SPOZZ Books
894 books
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After her mother’s death, a twenty-four-year-old woman is left suddenly alone in the rooms they shared at Norwood. Grief makes her feel disoriented and estranged from her surroundings, while she recalls their close bond, their modest plans to travel, and the trusted clergyman Mr. Lovett who manages their small capital. The opening presents her shock, loneliness, and helplessness in the days immediately following the loss.
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Craig Rice’s story follows a lonely young man in a hillside town who meets a golden, seemingly fragile woman in a bar and is drawn into an intimate relationship with her. Their time together is brief and dreamlike: he takes her home, cares for her with great caution, and senses there is something uncanny about her presence, speech, and habits. Later, as a mature man, he still remembers that period as the happiest of his life, while the town’s burned-out remains suggest the event has become a half-forgotten legend.
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Rall Hollidge is a slow, heavy lion hunter whose life in the Yargod Hills is tied to his dogs, especially the useless but beloved Old Slowpoke. He is also caught in a rivalry with Lew Rines for the hand of Jane Saunders, daughter of the Double S Ranch, while her father appears to favor Rines. The story follows a hunt, Hollidge’s loyalty to his dog, and his arrival late for supper at the ranch after Jane has waited for him.
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This volume presents the correspondence associated with James Hackman and Martha Reay, whose story drew wide attention in 1779 and again after a later anonymous publication used altered versions of some of the letters. It also incorporates material connected with Thomas Chatterton, including his papers and a long inserted account of his life and writings, which later readers found unevenly fitted into the book. The work is linked to Sir Herbert Croft’s larger project of combining literary material with the Hackman-Reay affair.
E-Book · Free to read · English
Set in the Holmshire countryside near Copley Grange, the story centers on Friarton Mill, an old water mill whose place in the landscape shapes the life around it. The opening describes the mill, the manor house beside it, and the family history of the estate, including a young squire who manages the property and improves on an earlier ancestor’s alterations. It also notes his role in overseeing an almshouse endowment and building a new row of cottages for local labourers.
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Modes and Morals is a collection of Katharine Fullerton Gerould essays on American social life and customs. The opening essay examines how democracy, war, and labor-saving inventions have altered domestic life, especially through plumbing, household conveniences, and the contrast between American self-service and European reliance on servants. The volume also includes essays such as A Change of Air, Hawaii: Scenes and Impressions, Vain Oblations, and The Great Tradition.
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This volume follows Oliver Constable in Friarton as he tries to encourage interests beyond breadmaking and milling, including gardening, fruit trees, cricket, and natural history. He suggests a field naturalists’ society and begins drawing in workers from his shop, even as Jack Dadd dismisses the idea as impractical and mocks amateur collecting. Oliver also visits an old museum keeper and helps revive neglected butterfly specimens, but the young baker he recruits feels embarrassed by the attention.
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In this volume of Sarah Tytler’s novel, Harry Stanhope continues to pose as a yeoman while becoming deeply involved in farm work, markets, hunting, and social visits around Copley Grange and Friarton Mill. His easy, intrusive friendship with Oliver Constable and his attention to Fan Constable shape the domestic tension, while Oliver tolerates the young man’s frequent appearances with mixed annoyance and affection. The book presents rural English life, class feeling, and the everyday business of farming and milling in winter.
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Di is left alone after the end of Angelina Herbert’s sensational wedding and the household is stripped of its former brightness. As she prepares to leave, she reflects on her own precarious position: no money, no firm prospects, and only a promised recommendation that may never come. The story sets up her effort to find work while carrying the burden of a difficult childhood, a dead mother, an unsuccessful father, and years of anxious self-reliance.
E-Book · Free to read · English
Joe Breedlove rides south from Prairieville after a friend’s wedding, reflecting on his own solitude and need for companionship. Along the trail, he reads signs of recent riders and follows them toward a rough country and the notorious town of Canyon, where trouble and lawlessness are common talk. He then meets an armed stranger hiding near a dead horse, and the two begin a wary exchange that hints at danger and shared experience.
E-Book · Free to read · English
A humorous Western story set around Paradise, Montana, follows saloonkeeper Hip Shot Brady, his free-silver talk, and the loss of a whisky stock that leaves him bitter about a mocking sign left behind. The tale then shifts to Shiner Seymour, who describes the Bar B ranch crew and his companion Friday McGovern, a tall cowboy with a romance in town. Friday asks Shiner to ride with him to speak with Sheriff Wilmot about marrying Wilmot’s daughter, but the meeting turns dangerous when they encounter the sheriff and armed men on the road.
E-Book · Free to read · English
This collection presents short fiction centered on Romani life and customs. One story focuses on Dimitru’s old mill on the Bistritza River in Moldavia, a place that serves as the village’s economic and social center, where grinding grain, sawmill work, oil pressing, and local gatherings all take place. The narrative also draws on village legends and family memory, including stories of the mill’s supposed refusal to grind stolen grain. It introduces Dimitru, his son George, and the role of the mill across generations.
E-Book · Free to read · English
The book follows Tommy and Tuppence Beresford several years into their marriage, living comfortably in a London flat with money, routine, and little excitement. Tuppence grows restless and longs for adventure, while Tommy teases her about her craving for danger and romance, recalling their earlier espionage days. Their conversation sets up a domestic detective story centered on their desire for something more than ordinary life.
E-Book · Free to read · English
The story is set at Steynes-Cote, the home of Dr. Fereday and his wife Grace in Shelverton, where he serves a wide district as a physician and she is beloved for her kindness to local poor people and children. Their marriage is portrayed as affectionate but uneven in daily habit, with Grace often yielding to her husband's long, distracted breakfasts and his tendency to treat her attention as always available. The account also notes that the couple are childless and that Grace soon comes to have an adopted son.
E-Book · Free to read · English
This book is a locally focused sketch of Germantown’s notable plants, gardens, mansions, and historic places, prepared for the Germantown Horticultural Society and later issued in print. It presents the town as a place where old houses, cultivated grounds, and the people who maintain them reflect its growth in culture and character, while also identifying specific sites, botanists, and horticulturists of interest.
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