As part of ClassicReader.com, Stephane Theroux presents the full text of "Eight Cousins," a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888). The story is about Rose Campbell, whose father has died. She goes to live with her aunts and seven boy cousins.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ... NOTES. Abbreviations: -- F M. = Milton, or Milton's poetry, as distinguished from his prose. G. = Glossary. P. R. =Paradise Regained. S. A. = Samson Agonistes. Other books of Paradise Lost are indicated by Roman numerals; thus in the note on first-born in the first line "VII. 244" means book Vii. line 244. The edition of Milton's prose-works to which reference is made under the abbreviation "P. W." is that published in "Bonn's Standard Library." Note: --The action of bks. I. II. and III. IV. is sketched in the Introduction, pp. liv.--lvii., and should be studied by any reader who is not familiar with them. BOOK III. The exordium (1--55), apart from its beauty of thought and diction, has a twofold interest--personal, in that it is touched with the pathos of Milton's resignation under his affliction of blindness; artistic, in that it is a fitting prelude to a fresh development in the action of the poem. Hitherto the scene has been the gloomy regions of Hell or Chaos: now our imagination is lifted to the Empyrean and the new-created Universe, still in its primal splendour. The transition from darkness to light is aptly marked by this celebrated introduction. Lines 1, 2 and 21--26 are (I believe) the first lines quoted from Paradise Lost in any work by a writer contemporary with Milton. They are cited contemptuously in The Transproser Rehears'd, or the Fifth Act of Mr Bayes's Play, Oxford, 1673, by Richard Leigh of Queen's College. (See Notes and Queries, IV. 1. 456, 457.) 1, i. Either (1. 1) Light was subsequent to the Deity, as being the first thing created by Him (Gen. i. 3); or (11. 2, 3) Light existed from Eternity equally with Him. first-bom; cf. VII. 244, "light...first of things," and A. 83, *' first-created beam." 2, 3. i.e. or may...

From the author of The Woman in White: In nineteenth-century England, a man’s hard-earned happiness is threatened by a priest who covets his inheritance . . . Lewis Romayne has just returned to Vange Abbey, his home in England, after a traumatic experience in France that still haunts him. Trying to shake his memories of a fatal duel, Romayne visits London, where he meets and falls in love with his future bride. But he soon finds himself the object of one man’s obsession. Father Benwell, a priest, is determined to convert Romayne to the Catholic faith in order to regain the abbey, the latter man’s home, which once belonged to the church. Benwell will do anything to accomplish his goal—even sabotage Romayne’s new marriage by exposing a hidden scandal. As this riveting drama unfolds, Romayne must finally decide who is truly entitled to his heart, his soul, and his property.