Showing results by narrator "Sara Nichols" in All Categories

The story centers on Sybylla Melvyn, a headstrong girl growing up in rural Australia whose family is plunged into debt by their alcoholic father. Young Sybylla's story follows her romance with suitor Harold Beecham, her forced servitude to one of her father's creditors and her attempts to become a famous writer.

In 1886, a struggling young doctor and part-time author named Arthur Conan Doyle picked up his pen and created what is arguably the most famous character in the history of mystery and detective fiction: the consulting detective known as Sherlock Holmes. Forty years later, Doyle would conclude this astonishing series of adventures having penned four full novels and fifty-six short stories featuring Holmes and - in most of these stories - his friend and crime-fighting partner, Dr. John Watson (who often served as the fictional chronicler of these tales).

Presented here are four of Edith Wharton's best known works: "The Age of Innocence," "The House of Mirth," "Ethan Frome" and "Summer," each considered a classic of the early 20th century. The first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (for "Age of Innocence"), Wharton enjoyed an astonishing career as a short story writer and novelist, blazing a trail for the female writers who followed her.

The story - one of Forster's darkest tales - revolves around a trip to India by British schoolmistress Adela Quested and her companion, Mrs. Moore. After meeting with a local physician, Dr. Aziz, the two visitors travel with him on a tour of the famous Marabar Caves. While exploring a dark cave alone, Adela is forced to fend off a mysterious attacker and Dr. Aziz - who became separated from the party - is accused of assault.

The Prairie Trilogy is a series of three novels centered around life in the Midwest during the late 19th/early 20th centuries by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather. First, in "O Pioneers!," we meet Alexandra Bergson, who inherits the family farm after her father dies and leaves her to care for her three siblings. While many immigrant families are giving up their farms and moving back to the city (or to their home countries), Alexandra decides to try to tough it out on the prairie.

Pooh and all of his friends are here: Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga, Roo, and Christopher Robin. As they explore the Hundred Acre Wood, they have all sorts of adventures: tracking the Heffalump, visiting with Rabbit (and getting stuck in a very tight place), dressing up as a little black rain cloud to get honey from the bees, and even going on an "expotition" to the North Pole!

"The House of Mirth" was the breakthrough novel for Edith Wharton and its immediate commercial and critical success put her on the American literary map. Based on Wharton's own experiences among the elite of the New York City social set in the late 1890's, "The House of Mirth" is both a fascinating glimpse into the upper-reaches of high society and a searing satire of the cruelties, frivolities and hypocrisy of the city's ultra-rich.

"His Last Bow" is a classic mystery collection from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It also contains the very last story featuring Doyle's greatest creation: the legendary and enigmatic consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. Along with the coda to the Holmes canon, this collection also contains a number of Holmes favorites, including The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge and The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans. But without a doubt, the final story - "His Last Bow" - is the most exciting entry in this one-of-a-kind volume.

Lucy Maud Montgomery, the Canadian author best known for her "Anne of Green Gables" series, also wrote a small number of stand-alone novels that have become among the most admired and well-read books in Canadian literature. Here, we present two of Montgomery's finest novels: "The Blue Castle" and "Kilmeny of the Orchard."

Collected here are three of Dorothy Parker's earliest works: two collections of poetry—Enough Rope and Sunset Gun as well as her short, hilarious collection of stories recounting all of the men she managed to avoid marrying named (appropriately) Men I'm Not Married To.

In Volume II, we present Austen's timeless classics "Sense and Sensibility," "Northanger Abbey" and "Emma." Though the books only received modest attention and few reviews at the time of their first release ("Northanger Abbey" was, in fact, published posthumously), all of these books have gone on to become best-sellers are now considered to be among the finest examples of 19th century literature.

A.A. Milne, the beloved author of the Winnie-the-Pooh series, followed up his success to the first two Pooh books, When We Were Very Young and Winnie-the-Pooh, with Now We Are Six, a collection of poems that has become a classic in children's literature.

Here is Hugh Lofting's classic tale of the English doctor who learns how to speak to his non-human patients—dogs, cats, rhinos, and monkeys alike—as he travels from England to the jungles of Africa and back again. Doctor Dolittle's entourage of animal friends, including Polynesia the parrot, Gub-Gub the pig, Jip the dog, and Dab-Dab the duck, journey with the doctor and team up to help him out of one scrape after another.

Predating Bram Stoker's "Dracula" by twenty-five years, Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla" is one of the earliest examples of vampire fiction; a Gothic novella narrated by a young girl who becomes a victim of the title character, a female vampire with whom she also kindles a romance.

Presented here are three of the most popular children's books of all time: A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, Ruth Stiles Gannett's My Father's Dragon, and Hugh Lofting's The Story of Doctor Dolittle.

Dorothy Parker - social commentator, political reformer, and legendary wit - has enjoyed a special place in American culture for almost a century, and Enough Rope is an early example of Parker's unique and wry commentary on modern life. It is presented here in its original and unabridged format.

"The Blue Castle" is one of the few books author L.M. Montgomery (author of the "Anne of Green Gables" series) wrote for an adult audience. It is a romantic novel set in early 20th-century Ontario, Canada, that follows the emotional and romantic awakening of Valancy Stirling, a 29-year-old spinster trapped in a stifling, judgmental family. Valancy appears trapped, living a dull, joyless life while her relatives order her about. Her only escape is her imagination, where she dreams of a beautiful place she calls the Blue Castle-a symbol of freedom, love, and happiness.

When We Were Very Young is a book of poetry for children by the legendary British author A.A. Milne and marks the first appearance of the "silly old bear" who would soon become a worldwide sensation: Winnie-the-Pooh.

This is a SoundCraft Audiobooks production - enhanced with music and sound effects - of two of Lewis Carroll's classic tales of nonsense and imagination. Here, brought together in a single volume, are the complete tales of young Alice, a girl who dreams of fantastical lands full of talking rabbits, grinning cats, mad hatters, and vengeful queens.

Viewed from an historical perspective, Jane Austen's novels should not exist. She was born during a period where female writers (if they dared to write at all) were dismissed, ignored, and dissuaded from writing altogether. The fact that Ms. Austen went ahead and created the novels contained in this collection—which have gone on to become some of the most treasured books in literary history—is nothing short of a miracle.