Showing results by narrator "Amanda Friday" in All Categories

In a comprehensive and beautifully crafted first person narrative, David Copperfield recalls key stages, memories, and incidents of his life from infancy to maturity. Scenes, adventures, and characters are summoned to the narrator's remembrance so vividly that they are rendered with the vitality of the present moment.

New South Wales struggled as a new British penal colony, facing drought, famine, social incoherence, and the development of an intransigent military cartel which did not lose any opportunity to exploit the circumstances. Together with an entrepreneurial landowner society led by John Macarthur, they made the task of the Governor, William Bligh (of The Bounty) very difficult.

Carlo Collodi's whimsical recasting of the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea was first published in 1883 and has since become an established classic of children's literature. Geppetto, a poor wood carver, receives a piece of wood from which he carves a marionette. Much to his surprise, the puppet springs to life and embarks on a wild series of adventures.

This play forms part of a tetralogy which focuses on one of Wedekind's obsessive themes: the destructive interplay between primal sexual urges and social convention. Each play revolves around a powerful young female character, who has the power to control and captivate men, but who in turn is destroyed by the exercise of that power. In Castle Wetterstein, that role is represented by Effie, the young daughter of a bourgeois widow, who is being courted by the man who killed her late husband in a duel.

Edith Nesbit's trilogy about a group of children who encounter a sand fairy and, through his intercession, embark on a wild round of adventures has been a staple of juvenile literature since the first volume was published in 1902. The three books are Five Children and It (1902), The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904), and The Story of the Amulet (1906).

Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel is the most famous vampire tale ever told. British solicitor Jonathan Harker finds himself imprisoned in a castle in Transylvania and begins to believe his host, Count Dracula, is not entirely human. As his horror mounts, he suspects that Dracula plans to invade and conquer England, one victim at a time.

The always delightful and entertaining classic Anne of Green Gables is performed by actors from The Online Stage! Anne Shirley is an 11-year-old orphan adopted by a middle-aged brother and sister, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. They had wanted to adopt a boy to help with their farm on Prince Edward Island in the fictional town of Avonlea. Matthew persuades Marilla to give Anne a chance. Anne is a handful, and they fall in love with her.

Lucy Honeychurch is a young English girl abroad in Italy for the first time and is ready to experience all the beauty, art, and romance it has to offer. She is hampered by the oppressive attentions of her chaperone, her prim cousin Charlotte, as well as the presence of a substantial British expatriate and tourist community in Florence.

This is final installment in Edith Nesbit's classic trilogy of time-traveling adventures by four enterprising children.

This collection contains Oscar Wilde's four best-known comedies: The Importance of Being Earnest; Lady Windermere's Fan; An Ideal Husband; and A Woman of No Importance. All of them satirize upper-class English society of the 1890s, dramatizing scandalous secrets, political and marital intrigue, and dandyish bad behavior with Wilde's trademark wit and wisdom.

In The Phoenix and the Carpet, five adventurous children are given a carpet that, unknown by their parents, contains a magic egg that hatches into a phoenix. A series of escapades ensues, some amusing, others dangerous and but all of which are entertaining.

Join seven-year-old Alice as she tumbles down the rabbit hole to have an adventure in Wonderland, in Lewis Carroll's classic novel beloved by children and adults alike. Alice encounters many strange and curious creatures in Wonderland, including the anxious White Rabbit, the rather unhelpful Caterpillar, the disappearing Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and his guests at their tea party, and the horrible Queen of Hearts.

After the death of their father, Oedipus, Antigone and Ismene return to Thebes. The ruler is their unyielding uncle by marriage, Creon, who assumed command after the death of the sons of Oedipus, Eteocles, and Polynices in a fratricidal struggle to take control of the city. Creon has the body of one brother buried with full civic honors but forbids the burial of the body of the other, whom he regards as a traitor. Antigone's challenge to Creon's decree, which she considers unjust, results in the extinction of the family line of Oedipus.

When Drake is told that his beloved wife does not have long to live, he clutches at straws for anything that will prolong her life. A mysterious stranger offers him a cure for his wife's illness that appears to be remarkably effective - but, like many miracles, it comes at a cost.

Hands Around, also known as La Ronde or Reigen, is possibly Schnitzler's most provocative and controversial work. In a series of 10 conversations occurring before or after a sexual encounter, between 10 pairs of characters from all walks of life, Hands Around offers a playful scrutiny of the sexual morals and class ideology of the era.

Marilla "Rilla" Blythe, the youngest daughter of Gilbert and Anne Blythe, is nearly 15 when the First World War begins making news. Seemingly overnight, the men of the town are being called up to enlist. Rilla, who had long yearned for adulthood, finds new responsibilities as the war wages on.

Betsy Bobbin and her mule Hank find themselves on the shores of Oz after a storm. While trying to find their way home, they wander into the Rose Kingdom and are held prisoner by the Royal Gardener. Just in the nick of time, Shaggy Man falls through the roof of the greenhouse and tries to convince the Gardener to let the pair go, using his powerful Love Magnet. Unable to convince them, the trio is instead banished with Ozma's cousin, Princess Ozga, in tow.

Mr. Redlaw is a chemistry professor tormented by painful memories of the sorrow, wrong, and trouble he has suffered in his life. On Christmas Eve, he is visited by a phantom, the double of himself, who offers him the gift of forgetting these painful memories. The catch is that others who come into contact with the professor will also lose the remembrance of their past hurts and sorrows. Redlaw is hesitant at first but, believing his life will be better and happier, he accepts the ghost's bargain.

Despite Dorothy's many tales of her adventures in Oz, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry never quite believe her stories. Upon finding out the tornado that destroyed their farmhouse in book 1 (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) is the cause of her Uncle Henry's horrible debt, Dorothy is determined to help her family. She makes plans with Ozma to bring her aunt and uncle to Oz where they may live happily ever after. Unbeknownst to Ozma and our friends in Oz, the Nome King is plotting to take over the Land of Oz and retrieve his magic belt that Dorothy took from him in book 3, Ozma of Oz.

After breaking off his engagement with Agnes Lockwood, Lord Montbarry marries the eccentric Countess Narona before embarking on a whirlwind honeymoon tour of Europe culminating in Venice. There they reside in the decaying Palace Hotel with the Countess' brother, Baron Rivar, and their courier, Ferrari. Lord Montbarry later dies of bronchitis and upon hearing of this from Henry Westwick, Montbarry's brother, Agnes agrees to meet with Henry at the newly renovated Palace Hotel to investigate the insurance claim that was purchased prior to his death.