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Vintage Novels C – Fiction by Authors Whose Names Start with C

Below are links to free vintage novels, mostly published from the mid-1800s to 1923. They include bestsellers in a range of genres. This page is one of 10 containing links to 300+ novels. Use the Vintage Novels Directory to access the other 9 pages.

Vintage Novels Directory

Authors C

The Grandissimes; a Story of Creole Life

Cable, George Washington (1844-1925)

A lengthy and sustained romance, resuscitating the dead past of New Orleans and its Creole inhabitants as they were (about 1800). Rich in character, various in its changes from tragedy to romance, and from romance to trenchant realism.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

John March, Southerner

Cable, George Washington (1844-1925)

1865-1870s. A story of reconstruction in the South. Scene is Suez, an old town battered by the recent Civil War and now the meeting place of Northern promoters and irreconcilable Southerners. The rapid career of various financial companies, the intrigues, quarrels, fights and the final collapse make a vigorous story.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

The Diary of a Forty-niner

Canfield, Chauncey L., ed. (1843-1909)

1850-52. Straightforward and very realistic narratives of the hardships of the gold-diggers, the beginning and growth of Nevada City, troubles with malefactors, miners’ law, speculations in real estate, travel in the foothills and the Sierra, perils of the desert trail, etc.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

Captain Courtesy

Carpenter, Edward Childs (1872-1950)

1840-47. Old California during the “Bear Flag” war. Scene centers in the mission of San Gabriel Archangel, near Los Angeles. The Mexican Govt attempt to expel American settlers from California and their persecution culminates in murderous raids by the Mexican General Castro upon settlers from the States. In 1847 the Americans, encouraged by the government, organize a revolution.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini

The Code of Victor Jallot

Carpenter, Edward Childs (1872-1950)

1803. Time of the Louisiana purchase, when the city of New Orleans was known as “The Little Paris of the Wilderness”. The transfer of Louisiana to the U.S. was bitterly opposed by the French and Spanish people of the country, whose resentment broke out in conspiracies and intrigues… It is with one such intrigue that the story deals, checked by the hero, a gentleman barber and poet, dancing master and fencing-master…
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there

Audio Book “Adventures”

Audio Book “Looking Glass”

Carroll, Lewis (1832-1898)

A new genre of fairy tale which draws on modern science and all sorts of modern ideas for its materials, and finds its most characteristic expression in droll irrelevance and the fantastic distortion of familiar things. Though written for children, the wit, the fanciful humor, and the subtlety of many of its comic undermeanings, can be appreciated fully only by educated adults.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904

Vintage fiction arranged by authors, names A-B

My Antonia

Audio Book

Cather, Willa Sibert (1873-1947)

The beautiful, simply told story of a Bohemian immigrant girl, related reminiscently by a New York lawyer who had been her playmate. Gives a vivid picture of the pioneer period in Nebraska and leaves the reader with a feeling of the goodness of the earth and of a life lived close to it.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield

Life and Exploits of that Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote de la Mancha

Volume 2

Audio Book Vol 1

Audio Book Vol 2

Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616)

A satire on the romances of chivalry which were the fashion in Cervantes’ day. It lives because of certain universal human qualities exemplified in the characters of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Special Messenger

Chambers, Robert William (1865-1933)

1861-65. Nine romantic episodes in the career of a brave girl who served the Union army as special messenger.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

19th Century U.S. History Books

Stories of Russian Life

Chekov, Anton Pavlovich (1860-1904)

The Wisdom of Father Brown

Audio Book

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith (1874-1936)

More ingenious detective tales in which the little Catholic priest solves mysteries with wonderful ability.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

The Crisis

Churchill, Winston (1871-1947)

The scene is chiefly St. Louis, just before and during the Civil War, and the fierce political movements of the time are personified in a representative set of characters. St. Louis was the meeting-place of the two streams of what may be called the Puritan and Cavalier elements in the national life; and the conflict might be typified there. The story deals with the descendants of the Carvel family who have migrated to Missouri. Lincoln is there, and Grant, Sherman, Lyon and others less prominent. An honest and painstaking attempt to disclose the causes of the struggle.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

The Crossing

Churchill, Winston (1871-1947)

A story of the westward movement, projected on so big a scale that the human elements are somewhat dwarfed. Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark, and Andrew Jackson take part in the action.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
This Winston Churchill was an American author, and is not the same person as the British statesman.

Vintage Novels Directory

Richard Carvel

Churchill, Winston (1871-1947)

1777-79. Life in England and in Maryland during the American Revolution. The autobiographer, supposedly a member of one of the important families of this picturesque colony, takes part in the Revolution, and serves under John Paul Jones in the fight between the Serapis and the Bon Homme Richard. Paul Jones, Horace Walpole and Charles James Fox are prominent, and Washington is introduced, with certain minor personages of the time.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

Clemens, Samuel Langhorne: See Twain, Mark

A Turnpike Lady; Beartown, Vermont, 1768-1796

Cleghorn, Sarah N. (1876-1959)

Rustic life in Vermont.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

Daughters of the Revolution and their Times, 1769-1776. A Historical Romance

Coffin, Charles Carleton (1823-1896)

Outbreak of the Revolution, the state of public feeling, Boston massacre, Tea-Party, battle of Lexington, etc.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

Vintage fiction arranged by authors, names D-E-F

Routledge Rides Alone

Comfort, Will Levington (1878-1932)

Story of a war correspondent’s love for a beautiful Irish girl and his adventures in the Far East during the Russo-Japanese war. Presents graphic and sympathetic pictures of India under British rule.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)

The Crested Seas

Connolly, James Brendan (1868-1957)

Thirteen stories portraying the hardship, peril and romance of the Gloucester fisherman’s life in Newfoundland waters.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)

The Patrol of the Sun Dance Trail

Connor, Ralph (1860-1937)

The Northwest Mounted Police furnish hero and plot, and their post in upper Saskatchewan the setting. The story is the purest stuff of adventure and sentiment, with its Indian encounters, its reflection of the hardships of Scottish newcomers, its depiction of the free and wholesome emotions of pioneers and fighters.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Lord Jim

Audio Book

Conrad, Joseph (1857-1924)

Deals with a man’s life-long attempt to atone for an act of instinctive cowardice. Told by the author’s favorite character, Marlow, who appears also as the chief narrator in Chance, Heart of Darkness, and Youth.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Youth, and Two Other Stories

Audio Book

Conrad, Joseph (1857-1924)

“Youth” is a story of the sea; “Heart of Darkness,” a study of the white man in Africa; “The end of the Tether,” a narrative of an heroic old sea captain who for the sake of a dependent daughter, retains command of his ship after blindness renders him incapable.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Pine and Palm

Conway, Moncure Daniel (1832-1907)

1850s. An examination in detail of the state of things existing in the North and in the South just before the Civil War. A pair of friends at Harvard, Northerner and Southerner, quarrel on the slavery question, and each agrees to reside a year in the other’s country.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

Return; a Story of the Sea Islands in 1739

Cooke, Grace MacGowan and MacGowan, Alice (1858-1947)

Georgia and the savannahs in the time of General Oglethorpe, depicted with a sense of historical atmosphere by two descendants of the patriots who fought for the land. A passionate Charlestown girl is the heroine of the romance, which has considerable character interest.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

Henry St. John, Gentleman of “Flower of Hundreds” in the County of Prince George, Virginia. A Tale of 1774-’75

Cooke, John Esten (1830-1886)

The best of many novels in which this “Virginian of the Virginians” attempted to restore the picturesque bygone times of his country. Scenes of life in Williamsburg, once the Southern Boston (1763-5); the streets and mansions, taverns and theatre, the old courtly society, chivalrous and gentle characters belonging to the territorial families, are all portrayed with an idealizing pen.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

English comics for child pdf

My Lady Pokahontas; a True Relation of Virginia. Writ by Anas Todkill, Puritan and Pilgrim

Cooke, John Esten (1830-1886)

Anas Todkill was one of Smith’s comrades in the struggles with the factions at Jamestown and in the Indian wars on the York and Rappahannock, all of which, together with the romance of Pocahontas, are fully described.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

Steadfast; the Story of a Saint and a Sinner

Cooke, Rose Terry (1827-1892)

Early 1700s. Life and trials of a young minister in Connecticut Valley. A presentation of New England character, founded on the history of the times.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

The Deerslayer; or, The first War-path

Volume 2

Volume 3

Audio Book

Cooper, James Fenimore (1789-1851)

The first of five novels devoted to the career of the great Leather Stocking pioneer, hunter, and Indian fighter, a character possibly suggested by Daniel Boone.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Last of the Mohicans

Audio Book

Cooper, James Fenimore (1789-1851)

The second of the Leather Stocking tales. In addition to Leather Stocking, here known as Hawkeye, the book has a secondary character Uncas, the noble Indian, who perhaps better deserves the title of hero.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

The Spy; a Tale of the Neutral Ground

Audio Book

Cooper, James Fenimore (1789-1851)

1780. A thrilling story of adventure, introducing Washington and other heroes, and showing how the spies aided the national cause by preventing the formation of regiments among the loyalists. The hero, Harvey Birch, is a thorough American, and thoroughly individualized. Cooper located his scenes in a country which he knew by heart.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

Red Badge of Courage

Audio Book

Crane, Stephen (1871-1900)

A short novel devoted to one protracted episode, the battle of Chancellorsville, and to the psychology of a soldier in action. The author’s impressions were absorbed in boyhood from the tales of men who had been in battle.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

A Daughter of New France; with some Account of the Gallant Sieur Cadillac and his Colony on the Detroit

Crowley, Mary Catherine

1687-1735. A brilliant picture of Canada or New France, under Louis XIV, the Regency of Orleans, and the early years of Louis XV. The career of Sieur de Cadillac, messenger to Frontenac from Versailles and later, founder of Detroit. The fruitless siege of Quebec (1690) by Sir William Phips is a graphic episode. Many historical buildings are introduced, and the manner of life, the peculiar customs, and the trading and military usages of Indians and Europeans are vividly delineated; original plans, archives, and historical traditions being carefully studied for the purposes of the book, which was officially adopted as the guide for the pageants celebrating the bicentenary of Detroit in 1901.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)

The Factory Girl: or Gardez la Coeur

Cummings, Ariel Ivers, M.D. (1823-1863)

Dedicated to “the intelligent and highly respectable class of female operatives, in New England”

The Land they Loved

Cummins, Geraldine D (1890-1969)

A leisurely well-written study of prosperous Irish peasants under present day conditions, in both town and country; showing their touching passion for the soil. A mine of first-hand knowledge concerning all manner of things pertaining to the land.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)

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