by Hugh Walpole. Introduction by Colin Heston.

A single blow. A single death. A lifetime of consequences.

On a misty November afternoon near Cambridge, Olva Dune kills a fellow undergraduate in a moment of long-suppressed fury. The act is sudden, irrevocable, and witnessed by no one. Yet standing over the body, Olva experiences something far more disturbing than fear or remorse: the overwhelming certainty that he is no longer alone.

As suspicion slowly gathers around the unsolved crime, Olva returns to the routines of college life carrying a secret that separates him from everyone around him. Friendship, ambition, and a growing love for the brilliant Margaret Craven seem to offer escape, but an unseen presence pursues him with relentless patience, demanding truth, sacrifice, and surrender.

Set against the atmospheric backdrop of Edwardian Cambridge, The Prelude to Adventure is a haunting psychological novel that explores guilt, conscience, faith, and redemption. Decades before such themes became staples of modern literary fiction, Hugh Walpole crafted an unforgettable portrait of a man forced to choose between the life he desires and the truth he cannot escape.

Dark, compelling, and profoundly moving, this neglected classic deserves its place beside the great novels of moral conflict and spiritual awakening.

"A remarkable psychological study of crime, conscience, and the search for grace."

This edition includes a new introduction by Colin Heston and presents Walpole's classic novel in a carefully modernized text for contemporary readers.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 204p.

by Hugh Walpole. Introduction by Colin Heston.

A young woman’s search for freedom leads her into a world where faith, love, and human loyalty become their own forms of captivity.

After the sudden death of her harsh and miserly clergyman father, nineteen-year-old Maggie Cardinal leaves the lonely West Country village she has always known and journeys to London to live with two deeply religious aunts. There she is drawn into the orbit of the Warlocks, leaders of a fervent sect convinced that the Second Coming of Christ is near at hand.

As Maggie struggles to find her place in an unfamiliar world, she becomes entangled in powerful emotional and spiritual conflicts. The Warlock community offers belonging and purpose, yet demands unquestioning devotion. Her growing love for Martin Warlock, the troubled and self-destructive son of the sect’s revered leader, forces her to confront difficult questions about faith, independence, sacrifice, and the price of personal happiness.

First published in 1920, The Captives is one of Hugh Walpole’s most compelling psychological novels. Combining vivid characterization, emotional intensity, and penetrating insight into the nature of belief, Walpole explores how people become prisoners not only of institutions and doctrines, but also of love, family, memory, and their own deepest desires.

This new Read-Me.Org edition presents a carefully corrected and modernized text, preserving the full power of Walpole’s original masterpiece for contemporary readers.

Perfect for readers of E.M. Forster, Arnold Bennett, George Gissing, and early twentieth-century literary fiction exploring religion, identity, and the struggle for personal freedom.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 394p.

by Hugh Walpole. Introduction by Colin Heston.

A single blow. A single death. A lifetime of consequences.

On a misty November afternoon near Cambridge, Olva Dune kills a fellow undergraduate in a moment of long-suppressed fury. The act is sudden, irrevocable, and witnessed by no one. Yet standing over the body, Olva experiences something far more disturbing than fear or remorse: the overwhelming certainty that he is no longer alone.

As suspicion slowly gathers around the unsolved crime, Olva returns to the routines of college life carrying a secret that separates him from everyone around him. Friendship, ambition, and a growing love for the brilliant Margaret Craven seem to offer escape, but an unseen presence pursues him with relentless patience, demanding truth, sacrifice, and surrender.

Set against the atmospheric backdrop of Edwardian Cambridge, The Prelude to Adventure is a haunting psychological novel that explores guilt, conscience, faith, and redemption. Decades before such themes became staples of modern literary fiction, Hugh Walpole crafted an unforgettable portrait of a man forced to choose between the life he desires and the truth he cannot escape.

Dark, compelling, and profoundly moving, this neglected classic deserves its place beside the great novels of moral conflict and spiritual awakening.

"A remarkable psychological study of crime, conscience, and the search for grace."

This edition includes a new introduction by Colin Heston and presents Walpole's classic novel in a carefully modernized text for contemporary readers.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 180p.

by Hugh Walpole. Introduction by Colin Heston.

A wild man, a stolen valley, and the love that outlasted everything.

In 1730, Francis Herries — reckless, restless, and already half a scandal — abandons his comfortable Yorkshire life and drags his wife, his mistress, and his children into the wilds of Borrowdale, a Cumberland valley whose people want nothing to do with outsiders. They call him "Rogue," and they are not wrong. He is cruel when he shouldn't be, unfaithful when it costs him everything, and incapable of being tamed by property, propriety, or the good opinion of his neighbors.

He is also unforgettable — and so is the country that swallows him whole.

Across four decades of storms both domestic and historical, Rogue Herries follows Francis's turbulent household: his son David, whose steadier heart anchors the family through scandal and rebellion; the Jacobite rising of 1745, when terror reaches the gates of Carlisle; and above all Francis's decades-long, never-quite-requited obsession with Mirabell Starr, the gypsy girl he first meets as a child and cannot stop pursuing for the rest of his life.

Hugh Walpole knew this ground before he wrote a word of it — he lived within sight of these fells for years — and it shows. Critics and readers have agreed for nearly a century that the true hero of this novel may be the Lake District itself: its weather, its light, its way of shutting a valley off from the world and daring you to belong to it.

First published in 1930, Rogue Herries became Walpole's best-selling and most enduring novel, the foundation of his celebrated four-volume Herries Chronicle, and the book by which he is still best remembered today.

This Read-Me.Org Classic Reprint edition features:

• A newly corrected and reformatted text of the original 1930 American edition

• A new critical introduction by Colin Heston, covering Walpole's life, the novel's origins, and its place in literary history

• The original Herries family tree and map of Borrowdale, reproduced from the first edition

• Clean, modern formatting for today's readers

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 389p.