Showing results by narrator "Bob Gonzalez" in All Categories

A poor tailor is too ill to finish the beautiful coat and waistcoat he has been stitching for the mayor of Gloucester to wear at his wedding on Christmas morning. He sends his cat, Simpkin, out in the snowy evening to buy some food and, most importantly, the cherry-colored silk he needs to finish his coat and waistcoat. While Simpkin is out, the tailor discovers all the mice Simpkin has hidden under the teacups and accidentally frees them all. They run out of the house, but not before they overhear him speak aloud his fears that he will not be able to complete his work.

Eight fanciful tales from Rudyard Kipling's book of animal origin tales, which began as bedtime stories told to his daughter Essie. They are called Just So Stories because Essie would not let Kipling deviate from the tale by even one word: They had to be told "just so".    

This recording is of the 11 essays and stories contained in Volume Five and includes two examples of Poe’s activity as a literary critic. Poe’s dry wit is laced through many of these tales and will bring a wry smile to your lips even as you shiver at the consequences of “betting the devil your head”.    

Freelance speechwriter Sid Rafferty signs on to help a neophyte candidate run for election as an alderman in Cumberland, once a booming coal-mining town on Vancouver Island that's now shrunk down to an out-of-the-way little village. But first another writing job makes Sid a witness to a violent death the Mounties are calling murder, then a pair of marijuana-growing brothers want to know what he's doing poking around near their grow-op.

Sid Rafferty is between writing jobs, a rock and a hard place, and the poles of his luck. At this point, he's willing to take on just about any writing gig. But when a return to his political spin doctor days collides with what should be a simple promo piece about a new ski resort in British Columbia's playground, Sid finds himself out of his depth, over his head, in love and at risk of his life.

This delightful fable from the Just So Stories of Rudyard Kipling tells of how the Cake-Parsee takes his revenge on a rude, ill-mannered rhinoceros who has stolen and eaten the Parsee's cake. The trick the Parsee plays changes the rhinoceros' skin forever.

The Spider Man feels overworked and underappreciated by the Star-people in the sky-country, whom he serves by weaving webs for them to go back and forth from the earth to do their good deeds. He conceives a scheme to retire to the earth to live forever a life of leisure, but his plans go awry. 

This anonymously penned version of a late 18th-century story tells of the life of Margery Meanwell, a poor orphan who flourishes through the kindness of loving benefactors and her own sterling character. Despite enduring a series of trials and misfortunes, she exemplifies a virtuous and wholesome life through her kind deeds to people and animals. A classic moral fairy tale. 

He was rich beyond imagination and outwardly gracious, but women shunned him because of his beard, which was unmistakably blue. Also, Bluebeard, as he was forever known, had been married several times before but no one knew what became of all his wives. Nevertheless, he manages to woo young Fatima, who only discovers after they are married the fate of his previous wives and that she faces the same fate. This is the classic tale by Charles Perrault, retold masterfully by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. 

In this witty and satirical fable, Voltaire’s hero, Memnon, determines the three tasks he will easily accomplish to become a great philosopher and perfectly happy. In spite of his naive confidence in his willpower and the cooperation of life events, fate has other things in store for him designed to thwart his plans.  

The Raven Edition of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) presents his complete literary output in five volumes. In addition to 11 prose pieces, volume five contains all of Poe’s verse and also his only play, the unfinished drama, "Politian". Poe’s poetic output consists of 54 pieces, most of them short, but it also includes four longer pieces, The Bells, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and perhaps Poe’s most iconic poem, The Raven.