Showing results by author "Dream audio books" in All Categories

When Tocqueville visited America in the 1830s he found a thriving democracy of a kind he had not seen anywhere else. Many of his insightful observations American society and political system, found in the two volume book he published after his visit, still remain surprisingly relevant today. (Summary by the Bookworm)

MiddleMarch by George EliotMiddlemarch by George Eliot is a sweeping novel set in a fictional English town during the early 19th century. It follows the lives of various residents, centering on Dorothea Brooke, an idealistic young woman whose pursuit of intellectual and moral fulfillment leads to personal and social conflicts. Dorothea marries the elderly scholar Casaubon, hoping to find purpose, but discovers his motives are less noble. Her life intertwines with other characters, including the ambitious Dr. Lydgate, whose medical career faces hurdles, and Rosamond Vincy, who struggles with ...

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), published in 1889, is a humorous account by Jerome K. Jerome of a boating holiday on the Thames between Kingston and Oxford.The book was intended initially to be a serious travel guide, with accounts of local history of places along the route, but the humorous elements eventually took over, to the point where the serious and somewhat sentimental passages now seem like an unnecessary distraction to the essentially comic novel. One of the most praised things about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to modern readers. The jokes seem ...

Cranford is set in a small market town populated largely by a number of respectable ladies. It tells of their secrets and foibles, their gossip and their romances as they face the challenges of dealing with new inhabitants to their society and innovations to their settled existence. It was first published between 1851 and 1853 as episodes in Charles Dickens’ Journal Household Words. Appended to this recording is a short sequel, The Cage at Cranford, written ten years later and published in the journal All the Year Round. In a letter to Mrs. Gaskell, Charlotte Bronte wrote: “Thank you for ...

Democracy in America was published in two volumes, the first in 1835 and the second in 1840. It is a classic work on the United States in the 1830s and its strengths and weaknesses as seen from a European point of view. It is also regarded as a pioneering work of sociology. (Summary based on Wikipedia)

Isabella Bird began travelling while in her early twenties to help alleviate illness that had plagued her since childhood. She was a single woman in her early forties when she made her trek through the Rocky Mountains. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains details this fascinating account of her travels through a series of letters written to her sister, Henrietta. These letters are filled with beautiful, vivid descriptions of the scenery, the people she encountered, the way of life, and a mountain man named Jim Nugent, that was as rough as they come, but a complete gentleman with Ms. Bird. She ...

Carlo Collodi (1826 - 1890)Translated by Carol Della Chiesa (1887 - 1972)Do today's children still learn what a "marionette" is? The beloved story of Pinocchio may represent a last lingering picture of a world not dominated by plastic or electronic toys.Pinocchio is a puppet made from a piece of wood that curiously could talk even before being carved. A wooden-head he starts and a wooden-head he stays - until after years of misadventures caused by his laziness and failure to keep promises he finally learns to care about his family - and then he becomes a real boy.For those who have seen the ...

Thomas Traherne's best known work is a collection of paragraphs, divided into what he called "Centuries", meditating in a particularly intense and visionary manner on God, nature and His relationship with the life of man. - Summary by Nicole Lee

In a little town of Buckskin, population 100, or 200 depending on who did the counting, all kinds of trouble is brewing. See, there was a rivalry going on between Buckskin and a nearby town, Perry's Bend. That rivalry had turned sour, and involved the four nearby ranches. Hopalong Cassidy lives on the Bar-20, and the cows from the C 80 were mixing with his herd. There are gun fights, barroom brawls and stampedes to make live exciting out there on the Texas-New Mexico line!

In this comic novel written by American author Anita Loos, we follow the adventures of the fictional character Lorelei Lee who is a young blonde flapper. This story takes place in the hedonistic Jazz Age and is written in the form of a diary from Lorelei's viewpoint as she shares stories of the men she entertains in New York City and Europe. “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” was an instant bestseller and has been declared as “the great American novel” by Edith Wharton. - Summary by Jenn Broda

These are six meditations by the French philosopher Rene Descartes, best known for his conclusion "Cogito, ergro sum" "I Think, therefore I exist". They are called meditations because he clearly describes his deep reasoning on each topic. Each topic has objections made by Thomas Hobbs and Descartes' responses. The six topics areOf Things DoubtfulOf the Nature of Mans Mind, and that ’tis easier Proved to Be then our BodyOf God, and that there Is a GodOf Truth and FalsehoodOf the Essence of Things Material, and herein again of God, and that He does Exist.Of Corporeal Beings and their Existence...

Ferdinand Count Understand by Tobias Smollett is a picaresque novel that follows the existence of the shrewdness and deceitful Ferdinand Comprehend. Raised by a manipulative mother, Understand develops into an expert of misdirection, gifted in control and misrepresentation. He plots his direction through society, taking advantage of others for individual addition. Be that as it may, his presumptuousness and indecent conduct lead to his defeat. After various turns, double-crossings, and brushes with death, he faces equity. The original features subjects of ravenousness, trickery, and the ...

The Enchanted April is an enchanting novel around four ladies from various different backgrounds who get away from their troubling, unacceptable lives in 1920s Britain by leasing a delightful Italian palace for a month. The ladies — Lotty, Rose, Woman Caroline, and Mrs. Fisher — look for harmony, change, and joy. Encircled by the quiet excellence of the Italian Riviera, they experience self-awareness, recharged connections, and recuperating. Von Arnim's novel investigates subjects of fellowship, self-revelation, and the helpful force of nature, making it a great and elevating read for ...

Eight years ago, Anne Elliot fell in love with a poor but ambitious young naval officer, Frederick Wentworth. The Elliots were dissatisfied with Anne's choice, feeling he was not distinguished enough for their family, and her older friend and mentor, Lady Russell, acting in place of Anne's deceased mother, persuaded her to break off the match. Now 27 and considered a spinster, Anne re-encounters her former fiance, now a captain, as he courts her spirited young neighbour, Louisa Musgrove. The self-interested machinations of Anne's older sister Elizabeth, of Elizabeth's friend Mrs. Clay, and of ...

Fisher’s treatment of the history of Finland, in the context of its relations with Russia, was released in 1899—at the start of the first attempted wave of Russification. At this time, it seems, many Finns regarded it as a misunderstanding. A mistake. Not a contrivance of Nicholas II, but a villainy emanating instead, fen-sucked, from the sinister Russian state machinery—the fief of a myopic and obdurate cadre of supremacists and absolutists. Men like the rabid anti-semite Konstantin Pobedonostsev who, by the camera's harsh testimony, seems to have died long before he stopped coming in ...

Cleopatra by Georg Ebers is a historical novel that delves into the life of Cleopatra VII, the last queen of Egypt. Ebers paints a vivid portrait of Cleopatra as a complex and charismatic leader, torn between her duties as a ruler and her personal desires. The novel explores her relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, highlighting her political acumen and romantic entanglements. Ebers captures the grandeur and turmoil of Cleopatra's reign, leading to her ultimate downfall and the fall of Egypt to Rome. The book combines historical detail with rich character development, offering a ...

An elderly woman tells her grandchildren an old family story on Christmas Eve. - Summary by Rachel Tevis

Summary of Andromache by Jean Racine:Andromache is a French tragedy set in the aftermath of the Trojan War. The story revolves around four main characters: Andromache, the widow of Hector;Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles; Hermione, the daughter of Helen of Troy; and Orestes, the son of Agamemnon.Pyrrhus holds Andromache and her son Astyanax as captives. Though betrothed to Hermione, Pyrrhus falls in love with Andromache and offers to spare her son if she marries him. Andromache, torn between her loyalty to her deceased husband and her desire to protect her son, eventually agrees.Hermione, in love ...

British author Richard Hughes is perhaps most well-known for his sea-faring adventure novel A High Wind in Jamaica, but a dive into his short fiction reveals a much more multi-faceted author, fusing the gothic literature of the 19th century with modern touches, often with a twist in the tale. This collection showcases his ability to blend the dark and spooky with romance, tragedy and humor into an altogether enjoyable concoction of smart and literary stew. (Summary by Ben Tucker)

Carl Bender [1869-1935] was a German-born American missionary in Cameroon. During his years in Africa, he collected folktales which he later published in this book. Bender indicates the cultural tradition of each storyteller, with most of the stories coming from the Kwe people of southwest Cameroon. Many of the stories are animal fables, including several stories about the trickster turtle. - Summary by Laura Gibbs