Romantic, dense prose Books

In her Introduction to an edition of "Agnes Grey," Barbara A. Suess writes "Bronte provides a portrait of the governess that is as sympathetic as her fictional indictment of the shallow, selfish moneyed class is biting." Anne Bronte relies on her own personal involvement in her duties as a home teacher to bring Agnes Grey to life. Agnes, a rector's daughter, must take employment as a governess to help her family make financial ends meet. But her situations with the spoiled, self-obsessed Bloomfield children and later with the ruthless Murray family forces her into a lonely, humiliating experience that is a wearying one extraordinarily blossoming into a romantic relationship with the local vicar, Edward Weston. Agnes' concern for her family brings her to these unfortunate trials where she suffers stupid and egotistic proprietors and their over-indulged progeny. She was not able to foresee the hardships she would have to undergo along with the class snobbery to which she was also subjected. And yet a career as a governess was the only "respectable" job available to an unmarried woman in Victorian England. Bronte's simple and uncomplicated rendition of these sordid affairs made circumstances surrounding such brutish conditions authentic enough to necessitate investigation and improvement.

Dreaming of marriage? When Matilda's father retires through ill health, the family's new life in Much Winterlow is in reduced circumstances. To make ends meet, Matilda applies to be Dr. Henry Lovell's receptionist. She does her best to ignore the strong attraction she feels for him. Dreaming of a wite wedding and a happy marriage are not for her! And Henry is engaged to Lucilla, after all. But Henry won't leave the village despite Lucilla's wish to live in London, and as he gets to know Matilda, he becomes more and more intrigued by her...

When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction. In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.

Francesca Bowen has cut short her medical career to look after her elderly aunt, so she jumps at the chance to be assistant to Lady Trumper. But Francesca soon discovers that she's made the wrong decision and is being treated like a dogsbody. Then, suddenly, a glimmer of hope appears.... Professor Marc van der Kettener unexpectedly proposes! Marc has been a helping hand since they met -- but Francesca is confused by his sudden proposal. Does Marc just want to help her out of a tight spot, or has he really fallen in love...?

A business proposal...or more? Meeting Dr. Roele van Dyke was a blessing for Emma Dawson. He always seemed to go out of his way to make her happy, and she couldn't imagine life without him.... And when the time came for Roele to return to Amsterdam permanently, he knew he couldn't leave Emma behind. So he offered her a job at his surgery. Emma was in love and simply couldn't refuse. But did Roele want Emma to be his secretary or his wife?

Three friends and a hanger-on gradually coalesce into two couples.

Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her, until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters she meets at the Pension Bertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney Signora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate son George. Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of Edwardian England, personified in her terminally dull fiancé Cecil Vyse. Will she ever learn to follow her own heart?

The Professor was the first novel that Charlotte Bronte completed. Rejected by the publisher who took on the work of her sisters in 1846 - Anne's Agnes Grey and Emily's Wuthering Heights - it remained unpublished until 1857, two years after Charlotte Bronte's death. Like Villette (1853), The Professor is based on her experiences as a language student in Brussels in 1842. Told from the point of view of William Crimsworth, the only male narrator that she used, the work formulated a new aesthetic that questioned many of the presuppositions of Victorian society. Bronte's hero escapes from a humiliating clerkship in a Yorkshire mill to find work as a teacher in Belgium, where he falls in love with an impoverished student-teacher, who is perhaps the author's most realistic feminist heroine. The Professor endures today as both a harbinger of Bronte's later novels and a compelling read in its own right.

Author of inward In Clarity & Connection, Yung Pueblo describes how intense emotions accumulate in our subconscious and condition us to act and react in certain ways. From the celebrated author of Inward comes a new collection of poetry and short prose that illuminates how past wounds impact our present relationships. Originally published: 27 April 2021

You have no family, no home and no prospect of marrying. That might be true, but Venetia Forbes didn't see her situation as any reason to accept Professor Duert ter Laan-Luitinga's prosaic proposal! But after tasting champagne for the first time in her life, Venetia was astounded to hear herself saying yes. My ward needs an example of a contented, harmonious marriage. Without love Venetia was convinced their marriage might be anything but harmonious by the time young Anneta went to her aunt in America! And what would happen to their marriage then?

Written from 1852 to 1856, this autobiographical novel was Tolstoy's first publication. The early life of Nikolai, the son of wealthy landowner in Russia, is fully explored, slowly revealing this young boy's inner mind, relationships, and social standing. As he describes his tutor, angelic mother, aloof father, worldly brother, and later his moralistic friend, Nikolai displays a mind given to dreaming and a personality as complex as it is conflicted. As he grows and moves from his country home to his grandmother's mansion in Moscow, Nikolai also struggles at intervals to find a sort of moral balance, which affects his love, his education, and the type of man he might become. Tolstoy demonstrates, even in this first literary attempt, his ability to utilize a host of minor characters to fully develop the internal life of his main character. "Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth" shows in its three parts not only the deliberate building of a protagonist but also a universal story about coming of age. This novel has proven itself to be a seminal work for an extraordinary novelist. - Digireads.com

There was a time when the world was sweeter....when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats.... Every April, when the wind smells of both the sea and lilacs, Landon Carter remembers 1958, his last year at Beaufort High. Landon had dated a girl or two, and even once sworn that he'd been in love. Certainly the last person he thought he'd fall for was Jamie, the shy, almost ethereal daughter of the town's Baptist minister....Jamie, who was destined to show him the depths of the human heart-and the joy and pain of living. The inspiration for this novel came from Nicholas Sparks's sister: her life and her courage. From the internationally bestselling author Nicholas Sparks, comes his most moving story yet....

I have been a fan of Elvis Presley for many years now. But some of the things in this biography of him I did not know. Many things I did. It is a very well written book on Elvis . And I would recommend it to any Elvis fan who wants to know more about him. Many photos I loved. Peggy Myers.

When Ali first meets Amirah, he notices everything about her - her hijab, her long eyelashes and her red trainers - in the time it takes to have one look, before lowering his gaze. And, although Ali is still coming to terms with the loss of his mother and exploring his identity as a Muslim, and although Amirah has sworn never to get married, they can't stop thinking about each other. Can Ali and Amirah ever have a halal 'happily ever after'?

“The Voyage Out” by Virginia Woolf. This is a story about a young English woman, Rachel, on a sea voyage from London, to a South American coastal city of Santa Marina. As I read the story, the title of the story became a metaphor for Rachel's inner journey. The inner journey within this story is perhaps best summarized in the author's words: “The next few months passed away, as many years can pass away, without definite events, and yet, if suddenly disturbed, it would be seen that such months or years had a character unlike others.” Rachel's mother has passed away many years ago. The sea voyage and the subsequent months in Santa Marina show that Rachel is also on an inner journey, to understand herself better. She seeks advice from Helen, her aunt, and Helen and Rachel become close friends. “…................The vision of her own personality, of herself as a real everlasting thing, different from anything else, unmergeable, like the sea or the wind, flashed into Rachel's mind, and she became profoundly excited at the thought of living...................” Rachel falls in love with a young Englishman, Terence, in Santa Marina. But tragically, she falls ill and dies. Yet, in the brief time that Helen and Terence have known her, her journey has also made them reflect about their own lives.

*Night Flight* (French title: *Vol de Nuit*) is the second novel by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in 1931 and became an international bestseller. The book is based on Saint-Exupéry's experiences as an airmail pilot and as a director of the Aeroposta Argentina airline, based in Argentina. The characters were also loosely based on people Saint-Exupéry knew in South America. Notably, the character of Rivière was inspired by Didier Daurat, operations director of the Aéropostale. More details can be found in Saint-Exupéry's 1939 memoir, *Wind, Sand and Stars*. (Source: Wikipedia)

Gipsy's Acre is a truly beautiful upland site with views out to sea and, for Michael Rogers, it stirs a child-like fantasy. He wants to settle there, amongst the dark fir trees. Yet, as he leaves the village, a shadow of menace hangs over the land. This is the place where accidents happen. Perhaps Michael should have heeded the locals' warnings: "There's no luck for them as meddles with Gipsy's Acre."The novel was adapted for the screen and released in 1972. It starred Hayley Mills and Britt Eklund. Agatha Christie was unhappy with the attempt to enliven the plot by infusing the movie with sexual scenes. Both Christie and her husband claim in their respective autobiographies that the novel is among their favorites due to the "twisted" character who had a chance of turning good but instead chose evil. The book is dedicated to the author's relative Nora Prichard, who first told the author about a field called 'Gipsy's Acres' on the Welsh moors. The title of the novel is drawn from the Romantic poet William Blake's Auguries of Innocence, of which a key line is 'Some are born to Endless Night'.

Eliot’s epic of 19th century provincial social life, set in a fictitious Midlands town in the years 1830-32, has several interlocking storylines blended effortlessly together to form a fully coherent narrative. Its main themes are the status of women, social expectations and hypocrisy, religion, political reform and education. It has often been called the greatest novel in the English language.

Thirteen-year-old Hadley begins to better understand her teacher and herself when she has to spend a day in her teacher's body.

Charity thought she had it all—marriage to respected consultant Tyco van der Brons and being a mother to his two children. So why did her heart yearn for his love, too? She had known from the start that theirs was a marriage of convenience—so it would be foolish to wish for anything more...wouldn't it?

A comedic story about a member of the landed gentry of nineteenth-century Russia whose indolence destroys his life.

**strong text**Olympia's overbearing aunt used her as her personal servant, until attractive Dutchman Waldo van der Graaf quite literally rescued her. He suggested that she exchange her life of drudgery for the role of his wife. Waldo needed someone to look after his small daughter and run his home--a marriage of convenience. Olympia was thankful and accepted his proposal, but soon realized she had only exchanged one set of problems for another when she found herself falling in love with her own husband!

In the second book starring Westchester County's most privileged middle schoolers, the Clique declares Massie a hero for hosting the first boy/girl Halloween party of 8th grade. Massie's already hired Landon Dorsey, the hottest party planner in the 9-1-4 area code, but her parents insist she has to invite the entire class. Unfortunately that means everyone. Layne is bummed that the boys will be there -- she IMs Claire that's so "DESPR8" -- as Claire wonders if maybe a boyfriend will make her happy.Meanwhile, Massie and the Clique are fighting over who gets to invite Derek Herrington. Dylan thought it was obvious that she was the one who danced all night with Derek at the OCD benefit last month, but says "Whatevs" when Kristen gets all weird about it. Fine, she can have him. He was a terrible dancer anyway and there will be tons of guys to choose from at the party....