George du Maurier

Arizona, 1910Dear Diary,It will take more than threats--and one overbearing rancher--to drive me away from my rightful property...When I inherited this isolated land near the Mexican border, I knew running it would be difficult and dangerous--very different from my privileged life in Louisiana, where I was the genteel Miss Trilby Lang. But I certainly didn't expect that my neighbor, Thorn Vance, would be challenging me at every turn. Or that his brusque, ruggedly appealing ways would prove a dangerous temptation that I'm finding harder and harder to resist. Now, with trouble sweeping the territory, I need his help. But how much will I risk putting myself in the hands of a man who's used to getting exactly what he wants?

xxi, 307 p. 23 cm

Exchanging vows of love with sailor Frank Aldersley the night before his departure, Clara Burnham is haunted by the memory of Richard Wardour, and his mistaken belief that they will one day marry. With her gift of 'Second Sight', Clara foresees terrible tragedy ahead and is racked by guilt. Allied to two different ships, the two men at first have no cause to meet — until disaster strikes and they find themselves united in a battle for survival. It cannot be long before they discover the nature of their rivalry, and the hot-tempered Wardour must choose how to take his revenge. Based on the doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, and originally performed as a play starring both Collins and Dickens, 'The Frozen Deep' is a dramatic tale of vengeance and self-sacrifice which went on to inspire the character of Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities'. NB: This is a separate work by Wilkie Collins It is a novel, published serially in 'Temple Bar' between August and October 1874 and then published as a book, and is not the play of the same name that Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins collaborated on in 1856 and that they both appeared in and that was subsequently published in 1857.

Peter Ibbetson is a romantic novel from the late Victorian era - poignant, melancholic and deeply nostalgic, with a paranormal twist. The plot makes use of the idea of a shared lucid dream in bringing together lovers who are otherwise separated in waking reality, by class and circumstance. Although a powerful love story, it also makes for a fascinating speculative exploration of the nature of human consciousness and the meaning and "true" nature of life. -- review by Michael Graeme (