The author of such swashbuckling adventures as "She" and "King Solomon's Mines" turns to domestic drama in this romance. Joan is a shop girl of illegitimate birth--and a single mother besides. Torn from the love of country-dwelling Captain Henry Graves, Joan endures exile with a Dickensian London family, and pursuit by a Victorian-era stalker.

Moon of Israel is a novel by Rider Haggard, first published in 1918 by John Murray. The novel narrates the events of the Biblical Exodus from Egypt told from the perspective of a scribe named Ana. Haggard dedicated his novel to Sir Gaston Maspero, a distinguished Egyptologist and director of Cairo Museum.

"A tale that deals with the marvellous Incas of Peru; with the legend also that, long before the Spanish Conquerors entered on their mission of robbery and ruin, there in that undiscovered land lived and died a White God risen from the sea."

Eric Thorgrimursson (nicknamed "Brighteyes" for his most notable trait), strives to win the hand of his beloved, Gudruda the Fair. Her father Asmund, a priest of the old Norse gods, opposes the match, thinking Eric a man without prospects. But deadlier by far are the intrigues of Swanhild, Gudruda's half-sister and a sorceress who desires Eric for herself. She persuades the chieftain Ospakar Blacktooth to woo Gudrida, making the two men enemies. Battles, intrigues, and treachery follow.

In the turbulent reign of King Henry VII, Peter Brome finds himself with a soldier's blood on his hands -- blood the Spanish ambassador's men demand be repaid. Poor and fatherless, Peter delivered the killing blow in self-defense -- and because of his helpless love for Margaret -- dark-eyed daughter of John Castell, the kindly and wealthy merchant who has overseen his upbringing.

The circumstances under which the following pages come to be printed are somewhat curious and worthy of record. Within the last few years a certain English gentleman, whom we will call Jones, because it was not his name, chanced to be employed as the manager of a mine not far from the Usumacinto River, the upper reaches of which divide the Mexican State of Chiapas from the Republic of Guatemala. Now life at a mine in Chiapas, though doubtless it has some compensations, does not altogether fulfil a European's ideal of happiness.

Nada the Lily is set at the time of Chaka, the Zulu king, around whom much of the action turns, but essentially the book is the story of Umslopogaas, and of "his love for Nada, the most beautiful of Zulu women." They have been brought up as brother and sister but Umslopogaas is really Chaka's son. It is narrated by Mopo the father of Nada and witch doctor to Chaka, whom Chaka had vowed never to slay because he saved the life of Chaka and his mother when they were outcast wanderers.

This stirring novel is set in the climactic months before the opening of the Third Crusade, called the Kings' Crusade. The Brethren is a classic tale of love and chivalry, unfolding amidst the touching story of two English knights who are in love with the same maiden. The devotion of these men is tested when their beloved is carried away against her will to Palestine and eventually to the court of the famous Muslim leader, Saladin.

The novel begins on a Sunday afternoon in summer at a church in the Midland county called Busscombe. Reverend Thomas Owen had a preacher for the day called a "Deputation," who was sent to arouse the indifferent to the duty of converting the savage tribes by collecting money. As the "Deputation" told about his experience with a south central African tribe called the "Sons of Fire," Reverence Owen became very interested in the mission to convert this tribe of Amasuka and converting them. Reverend Owen ultimately decides to take on this task and gives his old job to the "Deputation."

Scientists, or some scientists-for occasionally one learned person differs from other learned persons-tell us they know all that is worth knowing about man, which statement, of course, includes woman. They trace him from his remotest ori- gin; they show us how his bones changed and his shape modi- fied, also how, under the influence of his needs and passions, his intelligence developed from something very humble.