Excerpt: Chapter 1. The experience of great officials who have laid down their dignities before death, or have had the philosophic mind to review themselves while still wielding the deputy sceptre, teaches them that in the exercise of authority over men an eccentric behaviour in trifles has most exposed them to hostile criticism and gone farthest to jeopardize their popularity. It is their Achilles? heel; the place where their mother Nature holds them as she dips them in our waters....

volunteers bring you nine different readings of Clement C. Moore's 'Twas the Night Before Christmas , a weekly poetry project. (Summary by Annie Coleman)...

Poetry, Holiday

Excerpt: The Life of Henry the Fifth; Enter Prologue. O For a Muse of Fire, that would ascend The brightest Heaven of Inuention: A Kingdome for a Stage, Princes to Act, And Monarchs to behold the swelling Scene. Then should the Warlike Harry, like himselfe, Assume the Port of Mars, and at his heeles (Leasht in, like Hounds) should Famine, Sword, and Fire Crouch for employment. But pardon, Gentles all: The flat unraysed Spirits, that hath dar?d, On this unworthy Scaffold, to bring forth So great an Object. Can this Cock- Pit hold The vastie fields of France? Or may we cramme Within this Woodden O, the very Caskes That did affright the Ayre at Agincourt? O pardon: since a crooked Figure may Attest in little place a Million, And let us, Cyphers to this great Accompt, On your imaginarie Forces worke. Suppose within the Girdle of these Walls Are now confin?d two mightie Monarchies, Whose high, up- reared, and abutting Fronts, The perillous narrow Ocean parts asunder. Peece out our imperfections with your thoughts: Into a thousand parts divide one Man, And make imaginarie Puissance. Thinke when we talke of Horses, that you see them Printi...

Table of Contents: The Life of Henry the Fift, 1 -- Actus Primus. Scoena Prima., 1 -- Actus Secundus., 23 -- Actus Tertius., 39 -- Actus Quartus., 55 -- Actus Quintus., 63...

One of the great literary tragedies of all time, The Hunchback of Notre Dame features some of the most well-known characters in all of fiction - Quasimodo, the hideously deformed bellringer of Notre-Dame de Paris, his master the evil priest Claude Frollo, and Esmeralda, the beautiful gypsy condemned for a crime she did not commit. (Summary by Mark Nelson)...

Fiction

volunteers bring you 20 different recordings of A Word Is Dead, by Emily Dickinson. This was the weekly poetry for the week of July 06, 2008.

Poetry

The Princess and the Goblin is an enthralling fantasy tale written by George MacDonald. Her nurse Lootie raises the princess Irene in a house on a mountain, it is here that she meets her mysterious great-great-grandmother, and her friend the minor boy Curdie. Things are peaceful for Irene until the hideous race of goblins that live beneath the mountain start planning something big… Through his writing George MacDonald has influenced such writers as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. (Summary by Lizzie Driver)...

Fantasy

Introduction: The Dolliver Romance. In ?The Dolliver Romance,? only three chapters of which the author lived to complete, we get an intimation as to what would have been the ultimate form given to that romance founded on the Elixir of Life, for which ?Septimius Felton? was the preliminary study. Having abandoned this study, and apparently forsaken the whole scheme in 1862, Hawthorne was moved to renew his meditation upon it in the following year; and as the plan of the romance had now seemingly developed to his satisfaction, he listened to the publisher?s proposal that it should begin its course as a serial story in the ?Atlantic Monthly? for January, 1864--the first instance in which he had attempted such a mode of publication....

Contents INTRODUCTORY NOTE ................................................................................................................ 4 A SCENE FROM THE DOLLIVER ROMANCE ......................................................................... 7 ANOTHER SCENE FROM THE DOLLIVER ROMANCE...................................................... 21 ANOTHER FRAGMENT OF THE DOLLIVER ROMANCE................................................... 30...

Born in 1862 and died in 1910, O. Henry’s birth name is William Sydney Porter; however, he adopted the pen name O. Henry while in prison. He published 10 collections and over 600 short stories during his lifetime.The Four Million is the second book written by O. Henry while he served time for embezzlement in a penitentiary in Ohio. The book is a series of short stories which take place in New York City in the early years of the 20th century and are representative of the surprise endings that popularized O. Henry’s work. They also capture his use of coincidence or chance to create humor in the story. O Henry wrote about ordinary people in everyday circumstances. He is quoted as once saying, “There are stories in everything. I’ve got some of my best yarns from park benches, lampposts and newspaper stands.”I hope you enjoy the following readings as much as I enjoyed recording them.(Summary by Marian Brown)...

Short stories

Excerpt: The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida; The Prologue -- In Troy there lyes the Scene: From Iles of Greece The Princes Orgillous, their high blood chaf?d Have to the Port of Athens sent their shippes Fraught with the ministers and instruments Of cruell Warre: Sixty and nine that wore Their Crownets Regall, from th? Athenian bay Put forth toward Phrygia, and their vow is made To ransacke Troy, within whose strong emures The rauish?d Helen, Menelaus Queene, With wanton Paris sleepes, and that?s the Quarrell. To Tenedos they come, And the deepe- drawing Barke do there disgorge Their warlike frautage: now on Dardan Plaines The fresh and yet unbruised Greekes do pitch Their brave Pavillions. Priams six- gated City, Dardan and Timbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien, And Antenoridus with massie Staples And corresponsive and fulfilling Bolts Stirre up the Sonnes of Troy. Now Expectation tickling skittish spirits, On one and other side, Troian and Greeke, Sets all on hazard. And hither am I come, A Prologue arm?d, but not in confidence Of Authors pen, or Actors voyce; but suited In like conditions, as our Argument; To tell you (faire Beholder...

Table of Contents: The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida, 1 -- The Prologue., 1 -- Actus Primus. Scoena Prima., 2

Excerpt: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.

The Prisoner of Zenda tells the story of Rudolf Rassendyll, an English gentleman on holiday in Ruritania, a country not a thousand miles from Bavaria. There, by reason of his resemblance to the King of Ruritania he becomes involved in saving the King’s Life and his Throne from the King’s dastardly brother and his allies. Woods, moated castles, pomp, swordplay, gallantry, villainy and a beautiful princess. What story could ask for more? Sir Anthony Hope-Hawkins, A moderately successful barrister and novelist, published 'The Prisoner of Zenda' in 1894. Since then it has never been out of print and has spawned plays, operettas, musicals, several films and TV series. He subsequently wrote other novels, but none achieved similar success except perhaps ‘Rupert of Hentzau’, a sequel to the ‘Prisoner’. (Summary by Andy Minter)...

Adventure

Excerpt: At sunrise on a first of April there appeared, suddenly as Manco Capac at the lake Titicaca, a man in cream-colors, at the water-side in the city of St. Louis. His cheek was fair, his chin downy, his hair flaxen, his hat a white fur one, with a long fleecy nap. He had neither trunk, valise, carpet-bag, nor parcel. No porter followed him. He was unaccompanied by friends. From the shrugged shoulders, titters, whispers, wonderings of the crowd, it was plain that he was, in the extremest sense of the word, a stranger....

Excerpt: The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac, translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley.

David Copperfield or The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery was first published in 1850. Like all except five of his works, it originally appeared in serial form. Many elements within the novel follow events in Dickens' own life, and it is probably the most autobiographical of all of his novels. It is also Dickens' favorite child. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia)...

Fiction, Literature

Excerpt: Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas by Herman Melville.

A classic tale of what comes to those whose hearts are hard. In a series of ghostly visits, Scrooge visits his happy past, sees the difficulties of the present, views a bleak future, and in the end amends his mean ways. (Summary written by Kristen McQuillin)...

Fantasy, Holiday

A collection of King Arthur's adventures, from his ascent to King of Britain to his death. This book includes some of the crucial Arthurian legends about Sir Lancelot, the Knights of the Round Table, Queen Guinevere, and the search for the Holy Grail. (Summary by Robin Cotter)...

Adventure, Fantasy, Myths/Legends

White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a compilation published in 1918 by The MacMillan Company, NY (USA) and Heinemann (UK). It contains these 7 works: - White Nights - Notes from the Underground - A Faint Heart - A Christmas Tree and a Wedding - Polzunkov - A Little Hero - Mr. Prohartchin...

Short stories

I sing the Song of Hiawatha, Brave of heart and strong of arm. Daughter's son of old Nokomis, Fathered by the harsh West Wind. With its regular, beating rhythm, the Song of Hiawatha has often been parodied, but in truth, it is a powerful, emotional epic; a hero's life, his loves and suffering. The legends and traditions of the North American Indian swirl together through the tale like a mountain stream, tumbling white over the rocks, and caressing the mossy tree roots. (Summary by Peter Yearsley) [introduction by Woodrow Morris]...

Poetry

Emily Dickinson has come to be regarded as one of the quintessential poets of 19th century America. A very private poet with a very quiet and reclusive life, her poetry was published posthumously and immediately found a wide audience. While she echoed the romantic natural themes of her times, her style was much more free and irregular, causing many to criticize her and editors to correct her. In the early 20th century, when poetic style had become much looser, new audiences learned to appreciate her work. Here collected are many of her most contemplative, most rebellious, and dark works, expressing her frustrations with the behavioral confines of her times, and the confines of being human and unknowing of eternity. (Summary by Becky Miller)...

Poetry