The novel takes place in the French 19th century countryside. The parents of Landry and Sylvinet, identical twins, who are respectable and relatively rich farmers, do not follow the advice that was given at their birth to keep separating and differentiating them while they are still young. Consequently, they grow up always together and loving each other more than anything else. They are actually quite different, Landry being stronger both physically and mentally. But when they are 14 years old, one has to leave to work in a neighbouring farm. While the separation is also very hard for Landry, his pride makes him try to hide it, contrary to Sylvinet who cries and is very demonstrative. Sylvinet does not understand and therefore is hurt by Landry''s cold attitude and regularly sulks. When looking for his brother, Landry must deal with Fadette. Fadette lives with her disabled and mentally slow brother and her grandmother who is very hard on them. They are despised by the other villagers because they are considered as witches and are always very dirty. This day, Fadette helps Landry to find his brother but he had to promise her that if she has to help him a second time, she could ask him to do anything she wants. And it happens that Landry needs her advice again to cross a river. Consequently, Fadette asks him to dance with her and only with her at the next village celebration. Landry is very annoyed since she has a bad reputation and besides, he wanted to dance with Madelon, a popular girl he is interested in. However, he reluctantly keeps his promise and even defends Fadette against boys who were bothering her. Touched and ashamed, she tells Landry to dance with whomever he wants and leaves the party. However, Landry goes after her and hears her crying. They then have a deep discussion for a long time in the dark and Landry realises that she is a very kind, sensible, intelligent and respectable person. He even wants to kiss her but she refuses, telling him that he will regret it the next day. And she was right. The day after, Landry, remembering her dirty face, does not understand how he could have felt such an attraction for her. But soon after, he overhears a conversation between Fadette and Madelon that shows how the first one is kind and humble and the other girl is vain and proud, which revives his feelings for her. Fadette and Landry later are engaged in a secret relationship. Sylvinet is aware that something is different with his brother and suffers a lot. He discovers their secret but keeps it to himself. But when Madelon finds out, she spreads the news in the village. Everyone including Landry''s parents are shocked and urges him to end the relationship. Landry refuses but Fadette decides to leave to stop the scandal. Some time after, Landry also has to leave since he thinks that being separated would do his brother good. When Fadette comes back, she has become a respectable, clean and good-looking person. Thanks to her grandmother''s death, she inherits a large amount of money and is able to look after herself and her brother properly. Everyone in the village finally acknowledges her merits and Landry''s parents approve of their engagement. But jealousy again makes Sylvinet ill. Although he initially refuses to see Fadette, she actually manages to cure him and he finally accepts her... and even more since he decides at the end of the book to enlist, after his brother marries Fadette. Although Landry is unaware of it, their mother and probably Fadette realised that Sylvinet had fallen in love with her and did not want to obscure Landry''s happiness.

La Petite Fadette

In 1801 the British have risen to power in Egypt and suppress the worship of the old Egyptian gods. A cabal of magicians plan to drive the British out of Egypt by bringing the gods forward in time from an age when they were still powerful and unleashing them on London, thereby destroying the British Empire. In 1802, a failed attempt by the magicians to summon Anubis opens magical gates in a predictable pattern across time and space. In 1983, ailing millionaire J. Cochran Darrow has discovered the gates and found that they make time travel possible. Darrow organizes a trip to the past for fellow millionaires to attend a lecture by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1810. He hires Professor Brendan Doyle to attend and give expert commentary. One of the magicians, Doctor Romany, happens to spy the time travelers and kidnaps Doyle before he can return. Doyle manages to escape torture and flees back to London, now trapped in the 19th century. Doyle joins a beggars guild and meets a beggar named Jacky. He plans to meet and befriend William Ashbless, a wealthy poet that Doyle has studied profusely, in order to gain a benefactor. Doctor Romany scours the city for Doyle with his legion of murderous beggars, led by the clown-magician Horrabin. At the same time, Doyle discovers that Darrow has remained in the 19th century to search for Dog-Face Joe, a body-swapping werewolf, in hopes of bribing Joe into granting him a healthy new body. Doyle himself becomes targeted by Joe, receiving the poisoned body of Darrow''s former bodyguard, but manages to cure himself of the poison. In his new body, Doyle realizes that he himself is the historical Ashbless. He copies down Ashbless'' poetry from memory and deduces his own future from his study of Ashbless'' life. Using this knowledge, he continues to thwart the magicians'' plans. After Romany discovers a gate to the 17th century, Doyle follows him through and stops his attempt to change the past. Meanwhile Darrow successfully contacts Dog-Face Joe and organizes a deal in which Joe will provide Darrow with healthy bodies and allow him to live forever. Doyle is kidnapped and brought to Muhammad Ali''s Egypt, where the magicians'' Master tempts him with resurrecting his dead wife if he will tell them the secrets of the time-gates. Doyle resists and kills the Master. Meanwhile, Jacky discovers Darrow''s secret and kills him along with Dog-Face Joe. Doyle returns to London, where the last magician, Romanelli, kidnaps him, Jacky, and Coleridge. In a drugged stupor, Coleridge frees Horrabin''s twisted menagerie of monsters, allowing him and Jacky to escape. Romanelli escapes with Doyle to the underworld, but is eaten by Apep while Doyle is rejuvenated on board the sunboat of the god Ra. Doyle meets back up with Jacky and discovers that not only is Jacky secretly a woman, she is his future wife. Decades later, after living out Ashbless'' entire life and becoming a widower, Doyle goes out to meet his historic date with death. Doyle discovers that his intended murderer is a duplicate of himself that the Master had made in Egypt decades before. Doyle kills the duplicate, thereby supplying the corpse for his death, and boats away into an unknown future.

The Anubis Gates

Tom Crick, fifty-two years old, has been history master for some thirty years in a secondary school in Greenwich, in a sense the place where, in a world that sets its clocks according to Greenwich Mean Time, time begins. Tom has been married to Mary, for as long as he has been teaching but the couple have no children. The students in Tom’s school have grown increasingly scientifically oriented, and the headmaster, a physicist, has little sympathy for Tom’s subject. One of Tom’s students, Price questions the relevance of learning about historical events. The youth’s scepticism causes Tom to change his teaching approach to telling tales drawn from his own recollection. By doing so, he makes himself a part of the history he is teaching, relating his tales to local history and genealogy. The headmaster tries to entice Tom into taking an early retirement. Tom resists because his leaving would mean that the History Department would cease to exist and be combined with the broader area of General Studies. Tom’s wife is arrested for snatching a baby. The publicity that attends her arrest reflects badly on the school, and Tom is told that he now must retire. Tom uses his impending forced retirement as an excuse to unfold a story to his students. The bulk of Waterland is devoted to this story that, before it is done, covers some three hundred years of local history and relates it to the broader historical currents of those centuries. The primary plot of the story has to do with Tom’s relationship to Mary both before and after their marriage. She is reared on a farm close to where Tom’s father, a lock-keeper, lives with his two sons in the lock-keeper’s cottage, beside a tributary of the Great Ouse. Tom''s mother dies when he is eight years old. Mary is also reared by her father because her mother died giving birth to her. He sees that his daughter receives a strict religious upbringing. As Mary matures, her interest in men grows, and she and Tom slip into an affair and she discovers that she is pregnant. Tom’s brother Dick asks Mary if he is the father of the child. Mary lies to him, telling him that Freddie Parr is the father. Dick, distraught at this information, struggles with the drunken Freddie, who cannot swim, and pushes him into the river. It is Tom’s father who pulls Freddie from the sluice, not realising that his drowning is anything but accidental, as the coroner’s inquest finally finds. Mary tries to provoke a miscarriage but fails, so she and Tom, the father of the child, go to an old crone, who performs an abortion that leaves Mary sterile. Her father forces her into seclusion, and for three years she remains isolated. Finally the two fathers agree to bring their children together again; unknown to them, Tom, away fighting in World War II, has already written to Mary. When he comes home, the two marry, and Tom begins his teaching career while Mary takes a position in an old persons’ home. Finally, she steals a baby and explains the new arrival to Tom by saying that it is a gift from God. Obviously disturbed and suffering from a pain that has been festering since her teenage abortion, Mary is arrested. A secondary plot involves Tom’s mother’s family, the Atkinsons, who have run a brewery for several generations. This subplot is interwoven into the development and resolution of the primary plot.

Waterland

Lady Louise Eleanor Stromworth-Jenkins is “very much of the nineteen twenties.” The daughter of an English Baron and a French mother, Louise is young, wealthy, intelligent, well-educated and beautiful. An object of pursuit by many eligible young men in her London, England area, Louise feels herself not really capable of love. She meets Lord James Strathcrombie, a decorated war veteran and owner of Benhyter Motors, Limited, a successful automobile company. Eventually, despite her lack of deep love for James, they marry. While Strathcrombie is in Paris on a business trip, Louise travels to Roscoff, France to visit her good friend Veronica Ashley, who is staying there with her family and several friends. One of the friends is Robert Hewitt, a Scottish medical student and the author of one relatively unsuccessful novel. Although she believes in loyalty and is devoted to her husband, Louise feels an attraction to Robert which last through the visit. Soon all return to their respective endeavors. A few months later Louise travels to St. Andrews, Scotland to visit friends. There she encounters Robert again, this time just after he has published his second novel, The Silver Fleece, which has become a great success. Louse and Robert spend considerable time together and the encounters grow increasingly romantic. But again, nothing happens between them and soon they part. In London, the Strathcrombies entertain the Merrill family in their home. The family has two young daughters, Babs and Mavis. While talking with Louise the young women express their admiration for The Silver Fleece. Louise mentions that she knows the author and using their enthusiasm as an excuse, invites Robert for a visit. After meeting him, Babs also finds herself very attracted to Robert. During this visit, Louse and Robert discuss running off together. Louise still feels loyalty to James, but feels that this is her chance for love, a chance she did not believe was ever possible. Robert also expresses agreement with the idea, although he also feels an attraction to Babs. They determine to tell James, but he leaves on an emergency business trip before Louise can work up the courage to do so. They attempt to follow him to Bordeaux, France, but in route, while staying in a hotel, Robert encounters Babs. Desperate, Babs kisses Robert just as Louise, looking for him in the hotel, walks in on them. Realizing that Robert does not feel as deeply for her as she for him, she returns to James. After all this, Veronica tells Louse about a statue that she has. “A naked woman, stooping, groping for something, it seems. ‘The Stooping Venus’ I always call it. What she’s stooping for I can never quite make out. A philosophy, perhaps, or even a garment. And I’m sure that it’s something quite ordinary she wants to find: common sense if it’s a philosophy, a flannelette petticoat if it’s a garment. That’s you, Louise. Stooping to find—content, and motherhood, and lawful love.”

The Stooping Venus

It tells the story of a girl named Coriander, and her childhood. Coriander starts an adventure she cannot stop when she slips on a pair of silver shoes from an anonymous person. Her mother insists that she must not have them, whilst she herself insists she must. Eventually, her father gives into them and her world begins to fall downhill. Coriander''s dad is arrested and is left with her step mother and step sister. The step mother has sacked Coriander''s favorite servant as well as friend. After hiding a doll in the cupboard Coriander''s step mother is mad.Coriander cannot wait until her dad''s return. But is he going to? It all starts to slowly change, a thread that never ends, and one that Coriander cannot control. She soon finds out all her mother''s deepest secrets and must fight the evil Queen Rosmore, her grandfather''s 2nd wife who has put him into a trance. To save her mother''s beautiful, yet deadly power and her father''s faith, she falls in love with Tycho, a fairy prince from the other world, a dangerous thing for her to do. As all things she once knew vanish, she must fight the horrors of the angry, puritan world in which she lives, and those of the world of magic, which holds the secret of time and all things possible. But as a death draws nearer, there is another question to answer. Whose is it?

I, Coriander

The story concerns Lancelot who has survived to the present day by means of magic. He must help Morgana le Fay confront Merlin, who is half-mad and attempting to meddle in the affairs of the world. Lancelot has remained alive since the fall of Camelot, having the appearance of an elderly man but retaining his strength and fighting skills. He has spent his long life seeking the Holy Grail, believing that his immortality is punishment for his sins, and that finding the Grail will end his curse. Lancelot instead learns from Morgana le Fay that Merlin is responsible for his condition. Merlin has slept for centuries, but is about to awaken, and intends for Lancelot to be his champion and protector. Morgana warns Lancelot that Merlin will cause great harm in his misguided attempts to right the wrongs of the modern world, and that he must be stopped. Lancelot finds Merlin and rejuvenates him from his centuries-long sleep with a magic elixir. Lancelot tries to persuade Merlin to desist from his plans, and Merlin removes the spell of immortality. Anticipating Merlin, Lancelot drinks the remainder of the elixir to restore his own youth. Merlin summons a "hollow knight" (a suit of armor animated by a spirit) to kill Lancelot. Morgana defeats Merlin, and Lancelot vanquishes the spirit, but is mortally wounded. As Lancelot dies, he finally sees a vision of the Holy Grail.

The Last Defender of Camelot

The summit, which has attracted undead power players from all over the central United States, is sure to be tense, due partly to the ramping up of protests by the conservative, anti-vampire Fellowship of the Sun. Accused of murdering her husband, the King of Arkansas, Sophie-Anne is set to stand trial at the convention. The Queen is already in a precarious position, her power base weakened by the damage to New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina, and there are some vampires who would like to finish what nature started. Sophie-Anne''s main accuser is Jennifer Cater, a vampire who had been training to be the king''s lieutenant at the time of his death. Jennifer is determined to see Sophie-Anne staked in the sun for murdering the king, although Sookie knows the Queen is innocent of the crime. Sophie-Anne plans to put Sookie''s gift to good use, having her "listen in" on the thoughts of the humans working for the other vampires at the convention as well as for the hotel, as alliances are formed and allegiances tested in what can only be described as a political power struggle of potentially deadly implications. The story opens with Sookie entering Fangtasia to talk to Eric and those who pay him fealty, as they discuss the accusations against Sophie-Anne. Sookie agrees to work for Sophie-Anne, despite the warnings of her fairy godmother, Claudine, that being at the convention will forever tie Sookie to vampire politics in the mind of all of the attendees, in a very public way. Meanwhile, her relationship with Quinn heats up. At the convention, Sookie meets Barry "Bellboy" Horowitz, the only other telepath she knows. Soon after they arrive, Jennifer Cater and most of the Arkansas entourage are brutally murdered, which simplifies the trial for the Queen. Sookie soon proves invaluable to the Queen as she makes the great suggestion that the Queen appoint her closest friend and "child," Andre, to be King of Arkansas, and then to marry him. Sookie also finds a bomb planted outside of the Louisiana suite, and saves the Queen. She also uncovers something shocking about Quinn&mdash;as a teen, he killed a group of men who were raping his mother, and then became indebted to some local vampires in order to cover up the crime. He had to work as a weretiger/gladiator in a ring for three years, and in the process became a fearsome fighter. At the Queen''s trial, Sookie saves the queen yet again as, being the only witness, she applies logic to prove that the queen is innocent and that her accusers are being manipulated. In response, one of the main accusers is staked right in the courtroom. Impressed with her usefulness, Andre accosts Sookie and begins to force her to exchange blood with him, to tie her permanently and closely to the queen. She escapes this violation only by the intercession of Eric, who has her exchange more blood with him. This third, major blood exhange with Eric causes Sookie to become more powerful, and frighteningly vampiric, even though she is still human. She can feel Eric very powerfully, and he now has the power to turn her into a vampire at any time. Sookie realizes with dread that she will never be free of Eric''s control. Sookie and Barry the Bellboy then put together a number of clues they have had throughout the convention and realize that multiple bombs have been planted throughout the hotel by the Fellowship of the Sun, and they are set to go off during the daytime when the vampires will all be asleep and helpless. She and Barry''s quick thinking enable some vampires and some humans to get free, and Barry and Sookie team up to use their telepathy to find injured humans. Sookie finds Andre, who has only minor injuries, and watches impassively as Quinn stakes him in order to free her from his control. Queen Sophie-Anne escapes, but loses her legs. Sookie rescues Eric and Pam, and they and Bill escape with minor injuries, but the death toll for humans and vampires is very high.

All Together Dead

In an alternative history, the United States lost the American Revolutionary War, George Washington was shot as a traitor, and America is still, in 1973, under the control of the British Empire. The divergence point between this world and our own occurred far earlier, however, when the Moors won the battle of Navas de Tolosa on the Iberian peninsula, on July 16, 1212. Thus it was that Spain was unable to become unified, owing to the survival of an Islamic presence in its territory, and therefore could not finance the expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Instead, it was John Cabot who discovered America, just a few years later. The protagonist, Captain Augustine Washington, is a direct descendant of George Washington, and labors in his ''traitorous'' shadow. Captain Washington and Sir Isambard Brassey-Brunel (descendant of Isambard Kingdom Brunel) get together to link the heart of the British Empire with its far-flung Atlantic colony in North America, although they fall out over Augustine''s wooing of Isabard''s young daughter, Iris, and as a result of disputes over engineering techniques. However, the two are reconciled on Sir Isambard''s deathbed, and the lovers later marry. Detective Richard Tracy also makes an appearance, as do ''Lord'' Amis and ''Reverend'' Aldiss.

Tunnel Through the Deeps

It tells the story of Pierre Glendinning, junior, the 19-year-old heir of the manor at Saddle Meadows in upstate New York. Pierre is engaged to the blonde Lucy Tartan in a match approved by his domineering mother, who controls the estate since the death of his father, Pierre, senior. When he encounters, however, the dark and mysterious Isabel Banford, he hears from her the claim that she is his half-sister, the illegitimate and orphaned child of his father and a European refugee. Pierre reacts to the story (and to his magnetic attraction for Isabel) by devising a remarkable scheme to preserve his father’s name, spare his mother’s grief, and give Isabel her proper share of the estate. He announces to his mother that he is married; she promptly throws him out of the house. He and Isabel then depart for New York City, accompanied by a disgraced young woman, Delly Ulver. During their stagecoach journey, Pierre finds and reads a fragment of a treatise on “Chronometricals and Horologicals” on the differences between absolute and relative virtue by one Plotinus Plinlimmon. In the city, Pierre counts on the hospitality of his friend and cousin Glendinning Stanley, but is surprised when Glen refuses to recognize him. The trio (Pierre, Isabel, and Delly) find rooms in a former church converted to apartments, the Church of the Apostles, now populated by impecunious artists, writers, spiritualists, and philosophers, including the mysterious Plinlimmon. Pierre attempts to earn money by writing a book, encouraged by his juvenile successes as a writer. He learns that his mother has died and has left the Saddle Meadows estate to Glen Stanley, who is now engaged to marry Lucy Tartan. Suddenly, however, Lucy shows up at the Apostles, determined to share Pierre’s life and lot, despite his apparent marriage to Isabel, and Pierre and the three women live there together as best they can, while their scant money runs out. Pierre’s writing does not go well — having been "Timonized" by his experiences, the darker truths he has come to recognize cannot be reconciled with the light and innocent literature the market seeks. Unable to write, he has a vision in a trance of an earth-bound stone giant Enceladus and his assault on the heavenly Mount of Titans. Beset by debts, by fears of the threats of Glen Stanley and Lucy’s brother, by the rejection of his book by its contracted publishers, by fears of his own incestuous passion for Isabel, and finally by doubts of the truth of Isabel’s story, Pierre guns down Glen Stanley at rush hour on Broadway, and is taken to jail in The Tombs. There Isabel and Lucy visit him, and Lucy dies of shock when Isabel addresses Pierre as her brother. Pierre then seizes upon the secret poison vial that Isabel carries and drinks it, and Isabel finishes the remainder, leaving three corpses as the novel ends.

Pierre: or, The Ambiguities

The protagonist is Rutherford Calhoun, a freed slave, who flees from New Orleans on a ship called the Republic to escape being blackmailed into marriage by Isadora Bailey, a schoolteacher who convinces Calhoun''s creditor to whom he owes large sum of money, Papa Zeringue, to demand Calhoun pays him all he owes if he will not consent to marry Isadora. After meeting the drunken cook of the Republic while drinking to forget his troubles, Calhoun stows away aboard the ship (and is later found after the voyage begins). The ship travels to Africa to capture members of the Allmuseri tribe to take back to America to sell as slaves. Although an educated man, Rutherford is at first self-absorbed and thus initially unable to grasp the hardships of slave life. During the voyage, Rutherford becomes humbled, learning lessons that teach him to value and respect humanity which includes identification with his own country, America. The ship eventually sinks due to various factors, including the sailing inexperience of the ship''s passengers, following the Allmuseri take over. There are many survivors, and a nearby ship named the Juno rescues them. Rutherford discovers that Isadora is aboard the Juno and is about to marry Papa Zeringue, who has partial ownership of the Republic. Papa learns that Rutherford has the ship''s log, documenting Papa Zeringue''s immoral and illegal dealings,and he bargains with Rutherford to get possession of it. Rutherford brings up the fact that the ship was illegally dealing in slave trade and uses his Santos'', Papa''s black servant, ties to the Allmuseri to get what he wants, namely Isadora in marriage. Isadora, who is knitting booties for her cats and dogs whom Papa is making her give up, leaves Papa and marries Rutherford.

Middle Passage

The final novel in the original Flambards trilogy opens in the middle of the First World War with Christina, now a widow, returning to Flambards. Flambards has greatly deteriorated since she left with Will, and is almost in ruins. As distraction from her grief over Will''s death and the news that his brother Mark has been reported missing and presumed dead, Christina sets herself the tedious and difficult task of restoring the farm. She not only wishes to restore the house and grounds but also a semblance of her old life, the people, horses and hounds. Finding she is pregnant with Will''s baby, Christina adopts Mark and Violet''s six-year-old son ''Tizzy'' Thomas, along with an original Flambards bitch called Marigold and a nervy five-year-old bay thoroughbred called Pheasant. Eventually she persuades Dick to come back to work on the farm and things slowly begin to go smoothly, until the reappearance of Mark. Christina''s joy quickly turns to anxiety and apprehension as Mark tells her that if she wishes to remain at Flambards, she must marry him. But Christina fears Mark become like his father, and when she finds she has feelings for Dick, her confusion increases as she still loves Will.

Flambards in Summer

Aria joins the sinister Cult of the Last Circle, an underground dragon community led by the evil Scarn. Scarn worships the Flame, which he believes has been sent to replace the charm lost from the world. After rescuing Aria from the Cult, Fortune escapes with his friends across the sea to Ocea. Scarn gives chase using the power of the Flame to travel great distances as if by magic. Meanwhile, Aria''s son Wyrm (who has no wings) has set out on a pilgrimage around the world. There is a comet in the sky and Wyrm is obsessed with the Day of Creation. Along the way he encounters a tribe of ''natural faeries'' who have lost both their magic and their wings - these are actually cavemen. Later Wyrm uncovers some ancient charm that enables him to grow wings, and he sets out for the Last Circle. Eventually, all the dragons meet in a huge crater in Ocea (the Last Circle) where a great battle ensues between Scarn''s dragons (mutated by the evil power of the Flame) and Fortune''s new allies, the mirror-dragons. At the climax of the battle, Scarn escapes. The comet drops from the sky and hits the crater. Everyone escapes except Wyrm, who is transformed from a single dragon into millions of birds. Fortune finally defeats Scarn. The dying power of the Flame opens a portal into a strange sideways world. Brace and Ledra go through the portal, which disappears. The sideways world is in fact Amara (Stone trilogy), introduced properly in Stone and Sky.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

La Petite Fadette

By George Sand

The Anubis Gates

By Tim Powers

Waterland

By Graham Swift

The Stooping Venus

By Bruce Marshall

I, Coriander

By Sally Gardner

The Last Defender of Camelot

By Roger Zelazny

All Together Dead

By Charlaine Harris

Tunnel Through the Deeps

By Harry Harrison

Pierre: or, The Ambiguities

By Herman Melville

Middle Passage

By Charles R. Johnson

Flambards in Summer

By K. M. Peyton

Dragonflame

By Graham Edwards