Showing results by publisher "Dreamscape Media, LLC" in Classics

First published in 1911, The Innocence of Father Brown contains stories involving one of the greatest characters in the history of detective fiction: Father Brown. He is a Roman Catholic priest who has an uncanny insight into human evil. Rather than the large serial villains in, for example, Sherlock Holmes stories, the mysteries Father Brown solved were more local murders by small-town crooks, narrowing the suspect list down to those in the area of the crime.

The Metamorphosis is a story that follows the life of Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman. The story begins when one morning Gregor wakes to find himself transformed into a large insectlike creature. His family and colleagues have growing concern at his absence from work but, upon checking on him, are horrified by his grotesque appearance. The story then follows Gregor's thought process, since the family can no longer understand his language.

Charles Dickens' classic story, A Tale of Two Cities, is set before and during the French Revolution. The people are divided not only by class but by war. It shows the cruelty shown by both sides of French society toward one another and compares these acts to those happening in London in the same time period. Listeners are sure to enjoy this timeless narrative.

At Baskerville Hall on the grim moors of Devonshire, a legendary curse has apparently claimed one more victim. Sir Charles Baskerville has been found dead. There are no signs of violence, but his face is hideously distorted with terror. Years earlier, a houndlike beast with blazing eyes and dripping jaws was reported having torn out Hugo Baskerville's throat. Is Sir Henry Baskerville, younger heir to the estate, now in danger?

Chills race up and down young solicitor Jonathan Harker's spine as he enters the eerie castle of a Transylvanian count. His host, Count Dracula, is a curious creature who becomes enamored with the photograph of Harker's fiancée, Mina. Dracula decides he must find the enchanting Mina and have her as his own.

Eager science student Victor Frankenstein uses body parts of the dead to bring a creature to life. Although initially excited that his experiment is a success, Frankenstein becomes horrified at the grotesque being that stands before him and flees. Angered by the rejection, the monster retaliates by taking the lives of those dearest to Frankenstein. The decision to play God torments both Frankenstein and the monster he created until the end of their days.

Eighteen-year-old Henry Fleming is a private in the Union Army's 304th New York Regiment. Having enlisted despite his mother's protest, Henry internally questions if his bravery will hold true in the face of battle. Determining that all hope is lost during his regiment's first skirmish, Henry flees in the midst of a bleak and bloody situation. However, as he reaches the rear of the army, he learns that the Union has actually won the battle.

Unsatisfied with the expectations of Creole society and unhappy with her family life, Edna Pontellier begins to fall in love with the dapper Robert Lebrun. Lebrun's flirtations, along with the lifestyle of renowned musician Mademoiselle Reisz, rejuvenates Edna's sense of freedom and independence. However, an affair with the womanizer Alcee Arobin provides Edna with a taste of the danger that comes with living outside of social convention.

While the conflict over slavery was a factor in the Civil War, the abolition of slavery did not become a stated objective until President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect on January 1, 1863. Freeing the slaves held in the still Confederate controlled states, it is heralded as one of America's most significant documents.

Following the death of her father, Isabel Archer leaves the comforts of Albany, New York, to stay with her aunt, Lydia Touchett, at her London estate. There she meets Lydia's rich husband, David; her cousin, Ralph; and the Touchetts' proud neighbor, Lord Warburton. Soon, too, come marriage proposals from Lord Warburton and Caspar Goodwood, the son of a wealthy mill owner. Although Isabel declines both offers, she eventually gives her hand to Gilbert Osmond, an American expat in Florence.

In 1871 Utah, young Jane Withersteen is courted by Elder Tull, the leader of her polygamous Mormon church. When Jane refuses, the local Mormons persecute her. Meanwhile, Jane's friend, Bern Venters, is captured by Tull's posse and faces a harsh sentence. Jane defends him, causing even more friction with the Mormon populace.

Sleepy Hollow, a supposedly haunted glen on the outskirts of Tarry Town, is home to a particularly ghoulish fiend - the Headless Horseman - who is said to be the specter of a fallen soldier. Ichabod Crane, a schoolmaster from Connecticut, competes with local hero Abraham 'Brom Bones' Van Brunt for the affections of the young, beautiful, and wealthy Katrina Van Tassel.

Stories include: "The Raven"; "Hop-Frog"; "The Black Cat"; "The Cask of Amontillado"; "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"; "The Fall of the House of Usher"; "The Gold-Bug"; "The Masque of the Red Death"; "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"; "The Purloined Letter"; "The Pit and the Pendulum"; and "The Tell-Tale Heart".

Jurgis Rudkus, an impoverished Lithuanian immigrant, takes a lowly job at Brown's slaughterhouse to support his young wife and their relatives. Once admiring America for its potential, Rudkus has found opportunities to be too far out of his reach. After being evicted, Rudkus is living in a slum and deeply in debt - unable to support his family. As he attempts to make ends meet, the oppressive working conditions and crippling poverty begin to take a toll on Rudkus and his family.

Major Carteret is the white owner of the biggest newspaper in Wellington, a racially segregated city in the post-Civil War South. Carteret, along with other powerful white men in Wellington, are outraged that an editorial published the town's black newspaper has questioned the justification for lynchings.

First published in 1853 amidst rumors that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with one of his slaves, Clotel is a fictional chronicle of one such child. After Jefferson's death, his mistress and her two daughters are auctioned. One daughter, Clotel, is purchased by a white man from Virginia who impregnates her. Despite the promise of marriage, Clotel is instead sold to another man and separated from her daughter. After escaping from the slave dealer, Clotel returnss to Virginia to reunite with her daughter - now a slave in her father's house.

r the death of his parents, Jim was sent to live with his grandparents in Black Hawk Nebraska. There he befriended Antonia, the daughter of Bohemian immigrants. Years later, Jim, now a successful lawyer in New York, returns to his childhood home and Antonia. Jim's love for Antonia has endured, much as she herself has endured tragic circumstances.

Alexandra Bergsons, the daughter of Swedish immigrants, inherits her family's ailing farm in Hanover, Nebraska upon the death of her father. Over the years, she turns the farm into a successful enterprise. However, success has not brought peace, as passion and love intervene.

Rudyard Kipling's thrilling science fiction novella follows the exploits of an intercontinental mail dirigible battling foul weather. Meanwhile, a planet-wide Aerial Board of Control enforces a rigid system of command and control in the skies and in world affairs, too.

Set in the 1870s, Edith Wharton examines the American elite culture on the East Coast. Newland Archer is a lawyer and heir to one of New York City's most prominent families. He is arraigned to be married to May Welland. Newland is pleased with the prospect, until he meets Countess Ellen Olenska, May's older cousin. Suddenly, Newland begins to doubt his arranged marriage and society's shallow rules as his attraction to Ellen increases.