"Winn Van Meter is heading for his family's retreat on the pristine New England island of Waskeke. Normally a haven of calm, for the next three days this sanctuary will be overrun by tipsy revelers as Winn prepares for the marriage of his daughter Daphne to the affable young scion Greyson Duff. Winn's wife, Biddy, has planned the wedding with military precision, but arrangements are sideswept by a storm of salacious misbehavior and intractable lust:...

"Here is a wonderful, rambunctious gallery of folk: the early "ornery" ones like Hetty Green, the "outsider" who came to Vermont contrary, and stayed to become more so; Russel Colvin, the alleged corpse, who turned out to be not so dead; Eleazer Wheelock's son, John, who became the second president of Dartmouth College -- right through Calvin Coolidge. Her are Vermont's weird religions, fights, sports and finaglings; her artists (including the adopted...

A chronicle of upper class British family life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil returns after more than a decade to give us an intimate look at the "magic, mystery, and decadence" of the city of Venice and its inhabitants. Venice, a city steeped in a thousand years of history, art and architecture, teeters in precarious balance between endurance and decay. Its architectural treasures crumble—foundations shift, marble ornaments fall—even as efforts to preserve them are...

A collection of short fiction explores the complexities of human relationships and emotions in stories about a housekeeper entering old-maidhood whose life is transformed by a practical joke and a lifelong philanderer who finds the tables turned.

A foundling of mysterious parentage, Tom Jones is brought up by the benevolent and wealthy Squire Allworthy as his own son. Tom falls in love with the beautiful and unattainable Sophia Western, a neighbor's daughter, whose marriage has already been arranged. When Tom's sexual misadventures around the countryside get him banished, he sets out to make his fortune and find his true identity. Against the vivid background of eighteenth-century London,...

"From the popular author of Kane and Abel and A Prisoner of Birth comes the story of one family across generations, across oceans, from heartbreak to triumph. The epic tale of Harry Clifton's life begins in 1920, with the words, "I was told that my father was killed in the war." A dock worker in Bristol, Harry never knew his father, but he learns about life on the docks from his uncle who expects Harry...

The death of Liam Hegarty, found drowned in the sea at Brighton, England, sparks a crisis in the life of his middle sister Veronica, who goes to retrieve the body and bring Liam home to Dublin where the Hegarty clan is gathering to mourn and remember.

Phineas Redux Anthony Trollope - When Phineas's wife dies, he becomes discontented with his life as a minor government functionary and longs to return to his exciting former career of politics in London. His luck is as strong as ever; his party is seeking to return to power with fresh blood, and with its support, he is once again elected to Parliament. However, he makes a bitter enemy within his own party, Mr. Bonteen. When Bonteen is murdered, there...