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Owing to its highly personal content focused on feminine sexuality, this edition was recorded by eight female readers. To give you an idea of the subject matter, Project Gutenburg catalogues The Awakening under Adultery -- Fiction -- Women -- Louisiana -- New Orleans -- Social conditions. (Summary by Denny Sayers)...

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Romance

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After 11 years in Rome, Annie Kilburn returns home to the US after the death of her father. But the home she knew is dramatically changed in many ways. She starts to work with sick children, and finds herself attached to them, and to the minister who helps her, Mr. Peck. (Summary by Stav Nisser)...

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Romance

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The story is about Sally Carrol Happer, a young southern woman from the fictional city of Tarleton, Georgia, who becomes engaged one summer to Harry Bellamy, a man from an unspecified northern town. The following winter, on a visit to Harry's home town to meet Harry's family, Sally Carrol begins to have second thoughts... ( Summary by BellonaTimes, with help from Wikipedia )...

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Romance

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Jo's Boys is the third book in the Little Women trilogy by Louisa May Alcott, published in 1886. In it, Jo's children, now grown, are caught up in real world troubles. All three books - although fiction - are highly autobiographical and describe characters that were really in Alcott's life. This book contains romance as the childhood playmates become flirtatious young men and women. The characters are growing up, going out into the world and deciding their futures. (Summary from Wilkipedia)...

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Fiction, Romance

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All the privilege I claim for my own sex ... is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone. In persuasion, her last novel, Austen explores the theme of postponed but enduring love, delayed by class boundaries and excessive pride. Anne Elliot, the story's aged (27 year old) heroine, suffers from a decision that was forced upon her several years ago—to break off a relationship with Capn. Frederick Wentworth, the man she deeply loved. As Austen examines the causes and consequences of this action, she sketches for us the social complexities of being part of the upper-middle-class in England at the beginning of the nineteenth century. (Summary by Moira Fogarty)...

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Fiction, Romance

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Mad with jealousy, King Leontes of Sicilia orders his best friend Polixenes killed, his child abandoned, and his wife put on trial for adultery. Sixteen years later, Perdita, raised as a shepherd's daughter, falls in love with Polixenes's royal son and returns to her father's kingdom. (Temporary summary by wildemoose)...

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Comedy, Romance, Tragedy

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The Hollisters, a bright, spirited, wholesome family, are compelled to move into the country. After many efforts to secure a home, Shirley, eldest of the Hollisters, contrives a way out by renting a magnificent old stone barn at a ridiculously low price, transforming it into a house. The owner of the barn is not an ordinary landlord, as you will see, for he is a young man with fine ideals, and he is not content with establishing Shirley and her family in the quaintly beautiful old place, but makes the world a much happier place to live in for all of them. (Summary from publisher)...

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Fiction, Romance

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Sherry reads Jane Austen’s sparkling comedy of manners with wit and vivacity, and brings the characters to life. Mr. Woodhouse worries and frets, Miss Bates chatters on, and Emma blithely manipulates and misunderstands her friends and family until she finally learns her lesson! (Summary by Kara)...

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Romance, Comedy, Satire

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Mansfield Park features Austen’s frailest and perhaps most scrupulous heroine, Fannie Price. As the eldest daughter in a poor family, Fannie is sent to rich relatives when she’s just old enough to fully appreciate the shame of her circumstances. Without pride or prejudice, Fanny sticks to principles in all matters. And matters certainly put her to the test. (Summary by Anita)...

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Romance, Satire

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A single woman from a family that is well-off, buys a house at a place that is looked down upon and disapproved by her family and friends alike. Her reason - she wants to live the life of and know people like that. (This book's got one of the cutest romantic endings I've ever read). What is surprising is this book is in the PD - there are quite a few modern expressions and comparatively less quaint, out-of-fashion expressions. (Summary by Neeru Iyer)...

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Romance, Fiction

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O Pioneers! tells the story of the Bergsons, a family of Swedish immigrants in the farm country near the fictional town of Hanover, Nebraska, at the turn of the 20th century. The main character, Alexandra Bergson, inherits the family farmland when her father dies, and she devotes her life to making the farm a viable enterprise at a time when other immigrant families are giving up and leaving the prairie. The novel is also concerned with two romantic relationships, one between Alexandra and family friend Carl Linstrum and another between Alexandra's brother Emil and the married Marie Shabata....

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Literature, Romance, Fiction

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Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. In Book 7, Levin, in town for Kitty’s confinement, finds himself drawn to the corruptive influence of Moscow society. Stiva again presses Karenin to divorce Anna, while Anna, driven by jealousy, becomes increasingly irrational towards Vronsky. (Summary by Mary Anderson and MaryAnn)...

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Romance, Tragedy

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George Darrow, Anna Leath’s first love, is finally coming from London to propose to her. However, he drifts to an affair with Sophy Viner, Anna’s daughter’s naïve and young governess. Sophy’s relationship with Darrow and Anna’s family can threaten his success. In this novel, as in many of Wharton’s other well known novels, we see the eternal love triangle. With her sly and lovely writing style, Wharton delivers to us in this wonderful novel a cast of unforgettable characters and many unforgettable scenes which we can vividly imagine. What would Darrow choose: success or love? Would Anna marry him despite his affair with Sophy? (Summary by Stav Nisser.)...

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Romance, Literature

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Edward Povey had been a correspondence clerk for twenty-two years when he was summarily dismissed. So how did he find himself mixed up with an orphan girl, who was really a princess, as she sought to reclaim her throne from the man who had killed her parents? Well, however it had happened, it was romantic. And after two decades in the basement office of a shipping company, he was ready for a bit of romance. (Introduction by MaryAnn)...

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Adventure, Romance

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Young Elizabeth, left orphaned by an evildoer who murders her last brother, flees Montana on horseback to find her remaining relatives in the East. Her social and spiritual journey leads her through harrowing encounters, struggles between good and evil, romance and, ultimately, love and fortune. Classic Grace Livingston Hill. (Introduction by Gail Mattern)...

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Fiction, Romance

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Opening several years after the close of Eight Cousins, we find Rose coming home fresh from a voyage overseas, to find much changed about her. Now of a marriageable aged and heiress to a fortune, Rose finds joy,sorrow, and finally love await her -- as the Rose is finally ready to bloom into a good, strong, sweet and true woman. This sequel to Eight Cousins was written by Louisa May Alcott, the author of many well beloved children's books including Little Women, An Old Fashioned Girl, Under the Lilacs and more. (Summary by Maria Therese)...

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Fiction, Romance, Teen/Young adult

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This is the story of Elizabeth North, a young woman who becomes engaged and with the aid of a social climbing friend begins to plan her wedding beyond what she can afford. Her friend Evelyn Tripp convinces Elizabeth that she “simply can’t afford” not to live a fashionable and expensive lifestyle. However, her husband and her grandma help her to see sense and pull herself out of the debt she has got herself into. (Summary by Michele Eaton)...

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Fiction, Romance

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Several years before the events of the novel, Anne Elliott fell in love with a young and handsome but poor naval officer. She was persuaded by her friends and family to refuse him when he asked her to marry him. Now she meets him again......

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Fiction, Romance

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Torn between her love for her aging father, a minister steeped in the puritanical values of old New England, and the young Virginian who was born and raised of southern chivalrous tradition, the many and conflicting emotions which stir deep within Conscience Williams envelop this tale of desire, devotion, inner strength, devious treachery, and individuality of spirit. There would be many obstacles in the path of Conscience's future, and many trials to overcome. Fate has a way of molding inequities in our lives; circumstance is often a veil stronger than the human will can endure. In summarized simplicity, The Tyranny of Weakness is a gripping and intense story of life. However it is also a complex and compelling story of injustice in the face of sincerity; of conflicting traditions; of generational differences; of bold deceit; and of inner strength in dealing with family bonds. (Summary by Roger Melin)...

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Romance

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Anne Elliott, Jane Austen's only aging heroine, has devoted her life to caring for her financially irresponsible family. Just when she is growing content with her uneventful lifestyle, a long-lost flame re-enters the picture -- now as the beau of her significantly younger cousin. Anne is now faced with a choice: will she watch Captain Wentworth settle into life with another woman, or will she strive to win back his love and escape her family? (Summary by Kirsten Ferreri)...

Excerpt Details
Romance