As England becomes enmeshed in the early days of World War II and the men are away fighting, the women of Chilbury village forge an uncommon bond. They defy the Vicars stuffy edict to close the choir and instead "carry on singing," resurrecting themselves as the Chilbury Ladies Choir. We come to know the home-front struggles of five unforgettable choir members: a timid widow devastated when her only son goes to fight; the older daughter of a local...

This updated authoritative edition of the classic Hardy novel, which was published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, is set from Hardy's revised, unedited final draft of 1912 and features a new Introduction and Afterword. There is in England no more real or typical district than Thomas Hardy's imaginary Wessex, the scattered fields and farms of which were first discovered in Far from the Madding Crowd. It is here that Gabriel Oak observes...

"The story opens when an unemployed farmhand, Michael Henchard, sells his wife, Susan, and daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, while in a drunken stupor at a fair, for five guineas to a sailor called Newson. On sobering up the following day, Henchard is filled with remorse, swears a twenty year abstinence from alcohol and begins a search for his family. Eighteen years later the reformed Henchard has become the mayor of Casterbridge, but his past is set to...

Dangerous adventures continue for the djinni Bartimaeus and his master, seventeen-year-old Nathaniel, a powerful magician who is serving as England's minister of information.

"Imagine a London where magic is real... real, but feared. This is Eliza Braxton's London, and she has always accepted her place in it gladly. As one of the Riftborn, her magic has relegated her to the servant class, where she dutifully serves as the lady's maid in one of the most powerful households in the country. There, she uses her remarkable powers of persuasion to keep Elder Hallewell's rebelious daughter in the path to an arranged match of...

The death of a Resistance leader has thrown Post-Rift London into upheaval, and Eliza Braxton, a Riftborn lady’s maid with exceptional magic, has promised her help to the rebel cause. But she quickly realizes that her role as a spy in the powerful Hallewell household will place her— and perhaps even those she loves— in near-constant peril. Resistance leader Eli Turner has concocted a new scheme which, if successful, will expose to the world...

Convinced that he is destined for great wealth, power, and influence, Edward Glyver will do anything to reclaim a prize that is rightfully his, including a showdown with his rival, poet-criminal Phoebus Rainsford Daunt

Sylvester Jones and Nicholas Winters, founders of the Arcane Society, each sought to enhance their individual psychic talents. Winters' efforts led to the creation of a device called the Burning Lamp. Each generation the Winters man who inherits it is destined to develop multiple talents and the curse of madness. Now, plagued by hallucinations and nightmares, notorious crime lord Griffin Winters is convinced he has been struck with the Winters Curse...

Nathaniel, a young magician's apprentice, becomes caught in a web of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion, after he summons the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Loveland.

"Jasper Sullivan, Earl of Blackwater, needs a prostitute. Not in the usual way, however. His wealthy uncle's will promises to divide his huge fortune among his nephews if each rescues a fallen woman...by marrying her! And since Jasper's estates were already mortgaged to the hilt before he inherited them, when he catches a pretty young prostitute trying to pick his pocket, he immediately makes his proposal. Clarissa Astley is not at all what Jasper...