitals. As a dishwasher in Paris, he describes...

Morse had solved so many mysteries in his life. Was he now, he wondered, beginning to glimpse the solution to the greatest mystery of them all . . . ?
How can the discovery of a short story by a beautiful Oxford graduate lead Chief Inspector Morse to her murderer? What awaits Morse and Lewis in Room 231 of the Randolph Hotel? Why does a theft at Christmas lead the detective to look upon the festive season with uncharacteristic goodwill?

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South Africa, 1900. After his father dies, nineteen-year-old David Crawfurd is sent off to South Africa to earn his living as a storekeeper in the back of beyond. A strange encounter on the journey suggests that dark deeds and treacherous intrigues are afoot - all bound up with the mysterious primeval kingdom of Prester John. Written as a boys' adventure story and set mostly in South Africa (where Buchan had worked), "Prester John" was published in...

Samuel Butler was an individualistic Victorian era writer who published a variety of works. He is also known for examining Christian orthodoxy, considerable studies of evolutionary thought, studies of Italian art, and works of literary history as well as criticism. Butler even made prose translations of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" which remain some of the most popular to this day. His authority on literature came through his posthumous novel, "The...

In Providence, R.I., in 1848, Edgar Allan Poe reluctantly investigates the problems of eleven-year-old Edmund, whose family has mysteriously disappeared and whose story suggests a new Poe tale with a ghastly final twist.

To most people, Francis was the eccentric, artistic son of a wealthy family. Others knew him as an art expert, a secret intelligence agent, and a wealthy man shrouded in mystery.

An Inspector Morse Mystery

The case seems so simple that Inspector Morse deems it beneath his notice. A wealthy, elderly American tourist has a heart attack in her room at Oxford's luxurious Randolph Hotel. Missing from the scene is the lady's handbag, which contained the Wolvercote Tongue, a priceless jewel that her late husband had bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum just across the street. Morse proceeds to spend a great deal of time thinking—and

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Four thousand years ago, a stranger's ominous gift and his death at the Old Temple of Ratharryn would precipitate the building of one of mankind's most remarkable achievements. Cornwell's epic novel, Stonehenge, catapults us into a powerful world of ritual, betrayal, and the never-ending pursuit of power, wealth, and spiritual fulfillment.

Three brothers, deadly rivals, are precariously united by a shared vision to create a temple to

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