The Old Wives' Tale is a superb novel by Arnold Bennett, first published in 1908. It tells the story of the Baines sisters—shy, retiring Constance and defiant, romantic Sophia—over the course of nearly half a century.
Bennett traces the lives of the sisters from childhood in their father's drapery shop in provincial Bursley, England, during the mid-Victorian era, through their married lives, to the modern industrial age, when they are reunited as old women.
The setting moves from the Five Towns of the Staffordshire Potteries to exotic and cosmopolitan Paris. The narrative beautifully captures the transition from the subdued domestic routine of the Baines household to the dramatic events of the modern age, such as the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
This novel was inspired by Bennett's observation of an old lady in a café, sparking a reflection on how her life might have been lived. The Old Wives' Tale is a testament to the integrity of ordinary lives, making it as readable and enjoyable today as it was over a century ago.
Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. This is the story of what happened first…
Jacqueline was her mother’s perfect daughter—polite and quiet, always dressed as a princess. If her mother was sometimes a little strict, it’s because crafting the perfect daughter takes discipline.
Jillian was her father’s perfect daughter—adventurous, thrill-seeking, and a bit of a tom-boy. He really would have preferred a son, but you work with what you've got.
They were five when they learned that grown-ups can’t be trusted. They were twelve when they walked down the impossible staircase and discovered that the pretense of love can never be enough to prepare you for a life filled with magic in a land filled with mad scientists and death and choices.
Kit and Fancy Cordelle are sisters of the best kind: best friends, best confidantes, and best accomplices. The daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, Kit and Fancy are used to feeling like outsiders, and that's just the way they like it. But in Portero, where the weird and wild run rampant, the Cordelle sisters are hardly the oddest or most dangerous creatures around.
It's no surprise when Kit and Fancy start to give in to their deepest desire - the desire to kill. What starts as a fascination with slicing open and stitching up quickly spirals into a gratifying murder spree. Of course, the sisters aren't killing just anyone, only the people who truly deserve it. But the girls have learned from the mistakes of their father, and know that a shred of evidence could get them caught.
So when Fancy stumbles upon a mysterious and invisible doorway to another world, she opens a door to endless possibilities.
Dolphin adores her mother: she's got wonderful clothes, bright hair, and vivid tattoos all over her body. She definitely lives a colourful life. Dolphin's older sister, Star, also loves her but is beginning to wonder if staying with a mom whose temper can be as flashy as her body art is the best thing for the girls...
This is a powerful novel about two sisters living in a very dysfunctional household with their tattoo-crazy mum, who is struggling to cope. Dolphin adores her mother, Marigold. She's got wonderful clothes, bright hair, and vivid tattoos all over her body — a colourful lady, to match her colourful life. But Dolphin's older sister, Star, is beginning to wonder if living with Marigold's fiery, unpredictable moods is the best thing for the girls.
Four independent-minded sisters come of age in the early 1900s, and four interwoven novels tell their stories, each through a different sister's eyes.
The year is 1910, and the four Purcell sisters have only each other. Their mother has died, leaving them orphans in a rambling country estate. But with the help of the Mackenzies - their guardian and his family, whom the sisters come to love in very different ways - Sarah, Frances, Julia, and Gwen find the courage to follow their own paths in a world that is rapidly changing.
Avid readers and fans of historical-fiction classics will love these spirited heroines and will be thoroughly absorbed by their intertwining tales, full of feistiness, creativity, and young romance.
The Dividing Sea (Book Three) is Julia's story. It tells of her eventful time as a volunteer nurse in France during the Great War and her ill-started love story with Geoffrey Mackenzie.