Second to None: Restored Classics to Go Edition

· Otbebookpublishing
Ebook
165
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

Basil Gauntlet stands alone on the bleak Borderlands, a ruined gentleman cut off from Netherwood, his birthright, and nearly every hope he once had. In this military romance of inheritance, pride, and loss, he traces the bitter history that destroyed his family: a grandfather's disowning will, a father broken in prison, a mother lost to grief, and a childhood spent in the grip of the harsh lawyer Nathan Wylie. Raised in poverty and humiliation, Basil endures legal drudgery, religious severity, and constant reminders of his exclusion, yet he clings to secret reading, dreams of freedom, and faint memories of maternal tenderness. His lonely world brightens with the arrival of Ruth Wylie, whose warmth and beauty awaken his first love. Their innocent passion grows in secret until Nathan discovers them, driving them into concealment, fear, and defiance. When Basil is mistaken for a thief and nearly shot, he is forced to break away, nursing both heartbreak and ambition. Cut off with only a shilling, he turns toward military life as war fever swells around the French expedition at Portsmouth. Amid ships, supplies, patriotic excitement, and the machinery of invasion, Basil enters a world of danger and opportunity, where duty, suspicion, and political intrigue begin to shape his fate. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
Basil Gauntlet stands alone on the bleak Borderlands, a ruined gentleman cut off from Netherwood, his birthright, and nearly every hope he once had. In this military romance of inheritance, pride, and loss, he traces the bitter history that destroyed his family: a grandfather's disowning will, a ...

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About the author

James Grant was a Scottish novelist and journalist born in Edinburgh in 1822, and his life was shaped by both literary ambition and a deep fascination with military history and adventure. After early struggles and a varied career that included journalism, he became one of the most prolific popular writers of the Victorian era, producing a large body of fiction that found eager readers across Britain and beyond. He was especially admired for his brisk storytelling, vivid battle scenes, and command of historical detail, qualities that made his tales of soldiers, campaigns, and imperial conflict stand out in a crowded literary marketplace. Grant's writing often explores honor, courage, loyalty, discipline, and the human cost of war, while also capturing the excitement and uncertainty of military life in a way that remains accessible today. Though once immensely popular, he is now especially valued by readers interested in how nineteenth-century fiction helped shape ideas about heroism, nationhood, and martial identity. His legacy lies in his ability to combine entertainment with a strong sense of period atmosphere, offering a window into Victorian tastes and anxieties as well as into the enduring appeal of adventure narratives. Readers who enjoy historical fiction, military stories, and fast-moving novels with a classic old-world flavor are most likely to find James Grant especially rewarding.

James Grant was a Scottish novelist and journalist born in Edinburgh in 1822, and his life was shaped by both literary ambition and a deep fascination with military history and adventure. After early struggles and a varied career that included journalism, he became one of the most prolific popula...

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