Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

The hilarious diary of a young man's recruitment into, and service in a navy, which, though well equipped and disciplined, remains woefully ill prepared for his arrival and dubious contribution. (Introduction by Nigel Boydell)

"Brazilian Tales" is a collection of six short stories selected by Isaac Goldberg as best representative of the Brazilian Literature of his period - the end of the 19th century. His comprehensive preface aims at familiarizing the reader with a literature that was - and still is - virtually unknown outside the boundaries of its own land, and the pieces chosen by Goldberg to be translated belong to writers that reached popularity and appreciation while still alive. This "pioneer volume", as the translator himself puts it, still keeps its charm and interest as a way of offering to the English ...

Humorist Bill Nye, in his brief 46 years, served as justice of the peace, newspaperman, miner, and postmaster in the rough town of Laramie, Wyoming. This 1901 edition, published after his death, includes a Biographical tribute to Nye, quoting his dear friend, Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley: "He was unselfish wholly, and I am broken-hearted, recalling the always patient strength and gentleness of this true man, the unfailing hope and cheer and faith of his child-heart, his noble and heroic life, and pure devotion to his home, his deep affections, constant dreams, plans and realizations." ...

Mattia Pascal grew up in a small Italian town not dissimilar to that of the author's upbringing. Pascal leads a somewhat feckless boyhood, allowing opportunities to slip away from him and living on the accumulated but dwindling resources of his family. As a young man he finds himself duped into poverty and an unhappy marriage made sadder by grief. He escapes on an adventure at Monte Carlo where he submits himself to Fortune which provides him with an extraordinary erasure of his old identity and the funds to maintain a new one. With the passage of a couple of years however he becomes horribly ...

Asgard Stories - Tales from Norse Mythology. To all our Children who have loved the hearing of these Asgard Stories. This little volume is the outcome of several years experience in telling to classes of children the classic myths, both southern and northern. "A broad simplicity, so very different from the light gracefulness of the old Greek paganism, distinguishes this Norse system. It is thought, the genuine thought of deep, rude, earnest minds, fairly opened to the things about them, - a face-to-face and heart-to-heart inspection of things, - the first characteristic of all good thought in ...

La entrada de Alicia en el panorama de las letras castellanas se produjo, en realidad, el 15 de noviembre de 1914 con la primera entrega de una versión que vio la luz en las páginas de una revista juvenil editada en Madrid, Los Muchachos. Semanario con regalos. (El curioso subtítulo de la publicación se explica porque incluía cupones para unos sorteos de juguetes y libros entre los lectores). La serie se prolongó en ocho entregas dominicales hasta el 5 de enero de 1915. El texto abreviado parece conceder más importancia a los capítulos iniciales y finales, así como al de la Merienda ...

"The Stories in this little book have been set down almost in the same words in which they were told. How the telling of them came about is a very simple matter. Having three children, each of whom loved a Fairy Tale, it somehow became the fashion, on Sunday evenings, to tell them a story.On one occasion, when the youngest member was just about to be taken to bed, his sister said; “None of the books about Fairies ever say a word about Australia! Are there any Australian Fairies, Father?”Somewhat hastily, perhaps, I answered: “Why, yes, of course! Whole tribes of them!”Instantly the ...

The well known and delightful tale of Alice in Wonderland but retold in simpler language. All the characters are there, even the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter. Note that even though the title says 'words of one syllable', there are quite a few two and even multiple syllable words which the author divides into smaller bites by using dashes. Don't let this bother you. The book is well written and would be an excellent choice for all listeners or those for whom English is not their first language.

Shakespeare's sequence of 154 sonnets deals with such themes as love, time, death, immortality, lust, and sex. The poems follow but also depart from the Petrarchan tradition of sonnets written by a frustrated male lover to an unattainable idealized female beloved. Shakespeare's sonnets are addressed to both male and female lovers: the androgynous "young man" and the alluring yet dangerously sexual "dark lady." (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)

This is a very impressive collection of some of the best sonnets from the pen of the incomparable William Wordsworth. The appreciation that Wordsworth had for the beauty of his surroundings is vibrantly exhibited in these selections, as are his feelings on love, friendship, society, conflict, history, the supernatural and indeed the art of poetry itself. And what better vehicle for the elegant articulation of a master poet's thoughts and inspirations than the sonnet, an art form ideally suited to assertion, verbalization and contemplation.In these sonnets, we witness Wordsworth's poetic ...

When Diana Henders' father dies and leaves her responsible for running a cattle ranch in Arizona, along with a gold mine on the property, she is left on her own to sort things out between two love interests, Hal Colby and Bull, both of whom are eligible foremen for the ranch. Then, trouble arrives in the form of her cousin Lillian and her lawyer, Corson, from New York. Lillian claims to own half the ranch, and wants to sell out to the Wainrights; a bullying father and son who own land nearby. Meanwhile, the shipments from the gold mine keep being robbed by the notorious "Black Coyote". The ...

This is a 50-poem sequence of 16-line sonnets, divided into 10 sections. It has been called "a novelette in sonnet form". The author, George Meredith, pours his heart out in raw anguish, pain, and heartbreak, as he recalls the moments, and sometimes intimate memories of his wife who deserted him for another lover. (Summary by Laur)

The Holy Sonnets—also known as the Divine Meditations or Divine Sonnets—are a series of nineteen poems by the English poet John Donne (1572–1631). The sonnets were first published in 1633—two years after Donne's death. Summary from Wikipedia.

The Blue Bird is a 1908 play by Belgian author Maurice Maeterlinck. On the night of Christmas a boy and a girl, Tyltil and Mytil, are visited by Fairy Berilyuna. Fairy's granddaughter is sick and can only be saved by the Blue Bird. Thanks to the Fairy's magic gift children have the opportunity to see the soul of things. Inanimate objects Clocks, Fire, Water, Bread, Sugar, Milk transformed into beings with their own character. Together, they set off on a dangerous journey for the fabulous Blue Bird. The play is inspired with the deep idea of the author "be brave enough to see the hidden." - ...

Jacob Abbott chronicles the unspeakably treacherous rise of Richard III to the throne of England in the midst of the war between the Yorks and the Lancasters and his ultimate fall on the Field of Bosworth. (Introduction by Cathy Barratt)

Chronicles the life of Richard II, born in 1367 in Bordeaux, France, who later wore the crown of King of England. (Summary by Cathy Barratt)

There are certain names which are familiar, as names, to all mankind; and every person who seeks for any degree of mental cultivation, feels desirous of informing himself of the leading outlines of their history, that he may know, in brief, what it was in their characters or their doings which has given them so widely-extended a fame. Consequently, great historical names alone are selected; and it has been the writer's aim to present the prominent and leading traits in their characters, and all the important events in their lives, in a bold and free manner, and yet in the plain and simple ...

This history concerns Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, BC 336-321. Pyrrhus was a world renowned soldier, leader, and conqueror of Macedon and Italy, from whom the term Pyrrhic victory was taken. - Summary by Deon Gines

The Boys’ Life of Abraham Lincoln is a biography with many anecdotes that takes one deeper into the thoughts, personality, and beliefs of the man that was Lincoln. While the title indicates the book is about Lincoln’s life as a boy, the book is a full, if somewhat shortened biography. It is very well written and was a joy to record. One might ask, "Who was Helen Nicolay?" Her father, John George Nicolay, was Abraham Lincoln's private secretary and doubtless much of the material comes from his complete biography of Abraham Lincoln. ( Summary by Tom Weiss)

In this volume are presented examples of men who shed lustre upon ordinary pursuits, either by the superior manner in which they exercised them or by the noble use they made of the leisure which success in them usually gives. Such men are the nobility of republics.Most of these chapters were published originally in "The Ledger" of New York, and a few of them in "The Youths' Companion" of Boston, the largest two circulations in the country. I have occasionally had reason to think that they were of some service to young readers, and I may add that they represent more labor and research than ...