Showing results by narrator "Jim Killavey" in All Categories

This book is considered by many to be the finest literary biography ever published. Samuel Johnson was the leading literary scholar and critic of his age, helping to define the Augustan Age of English Literature. He is as celebrated for his brilliant conversation as he is for his writing.

Emerson's ideas are alive and well and very much with us today. Consider that Emerson, now an establishment figure, was a rebel in his time. He could find no relevance in established religion. But, unlike others, he set out to reform it. Many of his ideas now seem obvious and as American as apple pie.

Sir Walter Scott gathered a popular audience, larger than any audience before. A great innovator,he created one of the outstanding literary forms of the past 200 years - the historical novel. In Ivanhoe, Scott brings to life 12th century England.

The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles, written between 1897 and 1888, advocating for the ratification of the United States Constitution. They serve as a primary source for interpretation of the Constitution, as they outline the philosophy and motivation of the proposed system of government.

James Fenimore Cooper wrote five "leather-stocking" tales. This is the second and most famous. It comes between The Deerslayer and The Pathfinder. Here the white frontiersman, Hawkeye (aka Natto Bumppo and Leather Stocking) is nobly matched with Uncas, the Indian of the title.

The Varieties of Religious Experience is considered to be the classic work in the field. To quote Wikipedia, "James was most interested in understanding personal religious experience. The importance of James to the psychology of religion - and to psychology more generally - is difficult to overstate. He discussed many essential issues that remain of vital concern today. What makes James writing so special is that he could take a very complex subject and, without watering it down, make it understandable to 'the rest of us.'"

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American philosopher, lecturer, essayist, and poet, who is best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was a a champion of individualism and wrote dozens of essays. Most criics consider "Self-Reliance" his best. It has the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's repeating themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency.

Walden or, "Life in the Woods", is, primarily, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. Henry David Thoreau kept a journal during his stay in a cabin beside Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, for two years, two months, and two days, from July 1845 to Sept 1847. The book is based on that journal.

Hear some of the greatest American essays ever written! This unabridged collection covers a multitude of subjects, including philosophy, politics, turkeys, and dogs.

Very similar in style to Walden, and in fact written while he stayed at Walden Pond, this account chronicles Throeau's 1830 boat trip. In it, he weaves together travel writing, essays on religion, history, and lyrical poetry, as well as his own unique philosophy.

Richard Henry Dana called this book a "a voice from the sea". It had an influence on both Joseph Conrad and Herman Melville, both of whom sang its praises. Dana was a law student at Harvard College who decided, in 1834, to take a break from his studies in order to experience the "real world" by signing on as a common sailor for a two year voyage from Boston around Cape Horn to California. He kept a journal which he turned into a book after the voyage.

The Warlord of Mars is the third science fiction novel in Burroughs' famous Barsoom series. The princess Dejah Thoris, John Carter's beloved wife, has been captured by a nemesis bent not only on Carter's destruction, but that of Mars, as well. It is up to Carter to unite the warring races of Mars in a race to avoid doomsday.

The story concerns a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who conducts a great experiment to see if he can create a living being from the body parts of corpses. Only whe the experiment is successful does he begin to think of the ethics and consequences of what he has done. The creature he created becomes embittered when he finds that no one will love him becuase of his appearance.

Compiled by Father Joseph De Beaufort, this book introduces us to a 17th century Carmelite monk known as Brother Lawrence. Lawrence worked in the kitchens and as a cobbler for the Carmelites. He rejoiced in everyday tasks, prayed constantly, and was known around the monastery for his kindness and willingness to help others. Brother Lawrence recounts in detail how to gain constantand comforting connection to the Almighty. Readers have treasured this little book for centuries because of Brother Lawrence's honest advice and his obvious passion for spiritual matters.

Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is of the best "macabre" tales ever written. It is presented here in its entirety along with eight other incredible tales.

Henry James wrote many excellent ghost stories, his most famous being, The Turn of the Screw. In The Ghostly Rental a newcomer in town, who loves to walk for exercise, comes upon a deserted rural road. He follows the road and comes upon a house that immediately strikes him as "simply haunted." He is determined to get into the house and find out the truth about it. What he finds out turns out to be quite different than what he expected.

In this fourth novel of the Martian Barsoom series, the son of John Carter, Carthoris, takes center stage as he vies for the attention of the beautiful Princess of Ptarth. The thrilling adventure continues as Carthoris, Prince of Helium, and son of John Carter and Princess Dejah Thoris of Helium, launches a desperate rescue attempt to recapture the woman who has already taken his heart: Thuvia, Princess of Ptarth.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) is commonly accounted as one of the first Great American Novels. It was also one of the first novels ever written in the vernacular, or common speech, being told in the first person by the eponymous Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, best friend of Tom Sawyer.

"The Haunters and the Haunted" is both a wonderful ghost story and a well-crafted example of Bulwer-Lytton's theory of the supernatural. It represents nearly 20 years' study of paranormal phenomena. On the one hand, it is a chilling tale of ghosts and terror, but on the other, it illustrate the author's theory "that the Supernatural is Impossible, and that what is called supernatural is only a something in the laws of nature of which we have been hitherto ignorant."

William James, brother of novelist Henry James, was an American philosopher as well as a psychologist. He was the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James was one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th century and is one of the most influential philosophers the United States has ever produced. He has been called the "Father of American psychology".