By R.L. STEVENSON and W.E. HENLEY

“Deacon Brodie, or The Double Life” is a compelling historical drama co-written by Robert Louis Stevensonand William Ernest Henley, included in the Swanston Edition, Volume XV, which collects their collaborative dramatic works. This play dramatizes the real-life story of William Brodie, a respected Edinburgh cabinetmaker and city councillor by day, and a cunning burglar by night—whose double life ultimately led to his downfall and execution in 1788.

Set in 18th-century Edinburgh, the play explores themes of duality, deception, morality, and social hypocrisy, echoing many of the psychological and philosophical concerns that would later appear in Stevenson’s more famous work, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Brodie is portrayed as a man torn between his public persona and private vices, embodying the tension between outward respectability and inner corruption.

The drama unfolds with a rich cast of characters, including Brodie’s criminal associates, his family, and the lawmen who pursue him. The dialogue, shaped by Henley’s theatrical sensibilities and Stevenson’s narrative flair, is sharp and evocative, blending suspense with moments of dark humor and emotional intensity. The structure of the play builds steadily toward Brodie’s exposure and tragic end, offering a powerful commentary on the dangers of living a life divided by conflicting identities.

The Swanston Edition presents this work with scholarly attention to detail, including editorial notes and historical context that illuminate the real events behind the drama and the creative collaboration between Stevenson and Henley. As part of their broader dramatic output, Deacon Brodie stands out for its psychological depth and historical resonance, making it a significant contribution to late Victorian theatre and a fascinating study in character and consequence..

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2025. 176p.

By Robert Louis Stevenson (Author), LLoyd Osbourne (Author), Colin Heston (Editor)

The Wrecker, co-written by Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, is a globe-trotting mystery and adventure novel centered around the mysterious fate of a derelict ship found in the South Seas. The story follows Loudon Dodd, an idealistic artist turned reluctant adventurer, as he unravels the secrets of the wrecked ship Currency Lass. Combining elements of detective fiction, satire, and romance, the novel explores themes of ambition, identity, and the illusion of fortune. Set against a backdrop of San Francisco, Paris, and the Pacific Islands, it presents a vivid and at times ironic portrait of late 19th-century capitalist enterprise and artistic struggle. This novel is taken from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson VOL. XIII. This volume has been carefully edited and redesigned by Colin Heston, renowned novelist and story writer, to make the book more comprehensible to the present-day reader.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Australia-Philadelphia. 2025. 269p.

By Robert Louis Stevenson:. Edited by Colin Heston

The Master of Ballantrae is a dark historical novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, set during the Jacobite rising of 1745. It tells the story of two brothers—noble and dutiful Henry Durie and his charming but treacherous elder brother James, the Master of Ballantrae—whose rivalry leads to betrayal, vengeance, and tragedy. Narrated by the loyal steward Ephraim Mackellar, the novel explores themes of family loyalty, pride, and the destructive power of ambition, set against a backdrop that spans Scotland, America, and India. With its psychological depth and moral complexity, the book stands as one of Stevenson’s most powerful works.

Read-Me.Org. Inc. Australia, New York, Philadelphia. 2025. 171p.

By R.L. Stevenson. Edited by Colin Heston.

The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson: Volume X presents two of Stevenson’s most engaging narratives in one timeless edition. In Kidnapped, follow young David Balfour on a perilous journey through betrayal, abduction, and rebellion in 18th-century Scotland—a gripping tale of adventure, identity, and justice. Paired with The Misadventures of John Nicholson, a sharply witty story of folly and redemption, this volume showcases Stevenson’s unmatched storytelling range. A must-have for lovers of classic literature, this Swanston Edition reprint brings together drama, danger, and Stevenson’s signature charm..

Read-Me.Org Inc. 2025. 214p.

By R. L. Stevenson. Edited by Colin Heston

"Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is a novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886. The story explores the duality of human nature through the character of Dr. Henry Jekyll, a respected scientist who creates a potion that transforms him into the sinister and violent Mr. Edward Hyde. As Hyde, Jekyll indulges in immoral acts without fear of social repercussions. The narrative delves into themes of identity, morality, and the struggle between good and evil within the human soul. The novella is renowned for its suspenseful and gothic atmosphere, as well as its profound psychological insights.
In addition to Jekyll and Hyde, this volume features a mix of Stevenson’s essays, short stories, and other literary works. The Swanston Edition iis known for its comprehensive and authoritative compilation of Stevenson's oeuvre, providing readers with a deep dive into his diverse literary contributions. Additional stories and writings in this volume include:.
Thrawn Janet. A short story, first published in 1881. Set in a small Scottish village, the tale revolves around the mysterious and eerie events surrounding Janet, an old woman believed to be a witch. The story is narrated by the local minister, who recounts Janet's unsettling behavior and the supernatural occurrences that follow her arrival. The narrative is steeped in gothic elements and explores themes of superstition, fear, and the clash between rationality and the supernatural.
More New Arabian Nights, The Dynamiter. A collection of linked short stories co-written by Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson. Published in 1885, the stories are set in London and revolve around the adventures of various characters entangled in plots involving dynamite and political intrigue. The collection is a sequel to Stevenson's earlier work "New Arabian Nights" and continues to employ a similar structure of interconnected tales. Themes of adventure, mystery, and social commentary are prevalent throughout the stories.
This volume has been carefully edited and redesigned by Colin Heston, renowned novelist and story writer, to make the book more comprehensible to the present-day reader.

Read-Me.Org Inc. NY-Phila.-Australia. 2025. 193p.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

By Dean Koontz

FROM THE COVER: Martie Rhodes, a happily married, successful video games designer, takes an agoraphobic friend to therapy sessions twice a week. Each trip is a grim ordeal, but the experience has brought the two friends even closer together. Then, one morning, Martie experiences a brief, irrational but disquieting fear of... her shadow. When autophobia - one of the rarest and most intriguing phobias known to psychology - is diagnosed, suddenly, radically her life changes, and the future looks dark. Martie's husband, Dusty, loves her profoundly, and is desperate to understand the cause of her autophobia. But as he comes closer to the terrible truth, Dusty himsell starts showing signs of a psychological disorder even more frightening than that afflicting Martie...FALSE MEMORY is the breathtaking new thriller from the internationally bestselling author of SEIZE THE NIGHT and FEAR NOTHING.

London. Headline Book Publishing. 1999. 827p.

DEAN KOONTZ

FROM CHAPTER 1:

IT'S ONLY LIFE. WE ALL GET THROUGH IT. Not all of us complete the journey in the same condition. Along the way, some lose their legs or eyes in accidents or altercations, while others skate through the years with nothing worse to worry about than an occasional bad-hair day.

I still possessed both legs and both eyes, and even my hair looked all right when I rose that Wednesday morning in late January. If I returned to bed sixteen hours later, having lost all of my hair but nothing else, I would consider the day a triumph. Even minus a few teeth, I'd call it a triumph…

London. Harper Collins Publishers. 2008. 359p.

By J. F. C. Westerman

FROM THE COVER: When JohnWentleyunder- took to fly a British Secret Service agent to a forbidden part he little imagined what would result from his escapade. How he foiled an attempt by a dangerous and un- scrupulous enemy to steal the plans of his recently invented aero engine, took part in two thrilling aerial ducls, and fought against terrific odds to regain the safety of the Swiss border--with secrets in his possession on which de-pended the very existence of the British Empireis excitingly told by one of the foremost writers of boys' adventure stories.

London. The Children's Press. 1930s. 211p. USED BOOK

By Henry James

From Wikipedia: The Turn of the Screw is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898, it was collected in The Two Magics, published by Macmillan in New York City and Heinemannin London. The novella follows a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted. The Turn of the Screw is considered a work of both Gothic and horror fiction.

In the century following its publication, critical analysis of the novella underwent several major transformations. Initial reviews regarded it only as a frightening ghost story, but, in the 1930s, some critics suggested that the supernatural elements were figments of the governess' imagination. In the early 1970s, the influence of structuralism resulted in an acknowledgement that the text's ambiguity was its key feature. Later approaches incorporated Marxist and feminist thinking.

• Plot...

  On Christmas Eve, an unnamed narrator and some of his friends are gathered around a fire. One of them, Douglas, reads a manuscript written by his sister's late governess. The manuscript tells the story of her being hired by a man who has become responsible for his young niece and nephew following the deaths of their parents. He lives mainly in London and has a country house in Bly, Essex. The boy, Miles, is attending a boarding school, while his younger sister, Flora, is living in Bly, where she is cared for by Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper. Flora's uncle, the governess's new employer, is uninterested in raising the children and gives her full charge, explicitly stating that she is not to bother him with communications of any sort. The governess travels to Bly and begins her duties…………

NY.London. Collier Macmillan. 1898. 118p.

By Charles Dickens

From Wikipedia: “Like nearly all of Dickens's novels, Martin Chuzzlewit was first published in monthly instalments. Early sales of the monthly parts were lower than those of previous works, so Dickens changed the plot to send the title character to the United States.[3] Dickens had visited America in 1842 in part as a failed attempt to get the US publishers to honour international copyright laws. He satirized the country as a place filled with self-promoting hucksters, eager to sell land sight unseen. In later editions, and in his second visit 24 years later to a much-changed US, he made clear it was satire and not a balanced image of the nation in a speech and then included that speech in all future editions. The main theme of the novel, according to Dickens's preface, is selfishness, portrayed in a satirical fashion using all the members of the Chuzzlewit family. The novel is also notable for two of Dickens's great villains, Seth Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit. Dickens introduced the first private detective character in this novel.”

By Nevil Shute

"On the Beach" is a post-apocalyptic novel written by Nevil Shute, a British-Australian author. It was first published in 1957 and is set in the aftermath of a global nuclear war that has destroyed most of the northern hemisphere.

The story takes place in Melbourne, Australia, which has been spared from the immediate effects of the war due to its southern location. However, as the radiation from the northern hemisphere begins to spread southward, the people of Melbourne realize that their time is running out.

The novel follows a group of characters, including an American submarine captain, a young Australian woman, and a scientist, as they confront their mortality and the inevitability of their impending deaths. The story explores themes of hope, despair, and the futility of war.

London Heinemann. 1957. 310p.

By John Updike

"Terrorist" is a novel by John Updike, published in 2006. The book tells the story of a young Muslim-American named Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy, who becomes radicalized and plots a terrorist attack in the United States.

The novel explores themes of religion, identity, and extremism, and provides a nuanced portrayal of the motivations and beliefs that drive individuals to engage in acts of terrorism.

"Terrorist" received mixed reviews upon its release, with some critics praising Updike's exploration of complex themes and his ability to create nuanced and sympathetic characters, while others criticized the book for being overly didactic and preachy.

NY. Alfred A. Knopf. 2006. 318p.

B y Tim Winton

Penguin Books. 2018. 266p.

"The Shepherd's Hut" is a novel by Australian author Tim Winton, published in 2018. The novel follows the story of Jaxie Clackton, a young Australian boy who flees his abusive father and sets out on foot into the Western Australian outback.

Jaxie's journey takes him through a harsh and unforgiving landscape, where he must fend for himself and face his own inner demons. Along the way, he encounters a mysterious old man named Fintan MacGillis, who lives alone in a remote shepherd's hut.

As Jaxie and Fintan form an unlikely bond, they both confront their pasts and grapple with questions of identity, belonging, and redemption. The novel explores themes of masculinity, violence, and the complex relationship between humans and the natural world.

Winton's prose is spare and poetic, capturing the beauty and brutality of the outback landscape and the emotional turmoil of his characters. The novel has been praised for its powerful storytelling, evocative language, and exploration of important contemporary issues.

By George Eliot III

Silas Marner is George Eliot's (1819-1880) short novel of 1861, in which the protagonist is obliged to leave his small religious community after being falsely accused of theft. He settles in Raveloe, where he works diligently as a weaver for 15 years and manages to accumulate and hoard a substantial amount of gold.
“The Lifted Veil” concerns themes of fate, extrasensory perception, the mystery of life and life after death. Eliot's interest in these themes stemmed partly from her own struggles with religious faith, as she was an extremely devout Christian as a child and young adult who later renounced Christianity completely. “Brother Jacob'“raises issues of perennial concern to George Eliot as an author who was also a woman. In particular, this fabular tale about a hapless confectioner and his imbecilic broth- er exposes the pitfalls in women's relationship(s) to cultural authority, 'the strange bright fruits of knowledge' (Woolf 160). As a fable whose hero is distinguished by fraudulence and guile, 'Brother Jacob' reflects its author's attitude towards plagiarists and other impostors with pre- tensions to authorship. Even as Marian Evans disguised herself as George Eliot, the 'silly lady novelist' of her day is disguised in the story's protagonist, David Faux.

London. Oxford University Press. 1861., 1859, 1860. 318p.

By Courtney Collins

This moving debut novel was inspired by the life of Australian Elizabeth Jessie Hickman, a runaway convict born in 1820. In Collins poetically reimagined tribute, 22-year-old Jessie is on the run after killing her brutal husband. She has recently given birth to a stillborn child whose spirit is somehow tethered to her mother and who narrates the story. Jessie has already lived a dramatic life; she once worked as a circus acrobat and then as a horse rustler but is now desperate to escape the posse of men who want to hang her for murder. While she runs, she thinks of her short, sweet relationship with the Aboriginal stockman Jack Brown, whose gentle ways were a welcome relief from the beatings administered by her drunken husband. She finds an idyllic camp in the mountains made up of desperate boys who steal horses and thinks she might finally have found a refuge, but the lawmen are not far behind. This intense read, with dark undertones of death and foreboding, contains breathtaking descriptions of the Australian bush and a lyrical homage to Jessie’s desperate quest for freedom.

NY. Berkley Books. 2012. 284p.

By Daphne Du Maurier

From Amazon: This "highly personalized adventure, ultra-romantic" story from the author of Rebecca tells the tale of a woman looking for adventure, only to find it in the arms a rebellious criminal (New York Times). Bored and restless in London's Restoration Court, Lady Dona escapes into the British countryside with her restlessness and thirst for adventure as her only guides. Eventually Dona lands in remote Navron, looking for peace of mind in its solitary woods and hidden creeks. She finds the passion her spirit craves in the love of a daring French pirate who is being hunted by all of Cornwall. Together, they embark upon a quest rife with danger and glory, one which bestows upon Dona the ultimate choice: sacrifice her lover to certain death or risk her own life to save him.

U.K. Gollancz. 1941. 208p.

By Robert Barnard

“The perfect gem, one you wouldn’t change
a word of Los Angeles Times

Professor Belville-Smith had bored university au­diences in England with the same lecture for fifty years. Now he was crossing the Australian continent, doing precisely the same. Never before had the reaction been so extreme, however; for shortly after an undistin­guished appearance at Drummondale University, the doddering old professor is found brutally murdered. As Police Inspector Royle (who had never actually had to solve a crime before) probes the possible motives of the motley crew of academics who drink their way through the dreary days at Drummondale and as he investigates the bizarre behavior of some worthy lo­cals, a hilarious, highly satirical portrait of life down under emerges!’ —St. Louis PbstHDispatch.

London Collins. 1977. 190p.

By Gustav Flaubert

"She longed t o rush into his arms. to take refuge in his strength as ir the incarnation of bertect love. tc cry aloud to him- 'Take me away ! Oh, take me away!'" Madame Bovary is the story of a beautiful young woman who marries a luckless and loutishcountry doctor. She attempts to escape the narrou confines of her lifethrough a series of passionate affairs, hoping to find in other men the romantic ideal she has alwavs dreamed about. Her reckless. n e s s comes back to haunt her. however. and the strong-willed and independent Emma finds herself in a desperate fight for existence. Flaubert's daring depiction of adultery and sinfulness caused a national scandal when it was first published, and the author was put on trial for offending public morality. One hundred and fifty years later, this masterpiece of realist literature has lost none of its impact.

Michel Lévy Frères (in book form, 2 Vols). 1857. 322p.

By Daphne Du Maurier.

Many of Daphne dimario's novels are set in Cornwall probably because she had made her home in the area and her writing seems to have absorbed so much of the atmosphere of that land of mystery and dark deeds. From Chapter 1: “It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was now only a little after two o’clock in the afternoon the pallor of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in mist. It would be dark by four. The air was clammy cold, and for all the tightly closed windows it penetrated the interior of the coach. The leather seats felt damp to the hands, and there must have been a small crack in the roof, because now and again little drips of rain fell softly through, smudging the leather and leaving a dark-blue stain like a splodge of ink. The wind came in gusts, at times shaking the coach as it travelled round the bend of the road, and in the exposed places on the high ground it blew with such force that the whole body of the coach trembled and swayed, rocking between the high wheels like a drunken man….”

U.K. Gollancz. 1936.189p.

By Markus Zusak

The Dunbar boys bring each other up in a house run by their own rules a family of ramshackled tragedy their mother is dead their father has fled they love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world. It is Clay, the quiet one, who will build a bridge; for his family, for his past, for his sins. He builds a bridge to transcend humanness. To survive A miracle and nothing less. Markus Zusak makes his long-awaited return with a profoundly heartfelt and inventive novel about a family held together by stories, and a young life caught in the current: a hoy in search of greatness, as a cure for a painful past. “‘Brilliant and hugely ambitious...the kind of book that can be life changing.” The New York Times. “‘Unsettling, thought-provoking, life affirming, triumphant and tragic, this is a novel of breathtaking scope, masterfully told.” Guardian. ‘Zusak’s novel is a highwire act of inventiveness and emotional suppleness’ The Australian.

Australia. Picador Macmillan. 2018. 581p.