Showing results by publisher "Jimcin Recordings" in Romance

Anthony Trollope is known primarily for his epic novels like Barchester Towers. However, he also wrote a number of smaller "gems". This is one of the best. Alice Dugdale is a plain but intelligent girl who sees the love of her life pushed by society to marry the beautiful, but somewhat vacuous, rich girl in town. Alice's reaction to this situation makes a wonderful and insightful story.

Society beauty Madeline Hammond arrives late one night by train to meet her "black sheep" brother. She is immediately swept up in the danger, drama, and excitement of the old West. This thrilling Zane Grey romance is told from the woman's point of view and will appeal to anyone who enjoys a fast-paced, historically accurate story.

Dostoevsky studied human nature with passion and precision. He plumbed the depths and never winced at what he found, even when it was beyond his understanding. This extraordinary novel is a recital of his findings, told in the story of four brothers: Dimitri, pleasure-seeking, impatient, unruly; Ivan, brilliant and morose; Alyosha, gentle, loving, honest; and the illegitimate Smerdyakov, sly, silent, cruel. What give this story its dramatic grip is the part these brothers play in their father's murder.

W. H. Hudson was born in 1841 in Buenos Aires and seems to have been a sort of permanently displaced person. He moved to London in 1869 and wrote a series of remarkable books, most with a wilderness setting. In 1904, when he was 63, he focused on an Indian legend for Green Mansions, a memorable romance of the jungle for which he is now chiefly remembered. His epitaph reads, "He Loved Birds and Green Places and the Wind on the Heath, and Saw Brightness of the Skirts of God."

Kept in the Dark is a probing psychological portrait of the near destruction of a marriage - a novel that combines keen insights with vigorous emotional strength. Jealousy, guilt, excessive pride, and compulsion all sweep across its surface.

This book is often thought to be the story of Jane Austen's own lost love. In it, she seems mellowed and more philosophical, touched perhaps by the sentiment of a story in which she saw herself as the heroine but in whose happy outcome she has a premonition that she would never play a part.

This is a rousing, old-fashioned tale that Grey based on the true story of a chapter of Western history -the deadly feud of the Tonto Basin in Arizona, also known as "The Pleasant Valley War."It might be compared to an Old West Romeo and Juliet with two feuding families and two star crossed sweethearts. Family loyalty, forbidden love and rivalry between cattle ranchers and sheep herders are all wrapped up in this classic western tale.

Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening, published 1899, drew a storm of criticism for its "shocking, morbid, and vulgar" story and quickly went out of print. The novel was not resurrected until the 1950s, when participants in the growing women's movement recognized its importance. Today, The Awakening is among the most-read American novels in colleges and universities and is considered an early example of American realism.

Fresh out of the hospital and low on funds, a young doctor decides to take a long sea voyage to restore his health. He signs on as a steward on board a millionaire's yacht. Then, one hot and humid summer night, the voyage starts to become a nightmare.

Thomas Hardy brings us an England that once existed but no more. It is rural, traditional, pastoral - a society of mannered conduct that flows like a deep river where powerful currents eddy and swirl. In this powerful novel of love and disillusion, Hardy's heroine is torn between the three men in her life. Passionate but capricious, her romantic involvements have fascinated generations of readers.

Theodore Dreiser's first and perhaps greatest novel appeared in 1900. The story is about a young country girl who moves to the big city, where she starts realizing her own American Dream by embarking on a life of sin rather than by hard work and perseverance. On publication, it met with outraged disapproval and was immediately withdrawn as "too shocking and sordid for polite readers".

Fanny Hill is an erotic novel that was first published in 1748 and has remained a best seller for over 250 years, in spite of its being banned shortly after publication. In 1966 the US Supreme Court ruled that it was not obscene, shortly after making the same ruling for Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence and Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. Today, it is considered, by many critics, to be an erotic masterpiece and a true literary classic.

Orrie Hitt was a prolific writer of “gritty” romances in the 1950s and '60s. He wrote over 150 novels and, unlike many hack writers of the time, he was very good at what he did, and still has a large following today. The website Criminal Element called him “The Shakespeare of Shabby Street". Here’s a bit more of what they had to say about him:

Full of irony, this comedy of manners satirizes the self-deception of vanity. Emma presents a picture of mixed family and social life as did Pride and Prejudice, though mellowed by a riper humor. Emma equals Pride and Prejudice in its rich humor and vivid portraiture of character. It is a never ending delight in human absurdities, which the fascinated listener shares from chapter to chapter.

Dutch has fled to Iceland after his girl breaks his heart by marrying someone else. When he inherits the family farm, he returns to take charge of the 250 acres. A chance meeting in a bar with a beautiful girl named Cherry leads to his teaming up with her and her photographer friend, Skip, to turn the farm into the latest fad, a nudist camp! Dutch also finds out that his former girlfriend, Penny, is now a widow. Will they rekindle their romance? Will the camp be a success, or are Cherry and Skip covering up their real plan?

In this book, written entirely in letters, we meet a young Victorian couple who are, at least in the beginning, profoundly ignorant of anything to do with sex. Then they meet a “woman with experience”, and their sexual education begins. They are soon awakened to their amorous longings and describe exactly how that happens in a series of letters. This book is for adults only, since the descriptions describe a wide variety of sexual activities very explicitly. Like many books of Victorian erotica, this book is a fascinating look at the “other side” of the Victorian era.

Back in the 1950's and 60's, Orrie Hitt was a prolific writer of romance novels. The "hanky panky" in his novels is tamer and less explicit than in many of today's romance novels, but the storylines were incredibly engaging. His characters are so fully developed that you either love them, hate them or pity them. In this novel, overworked and underpaid Danny O'Conner decides to take a little vacation at a resort, then decides to stay and work there. He soon becomes involved with three women, a lot of intrigue, and a great deal of danger.

From the master of the western comes a tale of love tested by the rugged life of the American Southwest. Glenn Kilbourne returned from World War I a changed man. Suffering from shell shock and disillusioned by what he witnessed, he can no longer stomach his high-flying former life in New York City. In the canyons of Arizona he finds a kind of peace with himself, and has no desire to go back to his old life. Where does this leave his glamorous fiancé Carley?

Orrie Hitt was a prolific writer of “gritty” romances in the 1950s and '60s. He wrote over 150 novels and was very good at what he did. Hitt still has a large following today. The website “Criminal Element” called him “The Shakespeare of Shabby Street".

Northanger Abbey certainly contains some elements of 18th century Gothic “potboilers” but with a satiric slant. It has the overbearing father who was “not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters”, although her mother does not die giving birth to her, and the “heroine”, Catherine Morland, prefers playing cricket with her brothers to any girlish pastimes like watering rose bushes or feeding canaries. The book is a hilarious parody and certainly the most lighthearted of Austen's novels.