"The stories in this collection are true, each an experience my family had with wildlife. Some offer my observations and reflections on the flora and fauna surrounding our property, some are wildly happy or tearfully sad adventures, and some are followed by an original poem. They appeared as weekly columns in the local newspaper. The Wilson Saily Times. The columns in this book were published beginning April 2006 through May 2008. Part Two includes Christmas stories of December 2006 and 2007"--Preface.

The Palliser novels are six novels, also known as the "Parliamentary Novels", by Anthony Trollope. The common thread is the wealthy aristocrat and politician Plantagenet Palliser and (in all but the last book) his wife Lady Glencora. The plots involve British and Irish politics in varying degrees, specifically in and around Parliament. Plantagenet Palliser is a main character in the Palliser novels. First introduced as a minor character in The Small House at Allington, one of the Barsetshire novels, Palliser is the heir presumptive to the dukedom of Omnium. Palliser is a quiet, hardworking, conscientious man whose chief ambition in life is to become Chancellor of the Exchequer. After an unwise flirtation with the married Lady Dumbello (daughter of Dr. Grantly and granddaughter of the Reverend Mr Harding from The Warden and Barchester Towers), he agrees to an arranged marriage with the great heiress of the day, the free-spirited, spontaneous Lady Glencora M'Cluskie._x000D_ Table of Contents:_x000D_ Can You Forgive Her?_x000D_ Phineas Finn_x000D_ The Eustace Diamonds_x000D_ Phineas Redux_x000D_ The Prime Minister_x000D_ The Duke's Children_x000D_ Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire. He also wrote perceptive novels on political, social, and gender issues, and on other topical matters. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he regained the esteem of critics by the mid-twentieth century.

Lady Eustace—more familiarly known as Lizzie—is very beautiful, very clever, and very rich. On closer inspection, she turns out also to be a “nasty, low, scheming, ill-conducted, dishonest little wretch.” Her calculated marriage to a wealthy but sickly young baronet brought her the wealth she desired, including a spectacular diamond necklace which she wore in the days before her husband’s demise. Upon his death, the lawyer for the estate is determined to recover it as a family heirloom. The young widow is equally determined to keep it as her own. But just as Lizzie sought a life of ease by marrying money, so too there are those who see in Lady Eustace their opportunity to acquire riches along with the beautiful widow herself. Given the relentless, even fierce, legal forces she faces regarding the diamonds, Lizzie is also alert to the benefit she would enjoy from having a husband to support her. But which is it to be? The tedious Lord Fawn, who would bring a title? Her cousin and confidant, Frank Greystock, who is a member of Parliament but saddled with debt? Or the debonair but dubious Lord George de Bruce Carruthers? Or perhaps none of them! Lizzie’s life of lies and calculation has echoes and mirrors in the novel’s subplots. She falls in with an unsavory and scheming set which includes a desperately ill-suited couple being driven towards a potentially disastrous marriage. Meanwhile, the love life of her childhood friend, the plain, poor, and pure Lucy Morris, seems to be the antithesis to Lizzie’s own. Anthony Trollope felt real ambivalence about the growing interest in mystery novels, whose popularity was burgeoning as he sat down to write The Eustace Diamonds. Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone had just been published to huge success, giving birth to the detective novel genre. Trollope would have none of it, and kept no secrets from his readers. That The Eustace Diamonds maintains a sense of drama and intrigue in spite of Trollope’s forthright narration is a testament to his skill as a storyteller. There are also signs of Trollope plotting a future course for his Palliser series, of which The Eustace Diamonds is the third. Political life is not absent, but it is wholly subservient to the events that swirl around Lizzie and her companions. As the novel closes, Trollope winks at his readers, informing us that we haven’t seen the last of Lizzie Eustace yet. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

'She liked lies...To lie readily and cleverly, recklessly and yet successfully, was, according to the lessons which she had learned, a necessity in a woman' Lizzie Eustace is young, beautiful, and widowed. Her determination to hold on to the Eustace family's diamond necklace in the face of legal harassment by her brother-in-law's solicitor entangles her in a series of crimes - apparent and real - and contrived love-affairs. Her cousin Frank, Tory MP and struggling barrister, loyally assists her, to the distress of his fiancée, Lucy Morris. A pompous Under-Secretary of State, an exploitative and acquisitive American and her unhappy niece, a shady radical peer, and a brutal aristocrat are only some of the characters in this, one of Trollope's most engaging novels: part sensation fiction, part detective story, part political satire, and part ironic romance. The Eustace Diamonds (1873) belongs to Trollope's Palliser series. Though often considered the least political of the six novels, it is a highly revealing study of Victorian Britain, its colonial activities in Ireland and India, its veneration of wealth, and its pervasive dishonesty. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

The Eustace Diamonds revolves around Lizzie Greystock, a fortune-hunter who ensnares the sickly, dissipated Sir Florian Eustace and is soon left a very wealthy widow and mother. While clever and beautiful, Lizzie has several character flaws; the greatest of these is an almost pathological delight in lying, even when it cannot benefit her. Before he dies, the disillusioned Sir Florian discovers all this, but does not think to change the generous terms of his will. The diamonds of the title are a necklace, a family heirloom that Sir Florian gave to Lizzie to wear. Though they belong to her husband's estate (and thus eventually will be the property of her son), Lizzie refuses to relinquish them. She lies about the terms under which they were given to her, leaving their ownership unclear. The indignant Eustace family lawyer, Mr. Camperdown, strives to retrieve the necklace, putting the Eustaces in an awkward position. On the one hand, the diamonds are valuable and Lizzie may not have a legal claim to them, but on the other, they do not want to antagonize the mother of the heir to the family estate.