Showing results by narrator "Andrea Giordani" in All Categories

 Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe (1861) is the third novel by George Eliot. Set in the early years of the 19th century, it seems at first to be only a simple story about the weaver Silas Marner. However, the complex plot and wide cast of characters soon reveal its scope and realism.  

O Pioneers! is a 1913 novel by Willa Cather, the first of her “prairie trilogy” of novels. It tells the story of the Bergsons, a family of Swedish immigrants in the farm country near the fictional town of Hanover, Nebraska, at the turn of the 20th century. The protagonist, Alexandra Bergson, inherits the family farm when her father dies, and devotes her life to making the farm a success at a time when many other families are giving up and leaving the land.  

 Villette (1853), was Charlotte Brontë's third novel and the last published during her lifetime. After an unspecified family catastrophe, the main character, Lucy Snowe, travels to Belgium to teach in a boarding school in the fictional town of Villette. She falls in love with a man she cannot marry, which triggers a nervous breakdown. Ultimately, a new, strong Lucy emerges who becomes the owner and head of her own school.  

The novel Shirley by Charlotte Brontë (1849) followed the huge popular success of her debut, Jane Eyre. The setting is an environment which is industrializing at a rapid pace during the Napoleonic Wars. This is the story of two heroines occupying vastly different social positions in life. Caroline Helstone, trapped in a Yorkshire rectory, serves as a symbol of all the single women of the time. On the other hand, there’s Shirley Keeldar, an independent woman whose wealth has liberated her. 

The novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë was published under the pen name "Currer Bell" in 1847. Considered one of the most famous romance novels of all time, Jane Eyre is a Bildungsroman which chronicles the experiences of Jane, including her childhood as an orphan, her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr. Rochester, the master of Thornfield Hall. It was the first English novel that focused on its protagonist's moral and spiritual development by way of an intimate first-person narrative, in which events are marked by psychological intensity. 

Set in the wild, stormy moorland of England. It tells the tale of the Linton and Earnshaw families: Edgar and Isabella Linton and Catherine and Hindley Earnshaw and their strange adopted brother, Heathcliff. Now considered a classic of English literature, upon publication it received mix reviews due to its Gothic undertones and savage passions. Wuthering Heights has inspired many adaptations, including film, radio, and television dramatizations and a hit song by Kate Bush. 

Peer Gynt, the five-act romantic play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, is one of the most widely performed Norwegian plays. Based on a Norwegian folk hero, the title character is a rogue who will be destroyed unless the love of a woman saves him. At a wedding he meets Solveig, who falls in love with him, but Peer ruins the wedding by abducting, then abandoning the bride. Then Peer goes global, misbehaving in a trail of adventures around the world. When he finally returns to Norway, old and embittered, Solveig welcomes him home, and he's redeemed by her love.

The play Anna Christie by Eugene O'Neill tells of the reunion of a troubled daughter and her absent father in New York. Having spent his life on the seven seas, Anna’s father last saw her when she was 5 years old. There are things about her life and work she keeps hidden from her father. While living with him on a barge, they save the lives of five survivors of a shipwreck. One of them, Matt Burke, falls in love with Anna, and after a period of resistance, she returns the feeling. This development upsets her father who would rather not have Anna marry a sailor. 

The Hairy Ape (1922) is an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill. The protagonist, Yank, yearns for a sense of belonging in a world he perceives as being controlled by the rich. Initially, Yank enjoys his job stoking the engines of an ocean liner. Then the wealthy daughter of a steel magnate refers to him as a "filthy beast", and Yank starts experiencing an identity crisis. He leaves the ship, and while walking around Manhattan, comes to the conclusion that he does not belong anywhere; not with the rich on Fifth Avenue nor with the labor unions on the waterfront. 

The Emperor Jones by Eugene O’Neill is a play in eight scenes, published in 1921. It chronicles the fall of Brutus Jones, who has escaped from prison and exchanged the US for an unnamed Caribbean island. With the aid of Henry Smithers, a Cockney adventurer, Jones persuades the illiterate, uneducated and superstitious islanders that he’s a powerful magician, whereupon they crown him emperor. As his secret foreign bank account grows, Jones abuses and exploits his subjects. 

Henrik Ibsen’s play The Master Builder was published in 1892 and performed the next year. The architect and builder Halvard Solness receives a visit from the young Hilda, who persuades him to employ her in the household. When Hilda learns of the completion of Halvard’s project - a tall building with a towering steeple - she makes a point of persuading him to climb the steeple at the public opening ceremony. Halvard of course, suffers from acrophobia, a morbid fear of extreme heights....

The historian, scholar, and anthropologist, Andrew Lang, began publishing collections of fairy tales from around the globe in the late 19th century. His status as one of England's foremost folklorists and his superb literary abilities make his collections unique in the English language. The Grey Fairy Book contains more than 30 stories from Africa, Germany, Greece, France and Lithuania. The overlap in the theme, plot and characters of narratives from across the world is remarkable. 

Written for those who were bewildered by the conflict between religion and scientific and philosophic ideas, The Guide for the Perplexed is concerned with finding a concord between the text of the Old Testament and its commentaries, and Aristotelian philosophy. After analyzing the ideas of the Old Testament, Maimonides examines other reconciliations of religion and philosophy like the Moslem rationalists and then offers his own resolution with Aristotelianism. 

Apologia Pro Vita Sua (A Defence of One's Own Life), John Henry Newman's defense of his religious beliefs, was published in 1864 in response to Charles Kingsley of the Church of England after Newman quit his position as the Anglican vicar of St. Mary's, Oxford. From 1833 to 1841 there was friction in the Church of England which culminated in Newman's 1845 resignation as an Anglican vicar and his conversion to Roman Catholicism. Newman's essay responded to attacks from Charles Kingsley of the broad church party, who criticised Newman's conversion. 

A Short and Easy Method of Prayer is an excellent manual on prayer for Christians. It teaches the importance of respectful silence in prayer, patience in prayer, collecting oneself inwardly, seeking God in love, and the total abandonment of oneself to God. Madame Guyon aimed at inducing the world to love God and to serve him with comfort and success, in a simple and easy manner. In essence, A Short and Easy Method of Prayer encourages us to take time with God and let the word of the divine enter our hearts, through praying and then waiting on God to speak to our hearts. 

Lysistrata is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, which was originally performed in Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's extraordinary quest to terminate the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states, by advocating that the women deny all the men of the land any sex. At a meeting, Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring cities to withhold sexual privileges from their men. She has also persuaded the older women of Athens to seize the Acropolis.

Andrew Lang (1844 - 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, and literary critic. His 12 collections of fairy tales are known as Andrew Lang's Coloured Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors. The third in the series, the Green Fairy Book, contains tales from around the world, from Grimm (“The White Snake” and “Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle”), France de Caylus, Fenelon, Kletke, and D'Aulnoy. The stories include "The Crystal Coffin", "The Three Snake-Leaves", "The Riddle", "Jack My Hedgehog", "The Golden Lads", and many more.

The Kalevala is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology. The Kalevala was instrumental in the development of the Finnish national identity and the sense of nationality that led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917. Beginning with the traditional Finnish creation myth, the Kalevala branches out into stories of the creation of the earth, plants, creatures, and the sky. There are many stories of, romance, kidnapping, seduction, and magical spell casting and singing. 

Oscar Wilde's Salome was originally published in French in 1891 and translated into English by Lord Alfred Douglas. This one-act play, a sinister tale of a woman scorned and her vengeance, has become a landmark of Decadent literature. The play tells the biblical story of Salome, stepdaughter of the tetrarch Herod Antipas, who, to her stepfather's dismay but to the delight of her mother Herodias, requests the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the dance of the seven veils. 

Nathan the Wise, a play published by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in 1779, is a fervent plea for religious tolerance. It was first performed in 1783 at the Döbbelinsches Theatre in Berlin. The narrative is set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade and describes how the wise Jewish merchant Nathan, the enlightened sultan Saladin, and a Templar Knight bridge the differences between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Its major themes are friendship, tolerance, the relativism of God, a rejection of miracles and a need for communication.