William Ainsworth's historical novel opens in the dazzling court of François I, where power, pageantry, and peril move side by side. Into this glittering world rides Charles de Bourbon, the Constable of France: a nobleman of immense wealth, military renown, and proud independence, admired by many and feared by the king's inner circle. His rise sparks jealousy in François I, Louise de Savoie, Chancellor Duprat, and the ambitious Admiral Bonnivet, whose political scheming turns resentment in...

Contents: Compiled and Edited by Charles W. Eliot LL D in 1909, the Harvard Classics is a 51-volume Anthology of classic literature from throughout the history of western civilization. The set is sometimes called "Eliot's Five-Foot Shelf." This e-book is all 51 volumes, the equivalent of over 20,000 printed pages in one e-book. It is fully searchable with a completely linked table of contents. + - All 20 volumes of the 'Harvard Classics Shelf Of Fiction' Each volume is also available separ...

William Harrison Ainsworth's Preston Fight is a vivid historical novel of the Jacobite rising of 1715, where loyalty, sacrifice, and doomed idealism collide in a struggle for throne and faith. From the grandeur of Dilston Castle to the tense councils of rebel leaders, the story traces the tragic nobility of men who risk everything for a lost cause. It is a sweeping blend of romance, military action, political intrigue, and richly imagined historical detail. At its heart stands Lord Derwent...

William Harrison Ainsworth turns the flight of Charles II after the Battle of Worcester into one of the most romantic and suspenseful episodes in English history. Against the backdrop of a beautiful but vulnerable city, he traces the loyalist hopes, Parliamentarian alarms, and desperate military preparations that lead to the king's defeat and escape. Worcester itself becomes a vivid character: ancient, proud, strained by war, and split between republican control and secret devotion to the ...

Against the stormy reign of Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain, William Harrison Ainsworth unfolds a historical romance of courts, conscience, and national destiny. At the center stands Cardinal Pole, whose return of England to Catholic communion is greeted with solemn ceremony, public thanksgiving, and the uneasy triumph of papal authority. Yet beneath the pageantry lies a nation split by faith, where mercy and persecution collide in dangerous debate. In the private chambers of Lambeth Palace...

William Harrison Ainsworth's Guy Fawkes, or The Gunpowder Treason is a sweeping historical romance shaped by political intrigue, religious conflict, and tragic passion. Set against the brutal anti-Catholic policies of James I, it exposes the persecution of recusants, especially in Lancashire, and follows the conspiracy from its secret beginnings to betrayal, imprisonment, trial, and execution. Ainsworth frames the novel with moral seriousness and a plea for toleration, while introducing fi...

Chetwynd Calverley opens in a storm of wounded pride, contested inheritance, and family suspicion, centered on the country house of Ouselcroft. When Mildred greets her estranged brother Chetwynd on his return home, he learns that their father, Mr. Hugh Calverley, is gravely ill and has summoned his attorney to draw up a new will, threatening to redirect the family fortune. Chetwynd's bitterness toward Mrs. Calverley, his anger over the collapse of his engagement to the proud and beautiful ...

This meticulously edited horror collection is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: H. P. Lovecraft: The Tomb The Dunwich Horror The Shunned House Bram Stoker: Dracula The Dualists Edgar Allan Poe: The Cask of Amontillado The Mystery of Marie Rogêt The Premature Burial Mary Shelley: Frankenstein The Evil Eye Arthur Machen: The Great God Pan The Terror William Hope Hodgson: The Ghost Pirates The Night Land Algernon Blackwood: The Willows The Wendigo A ...

Windsor in 1529: Henry has seen Anne Boleyn, Wolsey is falling, and Herne the Hunter rides the forest with antlers on his head and an offer for anyone desperate enough. Ainsworth briefly outsold Dickens and wrote thirty-nine novels; here he binds the Tudor court to a genuine Berkshire legend, and the result is history and folk horror in the same volume, which nobody else managed.

William Harrison Ainsworth's Windsor Castle (1843) is a theatrical historical romance set in the reign of Henry VIII, entwining court intrigue, desire, and Gothic supernaturalism around Herne the Hunter. Moving between Tudor ceremony and the haunted recesses of Windsor Forest, the novel dramatizes Anne Boleyn's fall, Jane Seymour's rise, and the moral volatility of absolute power. Its melodramatic pacing, antiquarian detail, songs, legends, and picturesque description place it within the V...

No sooner was Mary, eldest daughter of Henry VIII., securely seated on the throne left vacant by the premature death of her brother, Edward VI., than the Emperor Charles V., already related to her through his aunt, Katherine of Aragon, determined to bring about a marriage between the Queen of England and his son Philip. By the accomplishment of this project, which had been conceived by the Emperor during Edward's last illness, the preponderance obtained in Europe by the House of Austria wo...

A fantastic classic novel set during the events of the Great Plague and Great Fire of London in 1665-1666.