Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in All Categories

In Thomas Mann's novella Death in Venice, a distinguished writer's holiday from the burdens of his work turns out very differently from what he expected. By means of the story, Mann explores the relationships between disciplined intellect and ungoverned passion, and between decaying age and youthful beauty, against a background that resonates today in a time of pandemics. It was first published in German (as Der Tod in Venedig) in 1912.

Isaac Asimov, known primarily for his science fiction stories, was also a scientist. In cooperation with the Senior Scholastic magazine, he composed this wonderful and fascinating work of historical nonfiction. Twenty-six far-reaching discoveries and the twenty-nine scientists who made them—from Archimedes, who boasted he could move the world, to Goddard, who sent the first liquid-fuel rocket toward space.

Welcome to The Brass Teapot and Other Stories - the best of Season 1 of the Fiction on the Web audiobook series. There are so many people out there making beautiful literary art, so many niches snugly filled, so many jokers and prophets and lovers and fighters, so many wonderful stories finding an audience. Literary magazines are packed full of love, craft, art for art's sake, art for life's sake. In a world full of divisions, where we're bombarded by shallow media and tyrannised by selfish politics, literary magazines are antidote, antithesis, haven.

Alexander Pope was celebrated for his command of classical Greek and produced seminal translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Prior to the preparation of these translations, Pope took advantage of his mastery of the classical style and also his waspish wit to compose a burlesque epic about the theft of a lock of hair. The incident that inspired Pope was related to him by his friend John Caryll. Lord Petre had cut off a lock of the hair of Arabella Fermor, whom he was courting at the time, without asking the lady's permission.

Oliver Twist is the well-loved tale of an orphan, who starts life in a workhouse and finds himself embroiled in London's criminal underworld, before being saved by a kind gentleman who knows something of his surprising family history. A satire and social commentary as well as a page-turning yarn, full of grit, wit, and some of the most memorable characters in English Literature. The second published serialised novel by Charles Dickens, The British Library remarks that "it has proven to be one of the best-loved novels in the history of literature".

The charismatic Count Dracula, a Transylvanian nobleman, wishes to purchase a house in London. Assisted in this enterprise by a young solicitor, Jonathan Harker, it becomes evident that there is a sinister side to the Count's plans. A small group of friends unite to prevent the success of the Count's schemes, hazarding danger to themselves for the greater good of humanity. The growing mystery is revealed through journal entries, letters, and telegrams written by the main characters.

What happens when an evil queen envies a princess for her beauty? How does the poor son of a farmer become the killer of giants? And what price is too high for a mermaid to become a human?

During World War I, an American secret service agent, Evelyn Erith, opens and deciphers a coded letter. It says the Germans believe that Kay MacKay, an American concentration camp escapee, knows The Great Secret. And that MacKay must be eliminated. Erith finds McKay, saves him from German agents and convinces him to join U.S. Intelligence. Together they venture undercover into the Swiss Alps to discover and expose The Great Secret. The future of Europe depends on it!

As all London is gripped by the horrific series of murders committed on its fog-bound streets by the self-styled "Avenger", respectable retired servants Robert Bunting and his wife Ellen are on the brink of personal disaster, in the ruin of their business. But then - miraculously as it seems - they are saved when the enigmatic Mr. Sleuth turns up at the door of their lodging house looking for rooms...but Ellen soon begins to suspect that Mr. Sleuth may be the very man who holds the capital in terror.

The 1946 biography of Harvey Cushing by John Fulton on audiobook for the first time ever!

Thirteen classic stories of horror and the supernatural by some of the greatest writers in the genre. This compilation includes a mix of well-known classics by authors such as Edith Nesbit, J. Sheridan Le Fanu and M. R. James, alongside several tales by less familiar names who were hugely popular and prolific in their day.

Under the auspices of the League for Political Discussion, in a meeting held at the Manhattan Opera House, Rev. John Haynes Holmes of the Community Church, taking the positive, and Clarence Darrow, taking the negative, debated the following proposition: "A Resolution that the United States should continue the policy of prohibition as defined in the 18th Amendment." The meeting was chaired by Senator Royal S. Copeland and introduced by Benjamin Javits.

Award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti reads "Ode to a Nightingale", a personal poem that describes Keats's journey into a state of negative capability. The tone of the poem rejects the optimistic pursuit of pleasure found within Keats's earlier poems and, instead, explores the themes of nature, transience, and mortality, the latter being particularly relevant to Keats.

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a poem written in 1922 by Robert Frost and published in 1923 in his New Hampshire volume. Imagery, personification, and repetition are prominent in the work. In a letter to Louis Untermeyer, Frost called it "my best bid for remembrance".

The intrepid private nurse/investigator is charged with the care of two young boys in a home full of conundrums. Both parents are fearful but refuse to leave their home and won't say why. The rugs have been rolled up and the furniture piled into the middle of each room. Their anxiety is catching, as Miss Adams too furtively watches for danger as she searches for clues. Why, she wonders, do they lock every door in the house? And who or what is the menace that terrifies them?

Sense and Sensibility is Jane Austen’s first published novel. It tells the much-loved story of the two, very different, Dashwood sisters. Elinor suppresses her own emotions out of a keen sense of responsibility to her family and friends, while Marianne is highly expressive and romantic. When their father dies, British law leaves everything to their half-brother and his tight-fisted wife, and Elinor and Marianne, along with their mother and younger sister, have to move to a cottage on a relative’s estate where they experience the full spectrum of romance and betrayal.

The aim of this 1908 classic book is to present inclear form the simple principles of investment, and to afford the reader a workin knowledge ofthe various classes of securities that were available as investments at the time and theirelative adaptability to different needs. The book is an outgrowth of the writer's personal experience as an investment banker.

New Grub Street (1891) has the reputation of being George Gissing's finest novel. With bitter humour and grim realism, it tells the story of the ambitions, dreams, and disappointments of men and women struggling to earn their living as writers in the closing years of the Victorian era. Jasper Milvain is a young writer of limited talent, eager to exploit every opportunity and social connection in order to make his way. For those who toil "in the valley of the shadow of books" the spectre of poverty looms large.

It is 1934. Red-headed Henry Cook, fresh out of Amherst and excited about working on his first book at an infamous writers' colony, arrives at the Vermont island retreat at the invitation of its owner, Thaddeus Hulbert, a boisterous, bellowing, bloviated curmudgeon, whose reputation as a novelist, columnist, and radio commentator has vaulted him to national prominence.

This celebrated collection of 44 love sonnets was composed in 1845-1846, during the period of the poet's courtship with Robert Browning. Despite the collection's title, the poems are not translations but original compositions. The notation "Portuguese" may refer to the poet's admiration for the work of the Portuguese poet Luís Vaz de Camões.