Showing results by author "Frank R. Stockton" in All Categories

Embark on a delightful journey through the whimsical landscapes of England and Scotland alongside Pomona and her companion Jone, as suggested by the enchanting title "Pomona's Travels." This podcast invites listeners to experience a rotating collection of audiobooks that capture the spirit of adventure, humor, and the unexpected encounters that come with travel. Each episode showcases a new complete audiobook filled with tales of quirky characters, charming locales, and the delightful mishaps that accompany exploration. As Pomona navigates the trials of haymaking, hotel stays, and even a ...

In this volume our authors, including Ambrose Bierce, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Winifred Holtby, Bernard Capes and many others bring forth creations and contraptions that are both amazing and abstract as well as diabolical and delightful.

Being an English author in a new and different culture seems to work its magic when these two are placed together in the same spot with a rich vocabulary; ideas seem more fully formed and characters have another edge to their existence. For the outsider looking in, more can be revealed and shared with ourselves.

Frank Richard Stockton (1834-1902) was an author and humorist, best known for a series of fairy tales that were hugely popular during the latter part of the 19th century. Stockton avoided the moralizing common to children's stories of the time, and instead humorously poked fun at the abuse of power, greed, violence, and a host of other human flaws. A griffin (a beast that is a combination of eagle and lion) comes to a town that has his likeness above the church door. Having never seen himself, the griffin becomes entranced with the statue, but his presence frightens the villagers....

The stories in this imaginative collection include: "The Queen's Museum", "The Christmas Truants", "The Griffin and the Minor Canon", "Old Pipes and the Dryad", "The Bee-Man of Orn", "The Clocks of Rondaine", "Christmas Before Last", "Prince Hassak's March", "The Philopena" and "The Accommodating Circumstance".

The Lady, or The Tiger, written by Frank R. Stockton and narrated by Rebecca Thomas, invites the listener into a semi-barbaric world where justice is decided by fate. The right choice rewards the innocent with marriage; the wrong choice punishes the guilty by serving him to a starving tiger. When the princess' lover is sent to the arena, she discovers the secret of the choice. But what choice does she herself make?

A brilliant short story demonstrating how a truly balanced set of dilemmas can allow a reader to conclude two different endings. In this case a young man is faced with two doors. One holds a door with a ferocious tiger. The other? A beautiful lady whom he would immediately marry. The struggle comes not so much in defining a choice, but the reasons that brought the young man to the choice, and who helps him make the choice.

The Lady or the Tiger, which will it be? The unanswerable question, but certainly something to think about. And going even further, did the princess regret her decision later? Originally published in 1882, in The Century magazine by Frank R Stockton, this short story has become an allegorical expression for an unsolvable problem.

When a passing magician tells the old Bee-Man of Orn that he has at some time been transformed from another state, he sets off to discover his own origins. Was he formerly a nobleman? A dragon? A giant? After much searching and many adventures, where his faithful bees help him, he finally discovers the truth. And it is not what either he or the magician expected....

Stories include a clock that reverses the order of history, a potion that prolongs youth, a machine that disintegrates matter, the prospect of the earth burning to a crisp from the heat of the sun and the effects of the absence of gravity. When first written these stories were no more than...

"The Lady Or The Tiger?" is Frank R. Stockton's most famous work, first published in 1882. The semi-barbaric ruler of an ancient kingdom has devised an unusual method of justice. Offenders are placed in the arena of an amphitheatre where they must choose between two doors. Behind one is a hungry tiger and behind the other a beautiful woman whom they will marry. Their fate is left entirely to chance. When the king's daughter's secret lover is accused, only she knows which door hides which destiny.

A glittering collection of classic stories for children, which have delighted generations and continue to appeal.

A man is sentenced to an unusual punishment for having a romance with a king's beloved daughter. Taken to the public arena, he is faced with two doors, behind one of which is a hungry tiger that will devour him. Behind the other is a beautiful lady-in-waiting, whom he will have to marry if he finds her.

Includes 'Titbottoms Spectacles' by George William Curtis, 'The First Piano in Camp' by Samuel Davis, 'Mr Tolman' by Frank R. Stockton, 'Mrs Bullfrog' by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 'Against His Judgement' by Robert Grant, 'A Desperate Adventure' by Max Adeler, 'Occurence at Owl Creek' by Ambrose Bierce, 'The Stout Gentleman' by Washington Irving, 'Clothes 'by Gustav Kobbé and 'Negative Gravity' by Frank R. Stockton.

"The Lady or the Tiger?" is the story of a king who devised a particularly inventive form of punishment. When a courtier dares to fall in love with the king's daughter, he is forced to choose between two doors: one with a lady behind it, and the other with a tiger.

In the ancient country of Orn an old man called the Bee-man spends his life in the company of bees. He lives humbly and contentedly until a Junior Sorcerer happens by with some disturbing news: The Bee-man, he says, has been transformed - he once was someone (or something) entirely different. But who? Or what? A giant or a prince? A dog or a dragon? The now restless Bee-man sets out on a quest to ascertain his original form, telling himself, "When I see it, I shall be drawn toward it."  

A double adventure written at the end of the 19th century, somewhat in the theme of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth, telling of a submarine trip in the year 1947 to reach the North Pole and a project to examine the center of the Earth by boring a deep shaft. What they find at the core of the planet surprises the enterprising explorers. 

Buccaneers is non-fiction, a highly readable history of how piracy began and spread throughout the region in response to the plundering of Spanish colonialism. It is written with great flair for the dramatic by the author of The Lady or the Tiger? If you care to read along while listening, the online text features a facsimile version of Buccaneers & Pirates that includes an antique map of the Caribbean which is a nice reference for readers and listeners for islands’ names, ports, hideaways, and buried treasure! (Summary by Denny Sayers)

Dive into the thrilling world of Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts, a captivating non-fiction narrative that uncovers the origins of piracy and the notorious pirates that roamed the shores of the United States. Unlike the romanticized portrayals we see today, Stocktons compelling tales present pirates as the villains they truly were, delivering a dramatic and entertaining read that will keep you on the edge of your seat! (Summary by Sibella Denton)This show includes AI-generated content.

In Legends, Lore, & Longings, a curated treasury of short fiction, classic American authors spin tales that blur the line between myth and memory, past and present.