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Frederick Adams Woods examined the biographical records and family trees of the great dynasties of Europe, judging and comparing their moral standards and intellectual aptitude to their reputation as rulers. The summarised family histories are produced after a painstaking search including portrait galleries, family lineage, comparisons of reputation, and the origin of allegations of madness and moral bankruptcy, all collated within a single volume. - Summary by Leon Harvey

This book is a biography of four woman authors whose names were well known by readers at the time of its publication (1883) : Anna Barbaud, Maria Edgeworth, Amelia Opie, and Jane Austen. Though most of us today are only familiar with the writings of Austen, all four of these women are well worth taking the time to get to know. The author, Anne Thackeray Ritchie, was the eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray. - Summary by Ciufi Galeazzi

Converts from infidelity; or, Lives of eminent individuals who have renounced libertine principles and sceptical opinions, and embraced Christianity. …Some of the more generally known, and best accredited examples of these conversions, the reader of the following volumes will find, in the Lives of Eminent Individuals who have renounced libertine principles and sceptical opinions, and embraced Christianity. Such narratives may be regarded as interesting in themselves, but more especially important, as furnishing the most authentic testimonies to the truths of revealed religion; and setting ...

This is a historical account of the early years of Pocahontas. She had a significant role in the early interactions between the Indigenous peoples and English settlers. Her compassion for the English settlers was exhibited in her encounter with Captain John Smith. The book also recounts her marriage to John Rolfe, her conversion to Christianity, her life in England and includes a look at her father, the powerful Powhatan, chief of her tribe.

This is the dramatic story of Urbain Grandier, a catholic priest, who had a reputation to rival that of Casanova, which ultimately led to his destruction. He was accused of witchcraft after a series of accusations from nuns of a nearby convent, who claimed that Grandier has sent several demons upon them. The case is very well documented, and the original documents of the alleged pact, written in backwards Latin and signed by all participating demons, are still preserved. The case continues to inspire art and sciences, leading to assessments of the events in light of modern sociology, ...

The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, often shortened to Romans, is the sixth book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by the Apostle Paul, to explain that Salvation is offered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is by far the longest of the Pauline epistles, and is considered his "most important theological legacy". (Summary by Wikipedia)

Elbert Hubbard describes the homes of authors, poets, social reformers and other prestigious people, reflecting on how their surroundings may have influenced them. These short essays are part biography and part pontification of Hubbard's opinion of the subject and their oeuvre. In this volume he reflects on the lives of eminent orators, among them Pericles, Mark Anthony, Martin Luther, Jean Paul Marat, Robert Ingersoll and others. (Summary by Lucy Perry, adapted by Ava) This is volume 7 in a series of 14 books.

A knowledge of the influences which ruled the life of Lincoln, the greatest of practical mystics, is essential now that a new form of paganism and slavery threatens humanity. In Lincoln's time the black slaves of America had to be freed; in our time the white slaves of Europe have to be freed. We have returned to the conquest. History is being repeated, but on a far vaster scale. The whole world is groaning under the threats and deeds of tyranny that seeks to become absolute. What Abraham Lincoln stood for in the middle of the nineteenth century the English-speaking peoples must stand for at ...

This work is actually two "essays" which circulated together, one addended to the other. The first, Indian converts: or, Some account of the lives and dying speeches of a considerable number of the Christianized Indians of Martha's Vineyard, in New-England, is written by Experience Mayhew. Experience was one in a long line of missionary ministers to the Wampanoag Indians on Martha's Vineyard. This work is essentially a treasure trove of small biographies of Native Americans and their amazing faith in God, despite enormous persecution by their fellow man. Experience retells the stories of ...

"It is many years since Dr. Samuel Johnson advised me to get a little book, and write in it all the Anecdotes which might come to my knowledge, all the Observations which I might make or hear, all the verses never likely to be published and in fine everything which struck me at the time. Mr. Thrale has now treated me with a Repository, and provided it with the pompous title "Thraliana." I must endeavour to fill it with nonsense, new and old." Selections from the intimate record of her life from 1776 to 1809 by the hostess and friend of Dr Johnson (and the friend of his friends) selected and ...

This 1922 collection of extensive essays comprises well written biographies of a few famous folk. The life narratives include analyses of medical and/or psychological elements in each person’s life. Biographies include Anne Boleyn, Jeanne D’Arc, The Empress Theodora, The Emperor Charles V, Don John Of Austria, Cervantes, Don Quixote (not an historical figure but irresistible), Philip II, Mr. and Mrs. Pepys, Edward Gibbon, Jean Paul Marat, Napoleon I, and Benvenuto Cellini. It concludes with an extended meditation on death. “But there were far more whose actions were clearly the result of...

A biography of Queen Elizabeth the First, the last monarch of the Tudors. (Summary by Brendan Stallard)

Biography of the eighteenth century French navigator Lapérouse. - Summary by Barbara Baker

The title and subtitle pretty much say it all. Twenty biographical sketches of people you would not want your son or daughter to marry. (Summary by David Wales)

The Second Book of Samuel tells us of this David---the son of Jesse, a common shepherd as a boy, a ruddy youth trying to prove his courage and fighting spirit, and now a man with sons of his own---as king of Israel, the man after God's heart, contrite and humble in spirit....and very deeply flawed. As trouble after trouble besets him at every turn, and as he struggles with trials and tribulations, David remains a man of deep and abiding faith in his LORD, the true king over His people Israel. This story reminds us that to be a leader of God's people, one must submit to Him who gave him such ...

The Lives of the Queens of England is a multi-volumed work attributed to Agnes Strickland, though it was mostly researched and written by her sister Elisabeth. These volumes give biographies of the queens of England from the Norman Conquest in 1066. Although by today's standards, it is not seen as a very scholarly work, the Stricklands used many sources that had not been used before.Volume six includes the biography of Elizabeth I through the year 1586.(Introduction by Ann Boulais)

From the Deep Woods to Civilization is the sequel to Indian Boyhood. Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa) gives his account of what it was like to transition from the ways of his Indian life to that of the white man. His father, long thought dead, had converted to Christianity and wished the same for his son as well as receiving education in the white man's school. At the age of 15, Ohiyesa must learn to balance the old familiar life of the American Indian with that of the new in the world of the white man, one of his first acts being the cutting of his long hair and attending school. It also chronicles ...

In November 1889, the New York World announced that it was sending its reporter Nellie Bly around the world, in a bid to beat Phileas Fogg's fictitious 80-day journey in Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Catching wind of this publicity stunt, John Brisben Walker, who had just purchased the three-year-old and still-fledging Cosmopolitan, decided to dispatch Bisland on her own journey.] Six hours after being recruited, Bisland departed westward from New York. Meanwhile, Bly left on a steamer headed to Europe, both on the same day—November 14, 1889. The journeys were keenly ...

The first scholarly biography on the life of Ludwig Von Beethoven. Volume 1 - Summary by Realisticspeakers

A historical novel for children, which tells the story of several months in the life of the then famous Father Farmer, as he traveled a Mass circuit in Pre-Revolutionary, Colonial America. He faced much danger and and adventure, in order to provide the Mass and the Sacraments to Catholics who had not seen a priest in years.Father Farmer was a real life missionary priest during the 1700’s in what is now New England. In 1779 he was appointed as one of the first trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. He also had a reputation as a philosopher and astronomer in his time, and was a member of ...