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    22/06/2024
    Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 054 cover

    Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 054

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    Chapter: 16 | Listen: 3

    Sixteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include Science and Exploration–a tribute to Egyptologist Amelia Edwards, and discourses on gravitation and relativity by Georges-Louis Le Sage and Ralph Sampson; Sociology and Society–Julio Guerrero on the Mexican character, reflections on life from Kierkegaard’s Diapsalmata, Immanuel Kant on religious education, the fate of romance in the King of Siam’s harem, nickelodeons, and the tragic results of an 1851 fire on small businesses in New York’s Bowery; Nature–how weeds spread, animal coloration, and mountaineering in the Rockies; as well as a biography of Buster Keaton, and a treatise on British hat making in the age of Top Hats with styles named the Bang-Up and the Vis-a-Vis. (summary by Sue Anderson)     [chương_files]  

    22/06/2024
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    Ceres’ Runaway & Other Essays

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    Chapter: 21 | Listen: 4

    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.” The Meynell’s later converted to Roman Catholicism. These essays are very evocative for anyone who has, or wants to visit London, capturing the atmosphere of the late nineteenth century In “Ceres’ Runaway,” she covers topics ranging through travel, literature and children. – Summary by Larry Wilson     [chương_files]  

    22/06/2024
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    From the Easy Chair Vol. 2

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    Chapter: 30 | Listen:

    The second volume of essays and observations From the Easy Chair of William Curtis, editor of Harper’s Weekly and one of the founders of the American Republican party, and served Ulysses S. Grant; although he split from the party in the 1880s over the choice of presidential candidate. He was an original member of the New York Board of Education. – Summary by Lynne Thompson     [chương_files]  

    22/06/2024
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    From the Easy Chair Vol. 3

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    Chapter: 26 | Listen: 4

    The third volume of essays and observations From the Easy Chair of William Curtis, editor of Harper’s Weekly and one of the founders of the American Republican party, and served Ulysses S. Grant; although he split from the party in the 1880s over the choice of presidential candidate. He was an original member of the New York Board of Education. ( Lynne Thompson)     [chương_files]  

    22/06/2024
    Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 052 cover

    Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 052

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    Chapter: 17 | Listen: 2

    Seventeen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include Nature and Science–fall scenery, rose oil, large type books for low vision, the pulmotor, and the method of scientific investigation; Philosophy and Thought–Joseph Priestly, Kierkegaard, Rousseau, and A.C. Bradley on poetry; History and Travel–John Johnston founder of Sault St. Marie, eating in Berlin, and Sir John Mandeville’s travels; a Japanese folk tale; a defense of Lady Bryon by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and a Virginia slave narrative by Minnie Fulkes. (Summary by Sue Anderson) “Preparation for a Christian Life” was translated by Lee M. Hollander.     [chương_files]  

    21/06/2024
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    Visions and Revisions

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    Chapter: 19 | Listen: 4

    Powys presents a set of literary devotions of great figures in Literature who have obsessed him. He attempts not so much a reasoned critique or any attempt to categorise these figures but rather, as he describes in the Preface: “to give [himself] up, absolutely and completely, to the various visions and temperaments of these great dead artists.” Powys delivered popular lectures throughout the United States and was able to hold audiences in rapt attention for hours while speaking about great literature and writers, this book from the earlier part of his writing career gives us a little glimpse into what those lectures must have been like. – Summary by Keri Ford     [chương_files]  

    21/06/2024
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    Note-Books of Samuel Butler

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    Chapter: 33 | Listen:

    Early in his life Samuel Butler began to carry a note-book and to write down in it anything he wanted to remember; it might be something he heard some one say, more commonly it was something he said himself. In one of these notes he gives a reason for making them: “One’s thoughts fly so fast that one must shoot them; it is no use trying to put salt on their tails.” So he bagged as many as he could hit and preserved them, re-written on loose sheets of paper which constituted a sort of museum stored with the wise, beautiful, and strange creatures that were continually winging their way across the field of his vision. As he became a more expert marksman his collection increased and his museum grew so crowded that he wanted a catalogue. In 1874 he started an index, and this led to his reconsidering the notes, destroying those that he remembered having used in his published books and re-writing the remainder. The re-writing shortened some but it lengthened others and suggested so many new ones that the index was soon of little use and there seemed to be no finality about it. In 1891 he attached the problem afresh and made it a rule to spend an hour every morning re-editing his notes and keeping his index up to date. At his death, in 1902, he left five bound volumes, with the contents dated and indexed, about 225 pages of closely written sermon paper to […]

    21/06/2024
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    Spirit of Place and Other Essays

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    Chapter: 17 | Listen:

    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 collection of her essays covering a wide range of topics from the opening essay on the “Spirit of Place” to a playful essay about the foot, and musing on topics such as rain, the horizon and the concluding essay, “Shadows.” – Summary by Larry Wilson     [chương_files]  

    21/06/2024
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    Interpretation of Keats’s Endymion

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    Chapter: 6 | Listen: 3

    Endymion is the largest work by John Keats and was composed between April and November 1817. When it was published in April 1818 the critical reception was almost universally hostile. Since that time, many readers have found the poem dense and inaccessible, and have preferred to focus on the occasional gems of poetic commentary for which it has become famous. Feeling that the poem was both undervalued and misunderstood, in 1919 Professor Clement Notcutt published a lengthy essay, which could be considered a “user’s guide” to Endymion. He sums up his intent in the introduction: A careful study of Endymion made some ten years ago led to the conclusion that there was more of allegorical significance in the poem than had hitherto been recognised, but the effort to trace that significance was only partially successful. Further study since that time has gradually opened up the way to the interpretation that is worked out in the following pages. It is probable that there are details in the story the meaning of which still lies hidden, but it may at least be hoped that enough has been discovered to win for the poem its rightful place among the not very numerous examples in English poetry of well-wrought allegory. In 1921 Notcutt published a further essay entitled: The Story of Glaucus in Keat’s Endymion. – Summary by Algy Pug     [chương_files]  

    20/06/2024
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    Children

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    Chapter: 18 | Listen: 3

    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 collection of her essays on children. The opening line for the first essay sets the stage. “To attend to a living child is to be baffled in your humour, disappointed of your pathos, and set freshly free from all the pre-occupations.  You cannot anticipate him.” – Summary by Larry Wilson     [chương_files]