Showing results by publisher "Jimcin Recordings" in Historical Fiction

Society beauty Madeline Hammond arrives late one night by train to meet her "black sheep" brother. She is immediately swept up in the danger, drama, and excitement of the old West. This thrilling Zane Grey romance is told from the woman's point of view and will appeal to anyone who enjoys a fast-paced, historically accurate story.

Dostoevsky studied human nature with passion and precision. He plumbed the depths and never winced at what he found, even when it was beyond his understanding. This extraordinary novel is a recital of his findings, told in the story of four brothers: Dimitri, pleasure-seeking, impatient, unruly; Ivan, brilliant and morose; Alyosha, gentle, loving, honest; and the illegitimate Smerdyakov, sly, silent, cruel. What give this story its dramatic grip is the part these brothers play in their father's murder.

Maurice Leblanc, a writer of detective fiction during the same period as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, created Arsene Lupin, a sort of French Robin Hood. An inventive genius, a master of disguise, and an accomplished actor, Lupin operates in the choice chateaux and salons. He scorns sham and with great disdain leaves his card in a baron's residence. The card reads, "Arsene Lupin, gentleman-burglar, will return when the furniture is genuine."

My Ántonia tells the stories of several immigrant families who move out to rural Nebraska to start new lives in America, with a particular focus on a Bohemian family, the Shimerdas, whose eldest daughter is named Ántonia. The book's narrator, Jim Burden, arrives in the fictional town of Black Hawk, Nebraska, on the same train as the Shimerdas, as he travels to live with his grandparents after his parents have died.

Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening, published 1899, drew a storm of criticism for its "shocking, morbid, and vulgar" story and quickly went out of print. The novel was not resurrected until the 1950s, when participants in the growing women's movement recognized its importance. Today, The Awakening is among the most-read American novels in colleges and universities and is considered an early example of American realism.

Dragons of every size, color, and temperament reside in this delightful collection of clever tales by Edith Nesbit. There are dragons big, small, friendly, and fierce. Let our family of narrators lead you on a journey of discovery and wonder. This collection includes one of Nesbit's stories not included in the original, "The Last of the Dragons."

Algernon Blackwood was an English author who dealt primarily with the supernatural. The Willows, his most celebrated story, was influenced heavily by Blackwood's own trips down the Danube River. It tells the story of two campers who pick the wrong place to sleep for the night, a place where another dimension impinges on our own.

An officer accused of being a traitor says he "never wants to hear of the United States again". His wish is granted - and ends up being a terrible punishment.

The Big Bow Mystery is a masterpiece of the form, as compelling a story today as when it was first published. The author has produced a seminal crime novel - the original "locked room" mystery. With a flair for storytelling and a literate style comparable to his contemporary, Charles Dickens, Israel Zangwill concocts a heady satire of Victorian England, setting his scene in London's picturesque Bow district.

"So this is the little lady that made the big war." The authenticity of Lincoln's words have been questioned, but there is no question that the work fueled the passion and prejudices of countless numbers. It is a work of overwhelming power and persuasions which has outlived even the most severe critics. Notwithstanding its contribution to the abolitionist movement, the book offers a balanced treatment; there is admiration for the best of Southern gentility and the villain is a Vermonter.

This book is often thought to be the story of Jane Austen's own lost love. In it, she seems mellowed and more philosophical, touched perhaps by the sentiment of a story in which she saw herself as the heroine but in whose happy outcome she has a premonition that she would never play a part.

From the master of the western comes a tale of love tested by the rugged life of the American Southwest. Glenn Kilbourne returned from World War I a changed man. Suffering from shell shock and disillusioned by what he witnessed, he can no longer stomach his high-flying former life in New York City. In the canyons of Arizona he finds a kind of peace with himself, and has no desire to go back to his old life. Where does this leave his glamorous fiancé Carley?

O Pioneers! is one of Willa Cather's greatest novels. It is the story of a family of Swedish immigrants who take up farming in Nebraska. Young Alexandra Bergson becomes a heroine in the story when her father dies and she must take up the challenge of running the farm and taking care of her family. The portrait of Alexandra that Cather creates makes her one of the most-strong willed, intelligent and memorable characters in American literature.

Kept in the Dark is a probing psychological portrait of the near destruction of a marriage - a novel that combines keen insights with vigorous emotional strength. Jealousy, guilt, excessive pride, and compulsion all sweep across its surface.

The novel tells the story of Jane Withersteen and her battle to overcome her persecution by members of her Mormon church. She does this with the help of her non-Mormon cowboy friends Bern Venters and Lassiter.

Ben-Hur could be said to be the first American blockbuster. When it was published in 1880, it sold over two-million copies and was translated into numerous languages. Wallace's original novel has been largely forgotten now, but as this reading shows, the story, together with the sweeping rhythm of the writer's prose, make it ideally suited to audio.

Thomas Hardy brings us an England that once existed but no more. It is rural, traditional, pastoral - a society of mannered conduct that flows like a deep river where powerful currents eddy and swirl. In this powerful novel of love and disillusion, Hardy's heroine is torn between the three men in her life. Passionate but capricious, her romantic involvements have fascinated generations of readers.

Full of irony, this comedy of manners satirizes the self-deception of vanity. Emma presents a picture of mixed family and social life as did Pride and Prejudice, though mellowed by a riper humor. Emma equals Pride and Prejudice in its rich humor and vivid portraiture of character. It is a never ending delight in human absurdities, which the fascinated listener shares from chapter to chapter.

Sir Walter Scott gathered a popular audience, larger than any audience before. A great innovator,he created one of the outstanding literary forms of the past 200 years - the historical novel. In Ivanhoe, Scott brings to life 12th century England.

This audiobook is an account of Zane Grey's ancestors' harrowing struggle to settle the West. As the Revolutionary War draws to a close, the violence on the frontier escalates. The infamous Girty brothers incite Indians to a number of massacres; but when the Village of Peace, a Christian utopian settlement is threatened, two young brothers struggle, in their own way, to save the Mission, and promote Christianity to the Natives, all the while establishing new lives on the treacherous Border of the frontier.