The Floating Press: 2252 books

A mysterious stranger appears at a secluded compound in the Australian outback. Gallant and sophisticated, it is clear that his past is at odds with his current situation. Where did he come from, and why has he condemned himself to such a primitive existence? Find out in E. W. Hornung's thrilling Stingaree.

What starts out as a much-anticipated wedding among members of the high-society set in 1870s San Francisco eventually devolves into a tragic story of a doomed love triangle in Gertrude Atherton's deeply moving historical romance novel Sleeping Fires.

One of the sole survivors of a raid that wiped out virtually his entire planet, Captain Bors is adrift -- literally and figuratively. His encounter with a group of misfits with an unusual assemblage of talents, skills, and superpowers sets his life on a course he never could have imagined. This entertaining and engaging book is sure to please fans of golden-era SF.

Delve into the annals of criminal history with this spine-chilling volume from famed historical fiction writer Alexandre Dumas (pere). Antoine-Francois Desrues was an eighteenth-century French merchant who turned to poison as his weapon of choice when his financial prospects began to dim.

Known chiefly as a prolific writer of popular-action adventure novels, American author James Oliver Curwood takes a more lighthearted approach in the short story "Thomas Jefferson Brown," in which an itinerant worker with an insatiable case of wanderlust contemplates his dissimilarity to his famous namesake.

In this refreshingly innovative collection of sketches, author Annie F. Johnston introduces a motley crew of five characters. Although all five are at vastly different phases and stages in their lives, the tales are yoked together by a unifying thread of humanity.

The delightful dreamer Georgina is back again in Annie F. Johnston's enchanting novel Georgina's Service Stars. Though she has matured somewhat as she has entered her teenage years and spent time away at boarding school, she still possesses childlike innocence and wonder -- indeed, to such a degree that she almost overlooks true love when it finds her.

When it comes to juvenile fiction, is there any topic that so enchants little ones more than stories about fairies? The imaginative young reader in your life is sure to delight in Eleanor Hallowell Abbott's charming collection Fairy Prince and Other Stories.

Born in England to Orthodox Jewish parents, Benjamin Farjeon rejected his strict religious upbringing and decamped for Australia as a young man. Grif: A Story of Australian Life, one of Farjeon's most popular novels and a runaway bestseller in its day, draws heavily upon his own experiences of coming to the country and making his way in a wholly unfamiliar culture.

British philosopher and activist Edward Carpenter was decades ahead of his time when it came to sensitive subjects like gender relations, equal rights, and acceptance of a broad range of sexual proclivities. In this thought-provoking series of essays, Carpenter addresses the issue of marriage and what...

Hereward Carrington was a respected investigator of psychic and supernatural phenomena who was well known for detecting fraud and for incorporating scientific methods into his research procedures. The fascinating volume True Ghost Stories collects a series of Carrington's spine-tingling accounts of cases in which he concluded that a supernatural force or element was at work.

Stubborn and set in her ways, Jane Field has a somewhat antagonistic relationship with her daughter Lois, who is coming into her own and developing distinct ideas and values. When it comes to light that Lois has fallen in love, all hell breaks lose. Will Jane ever be able to salvage the mother-daughter bond?

This story, one in Dickens' decades-long run of Christmas-themed tales, takes its name from a popular schoolyard game. It centers on a hermit who closes himself off from humanity as a result of painful childhood experiences -- and his quest to gradually reconnect with the world around him.

Oliver Wendell Holmes was a physician and Harvard professor who rose to literary acclaim on the strength of his essays, poetry and novels, many of which drew on his medical knowledge. In this, Holmes' third and final novel, a young man who has suffered through a number of awkward romantic encounters develops a toxic and deep-seated fear of women.