John Jakes - Free Library Land Online

North and South

Thu, 14 Oct 1982 11:02:41 +0300

The first volume of John Jakes’s acclaimed and sweeping saga about a friendship threatened by the divisions of the Civil War
In the years leading up to the Civil War, one enduring friendship embodies the tensions of a nation. Orry Main from South Carolina and George Hazard from Pennsylvania forge a lasting bond while training at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Together they fight in the Mexican-American War, but their closeness is tested as their regional politics diverge. As the first rounds are fired at Fort Sumter, Orry and George find themselves on different sides of the coming struggle. In John Jakes’s unmatched style, North and South launches a trilogy that captures the fierce passions of a country at the precipice of disaster. This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

The Furies

Wed, 14 Sep 1977 21:47:48 +0300

The Kents’ saga expands as its first heroine takes center stage in the relentless struggle to build the family dynasty
Opening twenty-two years after the events of The Seekers, John Jakes’s fourth Kent Family novel spans the blood-soaked era of America’s relentless expansion into the West. Amanda Kent, daughter of Gilbert Kent and Harriet Lebow, is one of the few women to escape the massacre at the Battle of the Alamo. Uncommonly brazen and focused, Amanda seeks to make a new life for herself by restoring the Kent family name. Her efforts to build a dynasty take her to northern California, just in time for the Gold Rush. Her passion and determination during these frenzied years make The Furies an exhilarating page-turner. This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

Mention My Name in Atlantis

Wed, 14 Sep 1977 21:47:48 +0300

A courtesan for hire, a brainless hunk, and alien invaders combine to bring about ancient history’s most momentous catastrophe in John Jakes’s hilarious take on the fall of Atlantis For centuries the mystery of the lost continent of Atlantis has intrigued mortals everywhere. Who lost it? Where did it go? At last the truth is out—or at least the truth according to Hoptor the Vintner, respectable Atlantean wine merchant and not-so-respectable pimp. According to Hoptor, the blame for Atlantis’s destruction can be placed squarely on the incredibly broad shoulders of Conax the Chimerical, a none-too-bright, broadsword-wielding barbarian chieftain. Conax washed ashore just as Atlantis’s ruler was losing his health and his grip on the kingdom, creating chaos throughout the island. Now things were really about to go south. All of a sudden Hoptor had a lot more to worry about than how to silence the unrelenting nagging of Aphrodisia, the beautiful, strident prostitute he had promised to marry in a moment of weakness. Now the ever-resourceful, vino-loving procurer of female flesh was being called on to possibly save the world as well as his own skin—which would prove to be no small feat, with Conax mucking up everything he touched in his inimitable fashion. And then there were those strange golden discs flying high above everybody’s heads . . .

The Bastard

Wed, 14 Sep 1977 21:47:48 +0300

One man’s quest for his destiny leads him to the New World and into the heart of the American Revolution

Meet Phillipe Charboneau: the illegitimate son and unrecognized heir of the Duke of Kentland. Upon the Duke’s death, Phillipe is denied his birthright and left to build a life of his own. Seeking all that the New World promises, he leaves London for America, shedding his past and preparing for the future by changing his name to Philip Kent. He arrives at the brink of the American Revolution, which tests his allegiances in ways he never imagined. The first volume of John Jakes’s wildly successful and highly addictive Kent Family Chronicles, The Bastard is a triumph of historical fiction. This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

The Americans

Sun, 14 Oct 1979 11:02:41 +0300

The definitive volume in Jakes’s bestselling series finds the Kent family reaching to finally embrace its legacy—and its future In the final installment of the Kent Family Chronicles, the remaining Kents seek to fulfill Philip Kent’s original American dream. As Gideon Kent’s health deteriorates, he fears for the future of his family. Their dynasty, now in ruins, stands as a tarnished symbol of all the Kents have lost in the unstable years of war and expansion. It falls to young Will to bring the family together—a task of epic scope. Only expert storyteller John Jakes could craft such a gripping finale to this beloved family saga, bringing the Kents’ drama—and the nineteenth century in America—to its riveting conclusion. This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

The Bold Frontier

Sun, 14 Oct 2001 11:02:40 +0300

From the author of such American epics as the Kent Family Chronicles and the North and South trilogy comes this special anthology of frontier fiction--featuring three brand new stories and a special introduction by the author.

California Gold

Sat, 14 Oct 1989 11:02:41 +0300

James Macklin Chase was a poor Pennsylvanian who dreamed of making it rich in California. But at the turn of the century, the money to be made was in oil, citrus, water rights, and the railroads. Mack would have it all, if he had his way. And along the way, the men and women he met, the passion he found, the enemies he made, and the great historical figures like William Randolph Hearts, Leland Stanford, and Theodore Roosevelt, he encountered, helped bring glory to the extraordinary century.
"Riveting...CALIFORNIA GOLD strikes pay dirt....This sweeping epic is a dynamite tribute to the sheer pluck of one man who scorns all obstacles. He instills vibrancy in all his characterizations."
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
A Literary Guild Main Selection

Savannah, or a Gift for Mr. Lincoln

Thu, 14 Oct 2004 11:02:40 +0300

Georgia 1864: Sherman's army marches inexorably from Atlanta to the sea. In its path: the charming old city of Savannah, where the Lester ladies-attractive widow Sara and her feisty twelve-year-old daughter Hattie-struggle to save the family rice plantation. When Sherman offers the conquered city to President Lincoln as "a Christmas gift," Hattie and the feared general find themselves on a collision course that will astonish both of them.

Heaven and Hell

Wed, 14 Oct 1987 11:02:41 +0300

The last days of the Civil War bring no peace for the Main and Hazard families. As the Mains’ South smolders in the ruins of defeat, the Hazards’ North pushes blindly for relentless industrial progress. Both the nation and the families’ long-standing bond hover on the brink of destruction. In the series’ epic conclusion, Jakes expertly blends personal conflict with historical events, crafting a haunting page-turner about America’s constant change and unyielding hope.

Homeland

Thu, 14 Oct 1993 11:02:41 +0200

From the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of North and South: The first in a saga about a German immigrant and his family’s rise in 20th-century America. The tide of the twentieth century is rising upon the world, and on its crest rides the Crown family.

Young Pauli Kroner, freshly arrived in America from the streets of Berlin, makes his way to the mansion of his millionaire uncle in Chicago, looking to fulfill his dreams. His uncle, Joe Crown, is a self-made brewery tycoon who rules his domain with an iron hand—especially when it comes to his own family of defiantly rebellious children and a wife yearning for her own liberation.

In this new world, Pauli will rise as his own man and find his destiny in the early days of motion pictures. Surrounded by relations close and distant, proud and vengeful, each struggling to find themselves at the dawn of a new era, he will witness and experience the violence of the Pullman Strike, and find love in the arms of a woman who can never be his as he follows the march of history, intertwined with such figures as the audacious Theodore Roosevelt, the ruthless Thomas Edison, the fading western icon Buffalo Bill, and many more.

Named a New York Times Notable Book, Homeland is a “first-rate historical . . . chock-full of fascinating period detail, [Jakes’s] captivating story brings to life the sounds, smells and tastes of turn-of-the-century America in a manner comparable to Michener’s Hawaii and Doctorow’s Ragtime” (Publishers Weekly).
This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

The Asylum world

Wed, 14 Sep 1977 00:06:23 +0300

Sean had never been on Earth, for which he felt both a vague loyalty and a colonist’s contempt. After all, Earth had made quite a mess of it in the late 1990s. But here he was, on the one in-shuttle Mars owned, going on behalf of the Martian colonies to request arms to defend the planet against the alien fleet sighted off Saturn.

But supposing the cheerful newstapes Earth sent the colonies were retouched? Suppose Westbloc hadn’t any weapons, or needed them for its arms race with Eastbloc? Sean rubbed his aching head. No doubt about it, there’d be further headaches awaiting him in’

On Secret Service

Sat, 14 Oct 2000 11:02:39 +0300

John Jakes is to historical American fiction what Stephen King is to horror: a one-man industry. Jakes, the author of over 60 books, including the eight-part Kent Family Chronicles, the North and South Trilogy, and innumerable short stories of the American West, returns to his well-trod Civil War stomping grounds in the engrossing On Secret Service. The story of a war within a war on various levels--the North v. the South, the Union's Pinkerton Detective Agency v. the Confederacy's agent provocateurs, youthful idealism v. youthful lust--On Secret Service chronicles the lives and times of four young Americans, from the war's early tremors in January 1861, through its bloody conclusion, Lincoln's assassination, and John Wilkes Booth's murder in May 1865. The main players are Lon Price, the ardent abolitionist and rising-star operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and Margaret Miller, the beautiful, initially vacuous daughter of the South whose chief concern is that the war be over quickly so as not to interfere with Washington's upcoming social season. After a chance encounter in a Washington park, they are as repulsed by each other's political views as they are drawn together by an undeniable physical chemistry. As hostilities increase, the Pinkertons are pledged to the service of the Union and Lon becomes, ipso facto, a charter member in the U.S. Secret Service. When Margaret's stridently pro-slavery father is gunned down by a Pinkerton operative at a clandestine "Secesh" meeting, Margaret throws off her socialite mantle and vows revenge. She pledges allegiance to the South's most notorious female spy, the wealthy, well-connected, and equally well-endowed Rose Greenhow. A parallel relationship develops between Margaret's unlikely best friend, the boyishly slight Hanna Siegel, a devout abolitionist who longs to prove herself on the battlefield, and the conflicted Captain Frederick Dasher, late of West Point, now of the First Virginia Cavalry, and protégé to Brigadier General "Jeb" Stuart. Played out before a scrim of battles, lives, fortunes, and reputations won and irreparably lost, Lon, Margaret, Hanna, and Fred cat-and-mouse their way through America's costliest war. While the respective outcomes are somewhat predictable, what is not predictable is the degree to which the reader is captivated by Jakes's encyclopedic command of historical fact and his unmatched storytelling. The mingling of well-drawn fictional characters with nicely fleshed-out historical figures raises to rare levels circumstances that would, in lesser hands, seem mere contrivances. --Michael Hudson

The Lawless

Sat, 14 Oct 1978 11:02:39 +0300

In a flourishing post–Civil War America, the Kent family seizes good fortune again—until all is suddenly threatened by one woman’s return The penultimate volume in John Jakes’s stirring Kent Family Chronicles finds America booming in its postwar prosperity. With this newly secured peace comes an opportunity for the Kent family to reconcile and to thrive, both personally and financially. Gideon Kent takes up his father’s vow to reunite the family, but when he brings his father’s widow back into the fold, the repercussions seem insurmountable. Against the backdrop of a recovering nation, the Kents face dramatic challenges and unexpected rifts that could leave the family shattered for years to come. This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

The Titans

Wed, 14 Sep 1977 21:47:48 +0300

The members of the Kent family’s most dynamic generation face internal clashes as the Civil War ignites
In the hellish years of the Civil War, the Kent family faces its greatest trials yet. Louis, the devious son of the late Amanda Kent, is in control of the dynasty—and of its seemingly inevitable collapse. His cousin Jephtha Kent, meanwhile, backs the abolitionist cause, while his sons remain devoted Southerners. As the country fractures around the Kents, John Jakes introduces characters that include some of the most famous Americans of this defining era. Spanning the full breadth of the Civil War—from the brutal frontlines in the South to the political tangle in Washington—The Titans chronicles two struggles for identity: the country’s and the Kents’. This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection.