First published in 1916. According to the Preface: " Having been connected for many years with two of the largest and most successful private detective agencies in this country, both as an operator and as an official, and having been requested to outline briefly and concisely the most modern and up-to-date methods employed by leading detectives and private detective agencies of today, I shall confine myself in these pages to facts and a few personal experiences. I will endeavor to show that any person possessed of average intelligence, and who will use good common sense, can become a successful detective, regardless of his present or previous occupation."

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Wilkie Collins’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Collins includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Collins’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the text Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

Saint Smith and Other Stories consists of two novellas and six short stories. "Saint Smith" focuses on Charlie, a would-be experimental film maker, Sarah his traditional Bible-believing mother, and Irene the clever ironic uninhibited German woman he marries. "The Barracks" takes place in basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, at the time of the Viet Nam War. The six stories deal with puzzles of human nature and the meaning of life.

Classic Western. According to Wikipedia: "Zane Grey (1872 – 1939) was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the rugged Old West. As of June 2007, the Internet Movie Database credits Grey with 110 films, one TV episode, and a series, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater based loosely on his novels and short stories."

Short story. According to Wikipedia: "Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. She came from a famous religious family and is best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). It depicts the harsh life for African Americans under slavery. It reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and Great Britain. It energized anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. She wrote 30 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential for both her writings and her public stands on social issues of the day."

Three classic Christas stories: The Birds' Christmas Carol, The Romance of a Christmas Card, and The Old Peabody Pew. According to Wikiipedia: "Kate Douglas Wiggin (September 28, 1856–August 24, 1923) was an American children's author and educator. Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin was born in Philadelphia, and was of Welsh descent. A graduate of Abbot Academy, Class of 1873, she started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878 (the Silver Street Free Kindergarten). With her sister in the 1880s she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers... Still devoted to her school, she began to raise money for it through writing, first The Story of Patsy (1883), then The Birds' Christmas Carol (1887). Both privately printed books were issued commercially by Houghton Mifflin in 1889, with enormous success. Ironically, considering her intense love of children, Kate Wiggin had none. Her husband died suddenly in 1889, and Kate took her grief home to Maine. For the rest of her life she struggled with depression, and in order to combat it she traveled as frequently as she could, dividing her time between writing, trips to Europe, and giving public reading for the benefit of various children's charities. Her literary output included popular books for adults, scholarly work on the educational principles of Friedrich Froebel, and of course the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903) Wiggin's home in the Salmon Falls section of Hollis, Maine."

According to Wikipedia, Huntingtower is a novel written by John Buchan in 1922. The first of his three Dickson McCunn books, it is set near Carrick in south west Scotland around 1920. The hero is a 55-year old grocer Dickson McCunn, who has sold his business and taken early retirement. As soon as he ventures out to explore the world, he is swept out of his bourgeois rut into bizarre and outlandish adventures, and forced to become a reluctant hero. The story revolves around the imprisonment under false pretenses by Bolshevik agents of an exiled Russian noblewoman. The Scottish local community mobilises to uncover and thwart the conspiracy against her, and to defend the neutrality of Scotland against the Russian revolutionary struggle. John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. Buchan's 100 works include nearly thirty novels, seven collections of short stories and biographies of Sir Walter Scott, Caesar Augustus, and Oliver Cromwell. Buchan's most famous of his books were the spy thrillers (including) The 39 Steps (which was converted to a play as well as an Alfred Hitchcock movie starring Robert Donat as Richard Hannay, though with Buchan's story much altered.) The "last Buchan" (as Graham Greene entitled his appreciative review) was the 1941 novel Sick Heart River (American title: Mountain Meadow), in which a dying protagonist confronts in the Canadian wilderness the questions of the meaning of life. The insightful quotation "It's a great life, if you don't weaken" is famously attributed to Buchan, as is "No great cause is ever lost or won, The battle must always be renewed, And the creed must always be restated."

John Buchan (1875-1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and politician, who served as governor general of Canada. His best-known fiction is The Thirty-Nine Steps, featuring the action hero Richard Hannay.

Classic short story collection, including O. Henry's most famous story -- The Ransom of Red Chief. According to Wikipedia: "O. Henry was the pseudonym of the American writer William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910). O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings... O. Henry's stories are famous for their surprise endings, to the point that such an ending is often referred to as an "O. Henry ending." He was called the American answer to Guy de Maupassant. Both authors wrote twist endings, but O. Henry stories were much more playful and optimistic. His stories are also well known for witty narration. Most of O. Henry's stories are set in his own time, the early years of the 20th century. Many take place in New York City and deal for the most part with ordinary people: lerks, policemen, waitresses. Fundamentally a product of his time, O. Henry's work provides one of the best examples of catching the entire flavor of an age written in the English language. Whether roaming the cattle-lands of Texas, exploring the art of the "gentle grafter," or investigating the tensions of class and wealth in turn-of-the-century New York, O. Henry had an inimitable hand for isolating some element of society and describing it with an incredible economy and grace of language. Some of his best and least-known work resides in the collection Cabbages and Kings, a series of stories which each explore some individual aspect of life in a paralytically sleepy Central American town while each advancing some aspect of the larger plot and relating back one to another in a complex structure which slowly explicates its own background even as it painstakingly erects a town which is one of the most detailed literary creations of the period. The Four Million was his first collection of stories. It opens with a reference to Ward McAllister's "assertion that there were only 'Four Hundred' people in New York City who were really worth noticing. But a wiser man has arisen—the census taker—and his larger estimate of human interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little stories of the 'Four Million.'" To O. Henry, everyone in New York counted. He had an obvious affection for the city, which he called "Bagdad-on-the-Subway,"[3] and many of his stories are set there—but others are set in small towns and in other cities."

Two short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne related to the legend of "the wandering Jew". According to Wikipedia: "Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 –1864) was an American novelist and short story writer... Much of Hawthorne's writing centers around New England and many feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. His published works include novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend Franklin Pierce."

This pioneering book, first published in 1997, details the process to empower businesses and individuals to build websites based on common interests and social interaction. It provides insights that are as relevant now as they were when the book was written.

The Idiot, one of Dostoyevsky's finest and most brilliant literary achievements of the Golden Age of Russian literature.

Wharton's finest work which won her the Pulitzer Prize for literature. It tells a story of 19th century New York high society in which a young lawyer falls in love with a woman separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman's cousin.

A classic of American Literature and a powerful story taking place against the cold, gray, bleakness of a New England winter. Ethan Frome is trying to run a farm while also tending to his frigid, demanding and ungrateful wife Zeena. A ray of hope enters Ethan's life when his wife's cousin Mattie arrives to help. His life is transformed as he falls in love Mattie but their fate is doomed by the stifling conventions of the time.

Doctor Thorne begins to establish a medical practice, while Henry seduces Mary Scatcherd, the sister of stonemason Roger Scatcherd. When Scatcherd finds out that Mary has become pregnant, he seeks out Henry and, in the ensuing fight, kills him.

Castle Richmond is set in southwestern Ireland at beginning of the Irish famine. Castle Richmond is situated on the banks of the Blackwater River in County Cork. Trollope's work in Ireland from 1841 to 1859 had given him an extensive knowledge of the island, and Richard Mullen has written that all the principal strands of his life were formed in Ireland. The complicated plot features the competition of two Protestant cousins of English origin, Owen Fitzgerald and Herbert Fitzgerald, for the hand of Clara Desmond, the noble but impoverished daughter of the widowed Countess of Desmond, providing the novel's principal dramatic interest.

A practical strategy for transforming the UK and other healthcare systems... offering an affordable,?sustainable?and compassionate alternative to the present mess. Healthcare systems across the developed world are in trouble.? Changing patterns of disease, an ageing population and advances in drugs and technology feed an inexorable rise in costs outrunning our best efforts to contain them.? At a human level the system is coming under intolerable strain.? Demands for cost savings squeeze out the time and humanity needed for good care and quality relationships.? Safety suffers.? Staff become demoralised, stressed and burned out.?? In the first two parts of Humanising Healthcare ?and focusing on the UK's National Health Service, Dr Hannah?explores the fundamental assumptions which have brought us to this point and which likewise inform our current inadequate responses. She dissects the burgeoning regime of regulation and inspection that tries to impose ever tighter controls on a healthcare system that needs to be freed to serve its citizen patients.? In the final part of the book, ‘Another Way Is Possible’, Dr Margaret Hannah offers a practical alternative strategy based on numerous examples of transformative practice from the UK and around the world.?? It promises a sustainable culture of healthcare that will enable us all to live healthy, fulfilled lives at a fraction of the current cost.?

Classic historical novel, set in the Netherlands in the 17th century, related to the Scarlet Pimpernel series. According to Wikipedia: "The Scarlet Pimpernel is a classic play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The story is a precursor to the "disguised superhero" tales such as Zorro. The play was produced and adapted by Julia Neilson and Fred Terry. It first opened on 15 October 1903 at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal; it was not a success. Terry, however, had confidence in the play and, with a rewritten last act, took it to London where it opened at the New Theatre on 5 January 1905. The premier of the London production was enthusiastically received by the audience, but critics considered the play 'old-fashioned.' In spite of negative reviews, the play became a popular success, running 122 performances and enjoying numerous revivals. The Scarlet Pimpernel became a favourite of London audiences, playing more than 2,000 performances and becoming one of the most popular shows staged in England to that date. The novel was published soon after the play's opening and was an immediate success. Orczy gained a following of readers in Britain and throughout the world. The popularity of the novel encouraged her to write a number of sequels for her "reckless daredevil" over the next 35 years. The play was performed to great acclaim in France, Italy, Germany and Spain, while the novel was translated into 16 languages. Subsequently, the story has been adapted for television, film, a musical and other media. The international success of The Scarlet Pimpernel allowed Orczy and her husband to live out their lives in luxury. Over the years, they lived on an estate in Kent, a bustling London home and an opulent villa in Monte Carlo. Orczy wrote in her autobiography, Links in the Chain of Life: "I have so often been asked the question: "But how did you come to think of The Scarlet Pimpernel?" And my answer has always been: "It was God's will that I should." And to you moderns, who perhaps do not believe as I do, I will say, "In the chain of my life, there were so many links, all of which tended towards bringing me to the fulfillment of my destiny." According to Wikipedia: "Baroness Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála "Emmuska" Orczy de Orczi (23 September 1865 – 12 November 1947) was a British novelist, playwright and artist of Hungarian noble origin. She was most notable for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel. Some of her paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in London."

A Fighting Man of Mars is the seventh book in the Mars series, originally published in six-parts in Blue Book Magazine, May to September 1930. It is an interesting and exciting novel filled with futuristic scientific inventions. There are five enemy cities or lands encountered in this tale with five wonderfully drawn villains: Xanator with the green men and white apes; Tjanath with Haj Osis and “The Death”; Ghasta with Ghron the “spider”; Jhama with Phor Tak the mad scientist; and U-Gor with the cannibals. It is a high adventure in the best tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

In Desert and Wilderness is a popular novel for young people by Polish author and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, written in 1912. It is in fact the author's only novel written for children. It tells the story of two young friends, Sta? Tarkowski and Nel Rawlison, kidnapped by the rebels during Mahdi's rebellion in Sudan. It was adapted to cinema in 1973 and 2001.

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Guilty River by Wilkie Collins - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Wilkie Collins’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Collins includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘The Guilty River by Wilkie Collins - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Collins’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the text Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles