Showing results by narrator "Lucy Scott" in All Categories

Often compared to Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest tells the poignant story of a passionate and spontaneous young woman who becomes trapped in a dull and restrictive upper-class existence. Married at the tender age of 17 to Geert von Innstetten, an ambitious nobleman and civil servant nearly 20 years her senior, unworldly Effi is whisked away to the quiet town of Kessin, on the Baltic coast of Prussia, where she is left to raise a daughter alone while her husband travels for work.

There are those who never grow old because they are taken too soon. There are those who grow old without worries, enjoying everything life has to offer. There are those who desperately try to slow down the ticking clock. And then there's Betty. Betty, who mysteriously stops growing old on her thirtieth birthday - the same age as her mother when she died. The years leave no trace on Betty's face, but as everyone around her is transformed by the relentless march of time, her once golden life begins to come apart.

Lying in bed next to the man of her dreams, Leah is crippled with fear and unable to sleep. She knows that her husband Jacob is going to wake up to her, not the woman of his dreams. Jacob worked and served Leah’s father Laban for seven years to marry her younger sister Rachel, but on the night of their wedding, the brides were switched; the right man was married to the wrong bride.

Polish by birth, Fryderyk Chopin made his name in post-Revolutionary Paris and is often depicted as the archetypal Romantic artist–blessed with extraordinary talent but consumed by the flame of genius, tormented by intense and tempestuous relationships and doomed to an early death. But how much of this story is based on fact? This account of Chopin’s life and times separates myth and reality and, illustrated with numerous musical examples, takes us from his youthful beginnings as ‘a second Mozart’ to the darkness and light of his life and the brilliance of his work.

1553: deeply divided England rejoices as the rightful heir, Mary Tudor, sweeps to power on a tide of populist goodwill. But the people should have been careful what they wished for: Mary's mission is to turn back time to an England of old. Within weeks there is widespread rebellion in favour of her heir, her half-sister, Princess Elizabeth, who is everything that Mary isn't. From now on, Elizabeth will have to use her considerable guile just to stay alive.

The truth about two women and an abandoned baby threatens to come to light, revealing buried trauma that will force them to confront the past… When they were nineteen, Olivia and Eve found a newborn baby in a phone box. That day marked the end of their friendship. The baby could have drawn them together, but instead, the trauma pushed them dramatically apart. A few days later, Olivia and Eve went their separate ways and never spoke to each other again.

Fräulein Schmidt and Mr. Anstruther is a novella written by Elizabeth von Arnim, a British-German author known for her witty and insightful novels. Published in 1907, the story revolves around the correspondence between two main characters, Fräulein Rose-Marie Schmidt, a spinster in her late 30s, and Mr. Henry Anstruther, a kind and sympathetic stranger, as they navigate their lives and explore their feelings for each other.

In a fog-wreathed London, the respected Dr. Jekyll’s experiments on the dual nature of man unleash a brute that feels no moral restraint or remorse. Although excited by this freedom, Jekyll discovers that he is unable to control the power of his vicious alter ego, and is faced with shameful discovery or ignominious death. Haunting and thrilling, this atmospheric fable is one of the world’s greatest short stories.

Sometimes called the greatest detective story ever written, The Hound of the Baskervilles, set on wild and desolate Dartmoor, with its menacing Tors, treacherous mires, and enveloping mists, pits the supernatural in the form of a spectral Hound against the rational mind of Sherlock Holmes, who with his companion Dr. Watson, attempts to solve the savage murder of the local squire, and save his successor from the curse of the Baskervilles.

In a remote corner of early Victorian England, where traditional practices remain untouched by time, Bathsheba Everdene stands out as a beacon of feminine independence and self-reliance. However, when confronted with three suitors, among them the dashing Sergeant Troy, she shows a reckless capriciousness which threatens the stability of the whole community.

Diana Hylton recounts her life experiences in Both Sides of the Track, where she candidly shares details about her life during childhood and the traumas that haunted her while she was growing up, continuing into adulthood. This is a compelling and inspiring account of how Diana emerged from significant trauma, hopeful and determined, despite all the complexities that she encountered at every turn.

It’s 1979 and Amanda Fernsby, nineteen and inexperienced, dreams of lasting love. She leaves London with her parents to start a new life in rural Sussex, moving into Marshywood, a charming, rustic cottage. Now, surrounded by nature, she is excited to begin her new life, but there are bumps in the road ahead.

May 1945 and at long last, Rosamund Caradon is feeling optimistic. As she returns the last few evacuees to London from her Devonshire manor, she vows to protect dance-obsessed daughter Jasmine from further peril. But a chance meeting with a Sadler's Wells ballet dancer changes everything. When the beautiful, elusive Briar Woods bursts into Rosamund's train carriage, it's clear her sights are set on the immediately captivated Jasmine. And Rosamund cannot shake the eerie feeling this accidental encounter is not what it seems.