Arts Podcasts

Librivox: Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship, or, the Naval Terror of the Seas by Appleton, Victor show

Librivox: Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship, or, the Naval Terror of the Seas by Appleton, VictorJoin Now to Follow

Tom Swift is an inventor, and these are his adventures. The locale is the little town of Shopton in upstate New York, near Lake Carlopa. While some of Tom's inventions are not well-founded in a scientific sense, others elaborated developments in the news and in popular magazines aimed at young science and invention enthusiasts. Presenting themselves as a forecast of future possibilities, they now and then hit close to the mark. Some predicted inventions that came true include "photo telephones", vertical takeoff aircraft, aerial warships, giant cannons, and "wizard" cameras. However some other devices, such as magnetic silencers for motors, have not appeared yet. -adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline

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Librivox: Leavenworth Case, The by Green, Anna Katharine show

Librivox: Leavenworth Case, The by Green, Anna KatharineJoin Now to Follow

Anna Katharine Green was one of the first female mystery writers to publish under her own name. She was never very successful as an author, but the technical excellence of her books caused several law schools to use The Leavenworth Case as a textbook in some of their classes, as an example of how misleading circumstantial evidence can be.

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Librivox: Favole di Jean de La Fontaine: Libro 01 by La Fontaine, Jean de show

Librivox: Favole di Jean de La Fontaine: Libro 01 by La Fontaine, Jean deJoin Now to Follow

Nei 12 volumi delle "Favole" (1669 - 1693) Jean de La Fontaine rinnovò la tradizione esopica, rappresentando la commedia umana. Quest'opera dimostrò il suo amore per la vita rurale e attraverso animali simbolici ironizzò sulla vita della società dell'epoca. In the 12 volumes/books of "Favole" (1669 - 1693) Jean de La Fontaine renewed Aesop's tradition, representing the human comedy. This demonstrated his love for country life and by symbolic animals he ironized about his current years society's life. (Summary by Paolo Fedi)

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Librivox: Liaisons dangereuses, Les by Laclos, Choderlos de show

Librivox: Liaisons dangereuses, Les by Laclos, Choderlos deJoin Now to Follow

D'amants qu'ils étaient, le Vicomte de Valmont et la Marquise de Merteuil sont restés complices dans leurs projets de liaisons et confidents dans leur correspondance, chacun préservant sa réputation aux yeux du monde : d'homme irrésistible pour l'un, de femme respectable pour l'autre. Ils ont, cette fois-ci, jeté leur dévolu sur la Présidente de Tourvel, jeune femme vertueuse et dévote dont l'époux demeure au loin et Cécile Volanges, adolescente à peine sortie du couvent, promise au Comte de Gercourt, dont s'éprend le Chevalier Danceny. Si, à force de manipulations, leurs projets aboutissent, la première fera la gloire de son vainqueur, la seconde, le déshonneur de son mari lorsque la chose sera rendue publique. Suivons donc le courrier de ces protagonistes, de leurs parents, de leurs amis. Pourrons-nous « ne pas frémir en songeant au malheur que peut causer une seule liaison dangereuse » ?

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Librivox: Big Bow Mystery, The by Zangwill, Israel show

Librivox: Big Bow Mystery, The by Zangwill, IsraelJoin Now to Follow

It's a cold and foggy night in London. A man is horribly murdered in his bedroom, the door locked and bolted on the inside. Scotland Yard is stumped. Yet the seemingly unsolvable case has, as Inspector Grodman says, "one sublimely simple solution" that is revealed in a final chapter full of revelations and a shocking denouement. Detective fiction afficionados will be happy to learn that all the evidence to solve the case is provided. One of the earliest “locked room” mystery stories, The Big Bow Mystery is also a satire of late Victorian society. (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)

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Librivox: Star Hunter by Norton, Andre show

Librivox: Star Hunter by Norton, AndreJoin Now to Follow

"Somewheres on the jungle world of Jumala, there was a man in hiding—a man whose mind had been reconditioned with another's brain pattern and for whom there was a fabulous reward. Star Hunter is a thrill-packed account of that other-worldly game of hide-and-seek between a man who did not know all his own powers and an interstellar safari that sought something no man had a right to find...." (summary from gutenberg etext)

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Librivox: Natural History of Selborne, The by White, Gilbert show

Librivox: Natural History of Selborne, The by White, GilbertJoin Now to Follow

The Reverend Gilbert White was the curate of the village of Selborne, a village in Hampshire, from 1784 to his death in 1793, living most of his life in the village. The book is in the form of a collection of letters to two friends, discussing the natural history of the areas that he knew, and natural history in general. White's intense curiosity and his love for the world about him flow through his simple, straightforward style, and a gentle sense of humour colours many of his anecdotes. (Summary by Peter)

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Librivox: מעמק עכור Out of a Gloomy Valley by יוסף חיים ברנר Brenner, Yosef Haim show

Librivox: מעמק עכור Out of a Gloomy Valley by יוסף חיים ברנר Brenner, Yosef HaimJoin Now to Follow

Yosef Haim Brenner (1881-1921) was a Ukrainian-born Hebrew-language author, one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature. Born to a poor family, Brenner grew up in grinding povery. Brenner immigrated to Palestine (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in 1909. He worked as a farmer, eager to put his Zionist idelogy into practice. Later he devoted himself to literature and teaching at the Gymnasia Herzliya in Tel Aviv. He was murdered in southern Tel Aviv in May 1921 in the course of the anti-Jewish Arab riots known as the "massacres of 1921". Brenner was very much an "experimental" writer, both in his use of language and in literary form. With Modern Hebrew still in its infancy, Brenner improvised with an intruiging mixture of Hebrew, Aramaic, Yiddish, English and Arabic. In his attempt to portray life realistically, his work is full of emotive punctuation and ellipses. Out Of A Gloomy Valley was his first book pulished in Warsaw 1900. It is a collection of 6 short stories about Jewish life in the diaspora. (Summary by Wikipedia and Omri Lernau)

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Librivox: Bible (KJV) Apocrypha/Deuterocanon:  Additions to Daniel by King James Version show

Librivox: Bible (KJV) Apocrypha/Deuterocanon: Additions to Daniel by King James VersionJoin Now to Follow

The Additions to Daniel comprise three chapters not found in the Hebrew/Aramaic text of Daniel. The text of these chapters is found in the Greek Septuagint and in the earlier Old Greek translation. They are accepted as canonical and translated as such in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Bibles. They are listed in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England. However, most Protestant versions exclude these passages as apocryphal, retaining only the text available today in the Hebrew/Aramaic manuscripts. The additions are: * The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children : after Daniel 3:23, incorporates the Fiery Furnace episode. * Susanna and the Elders : before Daniel 1:1, a prologue in early Greek manuscripts; chapter 13 in the Vulgate. * Bel and the Dragon : after Daniel 12:13 in Greek, an epilogue; chapter 14 in the Vulgate. Bel and the Dragon is the supposed story of Daniel and his struggle with Cyrus King of Persia and his idolatrous people. It is considered a deuterocanonical book by some Christians and Apocryphal by others. The story covers two events, the reckoning of the falsity of Bel (a Babylonian idol) and a Dragon whom the Babylonians worshiped; along with Daniel’s being thrown in a lion’s den, and his deliverance. The History of The Destruction of Bel and the Dragon is read from the Holy Bible, King James Version 1611 which includes the Apocrypha. (Summary from Wikipedia and by David Shamp)

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