A collection of ten pieces, read by various readers, about the unreal edges of this world in legend and story; tales of love, death and beyond. If just one story prickles the hair on the back of your neck, or prickles your eyelids with the touch of tears, we will have succeeded. (Summary by Peter Yearsley)
10 episodes
Librivox's Short Story Collection 006: a collection of 20 short essays and fiction in the public domain read by a variety of Librivox members.
20 episodes
Eve’s Diary is a humorous monologue about Eve’s experiences at the dawn of creation. She is fascinated by every aspect of the new world around her and… Adam! The following is an extract from Adam:
“She is all interest, eagerness, vivacity, the world is to her a charm, a wonder, a mystery, a joy; she can’t speak for delight when she finds a new flower, she must pet it and caress it and smell it and talk to it…. And she is color-mad: brown rocks, yellow sand, gray moss, green foliage, blue sky…none of them is of any practical value, so far as I can see, but because they have color and majesty, that is enough for her, and she loses her mind over them…. If there is anything on the planet that she is not interested in, it is not in my list.”
(Summary by Esther Lockwood)
3 episodes
John Charles Dent, the author of the following remarkable stories, was born in Kendal, Westmorland, England, in 1841. His parents emigrated to Canada shortly after that event, bringing with them, of course, the youth who was afterwards to become the Canadian author and historian. Mr. Dent received his primary education in Canadian schools, and afterwards studied law, becoming in due course a member of the Upper Canada Bar. He only practised for a few years, then returned to England to pursue a literary career, writing mostly for periodicals. After remaining in England for several years, Mr. Dent and his family moved to Boston, in America, for about two years. But he finally returned to Canada, accepting a journalistic position in Toronto. Mr. Dent proceeded to write 'The Canadian Portrait Gallery', which ran to four large volumes, 'The Last Forty Years: Canada since the Union of 1841', and a 'History of the Rebellion in Upper Canada'.This collected work of his short fiction, contributed by their author at considerable intervals to different periodicals, was published posthumously. The stories themselves are delightfully anchored in the physical geography of Upper Canada (or in the case of 'Gagtooth's Image', Illinois), and have a mystical and spooky air about them. (Summary by Pipesdreams)
25 episodes
Librivox’s Short Story Collection 001: a collection of 10 short works of fiction in the public domain read by a variety of Librivox members.
10 episodes
Librivox’s Short Story Collection 002: a collection of 10 short fictional works in the public domain read by a variety of Librivox members.
10 episodes
Librivox’s Short Story Collection 003: a collection of 20 short fictional works in the public domain read by a variety of Librivox members.
20 episodes
Librivox’s Short Story Collection 004: a collection of 20 short essays and fiction in the public domain read by a variety of Librivox members.
20 episodes
Saki (December 18, 1870 - November 14, 1916) was the pen name of the British author Hector Hugh Munro. His witty, biting and occasionally odd short stories satirised Edwardian culture. Saki is considered a master of the short story and has been compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker as well as Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde (who clearly influenced Saki.) His first collection of short stories, Reginald, was published by Methuen Press in 1904 though these stories first appeared in the 'Westminster Gazette'. The stories in this collection are a foil for allowing the jaded and insider/outsider figure of Reginald to comment on some ridiculous or provincial attitude prevelant in upperclass Edwardian society, although one can easily recoginize these same attitudes in our society today. Long popular and well known, Saki's brilliant humour is as enjoyable now as it was almost a century ago. (Summary by Jason Xanthopoulos).
15 episodes
A collection of ten pieces, read by various readers, about the unreal edges of this world in legend and story; tales of love, death and beyond. If just one story prickles the hair on the back of your neck, or prickles your eyelids with the touch of tears, we will have succeeded.
10 episodes
Librivox’s Short Story Collection 007: a collection of 20 short essays and fiction in the public domain read by a variety of Librivox members.
20 episodes
Born in 1862 and died in 1910, O. Henry’s birth name is William Sydney Porter; however, he adopted the pen name O. Henry while in prison. He published 10 collections and over 600 short stories during his lifetime.The Four Million is the second book written by O. Henry while he served time for embezzlement in a penitentiary in Ohio. The book is a series of short stories which take place in New York City in the early years of the 20th century and are representative of the surprise endings that popularized O. Henry’s work. They also capture his use of coincidence or chance to create humor in the story. O Henry wrote about ordinary people in everyday circumstances. He is quoted as once saying, “There are stories in everything. I’ve got some of my best yarns from park benches, lampposts and newspaper stands.”I hope you enjoy the following readings as much as I enjoyed recording them.(Summary by Marian Brown)
25 episodes
A charming little book full of the most gorgeous illustrations which can be viewed along with the Gutenberg text at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15661. We see a number of stories in which kindness is rewarded and selfishness is punished but Brooke squeezes a number of intriguing and quite bizarre twists and turns into the story so it is not nearly so predictable as you might imagine. Victorian moral fairy tales from a delightfully inventive mind. (Summary by Jim)
4 episodes
Here is a collection of strikingly different pieces by Flaubert: a prose poem in the voices of Death, Satan and Nero; the trials and apotheosis of a medieval saint; and the life of a selfless maid in 19th century France. Each exhibits the vigorous exactness, and the mixture of realism and romanticism, for which Flaubert is renowned.
7 episodes
Although Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a wealthy landowner, in his later life he had what was considered a “religious awakening.” This experience went on to inform his writing and his lifestyle in profound ways. His views transcended the specifics of religion, as known in his day - so much so he came to be a helpful guide both to Mohandas Gandhi and to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The four stories in this collection ask profound questions and gently supply helpful, non-dogmatic hints to their answerings: What is the most important thing to do? Who is the most important person? When is the most important time? What is worth owning? What is the most profound religion? What rules should men live by? How much land does a man need? Who is God? What should we bother to discuss? How should we act towards one another? How should we respond to cruelty and violence? And many more. Wonderful stories written in a relaxed style. (Summary by Alan Drake.)
4 episodes
Most of the following Kwaidan, or Weird Tales, have been taken from old Japanese books,— such as the Yaso-Kidan, Bukkyo-Hyakkwa-Zensho, Kokon-Chomonshu, Tama-Sudare, and Hyaku-Monogatari. Some of the stories may have had a Chinese origin: the very remarkable "Dream of Akinosuke," for example, is certainly from a Chinese source. But the story-teller, in every case, has so recolored and reshaped his borrowing as to naturalize it… One queer tale, "Yuki-Onna," was told me by a farmer of Chofu, Nishitama-gori, in Musashi province, as a legend of his native village. Whether it has ever been written in Japanese I do not know; but the extraordinary belief which it records used certainly to exist in most parts of Japan, and in many curious forms… The incident of "Riki-Baka" was a personal experience; and I wrote it down almost exactly as it happened, changing only a family-name mentioned by the Japanese narrator. (Summary by L. Hearn, from the Introduction to the book)
21 episodes
The Just So Stories for Little Children, first published in 1902, were written by British author Rudyard Kipling. They are a collection of fantastic stories, typically about how various animals came to be the way they are today. (Summary by Reynard with help from Wikipedia)
12 episodes
A collection of short stories on a variety of subjects, by one of New Zealand's premiere female writers.
16 episodes
Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933) studied art in Paris in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Shortly after returning to America, he became popular as the writer of a number of romantic novels; he is now best known as the author of “The King In Yellow”, which is a collection of short stories with the reputation of being eerie and other-worldly. However, the last few stories in the collection, which are presented here, are essentially straightforward love stories, strongly coloured by the author’s life as an artist in France. (summary by Peter Why)
8 episodes
Katherine Mansfield was prominent Modernist writer of short fiction. This a ninety minute story from her collection of The Garden Party.
2 episodes
Get the true story of Adam and Eve, straight from the source. This humorous text is a day-to-day account of Adam’s life from happiness in the “GARDEN-OF-EDEN” to their fall from grace and the events thereafter. Learn how Eve caught the infant Cain, and Adam takes some time to learn exactly what it is.
5 episodes
A collection of 10 short stories printed in 1880. (Summary by Simona)
10 episodes
Librivox’s Short Story Collection 008: a collection of 20 short essays and fiction in the public domain read by a variety of Librivox members.
20 episodes
LibriVox's 2006 Christmas Colletion containing public domain short stories, essays, poems, and scripture passages recorded by a variety of LibriVox members.
26 episodes
H. Beam Piper (1904–1964) was an American science fiction author. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alternate history tales. (Summary from Wikipedia)
10 episodes
An occasional collection of 10 horror stories by various readers. We aim to unsettle you a little, to cut through the pink cushion of illusion that shields you from the horrible realities of life. Here are the walking dead, the fetid pools of slime, the howls in the night that you thought you had confined to your more unpleasant dreams.
10 episodes
Librivox’s Short Story Collection 009: a collection of 20 short essays and fiction in the public domain read by a variety of Librivox members.
10 episodes
Nesta coleção, a diversidade da literatura brasileira está representada em quinze contos, lidos com sotaques que também refletem a variedade da Língua Portuguesa.LibriVox Collection of Brazilian Short StoriesThe diversity of Brazilian literature is represented through the fifteen short stories in this collection, read by voices that also reflect the diversity of the Portuguese language.
15 episodes
Short stories by a colleague of Jerome K. Jerome, and friend of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Barr probably wrote the first parody of Sherlock Holmes (included in this collection). He co-edited "The Idler" with Jerome. (written by Czechchris)
12 episodes
Five short stories by classic science fiction writer H. Beam Piper.
8 episodes
The Peterkins were a lovable but comically inept family that possess ingenuity, logic, resourcefulness, and energy--but not common sense. The general formula is that the family tries to solve some problem in an appealingly roundabout way, fails, and is eventually rescued by "the wise old lady from Philadelphia" who always cuts the Gordian knot with some effective but prosaic solution. The charm of the story is not in the plot, but in the telling, with the building up of layers of complication, and the affectionate fun poked at the not-quite-cartoonish characters. The "wise old lady's" solution is usually obvious to the reader, or even the young listener, from the start. (From Wikipedia)
12 episodes
Published in 1919, and listed on the Modern Library roster of the 20th century's 100 greatest novels in English, Winesburg, Ohio presents a series of loosely related character studies of the inhabitants of a fictional Midwestern town that together form a novel of unusual unity and vision. The inarticulate and lonely citizens of Winesburg, each with his or her own secret tale to tell, frequently relate those tales to, or through their interactions with, the character of George Willard, a young Winesburg citizen on the cusp of manhood with dreams of becoming a writer. Thus Winesburg tells the story of the townspeople's loneliness and alienation in parallel with the tale of George's own coming of age. The citizens of Winesburg are described obliquely as "grotesques," but as the introductory chapter makes clear, "The grotesques were not all horrible. Some were amusing, some almost beautiful . . ." (Description by Stewart Wills)
25 episodes
Saki (December 18, 1870 – November 14, 1916) was the pen name of British author Hector Hugh Munro. Saki's world contrasts the effete conventions and hypocrisies of Edwardian England with the ruthless but straightforward life-and-death struggle?????s of nature. Nature generally wins in the end. (Summary from Wikipedia)
36 episodes
Librivox’s Short Story Collection 010: a collection of 10 short essays and fiction in the public domain read by a variety of Librivox members.
10 episodes
Librivox’s Short Story Collection 011: a collection of 10 short essays and fiction in the public domain read by a variety of Librivox members.
10 episodes
Though Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his detective stories, he also wrote other short stories which are masterpieces of mystery and suspense. In some of the stories in "Tales of Terror and Mystery", a suppressed uneasiness gradually builds up and evolves into sheer terror. In others, the story line unexpectedly changes and comes to a horrific conclusion.Sit back in the comfort of your armchair and let yourself be transported to the strange but compelling world created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
12 episodes
From the cave man to Santa Claus; spies, know-it-alls, and journalists: all are fair game for Leacock’s special brand of humor. He touches on the changes time has brought about in the city, education, and work habits. Among the other topics in this work are nature, fishing, gardening, success, and spirits--both of the departed and of the variety Prohibition prohibited.Each chapter of this book is a standalone story and if you love a good laugh, these stories are for you. In me, Leacock’s wit produced the full range of laughter: smiles, chuckles, guffaws, and some uncontrollable giggles. Also, occasionally, I found myself shedding a tear or two. (Review by Debra Lynn)
18 episodes
A collection of stories and poems for children by British novelist, journalist, and playwright Lucy Lane Clifford, better known during her lifetime as Mrs W.K. Clifford. She was famous with her mathematician husband for Sunday salons which attracted both scientists and literati. She was born in 1846 and died in 1929.Summary by Val Grimm
14 episodes
Librivox’s Short Story Collection 012: a collection of 11 short essays and fiction in the public domain read by a variety of LibriVox members.
11 episodes
Here are three charming fairy tales with happy endings. They feature an enchanted frog; a princess, her brothers, and a dastardly plot against them; and a magical lamp with a Genius inside. (by Laurie Anne Walden)
3 episodes
Librivox’s Short Story Collection 013: a collection of 11 short essays and fiction in the public domain read by a variety of LibriVox members.
10 episodes
En række noveller fra perioden omkring det moderne gennembrud. De tidligste fra slutningen af 1800-tallet og de seneste fra begyndelsen af 1900-tallet. Der er tale om forskellige genrer strækkende sig fra det dramatiske, over det historiske og til det humoristiske. (summary by Kristoffer Hunsdahl, http://www.lydbog.com)
10 episodes
"Come with me, ladies and gentlemen who are in any wise weary of London: come with me: and those that tire at all of the world we know: for we have new worlds here." - Lord Dunsany, the preface to "The Book of Wonder"
14 episodes
Nei 12 volumi delle "Favole" (1669 - 1693) Jean de La Fontaine rinnovò la tradizione esopica, rappresentando la commedia umana. Quest'opera dimostrò il suo amore per la vita rurale e attraverso animali simbolici ironizzò sulla vita della società dell'epoca. In the 12 volumes/books of "Favole" (1669 - 1693) Jean de La Fontaine renewed Aesop's tradition, representing the human comedy. This demonstrated his love for country life and by symbolic animals he ironized about his current years society's life. (Summary by Paolo Fedi)
23 episodes
Librivox’s Short Story Collection 016: a collection of 10 short works of fiction in the public domain read by a variety of Librivox members.
10 episodes
Nei 12 volumi delle "Favole" (1669 - 1693) Jean de La Fontaine rinnovò la tradizione esopica, rappresentando la commedia umana. Quest'opera dimostrò il suo amore per la vita rurale e attraverso animali simbolici ironizzò sulla vita della società dell'epoca. In the 12 volumes/books of "Favole" (1669 - 1693) Jean de La Fontaine renewed Aesop's tradition, representing the human comedy. This demonstrated his love for country life and by symbolic animals he ironized about his current years society's life. (Summary by Paolo Fedi)
20 episodes
Bret Harte (August 25, 1836 – May 6, 1902) was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California. (Summary from Wikipedia)
28 episodes
The Goody-Naughty Book was originally published as two books back to back. Opening the book from one end, the reader experiences "The Goody Side" where the children are polite and thoughtful. However, turning the book over and beginning from the other side, one reads "The Naughty Side" where the children are lazy and irritable. These short, moral stories teach children the proper way to behave and that there are consequences if they don't.
To read along and enjoy the illustrations, please visit the HTML version of this text at Project Gutenberg: The Goody-Naughty Book.
2 episodes
Further Chronicles of Avonlea is a collection of short stories by L.M. Montgomery and is a sequel to Chronicles of Avonlea. Published in 1920, it includes a number of stories relating to the inhabitants of the fictional Canadian village of Avonlea and its region, located on Prince Edward Island. (Summary from Wikipedia)
30 episodes
"These stories were written for my own amusement during a period of enforced seclusion. The flowers which were my solace and pleasure suggested titles for the tales and gave an interest to the work.
If my girls find a little beauty or sunshine in these common blossoms, their old friend will not have made her Garland in vain." - L.M. Alcott, September, 1887
7 episodes
