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Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom

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Published before 1800
Chapter: 68 | Listen: 4

You can call me Dr. Fathom. Or Count Fathom. But I’m not who I say I am. And can you blame me? My mother was a soldiers’ harlot who pocketed extra loot by wandering through the battlefield stripping the dead and dying of valuables. I don’t even know who my father was, except he must have had my handsome looks. People liked looking at me. And people liked how I talked too. Early on, I learned that telling the truth didn’t get you the same quick reward as telling them what they wanted to hear, being assiduously charming, dissimulating. In a word, lying. I became good at it. And I became the favorite of a rich Hungarian count who took me in and coaxed his pathetically naïve son to look up to me and learn to be like me. Ha! How I wanted to sell my soul to trade places with Renaldo! I wanted his money. I wanted his beautiful life. I wanted his beautiful wife — at least for an extra notch on my belt. This is the story of how I went about achieving those things. It was easy, especially at first. Because, to tell the truth, people secretly yearn for tall tales. – Summary by Arthur Krolman [chương_files]

Begum’s Fortune

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Published 1800 - 1900, Science Fiction, War & Military Fiction
Chapter: 20 | Listen:

A novel with some utopian elements, but primarily dystopian. A French doctor and a German professor both inherit a vast fortune as descendants of a French soldier who married the rich widow of an Indian prince. They both decide to go to America and establish their own “ideal” society. Dr. Sarrasin, the French doctor, is focused on maintaining public health. He builds Ville-France. Professor Schultze, the German scientist, is a bit of a militarist and racist. He builds Stahlstadt and devotes his city to the production of ever more powerful weapons so that he can destroy Sarrasin’s city. They manage to get the US to cede sovereignty to two cities so that the two newly rich men can create their utopia. The setting for Ville-France would place it on the Oregon Coast, near Bandon, Oregon. The location for the second city, Stahlstadt, is less clear, but the description would place it somewhere near Roseburg, Oregon. – Summary by Kate Follis [chương_files]

Heriot’s Choice

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Published 1800 - 1900
Chapter: 36 | Listen: 3

Mildred wants to start her full life at the age of 28. She is looking forward to it until her brother asks her to come help in his home and care for his children. She has to take the role of “Aunt Milly,” the almost happy and contented care taker. She meets Heriot, a woman doctor, who has her own ward. It remains for you to see how these women would influence each other. The book examines the role of a woman in society, and asks who is the strong woman? Is she the feminist or the ordinary? Would she be happy? – Summary by Stav Nisser. [chương_files]

Doctor Grimshawe’s Secret

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Published 1800 - 1900, Romance
Chapter: 26 | Listen: 1

Dr. Grimshawe is a spider-cultivating eccentric. The central secret of the book is an all-encompassing spiders web. The central character is loosely based on the author Nathaniel Hawthorne. He always considered the book as unfinished and it wasn’t published until after his death by his son Julian. Summary by Michele Eaton [chương_files]

Caxtons: A Family Picture

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Published 1800 - 1900
Chapter: 89 | Listen: 1

The quiet country life of the Caxton family is interrupted by a visit to London. There the son, Pisistratus, is offered the position of secretary to a leader in Parliament. That parliamentarian’s wife was loved as a girl by both Pisistratus’ father and uncle; but she had passed them both by to make a marriage better suited to an ambitious woman. By a freak of fate, Pisistratus now falls in love with her daughter Fannie. Meanwhile, Pisistratus’ uncle is estranged from his own son. Between each person’s pride, the rift doesn’t seem possible to settle. Pisistratus does what he can to heal the wounds and reunite the family. A further outline of this story would give no idea of its charm. The mutual affection of the Caxtons is finely indicated, and the gradations of light and shade make a beautiful picture. Never before had Bulwer written with so light a touch and so gentle a humor, and this novel has been called the most brilliant and attractive of productions. His gentle satire of certain phrases of political life was founded, doubtless, on actual experience. – Summary modified from “Warner’s Synopsis of Books Ancient and Modern, Vol. 2” (1910) [chương_files]

Miss Meredith

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Published 1800 - 1900
Chapter: 14 | Listen: 2

Miss Meredith is not the most talented of her sisters. In fact, she considers herself the typical of them. She has the adventure of a life time when she is offered the post of governess to an ancient noble Italian family. Things become even more complicated when the favorite son of the family falls in love with her. This book reflects the ancient traditions, and shows how things can change and how people from different walks of life react to changes. – Summary by Stav Nisser [chương_files]

Almayer’s Folly (Version 3)

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Published 1800 - 1900
Chapter: 12 | Listen: 2

Joseph Conrad was born in former Poland, spent part of his childhood exiled in Russia because of his father’s Polish nationalist political activities, learned and read French early, and did not speak a word of English until his late teens. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that when Conrad came to write this, his first novel, it centred on the pain of having a contested sense of identity, the experience of having to choose, in the midst of argument and derision, whether one was really ‘this or that’. The Almayer of the story is a morose and hapless trader of Dutch extraction, settled in shambolic poverty on a river in Borneo. He dreams of finding gold inland and taking his mixed-race daughter Nina triumphantly to the Netherlands, where neither of them has ever been. Nina and her strong-willed Filipina mother, however, prove to have quite different loyalties and a quite different plan — though this plan, in turn, soon appears to come unstuck. (Summary by Peter Dann) [chương_files]

Baitâl Pachchisi; Or, The Twenty-Five Tales of a Sprite

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Action & Adventure
Chapter: 27 | Listen: 2

Originally written in Sanskrit by Somdev Bhatt, the Vetala Panchavimshati or Baitâl Pachchisi, also popularly known as Vikram Betal is a collection of tales and legends from India. Set in the 11th century, the tales intend to impart moral/social lessons. The practices may not be viable anymore to the letter but the basic message may still act as a guide to help live good lives. – Summary by dc [chương_files]

Rhythm of Life and Other Essays

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Essays & Short Works
Chapter: 20 | 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 diverse collection of essays ranging from reflections on The Sun, and The Flower to the literary figures of Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Russell Lowell. – Summary by Larry Wilson [chương_files]

Taken at the Flood

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Published 1800 - 1900
Chapter: 36 | Listen: 3

Brought up by a parish schoolmaster with a hidden past, Sylvia Carew dreams of a future devoid of poverty. Will she be faithful to the man she adores or will she opt for the chance at wealth and position? What lengths will she go to and when all is said and done, will she be gratified with her “happily ever after”? Romance, ambition and greed, deceit and selfishness are at the root of this sensational Victorian novel by Braddon. As usual she manages to keep us in suspense until her well constructed surprise ending. – Summary by Celine Major [chương_files]