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Published 1800 – 1900

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13/07/2024
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Strangers at Lisconnel

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Chapter: 10 | Listen: 3

Strangers at Lisconnel is a sequel to Jane Barlow’s Irish Idylls. The locations and most of the characters are common to both. There is great humor and concomitantly a certain melancholy in most of these stories of the most rural of rural places in Ireland. Although of a higher social class than her characters, Our Jane seems to have a touch of softness in her heart for their utter simplicity, abject poverty and naiveté. From the following brief example of dialogue, can be seen that Ms Barlow could only have come to write these words after having heard them countless times in person: Mrs. Kilfoyle: “I declare, now, you’d whiles think things knew what you was manin’ in your mind, and riz themselves up agin it a’ purpose to prevint you, they happen that conthráry.” Although Jane Barlow did not consider her poetry worthwhile, the rythmn and music of her prose is magical to the ear. (Summary by JCarson)     [chương_files]  

13/07/2024
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H.M.S. Pinafore; Or, The Lass That Loved A Sailor

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Chapter: 2 | Listen: 5

In this recording, one person reads the entire play, all parts, including the stage directions. Even without the support of Arthur Sullivan’s music and the interpretation of actors, the consummate silliness of Gilbert’s libretto entertains. H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical theatre piece up to that time. H.M.S. Pinafore was Gilbert and Sullivan’s fourth operatic collaboration and their first international sensation. The story takes place aboard the British ship HMS Pinafore. The captain’s daughter, Josephine, is in love with a lower-class sailor, Ralph Rackstraw, although her father intends her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty. She abides by her father’s wishes at first, but Sir Joseph’s advocacy of the equality of humankind encourages Ralph and Josephine to overturn conventional social order. They declare their love for each other and eventually plan to elope. The captain discovers this plan, but, as in many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a surprise disclosure changes things dramatically near the end of the story. Drawing on several of his earlier “Bab Ballad” poems, Gilbert imbued this plot with mirth and silliness. The opera’s humour focuses on love between members of different social classes and lampoons the British class system in general. […]

13/07/2024
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Ralph the Heir

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Chapter: 58 | Listen: 5

As usual, Trollope creates a nice variety of characters of different English classes, sentiments and positions. The primary themes are the inheritance of property, extravagance or reason in the spending of assets, the mating of young people, and the electoral practices of the time. The election chapters are based on Trollope’s own experiences when he ran for Parliament. There are, of course, many subplots which allow Trollope to express, through dialog, his opinions about greed, snobbery, work ethics and dandyism. Trollope probably regretted the duplicative naming of his characters after a while; we have two Gregory Newtons, uncle (and present Squire of Newton) and one of his nephews. Then there are several Ralphs: the (deceased) father, Ralph his son (the heir), and Ralph (not the heir) the son of the uncle Gregory! As they appear, Trollope has to interject “not the heir”, or “the other Ralph”. Ralph the heir is an extravagant, easy living young man who has spent himself into debt, and is faced with having to either sell his right to the family property, or marrying a wealthy tradesman’s (a breeches maker cutely named Mr. Neefit) daughter. Four young women are major characters, and these are sought by the two Ralphs, young Gregory, and a bootmaker, Ontario Moggs (don’t you love the names?). These include the fairly sedate daughters of the family lawyer, a ravishing West Indian beauty come to live with them, and the tradesman’s daughter. There are the classic novel “misunderstandings” from errors in communication; while […]

13/07/2024
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Juggernaut: A Veiled Record

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Chapter: 41 | Listen: 6

Edgar Braine was consistently successful at all he set out to accomplish. He went through life with goals and worked diligently and with ethical purity in reaching those goals, from becoming editor of the local newspaper on up to his political aspirations. That was how his mother, in her waning years, had advised him to reach his goals, and Edgar was determined to honor her advice. There was one caveat in his mothers advice however, and it is for Edgar to determine exactly what she meant by it. Is success measured by the interactions between business, politics, and marriage? (Summary by Roger)     [chương_files]  

13/07/2024
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Christmas Carol (version 06)

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Chapter: 5 | Listen: 4

The tale begins on a Christmas Eve exactly seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge’s business partner. Scrooge has no place in his life for kindness, compassion, charity or benevolence. He hates Christmas, calling it “humbug”, refuses his nephew Fred’s dinner invitation, and rudely turns away two gentlemen who seek a donation from him to provide a Christmas dinner for the Poor… (Summary by Wikipedia and Kara)     [chương_files]  

13/07/2024
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Uncle Tom’s Cabin (version 2)

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Chapter: 45 | Listen: 3

This is a deeply moving novel centered around the lives of Uncle Tom and others and which very effectively portrays the suffering caused by the practice of slavery in the American South, prior to and during the time of the Civil War. It also provides a fascinating character study of a wide variety of people, including various slave owners, families of slave owners, traders, bystanders, the slaves themselves, and participants in the underground railroad. On one hand there is the ignorance, false mindsets, indifference and even blatant cruelty and abuse on the part of some, and on the other hand there is great love and compassion and sacrifice on the part of others. This was the best-selling novel of the 19th Century and is said to have helped fuel the cause of the abolitionists. (Summary by Larraine Paquette and Wikipedia)     [chương_files]  

13/07/2024
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Three Clerks (version 2)

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Chapter: 47 | Listen: 2

Romance and crime in the mid-19th century British Civil Service. In this early novel,Trollope draws on his own experiences as a junior clerk in the General Post Office to provide an entertaining and moving account of how ambition within the service can affect friendship and love. (Summary by Anthony Ogus)     [chương_files]  

12/07/2024
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New Grub Street

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Chapter: 46 | Listen: 3

“The story deals with the literary world that Gissing himself had experienced. Its title refers to the London street, Grub Street, which in the 18th century became synomynous with hack literature; as an institution, Grub Street itself no longer existed in Gissing’s time. Its two central characters are a sharply contrasted pair of writers: Edwin Reardon, a novelist of some talent but limited commercial prospects, and a shy, cerebral man; and Jasper Milvain, a young journalist, hard-working and capable of generosity, but cynical and unscrupulous about writing and its purpose in the modern (i.e. late Victorian) world”. Summary from Wikipedia.     [chương_files]  

12/07/2024
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Way of All Flesh

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Chapter: 43 | Listen: 5

The Way of All Flesh (1903) is a semi-autobiographical novel by Samuel Butler which attacks Victorian-era hypocrisy. Written between 1873 and 1884, it traces four generations of the Pontifex family. It represents the diminishment of religious outlook from a Calvinistic approach, which is presented as harsh. Butler dared not publish it during his lifetime, but when it was published it was accepted as part of the general revulsion against Victorianism. This novel ranks number 12 of the 100 Great Novels of the 20th Century as chosen by the Modern Library Board of Editors (Summary from Wikipedia)     [chương_files]  

12/07/2024
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Mayor of Casterbridge

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Chapter: 45 | Listen: 4

The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) is a tragic novel by English author Thomas Hardy subtitled, “The Life and Death of a Man of Character”. It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge (based on the town of Dorchester in Dorset). The book is one of Hardy’s Wessex novels, all set in a fictional rustic England. (Wikipedia) A poor, disgruntled, drunken young man sells his wife and child to the highest bidder. When he awakens, sober, the next day he regrets his rash act and vows to give up drink and find his family and bring them home. Eventually he is forced to give up the search and move on with his life. He does this quite successfully until, nearly 20 years later, his past comes back to haunt him. (DebraLynn)     [chương_files]