Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Social Sciences

Frost portrays leaving childhood in this poem read by award-winning audiobook narrator Mike Vendetti. "In a Vale" appears in Frost's first book of poetry, A Boy's Will.

This essay was written in 1891 after Wilde had become enamored of concepts expressive of a liberal socialism. In his view, the aim of socialism should be "to try to reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible". Typically, Wilde stresses the vital role played by art and the imperative significance of the artist.

The first four stories were first published as a collection in 1891. The final story, "The Portrait of Mr W. H.", originally published separately in 1889, was later added to an expanded collection. All the stories deal with personal relationships and their inevitable influence on the course of a person's life.

Bernard Shaw based his "religious pantomime" Androcles and the Lion on the ancient fable of the runaway slave who pulls a painful thorn from a lion's paw, thereby making a lifelong friend. This tale of a puny Greek tailor triumphing over the Roman emperor is, as always with Shaw, a commentary on the politics of his time, with the emperor standing in for the British government and, indeed, all repressive regimes.

A who-done-it mystery from Anna Katharine Green written in 1917 begins immediately with a murder by Native American arrow within a museum. Who is the young girl who is murdered, and why is she alone? No one knows. Who is the woman right next to her? Ms. Green develops her story and characters, and the intrigue builds. Is the murderer a man or woman?

Arthur C. Benson tackles many aspects of fear head-on and provides fascinating insight into the root causes of fear and how we can overcome them.

If easy payment plans were to be really efficient, patrons' lifetimes had to be extended!

We travel with The Hawk, or Carl Ericson, son of Norwegian immigrants, born at the end of the 19th century, through the first three adventurous periods of the young man's life. We see him as an adventurous boy, running away with Gertie Cowels, the girl that lives in the big house in the better part of town, only to be rescued by Bone Stillman, a backwoods philosopher and influence on Carl. He leaves his childhood, Gertie and Joralemon behind, for a short attempt at higher education, then to pursue the hobo life, a Bowery bartender, an engineer in Panama, and an aviator.

Volume Seven of Alexander' Dumas' catalogue of crime features three colourful historical figures. Albanian tyrant Ali Pacha (or Pasha) was a brigand who later became an operative of the Ottoman empire. After extending his territory to include large areas of Greece and Macedonia, and aspiring to become an independent leader, he attracted the enmity of the Sultan and was declared a rebel. He died in battle at the age of 80.

Desert Gold is a western romance written by Zane Grey. Listen to learn more.

Imagine a machine that would end all wars and bloodshed. A machine that can create a virtual world so real, so complete, where all conflicts are waged, but where no one ever dies or gets hurt. The dueling machine is just that...until a madman dictator of a small empire finds a way to bend virtual reality to his will - and uses the dueling machine to take over the galaxy! It's up to the machine's creator and a rather inept Star Watchman to discover the plan and stop it.

By the end of the 21st century, a deep-state human-systems organization, the Psychotechnic Institute, has begun melding neuroscience and psychoanalytics to create the foundation for generations of more peaceful, more powerful, more "sensitive" human beings. In Poul Anderson's 1954 science-fiction thriller, The Sensitive Man, one such human, Simon Dalgetty, is on the trail of brutal men who kidnapped Michael Tighe, keeper of the keys to the Institute's secrets, and, thus, to the fate of world order.

In Celebrated Crimes [eight volumes: this version, 1895], Dumas the elder, recognised master of historical fiction (The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers) turns to historical fact. In this volume: Joan of Naples. The much-married queen does what she must to survive ‘the violence and treachery of this barbarous age’. ‘An angel soiled by crime, she lied like Satan himself .’ The Man in The Iron Mask (an essay). How much of the well-known story is fact, and how much fiction?

Unfortunately, there was only one thing he could bring back from the wonderful future… and though he didn't want to…nevertheless he did...

Some writers of science fiction turn out to be reasonably accurate prognosticators of the future. In Mack Reynolds’ Mercenary, the elite 1 percent control the wealth of the nation and thus the nation. War as we know it has been eliminated, and disputes between nations, unions, and corporations are settled on a battlefield by mercenary soldiers with pre-1900 weapons. These battles are televised, and the combatants become heroes, not unlike NFL players. Meet Joe Mauser, one of the best of the best; a tactician and gun for hire.

In this warm and fanciful story of a Connecticut farmer, Marion Zimmer Bradley has caught some of the glory that is man's love for man - no matter who he is nor whence he's from.

A gun is an interesting weapon; it can be hired, of course, and naturally doesn't care who hires it. Something much the same can be said of the gunman, too....

Making his way to a tryst with his "dark lady" near the royal palace the young playwright William Shakespeare encounters a mysterious woman in a cloak. Mistaking her for his lady friend, he accosts her in a familiar fashion, only to discover, to his dismay, that she is in fact the queen. He overcomes his initial discomfort, and takes advantage of the situation to make a petition for royal support to establish a national theatre.

A criminal plot, a kidnapped youth, and a sinister intelligence on an alien world. Out-Hunter Ras Hume has a plan to steal a fortune with a shadowy underworld character, but the plot goes awry on the supposedly open world of Jumala, which is not as open as it seemed. A classic science fiction novella by sci-fi master Andre Norton.

Eve's Diary - Complete, written by the incomparable Mark Twain, was first published in 1905 in the Christmas edition of Harper's Bazaar. This charming short story is told from both Adam and Eve's point of view as they traverse their new world from the Garden through to the Fall and is said to be a love letter to his late wife Olivia Langdon Clemens who passed a year before it's publication.