Letters Literature

Countess by day, secret advice columnist by night, Amelia Amesbury has life happily balanced on a quill's edge . . . until her sister Margaret shows up in London under a blanket of scandal and Amelia is catapulted out of mourning and into the ton's unforgiving Season. However Madge's Season debut is marred by a rather inconvenient death at the dining table as the infamous Mr Radcliffe takes ill and is later confirmed dead by poisoning. With Madge being the last person to have cross words with the soon-to-be baron, the ton's gossip mill—and the police—are looking to pin the murder on her.

Radical Hope is a collection of letters - to ancestors, to children five generations from now, to strangers in grocery lines, to any and all who feel weary and discouraged - written by award-winning novelists, poets, political thinkers, and activists. Provocative and inspiring, Radical Hope offers listeners a kaleidoscopic view of the love and courage needed to navigate this time of upheaval, uncertainty, and fear in view of the recent US presidential election.

On holiday in Ramsgate, Elizabeth Bennet befriends shy, romantic Georgiana Darcy, who shares and adoring description of an ideal elder brother. When Georgiana discloses a secret infatuation with her brother's "close friend" Mr. Wickham, Elizabeth's altered perception of both men affects her actions and alliances. The secret within an anonymous letter from Ramsgate ties Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth together, but also separates them. Will the shocking disclosure of a forgotten letter transform his understanding of her heart and lead them to embrace their future?

Two great loves. One shattering betrayal. A war that changes everything. Harriet and Mae Grafton are 20-year-old identical twins born from a scandalous affair. They grew up in India slighted by gossip and ostracised from polite society. They had each other and that was enough. But when their wealthy benefactor sends them to Singapore, they meet the mysterious Alex Blake and their relationship fractures with devastating consequences. Ivy Harcourt is posted to wartime Singapore amid the looming threat of Japanese invasion. Ivy knows the island will be a far cry from war-torn London, but she is totally unprepared for what awaits her....

This addictive debut novel takes us into an intoxicating world of old money, privilege, and family intrigue as a young heiress must return home from a decade-long exile to face the powerful enemies arrayed against her, including those within her own family.

Set in the Puritanical society of 17th-century Boston, this novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, a married woman who has an affair and gives birth to a daughter. Hester refuses to name her lover, but when her estranged husband appears unexpectedly, he determines to discover the man's identity.

Salento, Italy, June 1934: A coach stops in the main square of Lizzanello, a tight-knit village where everyone knows each other. A couple gets off: The man, Carlo, a child of the South, is happy to be back home after a long time away; the woman, Anna—his wife—is a stranger from the North. Carlo’s brother is there to meet them, and he and everyone else can’t help but notice that Anna is as beautiful as a Greek statue. But Anna is not like the other wives. She doesn’t gossip or attend church. She reads books no one else has ever heard of.

Crushed beyond measure at the rejection of his proposal, Darcy struggles to explain both the facts and his feelings by letter to the only woman he will ever love. Can such a reticent man find the words to enable Elizabeth Bennet to know the man behind the mask? Will she read his carefully crafted epistle once he delivers it into her hand? Will he catch even a small glimmer of hope?

For the past 29 years, Kay Bright’s days have had a familiar rhythm: she works in her husband’s stationery shop hoping to finally sell the legendary gold pen, cooks for her family, tries to remember to practice yoga, and every other month she writes to her best friend, Ursula. Kay could set her calendar by their letters: her heart lifts when the blue airmail envelope, addressed in Ursula’s slanting handwriting, falls gently onto the mat. But now Ursula has stopped writing and everything is a little bit worse. Ursula is the only one who knows Kay’s deepest secret....

Steve Patterson's The Book of Letters I Didn't Know Where to Send is a collection of - wait for it - letters, written by award-winning stand-up comedian - you guessed it - Steve Patterson. The host of CBC Radio's The Debaters since 2007, Steve Patterson has become a household name, with more than 700,000 listeners tuning in each week. Patterson's letters may not change the world, but frankly, it's too early to tell. In these letters, he pleads, begs, cajoles, grovels, and always makes a compelling argument.

Leanna Chupp has always made her own way in her small community of Birch Creek. Though some may call her unconventional - strange, even - Leanna is passionate about her faith. Her unique outlook on life has meant she's never had many suitors pursuing courtship, but she is happy being single and believes she always will be. But when Roman and Leanna find themselves working together again, everything changes. Neither of them fit squarely within the strictures of the Amish faith, but could their differences be the one thing that helps them?

Elle fut avant tout une star européenne de beauté et de vertu. Sa célébrité rehaussa l'importance de son salon au point que le nom de Récamier est devenu un symbole dans tous les salons. Chateaubriand fut son seul véritable amour.

High on the clifftops, Lettie takes a deep breath of salty air and opens the letter. There is no signature, and the old-fashioned handwriting is faint against the yellowed paper. The message, and the tiny gold key inside, will turn her life upside down. Lettie Starcross makes her way along the cobbled streets of Heaven’s Cove, clutching a little key and searching for answers about her kind, great-aunt Iris, whom she misses terribly. With no job back home, and no one in her family understanding how adrift she feels, Lettie wonders if her aunt was lonely just like her.

Delirious with fever, Rosellen Lockharte summons all her strength to pen several letters from her attic deathbed. Soon all who set her willy-nilly on this path to perdition as a penmanship teacher will learn that in her final hour she forgave them. All except him. But why wait for Judgment Day to tell Viscount Stanford she thinks he is the most heinous of humans?

After Jane Austen's earliest known writings, she began a more serious work, Lady Susan, in 1793 or 1794. It is a short, epistolary novel that portrays a woman bent on the exercise of her own powerful mind and personality to the point of social self-destruction.

Kassie Lester has made it her life’s work to treat sick and injured wildlife. However, never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that shifters are real. Just how many of her past patients have been supernatural? Sebastian is an Alpha. Not just over the Black River Pack in Nebraska, but over the entire Mid-West. He’s supposed to be indomitable, invincible…not laid low from multiple gunshot wounds.

In the hopes of receiving some mail of her own, Paula writes a letter to her grandparents.

Joni, Deb, Eden, and Trina have been best friends since high school, sharing a bond that has seen them through their teenage years and into adulthood. But now time and circumstance are starting to pull them apart as careers, husbands, and babies get in the way. As their yearly vacation becomes less of a priority - at least for three of the women - how can Joni find a way to draw the four of them back together?

All for the Union is the astonishing and eloquent diary of Elisha Hunt Rhodes, the Union soldier featured in Ken Burns' highly acclaimed PBS television documentary The Civil War. Enlisting as a private in the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry, Rhodes fought in every major campaign waged by the Army of the Potomac, from Bull Run to Appomattox. Here, in his own powerfully moving words, Rhodes reveals why he was willing to die to preserve his beloved Union.

The men and women honored in Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation speak in this collection of letters from and about the Depression and World War II.