Showing results by narrator "Mike Fox" in All Categories

A classic Christmas story with a special moral, Della Dillingham Young has very little money to buy her husband a present. She sells her beautiful brown hair; a treasure to the couple, to buy her husband a gift. But when he returns home with her gift, she's in for a very heartfelt surprise. 

Saint John of the Cross was a Spanish mystic and poet, Catholic saint, Carmelite friar and priest, and a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation. The Ascent of Mount Carmel is divided into three sections, and presented as a commentary on four poetic stanzas. St. John portrays the various mystical experiences that the soul must endure in its ascent to the metaphorical Mount Carmel (the place of God or union with the divine). 

The Spy: a Tale of the Neutral Ground is the debut novel of James Fenimore Cooper, originally published in 1821. Cooper’s novels on life at the frontier established an entirely new genre in American literature, with The Last of the Mohicans considered as his masterpiece. The Spy is a fast-paced story of espionage set during the Revolutionary War, where the plot unfolds on neutral ground. The protagonist Harvey Birch, who appears to be a British loyalist, turns out to be George Washington's spy. 

Meyer Kayserling (1829-1905) was a leading Jewish scholar who wrote Christopher Columbus and the Participation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries by request of the Spanish government in honor of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. An assortment of fascinating individuals feature in the book, including the astronomer Abraham Zacuto and the jurist Luis de Santangel. Christopher Columbus himself is thought to be of Jewish descent, and many Jews provided support for Columbus’ voyages in the fields of technology, funding, and personnel.  

There have been innumerable biographies for Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States - the leader most widely known for leading the US through the American Civil War and ending slavery, but none quite stand apart from the rest like The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln, published in 2013.

Henry van Dyke shares a wonderful morality tale in his 1895 The Other Wise Man, as a metaphor for the life of a true Christian. Telling the story of a fourth king who saw the signs but never reached the Christ child in time, van Dyke introduces us to the values of good deeds and charity while searching for the path to Jesus. Because as Jesus keeps eluding the fourth king, he unknowingly gets closer to him with every righteous act he performs. 

American writer William Dean Howells delights us with his cautiously cynical yet endearing telling of the night before Christmas at the Fountain household. Published in The Daughter of the Storage and Other Things in Prose and Verse in 1916, Howells’ sense of realism and social criticism hides behind the humorous banter between Mr. and Mrs. Fountain, as well as relatives passing by. Raging consumerism, New Year’s resolutions, lovingly marital insults, reflections and memories, and a whole bunch of bathrobes! 

American author Washington Irving is known for his legendary tales like Sleepy Hollow, but also as the great architect behind how Americans now perceive Christmas. In his 1819 collection, The Sketch Book, he devotes one story to a reflection on the meaning of Christmas and its celebration. The story’s protagonist reflects on how its ancient rituals may have vanished almost completely, but that the warmth of togetherness will still prevail for those who welcome it.