Victorian Society

What if everything you admired about the Victorians—was built on denial? Beneath the lace gloves and gaslight of 19th-century England lay a darker world—one of public executions and private abuses, imperial brutality and official denial, moral posturing and systemic hypocrisy. The Dark Side of the Victorian Era pulls back the velvet curtain to reveal the crimes, cover-ups, and contradictions that polite society worked hard to ignore. From child migrants sent overseas under the banner of Christian charity to the macabre spectacles of execution day, from Parliament’s strategic silences ...

Once the cherished daughter of a respected and affluent family, Emma Haverleigh is left penniless and grieving after her father’s sudden downfall and death. Armed only with her sharp mind, thorough education, and biting wit, she is forced to seek employment as a governess—an unthinkable descent for a woman raised to attend salons, not serve in them. Her post takes her to the stately home of the Duke of Westmoreland, a brooding widower whose young daughter is as unruly as she is clever. Though Emma intends only to survive her new station with dignity, her quick tongue and fearless ...

Would you give up everything for the one you love? This heartwarming Regency romance collection is filled with mystery, suspense, and of course, love. Diamonds of the Marquess Lady Emily Dove doesn’t know whom to trust. Her true identity must never be known. Promise of the Earl A scarred man. A mysterious secret. A courageous woman who dares to follow her heart. Entangled with the Viscount Lady Ashton and Lord Johnston must trust only each other to work their way out of a dark mystery, and perhaps allow their hearts to become entangled in the process. The Duke’s Bidding Lord March is ...

Venetia Milton's memories of a romantic night with Gabriel Jones—an alchemist's descendant—are shattered soon thereafter by news of his death. Adopting the guise of his respectable widow, she embarks on a new career as a fashionable photographer in London, where her unique ability to "see" beyond her subjects makes her photographs highly prized. But Venetia's romantic whim causes unexpected trouble.

One photograph. One brave girl. One hundred years of inspiration. London, 1901. Adelaide Springett was just ten years old when photographer Horace Warner asked to take her picture. She looked down at her only pair of shoes—scuffed, worn, with holes in the toes—and made a remarkable decision. Rather than be judged by her poverty, Adelaide quietly removed her boots and stood barefoot before the camera, chin lifted high, eyes full of quiet strength. That single moment, captured forever on a glass photographic plate, became one of the most powerful images of childhood resilience ever ...

As heartless as he is handsome, Aubrey Villiers, the Duke of Richford, has perfected the art of not caring one whit about anything except his pursuit of pleasure. His past is as dark as his moods, and the rumors about his curious carnal needs would make any proper innocent miss swoon. Lady Rhiannon Northwick, however, is anything but proper. And as for her innocence? She has a plan in mind to rid herself of that rather nettlesome inconvenience.

Dr. Barnabus Milligan has always felt called to help people, whether that means setting a broken bone or rescuing the impoverished women of London from their desperate lives on the streets, as part of his work with the Dread Penny Society. Three years ago, he helped rescue Gemma Kincaid by secretly marrying her to protect her from her family of notorious grave robbers. But six months after Gemma and Barnabus exchanged vows, she realized her love for her new husband was unrequited. To protect her heart, she left.

London, 1866. Móirín Donnelly has spent the last five years working in the shadows for the Dread Penny Society, a secret fraternity of penny dreadful authors who use their profits, influence, and street smarts to protect the poor and vulnerable of Victorian London. But spending so much of her life in secret is taking its toll on her soul—and her heart. When members of the Dread Penny Society begin disappearing, Móirín turns to her friend Detective Constable Fitzgerald Parkington for help.

This brilliant satirical novel, tracing the life and loves of Ernest Pontifex, has continued in popularity since its original publication in 1903. Every generation finds in The Way of All Flesh a reaffirmation of youth's rightful struggle against the tyranny of harsh parents and its admirable will for freedom of personal expression.

Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it's a pleasant existence. Until the men show up.

In The Adventuress, Emily and husband Colin have come to the French Riviera for what should be a joyous occasion - the engagement party of her lifelong friend, Jeremy, duke of Bainbridge, and Amity Wells, an American heiress. But the merrymaking is cut short with the shocking death of one of the party in an apparent suicide. Not convinced by the coroner's verdict, Emily must employ all of her investigative skills to discover the truth and avert another tragedy.

In 1903, tensions between Britain and Germany are starting to loom over Europe, something that has not gone unnoticed by Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves. An agent of the Crown, Colin carries the weight of the empire, but his focus is drawn to Italy by a series of burglaries at his daughter’s palazzo in Florence - burglaries that might have international ramifications. He and Emily travel to Tuscany where, soon after their arrival, a stranger is thrown to his death from the roof onto the marble palazzo floor.

This collector’s anthology compiles all the penny dreadful short stories from Sarah M. Eden’s five-book Victorian romance series. Included in this edition are three new never-before-released stories. Each short story is written in the style of the Victorian fiction that became so popular during that time period. From ghost stories to adventures to mysteries, Sarah weaves these gothic tales among her romantic storylines, making it the perfect way to celebrate the Dread Penny Society series.

One of Dickens' early works, Nicholas Nickleby combines comedy and tragedy in a tale of triumph over adversity that is interspersed with Dickens' moving condemnation of society's mistreatment of children and the cruelty of the educational system. Young Nickleby struggles to seek his fortune in Victorian England, yet succeeds despite social injustice, in a story that mirrors Dickens' own rise from poverty to great success.

The three novels that make up The Forsyte Saga chronicle the ebbing social power of the commercial upper-middle class Forsyte family through three generations, beginning in Victorian London during the 1880s and ending in the early 1920s. Galsworthy's masterly narrative examines not only their fortunes but also the wider developments within society, particularly the changing position of women.

Can Emily find the courage to save herself and give her heart to the man she truly loves? Miss Emily Smythe has loved Viscount Wickton ever since she set eyes on him. Having always been a quiet wallflower, she lacks the courage to tell Lord Wickton the truth about how she feels. However, Lord Wickton does not appear to be at all interested in her and, despite her sorrow, Emily decides that she will have to allow Lord Davenport to pursue her instead. Lord Arthur Wickton has always appreciated Miss Smythe’s acquaintance but has never allowed himself to consider his heart. When witnessing ...

Alexia Maccon, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears; leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep...

It is a warm summer Saturday at 221B Baker Street, and Dr. Watson has very little planned for himself after a long week tending to the expanding list of patients his medical practice has brought to him, when a messenger comes dashing to the door and upends his plans, setting him and the great Sherlock Holmes off to the headquarters of the British Zoologia Society, an august and exclusive club for explorers and collectors, whose stated intention is the expansion of human knowledge in the fields of natural sciences. According to the letter delivered expressly into Holmes’ hands, a matter of...

For the first time in its one-hundred-and-twenty-five-year history, the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate has authorized a new Sherlock Holmes novel. Once again, The Game's Afoot... London, 1890. 221B Baker St. A fine art dealer named Edmund Carstairs visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson to beg for...

Four Regency romances filled with mystery, suspense, and surprising twists. Join the lords and ladies of Regency England in this heartwarming romance collection. The Viscount’s Promise A mystery that surrounds Julianna’s family could lead her to the man who steals her heart. The Viscount’s Wife Will a shocking mystery lead Henrietta to her one true love? The Viscount’s Mystery A secret identity and a mystery unravel to reveal something sinister. The Viscount’s Heart Can Emily find the courage to save herself and give her heart to the man she truly loves?