This speech was given March 23, 1775, at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, and is credited with having singlehandedly convinced the Virginia House of Burgesses to pass a resolution delivering the Virginia troops to the Revolutionary War. In attendance were Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Reportedly, the crowd, upon hearing the speech, jumped up and shouted, “To Arms! To Arms!” [chương_files]
Pepita would rather become a witch than a wife. She’s seen too many women, including her mother, wither away at their husband’s hands. Popular and respected, our gentle, but fiercely independent heroine immediately grows cruel and cold to any suitor drawn in by her allure. When a famous bullfighting lady killer from Madrid takes interest in her, will Pepita’s resolve crumble with disastrous consequences? A hit upon its 1899 release, this novella later spawned both a play and silent film adaptation. Despite its public popularity, its (now rather tame) intense love story and positive portrayal of Spaniards drew some controversy from English critics. Summary by Mary Kay. [chương_files]
The sweetest songs the world has ever heard are the lullabies that have been crooned above its cradles. The music of Beethoven and Mozart, of Mendelssohn and Schumann may perish, but so long as mothers sing their babies to sleep the melody of cradle lullabies will remain. Of all English and American writers the one who sang most often and most exquisitely these cradle songs was Eugene Field, the children’s poet. His verses not only have charm as poetry, but a distinct song quality and a naive fancy that is both childlike and appealing. That they were written out of Eugene Field’s deep and genuine love of children and out of his sympathetic understanding of their wondering minds is evident from the fact that his lullabies have taken a high and what seems to be a permanent place in the world’s classic literature of childhood. (Excerpted by Becky Miller from the Introduction by Edwin Osgood Grover to “Cradle Lullabies” by Eugene Field, published in 1909) [chương_files]
Wilde’s literary reputation has survived so much that I think it proof against any exhumation of articles which he or his admirers would have preferred to forget. As a matter of fact, I believe this volume will prove of unusual interest; some of the reviews are curiously prophetic; some are, of course, biassed by prejudice hostile or friendly; others are conceived in the author’s wittiest and happiest vein; only a few are colourless. And if, according to Lord Beaconsfield, the verdict of a continental nation may be regarded as that of posterity, Wilde is a much greater force in our literature than even friendly contemporaries ever supposed he would become. It should be remembered, however, that at the time when most of these reviews were written Wilde had published scarcely any of the works by which his name has become famous in Europe, though the protagonist of the æsthetic movement was a well-known figure in Paris and London. [chương_files]
LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 021: a collection of 20 public-domain poems. [chương_files]
First published in 1917, The Glugs of Gosh satirizes Australian life at the start of the twentieth century – but the absurdities it catalogs seem just as prevalent at the start of the twenty-first. The foolishness of kings, the arrogance of the elite, the gullibility of crowds, the pride of the self-righteous, the unthinking following of tradition – all find themselves the targets of C. J. Dennis’ biting wit. (Summary by Chris Goringe). [chương_files]
Chicago, May 4, 1886. In the Haymarket region of the city, a peaceful Labor Day demonstration suddenly turns into a riot. The police intervene to maintain peace, but they soon use violence to quell the mob and a bomb is thrown, resulting in death and injuries to scores of people. In the widely publicized trial that followed, eight anarchists were condemned to death or life imprisonment, convicted of conspiracy, though none of them had actually thrown the bomb. A young Russian immigrant, Emma Goldman, had arrived just the previous year in the United States. She was deeply affected by what came to be known as the Haymarket Affair. She took on various jobs, including that of a factory worker before becoming a writer and lecturer committed to anarchist philosophy. In the years to follow, she and her lover planned to assassinate a well known financier and industrialist. Though the victim survived, Goldman’s lover was sentenced to life imprisonment while she received a lesser sentence. However, she continued to spend time in and out of jail for various activities including distribution of literature regarding birth control, inducing people not to join the newly introduced military draft etc. She was deported back to Russia but found the regime there highly repressive and lived in Canada, England and France. She wrote passionately about issues that concerned humanity including prisons, religion, marriage, free love, the right of choice, capitalism, homosexuality, gender politics and militarism. Anarchism and Other Essays was first published by her own […]
Written in 1910, this “cyclopedia” is full of information that was quite useful at the time. A hundred years later, its text is more humorous than practical — although some advice never goes out of style. [chương_files]
Katharine has married Jack Ralston secretly and hoped to force her rich uncle’s hand in assisting him to find a career. After his refusal, she couldn’t face her new husband to break the news and a series of mishaps led everyone – Katharine included – to believe Jack had fallen victim to the demon he had been fighting: drink. Realizing that she need not acknowledge the marriage, yet unable to continue on as a single woman, she attends a dinner with some misgivings, knowing she will be seated by him. Meanwhile, he is confused by her cold treatment of him, assuming she had received the letter he sent her. All is explained at the dinner – but what will they do now? Continue as if nothing had happened? Or has the misunderstanding caused too great a rift? Will Jack ‘buckle down’ and take the boring office job he has already rejected, in order to be able to claim his wife and support her? Does the west hold the promise of a new beginning? Or will they swallow their pride and accept the very generous gift from Uncle Robert, which they have already rejected in order to make their own way? And how does Frank Miner’s news that Uncle Robert intended to buy the newspaper affect things? In this sequel to Katharine Lauderdale, we follow the newly married couple as they navigate the treacherous waters of married bliss. – Summary by Lynne Thompson [chương_files]
The Waste Land is a highly influential 433-line modernist poem by T. S. Eliot. It is perhaps the most famous and most written-about long poem of the 20th century, dealing with the decline of civilization and the impossibility of recovering meaning in life. Despite the alleged obscurity of the poem—its shifts between satire and prophecy, its abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time, its elegiac but intimidating summoning up of a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures—the poem has nonetheless become a familiar touchstone of modern literature. Among its famous phrases are “April is the cruelest month” (its first line); “I will show you fear in a handful of dust”; and “Shantih shantih shantih” (its last line). The title is sometimes mistakenly written as “The Wasteland”. (Summary from wikipedia.org) [chương_files]
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