The Lodger is the first known novelization of the Jack the Ripper story. It follows the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Bunting, a maid and butler. An eccentric lodger, Mr. Sleuth, arrives at their lodging-house just as a wave of horrific murders begins to sweep London. The Buntings become engrossed in the newspaper sensationalism as well the detailed accounts of their young friend, a Scotland Yard detective. Lowndes first wrote The Lodger as a short story published in McClure’s Magazine, then later published the novelization in the Daily Telegraph as a serial. It was very successful, with over a million copies sold within a few decades. Writers like Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein praised it, with one contemporary reviewer calling it “the best novel about murder written by any living author.” It has since been adapted to other media, notably as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s first movies. Today the novel is still considered the best fictional adaptation of the Jack the Ripper legend. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.
Dorothy Richardson is existing just above the poverty line, doing secretarial work at a dentist's office and living in a seedy boarding house in Bloomsbury, when she is invited to spend the weekend with a childhood friend, Jane. Jane has recently married a writer who is on the brink of fame. His name is H.G. Wells, or Bertie, as they call him. Bertie appears unremarkable at first. But then Dorothy notices his grey-blue eyes taking her in, openly signalling approval. He tells her he and Jane have an agreement which allows them the freedom to take lovers, although Dorothy can tell her friend would not be happy with that arrangement. Not wanting to betray Jane, yet unable to draw back Dorothy free-falls into an affair with Bertie. Then a new boarder arrives at the house- beautiful Veronica Leslie-Jones-and Dorothy finds herself caught between Veronica and Bertie. Amidst the personal dramas and wreckage of a militant suffragette march, Dorothy finds her voice as a writer.
It’s a hot summer Down Under and everyone’s got sex on the mind. Eighteen year-old James has had a tough year. Having lost his mom to cancer and fought through grief to finish high school, he’s now got secret desires to contend with. It’s Christmas in Sydney, and he’s ready to cast his worries aside for the summer holidays, a time of poolside parties, bush walks and ocean swims. But who is the seductive young man who’s moved into the spare room? In this steamy coming-of-age novel, James and the men around him discover transformative new desires with the power to up-end lives or, possibly, unlock a brighter future. This promising debut explicitly captures rites of passage in an era of fluid sexuality and elusive masculinity. In this short kaleidoscopic novel, four men act on new sexual desires, and in doing so, clarify who they are, who they want to be, and perhaps even what they stand for. With an authentic voice born of lived experience, Levi Huxton deftly and movingly portrays how sexual desire can lead us to come of age and re-invent ourselves, however old we may be. Finalist, 2022 Lambda Literary Awards Winner, 2022 Passionate Plume Prize "Levi Huxton offers a rare reading experience: erotic, sexy and intellectually engaging." - DNA Magazine, April 2022 9.5 out of 10 - "Erotic and honest, readers will be wrapped under the spell of the main character, who has all of the others in his grasp. Authentic characterizations remind readers that life is frequently about letting go and embarking upon new adventures. The author capably creates emotional depth, making the conclusion especially impactful. A poignant and thoughtful storyteller." - The 2021 BookLife Prize "The Lodger, That Summer is Mr. Huxton's first published work. While brief in length, it is intellectually challenging and shows great promise for the future." - Rainbow Book Reviews "The Lodger, That Summer is a captivating, sexy, gritty, complex coming-of-age story. A perfect blend of fantasy and reality, Huxton's characters are flawed and intriguing, and his writing is smooth and addictive. I can't wait to see what he writes next." - Marley Valentine, author of Without You "This book is not a romance and it is not intended to be one. It is, however, many other things. It is a highly charged erotic tale, a coming out story, a coming-of-age story, and a sexual awakening, but it also drives deeper to target and expose those hidden parts of a man's soul. It is great to have found a new voice in author Levi Huxton with this debut book. His candor creates not only a melancholy spirit to parts of the story, but also an atmosphere that is tinged with tension, anticipation, and hope."- Joyfully Jay "Refreshing and beautifully written, while gritty and erotic at the same time." - Reviews by Amos Lassen "Lush, one of my top reads of 2021. This book is not for the faint of heart. Its raw clarity is probably my favorite part." - A.M. Johnson, author of Love Always, Wild
A New York Times Notable Book from the author of A Stolen Tongue: A tale of crime and survival in nineteenth-century England “as unsettling as it is brilliant” (The Washington Post Book World). In Sunderland, England, a city quarantined by the cholera epidemic of 1831, a defiant, fifteen-year-old beauty in an elegant blue dress sells her body to feed her only love: a fragile baby boy. When the surgeon Henry Chiver offers Gustine a different kind of work, she hopes to finally change her terrible circumstances. But Chiver was recently implicated in the famous case of Burke and Hare, who murdered beggars and sold their corpses for medical research. And soon, Gustine’s own efforts to secure cadavers for Chiver’s anatomy school will threaten the very things she’s working so hard to protect . . . “Reminiscent of Wuthering Heights . . . or the novels of Dickens . . . An even better book than Holman’s first, with prose that’s more limber and vivid—and with, appropriately, even more heart.” —The New York Times Book Review “As unsettling as it is brilliant. Holman attempts Herculean feats of plot and character, and the resulting novel is seamlessly crafted.” —The Washington Post Book World “Holman seduces you. Her prose, tart, racy and somber, will sing in your soul a long while.” —Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes “Holman’s style is risky and direct . . . with unflinching emotional precision. This dazzlingly researched epic is an uncommon read.” —Publisher Weekly, starred review
Out of the London fog, a mysterious stranger arrives on the Buntings’ doorstep seeking lodgings and a kindly ear – but a horrifying secret lurks behind his gentlemanly façade. Can Mrs Bunting uncover the true nature of his strange obsessions and avert looming disaster for her family? Marie Belloc Lowndes’s psychological thriller The Lodger (1913) was the first novelization of the infamous and still-unsolved “Jack the Ripper” murders of 1888. The novel transformed a sordid story of the London streets into a taut domestic tale of conflicted motivations, uncertain loyalty, and slow-burning terror. Lowndes, a contemporary – and rival – of Agatha Christie, adopted and subverted the detective fiction genre in order to explore women’s roles within the family and within larger society in ways that still resonate strongly today. This scholarly edition revives a pivotal text by an undervalued late-Victorian and early twentieth-century author, and adds to our understanding of that transformational literary period. This edition brings together, for the first time, Lowndes’ 1913 novel and the 1911 short story upon which it was based, providing new transcriptions of the texts alongside facsimiles of Henry Raleigh’s original illustrations. A critical introduction offers historical, thematic, and biographical context drawn from new archival research, as well as an exhaustive bibliography of Lowndes’s published work.
Ellen and Robert Bunting from London have fallen on hard times, finding themselves on the verge of bankruptcy. But one night, a mysterious stranger, who introduces himself as Mr. Sleuth, takes the lodge with them for a rent they so desperately need to survive. The Buntings ignore the lodger's mysterious experiments and late night walks, relaxing into their good fortune. However, at the same time Mr. Sleuth arrives, a serial killer, who calls himself "The Avenger," starts terrorizing the city of London, leaving behind several dead bodies of young blonde women.
In 1612 Shakespeare gave evidence at the Court of Requests in Westminster – it is the only occasion his spoken words are recorded. The case seems routine – a dispute over an unpaid marriage-dowry – but it opens up an unexpected window into the dramatist’s famously obscure life-story. Charles Nicholl applies a powerful biographical magnifying glass to this fascinating episode in Shakespeare’s life. Marshalling evidence from a wide variety of sources, including previously unknown documentary material on the Mountjoys, he conjures up a detailed and compelling description of the circumstances in which Shakespeare lived and worked, and in which he wrote such plays as Othello, Measure for Measure and King Lear.
