Owen Glendower, angered by the usurpation of the English throne by Henry IV, carried fire and slaughter to the Welsh counties, capturing most of the strong places held by the English and foiling three invasions led by the king himself.

The story is laid in Yorkshire in 1812, when the introduction of machinery and high price of food induced by the Napoleonic Wars, drove the working classes to desperation, and caused them to band themselves in that widespread organization known as the Luddite Society. There is an abundance of adventure in the tale, but its chief interest lies in the character of the hero, and the manner in which he is put on trial for his life, but at last comes victorious “through the fray.”

From 1413-1415 the butcher’s guild, otherwise known as the “White Hoods” of Paris, kept that city in a state of near anarchy. With a mad king, a virtual civil war between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy, and King Henry V of England claiming the French throne, there is plenty of opportunity for Guy Aylmer, a squire to Sir Eustace de Villeroy, to show his mettle in many a skirmish, finally winning his spurs at the lopsided victory of the English over the French at the Battle of Agincourt on October 25, 1415.

Won by the Sword describes the conclusion of the Thirty Years’ War (1640s) recounting the years after the deaths of generals Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein when France took the lead in the struggle. The appointment of young Hector Campbell, orphaned son of a Scottish captain, as an aide in the household of the French General Turenne marks the beginning of a series of adventures that includes battles, captures and escapes, a meeting with Mazarin, and high honors and awards for his prowess and bravery in battle.

With the exception of the terrible retreat from Afghanistan, none of England's many little wars have been so fatal in proportion to the number of those engaged as our first expedition to Burma. The Burman policy of carrying off every boat on the river, laying waste the whole country, and driving away the inhabitants and the herds, maintained our army as prisoners in Rangoon through the first wet season; and caused the loss of half the white officers and men first sent there.

Frank Norris, accused of theft and unable to prove his innocence, leaves for excitement and adventure in the California gold fields of 1850s America. He sails the Atlantic, braves a storm while working as a barge man on the Mississippi, survives an Indian attack while crossing the plains with a caravan, strikes it rich in the California gold mines, and is finally able to clear his name and return to England to claim his rightful inheritance.

Bring history back to life through Jim Hodges' historically accurate, exciting, and edifying audio recordings. The conquest of the Aztec Empire by Hernando Cortez and a mere handful of Spaniards is one of the greatest romances of history. A writer of fiction would scarcely have dared to invent so improbable a story, but it is true. Fortunately Cortez was able to ally himself with many peoples conquered by the Aztecs who were all too happy to assist in their downfall.

It's the time of the English Civil War in 1642. Harry Furness is a Cavalier fighting for the king; his friend, Herbert Rippinghall, sides with the Roundheads in opposition. Oliver Cromwell leads the rebels aligned against the king and his admittedly tyrannical rule, but ends up imposing his own! Most of the story follows Harry Furness and the campaigns which take him all over the British Isles and the high seas, right through his capture at Drogheda and enslavement in Bermuda.

Out on the Pampas was the exciting story overheard by a friend who encouraged Mr. Henty to have it published, launching his amazing career as "The Boys' Own Historian." In the mid-1800s, the Hardy family relocates to Argentina, joining other British settlers trying to start a better life for themselves in a new land. They face many obstacles and perils in this rugged lifestyle: surveying, building, planting, raising animals, and fighting off attacks from the natives.

In this, the Henty novel covering the oldest time period of any, listeners will learn much about the domestic life, customs, religion, and military system of ancient Egypt. Amuba, a prince of the Rebu nation on the shores of the Caspian Sea, with his charioteer Jethro, is carried into slavery after losing a battle with the Egyptians. They become servants of the house of Ameres, an Egyptian high priest, and are quite happy there until the priest's son accidentally kills the sacred cat of Bubastes.

In 1381, Wat, the Tyler, and the peasants he represented urged of the king of England that serfdom should be abolished, the right of all to market their goods publicly should be allowed, the price of good land should not be over four pennies an acre, and that all past offenses should be pardoned. Instead of presenting their requests in a respectful manner, they took to the streets of East Anglia, Kent, and London. Although their demands were certainly reasonable, their methods were not.

In the Heart of the Rockies is packed with adventure! In 1860, 16-year-old Tom Wade leaves England for the American Far West to find his uncle and to improve his family fortunes. Arriving at the small western outpost of Denver to mine for gold, he soon encounters Native American warriors, takes part in big-game hunts, and learns how to survive a frigid mountain winter with nothing but resourcefulness and perseverance.

Mr. Henty tells an exciting story from the record of Josephus. The troubles in the district of Tiberias, the march of the legions, the sieges of Jotapata, of Gamala, and of Jerusalem all come to life. In this impressive and carefully studied historic setting, you will follow a lad, John of Gamala, who passes from the vineyard to the service of Josephus.

For hundreds of years, the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table has been one of the world's most precious literary possessions. In 1902, the distinguished American artist Howard Pyle undertook to retell and illustrate this classic. His four-volume work has long been considered one of the outstanding interpretations of the Arthurian cycle.

Janner Igiby, his brother, Tink, and their disabled sister, Leeli, are gifted children as all children are, loved well by a noble mother and ex-pirate grandfather. But they will need all their gifts and all that they love to survive the evil pursuit of the venomous Fangs of Dang, who have crossed the dark sea to rule the land with malice. The Igibys hold the secret to the lost legend and jewels of good King Wingfeather of the Shining Isle of Anniera.

The story of young Tom Brown's seemingly hideous years spent at rugby school and his spirited and astonishingly stalwart response to the institutionalised bullying prevalent at the 'Great' British public schools became exactly the campaigning tool its author hoped it would. The regimes at these schools had been largely unchallenged, with the assumption being that the education and training received were the best.

In this carefully crafted novel, Dickens reveals the complexity of London society in the enterprising 1840s as he takes the listener into the business firm and home of one of its most representative patriarchs, Paul Dombey.

In 1889, satirist Jerome K. Jerome fully intended to write a serious travel guide when he and his two best friends embarked on a boating trip up the river Thames to Oxford. But his musings on landmarks and local history were soon hijacked by his own digressive, waggish voice. And so, what began as a peaceful and edifying two-week exploration soon floated upriver into farce - aided, quite naturally, by a portly ration of cheese, some very bad weather, and a dog named Montmorency.

Sent down from Oxford after a wild, drunken party, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly surprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at a boys' private school in Wales. His colleagues are an assortment of misfits, rascals and fools, including Prendy (plagued by doubts) and Captain Grimes, who is always in the soup (or just plain drunk). Then Sports Day arrives, and with it the delectable Margot Beste-Chetwynde, floating on a scented breeze.

"He was too imperious, too masterful, too much inclined to think that all things should be made to go as he would have them." Thus Trollope describes his hero Harry Heathcote, a settler and sheep farmer in the untamed bush of Australia in 1871. However, Harry has made enemies. In seeking always to act in the honourable fashion he cannot bend and embrace the weaknesses of others.

"It was in the first week of October in the year 1391 that I first came face to face with the man who owned me… the man whose lightest word was to us, his villeins, weightier than the King’s law or the edicts of our Holy Father…” So began the story of Martin Reed - a serf whose resentment of the automatic rule of his feudal lord finally flared into open defiance.

Cousin Phillis – a miniature masterpiece – is set in the 1840s, when the coming of the railway was changing the face of England, and quiet rural communities, coming into contact with the outside world, were changed forever. The story focuses on the effect these changes have on a naïve country girl, Phillis, as she encounters love, with all its pains and pleasures, for the first time.

The Gilded Age is the collaborative work of Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner that satirized the era that followed the Civil War. This period is often referred to as the “Gilded Age” because of this book. The corruption and greed that was typical of the time is exemplified through two fictional narratives: one, of the Hawkins, a poor family from Tennessee that tries to persuade the government to purchase their seventy-five thousand acres of unimproved land.

In a remote corner of early Victorian England, where traditional practices remain untouched by time, Bathsheba Everdene stands out as a beacon of female independence and self-reliance. However, when confronted with three suitors, among them the dashing Sergeant Troy, she shows a reckless capriciousness that threatens the stability of the whole community. Published in 1874, and an immediate best seller, Far From the Madding Crowd established Thomas Hardy as one of Britain's foremost novelists.

An elderly couple living in Victorian London struggle against despair as their small resources dwindle. When an eccentric and mysterious gentleman answers their advertisement for a lodger, they celebrate. But as women begin dying at the hands of "The Avenger", they start to suspect something too horrific for words.

Written at the request of Charles Dickens, North and South is a book about rebellion that poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Gaskell expertly blends individual feeling with social concern and her heroine, Margaret Hale, is one of the most original creations of Victorian literature. When Margaret Hale's father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience she is forced to leave her comfortable home in the tranquil countryside of Hampshire....

Adam Bede (1859), George Eliot's first full-length novel, marked the emergence of an artist to rank with Scott and Dickens. Set in the English Midlands of farmers and village craftsmen at the turn of the 18th century, the book relates a story of seduction issuing in "the inward suffering which is the worst form of Nemesis". But it is also a rich and pioneering record - drawing on intimate knowledge and affectionate memory - of a rural world that we have lost.

Maggie Tulliver has two lovers: Philip Wakem, son of her father’s enemy, and Stephen Guest, already promised to her cousin. But the love she wants most in the world is that of her brother Tom. Maggie’s struggle against her passionate and sensual nature leads her to a deeper understanding and to eventual tragedy

Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge has hit upon a foolproof plan to get rich quick: he's starting a chicken farm. Dragging his adoring wife Millie and his long-suffering friend and novelist Jeremy Garnet with him to Dorset, he begins his enterprise. Complications ensue, involving the taciturn Hired Man and his bumptious dog, supercilious chickens, irascible professors, angry creditors, and divided lovers.

The Diary of Nobody (1892) created a cultural icon, an English archetype. Anxious, accident-prone, occasionally waspish, Charles Pooter has come to epitomize English suburban life. His diary chronicles encounters with difficult tradesmen, the delights of home improvements, small parties, minor embarrassments, and problems with his troublesome son. The suburban world he inhabits is hilariously and painfully familiar in its small-mindedness and its essential decency.