Showing results by publisher "Simply Media" in Classics

Spoon River has 244 accounts of the lives of people in the town that explain its goings on over a couple of centuries. Each free form verse is presented as an epitaph of one of the citizens delivered themselves, often criticizing the words said about them on their tombstone or the monument or stone left above them. The stories build on one another as well as reference various family members and others mentioned in other stories.

Kiev suffers from abandonment by the Germans and takeover by the Soviet Bolsheviks. Streamlined for narration and the American ear.

The great 19th-century novel by the first important Irish novelist. The story of a girl whose father died young so the family was impoverished, she never learned to read, and was thrust into the servant class and occasionally into the workhouse. Becoming pregnant, she lost her position and struggled to bring up her son. A must-listen.

Some consider The Great Gatsby the greatest American novel ever written about love, dreams, business, bootlegging, Wall Street, the Midwest, and the East, as well as Yale, prep schools, the rich, and more. F. Scott Fitzgerald followed up with Tender Is the Night, also considered equally compelling.

The story starts with the hotel owner trolling for guests at the train station and finding three: the Swede, the Cowboy, and the Easterner. As with many stories the personalities are known by their titles not their names; the two known by their names are the hotel keeper, Scully, and his son Johnny. The first major event is in a play for fun (no money) card game in which the Swede accuses Johnny of cheating. Johnny skillfully defends himself by saying he won't put up with the accusation, while side stepping the truth of the matter.

"The Holly Tree" is a warm Christmas story by Charles Dickens and a listening treat for adults during the holiday season or almost any time of year. Full of wonderful Dickensian words, phrases, and irony. The story contains a strain of great truth, and love for Americans, who Dickens depicts over-friendly but warm, kindly, generous, and warm hearted.

The story of an ape who copied men so as to escape from his cage and be shown off in circuses as well as addressing crowds, with the remarkable insights of Kafka.

10 Kafka stories: A Fratricide, The Next Village, The Bucket Rider, Prometheus, Poseidon, The Problem of the Laws, A Little Fable, Give it Up!, On Parables & An Imperial Message.

A Kafka story with remarkable insight into the relationship, competition, fear, envy, and more between father and son.

Three of Fitzgerald's early short stories: "Dalyrimple Goes Wrong", "Jemina, the Mountain Girl", and "Tarquin of Cheapside". Each story is fascinating in its own way, with roots that lead to his novels. His writing, even at this early stage in his career, is like champagne. "Dalyrimple" has some of the themes Dreiser later used in An American Tragedy; "Jemina" sounds like what would happen if Mark Twain met southwestern humor; "Tarquin" is unique and better listened to than discussed.

An historical romance set in London and the English countryside with remarkable nuance and descriptions about dress, parties, houses, men and women and their dealings with each other, with special insights into marriage. A wonderful ode to our better selves and what we can be if we move beyond the bumps and bruises in life.

A legendary tale about witchcraft and vampires with a handsome Black man—in fact, a vampire—marrying an aristocratic White woman in one night, and the tragedies that ensue.

An insightful story about a happily married woman who takes over her husband’s business upon his early death and creates a prospering business with seed capital from a childhood friend. She maintains her beliefs and avocations while doing the hard work of farming.

One of Oscar Wilde's most charming stories, combining art, painting, wit, love, romance, and generosity. English wit, American vigor, and Irish sentimentality too - all part of Wilde's makeup. Hard to hear without tearing up a bit at the end.

Freud's landmark work about the pleasure principle covering ancient times to his own: psychology, arts, literature, science, biology, and social science.

"The Ransom of Red Chief" may be the most widely read story in grammar, middle, and high school. Young people can relate to 10-year-old Red Chief, his father, who makes the kidnappers pay him back in order to take Red Chief off their hands....

A classic Dickens Christmas story full of love, loss, regret, and reuniting. After a Christmas Eve feast, the narrator tells a story about Richard Doubledick, saved by an officer friend , who became his friend for life until his death at Waterloo. Richard later met the French officer who killed his friend and used forgiveness to get over it, which lead to them and their children becoming lifelong friends. This is a classic story about generations of salvation and friendship.

A reverse of normal hunting of man hunting an animal. This is a man hunting a man for sport. A rich aristocrat hunts a shipwrecked man. This short novel has grown more popular over time.

God Sees the Truth, But Waits engages a subject that would have suited Dostoyevsky. But Dostoyevsky would have written it with a tone of fist-waving anger and frustration, while Tolstoy wrote this story with an accepting, non-violent attitude toward the grievances described. The protagonist has been wrongly accused of murder, separated from his family for 26 years, and by circumstance meets the real murderer in Siberia.

Winesburg, Ohio has the most memorable cast of characters in 20th-century fiction. Listeners will remember at least a few stories and their characters for the rest of their lives. Each of the 23 stories stands on its own. And each is also interwoven into the fabric of the book.