Random Historical Fiction Podcasts

Medieval England in the 12th century. The evil Prince John rules England in place of his brother, the noble Richard the Lionheart, who is being held in an Austrian prison by Duke Leopold of Austria, while returning from one of his Crusades. Under the avaricious and Machiavellian John, the Norman aristocrats are in constant conflict with the native Saxon people. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott is set in these turbulent times. The eponymous hero, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, the son of a Saxon nobleman has been disinherited by his father for following King Richard into war. Ivanhoe is in love with his father’s beautiful ward, Rowena, who is betrothed to a noble Saxon. Ivanhoe returns secretly to England and fights in a tournament disguised as a Knight. He wins the admiration and help of a mysterious Black Knight and together they vanquish their opponents. Meanwhile, Prince John and his nefarious coterie plot to usurp the throne, and Ivanhoe is unwittingly drawn into events that leave an indelible impact on his life. This historical novel by a master of the genre was first published in 1820. Filled with memorable characters including the legendary Saxon hero, Robin Hood (called Robin of Locksley here) and his band of Merry Men, historical figures like King Richard, Prince John and the Knights Templar and many others, the story takes some exciting twists and turns before racing to its unexpected climax. There are magnificent depictions of jousting and knightly tournaments, court scenes, portrayals of Saxon and Norman politics all of which bring to life a most interesting period in English history. Sir Walter Scott was famous for his Romantic novels, which in fact evoked great interest in the periods in which they were set. They also deal with conflicts between society and the individual, the ancient codes of honor and chivalry and are usually set in actual locations. Ivanhoe is set in South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, with various castles and monuments being mentioned. Our idea of Robin Hood as a laughing outlaw who robs the rich to help the poor is also based on what Scott has depicted in Ivanhoe. Several sequels have been attempted in later years, along with events and other works inspired by Ivanhoe. The novel has been adapted for film, television and stage since 1911 and has also been the basis of comics, animated films and video games. The book is an exciting read for all ages, full of atmosphere and transports the reader back in time to an age of valor, courage, honor and swashbuckling gallantry!

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: Adventure, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, History, Ivanhoe, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, romance, Sir Walter Scott

Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for “robbing from the rich and giving to the poor”, assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his “Merry Men”. Traditionally Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes. The origin of the legend is claimed by some to have stemmed from actual outlaws, or from ballads or tales of outlaws.

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family, Society & Culture

Tags: Adventure, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, Fairy tales, fantasy, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, J. Walker McSpadden, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Myths/Legends, Robin Hood, Teen/Young adult

The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas is part of the novel The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years After, published in serial form between 1857-50. It is also the last of the D’Artagnan stories written by Dumas and the three musketeers are the real heroes of the story, though the title is given to the man in the iron mask. The story opens with Aramis (one of the musketeers who is now a priest) taking the last confession of a prisoner who is condemned to be executed soon. His confession comes as a thunderbolt to the former musketeer. This mysterious person is actually the identical twin brother of Louis XIV. He was ordered to be killed by his own parents, Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, to prevent any future challenge to the throne. However, he is ultimately thrown into prison and has lived there ever since. Now that Louis has ascended the throne, he is condemned to die. Aramis is not one to let such a crime go unpunished. He enlists the help of Porthos. He feels that Phillipe being the older twin and thus entitled to reign should be restored to the throne and along with this, Aramis himself can also become the Cardinal of France. Devious plots are meanwhile underway, launched by the evil Superintendent of Finance, Fouquet. Aramis brings Phillipe to the palace, kidnaps Louis and substitutes one twin for another. And the story races to its gripping climax. In The Man in the Iron Mask, the final moments of some of musketeers is depicted very poignantly. Alexandre Dumas’ story is based on some interesting historical facts. A mysterious prisoner called Eustache Daugher was held in several prisons across France and Italy, for 34 years under the custody of the same jailer who moved with him constantly. The French novelist Voltaire was the first to speculate about the possible identity of Daugher. However, nothing has been proven conclusively, though the story provided rich material for many conspiracy theories and novels. As a fast paced Three Musketeers adventure, The Man in the Iron Mask is indeed an exciting and interesting read.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: Adventure, Alexandre Dumas, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, History, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, romance, The Man in the Iron Mask

Here are tales of love and war, modesty and frivolity, laughter and tears. Louisa May Alcott wrote many, many short stories. This collection shares but 7 of them. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, Kids, Literature, Louisa May Alcott, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Shoes and Stockings: A Collection of Short Stories, Short stories, Teen/Young adult

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer, was first published in 1842, and is one of the most prominent works of 19th-century Russian literature. Gogol himself saw it as an “epic poem in prose”, and within the book as a “novel in verse”. Despite supposedly completing the trilogy’s second part, Gogol destroyed it shortly before his death. Although the novel ends in mid-sentence (like Sterne’s Sentimental Journey), it is usually regarded as complete in the extant form. In Russia before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, landowners were entitled to own serfs to farm their land. Serfs were for most purposes considered the property of the landowner, and could be bought, sold, or mortgaged against, as any other chattel. To count serfs (and people in general), the measure word “soul” was used: e.g., “six souls of serfs”. The plot of the novel relies on “dead souls” (i.e., “dead serfs”) which are still accounted for in property registers. On another level, the title refers to the “dead souls” of Gogol’s characters, all of which visualise different aspects of poshlost (an untranslatable Russian word which is perhaps best rendered as “self-satisfied inferiority”, moral and spiritual, with overtones of middle-class pretentiousness, fake significance, and philistinism).

Categories: Arts, Comedy, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Dead Souls, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, humor, Languages, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, satire

“The wrongdoing of one generation lives into the successive ones and… becomes a pure and uncontrollable mischief.” Hawthorne’s moral for “The House of the Seven Gables,” taken from the Preface, accurately presages his story. The full weight of the gloomy mansion of the title seems to sit on the fortunes of the Pyncheon family. An ancestor took advantage of the Salem witch trials to wrest away the land whereon the house would be raised… but the land’s owner, about to be executed as a wizard, cursed the Pyncheon family until such time as they should make restitution. Now, almost two centuries later, the family is in real distress. Hepzibah, an old maid and resident of the house, is forced by advanced poverty to open a shop in a part of the house. Her brother Clifford has just been released from prison after serving a thirty-year sentence for murder, and his mind struggles to maintain any kind of hold on reality. Cousin Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon is making himself odious by threatening to have Clifford committed to an institution. And after all these years, the deed to a vast tract of land, that would settle great wealth on the family, is still missing. One bright ray of sunshine enters the house when cousin Phoebe arrives for an extended stay to allow unhappy matters in her end of the family to sort themselves out. While she lightens the lives of Hepzibah and Clifford, she also attracts the attention of a mysterious lodger named Holgrave, who has placed himself near the Pyncheon family for reasons that only come clear at the end of the story. The real crisis arrives when the Judge, who strongly resembles the Colonel Pyncheon who built the house so many years ago, steps up his demands on Hepzibah and Clifford and unwittingly triggers the curse.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables

Though it’s titled The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, the man himself appears only in five scenes in the entire play! However, such is his impact on the events that surrounded him that he still remains the central figure in this psychological drama that combines politics, honor, assassination, betrayal, the lust for power, patriotism and friendship. Set in 44 BC in ancient Rome, it is one of William Shakespeare’s early Tragedies. First thought to have been performed in September 1599, William Shakespeare’s original text or script have long vanished. What we have today is taken from a prompt script that must have been used by stage managers in Elizabethan times. Shakespeare probably used the historical facts found in Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Life of Brutus and Life of Caesar. Whatever the source, the play remains a deeply moving, engrossing slice of history. The play opens with a street scene in which two Roman tribunes are depicted arrogantly dealing with the common people of the city. This sets the tone for what is to come—the huge public antipathy to a once celebrated war hero who now nurses ambitions beyond his status. Later scenes depict the agony of Marcus Brutus, the beloved friend of Caesar, who is also a supreme patriot above all the calls of friendship and love. The sinister warning of the soothsayer, the conspiracy scene, the brutal assassination and the events that follow are well known. Mark Antony’s famous speech “Friends, Romans, Countrymen….” and Brutus’ inflexible idealism and his far too measured tribute to the man whom he honored so greatly are the highlights of the play. Scholars have concluded that the inspiration for writing this play must have been the overwhelming anxiety felt in Elizabethan England regarding the royal succession. There were fears that the elderly Queen would die without naming a successor, leading to the outbreak of civil war, which is depicted in the play after the death of Caesar. Caesar himself is a charismatic, powerful and intuitive leader, who holds the empire together by sheer dint of his leadership qualities. He has strong premonitions of his own death. Though the crime is committed in full public view, it is sought to be justified as a political necessity. The play is also famous for not having either a real hero or a villain. Julius Caesar has been adapted extensively for stage, screen and television. Many notable actors have played the roles of Brutus, Mark Antony and Caesar with exceptional brilliance. The play is full of wonderful lines that have entered the realms of English literature over the centuries. Indeed a riveting read for young and old!

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Dramatic Works, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, Julius Caesar, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, play, William Shakespeare

Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables is a novel which tells the story of ex-convict Jean Valjean, his struggles and eventual redemption. It’s hailed by many critics as not just Victor Hugo’s finest work but also one of the best French novels of all time. Like most epic novels written in the 19th century, the storyline of Les Misérables spans through several decades beginning in the early 1800s and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris. The events related to the lives of the central characters in the novel are also tied to the great historical events of the time from the French Revolution to the June Rebellion. In the novel, Jean Valjean a man from a poor family was convicted of stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s family. He eventually escaped from prison and was able to begin a new life with the help of Bishop Myriel. A police inspector named Javert was assigned to guard the group of prisoners which includes Jean Valjean. Javert became obsessed in arresting and bringing Jean Valjean back to prison after his escape. Aside from the main storyline, the romance between Marius and Cosette is also very interesting. Cosette was an adopted daughter of Jean Valjean while Marius was a law student who was estranged from his rich family. The two immediately fell in love with each other after they met by chance at the promenade in the Luxembourg Gardens. Victor Hugo also discusses other pressing issues in 19th century France in the book like anti monarchism, injustice in French society, the life of the urban poor in Paris and so on. This book isn’t just about the story of its main characters like Jean Valjean, Javert, Cosette, Marius Pontmercy and others, it’s about justice, morality and the other important things in life. For those who liked the movie version of Les Misérables which stars Hugh Jackman, Rusell Crowe and Anne Hathaway, I’m sure they’ll also like reading this book which is its original version.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, Les Misérables, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, romance, Victor Hugo

These lesser known stories were penned by Conan Doyle during the period between killing off Sherlock Holmes in 1893 and reluctantly resurrecting him some ten years later. The swashbuckling, eponymous hero, Etienne Gerard, is one of Napoleon’s gallant French Hussars, who considers himself the finest of them all. Through these “Boys Own Adventures”, Conan Doyle pokes gentle fun at both the French and the English. This is the second volume containing eight adventures. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Comedy, Society & Culture

Tags: Adventure, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, History, humor, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Gerard, War stories

Its immortal opening lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” set the stage for a sweeping narrative that combines drama, glory, honor, history, romance, brutality, sacrifice and resurrection. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is one of the most widely read and famous works of historical fiction in the English language. Dickens had recently launched his magazine All the Year Round in 1859. In the same year, he began featuring A Tale of Two Cities in 31 weekly installments in his new magazine. The book was eventually combined into a single copy and split into three major sections as it is presented today. In this epic tale of love and tragedy set during the turbulent times of the French Revolution in 1789, the motif of two’s appears constantly as opposing sides of the same coin. London and Paris are the two cities, Sidney Carton and Charles Darnay are the two heroes, Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge are the pure and evil women respectively, and these along with shadows and darkness, sacrifice and dishonor, brutality and spirituality form the recurring dual motifs in the novel. Sidney Carton, a young, debauched and dissolute English barrister defends a young French aristocrat Charles Darnay accused of treason in London. The two bear a striking resemblance to each other. Lucie Manette, a lovely young French girl and her father Dr. Manette, who had suffered under the atrocities of the nobility in France, now live a quiet life in London. Charles and Lucie are in love, but Sidney Carton also falls in love with her. Meanwhile in France, the storm of revolution is about to break. A wine store owner and Dr. Manette’s former servant, Monsieur Defarge, leads the revolutionaries. His wife, Madame Defarge is a vicious woman who revels in cruelty. She too has suffered under the aristocratic regime and now seeks to destroy all those who persecuted her. Charles Darnay returns to Paris to rescue an old servant of his who has been captured by the revolutionaries. He is captured by the rebels and condemned to be executed by guillotine. The story then takes several dramatic twists and turns before reaching its final and most unexpected conclusion. As one of the most exciting and deeply moving stories penned by a brilliant and gifted story teller, A Tale of Two Cities is indeed a riveting and unforgettable experience for readers of all ages. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: A Tale of Two Cities, audio books, audiobook, Charles Dickens, Classics (antiquity), ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, History, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com

Travel along as Mike Vendetti aka miketheauctioneer narrates an outstanding true account of a trip made in 1909 by Zane Grey and a plainsman, Buffalo Jones, through the Grand Canyon to lasso a cougar. That’s right lasso. Throw a rope around. That’s equivalent to catching one by the tail. As I narrated this book, I found fact to be as exciting as fiction. This part of the west was relatively wild and untamed at this time. Wolves, wild horses, buffalo and other wildlife were quite prevalent, and the Indians were not that friendly. This adventure would never make it to “Animal Planet”, or as a National Geographic special, because there is quite a lot of what we would consider cruelty to animals, but this is a true story, and life as it was at the turn of the last century. Parts of this story will offend the sensibilities of some, but it is a glimpse into a world that no longer exists. I was definitely drawn into this story, as I hope the listener will be.

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family, Society & Culture

Tags: Adventure, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, Teen/Young adult, The Last of the Plainsmen, westerns, Zane Grey

This is the first of five volumes. – Giacomo Casanova (1725 in Venice – 1798 in Dux, Bohemia, now Duchcov, Czech Republic) was a famous Venetian adventurer, writer, and womanizer. He used charm, guile, threats, intimidation, and aggression, when necessary, to conquer women, sometimes leaving behind children or debt. In his autobiography Histoire de ma vie (Story of My Life), regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century, he mentions 122 women with whom he had sex. Although he is often associated with Don Juan because both seduced many women, Casanova is in fact very different from his fictitious counterpart. While Don Juan is a legend, Casanova is a historical character.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: Adventure, audio books, audiobook, Biography, ebooks, Erotica, fiction, free audio books, Giacomo Casanova, Historical Fiction, History, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Memoirs, Non-fiction, The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova

This story opens with a young woman who voyages alone into the wilds of Alaska to escape her tragic past. It then continues on to a young man who passionately protects the pristine environment, people and way of life in this snowbound country. Finally, a greedy profiteer arrives in the narrative whose only aim is to fill his pockets. When these three characters encounter each other on the stark and snowy plains, it’s a clash of ideals and the sparks begin to fly. The Alaskan by James Oliver Curwood is one of his very engaging adventure romance conservationist stories and was an instant bestseller, like most of his books, when it was first published in 1923. Curwood was a highly successful writer in the early part of the twentieth century and was in fact, the best paid writer in the world at his time. His books were wildly popular and have been adapted for screen, stage, television and radio. Though he was a high school drop out, he wrote and passed a university entrance exam that gave him entry into the University of Michigan’s English department. He studied journalism and discovered his writing talents when he worked on a Detroit newspaper. He fell in love with Alaska when he traveled there on a story and decided that he would settle there once he’d saved enough. He continued to write and travel often to his dream destination. His books proved extremely successful and allowed him to retire early to devote himself to his writing. From 1903 until his death in 1927, he produced novels, essays, short stories and articles dealing mainly with his favorite subjects: Alaska and adventure. Though he was fond of hunting in his early years, he soon became a conservationist like many before him and died at the young age of 49. His former studio in Ossowo, Michigan is now a museum. Curwood’s writing style follows the great adventure story tradition of writers like Jack London who also used the Arctic and Arctic animals as heroes of their tales. His books have been translated into many world languages, including Swedish and Polish. The Alaskan is a typical Curwood tale, with wonderful descriptions of the Alaskan landscape, the wildlife, vegetation and local populations. The plot is studded with exciting twists and turns, memorable characters and is indeed a great read for young and old alike. Recent film adaptations of his 1916 book The Grizzly King and titled The Bear have led to a renewed interest in the work of this writer who was famous in his day, but is little known to modern readers.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: Adventure, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, James Oliver Curwood, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, nature, The Alaskan, travel

Join award-winning and best-selling fiction authors Sarah M. Eden, Traci Hunter Abramson, Esther Hatch, and Sian Ann Bessey as they gather around the figurative kitchen table to talk and laugh about books, writing, and life. Between the Lines: a podcast for readers and writers

Categories: Arts, Education, Fiction

Tags: Authors, book, Clean Fiction, fiction, Historical Fiction, Reading, Wholesome Romance, writing

Set in the first half of the 19th century, the classic novel presents the story of young orphan Oliver Twist, who endures tumultuous events in a society burdened by poverty, crime and malice. After being poorly treated in a workhouse, Oliver escapes to London where instead of finding a better life he ends up tangled in a web of criminal activities. The novel opens with the introduction of Oliver, a waif who has spent his short life living in miserable conditions in a workhouse. Along with other fellow orphans, he is regularly beaten and underfed. One day the young, hungry orphans decide to draw sticks in order to determine who will ask for another portion of gruel. The unlucky representative of the starving children is Oliver, who goes up to the stern Mr. Bumble and makes his famous plea “Please sir, I want some more”. Unimpressed by such a request, the authoritarian administrators of the workhouse offer five pounds to anyone willing to take the boy as an apprentice. Subsequently, Oliver is apprenticed to local undertaker, Mr. Sowerberry. Things do not get any easier, as Oliver is bullied by fellow apprentice Noah Claypole who also causes him to be unfairly flogged by their superiors. Consequently, Oliver decides to run away and is quickly on his way to London where he meets a boy his own age by the name of Jack Dawkins. Unaware that his new found companion is a pickpocket, Oliver naively follows Jack to the house of his benefactor Fagin where he is offered shelter. He is also oblivious to the fact that Fagin is in reality a criminal who trains young boys in the art of pick pocketing. Oliver is swept up in the corrupt game mastered by Fagin, and once again must escape the grasps of captivity in order to find happiness. Apart from creating a brilliant piece of literature, Dickens has also documented a significant time in social history. Exploring troubling issues of the time including child labor, treatment of orphans, and child recruitment into the criminal world, Oliver Twist is one of the earliest examples of a novel exploring social criticism. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Charles Dickens, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Oliver Twist, Psychology

The infamous U boats deployed by Germany in the two World Wars have spawned several works of fiction and non-fiction. These deadly vessels were not just efficient and lethal killing machines, but they were also used very effectively in economic blockades. They were positioned primarily to obstruct the conveyance of fuel, food and other essential supplies which the enemy needed to sustain the war effort. In the Diary of a U Boat Commander, the author, Stephen King-Hall draws upon his vast personal experiences as a naval officer in World War I. Writing under the name of the fictitious narrator, Etienne, King-Hall presents the events in the story in the form of a diary that has been discovered aboard a captured German U boat. The diarist is a German nobleman of the rank of Captain in the German Navy. He is drawn in the almost clichéd pattern of German aristocrats of the time—young, handsome, wealthy and immensely arrogant. He is also cultured and skilled in several of the arts like music and literature. His career has been an illustrious one and on several occasions he has outwitted the English navy. On furlough in Bruges, he falls irrevocably in love with Zoe, the Polish mistress of one of his superior officers, and she reciprocates his feelings. However, extraordinary events interrupt their love story and Zoe’s terrible past comes back to haunt them both. William Stephen Richard King-Hall or Baron King-Hall of Headley to give him his full title, came from an illustrious family of artists and writers. At the end of World War I, he resigned from the Royal Navy and went on to become a full time writer. As the author of several successful plays, political and historical works and some children’s books, he gained popularity. He also wrote a scholarly thesis on submarine warfare. He was also a well-known advocate of parliamentary democracy, unilateral nuclear disarmament and non-violent defense against war. He wrote more than fifteen fiction and non-fiction books and was well regarded in his time for being an authority on naval subjects. Diary of a U Boat Commander portrays the excitement, challenges and heartbreak of the situation in a very authentic way. In fact, initially, the reader is almost beguiled into believing that this is indeed a real diary written by a real person—such is the author’s skill. For those who are passionate about sea-faring stories or war sagas, this is indeed a great addition to your bookshelf!

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Diary of a U-boat Commander, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Sea stories, Sir Stephen King-Hall, War stories

Written by French author Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo follows the life of Edmond Dantes as he embarks on a journey of revenge after being wrongly imprisoned and set up by none other than his so-called friends. Set during the years after the fall of Napoleon’s empire, the story unwinds in several locations including Paris, Marseilles, Rome, Monte Cristo and Constantinople. A handsome young sailor and soon to be ship captain Edmond Dantes seems to have it all in life, as he returns to Marseilles to wed the love of his life and fiancée, the beautiful Mercedes. However, Edmond’s supposed friends have a hard time staying indifferent to his growing success, and their true jealous nature is revealed. Each has their own reason to envy Edmond. Danglers, who is a colleague of Edmonds, envies his career success, Fernand Mondego is in love with Edmonds fiancée, while his neighbor Caderousse is envious of his luck in life in general. Just as Edmond is about to pick the fruits that life has bore him, he is framed by the dangerously jealous trio, accused of being a traitor and unjustly sentenced to life in prison. As Edmond makes certain acquaintances in prison, he is determined to escape from his confinement and take the vengeance that is rightfully his. When Edmond does in turn return to the world of the free, he acquires a new identity and is motivated by his hunger for revenge. It is not said in vain that revenge is a dish best served cold. An intriguing novel of justice, vengeance, mercy and redemption, The Count of Monte Cristo follows its protagonist as he goes through his numerous masks shifting into several aliases including the Count of Monte Cristo, Sinbad the Sailor, Lord Wilmore, and Abbé Busoni. What makes the novel even more captivating is the fact that it is based on a true story. Captivating and keeping the reader at full throttle from beginning to end, it is no wonder the novel is a worldwide literary classic.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: Adventure, Alexandre Dumas, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, romance, The Count of Monte Cristo

Kidnapped is the story of a 16-year old young man who is searching for his true birthright and is determined to make a fortune after the death of his parents. This timeless tale by Robert Louis Stevenson follows the life of David Balfour who leaves his home in Scotland after the death of his parents. First he meets his uncle for the first time in his life. His uncle is a very mean person who, at first, tried to kill David by devious means but then got him kidnapped onto a slave ship. In the ship, David makes friends with a Scottish rebel and together they successfully defeat the ship’s crew. The rebel, Alan, cherishes a dream to overthrow the British rulers of Scotland. Soon after the shipwreck, the two escaped but were later charged for being accomplices in the murder of a British supporter by the name of Colin Campbell. Although the novel’s adventures get a kick-start by this kidnapping, it is true that the hero of the story spends very little time as a captive. The character of Alan is very important as without his friendship the story would have ended very quickly. David would have been forced into slavery or would have escaped and met a poor fate due to starvation and want of money. On the contrary, David enters into new adventures with Alan on the ship itself. But after being charged with the grave crime of murder, readers are forced to ask two pertinent questions – Will these two escape from the hands of the British soldiers? Will David ever confront his sly uncle and fight to get back his inheritance? This is a very exciting and adventure filled story and all readers, old or young, will like the way the novel slowly unfolds. The setting of the story is very beautiful and there are vivid descriptions of the woods, waterfalls and streams which they jump over. The story is set in 1751 and the author has successfully narrated the story keeping in mind the history of the time. If you love adventure stories then you simply cannot ignore this fast-moving adventure which promises to keep the reader engrossed from start-to-finish. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family, Society & Culture

Tags: Adventure, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, History, kidnapped, Kids, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Robert Louis Stevenson