Showing results by narrator "Virginia Ferguson" in All Categories

It wasn't all musketeers, mysterious ladies, poisoned gloves, and palace intrigue.... Sometimes, Alexandre Dumas stepped back from historic misadventures and wrote fairy tales - and a very good job he did of it, too.

Scenes from all walks of life—from a secluded mountain monastery to a troubled Ukrainian village—meticulously documented by the great impressionist of Ukrainian literature Mihailo Kotsubinsky.

Dmitrey Merezhkovsky, a formidable historian and philosopher, known best for his epic narratives from Russian history, takes a romantic foray into the realm of life, death, love, and all things in between. Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to The Spirit of Romance, and experience the compelling world of historical romance.

"The Test" is a short, powerful piece that describes a day in the life of a woman, whose past comes to haunt her just as she thinks she is settled and perfectly safe in her life. Faced with memories of long ago as well as considerations and responsibilities of today, she must make a difficult choice she knows will change her life and affect the lives of those around her.

Some might see the lessons in Odoyevsky's short and charming life manual for children old-fashioned and outdated. Some might even bristle at certain suggestions. However, we would like to urge our listeners to look beyond the somewhat antiquated rhetoric and consider these lessons as they were intended - guidelines for bringing up intelligent, well-educated, considerate, and industrious future spouses, parents, and, most importantly, engineers of the future world.

Uncomplicated People is another masterfully written, bittersweet tale by Maria Krestovskaya - an everyday tragedy of love lost and dreams wasted on the altar of solid and secure mediocrity.

Elizabeth Tudor has chosen never to marry. The man she loves, Robin Dudley, has lost his wife in mysterious circumstances. Knowing that were she to marry him, it would lead to his destruction and hers, Elizabeth has made up her mind... But Robin does not know this yet. Afraid to lose her favourite, Elizabeth has told Robin there may be hope. As times goes on, Robin attempts persuasion, pressure and trickery to take his place beside her on the throne of England. And it is not only with her beloved that Elizabeth is having problems...

When Stella McKenzie is summoned to meet her Great Aunt Bess, her grandmother's sister, on the occasion of that lady's 100th birthday, she keeps the appointment with a great deal of trepidation. All her life she has been told about this mysterious lady, to whom her grandmother has not spoken since the First World War. She has been told that she is mean and spiteful, that she wrecked the engagement of her sister to the man she loved out of spite and jealousy.

Alenushka's Tales is a series of whimsical stories inspired by careful observation and great love of nature, written by Dmitrey Mamin-Sibiryak for his daughter Alena (Alenushka).

Only a few months earlier, the young woman now known as Jane Smith had lived a life of luxury and privilege as the ruler of a small Balkan kingdom. She lived a life of glittering balls, the finest furnishings, the most handsome men, the most exquisite of foods. Her only friends were four bearded old men who served as her cabinet, and worshiped the ground she walked on. Then the Germans had marched in, and she and her four councilors barely escaped with their lives.

In the 1940s, Veronica Lake stirred a nation of filmgoers into a frenzy with her memorable screen performances and famous hairdo draped over one eye. The sultry blonde bombshell rocketed to stardom for Paramount Pictures only for it all to spiral out of control and be over in a flash. By age twenty-nine, Veronica was washed up with her career on the ash heap of movie history.

A Christmas Surprise: Lord Robert, the Viscount of Marchwood, throws a Christmas Ball every year, and this year his daughter, Lady Audrey, has just turned 18. With the Marchwood family fortune all but gone, Lord Robert is keen to secure her a prosperous match. But when a handsome, masked stranger threatens to steal Audrey's heart, will it prove to be a good or bad Christmas surprise?

The year is 1972. Following a fatal accident, 22-year-old Adrienne makes a chance discovery that propels her to Paris in an effort to uncover what happened to her mother, who had deserted the family home 10 years before. A man professing to be her father agrees to help her and travels with her to Paris. What Adrienne discovers is a saga that spans three decades, with its roots in the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1942.

At the Inn, life is filled with the unexpected. Payton is left to pick up the pieces after her divorce is finalized. Seeking a fresh start, she returns to her home town in Pelican Beach. Determined to move on with her life, she finds herself caught up in the family business at The Inn. It may not be her passion, but anything is better than what her broken marriage had to offer. Payton doesn't wallow in her sorrows long before her opportunity at a second chance shows up. Is there room in her heart to love again? She’ll soon find out!

Bo Carmichael thought Echo Valley, New Hampshire, was in her rear view mirror. Circumstances lead her straight back. Now, the one-time aspiring doctor is raising a son she never planned on having and toiling away as a hairdresser to pay the bills. When her boss hands her a plum assignment - preparing the family of a leading presidential candidate for a photo shoot - Bo unwittingly stumbles into a scandalous encounter between the happily-married senator and his exquisite female staffer.

Now, Emma is a back-to-school PhD student with bigger and better things to worry about. That is, until one night, exhausted, slightly tipsy, and on her way home from a party, the glaring white light of a car comes crashing toward her, changing her life forever. Instead of waking up in a 21st-century hospital, she finds herself waking up in the backwaters of London, Victorian England, 1881.

Jeb Jackson, a once famous rodeo star, lives in isolation on his family’s storied ranch in Montana. Until the day a mysterious and complex young woman pays him a visit. Less of a visit and more like the surprise of his life - an unwelcome one at that. Or so it seems, when the beautiful stranger (who claims to know him) announces she needs “straightening out”. Now he’s got a drugged-up, freshly-divorced, sequin-encrusted beauty queen passed out in his bed and has no idea what to do with her or himself. Falling in love seems like the only option.

When both learn of the other’s lack of desire for love, they know the best chance to escape those seeking to wed them is to come to an agreement - one that will free them both from the pressures of matchmaking. But a marriage of convenience doesn’t imply a marriage without passion. As their feelings eventually warm toward one another, old enemies emerge and threaten everything they have worked for. Will they be able to draw strength from their blossoming love to defeat those who seek to destroy them, or will they deny their feelings and lose one another forever?

Saskia watches the lives of others from her eyrie in Lavender Square with a lonely fascination. While the teacher, the recluse, the advertising whiz kid and the African woman and her young son run, rush, dart, and dash, she knows for sure that she will never have anything worth dashing to. But sometimes all it takes is a little magic to bring people together.

It’s the Christmastide season, and the Hawkins family is at their country estate in Kent. Emmaline, the Countess of Archewyne, is excited, for it’s her first Christmas with her little family, as well as one of the few she’s spent in England. Passing his leisure time with his loved ones gives Miles Lawrence Hawkins, the fifth Earl of Archewyne, great pleasure, as does anticipating their faces when they open his gifts.