Showing results by narrator "Sara Nichols" in All Categories

Lewis Carroll's classic tale of nonsense and imagination, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was an immediate sensation upon its publication in 1865. It tells the tale of Alice, a young girl who tumbles down a rabbit hole into a world filled with talking rabbits, grinning cats, mad hatters, and vengeful queens.

Orlando: A Biography is a groundbreaking English novel by Virginia Woolf that explores English history, gender roles, and sexual politics in a way few books have before or since. Inspired by the life of Woolf's friend and lover Vita Sackville-West—herself an accomplished poet and novelist—the story follows the life of an aristocratic nobleman who changes from man to woman and goes on to live for centuries, meeting all of the most influential and powerful figures in English history.

The most profound and important speeches ever delivered are collected in this anthology, featuring some of the most influential figures in world history. From ancient times to the American Revolution to as recently as this past century, Fort Raphael Publishing has collected seven of the most important and iconic speeches of all time, featuring such disparate historical characters as the prophet Moses, the Greek general Pericles, France's architect of the Reign of Terror Maximilien Robespierre, President Thomas Jefferson...

"The Valley of Fear" is the fourth and final full novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that featured his greatest creation: the world's first consulting detective, the brilliant and legendary Sherlock Holmes.

Frances Hodgson Burnett is one of the most beloved writers of children's books in history. Two of her novels, "A Little Princess" and "The Secret Garden", regularly find themselves near the top of any list of favorite children's books and they have both been adapted to the stage and screen dozens of times.

A Little Princess is Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved novel of privilege, hardship, and redemption. It is regularly listed among the finest children's books ever written and has been adapted to the stage and screen dozens of times.

"The Secret Garden" is Frances Hodgson Burnett's most beloved and popular book, a childre's classic that has been adapted dozens of times for the stage and screen. When Mary Lennox — an ill-tempered and lonely orphan — is sent to live with her gloomy uncle in England, her future prospects appear dim. Her only companions are her cousin Colin, who is wheelchair bound, and the local boy Dickon Sowerby...and none of the children seem to have anything in common.

Author Edith Wharton is best known for her books set amongst the upper-echelon of New York society, including "The House of Mirth" and "The Age of Innocence," (the latter of which won her the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction). But Wharton also wrote two American classics that take place in rural settings: the then-scandalous tale of youthful rebellion,"Summer" and her haunting novel of love and regret, "Ethan Frome." Both have gone on to be considered among the finest novels of the early 20th century.

Author Edith Wharton was born to an extremely wealthy family and was raised among the elites of New York society. This gave Wharton a front-row seat to the goings-on, intrigues and drama of that strange and fascinating world, which she exposed and satirized in her two best known novels: "The House of Mirth" and "The Age of Innocence" (the latter of which won her the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the first for a female writer).

"Summer" is one of only two novels Edith Wharton wrote that takes place in a rural setting (the other being her classic "Ethan Frome.") Given the subject matter (and the behavior of its lead character), the book was considered scandalous in its day, but it is now considered a classic of early 20th century American literature. The story follows the life and sexual awakening of Charity Royall, a young girl living in a small town who has dreams of moving out of her poverty-stricken community.

"Ethan Frome" is one of Edith Wharton's best known works and has become a staple of American literature classes around the globe since it was first published in 1911. The story is a simple tale of desire, regret and forbidden love. The title character, Ethan, has resigned himself to living in a loveless, sterile marriage with his wife Zenobia. But when his wife's young cousin Mattie moves into the house and both she and Ethan are drawn together, it begins a romance that can only end in heartbreak... or tragedy.

In O Pioneers, we meet the Bergsons, a family of farmers in the fictional town of Hanover, Nebraska who have emigrated to America from Sweden. When the family patriarch dies, the running of the farm falls to the eldest daughter, Alexandra, who struggles to make the farm viable and provide for the family. Eventually, the focus turns to the romantic entanglements of Alexandra and her brother as well as touching upon the enormous difficulties of running a farm at the turn of the last century.

Perhaps the most famous labor activist and union organizer in history, Mary Harris Jones was an Irish emigre, who watched her husband and four children die of yellow fever, saw her modest dressmaking shop go up in flames in the Great Chicago Fire, and, as a lonely, poor widow in the late 19th century, was facing a bleak future.

This is a SoundCraft Audiobooks production—enhanced with music and sound effects—of perhaps the most revered and popular children's book of all time: Peter Pan. Featuring Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Wendy, and, of course, the villainous Captain Hook and his trusty first mate Smee, these indelible creations have become some of the most iconic characters in all of children's literature. Barrie's playful and impish prose perfectly captures the cruelty, kindness, and complexities of youth, as seen through the eyes of history's most famous flying orphan.

So Big is author Edna Ferber's breakout, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of life on an American farm, which features the hardscrabble schoolteacher-turned-truck-farmer Selina Peake DeJong, one of the most iconic characters in 20th century fiction.

Presented here is Volume III of our Feminist Literary Classics series, featuring three of the most important feminist novels ever written: Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf, O Pioneers! by Willa Cather and So Big by Edna Ferber. The first book in this collection is Orlando: A Biography, a groundbreaking English novel by Virginia Woolf that explores English history, gender roles and sexual politics in a way few books have before or since.

Universally acknowledged as one of the most popular and brilliant books ever written, "Jane Eyre" is Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece, often listed with Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" as among the finest romance novels ever published. The story follows the hardscrabble life of its eponymous lead character, Jane Eyre, who is orphaned at a young age and forced to live under the rule of her heartless Aunt Reed and her equally cruel children.

In "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle attempted a feat that even the greatest criminal minds in England could not accomplish: He tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes. (And he very nearly succeeded.) Doyle's 1894 collection of short stories—which featured some of the most enjoyable tales in the Holmes canon, including "Silver Blaze," "The Musgrave Ritual" and "The Crooked Man"—concludes with what was meant to be the last Sherlock Holmes story, "The Final Problem."

A blistering criticism of the literary world in which she lived, Charlotte Brontë's "The Biographical Notes on the Pseudonymous Bells" contains two fascinating and insightful essays by the author of "Jane Eyre" addressing her late sisters, Emily and Anne's writing careers (Emily wrote "Wuthering Heights," Anne created "Agnes Grey" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall").

"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" is Anne Brontë's wildly successful and best-known novel. Written in 1848 under the pseudonym "Acton Bell" (each of the Brontë sisters wrote under pen names), it proved to be the most popular book written by the three sisters during their lifetimes. It tells the story of Helen Graham, a young woman who is courted by and marries the spoiled and self-involved Arthur Huntingdon, a charming suitor but a disastrous and cruel husband.