A Monk of Fife by Andrew Lang

A Monk of Fife is a fictitious narrative purporting to be written by a young Scot in France from 1429 to 1431, During the time of Joan of Arc.

 

A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.

This is the thrilling classic tale by Jules Verne about a voyage to the center of the earth, where a lost civilization is found.

 

 

The genre of subterranean fiction already existed long before Verne. However, Journey considerably added to the genre's popularity and influenced later such writings. For example, Edgar Rice Burroughs explicitly acknowledged Verne's influence on his own Pellucidar series.  The story involves German professor Otto Lidenbrock who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the centre of the Earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans descend into the Icelandic volcano Snæfellsjökull, encountering many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards, before eventually coming to the surface again in southern Italy, at the Stromboli volcano.

A Son of the State by W. Pett Ridge

 

A Son of the State by W. Pett Ridge

A sprawling tale of love and adventure, politics and suspense, mystery and thrilling detail

A Son of the Soil by Margaret Oliphant

 

A Son of the Soil by Margaret Oliphant

5-year-old Colin Campbell has grown up on his parents' farm, Ramore, on the beautiful Holy Loch; and soon he will be attending Glasgow University to study for the ministry. By chance he saves the life of a young man, Harry, the son of Sir Thomas Frankland. The two boys do not like each other, but the result is that Colin is occasionally invited to the Castle and falls in love with a witty, flirtatious girl, Matty, whose place in the social order is far above his.

We follow him through his adventures at University, and as a summer tutor at a great house, where once again he is thrown into Matty's company. Throughout this novel are long, metaphysical discussions between Colin and his even more serious friend Lauderdale regarding Christianity and the Kirk of Scotland. Later he makes a foolish decision in the hope of being near Matty.  

A Son of Courage by Archie P. McKishnie

 

A Son of Courage by Archie P. McKishnie

A Tom Saywer type of tale taking place in Nova Scotia.

 

A Son at the Front by Edith Wharton

A worrisome tale of a woman who has a son in the front lines of the War during World War I.  There are more novels by Edith Whaton HERE.

 

A Sicilian Romance

A unique, historical Gothic romance of a man visiting Sicily, where he learns of the strange events surrounding a certain family.  He investigates, and falls in love in this suspenseful, Gothic romance.

A Sicilian Romance is a gothic novel by Ann Radcliffe. It was her second published work, and was first published anonymously in 1790.

The plot concerns the fallen nobility of the house of Mazzini, on the northern shore of Sicily, as related by a tourist who learns of their turbulent history from a monk he meets at the ruins of their once-magnificent castle. The Mazzini sisters, Emilia and Julia are 'beautiful' young ladies with many talents. Julia quickly falls in love with the young and handsome Italian count Hippolitus de Vereza, but to her dismay her father decides that she should marry Duke de Luovo instead. After much thought Julia attempts to elope with Hippolitus on the night before her wedding. However, their escape had been anticipated, and the Marquis, Julia's father, ambushes and seemingly kills Hippolitus whose body is carried away by his servants. The Marquis tells Julia that she must marry the duke and after much difficulty she escapes again alone. The Marquis and the Duke spend much of the novel trying to catch Julia and force her to marry the duke. Julia has to flee from her various hiding places as she narrowly avoids capture and eventually ends up, by a secret tunnel, in the abandoned and seemingly haunted southern apartments of the Mazzini castle only to find that her mother, thought to be dead, had been imprisoned there for years by the Marquis, who had grown to despise her. The Marquis's new wife, Maria de Vellorno, commits murder-suicide after the Marquis discovers and accuses her of infidelity, poisoning the Marquis and stabbing herself. Before he dies the Marquis confesses to Ferdinand, his son, that his mother has been imprisoned, and hands him the keys. However, his mother and Julia had already been freed by Hippolitus, who had recovered from his wounds. Ferdinand then finds them at a lighthouse on the coast, waiting to leave for Italy, and they are all joyfully reunited. The introduction to the Oxford World's Classics edition notes that in this novel "Ann Radcliffe began to forge the unique mixture of the psychology of terror and poetic description that would make her the great exemplar of the Gothic novel, and the idol of the Romantics". The novel explores the "cavernous landscapes and labyrinthine passages of Sicily's castles and convents to reveal the shameful secrets of its all-powerful aristocracy" .