This book contains many of Shakespeare's most famous plays, retold for children. - Summary by kathrinee
54 episodes
This is a collection of myths--mostly Greek with a smattering of others from the east--written in a clear and easy-to-read style. Lang complemented each myth with poetry by other authors who, like her, were inspired by these ancient stories of the gods. Lang chose these stories because they portrayed heroic gods, faithfully and blindly worshipped by man. Ultimately, however, these gods demonstrated the same frailties as humans, and were found to be just as corrupt. Still, as Lang said, in spite of this these myths portrayed "a wonderful humanity that strikes a vibrant cord . . . ." This is significant to a deeper understanding of the collection as it was published in 1914 against the backdrop of the first world war, the war to end all wars--a war that doomed millions of common men to suffer "Promethean agonies," and die on battlefields in a most un-heroic way. As you listen to the narration, compare the gods of myth--with all their human frailties--to the 20th century, god-like European leaders who traded the wonderful innocence of humanity for the notion of "a noble cause." - Summary by James K. White
35 episodes
In this volume, Ms. Cowles has collected her favourite fairy tales and retold them for children. All of the most famous authors are represented, such as Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. But instead of retelling all the standard tales, Ms. Cowles has chosen fairy tales that are not quite as famous, but contain an important message. - Summary by Carolin
20 episodes
Wild animals play a big role in many fairy tales, and foxes are some of the best-represented animals in folklore. In this volume, Clifton Johnson has collected stories about foxes from all over the world, adapted for children as bedtime fairy tales. - Summary by Carolin
25 episodes
Dies ist eine Sammlung norwegischer Märchen. Diese im deutschsprachigen Raum eher unbekannten Märchen nehmen uns mit in die skandinavische Fabelwelt, mit Trollen im Wald, Prinzen und Prinzessinnen auf der Suche nach Abenteuern, und Erzählungen, die sich ganz um Tiere drehen. - Summary by Carolin
32 episodes
A fairy story set in Scotland about Jean and Randal and what happens when Randal disappears into fairyland. This is Lang's second fairy tale after Princess Nobody - an enchanting story with occasional Scottish dialect. Randal Ker, son of a Scottish knight, has the rashness to wish at a wishing well that 'he might see the Fairy Queen' and is then is carried off by her to her own dominions and is kept there until a grown man. A true fairy tale. . - Summary by Phil Chenevert
13 episodes
This is the first collection by this author of charming folk tales from India. There is a second entitled The Talking Thrush (LibriVox audio here). Parents or those in loco parentis should be aware that as in all folk literature, in addition to humor and wisdom, here is some degree of suffering and death. These tales may not be suitable for the very young. (Summary by david wales)
5 episodes
This is the second collection by this author of charming folk tales from India. The first collection is entitled The Giant Crab (Librivox audio here). Parents or those in loco parentis should be aware that as in all folk literature, in addition to humor and wisdom, here is some degree of suffering and death. These tales may not be suitable for the very young. (Summary by david wales)
8 episodes
"Once upon a time a king had an extreme passion for silkworms..." So begins one story in this unusual collection. Here you may also find a farm girl cursed by becoming a queen, a prince blessed with having his every wish denied, a princess turned into a monkey at birth, three sisters who disguise themselves as knights to seek their fortunes, a princess cursed to bring death to her brothers, and a princess only able to marry the man who can step on her cat's tail!This collection of European fairy tales includes many lesser known stories such as the original "Goody Two Shoes" and "The Beneficent Frog". Some well known stories have extended versions, such as how Goldilocks fared after leaving the house of the Three Bears and eventually learned that stealing is wrong. (Summary by Beth Thomas)
23 episodes
This is a 1910 edition of the Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen. This volume is nicely mixed, containing both the most famous tales as well as some which are not quite as well-known. The translation is adapted for American readership and in some ways brings a new facet to some of the stories. Listeners may want to have a look at the online text for its beautiful colour illustrations. - Summary by Carolin
44 episodes
This is a volume of fairy tales and folk tales from the Cossack people, compiled and translated by Robert Nisbet Bain. The tales are special as most children will not have heard them a hundred times before, and as they take listeners into a different region of the realm of the fairy tale. The Cossacks are a group of people living mostly in what is now Ukraine and Russia. The fairy and folk tales contained in this volume allow a glimpse into both the cultural traditions of the Cossack people, as well as into how this culture was perceived by others. - Summary by Carolin
28 episodes
Ningún libro tan conocido, y menos conocido que esta famosa colección de novelas, monumento literario del pueblo árabe. Con el título de Las Mil y Una Noches circula desde hace siglos un libro que todos aceptan como una obra completa, y nada es menos cierto. Las Mil y Una Noches publicadas hasta el presente se componen de unos cuantos cuentos y nada más. entresacados de la monumental obra árabe y traducidos tímidamente para que puedan servir de recreo a los niños, por sus relatos maravillosos. Novelas humanas, exhuberantes de pasión, fueron convertidas por el traductor del siglo XVII en infantiles relatos. La grande obra imaginativa de los cuentistas semitas ha permanecido ignorada hasta nuestros días. Es el doctor Mardrus el que por primera vez la dio a conocer al público con una traducción completa y fiel de las Alf Lailah Oua Lailah (Mil Noches y Una Noche). El lector encontrará las famosas novelas, palabra por palabra, tal como las crearon sus autores. El texto árabe ha cambiado simplemente de caracteres: su alma es la misma. - Summary by Editores del libro
19 episodes
Seven original fairy tales . . .
"Now for the stories you promised us."
"Well, how many shall there be?"
"O, seven, one for each."
And here are our seven stories; affectionately dedicated to any little curly heads that like to read them. (Preface)
8 episodes
The stories in Volume 1 centre on dreams, psychic presentiments, traces, wraiths, doppelgängers, apparitions, and imaginings of the after-life. Crowe's vivid tales, written with great energy and imagination, are classic examples of nineteenth-century spiritualist writing and strongly influenced other authors as well as providing inspiration for later adherents of ghost-seeing and psychic culture. - Summary by Cambridge University Press
28 episodes
Quote:
"No man is better qualified to tell the story of Greenland, or the stories of its people. Knud Rasmussen is himself partly of Eskimo origin; his childhood was spent in Greenland, and to Greenland he returned again and again, studying, exploring, crossing the desert of the inland ice, making unique collections of material, tangible and otherwise, from all parts of that vast and little-known land, and his achievements on these various expeditions have gained for him much honour and the appreciation of many learned societies. But it is as an interpreter of native life, of the ways and customs of the Eskimos, that he has done his greatest work. Such work, as regards its hither side, must naturally consist to a great extent of scientific treatises, collections of facts and specimens, all requiring previous knowledge of the subject for their proper comprehension. These have their great value as additions to the sum of human knowledge, but they remain unknown to the majority of men. As regards their contents, the stories bring before us, more clearly, perhaps, than any objective study, the daily life of the Eskimos, their habit of thought, their conception of the universe, and the curious "spirit world" which forms their religion or mythology. In point of form they are unique." (W. W. Worster, ed. by Expatriate)
12 episodes
The complete Brothers Grimm stories, as translated directly from the German. Some of the stories will be familiar such as The Frog Prince, Rapunzel, and Cinderella. Other tales are less well known such as The Three Black Princesses, and The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was. Content Note for Parents: some of these stories do not flinch from dark themes. For example, in this version of Cinderella birds peck out the eyes of the wicked stepsisters! - Summary by Beth Thomas
210 episodes
A retelling of the adventures of Ulysses, including his adventures both the Cyclops and Circe, as he journeys home to his home of Ithaca. The story then continues to include his quest to rejoin his wife and family of whom he has been separated from for twenty years. This is Homer's Odyssey for the younger set. (Summary by Ginny Blankenship)
23 episodes
Bears make an appearance in so many fairy tales and fables, it is difficult to imagine a fairy-tale world without them. However, in most of those fairy tales, the bear is just a side-character. In this volume, Clifton Johnson has collected 18 stories in which the bear takes a lead role. - Summary by Carolin
18 episodes
Oscar Wilde said of his story The Happy Prince that it was "an attempt to treat a tragic modern problem in a form that aims at delicacy and imaginative treatment; it is a reaction against the purely imitative character of modern art.” His Fairy Tales then were only partly written for children and as he said, "partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy, and who find in simplicity a subtle strangeness".In The Happy Prince and The Nightingale and the Rose, Wilde explores love and self sacrifice. The Selfish Giant will not let the children in his garden but repents and is redeemed. The Miller in the Devoted Friend is not only selfish but an egotistical hypocrite. The Remarkable Rocket is also a tale about egotism and conceit. (Summary by Noel Badrian)
5 episodes
This is a collection of French fairy tales by different famous authors. Included in this collection are such famous tales as Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, but also tales which are now not as well-known but closely connected and certainly of interest to anyone enjoying fairy tales of that description. The translation is well made by James Planché (1858), a connoisseur of historical costume, which to this day plays a big role in fairy tales. - Summary by Carolin
48 episodes
"Here are 150 nature myths and short stories from all parts of the World. They are the kind that children delight in -- tales of transformations of maidens into trees and fountains, of youths into flowers, and of men into birds. Blossoms, fragrance, and joy are the themes of many of these tales, while a few a tender, pathetic, or humorous." (From the Foreword of the book.) - Summary by Frances Jenkins Olcott
141 episodes
Luis Coloma Roldán, conocido también como el padre Coloma, fue un escritor, periodista y jesuita español. A finales del siglo XIX le pidieron al padre Coloma desde la corte que escribiera un cuento cuando a Alfonso XIII, que entonces tenía 8 años, se le cayó un diente. Al jesuita se le ocurrió la historia del Ratoncito Pérez, protagonizada por el Rey Buby, que era como la Reina Doña María Cristina llamaba a su hijo. Desde entonces el Ratoncito Pérez es un personaje muy popular entre los niños españoles e hispanoamericanos, a los que pone un regalo bajo la almohada cuando se les cae un diente. (Wikipedia.org) Luis Coloma was a Spanish author known for creating the character Ratoncito Pérez. Father Coloma (he became a Jesuit priest) was also a prolific writer of short stories and his complete works, which includes his novels, biographies, and other works. This Spanish story was written, once upon a time, to amuse a real little boy King, Buby, as her mother the Queen María Cristina called her son at 8, the future King Alfonso XIII of Spain. - Summary by Luis Coloma
2 episodes
In this volume I present selections made from the Russian chap-book literature, and from the works of various Russian and Polish collectors of Folklore—Afanasief, Erben, Wojcicki, Glinski, etc. The chap-book tales, and many of those of Glinski, are, there is little doubt, of foreign origin, but since Russia and Poland are the countries in which these tales have found their home, and since they have there been so adapted by the people as to incorporate the national customs and lore, they appear to me to belong properly to the present volume. - Summary by Charles John Tibbets
23 episodes
A collection of fairy tales regarding myths and legends of the Isle of Man. Sophia was considered one of the key figures of the Manx cultural revival. - Summary by afutterer
43 episodes
The old English Folklore Tales are fast dying out. The simplicity of character necessary for the retaining of old memories and beliefs is being lost, more rapidly in England, perhaps, than in any other part of the world. Our folk are giving up the old myths for new ones. Before remorseless “progress,” and the struggle for existence, the poetry of life is being quickly blotted out. In editing this volume I have endeavoured to select some of the best specimens of our Folklore. With regard to the nursery tales, I have taken pains to give them as they are in the earliest editions I could find. I must say, however, that, while I have taken every care to alter only as much as was absolutely necessary in these tales, some excision and slight alteration has at times been required. - Summary by Charles John Tibbits
27 episodes
"He was brave and kind and merry always, and all the English people—except England's oppressors—loved him with all their hearts and delighted in his adventures. The story of what he did was put into songs and sung at every fireside; and no man was better loved than this outlaw with a price upon his head.
Here are a few stories of Robin Hood and his men, and a great many more may be found which are well worth your reading." - Summary by preface
8 episodes
Here are some really amusing stories and fables told with delightful wit. Some poke fun at human foibles and some are there for the simple joy of silliness. all read for you by the amazing LibriVox volunteers.- Summary by Phil chenevert
35 episodes
This is a wild mix of different children's stories by different authors. All lof the stories are original, and some of them use a well-known story and bring a novel and often humorous twist to it. Children of all ages and all different tastes should find something they particulalry like in this collection. - Summary by Carolin
36 episodes
This is a selection of the most well-known fairy tales told in England. It contains such very famous stories as Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding-hood, but also some stories that are not included in every other collection of fairy tales. Therefore, children listening to this collection will be able to find their old favourites and discover something new as well. - Summary by Carolin
42 episodes
Uncle Wiggily Longears is the main character of a series of children's stories by American author Howard R. Garis. He began writing the stories for the Newark News in 1910. Garis penned an Uncle Wiggily story every day (except Sundays) for more than 30 years, and published 79 books within the author's lifetime. -- Wikipedia
Here are more of the adventures of this lovable old fortune-seeking gentleman rabbit who suffers from rheumatism.
(Lee Smalley)
31 episodes
La entrada de Alicia en el panorama de las letras castellanas se produjo, en realidad, el 15 de noviembre de 1914 con la primera entrega de una versión que vio la luz en las páginas de una revista juvenil editada en Madrid, Los Muchachos. Semanario con regalos. (El curioso subtítulo de la publicación se explica porque incluía cupones para unos sorteos de juguetes y libros entre los lectores). La serie se prolongó en ocho entregas dominicales hasta el 5 de enero de 1915. El texto abreviado parece conceder más importancia a los capítulos iniciales y finales, así como al de la Merienda de Locos. Va acompañado de veintiséis ilustraciones firmadas por F. Mota (ocho portadas a dos tintas y dieciocho dibujos interiores en blanco y negro) que parecen influidas, en algunas composiciones, por los dibujos originales de John Tenniel. En cuanto a los autores de la versión, sabemos con respecto al ilustrador que F. Mota es el nombre con el que firmaba sus trabajos el pintor ceutí Fernando Fernández Mota, colaborador habitual de diversas publicaciones madrileñas a finales del siglo xix y principios del xx. Del traductor, en cambio, seguimos sin noticias. (Summary by Phileas Fogg)
5 episodes
"In the House of Many Windows which stands in a large city and is sometimes called a "flat" by people who, because they are grown up, do not know any better, live the Little Lady and the Story Teller.
The Little Lady is four years old, going on five, and is fond of stories. This makes her and the Story Teller good friends. They mostly sit in the firelight after supper, and while the Little Lady is being undressed they tell each other all that has happened since morning. Then the Little Lady looks into the fire and says:—
"Now, tell me a story."
Sometimes she wants a new story. Sometimes one of the old ones, which must be told always the same, because the Little Lady, like a good many grown up people, does not care for new and revised editions, but wants the old stories in the old words, that sound real and true. Sometimes the Story Teller forgets or improves on his plots, but the Little Lady never forgets and never fails to set the Story Teller right." - Summary by the author
29 episodes
"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written solely to pleasure children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out. Summary by L. Frank Baum
24 episodes
A House of Pomegranates (1891) is the title of the second collection of Fairy Tales by Oscar Wilde. This book contains four tales: 1. "The Young King"; which is about taking responsibility. 2. "The Birthday of the Infanta"; a commentary on the unfeeling behaviour of the upper classes. 3. "The Fisherman and his Soul"; is about the triumph of love in adversity. And 4. "The Star-Child"; which is about responsibility and doing what is right despite the cost. - Summary by Noel Badrian
6 episodes
Six stores of OZ and it's wonderful inhabitants, told by the official Historian of Oz, L. Frank Baum. Lots of adventure here!! Dorothy and her little dog Toto get into lots of trouble; Ozma is tripped and falls into the water, the Tin Woodman falls overboard and rusts, Jack Pumpkinhead loses his head in a fight with some feisty squirrels, and oh, so many more exciting and fun things happen. The fairy country of OZ is never a dull place. - Summary by Phil Chenevert
6 episodes
Not for the squeamish or for children, these folk-tales are from the Ainu, the somewhat mysterious indigenous people of Japan, thousands of whom still live in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Ranging over all of the usual themes of folklore, from creation to marriage to war, these stories have a pungent, ribald frankness concerning all aspects of human life that offended their scholarly collector Basil Hall Chamberlain (his apologies to the reader are themselves entertaining) but that make them fresh, provocative, and amusing to the twenty-first century reader. Attention to the Ainu is especially timely because of the revival in Japan of Ainu activism on behalf of indigenous rights, pride, and culture, but are well worth reading for their purely entertainment value.
8 episodes
Unusual Fairy Tales from around the world, this story collection contains; a mother with two daughters both named Caroline, a carriage drawn by winged frogs, a prince turned into a bird and a princess in the form of a deer, a fairy in the shape of a talking crayfish and Ivan, who crawls into his horse's ear. In the usual style of fairy tales most of these have a moral and a happy ending! (Summary by Beth Thomas)
15 episodes
The East is rich in Folklore, and the lorist is not troubled to discover material, but to select only that which it is best worth his while to preserve. The conditions under which the people live are most favourable to the preservation of the ancient legends, and the cultivation of the powers of narration fits the Oriental to present his stories in a more polished style than is usual in the Western countries. The reader of these tales will observe many points of similarity between them and the popular fictions of the West—similarity of thought and incident—and nothing, perhaps, speaks more eloquently the universal brotherhood of man than this oneness of folk-fiction. At the same time, the Tales of the East are unique, lighted up as they are by a gorgeous extravagance of imagination which never fails to attract and delight. - Summary by Charles John Tibbits
25 episodes
Thanks to Thiele, to Hylten-Cavallius and Stephens, and to Asbjörnsen and Moe, Scandinavian Folklore is well to the front. Its treasures are many, and of much value. One may be almost sorry to find among them the originals of many of our English tales. Are we indebted to the folk of other nations for all our folk-tales? It would almost seem so.
I have introduced into the present volume only one or two stories from the Prose Edda. Space would not allow me to give so much of the Edda as I could have wished.
In selecting and translating the matter for this volume, I have endeavoured to make the book such as would afford its readers a fair general view of the main features of the Folklore of the North. - Summary by Charles John Tibbits
29 episodes
When four children (and their baby brother makes five) manage to uncover the long-dormant Psammead (in plain English, then, Sand-Fairy) in a gravel pit, they have the chance of one wish a day that lasts until sunset. But you should be careful what you wish for - as Cyril, Anthea, Robert and Jane find out! (Summary by James Pyle)
11 episodes
This is a collection of the fairy tales that children love best, told in simple language and lavishly illustrated. They are written by various authors, a selection of the best and most popular fairy stories, culled from many sources and here collected and presented in most attractive form, printed in large clear type, with many pictures, some of them colored. (Summary from the book)Read along and view the illustrations at Project Gutenberg
18 episodes
These stories were the original ones collected by Charles Perrault and published in French in 1696. You may have heard of some of them and they are probably a bit different than what you may expect, coming from an age and time when the ears of our children were not considered so delicate." For example:
"Grandmamma, what great teeth you have got!"
"That is to eat thee up."
And, saying these words, this wicked Wolf fell upon Little Red Riding-hood, and ate her all up." end of story. - Summary by Phil chenevert
8 episodes
THE author has long been of opinion that many of the classical myths were capable of being rendered into very capital reading for children. In the little volume here offered to the public, he has worked up half a dozen of them, with this end in view. A great freedom of treatment was necessary to his plan; but they remain essentially the same, after changes that would affect the identity of almost anything else. (Lenox - from the Preface (July 15, 1851)
22 episodes
Diese Sammlung umfasst 10 deutschsprachige Prosa-Texte verschiedener Genres.
Eine Liste weiterer kurzer Aufnahmen (Erzählungen, Gedichte, Märchen, Essays) in anderen LibriVox Sammlungen gibt es hier.
10 episodes
The third of four volumes of Middle Eastern tales, originally written in Arabic. Scheherazade tries to prolong her husband's interest in her - and therefore her life - by telling her tales in installments. - Summary by Gillian Hendrie
32 episodes
The Five Children (from Five Children and It) are once again on holidays, but this time with no sand fairy to grant wishes - or is there? In a pet shop they meet with their friend the Psammead again, and a whirlwind adventure follows through time and space! The magical Amulet has been broken in half, and they must find and reunite the lost half with their own. But they are not the only ones seeking the power of the Amulet...The third book of the "Psammead" Trilogy follows directly on from the event of "Five Children and It" and "The Phoenix and the Carpet". - Summary by Beth Thomas
Narrator: Peter YearsleyCyril: Ashur GharaviAnthea: Beth ThomasRobert: Devorah AllenJane: RachelThe Psammead: Rob BoardJimmy "The Learned Gentleman": Tomas PeterOther characters read by: April Walters, Evie Maria, Foon, Gillian Hendrie, graceahlin, Jasmin Salma, Jenna Eleni, KHand, Lee Meredith, Linda Olsen Fitak, Michael Jarvis, Monika M.C., Nemo, RajVO, Robert Robinson, Sonia, SonOfTheExiles, Starling Reader, TJ Burns, Tyler Hulegaard, Zoe Trang, Audio edited by: Devorah Allen
15 episodes
California, both old and new, is the scene of these fairy stories. They are unique tales written with with a pleasant tinge of romance about them to fix yourr attention, and a touch of pathos that goes to the heart, to make them good and happy. - Summary by phil chenevert and the author
10 episodes
On many a day had Handy, the Goat Girl of Mern, pursued her goats up and down the rocky eminences of her native mountain. And never—NEVER—in her fourteen or so years' experience had she been blown up by a mountain spring. But there comes, in every one's experience a day which is unlike every other day, and so it was with the Goat Girl. As she was pursuing What-a-butter, her favorite goat, there was a sudden crash, a whish, and up flew the slab of rock on which she was standing, up and away.
The adventures into which she was carried by this simple though awefull beginning take a whole book to relate. How she met Nox the Royal Ox of Keretaria, how together they went in search of little King Kerry, how at last they rescued him and found themselves feted guests of Ozma of Oz, all these things you must read for yourselves. - Summary by the author and Phil chenevert
21 episodes
"My desire is to give boys and girls something Jewish which they may be able to regard as companion delights to the treasury of general fairy-lore and childish romance." from the preface. These tales deal with the boyish exploits of the great Biblical characters, Abraham, Moses, and David. "These I have rewritten from the stories in the Talmud and Midrash in a manner suitable for the children of to-day."
- Summary by Phil Chenevert and the author
25 episodes
High as the clouds are the mountains bold
That tower in the glorious Land of Gold,
And cañons dusky with twilight deep
Where a thousand mystic shadows peep.
There are vineyards graceful with trailing vine
Rich in the wealth of the rosy wine,
There are orange groves and lime trees green
That glint in the sunlight’s glowing sheen,
There are deserts yellow with priceless sand,
All these you will find in the Golden Land. - Summary by May Wentworth
10 episodes
