The bestselling Australian novel of all time, Thorn Birds is the sweeping saga of three generations of the Cleary family. Stoic matriarch Fee, her devoted husband, Paddy, and their headstrong daughter, Meggie, experience joy, sadness and magnificent triumph in the cruel Australian outback. With life's unpredictability, it is love that is their unifying thread, but it is a love shadowed by the anguish of forbidden passions. For Meggie loves Father...

Doctor Thorne is a tale of love, envy, violence, greed, and vanity...but mainly love. Doctor Thorne lives with his beautiful niece, Mary, who has every virtue save money for a dowry. Only Mary's uncle, Doctor Thorne, knows the truth of her mysterious origins and can resolve the many problems facing his ward.

A brash newspaperman in 1830s New Jersey must decide if redeeming his career is more important than a future with the intriguing woman he investigates, who turns out to be Ruth Livingstone--the daughter of a man involved in a high-profile trial.

The narrative follows Bishop Jean Latour and Father Joseph Vaillant, friends since their childhood in France, as they organize the new Roman Catholic diocese of Santa Fe subsequent to the Mexican War. While seeking to revive the church and build a cathedral in the desert, the clerics, like their historical prototypes, Bishop Jean Laury and Father Joseph Machebeuf, face religious corruption, natural adversity, and the loneliness of living in a strange...

"Book 1 of Anthony Trollope's popular "Chronicles of Barsetshire" series. In "The Warden", a crusading young physician seeks to expose corruption in the operation of an old age home by the facility's administrator, the respected Rev. Septimus Harding. Unfortunately, the young doctor fancy's Harding's daughter.Trollope's "Chronicles of Barsetshire" has been prized by readers for its entertaining exploration of the fictional English county of Barsetshire...

Hester Prynne is the adulteress, forced by the Puritan community to wear a scarlet letter A on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister and the secret father of her child, Pearl, struggles with the agony of conscience and his own weakness. Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband, revenges himself on Dimmesdale by calculating assaults on the frail mental state of the conscience-stricken cleric. The result is an American tragedy of stark...

In 1650s England, a young Puritan maiden is on a mission to save the baby of her newly widowed preacher--whether her assistance is wanted or not. Always ready to help those in need, Elizabeth ignores John's protests of her aid. She's even willing to risk her lone marriage prospect to help the little family. Yet Elizabeth's new role as nanny takes a dangerous turn when John's boldness from the pulpit makes him a target of political and religious leaders....

"Hester Prynne is an adulteress, and the bright red 'A' sewed on to her dress forever separates her from the other sad-colored inhabitants of her New England hometown. But no one else knows who the father of Hester's pixie-like child is-and that sordid mystery eats at the townspeople. Months stretch into years for the uncomplaining and dignified Hester, providing some of her begrudging neighbors with ample opportunity for prying, hypocrisy, contempt,...

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"London, 1893. Seeking refuge after the death of her husband, Cora Seaborne departs for coastal Essex. Once there, she hears rumors that after nearly three hundred years, the mythical Essex Serpent, a fearsome creature that once roamed the marshes, has returned. Eager to investigate, Cora is introduced to parish vicar William Ransome. As they attempt to discover the truth, these seeming opposites find themselve inexorably drawn together--and as their...