Alamosa Public Library

The daughter of an imprisoned debtor suffers injustices of nineteenth-century English society.

John Harmon returns to England as his father's heir. Believed drowned under suspicious circumstances--a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity--John evaluates Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colorful Victorian characters and incidents -- the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering's dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of the workhouse and the greedy plottings of Silas...

Great Expectations is Charles Dickens's thirteenth novel. It is his second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age novel, and it is a classic work of Victorian literature. It depicts the growth and personal development of an orphan named Pip. The novel was first published in serial form in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860...

Young Copperfield's life is happy at first, but he is forced to run away from his home following the arrival of his stepfather. David is then adopted by his aunt, Betsey Trotwood, sent to school at Canterbury and meets the unctuous Uriah Heep, whose activities lead eventually to David's self-discovery.

Since her mother died when she was born Sara and her father became very close. Sara has to go away to an all girl boarding school in Britian, because her father has to fight in the war. One day a messenger comes and tells her that her father is dead. Since Sara will lose all the money her father has she is forced to be a maid with the other maid who is black named Becky just so she can have a place to live. She finds out that her father is not dead,...

"When Dr. Croft takes in orphan Eleanor Beady, he doesn't realize that he's gained an apprentice. Raised amidst Croft's experiments, "Nora" becomes his most trusted assistant-an unthinkable and unlawful pursuit for a woman. Nora helps Croft's groundbreaking research and his clinic gain recognition, and she finds she doesn't mind working in the background, as long as she can continue to hone her skills. But the arrival of a new surgical resident threatens...

This book is a satire of early 19th century British society. A bewitching beauty who bends men to her will using charm, sex, and guile. An awkward man who remains loyal to his friends, even when those friends don't deserve his affection. A mother who cannot get over the loss of her husband and devotes her life to her child. Though written in 1847-48, William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair is peopled by types who remain familiar today. The novel's...

Some bodies just won’t stay buried . . .“For readers longing to be in 1890s London, Perry’s tales are just the ticket” (Chicago Tribune).
 Lord Fitzroy-Hammond of Resurrection Row has been dead and buried three weeks when he turns up sitting atop a hansom cab. Grave robbing, though a crime, isn’t Inspector Thomas Pitt’s usual fare. But when the macabre joke is repeated, and the...

Railway magnate Tom Severin is wealthy and powerful enough to satisfy any desire as soon as it arises. Anything--or anyone--is his for the asking. It should be simple to find the perfect wife--and from his first glimpse of Lady Cassandra Ravenel, he's determined to have her. But the beautiful and quick-witted Cassandra is equally determined to marry for love--the one thing he can't give. Severin is the most compelling and attractive man Cassandra...

When she stumbles upon the body of her neighbor Stapleton Hendersons wife, Lady Abigail Worthing, expecting to be under suspicion due to her skin color and her mother’s notorious past, teams up with Henderson and together they dive into the treacherous waters of London’s high society to find the truth.