Books with title To the North

A young woman’s secret love affair leads to a violent and tragic act in one of Elizabeth Bowen’s most acclaimed novels. To the North centers on two young women in 1920s London, the recently widowed Cecilia Summers and her late husband's sister, Emmeline. Drawn to each other in the wake of their loss, the two set up house together and gradually become more entwined than they know. But the comfortable refuge they have made is "a house built on sand"; both realize it cannot last. While Cecilia, capricious and unsure if she can really love anyone, moves reluctantly toward a second marriage, Emmeline, a gentle and independent soul, is surprised to find the calm tenor of her life disturbed for the first time by her attraction to the predatory Mark Linkwater. Bowen’s psychological acuity is on full display in a conclusion that plumbs the depths of this seemingly detached young woman in a single, life-shattering moment.

A young woman’s secret love affair leads to a violent and tragic act in one of Elizabeth Bowen’s most acclaimed novels. To the North centers on two young women in 1920s London, the recently widowed Cecilia Summers and her late husband's sister, Emmeline. Drawn to each other in the wake of their loss, the two set up house together and gradually become more entwined than they know. But the comfortable refuge they have made is "a house built on sand"; both realize it cannot last. While Cecilia, capricious and unsure if she can really love anyone, moves reluctantly toward a second marriage, Emmeline, a gentle and independent soul, is surprised to find the calm tenor of her life disturbed for the first time by her attraction to the predatory Mark Linkwater. Bowen’s psychological acuity is on full display in a conclusion that plumbs the depths of this seemingly detached young woman in a single, life-shattering moment.

In 1360 AD, King Magnus Eirikson rules over a united Sweden and Norway—a Christian Scandinavia. Dark rumor has reached the king that the colonies in Greenland have fallen back into pagan ritual, along with an alarming report that the inhabitants of the Western Settlement have mysteriously disappeared, with farmsteads and churches left deserted. Magnus entrusts Paul Knutson with a ship and forty strong men to make contact with Greenland and to verify the truth of these stories. Among these men are Olav Sigurdsson—a young man sailing to prove his bravery to the king and to reclaim his father’s lost honor—and Eirik the Laplander, deeply loyal to Olav’s family, but a pagan viewed with suspicion by the other Christian Scandinavians. Upon confirming the disappearance of a whole settlement, Paul and his party follow a sparse trail of clues south across the seas toward “Vinland”—convinced that some of the colonists may still be alive. As the valiant band perseveres in the pursuit of answers for its king, going ever deeper south and westward into an unknown continent, Olav’s desire for justice for his father finally merges with the desire for success in their difficult quest. The Door to the North is another stirring example of Elizabeth Coatsworth’s authentic and captivating historical storytelling.

This story tells the tale of a plucky little penguin named Cleary who lives in the South Pole with his mother and grandfather. One day while playing on the beach a newspaper article about Santa washes ashore from a cruise ship and entices him to travel to the North Pole to bring Santa to his colony, a place he has never been. Cleary embarks on a voyage crossing South and North America, where he meets other animals and travels through varying geographical landscapes. He has many adventures and surprises while meeting new friends along the way that help him complete his journey to convince Santa to come south and celebrate Christmas.

A young woman’s secret love affair leads to a violent and tragic act in one of Elizabeth Bowen’s most acclaimed novels. To the North centers on two young women in 1920s London, the recently widowed Cecilia Summers and her late husband's sister, Emmeline. Drawn to each other in the wake of their loss, the two set up house together and gradually become more entwined than they know. But the comfortable refuge they have made is "a house built on sand"; both realize it cannot last. While Cecilia, capricious and unsure if she can really love anyone, moves reluctantly toward a second marriage, Emmeline, a gentle and independent soul, is surprised to find the calm tenor of her life disturbed for the first time by her attraction to the predatory Mark Linkwater. Bowen’s psychological acuity is on full display in a conclusion that plumbs the depths of this seemingly detached young woman in a single, life-shattering moment.

"To The North" portrays a classic romantic entanglement of a sympathetic, honest, well-meaning young woman who cannot resist becoming involved with a man who is patently caddish and predatory. In striking and richly comic contrast to the turbulence of this passion is the cool, detached atmosphere of the house in St John's Wood in which it takes its course - where the young woman's sister-in-law with her strictly unromantic preoccupations is always near by, the orphaned teenager Pauline presents herself as gawky innocence itself, and the power-loving busybody Lady Waters misses nothing.