Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

A rich widow or two. An owner of 1000 acres of fine land. An heiress to the 1000 acres. Nefarious visitors of various sorts after the land, jewels, or whatever else they can get. Meddlers and neighbors. Faithful retainers and stalwart protectors. Comedy abounds. - Summary by ToddHWCast list:Joshua Wicks, owner of "close onto 1,000 acres": Wayne CookeMr. Peter Schultz, sometimes vendor of sausages: Greg GiordanoMr. Barry Bland, an Englishman possessed of a shady reputation and a talkative daughter: Andrew JamesCount de Musset, after the 1,000 acres and Arvilla Wicks: RémiArchie Barton, a young...

Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems. She is famous for writing Goblin Market and Remember, and the words of the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter.Rossetti was educated at home by her mother and father, who had her study religious works, classics, fairy tales and novels. Rossetti delighted in the works of Keats, Scott, Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis. The influence of the work of Dante Alighieri, Petrarch and other Italian writers filled the home and would have a deep impact on Rossetti's later writing. Their ...

This second collection of the correspondence of Oscar Wilde includes letters written when the Irish playwright was at the height of his success. Wilde defends several of his works from criticism and even censorship, and writes "prose poems" to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, that will eventually be read out in court. The letters, some of which have been excerpted or redacted, are sourced from auction catalogues, newspapers, biographies, and other texts in the public domain. For a complete collection of Wilde's letters, please see "The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde," (2000) edited by Merlin ...

Archibald Lampman was a Canadian poet. "He has been described as 'the Canadian Keats;' and he is perhaps the most outstanding exponent of the Canadian school of nature poets." The Canadian Encyclopedia says that he is "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in English."Lampman is classed as one of Canada's Confederation Poets, a group which also includes Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Duncan Campbell Scott.(Summary by Wikipedia)

"Some delights of the ancient town of Stratford-upon-Avon and the country round about, together with a sketch of the life of Mr. William Shakespeare, in which many things both new and entertaining are to be found...and wherein certain fanatics are handsomely confuted." "Certain fanatics" refers to insistent doubters of Shakespeare's authorship of the great literary works attributed to him. The quoted statement appears before the Preface. The book, which was published in 1913, charmingly describes the area's structures, history, and lore. ~ Lee Smalley

Wharton's 1917 novella Summer, like her more famous work Ethan Frome, is set in a very small rural New England town. Charity Royall longs to escape the claustrophobic confines of North Dormer and the inappropriate advances of her guardian Mr. Royall, who adopted her as a child from the nearby Mountain community. Hope arrives in the form of city boy Lucius Harney, who has come to research the architecture of the region; but will his presence in Charity's life mean her salvation - or her undoing? (Introduction by Elizabeth Klett)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 19 recordings of Summer by Marietta Holley..This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 13, 2020. ------Another tribute to summer. - Summary by David Lawrence

Walter Crane (1845 - 1915) was a renowned artist and the illustrator of numerous books, among them "The Happy Prince and Other Stories" by Oscar Wilde and Edmund Spenser's "Faerie Queene" as well as many collections of Fairy Stories. He is considered as one of the most influential and indeed prolific illustrators and creators of children's books. This is a recording of two short books containing one poem each written and beautifully illustrated by Crane, "The Sirens Three" from 1886 (black and white illustrations in the second section of the book) and "Queen Summer" from 1891 (with coloured ...

The story is one of only two novels by Wharton to be set in New England. The novel details the sexual awakening of its protagonist, Charity Royall, and shares many plot similarities with Wharton's better known novel, Ethan Frome. Only moderately well-received when originally published, Summer has had a resurgence in critical popularity since the 1960's. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was an English flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He won several victories, including the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during which he was killed. These are the letters that he wrote to Lady Hamilton, with whom he was having a notorious affair until his death in 1805. (Summary by Wikipedia)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 17 recordings of A Winter Evening by Alexander Pushkin, translated by Martha Dickinson Bianchi.This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for February 13, 2022.-----Pushkin is a well-known Russian author and poet. Bianchi, the translator, was the niece of Emily Dickinson and is best known as an editor of Dickinson's poems. - Summary by TriciaG

These are the letters of John Keats, as written to family, close friends and others during his brief, eventful years as an artist. (However, the editor chose to exclude love letters to Fanny Brawne, respecting their private nature.) The celebrated Keats letters were written between 1816–1820, and include those colorful entries penned during his 44-day tour with Charles Brown as they rambled through England, Ireland and Scotland. Also included are the famous, lengthy "journal letters," written to his brother George and sister-in-law in America. Not only a poetic genius, Keats shines in ...

“Being the Familiar Correspondence of Vincent Van Gogh ... [Van Gogh's] art was appreciated during his life only by a very few and it is but within recent years that it has found admirers who in many cases have been most ardently enthusiastic. Of the following letters, some were addressed to his brother and the remainder to his friend E. Bernard. (Summary from Preface)

Abigail Adams lived the American Revolution as the wife of one of its central figures--John Adams. Her family correspondence, published along with a memoir by her grandson, Charles Francis Adams, brings that era into eloquent focus. What was it like to hear the cannon's roar from your window? to face pestilence? food shortages? rampant inflation? devalued coinage? to raise four children alone--and earn the money to keep your household afloat, while your husband was engaged in politics and diplomacy miles and oceans away . . . for years at a time? It's all there in her private letters, letters ...

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was an English flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He won several victories, including the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during which he was killed. These are the letters that he wrote to Lady Hamilton, with whom he was having a notorious affair until his death in 1805. (Summary by Wikipedia)

James Hall was a soldier, lawyer, circuit judge, newspaper editor, historian, and author of fiction. He was also the first publisher of a literary magazine west of Pittsburgh. Hall originally wrote some of the letters in this collection in 1820, while voyaging by keelboat down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Shawneetown, Illinois, where he established a law practice. He appears to have revised the 1820 letters and added more prior to publication in London in 1828. Much more than a description of his travels, the letters include his observations on many subjects, reflecting current affairs ...

A collection of nine letters written by the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, to his teenage son. "Their purpose is the inculcation of love and reverence for the Holy Scriptures, and a delight in their perusal and study." - Summary by Dale Barkley

The extended title of these volumes is 'Inculcating Morality by Entertaining Narratives”, and in the preface the Author indicates she offered them for approval to a friend who required works for girls aged twelve to seventeen that were not “too serious nor too childish....a mirror of truth and nature in which my girls may see themselves without danger to their native simplicity and without checking too harshly their natural curiosity and fancy.”By using examples supposedly from her own experience,“ Mrs Palmerstone” provides her daughter with the moral advice thought necessary to help...

Personal correspondence of Bohemian religious reformer John Huss (Jan Hus) from 1411 when he was exiled from Prague through his death by burning as heretic in 1415 by order of the Council of Constance. These were first published in 1536 by the German Protestant reformer Martin Luther and his introduction is included here. - Summary by Rom Maczka

A series of letters on the early occupation of the colony, the Aborigines, etc addressed by Victorian pioneers to his Excellency Charles Joseph La Trobe Esq. , Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Victoria in response to a circular letter sent by him to a number of early settlers dated 29th July 1853. -It cannot be claimed for these papers that they are infallible records of our early history at every point.( from the preface),The last section ends with lists of Aboriginal words and phrases as were collected by a lady. I'm in 2 minds about these, I respect her desire to keep a record but do ...