Geoffrey Howard

Otto of the Silver Hand (1888), Howard Pyle's first novel for children, is a grim yet empowering narrative of medieval Germany, following the adventures of a young hero caught between the power struggles of two families. With its gripping battle scenes, romance, and villainous warlords, this is a reading experience that continues to thrill over one hundred years after its initial publication. Otto, a gentle boy born to a noble Germanic family in...

The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) is a work of art history by Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt. Recognized today as the founder of modern art history and as one of the key thinkers of the nineteenth century, Burckhardt changed not only the way we think about the Renaissance in relation to European and world history, but the value placed on art as a tool for understanding historical developments. The Civilization of the Renaissance...

Written in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka's death, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of...

"We had seen God in His splendours, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man." In 1914, Ernest Shackleton set out on an 1,800-mile trek across Antarctica. During the three-year expedition, his team overcame shipwreck, treacherous glaciers, and a bitterly hostile climate. They faced the elements on this icy continent with extraordinary determination, resourcefulness, and courage. This account by one of Britain's greatest...

With the death of George Washington, symbol of American unity and a man who abhorred factions, comes the two party system. And with it, comes inherent struggle that the young nation is ill prepared for. A dashing Aaron Burr has a grip on New York, and a coup detat is planned that could bring the two leaders down. Madison learns that Napoleon Bonaparte has forced the Spanish to turn New Orleans over to him and thereby potentially take control of the...

From the New York Times–bestselling "master of crime fiction and equine thrills," a jockey turned investigator tackles crime in the horse racing world (Newsday). Dick Francis, Edgar Award–winning master of mystery and suspense, takes you into the thrilling world of horse racing. A hard fall took hotshot jockey Sid Halley out of the horse racing game, leaving him with a crippled hand, a broken heart, and the desperate need for a new...

"The thrills, the terror, come on a mile-a-minute. . . . A particularly ingenious . . . novel of suspense" from a New York Times–bestselling author (Publishers Weekly). Dick Francis, Edgar Award–winning master of mystery and suspense, takes you into the thrilling world of horse racing. When he wakes in a pitch black room with his hands bound, Roland Britten, accountant and champion steeplechase jockey, knows he's entered a nightmare...

It was just before Summertide, when the planet Quake would orbit closest to its sun, subjecting itself to vast tidal forces. It was to be the most violent Summertide ever, creating something that only happened every 350,000 years. Access to the unstable Quake was supposed to be prohibited, but some very insistent travelers were determined to make the trip. Professor Darya Lang, who studied artifacts left by the long-vanished aliens called the Builders,...

When a human skeleton is found buried on the grounds of the famed Bracketts House, the historic home of the author Esmond Chadleigh, Carole Seddon and Jude must determine whether the beloved writer's sword was mightier than his pen and whether the snobbish, squabbling trustees of Bracketts House have something to hide....

Edward Lincoln is a worldwide celebrity who plays impossibly daring detectives on the big screen. But in reality he is an ordinary man currently stuck in an extraordinary spot. Nerissa, his ailing godmother, had pleaded with him to travel to South Africa to investigate whether someone was tampering with her racehorses. He could not refuse her. Once there, Lincoln is overwhelmed by autograph hounds and high suspicions. And when sudden perils cross...