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    30/07/2024

    Letters of Mark Twain, Complete

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    Chapter: 51 | Listen:

    These letters were arranged in two volumes by Albert Bigelow Paine, Samuel L. Clemens’s literary executor, as a supplement to Mark Twain, A Biography, which Paine wrote. They are, for the most part, every letter written by Clemens known to exist at the time of their publication in 1917. They begin with a fragment of a letter from teenaged Sam Clemens to his sister, Pamela, and conclude with a letter to his attorney two weeks before his death. These letters give us some degree of insight into the evolution of Twain’s style of speech and prose over the period of his lifetime; they are a small window into the psyche that created the various characters of his stories. But they also reveal the tragedies of his life: the lack of success in his business ventures, the passing of family. And as I read each one in this collection, I can almost detect the faint odor of one of his “devilish” cigars wafting across the room. (Introduction by James K. White)     [chương_files]  

    29/07/2024
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    Love Letter Collection

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    Chapter: 9 | Listen: 2

    By conservative estimates, more than 6.8 million out of earth’s population of 7 billion have access to cell phones. This has happened in just over 20 years. It’s safe to assume that almost all these people would prefer to communicate via their phones rather than by snail-mail, post or courier. Which leads us to the question: “Does this mean the death of the love letter?” For those of us who still remember the joys of receiving and sending romantic epistles, couched in purple prose, expressing our deepest feelings, these little messages were the most delightful way of keeping in touch with those we loved. The Love Letter Collection 2008 by Various takes us back to a more gentle and genteel time, when we used our imagination and creativity to convey our thoughts and weren’t compelled to use ugly abbreviations or acronyms, neither were we restricted to 140 characters! Receiving a handwritten letter which could be read and re-read at leisure was an experience that can never be matched by a mere e-mail or a text message! In this collection we find Abigail Adams, the wife of the second president and the mother of the sixth president of the United States of America, writing to her husband John Adams while he was in Philadelphia during the Continental Congresses in 1774. She wrote nearly 1200 letters to him, which are remarkable for their frankness, intimacy and literary skill though she was a self-educated woman. From Don Felipe to Louise is a letter […]

    29/07/2024
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    Daddy-Long-Legs

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    Chapter: 9 | Listen: 2

    Jerusha Abbott, an eighteen year old orphan, faces an uncertain future in the charity home where she has lived all her life. On reaching adulthood, the orphanage can no longer offer shelter to its inmates. Her anxiety leads her into wild speculation when she is summoned to the matron’s office. But a surprise awaits her. One of the visitors, a wealthy Trustee of the orphanage, has offered to fund Jerusha’s college education and fulfill her dreams of becoming a writer. The only condition he makes is that he remain anonymous and that she write to him regularly about her progress. Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster was first published in 1912. It follows an epistolatory format and traces the story through a series of letters exchanged between the youthful heroine, Jerusha and her mysterious benefactor whom she has privately nicknamed Daddy-Long-Legs based on a brief glimpse she caught of him once. The book is a young girl’s classic coming-of-age tale, a genre that includes the Little Women trilogy, the Katy series and the Anne of Green Gables books. Apart from being a heart-warming story, it also reflects the author’s social concerns and her interest in women’s issues and the suffragette movement. It is in a way a Beauty and the Beast fairy tale that reflects the transformation of the characters and their attitudes towards each other and life. Jean Webster was born in New York into a literary family. Her father, Charles Webster was Mark Twain’s business manager and head of Twain’s […]

    29/07/2024
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    Dracula

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    Chapter: 27 | Listen: 7

    Dracula tells the tale of a sinister Transylvanian aristocrat who seeks to retain his youth and strength by feeding off human blood. The author, Bram Stoker, a young Victorian theater professional, was probably inspired by the strange epidemic of vampirism that occurred in remote parts of Eastern Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. These stories were recounted by travelers who later arrived in England and other parts of Western Europe. Stoker initially meant the tale to be written as a play in which he wanted Sir Henry Irving, a leading Victorian actor, to play the role of the malevolent Count Dracula. However, as circumstances would have it, Irving never played the part and Stoker’s story finally took the form of a novel. The book, published in 1897, is constructed in a very interesting format. The story is told via a set of letters, diary entries, ship’s logs and newspaper reports. It begins with the journey of a young lawyer, Jonathan Harker, who is traveling to Transylvania on his legal firm’s business, to finalize the transfer of a property in England to an East European aristocrat, Count Dracula. Harker is initially charmed by the suave and debonair count’s hospitality, but gradually comes to realize Dracula’s malevolent intentions. The plot takes up the tale of various other people in the story – Harker’s fiancée Mina, her friend Lucy, a former suitor Dr Seward and his teacher, Professor Van Helsing. A host of other characters adds to the twists and turns in […]

    29/07/2024
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    Les liaisons dangereuses

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    Chapter: 19 | Listen:

    D’amants qu’ils étaient, le Vicomte de Valmont et la Marquise de Merteuil sont restés complices dans leurs projets de liaisons et confidents dans leur correspondance, chacun préservant sa réputation aux yeux du monde : d’homme irrésistible pour l’un, de femme respectable pour l’autre. Ils ont, cette fois-ci, jeté leur dévolu sur la Présidente de Tourvel, jeune femme vertueuse et dévote dont l’époux demeure au loin et Cécile Volanges, adolescente à peine sortie du couvent, promise au Comte de Gercourt, dont s’éprend le Chevalier Danceny. Si, à force de manipulations, leurs projets aboutissent, la première fera la gloire de son vainqueur, la seconde, le déshonneur de son mari lorsque la chose sera rendue publique. Suivons donc le courrier de ces protagonistes, de leurs parents, de leurs amis. Pourrons-nous « ne pas frémir en songeant au malheur que peut causer une seule liaison dangereuse » ? (Résumé par Ezwa)     [chương_files]  

    29/07/2024
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    Love and Friendship

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    Chapter: 3 | Listen: 2

    Begun when she was just eleven years old, Love and Friendship is one of Jane Austen’s stories that very few readers may have encountered before. Austen experts feel that this story was written, like many others, only for the pleasure of her family and friends. It is scribbled across three notebooks, in childish handwriting, and the complete work is thought to have been written over a period of six or seven years. It is dedicated to one of her cousins, whom she was very close to, Eliza de Feuillide. Eliza herself was an extremely colorful figure and is thought to have been the illegitimate daughter of the first Governor General of India, Warren Hastings. She was also a witness to the French Revolution where her husband, the self styled Comte de Feuillide was guillotined. For the young Jane, these events must have been sheer inspiration to a writer’s imagination. Love and Friendship takes the shape of an expostulatory novel. Written as a series of letters from Laura to a much younger Marianne who is her friend Isabel’s daughter, it is meant to apprise the young and flighty Marianne about the dangers of infatuation and falling headlong into romantic love. The book offers an early and crucial insight into Jane Austen’s style, her wonderful sense of humor and her take on contemporary society. At times, she portrays events almost in parody form, at others, she is sharp and critical, but as always, the typical Jane Austen brand of gentle, sparkling wit […]

    29/07/2024
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    Letters of Two Brides

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    Chapter: 57 | Listen: 4

    An epistolary novel written by renowned French novelist Balzac, who is regarded as one of the founders of realism and a significant influence to later novelists, the novel focuses on two young women who preserve their friendship through regular correspondence. Originally published in the French newspaper La Presse in 1841 as a serial, the piece later became a part of Balzac’s distinguished novel sequence La Comédie Humaine, or The Human Comedy. Furthermore_, Letters of Two Brides_ surrounds intriguing topics including love, romance, confusion, duty, and the complexity of relationships. The novel begins when two young women, Louise de Chaulieu and Renée de Maucombe, befriend one another during their time at a convent and accordingly agree to stay in touch after they leave. Soon after her departure from the convent, Louise receives a substantial inheritance from her grandmother, which is intended to secure her financial independence and sustain her ambitious lifestyle. This freedom allows her to move to Paris where she devotes her time to exciting social events and also meets Felipe Henarez, who later wins her affections with his romantic perseverance. Her marriage to him provides her with passionate love and a seemingly endless supply of happiness, though it is in fact short-lived. Renée on the other hand, does not see love as a prerequisite for marriage and for that reason marries a man quite her senior, with the belief that he will care for her and fulfill her desire to become a mother. While Renée is satisfied with the […]

    29/07/2024
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    Die Leiden des jungen Werther

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    Chapter: 11 | Listen: 3

    Die Leiden des jungen Werther beschreibt die unglückliche Liebe eines jungen Mannes (Werther) zu einer verlobten, später verheirateten Frau. Der Roman ist aus einer radikal subjektiven Perspektive geschrieben: er besteht nur aus Briefen von Werther vor allem an einen Freund namens Wilhelm. Erst im letzten Teil des zweiten Buches tritt ein Erzähler hinzu. Anhand der Briefe kann der Leser sowohl dem Verlauf der Handlung als auch den Gefühlen Werthers folgen, der immer verzweifelter wird, bis es schließlich in einer Katastrophe endet. Der Roman besteht aus zwei Büchern, die aber eher als zwei Teile eines einzigen Romans anzusehen sind. (Zusammenfassung von Rainer)     [chương_files]