Simona Bell, the lovely daughter of Lord Belgrave, has been invited by her friend, Karoline von Honentaal to stay with her family in Berlin. Simona finds that Karoline's father, the Baron, owns an amazing collection of art which interests her greatly. Alone for a moment, she finds her way into the Baron's private Sanctuary, where she admires an unusual Sedan Chair. Hearing voices and frightened she might be discovered, she slips into the Sedan Chair and closes the door.

The Duke of Lavenham learns from a letter that the beautiful Lady Penelope who he finds fun and amusing, is telling her friends that she is going to marry him. The Duke is horrified as he has no intention of marrying anyone for many years to come and he hurries to visit Penelope to discuss the matter with her and tell her that he has no intention of marrying anybody. As he is leaving the house, a young girl sobbing hysterically jumps into his carriage and begs him to take her away.

After the death of her parents, young Andrina Maldon has selflessly carried the responsibility of running a household impoverished by her father’s profligacy and also for the future happiness of her two sisters. Despite their striking looks, there is no hope of her sisters finding a suitable suitor without someone to introduce them into high society. So Andrina travels unchaperoned to London to seek the assistance of the Duke of Broxbourne, her father’s friend and the Godfather she has never met.

Silas Riley, Earl of Inglewood, is known among his peers in Parliament as the man made of stone. As a wealthy peer, there are few he trusts with his friendship. He guards his heart and his honor with vigilance, and when an accident nearly takes his life, he’s faced with a situation which threatens his standing in society.

In 1866, tragedy strikes the exclusive Windfield School when a young student drowns in a mysterious accident. His death and its aftermath initiate a spiraling circle of treachery that will span three decades and entwine many lives. From the exclusive men’s clubs and brothels that cater to every dark desire of London’s upper class to the dazzling ballrooms and mahogany-paneled suites of the manipulators of the world’s wealth, one family is splintered by a shared legacy.

Life is not easy for the poor relations of England’s upper crust, but fate and clever schemes bring them together. Lady Fortescue and Colonel Sandhurst hatch a plan: What if they were to transform her decrepit Bond Street home into a posh hotel, offering their guests the pleasure of being waited upon by nobility? With the help of other down-and-out aristocrats, they do just that, and London’s newest hotel, The Poor Relation, is born. The establishment is an immediate hit with London’s most illustrious citizens, save the Duke of Rowcester....

Cyril Gordon, an intrepid Secret Service Agent, has completed part of his mission in obtaining a coded message vital to the nation's security. But desperate men are pursuing him and with the help of a handy cab and a disguise, he makes his escape. The cab deposits him at a church where, astoundingly, everyone seems to be waiting for him to complete a wedding party, certain he's the missing best man.

Is it a gesture of goodwill or a sinister trap that lures Rupert St. Vincent and his family to a magnificent estate? How desperate is Joyce Lambert, a destitute young widow whose only recourse is to marry a man she despises? What unexpected circumstance stirs old loyalties in Theodora Darrell, an unfaithful wife about to run away with her lover?

In this collection of short stories, the answers are as unexpected as they are satisfying. The Queen of Mystery takes bizarre romantic entanglements, supernatural visitations, and classic murder to inventive new heights.

Following the death of their father, Beth's brother, Richard, returns from the army to claim his share of the family estate. However, Beth's hopes of a quiet life are dashed when Richard, dissatisfied with his meager inheritance and desperate for promotion, decides to force her into a marriage for his military gain. He will stop at nothing to get his way.

Orphaned at young ages, Lady Katherine Ashton and her brother have spent most of their lives on the high seas, seeking to restore their family fortune through somewhat dubious means. After that kind of adventure, Kate knows, she won't ever be accepted as a proper society lady. To the annoyingly clever, temptingly handsome, and altogether troublesome Earl of Wynbrook, society ladies are a dead bore. Kate, on the other hand, is scandalous, alluring, and altogether fascinating.

Engaged by proxy to a man she’s never met, Lady Daintry Tarrant is dismayed when the war hero returns, introducing himself as her fiancé, Lord Penthorpe. She cherishes her independence and has turned away many suitors, but this one she must marry. Penthorpe is completely captivated by Lady Daintry - but he’s not who he claims to be. Penthorpe and Lord Gideon Deverill fought together at the battle of Waterloo, and when Penthorpe fell, Gideon assumed his identity in order to see the beautiful Lady Daintry. Gideon knows there’s bad blood between Lady Daintry’s family and his own, but he’s smitten....

When her vile brother's wicked scheming ruins her reputation, Eleanor Chivenham is forced into a marriage of convenience. Yet there is much more to her new husband than meets the eye, and soon her heart is filled with unexpected desires.

Florrie Buckley is an orphan living on the wind-blasted moors of Cornwall. It's a hard existence, but Florrie is content; she runs wild in the mysterious landscape. She thinks her destiny is set in stone. But when Florrie is 14, she inherits a never-imagined secret. She is related to a wealthy and notorious London family: the Graces.

Is Number 67 Clarges Steet the unluckiest house in Mayfair? Every season the beau mondes of the Regency would hire a house in the heart of London’s fashionable West End at disproportionately high rent for often inferior accommodation and yet Number 67 Clarges Street, a town house complete with staff, remains vacant from year to year. Could it be that it is associated with ill luck and even death? Something must be done so that the servants of this house don’t lose their livelihood.

When James Everard announced that he had invited a young lady home for the holidays, his father, the Earl of Gyllford, was astounded and skeptical. Could it be that Jamie was finally showing an interest in something other than horseplay with his friends? But when lovely Miss Evalyn Pennington arrived at Gyllford Manor, it was the earl who found himself inexplicably drawn to her winsome beauty. Having been dismissed from her post as a governess, Evalyn would long remember the kindness of being welcomed at Gyllford Manor when she had nowhere else to turn.

Simona Bell, the lovely daughter of Lord Belgrave, has been invited by her friend, Karoline von Honentaal to stay with her family in Berlin. Simona finds that Karoline's father, the Baron, owns an amazing collection of art which interests her greatly. Alone for a moment, she finds her way into the Baron's private Sanctuary, where she admires an unusual Sedan Chair. Hearing voices and frightened she might be discovered, she slips into the Sedan Chair and closes the door.

Orphaned at young ages, Lady Katherine Ashton and her brother have spent most of their lives on the high seas, seeking to restore their family fortune through somewhat dubious means. After that kind of adventure, Kate knows, she won't ever be accepted as a proper society lady. To the annoyingly clever, temptingly handsome, and altogether troublesome Earl of Wynbrook, society ladies are a dead bore. Kate, on the other hand, is scandalous, alluring, and altogether fascinating.

Life is not easy for the poor relations of England’s upper crust, but fate and clever schemes bring them together. Lady Fortescue and Colonel Sandhurst hatch a plan: What if they were to transform her decrepit Bond Street home into a posh hotel, offering their guests the pleasure of being waited upon by nobility? With the help of other down-and-out aristocrats, they do just that, and London’s newest hotel, The Poor Relation, is born. The establishment is an immediate hit with London’s most illustrious citizens, save the Duke of Rowcester....

Florrie Buckley is an orphan living on the wind-blasted moors of Cornwall. It's a hard existence, but Florrie is content; she runs wild in the mysterious landscape. She thinks her destiny is set in stone. But when Florrie is 14, she inherits a never-imagined secret. She is related to a wealthy and notorious London family: the Graces.

Is Number 67 Clarges Steet the unluckiest house in Mayfair? Every season the beau mondes of the Regency would hire a house in the heart of London’s fashionable West End at disproportionately high rent for often inferior accommodation and yet Number 67 Clarges Street, a town house complete with staff, remains vacant from year to year. Could it be that it is associated with ill luck and even death? Something must be done so that the servants of this house don’t lose their livelihood.

Exiled to four years in Siberia, but hailed by the end of his life as a saint, prophet, and genius, Fyodor Dostoevsky holds an exalted place among the best of the great Russian authors. One of Dostoevsky’s five major novels, Devils follows the travails of a small provincial town beset by a band of modish radicals - and in so doing presents a devastating depiction of life and politics in late 19th-century Imperial Russia.

When Lionel Savage, a popular poet in Victorian London, learns from his butler that they're broke, he marries the beautiful Vivien Lancaster for her money, only to find that his muse has abandoned him. Distraught and contemplating suicide, Savage accidentally conjures the devil - the polite "Gentleman" of the title - who appears at one of the society parties Savage abhors. The two hit it off: The devil talks about his home, where he employs Dante as a gardener; Savage lends him a volume of Tennyson.

Three critically acclaimed recordings are joined together in this dazzling Agatha Christie Triple Bill, read by award-winning narrators Alison Larkin and James Warwick, star of the Partners in Crime TV series on Masterpiece Theater.

From the brilliant pen of Agatha Christie comes two novels featuring the beloved sleuthing duo: In the The Secret Adversary, Tommy and Tuppence decide to embark on a daring business scheme: Young Adventurers Ltd. But they get more than they bargained for when their first assignment for the sinister Mr. Whittington draws them into a diabolical conspiracy. Set during the dark days of World War II, Agatha Christie’s N or M? puts two most unlikely espionage agents, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, on the trail of a pair of Nazi spies who have murdered Britain’s top agent.

Howards End is a beautifully subtle tale of two very different families brought together by an unusual event. The Schlegels are intellectuals, devotees of art and literature. The Wilcoxes are practical and materialistic, leading lives of "telegrams and anger". When the elder Mrs. Wilcox dies and her family discovers she has left their country home - Howards End - to one of the Schlegel sisters, a crisis between the two families is precipitated that takes years to resolve.

Cyril Gordon, an intrepid Secret Service Agent, has completed part of his mission in obtaining a coded message vital to the nation's security. But desperate men are pursuing him and with the help of a handy cab and a disguise, he makes his escape. The cab deposits him at a church where, astoundingly, everyone seems to be waiting for him to complete a wedding party, certain he's the missing best man.

The heiress to the Bellerose estate has gone missing and what a waste of a dowry it is! Charlotte Bellamy's future husband, Lord Geoffrey Seavers, is in desperate need to finance his royal fleet, yet somehow Charlotte disappeared and the Bellamy inheritance slipped through his fingers. Enter Alicia, a tavern maid of uncertain parentage. Yes, she's a bit young and headstrong, but no one at court has actually ever seen the Lady Bellamy, and Alicia's beauty, poise, and bearing are enough to fool the king.

A member of the landed gentry, with a seemingly guaranteed income from his estate in the country, Oblomov lives in Petersburg, uninterested in the business that provides his living and barely aware that the revenue is diminishing. Not that he leads a dissolute life of extravagance, balls and entertainment. Instead he is a dreamer, a sybarite, content above all to spend most of the day supine, in bed. The novel opens with Oblomov thus ensconced, attended only by his dirty, grumbling, indolent servant Zahar, who has looked after him since childhood, catering to his every need.

Rosalie Vanderpoel, the daughter of an American multimillionaire marries an impoverished English baronet and goes to live in England. She all but loses contact with her family in America. Years later her younger sister Bettina, beautiful, intelligent and extremely rich, goes to England to find what has happened to her sister. She finds Rosalie shabby and dispirited, cowed by her husband's ill-treatment. Bettina sets about to rectify matters.

In this rich new audio production, acclaimed British American actress Rebecca Hall brings one of E. M. Forster's most admired works to life in this classic tale of human struggle. A charming young Englishwoman, Lucy Honeychurch, is wooed by both free-spirited George Emerson and wealthy Cecil Vyse while vacationing in Italy. Though attracted to George, Lucy becomes engaged to Cecil despite twice turning down his proposals. On hearing of the news, George confesses his love, leaving Lucy torn between marrying the more socially acceptable Cecil or George, the man she knows would bring her true happiness. Should Lucy choose social acceptance or true love?