Search
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Search in excerpt
Lọc theo loại bài đăng
Search in posts
Search in pages

30/08/2024
Right Way to Do Wrong cover

Right Way to Do Wrong

Rate this audiobook

Harry Houdini, master illusionist and contortionist, unmasks the various ways that criminals take advantage of their victims. (Summary by Lee Ann Howlett)     [chương_files]  

30/08/2024
Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 1: The Borgias and the Cenci (version 2) cover

Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 1: The Borgias and the Cenci (version 2)

Rate this audiobook

Dumas’s ‘Celebrated Crimes’ was not written for children. The novelist has spared no language–has minced no words–to describe the violent scenes of a violent time. In some instances facts appear distorted out of their true perspective, and in others the author makes unwarranted charges. The careful, mature reader, for whom the books are intended, will recognize, and allow for, this fact. (from publisher’s note) The first volume comprises the annals of the Borgias and the Cenci. The name of the noted and notorious Florentine family has become a synonym for intrigue and violence, and yet the Borgias have not been without stanch defenders in history. Another famous Italian story is that of the Cenci. The beautiful Beatrice Cenci–celebrated in the painting of Guido, the sixteenth century romance of Guerrazi, and the poetic tragedy of Shelley, not to mention numerous succeeding works inspired by her hapless fate—will always remain a shadowy figure and one of infinite pathos. ( From introduction)     [chương_files]  

30/08/2024
Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 5: Part 2: La Constantin cover

Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 5: Part 2: La Constantin

Rate this audiobook

Dumas chronicles the court intrigues that led to the execution of Marie La Roux Constantin. La dame Constantin was known by French nobility in the 17th century as the “midwife to the Queen’s daughters.” This title was, in reality, a dark jest as her business was providing dangerous (often maternally fatal) abortions to women ensnared in the machinations of powerful noblemen. This case also highlights how strongly gender inequalities permeated the justice system of this time as reviews by historians, like Dr. Leigh Whaley, found La Constantin was condemned “without any tangible evidence against her.” – Summary by jvanstan     [chương_files]  

30/08/2024
Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 5: Part 1: Desrues cover

Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 5: Part 1: Desrues

Rate this audiobook

This story chronicles the crimes of Antoine-Francois Desrues (also called “Derues”) from his childhood to his execution. Desrues constructed the veneer of a virtuous reputation that hid his ever-increasing deviancy from society. Eventually, his lust for fame and fortune (especially the latter) crumbled his virtuous veneer, revealing the startling extent of his crimes, and condemning him to justice by the executioner’s hand. – Summary by jvanstan     [chương_files]  

30/08/2024
Chronicles of Crime Vol 1 cover

Chronicles of Crime Vol 1

Rate this audiobook

This catalogue of human weakness and at times downright atrocity has been brought together by Camden Pelham, a barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple during the second half of the 19th century. It is given in chronological order, the first case listed is from 1700, and the final case in Volume 1 being in 1816. Some of the most famous cases of the age are listed, from Dick Turpin and Captain Kidd, to the assassination of Spencer Perceval MP, and the Luddites. Some cases will shock with descriptions of horrific murders, whilst others will amuse with the idiocy of the perpetrators. These 275 cases give a fascinating insight into life during 18th and 19th century Britain. (Summary by Kevin Green)     [chương_files]  

30/08/2024
Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 4: Part 2: Urbain Grandier cover

Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 4: Part 2: Urbain Grandier

Rate this audiobook

This is the dramatic story of Urbain Grandier, a catholic priest, who had a reputation to rival that of Casanova, which ultimately led to his destruction. He was accused of witchcraft after a series of accusations from nuns of a nearby convent, who claimed that Grandier has sent several demons upon them. The case is very well documented, and the original documents of the alleged pact, written in backwards Latin and signed by all participating demons, are still preserved. The case continues to inspire art and sciences, leading to assessments of the events in light of modern sociology, psychology, and legal sciences. Alexandre Dumas’ version of the events is presented here. – Summary by Carolin     [chương_files]  

30/08/2024
Chronicles of crime and criminals No.1 cover

Chronicles of crime and criminals No.1

Rate this audiobook

Published by Beaver Publishing Company, Toronto, and subtitled “Full and authentic account of the murder by Henry Wainwright of his mistress, Harriet Lane, and an extended account of the Whitechapel murders by the infamous Jack the Ripper.”     [chương_files]  

30/08/2024
Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 4: Part 3: Nisida (version 2) cover

Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 4: Part 3: Nisida (version 2)

Rate this audiobook

Dumas, with the assistance of several friends, compiled Celebrated Crimes, an eight-volume collection of essays on famous criminals and crimes from European history. . This volume tells the story of the infamous prison on Nisida a small island near Naples. – Summary by Michele Eaton     [chương_files]  

30/08/2024
Chronicles of Newgate Vol 2 cover

Chronicles of Newgate Vol 2

Rate this audiobook

Good against evil; right versus wrong; the judicial system against the criminal world. The struggle is as old as mankind. Sometimes the lines are blurred as the ‘good’ punish the ‘bad’ – the warriors against crime have resorted not only to killing wrong-doers, but additionally subjecting them to “starvation or the withholding of fluid, by drowning, stoning, impaling or by exposing the wretched victims to the stings of insects or snakes.” Newgate Prison was one of the most famous – or infamous – prisons in England from the middle ages until the nineteenth century. Griffiths, a prison administrator, takes us inside where we discover “man’s inhumanity to man”. Volume 2 picks up where Volume 1 left off. – Summary by Lynne Thompson     [chương_files]  

29/08/2024
First Offensive: The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal cover

First Offensive: The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal

Rate this audiobook

In the early summer of 1942, intelligence reports of the construction of a Japanese airfield near Lunga Point on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands triggered a demand for offensive action in the South Pacific. Completion of the Guadalcanal airfield might signal the beginning of a renewed enemy advance to the south and an increased threat to the lifeline of American aid to New Zealand and Australia. On 23 July 1942, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in Washington agreed that the line of communications in the South Pacific had to be secured. The Japanese advance had to be stopped. Thus, Operation Watchtower, the seizure of Guadalcanal came into being. – Summary by Henry I Shaw     [chương_files]