Showing results by narrator "David Thorn" in All Categories

The wonderful adventure story of two boys, one the son of a mysterious impoverished grandee and the other a handicapped son of a n'eer-do-well drunkard, who together travel through Europe on a secret mission to save Samavia from its wicked rulers.

This extraordinary “eye-witness” account of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey's rise and fall from power was written between 1554 and 1558 by his gentleman-usher, George Cavendish, who was privy to so much of the Cardinal's ambitious endeavors. However, Cavendish prudently waited a long time before chronicling his observations for fear of his life, as there were those who may have take his memoirs the wrong way.

Here are American author Howard Pyle's exciting and hilarious tales of Robin Hood and his merry band of outlaws, who reigned over Sherwood Forest doing many good deeds for the poor - and deserved misdeeds to the pompous and haughty rich.

The Lost Prince is the enchanting story of a young boy discovering his true destiny. Twelve-year-old Marco knows he is being trained for something, but he isn't sure what. All his life he has traveled with his father in secrecy, learning many languages and the ways of a gentleman, but forbidden to speak about their country of origin, Samavia. Samavia has been fraught with war for the last 500 years, ever since the prince mysteriously disappeared.

Sir Richard's family has spent years waiting for him to die, but despite his weak heart, the old man simply refuses to cooperate. In the meantime, he makes their lives miserable by changing his will every few months, depending on which of his strange brood he favors that moment. Now he calls them together to announce his most diabolical revision yet: complete disinheritance of all the wastrels who bear his name. But he never gets a chance to sign the papers—by morning, he's dead. Scotland Yard sends Inspector Cockrill.

Set and written in 1726, This is a marvelously imaginative tale of the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver. He finds himself shipwrecked and the prisoner of captors ranging in size from 6 inches tall to 60 feet tall and of various other persuasions. But this is just the beginning of a story written, strangely enough to satirize the foolishness and vices of modern men as they were perceived at the time. No one, young or old, can ever forget the Lilliputians and the Yahoos that starred in these wonderful and riveting stories of long ago.

Based on historical fact, full of intrigue and chivalry at a time when Normandy was not part of France, this is the romantic childhood history of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy. After his father was assassinated, when he was just nine years old, he is kidnapped and imprisoned by Louis of France, who wanted to annex Normandy. But thanks to the bravery and daring of Richard's loyal squire and knight, Osmond de Centeville, he makes good his escape.

The ubiquitous butler, Jeeves, comes to the rescue of his new master, Bertie Wooster, from a fate worse than death, so they say. And in the second tale, poor Bertie is summarily dispatched to New York, by an overbearing aunt, to extract his cousin from an amorous affair with a vaudeville artiste! How absolutely dreadful! Jeeves’ managing of affairs offers such wonderful amusing stories that make us laugh and enjoy his ingenuity to the fullest.

In May 2010, British politics entered a revolutionary new era. With the election of the first hung parliament since 1974, Britain found itself in the unfamiliar world of coalition government. Explaining what this all means, this incisive introduction shows us how our politics is changing and why we should care about it. Exploring the structure of British government, ‘spin’, foreign policy, and the fallout from the expenses scandal and the financial crisis, Grayson reveals the complex interactions that determine everything from the taxes we pay to when we put the wheelie bin out.

Wodehouse introduces us once again to the "wonder butler" Jeeves, who, as usual is able to solve any and all of Bertie Wooster's endless problems with ease and finesse. And he also introduces us to a character not dissimilar to Bertie . . . by name of Reggie. Such fun to follow Jeeves in the hijinks!

For many enlightened, liberal-minded thinkers today, and for most on the political left, evil is an outmoded concept. It smacks too much of absolute judgements and metaphysical certainties to suit the modern age. In this witty, accessible study, the prominent Marxist thinker Terry Eagleton launches a surprising defence of the reality of evil, drawing on literary, theological, and psychoanalytic sources to suggest that evil, no mere medieval artefact, is a real phenomenon with palpable force in our contemporary world.

American author Howard Pyle (who also wrote The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood) weaves the tales of chivalrous knights, the magic sword of Excalibur, the magician Merlin the Wise, and the legendary Arthur, later to become King of Britain. Pyle describes bouts of jousting and knightly jealousies played out in grand style.

The first set of an extraordinary collection of 10 sets of personal letters written by Lord Chesterfield to his illegitimate son, young Philip Stanhope, then living abroad with his tutor to further his education. His Lordship, later secretary of state, hoped that his son would follow in his footsetps and took endless pains to instruct him on the essential and finer beharioral traits of a the aristocracy, which might lead him to such dizzying heights.

The year is 1935. Beneath the sweltering sun of French North Africa only the tough, iron men of the Foreign Legion stand between the restless tribesmen of the interior with their dreams of jihad, and the innocent traders and colonists of the coastal towns. Lieutenant Crispin de Corville, a secret agent for the Legion, discovers a plot to unite the tribes and win the essential arms and ammunition for their revolt, taking them from the Legion itself.

After Jane Austen's earliest known writings, she began a more serious work, Lady Susan, in 1793 or 1794. It is a short, epistolary novel that portrays a woman bent on the exercise of her own powerful mind and personality to the point of social self-destruction.

Claimed as the first detective story in the English language, Wilkie Collins weaves his classic mystery through a series of often "meandering" narratives by various characters in the book who had first hand knowledge surrounding the disappearance of a large valuable yellow diamond (the Moonstone) from the room of it's young owner, Rachel Verinder.

The book chronicles - sometimes dramatically, sometimes poignantly - the king's imprisonment after his defeat in the civil war, the events and paliamentary debates leading up to the charges of high treason being brought against the king, and a virtual transcript of the trial itself - bringing into our living-rooms the spirited arguments between Charles and the president of the court, Lord Bradshaw.

The colorful Cossack way of life is made alive and real in this historical novel.

Tolstoy's first novel and acknowledged as one of his best, it is based on his own forays into the Caucasus, abandoning his aristocrat life of gambling and carousing in Moscow and volunteering to be attached to the regular army.

Richard Hannay, Buchan's hero in this 1915 thriller, stumbles across a dark plot to attack England by the German Reich (of World War I vintage) but has to flee when his discovery becomes known. He then engages in several hot pursuits and narrow, if theatrical, escapes, but all's well that ends well.

Dick Heldar is a war correspondent and an artist, well known for the drawings he sends home to the London papers from wars in exotic places like Sudan. When he returns to London, he attempts to make a career for himself as a serious artist and re-encounters his childhood sweetheart, Maisie. He then learns that a minor problem with his eyes is actually the onset of an incurable blindness, the result of a head injury during the war.