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Fantasy Fan Magazine Presents: Writings of Clark Ashton Smith

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Essays & Short Works, Fantastic Fiction, Poetry
Chapter: 18 | Listen: 1

Collected here are all of Clark Aston Smith’s writings he submitted to The Fantasy Fan Magazine. The Fantasy Fan Magazine was a periodical dedicated to people professing their love of and celebrating fantasy and weird fiction. In addition to the opinion pieces and non-fiction articles, The Fantasy Fan also included many short stories and poems by some of the authors it celebrated such as H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, a personal favorite of editor Charles D. Hornig. Smith contributed quite a variety of stories, poems and articles to The Fantasy Fan over its two-year tenure. From the weird and creepy journeys to unknown worlds of “The Kingdom of the Worm” and “The Primal City” to the strange and haunting poetry of “A Dream of the Abyss” and “Necromancy” to the insightful essays on M. R. James and fantastic fiction in general, Smith shows the breadth of his writing skill within the pages of this sadly short-lived ‘zine. (Summary by Ben Tucker) [chương_files]

13/07/2024

A selection of poems by Sir Walter Raleigh

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Poetry
Chapter: 1 | Listen: 5

Sir Walter Raleigh (c. 1552 – 29 October 1618) was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England. Raleigh’s poetry is written in the relatively straightforward, unornamented mode known as the plain style. C. S. Lewis considered Raleigh one of the era’s “silver poets”, a group of writers who resisted the Italian Renaissance influence of dense classical reference and elaborate poetic devices. In poems such as “What is Our Life” and “The Lie”, Raleigh expresses a contemptus mundi (contempt of the world) attitude more characteristic of the Middle Ages than of the dawning era of humanistic optimism. But, his lesser-known long poem “The Ocean to Cynthia” combines this vein with the more elaborate conceits associated with his contemporaries Edmund Spenser and John Donne, expressing a melancholy sense of history. A minor poem of Raleigh’s captures the atmosphere of the court at the time of Queen Elizabeth I. His response to Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” was “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”. “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” was written in 1592, while Raleigh’s “The Nymph’s Reply to The Shepherd” was written four years later. Both were written in the style of traditional pastoral poetry. They follow the same structure of six four-line stanzas employing a rhyme scheme of AABB. Poems in this collection: Epitaph The Nymph’s Reply to the ShepherdThe Lie The Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage Life A Farewell to False Love Praised be Diana’s […]

H.M.S. Pinafore; Or, The Lass That Loved A Sailor

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Published 1800 - 1900, Satire
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. […]

Ralph the Heir

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Published 1800 - 1900
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

Most Wanted poetry collection

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Poetry
Chapter: 2 | Listen: 3

Ten early Public Domain poems by some of the authors mention of whose most popular works is most likely to come in close proximity to the word “sorry” in the LV forums. Included are: JRR Tolkien, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Dorothy L Sayers, CS Lewis, William Faulkner, Kahlil Gibran, DH Lawrence, Robert Graves and Ernest Hemingway. [chương_files]

Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 096

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Essays & Short Works
Chapter: 20 | Listen: 4

“Can we solve the problems confronting us? Well, the answer is an unequivocal and emphatic yes.” This quote, from U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural address, captures the searching tone of many reader-chosen selections in vol. 096: The Peace Movement; Fortifications for Peace; An Effective Diplomatic Service; Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs; Bigamy Act; Trade in the Dead; Traffic in Women; Inaugural addresses of Presidents Carter and Reagan; and an essay “Have You an Educated Heart? Other readings highlight the arts: Parchment bindings; the Chinese Book; Folklore of Southern India; The Rosetta Stone; The WPA Art Collection; Jackie Coogan and the Kid; the Cradle of the Movies; and View of a City Sky Line. Rounding out the collection is a humorous piece, The Fatal Legs. Note: The missing part of “The Rosetta Stone (Except)” concerns the deciphering of hieroglyphs, which is difficult to convey in audio. Please see the text.” Summary by Sue Anderson [chương_files]

Juggernaut: A Veiled Record

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Published 1800 - 1900, Romance
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]

Christmas Carol (version 06)

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Published 1800 - 1900
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]

Happiness: Essays on the Meaning of Life

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Essays & Short Works
Chapter: 9 | Listen: 3

A series of essays based on Christian doctrines on how to attain true happiness. – Summary by Lynne T [chương_files]

Songs of Innocence and Experience

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Poetry
Chapter: 47 | Listen: 2

William Blake’s volume of poetry entitled Songs of Innocence and Experience is the embodiment of his belief that innocence and experience were “the two contrary states of the human soul,” and that true innocence was impossible without experience. Songs of Innocence contains poems either written from the perspective of children or written about them. Many of the poems appearing in Songs of Innocence have a counterpart in Songs of Experience, with quite a different perspective of the world. The disastrous end of the French Revolution caused Blake to lose faith in the goodness of mankind, explaining much of the despair found in Songs of Experience. Blake also believed that children lost their innocence through exploitation and from a religious community which put dogma before mercy. He did not, however, believe that children should be kept from becoming experienced entirely. In truth, he believed that children should indeed become experienced but through their own discoveries, which is reflected in a number of these poems. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Annie Coleman) [chương_files]