Dimple, the nine-year-old little girl is accustomed to being always the first. She has Bubbles, a little coloured girl as playmate and servant. One day Dimple’s cousin, Florence comes to visit her and they have a wonderful time together. But then come the rainy days and the two children easily get bored in the house… and that’s how the adventures and troubles begin. (Summary by Diana Majlinger)
11 episodes
The Harbor was written in 1915 by Ernest Poole. The novel is considered by many to be one of Poole’s best efforts even though his book, The Family won a Pulitzer Prize. The Harbor is a fictional account of life on a Brooklyn waterfront through the eyes of Billy as he is growing up. The novel starts with Billy the child, living on the harbor with his father, mother, and sister, Sue. During this time he also meets Eleanor who, at that time, he considers to be strange. She later becomes an important character in the novel. His father owns a shipping business, is hard-working, and can think of little else. As a young man, Billy begins to detest the harbor and longs for escape to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a writer and avoiding his father’s business. With his mother’s blessing, he takes flight to Paris to hone his trade. While in Paris, he meets Joe Kramer (J.K.) and a sometimes stormy relationship begins. J.K. forces him to confront human situations that Billy would prefer to close his eyes to. Billy eventually returns to the harbor after some years and recognizes changes are taking place in the harbor, and in his life. The harbor becomes a subject for his writing and his personal relationships. His attitude about the harbor begins to evolve. Throughout the novel, J.K. continues to make appearances in Billy’s life, challenging him to write about things as they really are and not as Billy’s world of comfort shows them to be. Billy’s life is changed when the harbor goes on strike and he becomes involved in the labor movement. What more can be said about a book that starts with the words, “You Chump!”? (Summary by Tom Weiss)
54 episodes
This story is from Mary Cowden Clarke's multi-volume work The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines, in which she imagined the early lives of characters from Portia to Beatrice to Lady Macbeth. In her revision of Ophelia from Hamlet, she creates a backstory for Shakespeare's tragic heroine, from her infancy to just before the action of Hamlet begins.(Summary by Elizabeth Klett)
7 episodes
The book describes the love triangle between a young woman, Elfride Swancourt, and her two suitors from very different backgrounds. Stephen Smith is a socially inferior but ambitious young man who adores her and with whom she shares a country background. Henry Knight is the respectable, established, older man who represents London society. (Summary by Wikipedia)
41 episodes
After the bizarre textual antics of "Tristram Shandy", this book would seem to require a literary health warning. Sure enough, it opens in mid-conversation upon a subject never explained; meanders after a fashion through a hundred pages, then fizzles out in mid-sentence - so, a plotless novel lacking a beginning, a middle or an end. Let us say: an exercise in the infinitely comic.
"There is not a secret so aiding to the progress of sociality, as to get master of this short hand, and to be quick in rendering the several turns of looks and limbs with all their inflections and delineations, into plain words."
Sterne calls his fine sensitivity to body language (as we now term it) "translation". Much of the pleasure to be had from this wonderfully engaging book comes from his unmatched ability to extract random details from the chaos of experience to create comic turns imbued with Feeling. His Parson Yorick is the Sentimental Traveller: certainly a Man of Feeling, but one in whom "Nature has so wove her web of kindness, that some threads of love and desire are entangled with the piece..." (Summary by Martin Geeson)
25 episodes
Tom Sawyer Abroad is a novel by Mark Twain published in 1894. It features Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in a parody of Jules Verne-esque adventure stories. In the story, Tom, Huck, and Jim set sail to Africa in a futuristic hot air balloon, where they survive encounters with lions, robbers, and fleas to see some of the world's greatest wonders, including the Pyramids and the Sphinx. Like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, Detective, the story is told using the first-person narrative voice of Huck Finn. (Summary by Wikipedia)
13 episodes
Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad is the second of the ten book series of Aunt Jane's Nieces. The story continues with the three much loved girls - the sweet and generous Patsy, the cunning Louise, and the sullen Beth. This time they're on a tour of Europe with their down-to-earth uncle John Merrick. The benevolent uncle and his nieces meet mysterious and sinister Victor Valdi, his daughter Tato, and a pretend nobleman, Count Ferralti, who fancies Louise. The story revolves around travel and kidnapping, and the subsequent adventures of the three young girls, told in Baum's own inimitable style that keeps us at the edge of our seats. (Summary by Neeru Iyer)
31 episodes
Az Egri csillagok mára már igazi klasszikussá vált Magyarországon. A történet a 16. század első felében játszódik és körülbelül 25 évet foglal magába. A legfőbb történelmi események közt olvashatunk a magyar királyok székhelyének, Budának 1541-es vérmentes elfoglalásáról és a törökök 1552-es egri ostromáról. Betekintést nyerhetünk még más történelmi témákba is, például a reformáció Magyarországon elért hatására, a magyarok és a német-római császár közti nézeteltérésekre, és olyan értékek kísérik végig a regényt, mint a könyörületesség, apai és anyai szeretet, barátság, bizalom és őszinteség.The story is set in the first half of the 16th century and covers a period of roughly 25 years. The main historical events that are addressed are the bloodless occupation of Buda, the seat of the Hungarian kings, in 1541, and the 1552 Siege of Eger (now in Northern Hungary) by the Turks that forms the major topic of the novel. The story also addresses some other historical topics like the impact of the Reformation, the discord between Hungarians and the Holy Roman Emperor, as well as many themes of general import like mercy, filial and marital love, friendship, trust and truthfulness. The book is considered as the most famous Hungarian novel. It's been translated into English titled Eclipse of the Crescent Moon. (Summary by Wikipedia)
92 episodes
O Ateneu é um romance do escritor brasileiro Raul Pompeia, considerado como o único exemplar de romance impressionista na literatura brasileira.Publicado pela primeira vez em 1888, o livro conta a história de Sérgio, um menino que é enviado para um colégio interno renomado na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, denominado Ateneu. Comandado pelo diretor Aristarco, o colégio mantém regras rígidas e princípios da aristocracia da época. A obra critica a sociedade brasileira do final do século XIX, tomando como metáfora o Ateneu, seu reflexo, um lugar onde vence sempre o mais forte.(Sumário extraído da Wikipedia)
12 episodes
Diese Sammlung ist ein Adventskalender und enthält für jeden Tag vom 1.-24. Dezember einen Text oder ein Gedicht. Viele haben einen Bezug zu Weihnachten oder zum Winter. (Summary by Sonja)
24 episodes
"Levity" is not a word often applied to Henry James, but this story has about it an attractively lighthearted quality. It tells of Peter Baron, a poor, young struggling writer of adequate, if not transcendent, talent, who lives in a dreary London boarding house inhabited also by a mysteriously clairvoyant and beautiful young widow, with her small boy. When Baron buys himself a second-hand writing desk to stimulate the creative juices, he finds carefully hidden within it a cache of letters that appear to compromise a recently deceased statesman. The discovery and his struggle to handle the questions they pose ultimately change his life. Along the way he also discovers, as a fringe benefit, a talent for what Americans (though probably not Jamesians) call Tin Pan Alley. (Summary by Nicholas Clifford)
7 episodes
Nachlaß des Diogenes von Sinope.
Aus einer alten Handschrift.
Von Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813), veröffentlicht 1770.
Wieland benutzt die Figur des berühmten Kynikers Diogenes von Sinope zu einer humorvollen Kritik der menschlichen Gesellschaft.
(Zusammenfassung von redaer)
25 episodes
Veröffentlichung dieser Ausgabe 1893
Horaz, eigentlich Quintus Horatius Flaccus, ist neben Vergil einer der bedeutendsten römischen Dichter der „Augusteischen Zeit.
Da die Oden nicht den erhofften Erfolg brachten, ließ Horaz ab 20 v. Chr. von der Lyrik ab und widmete sich dem ersten Buch der Epistulae („Episteln“). Zusammengesetzt aus 20 Briefgedichten in Hexametern, legte Horaz in diesem Buch seine Lebensphilosophie dar.
Im zweiten Buch der „Epistulae“ ab 13 v. Chr. betätigte sich Horaz als Literaturkritiker.
(Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia)
19 episodes
Pemberton, a young American with an Oxford education and out of money, takes a job tutoring Morgan Moreen, the 12-year old son of an American couple living in Europe in a style not quite matched by their income. Mr. and Mrs. Moreen's main purpose in life, it appears, is to win acceptance in the higher circles of French and Italian society, partly in the hope that Morgan's two elder sisters will be taken off their hands. Morgan, who is highly intelligent, is also precocious and perceptive enough to come to understand his parents' ambitious aimlessness. Something of a crisis develops when the Moreens fail to make good on the salary they've promised Pemberton, and he leaves, needing a steady income. By then, however, the tutor has become sufficiently interested in and attached to his charge to be unwilling to leave Morgan for long, and comes back to join the family when when Morgan's mother tells him the boy has fallen ill. There, however, he finds the family shipwreck that he has feared is now taking place, and he is in time to witness it.(Summary by Nicholas Clifford)
8 episodes
In 1933, Forman Brown wrote, under the pseudonym Richard Meeker, a controversial novel called Better Angel, about a young man coming to terms with his homosexuality. This novel is regarded as "the first American novel to present the 'gay' experience in a healthy light." (Summary by Wikipedia)
22 episodes
“The Sun to me is darkAnd silent as the Moon,When she deserts the nightHid in her vacant interlunar cave.”Milton composes his last extended work as a tragedy according to the classical Unities of Time, Place and Action. Nevertheless it “never was intended for the stage” and is here declaimed by a single reader.Samson the blinded captive, in company with the Chorus of friends and countrymen, receives his visitors on their varying missions and through them his violent story is vividly recalled. Then he is summoned to give a final demonstration of God-given strength to entertain the Philistines, his captors. Famously – and of course, offstage – his performance brings the house down. (Summary by Martin Geeson)
12 episodes
The Ingoldsby Legends are a collection of myths, legends, ghost stories and poetry supposedly written by Thomas Ingoldsby of Tappington Manor, actually a pen-name of Richard Harris Barham.
The legends were first printed in 1837 as a regular series in Bentley's Miscellany and later in New Monthly Magazine. The legends were illustrated by John Leech and George Cruikshank. They proved immensely popular and were compiled into books published in 1840, 1842 and 1847 by Richard Bentley. They remained popular through the Victorian era but have since fallen out of fame. An omnibus edition appeared in 1879: The Ingoldsby Legends; or Mirth and marvels. (Summary from Wikipedia)
28 episodes
The pieces gathered into this volume were, with two exceptions, written for the entertainment of a private circle, without any view to publication. The editor would express her thanks to the writers, who, at her solicitation, have allowed them to be printed. They are published with the hope of aiding a work of charity,—the establishment of an Agency for the benefit of the poor in Cambridge,—to which the proceeds of the sale will be devoted. (Summary by Anne W. Abbot, ed)
34 episodes
Erstes Kapitel: Carlsson tritt seinen Dienst an und wird als Gauner charakterisiert.
Zweites Kapitel: Sonntagsruhe und Sonntagsarbeit; der gute Hirte und die verlorenen Schafe; die Waldschnepfen, die erhielten, was ihnen zukam, und der Knecht, der die Kammer bekam.
Drittes Kapitel: Der Knecht spielt seinen Trumpf aus, wird Herr im Hause und lehrt die jungen Hähne sich beugen.
Viertes Kapitel: Hochzeit in Aussicht. Die Alte wird des Geldes wegen genommen.
Fünftes Kapitel: Man prügelt sich am Tage des dritten Aufgebots, geht zum Abendmahl und feiert die Hochzeit.
Sechstes Kapitel: Veränderte Verhältnisse und veränderte Aussichten. Es geht mit der Landwirtschaft zurück, aber der Grubenbetrieb blüht.
Siebentes Kapitel: Traum und Wirklichkeit; das Pult wird bewacht, aber der Sensenmann kommt und macht einen Strich durch das Ganze.(Kapitelliste aus dem Buch)
10 episodes
Cinco minutos é o primeiro romance do escritor brasileiro José de Alencar, nome proeminente do romantismo no país. Foi publicada em 1856 em forma de folhetins pelo jornal Diário do Rio de Janeiro. Ao final de alguns meses, com todos os capítulos já publicados, esses foram juntados em uma única edição que foi oferecida como brinde para os assinantes do jornal. No entanto, diversas pessoas que não assinavam o jornal, procuraram um volume do livro.
A obra é escrita na forma de carta a uma prima do autor, D..., relatando seu amor por uma jovem, Carlota, nome o qual só é revelado nos últimos capítulos do livro.
Inicia-se a história, no Rio de Janeiro, quando o narrador perde o ônibus por um atraso de cinco minutos e é obrigado a pegar o próximo. Senta-se ao lado de uma mulher. Apaixona-se por ela, mas não vê seu rosto e teme que a mulher seja feia; ela parte pedindo que não a esqueça, mas ele a perde. Depois de um mês tentando descobrir quem é a amada, a encontra numa ópera (La Traviata, de Giuseppe Verdi), declara-se mas ela foge deixando um lenço cheio de lágrimas.
Depois de outros desencontros, finalmente o narrador conhece a mulher e declara-se. Por carta, ela revela que já o observava nos bailes, amava-o há tempos mas não podiam ficar juntos porque ela tinha uma doença incurável.
O narrador faz de tudo para ir atrás da sua amada e enfrenta diversos contratempos.(Resumo extraído da Wikipedia)
10 episodes
The recently widowed Adela Gereth, a lover of beauty and passionate collector of fine objects, strikes up a friendship with the young Fleda Vetch, when both of them find themselves guests in the tasteless house of Brigstock family. Mrs. Gereth fears that her son Owen, an honorable but somewhat unimaginative young man, may take up with one of the Brigstock girls, and indeed he presently announces his engagement to Mona, the eldest daughter. That means that Mrs. Gereth will have to leave Poynton, the beautiful house that she and her husband filled with the furniture, china, tapestries, and other objects that they lovingly collected over the years. It is not so much possessiveness that drives Mrs. Gereth to want to maintain control over them (or so she claims, at any rate), but rather the sense that she will have failed if Mona, understanding and appreciating nothing of what Poynton contains, should become Owen's wife and take charge. The story and its developing conflicts are seen largely from the point of view of Fleda Vetch, the young woman who, her moral and aesthetic sensibilities tuned perhaps as finely as any of James's protagonists, finds herself caught in the middle.
(Summary by Nicholas Clifford)
22 episodes
The Seventh Man by Max Brand, tells part of the story of the larger-than-life western character, Dan Barry, known as “Whistling Dan,” and his alter-ego companions, Black Bart, the wolf-dog, and Satan, the indomitable black stallion. It’s also the story of Kate Cumberland and the incredible five-year-old daughter of Kate and Dan, Joan. We first see Dan as a gentle, caring man with a deep sense of fairness. But then, after six years of a peaceful life in their mountain cabin Dan, more feral than human, sets out to revenge an injustice by killing seven men. Ultimately, it is his devotion to his daughter and Kate’s love for the child that brings about the climax of the tale.Warning: don’t look for a typical cowboy story here – it’s far deeper and stronger than that. (Summary by Robert Keiper)
41 episodes
Trilby, published in 1894, fits into the gothic horror genre which was undergoing a revival during the Fin de siècle and is one of the most popular novels of its time, perhaps the second best selling novel of the Fin de siècle period after Bram Stoker's Dracula. The story of the poor artist's model Trilby O'Ferrall, transformed into a diva under the spell of the evil musical genius Svengali, created a sensation. Soap, songs, dances, toothpaste, and Trilby, Florida were all named for the heroine, and a variety of soft felt hat with an indented crown (worn in the London stage production of a dramatization of the novel) came to be called a trilby.
30 episodes
"Nello and Patrasche were left all alone in the world." So begins the poignant story of the two orphans who were to become inseparable companions. They were Nello, an orphaned youth, and Patrasche, the dog which he and his grandfather saved from near death one day. The tale takes place outside of Antwerp, and so popular has this story become that there is a commemorative statue of Nello and Patrasche standing in the village yet today. The story is powerful, and masterfully written by Marie Louise de la Ramée under the pseudonym Ouida. (Summary by Roger Melin)
7 episodes
Resurrection is the last of Tolstoy's major fiction works published in his lifetime. Tolstoy intended the novel as an exposition of injustice of man-made laws and the hypocrisy of institutionalized church. It was first published serially in the magazine Niva as an effort to raise funds for the resettlement of the Dukhobors. The story concerns a nobleman named Nekhlyudov, who seeks redemption for a sin committed years earlier. His brief affair with a maid resulted in her being fired and ending up in prostitution. The book treats his attempts to help her out of her current misery, but also focuses on his personal mental and moral struggle.(Summary from Wikipedia)
42 episodes
Camilla is Frances Burney's third novel. It became very popular upon its publication in 1796. Jane Austen referred to it, among other novels, in her novel Northanger Abbey:“'And what are you reading, Miss — ?' 'Oh! It is only a novel!' replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. 'It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda'; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best–chosen language."This is the story of Camilla, her beloved but selfish brother Lionel, her sisters Eugenia and Lavinia, and their extremely beautiful but thoughtless cousin Indiana on the months proceeding their marriages. Camilla is deeply in love with Edgar and he loves her back. However, on the advice of a friend, decides to make sure that she is free of fault. She has the luck to find herself in lot of uncomplimentary and comic situations which doesn't make Edgar's wish easy. Meanwhile, Camilla, on the advice of her father, is trying to make sure that Edgar really loves her before marrying him. Will they marry at the end? And will her sisters and cousin be happy? If you want to know the answers to these questions, and many more, please read the book. (Summary by Stav Nisser)
109 episodes
Humorvolle Geschichte einer Musikerfamilie mit sieben Kindern zu Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts (Summary by Wolfgang)
14 episodes
Hollister, returning home from the war physically scarred but otherwise healthy and intact, finds life difficult among society, and so chooses to roam about a bit seeking a future for himself. He eventually leads himself to a remote area in British Columbia, which begins the tale of the next phase of his life; a life which becomes far richer in totality than he would have imagined in his old unwelcoming haunts. A life among the hidden places. (Summary by Roger Melin)
22 episodes
A light-hearted account of a successful middle aged widower who chances to visit the small town in which he grew up to renew old acquaintances and perhaps reflect on his successes since his departure.This visit, however, becomes far more to him than he would have imagined, as he finds that one of his dearest childhood girlfriends had died not long after his departure, and the widower envisions a relationship with none other than her daughter, who he senses to be her mother incarnate. (Summary by Roger Melin)
8 episodes
“He had faith in his good fortune, in that power of attraction which he felt within him - a power so irresistible that all women yielded to it.”Though firmly set in 1880s Paris, Maupassant's gripping story of an amoral journalist on the make could, with only slight modifications of detail, be updated to the 1960s, to the Reagan-Thatcher years, or maybe to the present day. Anti-hero Georges Duroy is a down-at-heel ex-soldier of no particular talent. Good-looking but somewhat lacking in self-confidence, he discovers an ability to control and exploit women - whereupon his career in journalism takes off, fuelled by the corruption of colleagues and government arrivistes. He may be a provincial Don Juan, but he is neither accident-prone nor heading for a fall...A Hollywood screen adaptation is in preparation at the time of recording.
(Summary by Martin Geeson)
25 episodes
The Blithedale Romance is the story of four principal characters who work with -- and sometimes against -- each other on Blithedale, a communal farm antecedent to those that sprang up later in the 1960s, and similar to one on which Hawthorne himself lived in 1841. These communes arose out of the pressures on society and the individual brought by the Industrial Revolution. Some were organized around religious philosophies, some were secular. Among the secularists, the Transcendental movement mentioned in the novel espoused the idea that the individual's intuition, rather than religious dogma, was the true path to spiritual enlightenment. Our four characters, like so many who fled to these communes, struggle to free mankind from bondage as they struggle with the unaccustomed day-to-day tasks of farm life. But they are plagued by a mystery that follows them from the world, and ultimately leads to tragedy. (Summary by Christine Dufour)
30 episodes
When Belinda was published in 1801, it became both controversial and popular. Controversial because of the inter-racial marriage presented in the novel, and popular because it's a very good comedy of manners, like Evelina by Fanny Burney. Belinda, like Evelina, is a soft and loving girl of 17, is coming to London with her aunt who directs her action in order to make sure that she'll find a good match. But what will happen if Belinda will fall in love? Will Clarence Hervey, the man she loves, be able to marry her? It seems almost impossible, as he is secretly bringing up another woman to be a perfect wife to him and now, in all honor, he thinks he must marry her. These social novels about young women trying to find good husbands were admired by Jane Austen who referred to Belinda, among other novels, in her own novel Northanger Abbey: “'And what are you reading, Miss — ?' 'Oh! It is only a novel!' replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. 'It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda'; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best–chosen language." (Summary by Stav Nisser)
39 episodes
Hedda Gabler is a play first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. In it, Hedda Gabler, daughter of an aristocratic General, has just returned from her honeymoon with George Tesman, an aspiring young academic, reliable but not brilliant, who has combined research with their honeymoon. The reappearance of Tesman's academic rival, Eilert Lovborg, throws their lives into disarray. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by wildemoose)Characters:
George Tesman - Read by mb
Hedda Tesman, his wife - Read by Arielle Lipshaw
Miss Juliana Tesman, his aunt - Read by Kalynda
Mrs. Elvsted - Read by Elizabeth Klett
Judge Brack - Read by Joe Bly
Eilbert Loveborg - Read by Bob Sherman
Berta, servant at the Tesmans - Read by Diana Majlinger
Narrator|Stage Directions - Read by Availle
Director|File Editor - Arielle Lipshaw
4 episodes
'The Regent' is, if not a sequel to 'The Card', then a 'Further Adventures of' the eponymous hero of that novel.Denry Machin is now forty-three and begins to feel that he is getting old, that making money and a happy home life are not enough and that he has lost his touch as the entrepreneur and entertainer of the 'Five Towns'.In fact, as he says to himself 'What I want is change - and a lot of it too!'. A chance meeting at the local theatre leads to his going to London and then... (Summary by A.J.M.)
10 episodes
The story could really have been simple: Miss Milner, who is admired for her beauty and charm, could have been a socialite, marry a respectable and good looking man and be happy in the standards of her time. But if it was so, why would there be a book? Miss Milner, beautiful and charming as she is, announces her wish to marry her guardian, a catholic priest. But women in the 18th century do not declare their wishes or speak about their passions, and- after all- he is a catholic priest… And if he finds a way to marry her, is this her road to happiness?
(Summary by Stav Nisser)
56 episodes
Recopilación de relatos y y cuentos de temas variados: humor, fantasía, y temas sociales, entre otros. (Resumen: Marian Martin)Collection of short stories of varied genres, including humour, fantasy, and social issues, among others. (Summary: Marian Martin)
10 episodes
Kate Chopin's 1899 novella The Awakening is about the personal, sexual, and artistic awakening of a young wife and mother, Edna Pontellier. While on vacation at Grand Isle, an island in the Gulf of Mexico, Edna befriends the talented pianist Mlle. Reisz and the sympathetic Robert Lebrun, both of whom will influence her startling life choices. Chopin's novel created a scandal upon its original publication and effectively destroyed her writing career. Now, however, it is considered one of the finest American novels of the 19th century. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)
8 episodes
E. Phillips Oppenheim, an English novelist created well in excess of 100 novels and 30 plus collections of short stories. Most of his tales are thrillers and espionage. The Great Impersonation was written following World War I and is considered by many to be perhaps his best novel. The story focuses on German espionage in England prior to the start of World War I. The tale centers on two characters that are almost identical in appearance. Indeed, while both attend the same school in England, they are often mistaken for one another. One character is Sir Everard Dominey, an English baronet who enjoys the “good life” but falls into disfavor when he is accused of murdering Roger Unthank. Unthank, of the same village, has an infatuation for Dominey’s wife, Rosamund, and attacks Dominey. Dominey comes before his wife bloody and ragged after the struggle with Unthank. The spectacle renders her unbalanced. This is more than Dominey can bear and he goes on a long travel and drinking binge spanning years. Dominey’s wife threatens to kill him if he ever returns. The second character is Baron Leopold von Ragastein, a German nobleman. Von Ragastein has fallen into disrespect with the Kaiser for his affair with a Hungarian princess and subsequent killing of her nobleman husband in a duel. He is banished to a minor government position in East Africa as punishment. A chance encounter between Dominey and von Ragastein in German East Africa sets the pretext for the story. Von Ragastein returns to England as Dominey, to regain his position in society, and serve Germany by influencing England to keep out of the coming conflict. There is one problem however: there are some, including Dominey’s wife, who are not convinced that Sir Everard Dominey is really who he claims to be. You will need to listen to the end to determine the truth.
(Summary by Tom Weiss)
29 episodes
Orphan Lady Margaret Cheyne returns home on her eighteenth birthday to live with her embittered maiden aunt and to take up her inheritance of the family jewels. The Cheyne jewels include a pendant featuring the Purple Emperor, a priceless jewel looted from a temple during the Indian Mutiny.During her time at school in Paris, Lady Margaret has met and fallen in love with Sir Edgar Brenton, the son of an old flame of her aunt and a neighbour in the village of Hampton, where Cleek's adored Ailsa Lorne has also taken up residence.Lady Margaret's return leads to a mysterious and sinister chain of events, which Cleek and Superintendent Maverick Narkom of Scotland Yard attempt to unravel, with, of course, the help of the irrepressible and ever-hungry Dollops, Cleek's cockney sidekick.This full-length mystery is a welcome return for Hamilton Cleek, whom we first met in Cleek: The Man of the Forty Faces. (Summary by Ruth Golding)
25 episodes
Topsy Turvy is a translation of Sans dessus dessous (1889) . This anonymous translation was first published by J. G. Ogilvie (New York, 1890). We meet our old friends Barbicane and J.T. Maston from “Earth to the Moon” who now give us their own approach to the topic of “global warming”. Although they are searching for coal and not oil, readers will find that the auction of the Arctic energy reserves has a definite 21st century ring. (Summary from the Gutenberg e-text.)This project was proof listened by stonie1914 and Betty M.
19 episodes
El día 26 de marzo de 1848 en una escaramuza entre monárquicos y republicanos, cae gravemente herido don Jorge de Córdoba, conocido, por su mal genio, como el Capitán Veneno. El herido es recogido por dos damas, doña Teresa Carrillo de Azpeitia, viuda de un general carlista, y su hija Angustias. El Capitán está tan grave que debe permanecer inmovilizado en la casa de las damas. Allí se ve envuelto por la dulzura de doña Teresa y de Angustias, en medio de su estrechez económica y a la espera de que la reina Isabel II reconozca el título de su difunto esposo. Pero las cosas se complican todavía más...
4 episodes
Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians, is asleep when Athena comes to her to suggest that she go down to the river the next morning, with her attendants. So the next morning Nausicaa persuades her parents to lend her a wagon to take clothes down to the river for washing.The party goes down to the washing pool. Nausicaa is about to fold and put away the clothing when the ship-wrecked Odysseus, who is asleep nearby, wakes up. He wonders where he is.Grabbing an olive branch to hide his modesty, he walks out, caked in salt from the sea and looking terrible. The attendants run away at sight of him, but Nausicaa stands her ground. Odysseus thinks that she might be a goddess, perhaps Artemis. He then tells her that he has been at sea for 20 days, harassed by the god Poseidon, and only came on shore the previous day. He asks Nausicaa for some clothes and if she can tell him how he can get to town.Nausicaa says fate is in Zeus’ hands, but that since Odysseus has reached her country, and she is the daughter of the king, she won't let him go without clothes. She tells her attendants not to be afraid, and to wash the stranger in the river. They give him clothes and an oil flask. He asks them to go away so he can bathe. Odysseus,washed and dressed, looks like a god. Nausicaa says she would like someone like him to be her husband. She tells her attendants to give him food and drink.Then Nausicaa packs up the wagon and tells Odysseus to follow behind, but that, to prevent scandal,he must stop at a grove that is sacred to Athena. He is to wait there until she gets back to the palace. Only then should he come out. He should then enter the city, find the palace, and look for Nausicaa's mother because, if Nausicaa's mother takes to him, all will be well and he will be helped to go on his way home.They set off, and reach the sacred grove that evening.(Summary by hefyd)
6 episodes
Als Johannes an Ostern mit seiner Verlobten Gabriele seine Eltern besucht, kommt es zu Spannungen zwischen seinem Vater und Gabriele. Der Vater, Daniel Jürges, ist ein einflussreicher Priester und ein überzeugter Gegner der modernen Ansichten, die einen kritischen Standpunkt der Kirche gegenüber vertreten. Für den Vater ist klar, dass Johannes seinem Beispiel folgen und ebenfalls Prediger werden wird, während Gabriele fest davon überzeugt ist, dass Johannes das nicht will.
(Zusammenfassung von Jessi)
11 episodes
When published in 1907, this novel about the lives of a wealthy mill owner, her socially progressive husband and friends caused a stir due to its treatment of drug abuse, mercy killing, divorce and second marriages. (Summary by Margaret)
43 episodes
A collection of Twain short stories including:The Loves Of Alonzo FitzClarence And Rosannah EtheltonOn The Decay Of The Art Of LyingAbout Magnanimous-Incident LiteratureThe Grateful PoodleThe Benevolent AuthorThe Grateful HusbandPunch, Brothers, PunchThe Great Revolution In PitcairnThe Canvasser's TaleAn Encounter With An InterviewerParis NotesLegend Of Sagenfeld, In GermanySpeech On The BabiesSpeech On The WeatherConcerning The American LanguageRogers(Summary from Project Gutenberg)
13 episodes
The rich and phlegmatic Kin-Fo loses his fortune and decides to die, but not before experiencing some strong emotions. He asks his friend Wang to kill him before a given date. Everything changes when Kin-Fo discovers he is not poor after all and he sets on a journey around China, trying to find his friend to cancel their deal. (Summary by Nadine)Proof-Listeners: Patrick Wells, Jeanie, Nadine Eckert-Boulet, stonie1914
22 episodes
When a clumsy, well-meaning lawyer gets involved with a pair of delightful old maids and a beautiful girl, he must acquire some of the skills of his friends the detective and the newspaperman to solve the puzzle of The White Cat. That’s the name of a back-street political club serving beers, political favors and, occasionally, murder. (Introduction by Robert Keiper)
26 episodes
Coleccion de cuentos de Vicente Blasco Ibáñez.
La condenada
Primavera triste
El parásito del tren
Golpe doble
En el mar
¡Hombre al agua!
Un silbido
Lobos de mar
Un funcionario
El ogro
La barca abandonada
El maniquí
La paella del «roder»
En la boca del horno
El milagro de San Antonio
Venganza moruna
La pared
17 episodes
The Gambler is a short novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky about a young tutor in the employment of a formerly wealthy Russian general. The novella reflects Dostoevsky's own addiction to roulette, which was in more ways than one the inspiration for the book: Dostoevsky completed the novella under a strict deadline so he could pay off gambling debts. (Summary from Wikipedia)
17 episodes
Bungay Castle is a gothic novel by Elizabeth Bonhôte. It was first published in 1796 and follows the fortunes of the De Morney family at Bungay Castle in Suffolk. Two young members of the family, Roseline and Edwin, search for the source of strange, unearthly cries and discover a terrifying secret in the castle's bowels which will change their lives forever. The story combines the classic Gothic tropes of mystery, betrayal and a heroine in peril in suitably imposing surroundings and has been praised in modern times for its proto-feminist sensibility. The young women in the story keep their fates in their own hands, rather than wait for some dashing hero to come to the rescue. (Wikipedia)
22 episodes
