Audio Books
Showing 1901–1950 of 2033 results
The Crown Of Life
So what is the crown of life? Follow the journey of Piers and Irene as they attempt to discover. It is both a coming of age novel and love story at the same time, one which would bring delight to philosophers with many conversations for and against imperialism, romantics who would follow the long courtship in the center of the plot, and sociologists who would follow with interest the vivid way in which George Gissing describes the society in which he lived. – Summary by Stav Nisser.
The Crucifixion of Philip Strong
Having simultaneously received letters of call from two different churches, Philip Strong must choose, balancing head, heart, and God’s calling. – Summary by David Gore
The Cruel Painter
This is the story of a daring college student’s quest to win the icy heart of a beautiful girl. Unfortunately, the girl is the daughter of a cunning and sadistic master artist, who takes the student as an apprentice with the express intent of torturing the youth with his own hopeless love. The story is set in late 16 century Prague, amid mysterious happenings and the terrifying rumors of a vampire on the loose. ( Summary by Ned Troxel )
The Cruise of the Alerte – In Search of Treasure
The book describes a voyage undertaken in 1889 by an English barrister Edward Frederick Knight to the South Seas. This delightful story takes the reader on a voyage to the forbidding desert island of Trindade, where it is rumored that immense treasure lies buried. Though the heroes of this treasure-hunt do not have to contend with malicious people, they have their share of adventures. Almost inaccessible desert island, changing weather, hideous land crabs and heavy digging in the mud are enough challenges for the brave adventurers. (Kristine Bekere)
The Cruise of the Dazzler
Young Joe Bronson, caught between poor grades and his father’s threats of military school, runs away from home. He joins the crew of a sloop named the Dazzler, but quickly figures out his captain, Pete Le Maire (nicknamed “French Pete”) frequently engages himself and those at his command in criminal activity. Will Joe be able to escape this unwanted and dangerous new life at sea? Published in 1902, Jack London sold this book (his first full-length novel) as a boy’s adventure novel set in San Francisco, his hometown. In his autobiography, London recalls lifting several more elements in this novel from his adolescence, as in youth he bought a sloop called the Razzle Dazzle from a oyster pirate nicknamed “French Frank.” – Summary by Mary Kay
The Cruise of the Esmeralda
After his father died, Captain Saint Leger and his family are left destitute. However, the Saint Legers have a family secret: an ancestor is said to have buried a vast fortune in gold and jewels somewhere in the Eastern Seas. The catch: all directions are encrypted. Nevertheless, Captain Saint Leger decides to take a chance and sails east. A journey full of adventure begins, including pirates, storms and mutiny… (Summary by Carolin)
The Cruise of the Falcon – A Voyage to South America in a 30-Ton Yacht
In this fine sailing and exploring yarn, Edward Frederick Knight (1852-1925), sometime English barrister, journalist, sportsman, and amateur seaman, conspires over a fish dinner in Harwich to buy and refit the tiny yacht Falcon, recruit a crew of four (and a cabin boy), and sail across the Atlantic Ocean to South America. This they do, despite naysayers who advised painting the yacht’s name conspicuously on her keel to aid identification when found floating upside down in some foreign sea. The book provides detailed descriptions of sailing in difficult waters and powerful storms, the spectacular scenery of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, sport hunting in unspoiled jungles, frequent revolutions (and a terrible war of annihilation) and, perhaps most important, the customs of the many different peoples who inhabit the South American continent. As was common practice in his day, Knight assumes the superiority of the ?white? races and is not hesitant to express his sometimes less-than-favorable impressions of the ?lesser? races he encounters. But he offers high praise for the beauty of the land and the kindness of the people he meets. (Steven Seitel)
The Cruise of the Snark
The Cruise of the Snark (1913) is a memoir of Jack and Charmian London’s 1907-1909 voyage across the Pacific. His descriptions of “surf-riding”, which he dubbed a “royal sport”, helped introduce it to and popularize it with the mainland. London writes: Through the white crest of a breaker suddenly appears a dark figure, erect, a man-fish or a sea-god, on the very forward face of the crest where the top falls over and down, driving in toward shore, buried to his loins in smoking spray, caught up by the sea and flung landward, bodily, a quarter of a mile. It is a Kanaka on a surf-board. And I know that when I have finished these lines I shall be out in that riot of colour and pounding surf, trying to bit those breakers even as he, and failing as he never failed, but living life as the best of us may live it. (Excerpted from Wikipedia)
The Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between 1096 and 1272 to recover the Holy Land from Islamic rule. According to the Latin Church, Crusaders were penitent pilgrims whose sins were forgiven. British historian, George Cox, writes of the churchmen, great and small, who inspired the Crusades, of the warriors who left families and lands behind, of the wily Venetian merchants and Byzantine emperors who exploited the knights, and of the valor of the Saracens. Here are accounts of sublime sacrifice and bestial ferocity, of dynastic conflict within the Crusader States, of sieges, starvation, pestilence, and ambush, and of the clash and interpenetration of two cultures. – Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.
The Crystal Stopper
During a burglary at the home of Deputy Daubrecq a crime is committed, and two accomplices of Ars?ne Lupin are arrested by the police. One is guilty of the crime, the other innocent, but both will be sentenced to death. Lupin seeks to deliver the victim of a miscarriage of justice, but struggles against Deputy Daubrecq’s ruthless blackmailer, who has an incriminating document hidden in a crystal stopper. (Summary by Wikipedia)
The Cuisine
Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet, who was considered a popular poet rather than a literary poet, in her poems she expresses sentiments of cheer and optimism in plainly written, rhyming verse. Her world view is expressed in the title of her poem “Whatever Is?Is Best”, suggesting an echo of Alexander Pope’s “Whatever is, is right.” None of Wilcox’s works were included by F. O. Matthiessen in The Oxford Book of American Verse, but Hazel Felleman chose no fewer than fourteen of her poems for Best Loved Poems of the American People, while Martin Gardner selected “The Way Of The World” and “The Winds of Fate” for Best Remembered Poems. She is frequently cited in anthologies of bad poetry, such as The Stuffed Owl: An Anthology of Bad Verse and Very Bad Poetry. – Summary by Wikipedia
The Drama: A Quarterly Review
This is a collection of theatrical essays from the American quarterly The Drama, including six non-fiction works — 3 profiles: Schnitzler, Andreyev, and O’Neill, and 3 articles: Characterization vs Situation, The Actor in England, & The Evolution of The Actor. (Summary by BellonaTimes)
The Early Church Collection Volume 1
The collection begins with two short works on the Trinity by Gregory of Nyssa, followed by two works on Christology by Theodoret and Pope Leo I. Victorinus interprets Genesis 1 allegorically to justify certain early church practices and traces the number 7 through the whole Bible. Hippolytus lists various liturgical practices of the Roman church at the start of the 3rd century with potentially much earlier origins. In “On the Faith”, Gregory of Nyssa defends the divinity of the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. The Epistle of Barnabas represents a 2nd or even 1st century example of the “parting of the ways” between early Christianity and Judaism. Commodianus’ Instructions are a collection of 80 acrostic poems (not reflected in the translation) on various subjects, not least Christian responses to various Greek gods. The Martyrdom of Polycarp is one of the earliest of the church’s martyrdom narratives and proved defining for the genre. The collection ends with Julian the Apostate’s efforts to curtain Christianity in the Roman Empire subsequent to Constantine’s conversion. (InTheDesert)
The Early Church Collection Volume 2
This collection begins with Augustine’s response to the charge that Christians, unlike anyone else in the world, believe in things that cannot be seen, two works on christology from Athanasius and Augustine’s exposition of the Apostles’ Creed. Next come two responses from church leaders on what to do when Christians have participated in idolatry (Cyprian’s after the Decian persecution). After some shorter works including all the extant fragments from Papias, there are a large number of works from Rufinus: translator and editor of many of the works of Origen who suffered considerable censure for his labors as can be seen from the content of his prefaces. There follow many short work from the early Christian apologists (whose works are mostly lost), two ethical treatises from Hippolytus and some short historical accounts. The Early Church Collection, Volume 1 (Summary by InTheDesert)
The Early Church Collection Volume 3
This collection begins with Augustine’s exposition of the Apostles’ Creed, a confession of faith (particularly addressing the Trinity) attributed to Gregory Thaumaturgus and a series of statements on christology. Then come two works attributed to Hippolytus and a treatise addressed to Tatian arguing, without using Scripture, for the existence of the soul. Dionysius of Alexandria comments on the authorship of the book of Revelation and Alexander, archbishop of Alexandria excommunicates Arius (this was probably ghostwritten by Athanasius). What remains of “a discourse on the Divine Nature and the Incarnation, against the heretics Beron and Helix” is followed by several exegetical works by Dionysius of Alexandria and the beginning of a treatise of the resurrection usually attributed to Justin Martyr. “Discourse on all the Saints” concerns martyrs and the fragments of Lactantius were written by the adviser of Constantine, the first Christian Romans emperor. A survey of Christian novels follows (some of the works referenced can be found here and here). The Phoenix may or may not have been written by Lactantius and formed the basis for a well-known Old English poem. Amongst several short works, there are Cyprian’s extracts from the Old testament prophets exhorting to repentance and his treatise on chastity. Augustine preaches a sermon on the virtue of patience, Gregory of Nyssa laments the death of Meletius (a bishop) and then advises Christians not to go on pilgrimages to Jerusalem. This collection ends with the martyr story of Symphorosa and her family. – Summary by InTheDesert
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker was the last of the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett, and is considered by many to be his best and funniest work. Published in London on 17 June 1771, it is an epistolary novel, presented in the form of letters written by six different characters: Matthew Bramble, a Welsh Squire; his sister Tabitha; their niece and nephew, Jery and Lydia Melford; Tabitha’s maid Winifred Jenkins; and Lydia’s suitor, Wilson. Much of the comedy arises from differences in the descriptions of the same events by different participants. Attributions of motives and descriptions of behavior show wild variation and reveal much about the character of the teller. The setting, amidst the high-society spa towns and seaside resorts of the 18th century provides his characters with many opportunities for satirical observations on English life and manners. (Summary by Wikipedia)
The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate
The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American settlers caught up in the “westering fever” of the 1840s. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846?1847, some of the emigrants resorted to cannibalism. Although this aspect of the tragedy has become synonymous with the Donner Party in the popular imagination, it actually was a minor part of the episode. The author was about 4 at the time. The first part of the book accounts the tragic journey and rescue attempts; the last half are reminiscences of the child orphan, passed from family to family while growing up. (Summary from Wikipedia & Tricia G)
The Experienced English Housekeeper
‘Cut a large old hare in small pieces, and put it in a mug with three blades of mace, a little salt, two large onions, one red herring, six morels, half a pint of red wine, three quarts of water, bake it in a quick oven three hours…’. English cooking at its best from eighteenth-century celebrity chef, Elizabeth Raffald. Born in Doncaster, Raffald worked for 15 years as housekeeper in great houses, including that of Lady Elisabeth Warburton at Arley Hall, Cheshire, before setting up as a confectioner and innkeeper in Manchester. The Experienced English Housekeeper was published in 1769 and ran to 13 editions. This reading is from the 10th edition (1786) and includes 900 recipes (or as listeners will discover, receipts). Vegetarians take note, some sections of this book contain large quantities of meat! (Summary by Phil Benson)
The Explanation
LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of The Explanation by Rudyard Kipling. This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 1st, 2009.
The Exploits and Triumphs, in Europe, of Paul Morphy, the Chess Champion
Paul Morphy, born in New Orleans in 1837, was considered the greatest chess player of his era. He was a child prodigy who learned playing chess simply by watching family members play, and when he was only 9 years old, he was hailed as the best chess player in New Orleans. This book describes Morphy’s trip to Europe, i.e., England and France, where he wanted to play the European Champion Staunton, a match that never came about as the correspondence included in this book shows. He did play – and beat – virtually every other strong player in Europe though, and tales of these matches and people make up a large part of this book. After his triumphs in Europe, Paul Morphy was considered the unofficial World Chess Champion, as official championship tournaments were only held from 1886. Morphy retired from chess in 1859 in order to devote himself to his law practice. He died from a stroke in 1884. (Summary by Availle)
The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard
The hero, Etienne Gerard, is a Hussar in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Gerard’s most notable attribute is his vanity – he is utterly convinced that he is the bravest soldier, greatest swordsman, accomplished horseman and gallant lover in all France. Gerard is not entirely wrong since he displays notable bravery on many occasions, but his self-satisfaction undercuts this quite often. Obsessed with honour and glory, he is always ready with a stirring speech or a gallant remark to a lady. (Introduction from Wikipedia)
The Exploits Of Elaine
The Exploits of Elaine It tells the story of a young woman named Elaine who, with the help of a detective, tries to find the man, known only as “The Clutching Hand”, who murdered her father. (Wikipedia)
The Exploits of Juve
Fant?mas was introduced a few years after Ars?ne Lupin, another well-known thief. But whereas Lupin draws the line at murder, Fant?mas has no such qualms and is shown as a sociopath who enjoys killing in a sadistic fashion. He is totally ruthless, gives no mercy, and is loyal to none, not even his own children. He is a master of disguise, always appearing under an assumed identity, often that of a person whom he has murdered. Fant?mas makes use of bizarre and improbable techniques in his crimes, such as plague-infested rats, giant snakes, and rooms that fill with sand. The Exploits of Juve chronicles some of Juve?s adventures in pursuit of this master criminal and ends with what may be Fantomas? revenge on the detective. (Introduction by Wikipedia and Don Jenkins)
The Exploits of Juve (version 2)
The second book in the Fant?mas series by the prolific authors Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre (they published 32 Fant?mas novels between 1911 and 1913.) Fant?mas broke the mold of the Gentlemen burglars like Raffles and Arsene Lupin. He killed without compunction. His anarchic ruthlessness, especially as portrayed by silent film pioneer Louis Feuillade, made Fant?mas the darling of the French avante garde, such as the artist Ren? Magritte and novelist Robert Desnos. (Summary by Alan Winterrowd)
The Explorer
An early novel by W. Somerset Maugham about conflicting feelings of self-integrity, filial love, romantic love. Lucy Allerton and Alec MacKenzie have to choose between grasping happiness that is their due and upholding a set of moral values that define themselves. – Summary by Lilith Branda
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals is a book by Charles Darwin, published in 1872, concerning genetically determined aspects of behaviour. It was published thirteen years after On the Origin of Species and alongside his 1871 book The Descent of Man, it is Darwin’s main consideration of human origins. In this book, Darwin seeks to trace the animal origins of human characteristics, such as the pursing of the lips in concentration and the tightening of the muscles around the eyes in anger and efforts of memory. Darwin sought out the opinions of some eminent British psychiatrists, notably James Crichton-Browne, in the preparation of the book which forms Darwin’s main contribution to psychology. – Summary by Availle
The Expressman and the Detective
Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884), a Scotsman by birth and a barrel-maker by trade, settled in Chicago in its infancy and founded the Pinkertons, the world’s first detective agency. Though events associated with the agency after his death have tarnished the name, Pinkerton himself was one of the original human rights advocates. He was a dear friend to John Brown, an advisor to Abraham Lincoln, and 80 years ahead of his time in hiring female detectives. He was also stubborn, irascible, and an egomaniac. The Expressman and the Detective (1874) is Pinkerton’s first attempt at putting his real-life experiences into novel form. Though many later works attributed to Pinkerton are understood to have been ghostwritten, this is the work of the man the London Times calls “a man at once deeply admirable and quite obnoxious.” (Summary by Pete Williams)
The Extant Works of St. Pacian of Barcelona
Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona in the Pyrenees, of chastened eloquence, eminent for his life as for his writings, wrote various works, of which is the Cervus and against the Novatians. He died lately in the reign of Theodosius, in extreme old age; i.e. before A. 392. He was born then probably about 30 years after the martyrdom of St. Cyprian, was a younger contemporary of Hosius, and through him joined on to the Council of Eliberis, and the restoration of discipline in the Spanish Church. His memory was kept with great affection at Barcelona on May 9, on which he is commemorated in the Martyrologium Romanum, in words taken from St. Jerome. It is of the good Providence of God, that, of the same father, works should have come down, vindicating the doctrine of the Church on penitence, as a doctrine, against the heresy of Novatian, practically, against the neglect of careless sinners. The Epistles to Sympronian and the exhortation to Penitence, combined, shew how compatible are tenderness to the sinner with a strict and, as it would now seem, severe doctrine of penitence; that not earnest calls to a self-avenging and self-chastening penitence, but the denial of its fruits and of the power of the keys, is the essence of Novatianism. Well versed as St. Pacian was in the writings of St. Cyprian, who also insists on the same acts of penitence, his language approaches more both in style and vividness of expostulation to that of Tertullian, whose work on penitence he claims, as having been written by him while a Catholic. It is hoped that from this very combination, his works might be useful in these days, in which, for want of that more frequent special application of the power of the keys, which our Church suggests, any mention of more earnest penitence is thought to partake of the hard and uncompassionating heresy of Novatian. – Summary from the Preface
The Extermination of the American Bison
The American bison (Bison bison), also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds, became nearly extinct by a combination of commercial hunting and slaughter in the 19th century and introduction of bovine diseases from domestic cattle. William T. Hornaday?s advocacy is credited with preserving the American bison from extinction. This book, originally published in 1887, gives Mr. Hornaday’s evidence of the Bison’s impending extinction. (Adapted from Wikipedia by Ann Boulais)
The Extraordinary Adventures of Ars?ne Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar
A contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle, Maurice Leblanc (1864-1941) was the creator of the character of gentleman thief Ars?ne Lupin who, in France, has enjoyed a popularity as long-lasting and considerable as Sherlock Holmes in the English-speaking world. This is the delightful first of twenty volumes in the Ars?ne Lupin series written by Leblanc himself. In an unprecedented act of literary pastiche and cross-over, Sherlock Holmes and Lupin actually meet, briefly in this first volume, and more substantially in the next. But after legal objections from Conan Doyle, the name was changed to “Herlock Sholmes.” (adapted from Wikipedia by a.r.dobbs)
The Extraordinary Adventures of Ars?ne Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar (version 2)
This collection of independent stories first published between 1905 and 1907 in the magazine Je Sais Tout recounts the tales of Ars?ne Lupin, the famous gentleman-burglar: the first story marks the introduction of the character to the public, and its success encouraged author Maurice Leblanc to write several others, collected and published as a book in 1907. Ars?ne Lupin would go on to be the main character in several short stories and novels, written by Leblanc and others, and whose legacy would appear also in comics, movies and video games, becoming the icon of the affable and charming man who, choosing to walk on the wrong side of law, still can be a force for good. – Summary by Leni
The Extraordinary Adventures of Ars?ne Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar (version 3)
A series of loosely related short stories of the early adventures of France’s famous gentleman burglar, Ars?ne Lupin, as told by an admirer and trusted friend. (Cate Barrat)
The Eye of Dread
The Civil War is upon the United States, and the town of Leauvite has sent away its young men, among them Peter Junior and Richard Kildene. When they leave, Betty Ballard is but a child, but by the time the war has ended, she has become something else entirely. Wounded, Peter Junior finds his time at Betty’s father’s studio, learning to become an artist, until one day he proposes to her after deciding to go to France. Of course, she agrees to wait for him. Meanwhile, Richard, who has decided to work on the railways, expects that when he gets back, that Betty will be waiting for him. With these complications, problems begin to arise… (Summary by Chelsea)
The Eye of Osiris
The Eye of Osiris is an early example from the Dr. Thorndyke series of detective stories written by R. Austin Freeman. In these stories, the author drew on his extensive medical and scientific knowledge for his main character, a medico-legal expert who relies on forensic evidence and logical deduction in solving cases. In this case, Thorndyke steps in to investigate the disappearance of one John Bellingham, an English gentleman and amateur Egyptologist, who has vanished under very mysterious circumstances. Thorndyke’s involvement in the case arises from a both purely professional interest in the unique character of the case, as well as from the fact that a young doctor and former student of his has recently become closely acquainted with the missing man’s brother and niece. (summary by J.M. Smallheer)
The Eyes Have It & Tony and the Beetles
Aliens have invaded the earth! Horrible one celled creatures disguised as normal human beings ! Well, at least that is what it seems to the author. Yes, The Eyes Have It is a whimsical story, making gentle fun of certain writing styles, but only a topflight science-fictionist like Philip Dick , we thought, could have written this story, in just this way. Tony and the Beetles takes place far in the future when Earth’s enormous colonial empire is well established but the question is, how long can it last? 10 year old Tony grows up fast when history catches up with the human race. A sobering look at human history .. and our probable future. Two very different stories but both entertaining. (Summary by the magazine editor and Phil Chenevert)
The Eyes of the Movie
“The movie was born in the laboratory and reared in the counting-house. It is a benevolent monster of four I’s: Inventor, Investor, Impresario, Imperialist.” So begins Harry Alan Potamkin’s The Eyes of the Movie, a posthumously published indictment of Hollywood. It is a savage socialist critique of the film industry, its practices, and products. Potamkin takes aim at the “conservative element” infiltrating Hollywood’s dream factory, investigating mainstream cinema’s double function as propaganda and “passing amusement.” (Summary by ChuckW)
The Eyes Of The World
The Eyes of the World was the Best Selling Book for 1914 according to Publisher’s Weekly. The novel explores what Harold Bell Wright views as the false world of artists, writers, critics, and their wealthy patrons. Two of the main characters are the famous author, Conrad LaGrange and Aaron King, an aspiring artist. LaGrange regretfully describes his writings as ?filthy stories in good English? and feels he has sold his soul to become successful. While in California, recovering from a physical breakdown, he befriends Aaron King whose mother he knew when he was a boy. Lagrange serves as counselor to the young man, for he knows the pitfalls of success from his own experience. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
The Fable of the Bees
Bernard Mandeville’s didactic poem praising the virtues that personal vices bestow on society as a whole, along with several treatises and dialogues explaining and defending it. Mandeville’s theories were influential in the development of both the moral philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment and the methodology of modern economics. – Summary by Matthew Mu?oz
The Fables of La Fontaine
Jean de la Fontaine’s fables were very well-known all over Europe during his life, and are now slowly being rediscovered. This edition contains 240 fables or fairy tales and a biography of Jean de la Fontaine and Aesop, containing the most well-known fables in existence, as well as some lesser-known fables and stories. Walter Thornbury’s translation furthermore sets the fables into memorable rhymes. – Summary by Carolin
The Fables of Phaedrus
The fable is a small narrative, in prose or verse, which has as its main characteristic the aim of conveying a moral lesson (the “moral”), implicitly or, more normally, explicitly expressed. Even though the modern concept of fable is that it should have animals or inanimate objects as characters – an idea supported by the works of famous fabulists such as Aesop and La Fontaine – Phaedrus, the most important Latin fabulist, is innovative in his writing. Although many of his fables do depict animals or objects assuming speech, he also has many short stories about men, writing narratives that seem to the modern eye more like short tales than fables. Despite many other fables being attributed to Phaedrus, only five books are considered by scholarship to have been written by him. Phaedrus’ five books of fables are here presented in a translation to English prose by Henry Thomas Ridley. (Summary by Leni)
The Fables of Pilpay
These moralistic stories within stories date back to the Sanskrit text Panchatantra (200 BC ? 300 AD). They were first translated into Arabic by a Persian named Ruzbeh who named it Book of Kalilah and Dimna and then by Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa and later Joseph Harris in 1679 and then remodeled in 1818. Max Mueller noted that La Fontaine was indebted to the work and other scholars have noted that Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and John Fletcher were both familiar with the fables. The Fables of Pilpay are a series of inter-woven fables, many of which deploy metaphors of anthropomorphized animals with human virtues and vices. (Summary by The introduction and Wikipedia)
The Face on the Barroom Floor
LibriVox volunteers bring you 8 different recordings of The Face on the Barroom Floor by Hugh Antoine D’Arcy.
The Facts of Reconstruction
After the American Civil War, John R. Lynch, who had been a slave in Mississippi, began his political career in 1869 by first becoming Justice of the Peace, and then Mississippi State Representative. He was only 26 when he was elected to the US Congress in 1873. There, he continued to be an activist, introducing many bills and arguing on their behalf. Perhaps his greatest effort was in the long debate supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to ban discrimination in public accommodations. In 1884 Lynch was the first African American nominated after a moving speech by Theodore Roosevelt to the position of Temporary Chairman of the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. During the Spanish-American War of 1898, he was appointed Treasury Auditor and then Paymaster under the Republicans. In 1901, he began serving with the Regular Army with tours of duty in the United States, Cuba, and the Philippines. Lynch retired from the Army in 1911, then married Cora Williams. They moved to Chicago, where he practiced law. He also became involved in real estate. After his death in Chicago 1939 at the age of 92, he was buried with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. He was entitled to this as a Congressman and veteran. After the turn of the century, Lynch wrote a book, The Facts of Reconstruction, and several articles criticizing the then-dominant Dunning School historiography. Dunning and followers had emphasized the views of former slave owners and routinely downplayed any positive contributions of African Americans during Reconstruction, as well as suggesting they could not manage any political power. Lynch argued that blacks had made substantial contributions during the period. Since he participated directly in Reconstruction-era governments, Lynch’s book is considered a primary source in study of the period. (Introduction by Guero and Wikipedia.)
The Faerie Queene (version 2)
Spenser planned a 24-book romance-epic consisting of two parts, of which he completed half of the first. The first twelve books were to illustrate the development of virtues within the individual soul, and the second twelve were to depict the application of these moral virtues to remedying evils that afflict the world. Each of the first set of quests was to begin at the court of the Fairy Queen, Gloriana, and the knights were to return thither after having defeated some foe representing a personal weakness. Having thus proved themselves, they were qualified to undertake the second quests, in the world. The neat plan becomes somewhat muddled by Book 3, which nevertheless contains the philosophical core of the poem’s allegorical structure: the Platonic notion that love (grace) unifies the cosmos and draws the will, through the pursuit of beauty, into virtuous action, returning to God at last in worship. The plot structure of the poem is rich and complex, with many strands interlinked and overlapping, each replete with allegorical significance. (Summary by Thomas Copeland)
The Faerie Queene Books 6 & 7
‘The Sixth Book of the Faerie Queene contayning the Legende of S, Calidore or of Cvrtesie.’ Apart from Books 1-6, the only surviving section of the Faerie Queene is a short isolated fragment known as the Mutabilitie Cantos (traditionally numbered Book 7, cantos 6-8); this fragment is also included in the present recording. Although the Faerie Queene was never completed, it continues to be one of the most beautiful and important works of literature ever written. Spenser wrote it as a paean to the Virgin Queen Elizabeth, and to the golden age which she had brought to England. Sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh and commended by the foremost literary minds of his day, Spenser’s book remains one of the crowning poetic achievements of the Elizabethan period.(Summary by Annise)
The Fair Maid of Perth, Or, St. Valentine’s Day
Henry Gow has fallen in love with the Fair Maid of Perth, Catherine, the glovemaker’s daughter. To make sure that he would be the first person she sees on Valentine’s day, he walks to her house at the break of dawn, and arrives – just in time to save her from am attempted kidnapping. Henry acts immediately to save her, but the attackers are not just some ruffians but well-born and well-connected. Henry and Catherine are drawn into the games and intrigues of the nobility, with little choice but to play along.. – Summary by Carolin
The Fair Rewards
“The Fair Rewards” by Thomas Beer . . . is a really distiguished novel. The writing is far above the average: it has style and sophistication and personality, intermingled with a truly vivid show of imagination. It even borders on brilliancy, but it is a hard, cold, cynical sort of brilliancy that chills. It almost hurts . . . The title itself is indicative of cynicism. It is derived from Shakespeare’s quotation, “These be the fair rewards of those that love,” and it is an ironical reference, for Mark Walling, the blind, simple, loving idolater, in return for his great and unselfish devotion to Margot, reaps selfishness and ingratitude and lack of consideration. Hand in hand with the progress of Mark from country yokel to a stage producer goes the history of the American theatre. Intermingled with the imaginary characters are Clyde Fitch, Anna Held, Mr. Frohman and several other flesh-and-blood personages that strengthen the realism. (New York Times review, June 4, 1922)
The Fairchild Family
The adventures of Lucy, Emily and Henry are described in this short novel, written and set in Regency England. Their naughtiness, their activities and their interactions with the children next door; Miss Augusta and Charles Trueman, are all delightfully described. Their daily lives are an insight into childhood and the family and religious values at the time – each chapter has a moral lesson, and the good end happily, while the bad get what they deserve. (Summary by Beth Thomas.)
The Fairies and the Christmas Child
The worst of being a Christmas Child is that you don?t get birthday presents, but only Christmas ones. Old Naylor, who was Father?s coachman, and had a great gruff voice that came from his boots and was rather frightening, used to ask how I expected to grow up without proper birthdays, and I thought I might have to stay little always. When I told Father this he laughed, but a moment later he grew quite grave. ?Listen, Chris,? he said. And then he took me on his knee – I was a small chap then – and told me things that made me forget old Naylor, and wish and wish that Mother could have stayed with us. The angels had wanted her, Father explained; well, we wanted her too, and there were plenty of angels in heaven, anyway. When I said this Father gave me a great squeeze and put me down, and I tried to be glad that I was a Christmas child. But I wasn?t really until a long time afterwards, when I had found the Fairy Ring, and met the Queen of the Fairies… (Summary by PG)
The Explanation of the Apocalypse
The Explanation of the Apocalypse by Ven. Beda is the earliest of the many works of our own writers on that Book, and, as such, may well deserve to appear in a form accessible to English readers. The chief characteristics of Beda’s method of exposition may be thus stated. The several visions are considered not to be successive, but contemporaneous, with occasional recapitulations and to represent the condition of the Church in all ages, under different aspects. The thousand years, in the twentieth chapter, are interpreted of the present period of the Church’s existence, in accordance with the opinion of St Augustine, in the second part of his De Civitate Dei. The ‘attention is closely directed to the text, and to corresponding passages of Holy Scripture, that the meaning of the symbolic language may be elicited. The previous exposition of Tichonius is mainly, but not exclusively followed. Beda appears, for example, to have adopted several opinions from St. Gregory the Great, and Frimasius, as well as St. Augustine. The date of the “Explanation” is circa. A.D. 710 ? 716. It is described by Beda as an “Exposition” but it is called an “Explanation” in the printed editions of his works. (Preface)