- Table View
- List View
The Rising Tide (Virago Modern Classics #228)
by Molly KeaneOne glorious gothic mansion - Garonlea - and two rather different ladies who would be Queen . . .Lady Charlotte French-McGrath has successfully ruled over her family with a rod of iron until the arrival of Cynthia: beautiful, young, talented, selfish - and engaged to her son Desmond.When Cynthia enters the Jazz Age, on the surface her life passes in a whirl of hunting, drinking and romance. But the ghosts of Garonlea are only biding their time: they know the source of their power, a secret handed on from one generation to the next.
Summer Half: A Virago Modern Classic (Virago Modern Classics #376)
by Angela ThirkellTo his parents' dismay, Colin Keith - out of the noble but misplaced sense of duty peculiar to high-minded young university graduates - chooses to quit his training for the Bar and take a teaching job at Southbridge School. Little does Colin imagine that he will count among his pupils the demon in human form known as Tony Morland; or that the master's ravishing, feather-brained daughter Rose will, with her flights of fancy and many admirers, spread chaos throughout school and village. Humorous, high-spirited and cleverly observed, Summer Half is a comic delight.
Summer Half: A Virago Modern Classic (Virago Modern Classics #376)
by Angela ThirkellTo his parents' dismay, Colin Keith - out of the noble but misplaced sense of duty peculiar to high-minded young university graduates - chooses to quit his training for the Bar and take a teaching job at Southbridge School. Little does Colin imagine that he will count among his pupils the demon in human form known as Tony Morland; or that the master's ravishing, feather-brained daughter Rose will, with her flights of fancy and many admirers, spread chaos throughout school and village. Humorous, high-spirited and cleverly observed, Summer Half is a comic delight.
Tennis Shoes
by Noel StreatfeildWill the four Heath children continue their family tradition and become tennis champions? The Heath kids--Nicky, David, and twins Jim and Susan--come from a long line of ace tennis players. Now their dad has decided it's time to teach them everything he knows about the game. The twins are the odds-on favourites to become the next champs. Susan shows a lot of promise, winning in tournaments and getting recognition, but she secretly hates the spotlight. Jim's a good player, but prefers swimming. David, the youngest, loves to sing. Nicky could be a natural, but she's too busy rebelling to take the sport seriously. Who will become champion? And will it change their family forever?
April Gold (Grace Livingston Hill #27)
by Grace Livingston HillMarilla Reed had spent her whole life in the warm comfort of a well-to-do household. Then, suddenly, her entire family was plunged into poverty. From the depths of desperation, Marilla found the satisfaction of fending for herself. And the infinite joys of falling in love. Grace Livingston Hill has created thrilling stories of inspiring wholesome people whose ardent faith and overflowing hearts cope triumphantly with the problems of the modern world. Bookshare has nearly all of her 100 books as well as her biography written by her son in law.
August Folly: A Virago Modern Classic (Virago Modern Classics #365)
by Angela ThirkellAngela Thirkell is perhaps the most Pym-like of any twentieth-century author, after Pym herself - Alexander McCall It's August in the Barsetshire village of Worsted, and Richard Tebben, just down from Oxford, is contemplating the gloomy prospect of a long summer in the parental home. But the numerous and impossibly glamorous Dean family - exquisite Rachel, her capable husband and six of their nine brilliant children - have come for the holidays, and their hostess Mrs Palmer plans to rope everyone into performing in her disastrous annual play. Surrounded by the irrepressible Deans, Richard and his sister Margaret cannot help but have their minds broadened, spirits raised and hearts smitten.
August Folly: A Virago Modern Classic (Virago Modern Classics #365)
by Angela ThirkellIt's August in the Barsetshire village of Worsted, and Richard Tebben, just down from Oxford, is contemplating the gloomy prospect of a long summer in the parental home. But the numerous and impossibly glamorous Dean family - exquisite Rachel, her capable husband and six of their nine brilliant children - have come for the holidays, and their hostess Mrs Palmer plans to rope everyone into performing in her disastrous annual play. Surrounded by the irrepressible Deans, Richard and his sister Margaret cannot help but have their minds broadened, spirits raised and hearts smitten.
A City of Bells: The Cathedral Trilogy
by Elizabeth GoudgeReturning injured from the Boer War, Jocelyn Irvin travels to the quiet cathedral town of Torminster. Welcomed there by his young cousin Hugh Anthony, his grandparents and their adopted daughter Henrietta, Jocelyn begins to rediscover his enjoyment of life.As he embraces old friendships and new relationships, Jocelyn becomes captivated by the mystery of writer Gabriel Ferranti, a man whose unexplained disappearance months before has cast a shadow which only his return can lift.A charming story of love, family and laying to rest ghosts of the past.What readers are saying about Elizabeth Goudge'Miss Goudge is a born storyteller' - 5 STARS'I wish I had discovered Elizabeth Goudge a long time ago!' - 5 STARS'One of the greatest storytellers of our time' - 5 STARS'Her writing is unique' - 5 STARS'Elizabeth Goudge is an author par excellence' - 5 STARS
Jamaica Inn: The thrilling gothic classic from the beloved author of REBECCA (Virago Modern Classics #12)
by Daphne Du MaurierAN UNFORGETTABLE STORY OF MURDER, MYSTERY AND PASSION, FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA.'Jamaica Inn is a first-rate page-turner' THE TIMES'Daphne du Maurier has no equal' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Jamaica Inn is a novel about nothing less than pure evil ... with an eerie and shocking kind of power, in the novel's astonishing final act' JULIE MYERSON, GUARDIAN In the bitter November wind, Mary Yellan crosses Bodmin Moor to Jamaica Inn. Her mother's dying wish was that she take refuge there with her Aunt Patience. But when Mary arrives, the warning of the coachman echoes in her mind. Jamaica Inn has a desolate power and behind its crumbling walls, Patience is a changed woman, cowering before her brooding, violent husband. When Mary discovers the inn's dark secrets, the truth is more terrifying than anything she could possibly imagine and she is forced to collude in her uncle's murderous schemes. Against her will, she finds herself powerfully attracted to her uncle's brother, a man she dares not trust.Jamaica Inn is a dark and gripping gothic tale that will remind readers of two other great classics, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. This was also made into a film, also called Jamaica Inn, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Jamaica Inn: The thrilling gothic classic from the beloved author of REBECCA (Virago Modern Classics #12)
by Daphne Du MaurierAN UNFORGETTABLE STORY OF MURDER, MYSTERY AND PASSION, FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA.'Jamaica Inn is a first-rate page-turner' THE TIMES'Daphne du Maurier has no equal' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Jamaica Inn is a novel about nothing less than pure evil ... with an eerie and shocking kind of power, in the novel's astonishing final act' JULIE MYERSON, GUARDIAN In the bitter November wind, Mary Yellan crosses Bodmin Moor to Jamaica Inn. Her mother's dying wish was that she take refuge there with her Aunt Patience. But when Mary arrives, the warning of the coachman echoes in her mind. Jamaica Inn has a desolate power and behind its crumbling walls, Patience is a changed woman, cowering before her brooding, violent husband. When Mary discovers the inn's dark secrets, the truth is more terrifying than anything she could possibly imagine and she is forced to collude in her uncle's murderous schemes. Against her will, she finds herself powerfully attracted to her uncle's brother, a man she dares not trust.Jamaica Inn is a dark and gripping gothic tale that will remind readers of two other great classics, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. This was also made into a film, also called Jamaica Inn, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
The Secret Journey: A Novel (The Furys Saga #2)
by James HanleyTo sustain her family, Mrs. Fury buries herself in debt At the top of the hill on the north side of town, Mrs. Ragner rules over her kingdom. A bitter old loan shark, she has a grip on all the families in this port city, and she squeezes each one for every last cent. For seven years, Mrs. Fury has borrowed money from Mrs. Ragner to send her son Peter to seminary. He never joined the priesthood, but the debt still stands. When she is unable to pay back her loan, Mrs. Ragner is happy to extend more credit. But every time they revisit their agreement, the interest rate rises and Mrs. Ragner's stranglehold on the Furys tightens. While his mother struggles to pay back her debts, Peter tries to find his way in the secular world. He is deeply in love with his older brother's wife, and his passion threatens to upend the family. The Furys think they have sacrificed everything for Peter, but they are not done yet. The Secret Journey is the second book of James Hanley's acclaimed Furys Saga.
The Weather In The Streets (Vmc Ser. #60)
by Rosamond Lehmann'A truly great book. It is beautifully written, shrewdly observed and deftly crafted, but the novel's real concern is what it means for a woman to live an authentic life' Elizabeth DayA chance encounter with the man who enchanted her as a teenager leads Olivia Curtis into to a forbidden love affair. He is now married, and Olivia's life changes to one of secret meetings, brief phone calls and snatched liaisons in anonymous hotel rooms.Years ahead of its time when first published in 1936, this subtle and powerful novel shocked it readers with its searing honesty and passionate portrayal of clandestine love.* Books included in the VMC 40th anniversary series include: Frost in May by Antonia White; The Collected Stories of Grace Paley; Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault; The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter; The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann; Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith; The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Heartburn by Nora Ephron; The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor; and Faces in the Water by Janet Frame
The Weather In The Streets: Invitation To The Waltz And The Weather In The Streets (Virago Modern Classics #250)
by Rosamond Lehmann'A truly great book. It is beautifully written, shrewdly observed and deftly crafted, but the novel's real concern is what it means for a woman to live an authentic life' Elizabeth DayA chance encounter with the man who enchanted her as a teenager leads Olivia Curtis into to a forbidden love affair. He is now married, and Olivia's life changes to one of secret meetings, brief phone calls and snatched liaisons in anonymous hotel rooms.Years ahead of its time when first published in 1936, this subtle and powerful novel shocked it readers with its searing honesty and passionate portrayal of clandestine love.* Books included in the VMC 40th anniversary series include: Frost in May by Antonia White; The Collected Stories of Grace Paley; Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault; The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter; The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann; Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith; The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Heartburn by Nora Ephron; The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor; and Faces in the Water by Janet Frame
Winterbound
by Kate Seredy Margery Williams BiancoFour city-bred children find themselves on their own in an unheated New England farmhouse in this captivating tale by the author of The Velveteen Rabbit. With their father gone on a business trip and their mother assisting a faraway relative, Kay, Garry, Caroline, and Martin must rely on themselves--and each other--to solve the day-to-day challenges of a chilly country winter.Margery Williams Bianco's Depression-era novel offers young readers an inspiring tale of the value of self-reliance as well as the importance of family ties. The 1937 Newbery Medal-winning Honor Book is enhanced by charming black-and-white illustrations.
Full House (Virago Modern Classics #221)
by Molly KeaneSilverue -- an enchanting Irish mansion -- is owned by one of the most frightening mothers in fiction -- the indomitable, oppressively girlish Lady Bird. Blessed with wealth and beautiful children she has little to worry about except the passing of the years and the return of her son John's sanity. To help her through the potentially awkward occasion of John's return from the asylum she has enlisted the support of Eliza, a woman she believes to be her confidante. But Eliza has her own secrets and John's homecoming will prove the catalyst for revelations which Lady Bird would much rather leave buried.
The Furys: A Novel (The Furys Saga #1)
by James HanleyA boy returns home from seminary to a family on the verge of collapse For almost seven years, Mrs. Fury has done nothing but think of Peter. Of her five children, he is the youngest, her darling boy whose future she planned out long ago. It was for Peter that she took one child out of college and married another off--for Peter that she sent a third to work at sea. She has sacrificed everything so that Peter could return to Ireland to study for the priesthood. He is to be the family's salvation--but after seven years in seminary, Peter has failed. Mrs. Fury receives two telegrams: One telling her that Peter is coming home, the other bearing the news that her eldest son, Anthony, has fallen from his ship's mast and is in a hospital in New York. With two slips of paper, Mrs. Fury's hopes for the future are dashed. But this Irishwoman is strong as iron, and she will do whatever it takes to keep her family together--if only for Peter's sake. The Furys is the first book of James Hanley's acclaimed Furys Saga.
The Furys Saga: The Furys, The Secret Journey, Our Time Is Gone, Winter Song, and An End and a Beginning (The Furys Saga #1)
by James HanleyA powerful five-volume story of a working-class Irish Catholic family in England by a “novelist of distinction and originality” (E. M. Forster). In five novels, published between 1935 and 1958, James Hanley chronicled the struggles of an Irish Catholic family of seafarers in a fictional port city based on Liverpool, evoking the harsh realities and frustrated longings of Britain’s working class. The complete saga offers abundant proof that Hanley “is that rarity of rarities: a genuine original” (The New York Times Book Review). The Furys: As matriarch Fanny Fury struggles to hold her family together, youngest son Peter returns from seminary in disgrace—dashing her hopes for him—and her other son Desmond becomes involved in union organizing and a violent strike, in this “novel of turbulent power” (The New York Times). The Secret Journey: Fanny Fury continues to sink deeper in debt to moneylender Anna Ragner, who has a grip on all the families in this port city. But it is Peter’s involvement with the woman—complicated by his affair with his brother’s wife—that will lead to a violent end. Our Time Is Gone: As World War I tears Europe apart, the Fury family is disintegrating as well. With her husband gone back to sea and her beloved son Peter imprisoned, Fanny collapses. Slowly she is able to pull herself up by doing service as a cleaner for troopships. Winter Song: After Denny Fury’s ship was reported torpedoed, his wife staggered into St. Stephen’s Hospice, prepared to die. But when the shipwrecked old man appears, the reunited couple decides to finally return to Ireland, no matter how difficult the journey. An End and a Beginning: After serving fifteen years in prison, Peter Fury has been released. With his parents gone, there is nothing left for him in England. A pilgrimage to Ireland to see their final resting place will start him on his new life where he may finally find freedom.
Life with Father
by Clarence DayA rich, uproarious book about family life, with amazing, amusing, warmhearted characters.
The Ante-Room (Virago Modern Classics #295)
by Kate O'BrienIreland, 1880 and a prosperous, provincial family observes the three great autumnal feasts of the Church. As Teresa Mulqueen lies dying, her family gather round her and beneath this drama another, no less poignant, unfolds. Unmarried daughter Agnes awaits the return of her sister Marie-Rose and brother-in-law Vincent. She adores her sister, but secretly, pasionately, loves Vincent. And their marriage, she knows, is unhappy...Ahead lies a terrible battle between her uncompromising faith and the intensity of her love. In this delicately imagined novel, originally published in 1934, Kate O'Brien lays bare the struggles between personal need and the Catholic faith with the sympathy and insight which is the hallmark of her craft.
Call It Sleep
by Henry RothA sensitive boy's growing up is one strand in a complex web of his parent's tense life, their immigrant strangeness in a new land.
My Marriage
by Michael Hofmann Jakob WassermannAlexander Herzog, a young writer, goes to Vienna to escape his debts and a failed love affair. There he is pursued by book-loving Ganna: giddy, girlish, clumsy, eccentric, and wild. Dazzled and unnerved by her devotion to him, and attracted to the large dowry offered by her wealthy father, he thinks he can mold Ganna into what he wants. But no one can control her troubling passions. As their marriage starts to self-destruct, Herzog will discover that he can never escape her.Posthumously published in 1934 and based on Wassermann's own ruinous marriage, My Marriage is a tragic masterpiece that unfolds in shocking detail. This story of rare intensity and drama is now brought to English readers in a powerful translation by Michael Hofmann.
Wild Strawberries: A Virago Modern Classic (Virago Modern Classics #379)
by Angela ThirkellPretty, impecunious Mary Preston, newly arrived as a guest of her Aunt Agnes at the magnificent wooded estate of Rushwater, falls head over heels for handsome playboy David Leslie. Meanwhile, Agnes and her mother, the eccentric matriarch Lady Emily, have hopes of a different, more suitable match for Mary. At the lavish Rushwater dance party, her future happiness hangs in the balance . . .
Wild Strawberries: A Virago Modern Classic (Virago Modern Classics #379)
by Angela ThirkellPretty, impecunious Mary Preston, newly arrived as a guest of her Aunt Agnes at the magnificent wooded estate of Rushwater, falls head over heels for handsome playboy David Leslie. Meanwhile, Agnes and her mother, the eccentric matriarch Lady Emily, have hopes of a different, more suitable match for Mary. At the lavish Rushwater dance party, her future happiness hangs in the balance . . .
As It Happened: A Novel
by David StoreyA wry and deeply affecting novel about a man's ruminations on art and death by the Man Booker Prize-winning author of This Sporting Life Matthew Maddox is an art historian and professor emeritus at the Drayburgh School of Fine Art. Nearing 70, his 3 sons are grown and his ex-wife, Charlotte, has remarried. After a failed suicide attempt in front of a moving train, Maddox attends art therapy classes in order to find new meaning in his life. Although he is isolated, Maddox does have his champions. Simone, his lover and partner, is returning shortly from an analysts' conference in Vienna. She has her own baggage, but Simone feels responsible for Maddox. Others who genuinely care about Maddox include his former mentor Daniel Viklund, whose wartime past fascinates Maddox; his older sister, Sarah; and his younger brother, Paul. There is also Eric Taylor, once his most promising student, now a convicted murderer, in whom Maddox sees echoes of his own life. An unabashed novel of mental illness, As It Happened tells of the prisons in which we find ourselves, the anxieties that exert their hold, and the desperate search for purpose in how we live and how we die.
Flight into Camden: A Novel
by David StoreyA miner's daughter leaves home to make a new life in London with a married teacher in this beautiful love story that won the 1961 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize Most of Margaret's family is graveside when they lay her grandfather to rest. Although everyone is in the same place, they are not really together. Margaret descends from Yorkshire coal miners, stoic people who have mastered the art of burying their feelings deep underground. Her relatives may be content to live this way, but Margaret yearns for something more. A secretary at the Coal Board, she gets a glimpse of another life when she visits her brother at his university and a fair-haired art teacher catches her eye. The teacher's name is Howarth; he is married, but that does not stop Margaret from risking everything she has in order to be with him. To escape the oppressive presence of her family, Margaret and Howarth flee to London. At first intoxicated by love, Margaret is soon shocked by what she finds in the city, and by how impossible it is to truly leave home.