Louise Imogen Guiney, and American poet and essayist, here presents twenty essays with her characteristic wit and poetic flair and often a touch of satire on sometimes common topics such as the apple, the moon, mathematics and the garret, even the provocative “On Teaching One’s Grandmother how to Suck Eggs.” – Summary by Larry Wilson [chương_files]
Alice Meynell was an English essayist, critic, and poet who was also a leading suffragist, serving as vice-president of the Women Writers’ Suffrage League. She and her husband Wilfrid Meynell were active in publishing and editing literary works including helping to launch the first works of Francis Thompson, author of “Hound of Heaven.” This is a diverse collection of essays ranging from reflections on The Sun, and The Flower to the literary figures of Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Russell Lowell. – Summary by Larry Wilson [chương_files]
This collection showcases fabricated documents and stories throughout history, and the diversity of purposes and contexts they were deployed in. The “Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery of Montreal” is a fabricated anti-Catholic eye-witness account, published in 1836 and purporting to reveal the horrors of life in a convent. The Donation of Constantine is a forged imperial decree, supposedly enacting a perpetual transfer of authority over the western part of the Roman Empire from the emperor to the Pope. George Psalmanazar, who passed himself off as a native of Formosa (Taiwan), wrote a fanciful book about the island, which made a splash in 18th-century London. The Great Moon Hoax was a series of fantastical descriptions of the moon, published in the 1830s by the New York newspaper The Sun, and falsely attributed to the famous astronomer Sir John Herschel. Bram Stoker tells the legend of Sebastian of Portugal, the “Hidden King”, and the story of Franz Mesmer, the purveyor of “animal magnetism” from whose name the word “mesmerize” is derived. “An Architectural Monograph on a New England Village” is a painstakingly documented and illustrated description of a village that never existed. James Macpherson presented the Poems of Ossian as a traditional epic cycle translated from Scottish Gaelic, but modern scholars believe that he largely wrote the poems himself. E. G. Redmond tells of a hoax involving postage stamps, the first of which was conceived by a stamp collector in Germany. “Sketch of the Mosquito Shore” was a glowing but […]
This is the 27th Coffee Break Collection, in which Librivox readers select and read poems, fiction and non-fiction pieces of fifteen minutes’ duration or less. In honor of the Super Bowl, the subject for this collection is “Sports”. [chương_files]
A collection of the newspaper columns/essays written by G.K. Chesterton for “The New Witness”, under the heading “At the Sign of the World’s End”. This project compiles the articles from 1921 (Summary by Maria Therese) [chương_files]
Hillaire Belloc of French by birth, British by naturalization was a diverse and prolific writer of the early 20th century. His writing runs the range from poetry, political writings and children’s stories. He was a close friend, and sometimes collaborator with fellow Catholic G.K. Chesterton. This book is a collection of essays and other short writings on a vast array of subjects ranging from observations on the barber, the duel, reflections on war and religion. Some are in the form of drama, dialogue and letters but always engaging with wit and satire. – Summary by Larry Wilson Proof-listened by LynnJM and ADKreader [chương_files]
This is the twenty-fifth Coffee Break Collection, in which Librivox readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration — perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is water, a subject that has attracted Archimedes, Shelley and Masefield, to name but a few. [chương_files]
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan is a collection of essays by Lafcadio Hearn detailing his first impressions of the country he found so fascinating he decided to stay there for the rest of his life. In these essays and recollections he expresses his curiosity, bewilderment, and marvel at Japanese tradition, culture and lifestyle. Lafcadio Hearn is best known as the most notable person to introduce Japan to the West. He produced about thirty works, including translations, retellings of folktales, and travelogues. – Summary by mlcui [chương_files]
This is the 26th Coffee Break Collection, in which Librivox readers select and read poems, fiction and non-fiction pieces of fifteen minutes’ duration or less. The subject for this collection is “It’s a Small World”. Readers have interpreted this in their own way, so we have selections such as Asteroids, Small Country Houses of Today and stories for “small people”, such as Jack and the Beanstalk. [chương_files]
In these 10 short and witty essays, author Charles S. Brooks (1878-1934) muses on various topics, as wide-ranging as Shakespeare, travelling to foreign countries, or even fashion (night-caps and hoopskirts), to name only a few. – Summary by Sonia [chương_files]
Copyright © 2024 | FreeAudible