Henry Stephenson

In Paris, a young woman runs away from a reform school, joins a pickpocket academy, and finds herself falling for the handsome diplomat she's been blackmailed into stealing from. A young female escapee from a reform school joins a pickpocket academy in Paris. She is caught red-handed on her first attempt at stealing by an upper class man. He recruits her to do him a favor at a society party where she meets and falls in love with a young, handsome, rich diplomat. Whether or not she can land him is another story. —Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>

The master sleuth hunts his archenemy, Professor Moriarty, who is planning the crime of the century. When Sherlock Holmes arrives in court moments too late to give evidence against Professor Moriarty, the professor is acquitted. Soon afterward, he develops a scheme for stealing the crown jewels from the Tower of London. In order to get Holmes involved, he persuades a gaucho flute player to murder a girl. —Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

An American boy turns out to be the long-lost heir of a British fortune. He is sent to live with the cold and unsentimental lord who oversees the trust. After the death of Cedric's ('Ceddie') English father, he and his mother live together in Brooklyn. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, had disowned Cedric's father when he married an American, but when the Earl's remaining son dies, he accepts Cedric as Lord Fauntleroy, his heir, and sends for Cedric and his mother. Cedric uses the first of his newly-found wealth to do some favors for his old friends, then heads to England, where he must try to overcome the Earl's dislike for Cedric's mother. —Snow Leopard

A chronicle of the lives of sisters growing up in 19th-century New England. Little Women is a "coming of age" drama tracing the lives of four sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. During the American Civil War, the girls' father is away serving as a minister to the troops. The family, headed by their beloved Marmee, must struggle to make ends meet, with the help of their kind and wealthy neighbor Mr. Laurence, and his high-spirited grandson Laurie. —Liza Esser <essereli@student.msu.edu> Josephine March and her three sisters Meg, Amy, and Beth grow up with their mother's guidance while their father is a chaplain in the American Civil War. The vivacious quartet are very close and happy despite limited means. Laurie Laurence, the well-off boy next door, takes a liking to Jo, and his tutor John Brooke eyes older sister Meg during a party. Meg marries Mr. Brooke, but Jo rejects Laurie's proposal and moves to New York for new adventures. When Beth starts to lose her battle with scarlet fever, Jo returns to her deathbed. Sister Amy returns married to Jo's one true love, Laurie. Will she ever find someone for herself? —Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>