16/07/2024
Short Poetry Collection 030
LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 030: a collection of 20 public-domain poems. [chương_files]
16/07/2024
J’accuse…!
J’accuse est le titre d’un article rédigé par Émile Zola lors de l’affaire Dreyfus et publié dans le journal L’Aurore du 13 janvier 1898 sous forme d’une lettre ouverte au Président de la République Félix Faure. Il s’est inspiré d’un dossier fourni en 1896 par l’écrivain Bernard Lazare. (Résumé de Wikipedia) “J’accuse!” (I accuse!) was published January 13, 1898 in the maiden issue of the newspaper L’Aurore (The Dawn). It had the effect of a bomb. In the words of historian Barbara Tuchman, it was “one of the great commotions of history.” Zola’s intent was to force his own prosecution for libel so that the emerging facts of the Dreyfus case could be thoroughly aired. In this he succeeded. He was convicted, appealed, was retried, and, before hearing the result, fled to England on the advice of his counsel and friends, returning to Paris in June 1899 when he heard that Dreyfus’s trial was to be reviewed. [chương_files]
16/07/2024
Short Poetry Collection 039
LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 039: a collection of 20 public-domain poems. [chương_files]
16/07/2024
Passionate Pilgrim
The Passionate Pilgrim was published by William Jaggard, later the publisher of Shakespeare’s First Folio. The first edition survives only in a single fragmentary copy; its date cannot be fixed with certainty since its title page is missing, though many scholars judge it likely to be from 1599, the year the second edition appeared with the attribution to Shakespeare. This version of The Passionate Pilgrim, contains 15 romantic sonnets and short poems. The works contained, while disputed as to authorship, are in this writer’s most humble opinion among the best of the age. (Summary by Caliban and Wikipedia) [chương_files]
16/07/2024
American Notes
In American Notes, Rudyard Kipling, the Nobel Prize-winning author of the Jungle Book, visits the USA. As the travel-diary of an Anglo-Indian Imperialist visiting the USA, these American Notes offer an interesting view of America in the 1880s. Kipling affects a wide-eyed innocence, and expresses astonishment at features of American life that differ from his own, not least the freedom (and attraction) of American women. However, he scorns the political machines that made a mockery of American democracy, and while exhibiting the racist attitudes that made him controversial in the 20th century concludes “It is not good to be a negro in the land of the free and the home of the brave.” G. A. England of Harvard University (letter to The New York Times 10/11/1902) wrote: “To the American temperament, the gentleman who throws stones while himself living in a glass house cannot fail to be amusing; the more so if, as in Mr Kipling’s case, he appears to be in a state of maiden innocence regarding the structure of his own domicile.” Summary by Tim Bulkeley with Quotations from the Gutenberg edition of American Notes and the online version of The New York Times of October 11th 1902. [chương_files]
16/07/2024
Dodo: A Detail of the Day
Fashionably controversial bestseller at the time of appearance (1893), portraying London “society” in the Fin de Siècle. Dodo is a young woman who enjoys belonging to the high society. At the start of the book, she is about to make an advantageous marriage, to a man with money and a title – just what she needs. This audiobook includes Volume 1 & 2 (the complete novel) – Summary by Anna Simon [chương_files]
16/07/2024
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
The book chronicles and vilifies its targets in three parts: “National Delusions”, “Peculiar Follies”, and “Philosophical Delusions”. The subjects of Mackay’s debunking include alchemy, beards (influence of politics and religion on), witch-hunts, crusades and duels. Present day writers on economics, such as Andrew Tobias, laud the three chapters on economic bubbles. [chương_files]
16/07/2024
Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll
Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) was a Civil War veteran, American political leader and orator during the Golden Age of Freethought, noted for his defense of atheism. This book is the first of two volumes collecting Ingersoll’s speeches. [chương_files]
16/07/2024
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, September 1930
This is a collection of short science fiction stories by various writers, circa 1930. Writers include Paul Ernst, Miles Breuer, Ray Cummings, Sewell Wright, and others. [chương_files]
16/07/2024
All Things Considered
Another delightful and sharply pointed excursion into the topics of the day, and of this day as well, with Gilbert Keith Chesterton. These reprinted magazine articles are filled with his good natured wit, his masterful use of paradox, and devastating ability to use reductio ad absurdum to destroy the popular myths that drive a society driving full-speed into secular humanism. You will come away with a whole new collection of wonderful quotes. (Ray Clare) [chương_files]