Audio Books Podcasts
Librivox: Wonderful Adventures of Nils, The by Lagerlöf, SelmaJoin Now to Follow
Selma Lagerlöf was born in Vaermland, Sweden, in 1858 and enjoyed a long and very successful career as a writer, receiving the Nobel-Price in Literature in 1909. She died in Vaermland in 1940. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (Orig. Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige) is a famous work of fiction by Selma Lagerlöf, published in two parts in 1906 and 1907. The background for publication was a commission from the National Teachers Association in 1902 to write a geography reader for the public schools. "She devoted three years to Nature study and to familiarizing herself with animal and bird life. She has sought out hitherto unpublished folklore and legends of the different provinces. These she has ingeniously woven into her story." (From translator Velma Swanston Howard's introduction.) (Summary by Lars Rolander and Wikipedia]
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Librivox: Literary Taste: How to Form It by Bennett, ArnoldJoin Now to Follow
Arnold Bennett describes a method for enjoying literature, and suggests the contents of a comprehensive library. Chapters 1-10 and 14 describe his method for learning to enjoy literature. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 contain detailed lists of the 337 volumes required to complete a comprehensive library of English works. This reading is from the 1913 version at Project Gutenberg, and so does not contain the revisions made by Swinnerton for the 1939 edition, which included authors of the early Twentieth Century. Swinnerton's revisions are available from Wikipedia.(Summary by Timothy Ferguson)
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Librivox: Exercises in Knitting by Mee, CorneliaJoin Now to Follow
Mrs. Mee, her husband, and her sister ran a yarn and needlework import/warehouse business in Bath, England. Her books primarily contain practical everyday items that knit up quickly with the busy homemaker in mind. At this time, published knitting "receipts" did not contain abbreviations and were laborious to use. They were, however, rich in error! Later in her career, due to circumstances of war and the resulting social stress and poverty, many of her knitting books were printed for ladies' charitable societies, which used her knitting "receipts" to clothe the poor mill workers who were out of work due to the American Civil War and the embargo of cotton. In addition to recording the original patterns, LibriVox knitters have also knitted samples of these patterns, displayed at the KntiWiki , and have attempted to condense and clarify the patterns for the enjoyment of modern day knitters. (Summary by Brenda Price)
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Librivox: Жития Святых, т. 04 - декемврий (Zhitiia Sviatykh, v. 04 - December) by Dimitriĭ, Saint Metropolitan of RostovJoin Now to Follow
Жития и похвалы святых подобятся светлостию звездам: якоже бо звезды положением на небеси утвержденны суть, всю же поднебесную просвещают, тыяжде и от Индиан зрятся, ни сокрываются от скифов, землю озаряют, и морю светят, и плавающих корабли управляют: ихже имен аще и не вемы множества ради, обаче светлей доброте их чудимся. Сице и светлость святых, аще и затворены суть мощи их во гробех, но силы их в поднебесней земными пределы не суть определенны: чудимся тех житию, и удивляемся славе, еюже Бог угодившыя Ему прославляет. [St. Symeon Metaphrastes on the Lives of the Saints, 10th century A. D. ENGLISH TRANSLATION: The lives and the eulogies of the Saints resemble, by their luminosity, the stars: for as the stars, firmly studded in the firmament as they are, illume the entire universe, and the same stars are beheld by the Indians, and are not hid from the Scythians, and shed their radiance over the earth and the seas, and show the way to the ships: and even if we know not their names for their multitude’s sake, we as yet admire their brilliant loveliness. So, too, doeth the brilliance of the Saints, even when their relics are shut under a tombstone, yet their miracles in the entire universe are not bound by earthly confines: we admire their lives and wonder at the glory wherewith God glorifieth those who have pleased Him. This succinct description is found as introduction to each of the 12 volumes of the Church Slavonic Lives.]
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Librivox: This Crowded Earth by Bloch, RobertJoin Now to Follow
Robert Bloch (1917 – 1994) was a prolific writer in many genres. As a young man he was encouraged by his mentor H. P. Lovecraft, and was a close friend of Stanley G. Weinbaum. Besides hundreds of short stories and novels he wrote a number of television and film scripts including several for the original Star Trek. In 1959 Bloch wrote the novel Psycho which Alfred Hitchcock adapted to film a year later. He received the Hugo Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and he is a past president of the Mystery Writers of America. Published in Amazing Stories in 1958, This Crowded Earth is a thriller set on an overpopulated Earth of the future. (Summary by Gregg Margarite)
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Librivox: Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, The, Vol. 1 by Sterne, LaurenceJoin Now to Follow
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (or, more briefly, Tristram Shandy ) is a novel by Laurence Sterne. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following over the next 10 years. It was not always held in high esteem by other writers (Samuel Johnson responded that, "Nothing odd can last"), but its bawdy humour was popular with London society, and it has come to be seen as one of the greatest comic novels in English, as well as a forerunner for many modern narrative devices. (Summary from Wikipedia)
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Librivox: Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (version 2) by Leacock, StephenJoin Now to Follow
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is a sequence of stories by Stephen Leacock, first published in 1912. It is generally considered to be one of the most enduring classics of Canadian humorous literature. The fictional setting for these stories is Mariposa, a small town on the shore of Lake Wissanotti. Although drawn from his experiences in Orillia, Ontario, Leacock writes in the introduction: "Mariposa is not a real town. On the contrary, it is about seventy or eighty of them. You may find them all the way from Lake Superior to the sea, with the same square streets and the same maple trees and the same churches and hotels." This work has remained popular for its universal appeal. Many of the characters, though modelled on townspeople of Orillia, are small town archetypes. Their shortcomings and weaknesses are presented in a humorous but affectionate way. (Summary from Wikipedia)
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Librivox: Path of Prosperity, The by Allen, JamesJoin Now to Follow
Summary from The Path of Prosperity: I looked around upon the world, and saw that it was shadowed by sorrow and scorched by the fierce fires of suffering. And I looked for the cause. I looked around, but could not find it; I looked in books, but could not find it; I looked within, and found there both the cause and the self-made nature of that cause. I looked again, and deeper, and found the remedy. I found one Law, the Law of Love; one Life, the Life of adjustment to that Law; one Truth, the truth of a conquered mind and a quiet and obedient heart. And I dreamed of writing a book which should help men and women, whether rich or poor, learned or unlearned, worldly or unworldly, to find within themselves the source of all success, all happiness, all accomplishment, all truth. And the dream remained with me, and at last became substantial; and now I send it forth into the world on its mission of healing and blessedness, knowing that it cannot fail to reach the homes and hearts of those who are waiting and ready to receive it.
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Librivox: Wahlverwandtschaften, Die by Goethe, Johann Wolfgang vonJoin Now to Follow
Eduard, ein reicher Baron, lebt mit seiner Gattin Charlotte zurückgezogen in einem Schloss, das von einem großen Park umgeben ist. In zweiter Ehe haben die beiden Liebenden von einst endlich zueinander gefunden. Glücklich über ihre neue Lebenssituation widmen sie sich vornehmlich dem Garten und der Parkgestaltung. Diese Idylle wird gestört, als Eduard seinen Freund, den Hauptmann, auf das Anwesen einlädt. So lässt auch Charlotte ihre Nichte Ottilie herbeiholen, damit diese ihr Gesellschaft leistet. Bald schon fühlt sich Eduard zu Ottilie und Charlotte zum Hauptmann hingezogen. Eines Nachts schleicht Eduard heimlich durchs Schloss und gerät auf der Suche nach Ottilie - "eine sonderbare Verwechslung ging in seiner Seele vor" - ins Schlafgemach seiner Gemahlin. In seiner Vorstellung ist es jedoch Ottilie, die er in den Armen hält, indes Charlotte das Bild des Hauptmanns vorschwebt. Aus dieser Vereinigung geht ein Kind hervor. Als der Abschied von Ottilie und dem Hauptmann droht, gesteht Eduard Ottilie seine Liebe. Der Hauptmann und Charlotte verständigen sich wortlos, ihrer gemeinsamen Liebe zu entsagen. Eduard hingegen kann seine Gefühle nicht unterdrücken und zieht aus Verzweiflung in den Krieg. Das Kind, welches gleichermaßen Ottilie und dem Hauptmann, nicht aber seinen leiblichen Eltern ähnelt, befindet sich in der Obhut von Ottilie, als Eduard aus dem Krieg zurückkehrt. Eduard bedrängt sie erneut in unbändiger Art. Ottilie versucht auszuweichen, indem sie in einem Kahn über den See zurückrudert. Beim hastigen Einsteigen kentert das Boot jedoch und das Kind ertrinkt. Ottilie beschließt daraufhin, ihrer Liebe zu Eduard zu entsagen. Schließlich zieht sie sich zurück, spricht und isst nicht mehr, bis sie letztlich an Schwäche stirbt. Eduard ist zum Schluss lebensmüde, stirbt aber eines natürlichen Todes. Der Roman ist ein typischer Vertreter der Weimarer Klassik. Goethe greift ein gesellschaftliches Thema auf und verbindet es mit einem naturwissenschaftlichen Gleichnis. Die gesellschaftlichen Zwänge von Sitte und Norm werden den individuellen Empfindungen und Neigungen gegenübergestellt. (Summary by Wikipedia)
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Librivox: Virginian, The by Wister, OwenJoin Now to Follow
Quote: Ostensibly a love story, the novel really revolves around a highly mythologized version of the Johnson County War in 1890's Wyoming ... The novel takes the side of the large ranchers, and depicts the lynchings as frontier justice, meted out by the protagonist, who is a member of a natural aristocracy among men. (from Wikipedia)
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