Showing results by author "May Sinclair" in All Categories

Fascinated as she was by the lives of the Brontë siblings, May Sinclair loosely based her subtly sensual, quietly insurrectionary 1914 novel The Three Sisters on the Haworth moor milieu of the three literary Brontë sisters. Alice, Gwenda, and Mary Cartaret are the daughters of the Vicar of Garth, an abusive father with rigid, selfish expectations for female behavior. Hope of rescue seems to dawn in the person of an idealistic young doctor in the village, but this is no Austen romance. Described with Edwardian restraint, it is still sexual passion that is the underlying theme of the story: ...

In this May Sinclair wartime masterpiece, dashing newsman Walter Furnival is an absurdly good catch: handsome, successful, athletic, intelligent, an upstanding epitome of manhood and rectitude. Tasker Jevons is a puny, preposterous, impossible-looking, bombastic sports writer, without one single redeeming social grace. Imagine the jealous mortification of Furny when his enchanting young typist and love interest Viola Thesiger chooses the clownish Jevons as a lover, seeing in him a remarkable inner beauty not evident to anyone but her and (as he grudgingly but magnanimously admits) the ...

Jane Holland is a genius, the greatest of a group of extraordinary literary friends. She has an intense artistic and intellectual kinship with George Tanqueray, another remarkable novelist. Despite this keen spiritual relationship, both Holland and Tanqueray allow themselves to fall against their wills into more conventional romantic commitments, leading to agonizing crises of heart and mind and art. Another of May Sinclair’s marvelous philosophical novels, this masterpiece explores the great dilemmas of artistic Genius and the obstacles posed to it by Love, by philistine society, by the ...

Dive into the world of May Sinclairs exquisite prose with this collection of two captivating novellas that explore the intricate ways women can feel trapped and their yearning for freedom. In “The Cosmopolitan,” we meet Frida Tancred, a privileged heiress bound by familial duties in a dreary provincial estate, longing to experience the wonders of the world yet facing the societal expectation of marriage as her only escape. Meanwhile, “Superseded” introduces spinster Miss Juliana Quincey, who has dedicated twenty-five years to teaching arithmetic at a girls’ school in London. When she...

In this captivating wartime masterpiece by May Sinclair, the dashing newsman Walter Furnival is the epitome of charm handsome, successful, athletic, and intelligent—a true gentleman. In stark contrast, Tasker Jevons is a diminutive, ridiculous-looking sports writer, lacking any conventional social grace. The story takes a twist when Viola Thesiger, Furnivals enchanting young typist and love interest, inexplicably chooses the bumbling Jevons as her partner, drawn to an extraordinary inner beauty that only she—and the begrudgingly admiring Furnival—can see. Yet, the heart of this ...

Dive into one of the most poignant World War I novels, a powerful family saga penned during the turmoil of the war. May Sinclair masterfully captures the profound emotions that arise in the lives of ordinary people amidst such tragedy. Her narrative interweaves compelling themes like suffrage, sexual liberation, artistic rebellion, war, and pacifism, creating a tapestry of human experience. The novels most striking metaphor, the Vortex, illustrates the dangerously compelling force of collective humanity — exploring how to resist it and, even more challenging, how to engage with it while ...

Harriett Frean is a privileged, single woman caught in the grip of a life marked by dependency, tedium, and unfulfilled potential as she dutifully cares for her aging parents while awaiting the arrival of a suitor. When love finally presents itself, it comes with a moral quandary the man is engaged to her closest friend. Should she risk everything for what seems to be her one shot at happiness, or does she have the strength to choose a different path? Can Harriett find purpose and fulfillment on her own, without the societal expectations of marriage? May Sinclair, with her signature gentle ...

In Combined Maze, Ranny Ransome is a passionate young man who immerses himself in vibrant gymnastic routines, striving to overcome “flabbiness” in body and soul. His heart belongs to the spirited and athletic Winny Dymond, and together they revel in the exhilarating Combined Maze—a mesmerizing group gymnastic ritual at the Polytechnic Gymnasium. However, Rannys life takes a tumultuous turn when he falls for the alluring Violet, a free-spirited woman who seeks to live life on her own terms. When Violet unexpectedly becomes pregnant, Ranny feels compelled to marry her, despite her ...

In May Sinclair’s captivating 1921 novel, we meet the absurd Mr. Horatio Bysshe Waddington—a pompous, self-deluded man who navigates life with a singular focus on how he appears to others. His long-suffering wife Fanny, devoted secretary Barbara, and the mischievous young Ralph watch in amused admiration as he plays out his daily charades. Like spectators at a theatrical performance or scientists observing an odd specimen, they are both entertained and perplexed by his relentless pursuit of outrageous pretensions. Sinclair’s seemingly innocent prose cleverly disguises a deeper narrative,...

May Sinclair was the nom de plume of Mary Amelia St. Clair (1863-1946), a British writer of novels, short stories and poetry and an active suffragette and spiritualist. 'Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched' is a highly unsettling and creepy story about an adulterous couple who are damned to continue their loathsome, loveless relationship for all eternity.

May Sinclair was the nom de plume of Mary Amelia St. Clair (1863-1946), a British writer who wrote novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragette and a spiritualist. 'The Nature of the Evidence' is a ghost story about a first wife who returns to this world when her husband remarries, to protest her disapproval of his choice of second wife and prevent the two of them from ever sharing a bed.

May Sinclair was the nom de plume of Mary Amelia St. Clair (1863-1946), a popular British writer of novels, short stories and poetry. She was also an active suffragette and spiritualist. Nowadays she is best known for her uncanny and unsettling ghost stories. 'The Token' is a ghost story about a wife who died with an important question in her life unanswered. She revisits her husband's study in search of the answer to the mystery she never solved while alive.

Fifty short stories by women writers who broke the mould.

A wonderful collection of 50 phenomenal stories by the world’s great short story writers.

Spend your next 30 minutes traveling to a future where first adopters have the most advanced robot butlers or where everyone has a superpower - except the young man you just met. Or perhaps you prefer a good hard-boiled detective story or one about a hardscrabble life in the Australian outback.

A collection of short stories written by prominent supporters of the women's suffrage movement in the United Kingdom....

A bumper collection of classic ghost stories and strange supernatural tales.

May Sinclair was the nom de plume of Mary Amelia St. Clair (1863-1946), a British writer of novels, short stories and poetry and an active suffragette and spiritualist. 'The Mahatma's Story' is a strange supernatural story about an oriental magician who switches the memories of two couples, with bizarre results.

A gripping collection of classic stories in which the central figures are highly dangerous female characters - ranging from the creepy and unsettling to the utterly terrifying.

The Tree of Heaven follows the fortunes of the Harrison family as the children grow up in the shadow of the First World War and Dorothy's brothers go off to the trenches, while she becomes involved with the suffrage movement, and later joins a version of the Women's Social and Political Union.