Showing results by author "Mentor New York" in All Categories

The superb skill and dexterity of D.H. Lawrence, a writer who profoundly influenced the literature of the twentieth century, is very evident in this collection of poems conceived during the years of The Great War. Lawrence, living a semi-nomadic lifestyle in England throughout these years, seized the opportunity to write of events and their effects from an objective but by no means dispassionate perspective. Indeed the passion of Lawrence while attempting to understand the collective motivation of mankind in the name of wartime vengeance is very evident throughout this work, manifesting itself...

Inspector Hanaud is a member of the French Sûreté. He is said to have been the model for Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, as well as the opposite of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. The Affair At The Semiramis Hotel (1917), a novella, is the second Hanaud mystery. Did the robbery/murder really happen or was it the mescal-induced hallucination of the witness? The first novel is At The Villa Rose (1910). The third is The House Of The Arrow (1924) (there are seven through 1949, available at project gutenberg Australia). In 1910, Mason undertook to create a fictional detective as different as...

Sherlock Holmes is involved in a simple case of finding the owner of a battered hat and a dead goose. Or so he thinks. All too soon this hat and duck turn into a first class case of felony and theft of a very precious Blue Carbuncle. A fun and well written tale. (Summary by phil chenevert )

A collection of my favorite short children's stories and rhymes. Each book can be found online at Gutenberg.org if you wish to look at the wonderful pictures while you listen! (Summary by Kara)

Poems from Robert Graves published by the Augustan Books of Poetry. - Summary by KevinS

A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Alice Adams chronicles the attempts of a lower middle class American midwestern family at the turn of the 20th century to climb the social ladder. The eponymous heroine is at the heart of the story, a young woman who wants a better place in society and a better life. As Gerard Previn Meyer has stated, "Apart from being the contribution to social history its author conceived it to be, [Alice Adams] is something more, that something being what has attracted to it so large a public: its portrait of a (despite her faults) 'lovable girl'." (Summary by Jeannie)

Betty Gordon found herself an orphan at age twelve. She became the ward of her uncle, Richard Gordon. She immediately came to love her uncle dearly. Unfortunately, his job took him on travels regularly. Therefore, he decided to send Betty to spend the summer with an old friend, Agatha Peabody, at Bramble Farm. Little did Uncle Dick or Betty know, that Bramble Farm was not a welcoming or joyful place to live, as Agatha's husband was a miserly and sour man. The only bright spot in Betty's summer was her friendship with Bob, a poor orphan, bound to work tirelessly upon the farm. - Summary by ...

Twenty-four short stories by famous and not-so-famous British authors. (Summary by David Wales) Note: A shortened section 21 was replaced on Dec 30, 2014 with the full text.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Its narrative course, structure, characters, and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular ...

The Autobiography of Charles Darwin is the autobiography of the British naturalist Charles Darwin which was published in 1887, five years after his death.Darwin wrote the book, which he entitled Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character, for his family. He states that he started writing it on about May 28, 1876 and had finished it by August 3.The book was edited by Charles Darwin's son Francis Darwin, who removed several passages about Darwin's critical views of God and Christianity (see Charles Darwin's views on religion). It was published in London by John Murray as part of ...

Beowulf was composed by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet. Francis Barton Gummere translates this beautiful poem. Beowulf is an epic poem. The main character, Beowulf, proves himself a hero as he battles against supernatural demons and beasts. (Summary by Tad E.)

In 1895, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to 2 years of hard labor for acts of ‘gross indecency’. During his time at Reading Gaol, he witnessed a rare hanging, and in the three years between his release and his untimely death in 1900, was inspired to write the following poem, a meditation on the death penalty and the importance of forgiveness, even for (and especially for) something as heinous as murdering one’s spouse; for even the murderer, Wilde argues, is human and suffers more so for being the cause of his own pain, for ‘having killed the thing he loved’; for everyone is the cause of ...

This epic poem is about Alfred the Great's defense of Christian England against the pagan Viking invaders. The decisive battle is fought in sight of a white horse mark made on a hill, after which the poem is named. As the white horse mark must be continually maintained by weeding to be clearly seen, Chesterton sees it as a symbol of the continual struggle to maintain the Christian culture and values for which Alfred the Great fought. - Summary by Robin Lamb

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street is a novella by the American novelist Herman Melville (1819–1891). It first appeared anonymously in two parts in the November and December 1853 editions of Putnam's Magazine, and was reprinted with minor textual alterations in his The Piazza Tales in 1856. ( Summary by Wikipedia )

The English Romantic Period in literature featured a towering group of excellent poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats. If we add in forerunners Burns and Blake, we have perhaps an unmatchable collection of writers for any era. Of these, Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the brightest and best, coupling a giant intellect with a highly emotional and impetuous nature. He was always a champion of liberty, but was largely ignored when he tried to promote political and social reform. He was wise enough, however, to realize that his efforts were ineffective, and he chose instead, not ...

A novel with some utopian elements, but primarily dystopian. A French doctor and a German professor both inherit a vast fortune as descendants of a French soldier who married the rich widow of an Indian prince. They both decide to go to America and establish their own "ideal" society. Dr. Sarrasin, the French doctor, is focused on maintaining public health. He builds Ville-France. Professor Schultze, the German scientist, is a bit of a militarist and racist. He builds Stahlstadt and devotes his city to the production of ever more powerful weapons so that he can destroy Sarrasin's city. They ...

A well off English bachelor receives a legacy from his uncle. This includes the uncle's very large library and a box containing something that used to belong to his uncle. The box has air holes in it. It is not a rat or other small mammal for his collection, but it is something still alive; something very malevolent and something very evil. - Summary by Phil chenevert

Following in the vein of my Coffee-Break collections, this is a collection of short (all under 15 minutes) stories for kids. Focus is on fables and fairy tales published before 1923. (Summary by BellonaTimes)

The wonderful evolution of a caterpillar, or grub, into a beautifully winged creature must inspire admiration in everyone. More marvelous still is the growth of the human soul which in many respects resembles the development of the butterfly. It is this thought which has induced the author to attempt to depict the transformation of a careless maiden into noble womanhood. - Summary by Lucy Foster Madison

Murray (1840-1904) was a sometime clergyman, journalist, and purveyor of the outdoor life. His books did much to popularize the virtues of outdoor experience, especially in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Here are stories, some humorous some serious, of the out-of-doors, of love between man and woman, man and horse, man and dog, teacher and acolyte, of wisdom and foolishness. This recording is a selection of his short stories from "The Busted Ex-Texan And Other Stories" (1889), "How Deacon Tubman And Parson Whitney Kept New Years And Other Stories" (1888) and "A Ride With A Mad ...