By the mid-1700s, when Charlotte Lennox wrote The Female Quixote, romances were considered by many as dangerous. With a comparatively large literate population and books becoming easier to mass produce, romances lead credulous readers to think that the dream worlds of heroism and fantasy were true. Or so some thought.

O Pioneers! may be downloaded for free from our ebook catalog.
O Pioneers! starts with the death of John Bergson, a Swedish immigrant with a keen foresight to the eventual worth of his land in rural Nebraska. The rest of the novel follows the lives of his children, particularly Alexandra Bergson who inherits her father’s business [...]

Published in 1909, Three Lives was Gertrude Stein’s first published work. The book is made up of three stories: “The Good Anna”, “Melanctha”, and “The Gentle Lena”. The three stories are independent of each other, but all are set in the fictional town of Bridgepoint.

If you’re expecting something similar to Jane Eyre, you will most likely be disillusioned with Villette–but that’s not to say you won’t like it. While both are written by the same author and enjoy similar craftsmanship, the tone of the two novels could not be more different.

Belinda, first published in 1801, is the story of a young woman who comes of age amid the distractions and dangers of London society. From her stays at both the extravagant, aristocratic Delacours and the sober, rational Percivals, she molds her views on love and marriage and much more.

The first part of the narrative passes quickly, and just as it comes to a climax we pass to the second part: Helen’s diary of her life before moving to Wildfell Hall. I found this part of the story most engrossing. Helen describes her courtship and marriage to Arthur Huntingdon. We see their first meetings, their mutual attraction, her Aunt’s portentous warnings, their marriage, and the birth of their son. Then things get interesting.

At the end of her life, age 40, Margaret Fuller had earned the reputation of being one of the most radical and intellectual persons in the English-speaking world. Her book, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, and her front page reviews and articles in Horace Greeley’s New York Daily Tribune were read by all Americans who wished to keep up with what was most current. Yet Fuller remains invisible in textbooks today.

Happy Holidays, Girlebookers. If you are of the Christmas celebrating sort, may I point out we have two free Christmas-themed ebooks for your reading pleasure.
The Romance of the Christmas Card by Kate Douglas Wiggin spans not one but two Christmases and tells of a minister’s wife who is inspired by a real-life scene to design [...]