Lord Glenthorn is bored and lacking oomph. But before you feel sorry for him, it is worth knowing that he has a pile of money, a grand title, estates in England and Ireland and no stress. That is until he finds out he is not Lord Glenthorn, the Anglo-Irish earl. He is in fact the peasant Christy O'Donoghoe, which is a fly in the ointment for his efforts to provide for the woman he loves. At the same time, he gets caught up in the violent Irish Rebellion of 1798. Can he shake off the ennui, become a self-made man and win the hand of his love? Those who enjoy Jane Austen's novels, including 'Persuasion', 'Sense and Sensibility', and 'Pride and Prejudice', will love 'Ennui'. Like Austen, Maria Edgeworth has a gift for gently exposing the hypocrisy and accidental comedy of Britain's 19th century upper-middle class. First published in 1809, 'Ennui' is a didactic novel, which means it aims to teach the reader a moral lesson - like 'Aesop's Fables'. The Irish writer Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) was highly regarded in her day as a pioneer of early 19th century fiction and children's literature. A friend of the novelist Sir Walter Scott ('Ivanhoe', 'Rob Roy'), she was active and vocal about political and estate reform. Today, she is rather underappreciated - and overshadowed - by other 19th century satirical novelists like Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope. A prolific writer, Edgeworth's best-known works include 'Ennui', 'The Dun' and 'Belinda', which was controversial in its day for featuring inter-racial marriage.

A captivating book penned in Edgeworth's signature style. Set in her native Ireland, the novel introduces us to several interesting characters and offers a veiled commentary on the political scenario of the time. Captivating!...

During World War I W. Somerset Maugham, already by then an established playwright and author, was recruited to be a British intelligence agent. These stories reflect his wartime experiences in intelligence gathering. Though fictionalized, they managed to retain enough authentic elements for Winston Churchill to advise Maugham that their publication might be a violation of the Official Secrets Act, resulting in the author burning an additional 14 stories. Set in various locales across the continent, these remaining Ashenden stories are a precursor to the jet-setting spy novels of the 1950s and 1960s. Maugham is known as a master short story writer and these stories are no exception, combining wit and realism to create memorable characters in a unique and highly critical portrait of wartime espionage. Initially released to a mixed reception—with an early review by D. H. Lawrence being especially scathing—Ashenden has since been credited as an inspiration for numerous authors, including John Le Carré, Graham Greene, and Raymond Chandler. The latter in particular was especially impressed, writing in 1950, “There are no other great spy stories—none at all. I have been searching and I know.” This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

This is a story about an original Australian - an aborigine called Charlie Kite, (whose family name was derived from that of the wetlands bird of the Kakadu, the Whistling Kite, that lived on the billabong where he was born), and a crocodile, called Ennui. As the name implies, Ennui, after a brilliant, and therefore, promising start to his career, finds he has a problem working long-term for Charlie, in the tourist industry. His talents lie dormant, and he becomes unhappy and lazy, not fulfilling his contractual obligations to Charlie. Eventually Ennui discovers his true potential as a boat builder extraordinaire, and his inner conflict is resolved. A story that reminds children to be true to themselves.

A short memoir in three parts. HISTORY is about the author and some characters he has known (a transvestite, an entrepreneur, a rocket scientist, a beatnik, a martial artist, a movie star, and a fool, to name a few). These stories, taking place from 1945 to 1961, are generally true. PRE-HISTORY is about the author's parents and grandparents. Occurring before 1945, these stories are generally not true, or are at least imagined. It is through these tales that the author tries to figure out what made his folks the way they were (and explain how he got to be such a pidawee). DEATH is about the passing of the author's mother in 1955 in Shelby, North Carolina (at the Center of the Known Universe - where all explanations come together). Although not explicitly about the South, it is a Southern Book. It's got crazy white people, Magical Negroes, muscadine grapes, livermush, dynamite, undertones of violence, and guns - lots of guns.