Showing results for "Prisoners" in Literature & Fiction

The Prisoner of Zenda is the story of an Englishman who travels to the small European state of Ruritania where he impersonates the ruler and falls in love with Princess Flavia.

Following a mock tribunal comprised of unfeeling elder magicians, Daniel is sentenced to the bowels of Hell. What he finds there defies his wildest expectations. The prison that is Hell has long since been transformed into a series of vicious competitions pitting the prisoners against one another. The bloody debacle is broadcast live by PrisonWatch, the ruthless corporation headed by the demon emperor, Beelzebub.

The second book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country built on blood, passion, and dreams. Life in the new colony of Australia is tough — tough for those who are free and even tougher for the prisoners. Many succumb to disease and starvation. Many try to escape, but only few succeed, and those who fail are brutally punished. Yet some, including Jenny Taggart, are determined to make this savage land their own. She is betrayed in friendship and in love, but she never parts with her vision: a future as a free woman.

Something is wrong with Eddie Hobson Sr., father of four, sometime history teacher, quiz master, black humorist, and virtuoso invalid. His recurring fainting spells have worsened, and with his ingrained aversion to doctors, his worried family tries to discover the nature of his sickness. Meanwhile, in private, Eddie puts the finishing touches on a secret project he calls Hobbstown, a place that he promises will save him, the world, and everything that's in it. A dazzling novel of compassion and imagination, Prisoner's Dilemma is a story of the power of invalid experience.

A Prisoner of the Caucasus is an 1872 novella by Leo Tolstoy about two Russian soldiers kidnapped by the enemy for ransom. They were held in custody for some time. They try to escape twice, but one of them succeeds the second time with the help of a local woman.

In the midst of a relentless downpour, a mysterious stranger arrives at a desolate ranch house, setting off a chain of events that will leave you guessing until the very end. Who is responsible for the death of old Mr. Benton? Is it the enigmatic stranger, the rugged Gus, or the seemingly innocent Mrs. Zellar? And what lies behind Jack Montagne’s unexpectedly gentlemanly demeanor? Delve into this gripping 1921 pulp western by Max Brand, the pen name of Frederick Schiller Faust, an acclaimed American author celebrated for his profound and literary takes on the Western genre. - Summary by ...

Emma’s husband is in prison. Emma’s husband claims he is innocent. Emma’s husband is a liar. And he’s not done with her yet.

The Battle of Tarrago was just the beginning. Following Goth Sullus's ruthless onslaughts against the Republic, a desperate House of Reason searches for scapegoats—and finds one, deserving or not, in Commander Ellek Owens. His sentence is cruel, unjust—and final. Unless Victory Squad has anything to say about it.

The winter of 1578, four years prior to the Honno–ji Incident. Araki Murashige has betrayed his ally Oda Nobunaga and holed himself up in Arioka Castle—but a string of unsettling incidents within the castle walls has him at his wit’s end. The desperate warlord’s only hope for solving...

Rudolf Rassendyll travels to the small kingdom of Ruritania for what should be a quiet holiday. But when the newly crowned king is drugged and kidnapped, Rudolf's uncanny resemblance to him pulls him into a dangerous plan. To prevent a national crisis, he agrees to impersonate the king. As he steps into royal life, Rudolf must navigate court politics, betrayal, and a plot to seize the throne.

To prevent the duel she is sure will kill her sister's fiance, Anya kidnaps the handsome challenger Ravel Duralde. But in a small room on her lush Louisiana plantation, it is Anya who becomes Ravel's prisoner of desire. Anya returns again and again to Ravel's chamber to love and be loved, to experience pleasures she'd never dreamed possible.

Nick and Julia O'Connor's dream trip to Venice collapses when a haunting voice reaches out to Nick from Tintoretto's Paradise, the world's largest oil painting. Though Julia worries her husband suffers from a delusion, Nick is adamant the voice belongs to a woman from the 16th century—his soul mate from a previous life. He discovers a religious order that has developed a method of extracting people's souls, which they imprison in Paradise. Over the centuries, they've judged thousands of souls and sentenced them to eternal purgatory.

When the chance to escape the dull life of his orphanage comes, Yanis seizes it. But what does he really know about his new master, or his mission in the frozen, secretive East?

Anthony Hope's swashbuckling classic tale of adventure and romance: Ruritania, a beautiful kingdom in the mountains between Germany and Austria, is in the midst of a power struggle. On one side is the alcoholic lay-about crown prince, Rudolf - popular with the upper class and army - and on the other is his half-brother, Michael, who has the love of the common people. The struggle reaches a new fervor at Rudolf's coronation, when Michael kidnaps his brother and takes him to the Castle of Zenda. Now the only thing in the way of Black Michael's plan is a confused distant cousin in England.

The ultimate escapist adventure story, The Prisoner of Zenda transports the listener into a bygone era, awash with swashbuckling heroism, cunning plots and courtly love. The popularity of Hope’s tale of intrigue was such that it spawned an entirely new genre known as the ‘Ruritanian romance’. When the King of Ruritania is kidnapped, the onus falls on a British tourist, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the King, to stand in for him and to avert disaster by coming to his rescue.

This swashbuckling romance transports a droll young English gentleman from his comfortable life in London to a fast-moving adventure in a mythical country steeped in political intrigue. Rudolf Rassendyll, pondering his life’s purpose, sets out on a journey to the tiny European kingdom of Ruritania, where he discovers that he bears a marked physical resemblance to the king.

India's study into the language of spells is interrupted by the arrest of her teacher for an unpaid debt. Before Matt can repay it for him, the powerful magician escapes from his prison cell. To make matters worse, the moneylender is murdered and the magician is implicated. Convinced of his innocence, India and Matt must discover who really killed the moneylender before the police find the magician. Their investigation leads them down a path littered with lies, betrayal, scandal, and interference from people they don't trust.

Thousands of short stories were published during the First World War, which coincided with the heyday of the fiction magazine in Britain. Much of this material has never been republished since the end of the war and is virtually lost to the modern audience. This new collection is an important work of recovery, introducing little-known magazine short fiction - which was primarily written for a civilian readership - by major writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle as well as more neglected authors.

"The Prisoner of Zenda" is an adventure novel by Anthony Hope, published in 1894. The king of the fictional country of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus unable to attend the ceremony. Political forces are such that in order for the king to retain his crown his coronation must go forward. An English gentleman on holiday who fortuitously resembles the monarch, is persuaded to act as his political decoy in an attempt to save the situation.

While recovering from the physical and emotional wounds he sustained in Challenger's Hope, Nick Seafort is named as the liaison between the wealthy planters of Hope Nation and the United Nations Navy. The lurking, acid-spewing, fish-shaped aliens are a real threat, and everyone is on edge. When the fleet returns to Earth, dissent grows among the people of Hope Nation, who feel abandoned by the military and left at the mercy of the alien horde.