Category Archives: Novels to Read Online

1. Novels to Read Online

by | September 26, 2008 · 3:47 pm

William Farquhar Payson. John Vytal: A Tale of the Lost Colony. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1901.

This alternative telling of the Lost Colony story adds some new figures, including 16th century bad-boy dramatist Christopher Marlowe and the main character, Captain John Vytal. Spanish invaders, hostile Native Americans, and internal dissent doom the colony. Marlowe returns to England and meets his fate at that tavern in Deptford. White Doe (Virginia Dare), Dark Eyes (Manteo’s son) and Eleanor Dare flee to the forest, along with Vytal who has long pined for Eleanor.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1900-1909, 1901, Coast, Dare, Historical, Novels to Read Online, Payson, William Farquhar

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by | · 2:53 pm

Dorothy C. Paine. A Maid of the Mountains. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1906.

When a wealthy family buys a summer home in the North Carolina mountains, their children get to know some of the locals. Wealthy Beth Davenport befriends Carol, a mountain girl with a talent for singing. Misunderstandings and misadventures put the girls, and Beth’s faithful dog in peril, but Beth’s plans to assist Carol bear fruit when a member of the Davenport’s social circle offers to take Carol north for an education.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1900-1909, 1906, Mountains, Novels to Read Online, Paine, Dorothy C.

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by | September 15, 2008 · 4:52 pm

Waldron Baily. The Homeward Trail. New York: W. J. Watt & Co., 1916.

David Simmons and Ruth Swaim were childhood playmates, growing up on adjacent farms by the Yadkin River. Their parents assumed that the young people would some day wed, but when David bungles a sale of Mr. Swaim’s apples, he leaves the area. David’s plan is to earn the money to repay Mr. Swaim. Thus begin a picaresque tale in which David encounters an escaped Union prisoner and an Indian princess. David enjoys his time among the Croatan Indians (Lumbees) and comes to love the Princess Elizabeth. That in itself is a complicated situation, but the plot thickens when the Union soldier turns up where Ruth is staying and tells her about David’s new love. Ruth goes to David, and overhears David confess to Elizabeth his prior relationship with Ruth. Ruth and David recognize that their future is together, but leaving the Croatan settlement proves difficult.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1910-1919, 1916, Baily, Waldron, Novels to Read Online, Piedmont

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by | September 12, 2008 · 4:51 pm

Waldron Baily. When the Cock Crows. New York: Bedford Publishing, 1918.

Beaufort fisherman Ichabod Jones attempts to rescue New York socialite Ethel Marion from a nefarious opium-crazed doctor who has kidnapped her. While tracking down Miss Marion and her kidnapper, Captain Jones is reunited with an old love. Captain Jones’ pet rooster, Shrimp, is delightful addition to the plot.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1910-1919, 1918, Baily, Waldron, Carteret, Coast, Novels to Read Online

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by | August 5, 2008 · 4:28 pm

Under Golden Skies, or, In the New Eldorado. Raleigh,NC: Edwards & Broughton, 1898.

Wealthy Winston-Salem resident Dr. Ralph Leslie becomes guardian to the daughter of a woman he loved in his youth. His relationship with his ward deepens into love during the course of the action which moves through popular vacation spots around the state. The publisher characterized this as “A Story of Southern Life by A Southern Author.” The author is thought to be Mrs. D. C. Osborne.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1890-1899, 1898, Anonymous, Forsyth, Novels to Read Online

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by | · 3:46 pm

William Laurie Hill. The Master of the Red Buck and the Bay Doe. Charlotte, NC: Stone Publishing Co., 1913.

There is a lot going on in this novel set in North Carolina in the last years of the Revolutionary War. One plot line follows David Fanning as he leads Tory raiders in Chatham County. The second narrative thread concerns the lovely Polly Rutherford Scurlock who is sent from Chatham County to the safer venue of Guilford County, where she finds multiple suitors. The book weaves many historic events and figures into its plot.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1910-1919, 1913, Chatham, Guilford, Hill, William Laurie, Historical, Novels to Read Online, Piedmont, Romance/Relationship

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by | · 2:42 pm

Clarence Monroe Wallin. Gena of the Appalachians. New York: Cochrane Publishing, 1910.

Gena Filson’s life is hard after her parents die and her brothers move west. She becomes the hired girl in the household of Jase Dillenburger were she works from sunup to sundown. When old Jase is arrested for moonshining, Gena’s life improves. She gains land, goes to college, and marries a good, church-going man.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1910, 1910-1919, Children & Young Adults, Mountains, Novels to Read Online, Wallin, Clarence Monroe

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by | · 2:14 pm

C. A. Jenkens. The Bride’s Return, or, How Grand Avenue Church Came to Christ. Charlotte, NC: C. H. Robinson & Co., 1911.

This novel, by a North Carolina Baptist minister, describes a church which had become chiefly a social club. A dedicated young minister reforms the church. Set in the fictitious city of Woodville.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1910-1919, 1911, Jenkens, C. A., Novels Set in Fictional Places, Novels to Read Online, Religious/Inspirational

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by | · 12:13 pm

Vaughan Kester. The Prodigal Judge. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1911.

A boy mysteriously appears at the Barony, a plantation near Fayetteville, N.C.  A few years later when the elderly owner of the Barony, the reclusive General Quintard, dies, no one knows what to do with the boy, Hannibal.  Bob Yancy, a neighbor, takes Hannibal in and raises him like a member of the family.  Others know the true identity of Hannibal.  They come for him and chase him to Tennessee, hoping to enrich themselves at the boy’s expense.  The author’s easy acceptance of the antebellum social structure and attitudes will turn off some readers.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1910-1919, 1911, Coastal Plain, Cumberland, Kester, Vaughan, Novels to Read Online

by | July 17, 2008 · 4:41 pm

Will Loftin Hargrave. Wallannah: A Colonial Romance. Richmond: B. F. Johnson Publishing Co., 1902.

John Cantwell puts up a good front, but he is not the honest man the people of New Bern think he is. Despite his high social standing, his business dealings are shady and his personal life dishonorable. His schemes affect the lives of many people in the New Bern area in the decades leading up to the American Revolution.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1900-1909, 1902, Coast, Craven, Hargrave, Will Loftin, Novels to Read Online