To Kill a Mockingbird is a modern American Classic and winner of a Pulitzer prize. I must admit I got curious to read it after seeing several references about it in movies like Capote and Failure to Launch. Oddly enough I have yet to see the actual movie based on the book which has acquired fame in its own right, winning three Oscars in 1963 including one for Gregory Peck. I think it is better this way though, as I had a chance as much as possible to form an unbiased impression of the book.

The plot is set around a lawyer from the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, appointed to defend a black man accused of raping a white girl in the early 1900s. Not much novelty in that, just one more amongst the many cases of racism and segregation in the America at that time. What brings beauty and an tone of immortality to Harper Lee’s text is that the story is told through the eyes of a little girl, Scout Finch, daughter of the lawyer, Atticus Finch. Scout is a tomboy. Since her mother died when she was still a baby, she and her brother, Gem Finch, have been raised by her father and Cal, the housemaid. Scout is very forward for her age, opinionated, and her behavior is far from what is expected from a young lady of Maycomb society.

With an upfront and direct personality and the innocence that is characteristic of children, Scout introduces us to Maycomb with all its qualities, injustices and idiosyncrasies. In her narrative, Scout is not always aware of the many layers of complications existing in the facts she describes, her innocence makes her somewhat naïve, but the incongruence and unfairness of the situation are not lost on the reader.

The war between the few citizens that believe in a fairer world in which all men are equal and the crowd that prefers to keep the status quo has the expected ending, but that doesn’t matter. What really matters, according to Atticus Finch, is to do the right thing, to be able to walk tall, and to look your children in the eye without shame, assured of having given them the best example possible.

I was expecting this to be a difficult book to read, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It is very touching to see the story unfold while Scout grows up along with it. I highly recommend it.

• Send them to the colonies
• “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen
• “O Pioneers!” by Willa Cather
• “The Secret Adversary” by Agatha Christie
• Two Sides of Slavery from a Female Perspective

The First Sir Percy could be called The Laughing Cavalier, Part II because it takes up where the previous book leaves off in the highly addictive Scarlet Pimpernel series. The cast of characters in the two novels is almost identical, except that we get to know Mynheer Berensteyn (Gilda’s father) and the Stadtholder (Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange) by actions more than mere reference. We also become reacquainted with the Stadtholder’s sworn enemy the Lord Stoutenburg, who has grown more dastardly and despicable since his defeat at the hands of Diogenes at the end of The Laughing Cavalier. The comical and steadfast Pythagoras and Socrates are also there to join Diogenes in a Dutch version of The Three Musketeers.

Our hero’s story begins with an air of celebration in the Berensteyn’s hometown of Amersfoort. The happy circumstance (which I will not mention here for fear of spoiling the surprise) soon turns to dismay as Amersfoort is overrun by the Netherlands’ enemy, Spain. We soon learn that the invaders had Lord Stoutenburg to thank for betraying his homeland and making their ingress possible.

The residents of the city soon come to the bitter realization that Stoutenburg has arrived to oversee the occupation forces. To settle a more personal matter, he moves into the Berensteyn household and tries to create as much misery as he feels they have visited upon him. In his twisted imagination Stoutenburg envisions that a little emotional blackmail is the most effective means of renewing his broken betrothal to Gilda. Surprisingly, he nearly succeeds. Gilda’s weak and untrustworthy brother, Klaas also makes inroads in his own quest to prove Diogenes (or Sir Percy, to the English) a traitor.

The story teeters on the brink of disaster, as again, we wonder just who can we trust, and how in the devil is Diogenes going to get out of this trap, and again, should he? To tell more of this story, even the events in the beginning, would give away the ending of The Laughing Cavalier. Thus, suffice it to say that if you have read The Laughing Cavalier, don’t stop there. After all, you’ve already learned the Dutch, you know the characters, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy The First Sir Percy.

• “The Laughing Cavalier” by Baroness Orczy
• “The Scarlet Pimpernel” by Baroness Orczy
• “Whose Body?” by Dorothy Sayers
• “Belinda” by Maria Edgeworth
• “A Humble Romance and Other Stories” by Mary E Wilkins Freeman

Strange how the literary mind works; if I can be so conceited as to call my mind “literary.” While reading The Laughing Cavalier I continually chastised myself for thinking snobbish thoughts. To be specific, “This book is so enjoyable, it cannot have been a critical success.” Baroness Orczy’s books did manage to buy her an estate in Monte Carlo, but what did the critics say? My research never turned up a pro or con on this issue, but I wondered just the same.

Not without just cause. Anyone who has been to high school knows that “the classics” can get really boring. More recently, I pondered the phenomenon of “Critical Acclaim” again when I read The Workshop: Seven Decades of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. The stories presented in this book were intriguing until the timeline progressed to the ‘60’s, at which time the stories became progressively pointless and uniformly depressing. When I finished Gail Godwin’s “A Sorrowful Woman,” I closed the book and forgot about reading any more “critically acclaimed” works. To Ms. Godwin’s credit, hers was a well-written story, but the only inspiration one gets from this story might be to buy razor blades.

Only recently, I read in the Wall Street Journal that Daphne Du Maurier died a wealthy but sorrowful woman because her works never received the critical acclaim she craved. I thought maybe she should take it as a compliment. In my plebeian opinion Rebecca is one of the finest novels ever written, and as intriguing as The Last of the Mohicans is boring.

So tell me again, what this has to do with The Laughing Cavalier? No, I don’t think the critics liked TLC. Yes, I do recommend it. TLC is an engaging and even educational novel. You learn some European history. You learn some art history, and you learn a lot of words from the Dutch language. The words, even the swear words, can create a learning curve that may take a while to overcome.

The story takes place in Holland, where a plot to kill the Stadtholder (one of those Dutch words for a ruler) was in the planning in a Cathedral on New Years’ Eve, 1624. As luck would have it, the sister of one of the plotters overheard the plans. The plotters found it necessary to remove the young woman until the deed was done, and since they could not find it in their hearts to kill her, they arranged to have her kidnapped. When they happened upon the “laughing cavalier”, Diogenes, they knew they had found the perfect man for the job. The Cavalier is very good at what he does, and the kidnapping is accomplished without a hitch, except that Diogenes must return to finish posing for his friend, Franz Hals, who needs to finish his painting called The Laughing Cavalier, in order to sell the painting and feed his family. After the painting is finished, Diogenes and Hals mosey over to the local tavern to quench their thirst. There they meet a local nobleman who is overcome with grief because his daughter has been kidnapped. Hals, unaware of Diogenes’ previous deed, encourages the nobleman to hire his friend to rescue her. Although Diogenes tries to demure, Hals will not take “no” for an answer, and the nobleman, convinced, offers Diogenes half his fortune to bring his daughter home.

Unlike The Scarlet Pimpernel, his ancestor, Diogenes, has not yet established himself as a man of sterling character or irreproachable moral integrity. Some of the fun of TLC is that one is uncertain whether he will wind up in jail or on the scaffold, and whether he just might deserve such a fate.

An interesting historical note is that Baroness Orczy was a painter as well as a writer, although she was not successful as a painter, a likely reason why she included a real-life painter in her novel. Franz Hals was actually a painter of this historical period. His painting of The Laughing Cavalier appears as the cover for this ebook download.

• “The Scarlet Pimpernel” by Baroness Orczy
• “The First Sir Percy” by Baroness Orczy
• “The Secret Adversary” by Agatha Christie
• “The Mill on the Floss” by George Eliot
• “The Lamplighter” by Maria S. Cummins

Little Women was first published in 1868 as two volumes and was an instant success. The novel concerns the lives and loves of four sisters growing up during the American Civil War. Beautiful Meg, tomboy Jo, serene Beth, and selfish Amy are based on Alcott’s own experiences with her three sisters.

The first part of the novel, originally Volume 1, portrays the vibrant March sisters navigating the hurdles of growing up poor but genteel young women. Each has character flaws she must recognize and overcome. Alcott shows them make mistakes, discover the reasons for their mistakes–usually with the help of their saintly “Marmee”–and learn to try harder.  Volume II starts with Meg’s marriage and subsequently follows the young women, as they are now, into adulthood. The fact that Alcott carries her story past the romance and marriage of her characters diverges from what we’ve come to expect from stories about young women. The story, like real life, doesn’t end when the marriage happens.

Today’s reader might find some aspects of the novel moralistic–however Alcott is never preachy. She broaches subjects such as etiquette, feminine behavior, and the roles of the parent, spouse and child in a happy home. These moral teachings can be used by the reader or disregarded, but the completely genuine way Alcott presents her subject matter makes it easy to digest. If you are open to the advice she is giving, Little Women makes for a wonderful self-help book for women and men of all ages. I found myself taking Alcott’s advice in the social interactions of my own home–trying harder to say and do nice things or finding reward in the happiness of others. While her plot and method of exposition may be slightly dated, the ideas Alcott is sending us with Little Women are timeless.

• “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” by Anne Brontë
• “My Ántonia” by Willa Cather
• “Belinda” by Maria Edgeworth
• “The Secret Adversary” by Agatha Christie
• “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Originally published in 1919, Night and Day contrasts the daily lives of four major characters while examining the relationships between love, marriage, happiness, and success. Like Virginia Woolf’s first novel The Voyage Out, Night and Day is a more traditional narrative than her later novels. Unlike her first novel, however, Night and Day relies much more on its characters’ internal struggles to push the its plot forward. What results is a character study of a very quiet group of people who are actually in the throes of deep anxiety and indecision.

It is difficult to immediately come to a conclusion about this novel. The Voyage Out ends with a forceful impact upon your emotions that leaves you reeling. Night and Day, by contrast, ends quite simply and lets you put down the book and go about your day. Upon reflection, however, it has many precious, seemingly innocuous moments that imprint on your memory. Many of these moments involve solitary musings of one of the characters. Upon further reflection, I became irritated with the two of the major characters (Ralph Denham and Katharine Hilbery) and felt a severe lack of exposition into two more interesting characters (Mary Datchet and Mrs. Hilbery).

Perhaps the title–a contrast in itself–could explain the duality of both the novel and one’s reaction to it. Reading reviews of other readers hardly gives insight into what one’s own reaction will be. I mentioned before that Amazon is a good source of reviews. However, Goodreads is becoming an excellent resource, outrunning Amazon many times in number and quality of reviews. For Night and Day in particular, one reviewer will extol the many virtues of the book, proclaiming it her favorite Woolf novel, and the next will denounce it, saying that if Woolf had stopped here, no one would know who she is today. Perhaps you must figure this one for yourself.

• “The Voyage Out” by Virginia Woolf
• “Jacob’s Room” by Virginia Woolf
• “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” by Anne Brontë
• “The Professor’s House” by Willa Cather
• “Wives and Daughters” by Elizabeth Gaskell

In 1927, the world belongs to men, but Grace Langdon won’t let herself be tied down by such restraints. She longs to escape the narrow, restricted life in Virginia that is sure to be hers if she stays in her community. When Grace learns her parents have arranged a marriage for her with a local young man, she runs away from home to live life on her own terms and heads for Chicago. There she meets her brother’s neighbor, she begins to believe that true love might exist for her.

The second is L. Lee Lowe’s Mortal Ghost.

It’s a fiery hot summer, and sixteen-year-old Jesse Wright is on the run. An oddly gifted boy, he arrives in a new city where the direction of his life is about to change. He’s hungry and lonely and desperate - and beset by visions of a stranger who is being brutally tortured. And then there are Jesse’s own memories of a fire …

Both novels are available for free download, in several ebook formats, from our ebook catalog. We thank these two authors for graciously contributing their books to our site.

In other news, the full length adaptation of Sense and Sensibility directed by Ang Lee is available free, online at Hulu.com.

• Girlebooks Christmas Stories
• The Girlebooks Jane Austen Collection
• “Pride and Prejudice” free downloads
• “Oroonoko” by Aphra Behn
• “Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen

Meet Peter Wimsey, an English lord with a penchant for solving sordid crimes. Mervyn Bunter, Wimsey’s valet, plays Dr. Watson to Lord Peter’s skewed Sherlock. The unflappable Bunter is a gifted investigator in his own right and a skilled photographer of fingerprints. He also serves to keep the mercurial Lord Peter on course. Throw in detective Parker, a mild-mannered Scottish bachelor and dedicated Devil’s Advocate to Lord Peter’s impulsive conclusions. Add Inspector Sugg—the bumbling “arrest first and ask questions later” police official who is Parker’s boss. With these colorful characters you have the makings of an entertaining romp of a detective novel, given author Dorothy Sayers’ dry wit, careful plot weaving and charming use of language.

What makes this a unique detective novel is that before the crime can be solved, the investigators must decide if a crime has been committed and, more importantly, who is this dead man to begin with? And what is he doing in someone else’s bathtub wearing only a pince nez*? Lord Peter’s soft-hearted knack for making friends with the suspects complicates the investigation and sometimes weakens his resolve to complete the investigation. After all, for him this is just a hobby.

Were it not for his man, Bunter, the wayward lord might have ridden off into the sunset rather than pursue this case to its rightful end. It is Bunter who gains the confidence of the suspects’ man servants. He gleefully, if respectfully, confesses that he plied his snitches with Lord Peter’s best port wine and some carefully applied defamation of Lord Peter’s character.

Lord Peter himself makes some fascinating observations regarding what he sees at the crime scene and why they have relevance to the crime. Unless she has a photographic memory, the reader will find herself backtracking to refresh her mind regarding these clues. To her credit, Sayers carefully sews up every clue in what has got to literature’s the longest suicide note (written by the perpetrator, of course.)

*A pince nez is something like a pair of glasses with no earpieces. The device “pinches” the “nose.”

• “The Secret Adversary” by Agatha Christie
• “The First Sir Percy” by Baroness Orczy
• “The Cat Who Went Bananas” by Lilian Jackson Braun
• “The Professor’s House” by Willa Cather
• “Antarctica on a Plate” by Alexa Thomson

In the same way that reading Gone With the Wind brings to mind War and Peace, reading The Scarlet Pimpernel reminds the reader of A Tale of Two Cities. Margaret Mitchell may not have been another Leo Tolstoy, and Baroness Orczy may not be the equal of Charles Dickens, and yet the reader can still enjoy their novels as much as one did the bona fide classics (and perhaps even more, as the non-classics are admittedly easier to read than their classic counterparts.) The action of The Scarlet Pimpernel takes place in the same two cities as A Tale of Two Cities, (Paris and London) and reflects the same time frame—the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution. In both books, women knitted while they watched the Guillotine do its macabre work, and men assumed dual identities to save the lives of people who sometimes were guilty of no more than belonging to the class of French “Aristos”.

In this first novel (but third in chronological order) of the Scarlet Pimpernel series, the question foremost in the reader’s mind is “Who is the Scarlet Pimpernel?” We do know that he is a master of disguise, and that he signs his name with a likeness of the small red flower from which he derives his name. The plot involves an unintended betrayal by a loved one, a desperate flight into France to save more Aristos, and a daring charade to mislead an unscrupulous French henchman hot on the Pimpernel’s trail. To tell more would be to give away some of the delights of this novel.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is a fast-paced and easy read, with an adequate, but not overwhelming, amount of suspense. Some have suggested that this novel is a precursor to the Superhero genre of Superman, Spiderman and Batman. There may be some similarities here, but significant dissimilarities exist. The three superheroes each have uniforms that define their alter-egos. The Scarlet Pimpernel is effective because no one recognizes his alter ego. He might perhaps show up as an old woman or a hunchback or an unsavory trader. He is effective because he can meet a French official face to face and get past without the official realizing who he is or what he is doing.

Finishing this book will motivate the reader to seek out further episodes, and to discover what mysteries will be uncovered now that the Scarlet Pimpernel’s identity and methods have been revealed. Please check back here for more books to come in the Scarlet Pimpernel series.

• “The Laughing Cavalier” by Baroness Orczy
• “The First Sir Percy” by Baroness Orczy
• “The Mill on the Floss” by George Eliot
• “The Secret Adversary” by Agatha Christie
• Lilian Jackson Braun: The Cat Who… series

• Girlebooks Christmas Stories
• “Romance of a Christmas Card” by Kate Douglas Wiggin
• “Birds’ Christmas Carol” by Kate Douglas Wiggin
• “The Cat Who Went Bananas” by Lilian Jackson Braun
• “O Pioneers!” by Willa Cather

First published in 1915, The Voyage Out is Virginia Woolf’s first novel.  It begins as Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose embark on a sea voyage for South America. Throughout their voyage and once they reach land there are many characters that float in and out of the text. Indeed, one is not sure who the main characters are until halfway through the novel. Clarissa and Richard Dalloway, the main characters of Woolf’s later novel Mrs. Dalloway, even make an appearance.

Once reaching land, Mrs. Ambrose along with her niece, Rachel, explore the environs and make friends with other tourists–notably with two young men, Hewet and Hirst. Here these four friends form several intertwining and interesting relationships that guide us through the rest of the story.

Woolf’s style is striking in the almost exclusive use of dialog interspersed with short, vivid descriptions of the characters’ inner thoughts. Through this innovative style she is able to communicate, among many other things, a candid and realistic portrayal of the act of falling in love and all emotions that come along with it–heartbreak and loss, desire and contentment, longing and questioning, quiet happiness and quiet despair.

Several interesting details in the novel will strike the modern reader, such as the almost total absence of interaction with the natives. Geographically, the location is supposed to be near the Amazon river system, but Woolf has imagined an Amazon where the natives speak a mix of Spanish and French, the mountains rise majestically out of the sea, and one lights the fire after dinner. While Woolf can easily be criticized for neglecting to research the technical details and for writing only about the upper classes and their manias, to dwell on these issues would be entirely beside the point. E. M. Forster put it best when he described The Voyage Out as “…a strange, tragic, inspired book whose scene is a South America not found on any map and reached by a boat which would not float on any sea, an America whose spiritual boundaries touch Xanadu and Atlantis.” (’The Novels of Virginia Woolf’, New Criterion, April 1926, 277.)

On a personal note, I’d like to say that my only previous experience with Woolf was reading Mrs. Dalloway for a class in college. Perhaps one must grow into reading Woolf, because I admit I remember almost nothing of this book except that it was boring and depressing. I picked up The Voyage Out expecting much of the same, but how wrong I was! This book is beautiful, one that you will remember long after you read it. I recommend it highly–but not too highly, as making your own discovery of its worth is part of the charm.

• “Night and Day” by Virginia Woolf
• “Jacob’s Room” by Virginia Woolf
• “Murder on the Iditarod Trail” by Sue Henry
• “Middlemarch” by George Eliot
• Lilian Jackson Braun: The Cat Who… series