Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

A collection of comedic short stories from the perspective of an old country man. (Summary by Philip Martin)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 20 recordings of Remembrance by Emily Brontë. This was the fortnightly poetry project for June 14th, 2009.

Alice Duer was a successful American author who wrote poetry, novels and screenplays and campaigned tirelessly for women's suffrage. Her sister Caroline was an editor at Vogue magazine. This beautiful collection published in 1896 and the first of their early poems, is centered around the themes of love, friendship and loss. - Summary by Nemo

The Odysseys are a collection of stories about Ulysses' journey home from the war at Troy purportedly written in the 8th century BCE by Homer, a blind poet thought to have lived in the Greek colonies in Asia Minor, possibly at Smyrna. The events described are thought to have occurred centuries before being recorded by Homer, handed down orally since the twelfth century BCE, the golden era of the Greek Bronze Age when the world was populated by heroic mortals and often visited by the Gods. This verse translation in couplets by George Chapman was originally published in 1616, the first ...

This collection will put in one place, all the Farewell (or last) Addresses made by each of the 43 ex-US presidents.The first, George Washington's "Farewell Address", issued as a public letter in 1796, was one of the most influential statements of republicanism. Drafted primarily by Washington himself, with help from Hamilton, it gives advice on the necessity and importance of national union, the value of the Constitution and the rule of law, the evils of political parties, and the proper virtues of a republican people. He called morality "a necessary spring of popular government". He said, "...

This is a collection of short pieces, poetry or prose, fiction and non-fiction, in several different languages (except standard English). All chosen and recorded by Librivox volunteers.01 - Esperanto - La Feino key words: prose, fairy tales 02 - Esperanto - Muŝofiŝobirdoratokatohundo key words: poetry, animals, food chain, humor, children 03 - French - Enragée ? key words: Société française, 19eme siècle, voyage de noces, humour 04 - Italian - In vecchiezza key words: poetry, old age, memento mori 05 - Japanese - Kodama key words: prose, short story 06 - Luxembourgish - Un den Hèrr ...

In LibriVox’s Multilingual Poetry Collection, LibriVox volunteers read their favourite public-domain poems in languages other than English. (Summary by David Barnes)

Alexandre Dumas padre (1802-1870), escritor francés de ascendencia haitiana, es el autor más prolífico de su país. Excelente conversador y relator de historias, añora el perdido arte de la conversación, cuando las personas sabían “escuchar bien y razonar mejor” y podian expresar con propiedad y sencillez ideas profundas, lamentando que las generaciones futuras no tendrán ese privilegio.Advierte a sus lectores que va a buscar sus historias al mundo imaginario, único refugio contra la realidad de una época triste y deslucida. Busca inspiración en el pasado, en una sociedad que se ...

This is a volume of early poetry by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. As much of Ella Wheeler Wilcox's poetry, this volume also conveys a number of different emotions in the different poems. Ms Wilcox herself suggests the alternative title "Ghosts of old dreams" for this volume. - Summary by Carolin

What would have happened if Christ hadn't come to Israel 2000 years ago, but had come to North America at the end of the 19th Century? This story makes that assumption and paints a picture of what it might have looked like - how different members of society might have reacted. The story follows David Holman, an invalid young man at the opening of the story. - Summary by TriciaGNote: the text source linked is missing the last 4 pages of the story. The missing portion was recorded from this text: http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006767265

This collection of articles by and about Mark Twain and his family was compiled by Barbara Schmidt, publisher of twainquotes.com. Included in Part Two of this chronological listing (1880-1889) are some of Twain’s short stories, speeches and letters, as they appeared in the New York Times in that decade. The original microfiche articles are available at the New York Times “Time Machine” website: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/browser/ and here. - Summary by John Greenman and Barbara Schmidt

The town of Hadleyburg had the reputation of being the most honest town in a wide area, indeed an incorruptible community. The elders took this reputation so to heart that they brought up their children shielded from all temptation and trained thoroughly in total honesty. However, a stranger passing through the community was seriously offended by the actions of residents of this Utopia, and he vowed to gain revenge. After several years he came up with the perfect plan to embarrass the town and expose its hypocrisy. (Introduction by Leonard Wilson)

This 3rd volume of the Marie Antoinette Romances begins a decade after the close of "The Mesmerist’s Victim” and is based on a real scandal in Louis XVI’s court, commonly called “The Diamond Necklace Affair.” In this volume, the plotting of a powerful occultist, Count Cogliostro (or “Balsamo”), collides with the long-festering resentments of a previous royal house, Jeanne de Valois (de la Motte), a growing popular movement for sociopolitical reform, and a shrinking supply of bread. It is easy to see how converging sociopolitical challenges can threaten the monarchy, but how can ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of Life by Charlotte Brontë. This was the weekly poetry project for March 8th, 2009.

A collection of twenty one stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, vampires, huge rats and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, and the occasional touch of wonder. You may also feel more jumpy tonight than usual.

The largest surviving body of Pliny's work is his Epistulae (Letters), a series of personal missives directed to his friends, associates and the Emperor Trajan. These letters are a unique testimony of Roman administrative history and everyday life in the 1st century CE. Especially noteworthy among the letters are two in which he describes the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in August 79, during which his uncle Pliny the Elder died (65 and 66 in this edition), and one in which he asks the Emperor for instructions regarding official policy concerning Christians (Trajan Letter 97). Other letters ...

This third collection of the correspondence of Oscar Wilde includes the letters Wilde wrote from prison. It begins with notes of thanks to the friends who stood by him after his arrest, and ends with discussions of his plans for after his release. De Profundis, the long letter Wilde wrote to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, is represented by the expurgated 1913 edition as well as suppressed portions that were later published elsewhere. The letters are sourced from auction catalogues, biographies, and other texts in the public domain. For a complete collection of Wilde's letters, please see "The...

This fourth collection of the correspondence of Oscar Wilde includes the letters Wilde wrote while living in Berneval, in the months after his release from prison, and in Naples, where he shared a villa with his former lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. In a long letter to the editor of the Daily Chronicle, Wilde describes the cruelties of prison life. At this time Wilde was writing The Ballad of Reading Gaol, and the poem is a frequent topic in his letters to his friend, Robert Ross, and publisher, Leonard Smithers. The letters, some of which have been excerpted or redacted, are sourced from auction...

This fifth and final collection of the correspondence of Oscar Wilde includes many letters to his friend, Robert Ross, and a long letter about prison reform to the editor of the Daily Chronicle. For most of the last three years of his life Wilde lived in Paris, but his letters also describe visits to Switzerland and Italy. The collection ends with one of Wilde's last surviving letters, which he wrote from his deathbed to beg a friend for money to pay his medical bills. The letters, some of which have been excerpted or redacted, are sourced from auction catalogues, biographies, collections of ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of "Summer Dawn" by William Morris.This was the Weekly Poetry project for July 10, 2022. ------When this poem was first published in 1856 it had no title. Subsequently, the 1858 edition gave the sonnet its title of "Summer Dawn." And it is a sonnet, though it does not follow traditional English or Italian models. Perhaps Morris was giving hint of the Provençal 'alba.' These poems in their early form were conversations between two lovers. The requirement is that each stanza end with the word 'alba' [dawn]. Morris ends lines five and eleven this way. ...