Twenty Years Gone And I Back Again Summary

The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray: Catherine: a story ; Little travels ; The Fits-boodle papers, etc. etc

The Story of ANDALORAX

ANDALORAX Author’s Note Andalorax is a fantasy novel that explores a society beset by moral and ecological crises. The avenues of resolution are paved with magic, prophecy, heroism and exile, innocence, and great quests. All lead to ultimate justice and natural balance. The legends created in Andalorax span more than a millennium; the story itself occurs in one climactic generation, beginning with the birth of Andalorax. Physically and temperamentally different from her people, she is by nature an outcast. Her childhood is lonely yet magical and eccentric. Maturity reveals her destiny as a prime force in the destruction and rebuilding of a Kingdom. Andalorax grows into a passionate yet patient woman, who has to learn how to accept both the burden and the blessing of her birth. The problems faced by the people in Andalorax are meant to be quite contemporary, although guised in the fantasy structure. The themes attempt to evoke an individual desire for optimism about life, towards a faith that tomorrow will not be abused, but cherished.

True Story

Olivia Monday, an impoverished widow, has taken a position as "secretary" to an eccentric, scandalous rake - a divorced man with a brood of eight children and at least two gun-shot wounds. For one year, against the advice of her remaining family members, she agrees to live in his remote Cornish castle and put pen to paper on his behalf. Despite everything she's heard about him, she's unafraid. Olivia welcomes the distraction this unusual post will provide— as well as the large fee— because the alternative of relying on relatives to put a roof over her head is intolerable. True Deverell has decided it's time to set the record straight. He means to dictate his memoirs to this little widow who, according to the instructions he sent to his solicitor, should merely be plain and have a neat hand. Those are his only requirements. He doesn't want any distractions, has endured his fill of scandal and intends now to leave the "True Story" on paper so that perhaps, one day, people will forgive his mistakes. But when Mrs. Olivia Monday arrives on his doorstep in her leaky boots and crumpled bonnet, True realizes that perhaps his story isn't over yet.