Simon Vance
1) The warden
The Warden makes an excellent introduction to Trollope's work. It tells of a dispute that arises between the Church of England and reformers. The Reverend Harding is the warden of small home providing quarters for 12 retired, impoverished workers. The facility is provided for by a trust set up by its founder over 200 years ago. Income off the land provides income for the maintenance of the home and a living for the warden, who is a gentle,
...Mark Robarts, an easy-going young vicar, is given the living of Framley by his old school friend Lord Lufton. He foolishly signs two notes of guarantee for the unscrupulous MP Nate Sowerby for a considerable sum of money. Sowerby makes little or no attempt to pay this note, leaving Mark facing scandal and ruin. Mark's sister Lucy comes to live at Framley parsonage and Lord Lufton soon falls in love with her, much to the displeasure of his mother.
...Mikael Blomkvist is trying to reach Lisbeth Salander—the fierce, unstoppable...
In the early 1800s, the British Navy stands as the only bulwark against the militant fanaticism of Napoleonic France.
Captain Jack Aubrey, ashore after a successful tour of duty, is persuaded by a casual acquaintance to make certain investments in the city. This innocent decision ensnares him in the London criminal underground and in government espionage, the province of his friend Stephen Maturin. Is Aubrey's humiliation and the threatened
...16) Fire & blood
Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command, until Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant. Once there he is to mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Réunion. But the difficulties of carrying out his orders are compounded by two of his own captains—Lord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain
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