Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Classics

To the modern eye, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table have many similarities to our own contemporary super-heroes. Equipped with magical powers, enchanted swords, super-strength, and countless villains to take on, they protect the weak and innocent and adhere to their own code of honor. Comparing Batman, Superman, and Captain America to Sir Launcelot, Sir Tristram, and Sir Galahad isn't a huge leap of the imagination.

Little Women, a literary treasure written by Louisa May Alcott, gives listeners a glimpse into early 19th-century America. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March navigate childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood under the oppressive shadow of the Civil War. The March family endures heartache, illness, and poverty, all the while engaging listeners with their antics and moments of pure delight.

Dawn of the Morning is the story of a young woman coming of age in the early 1800s. Having never known a loving home, she is sent away to school by her hard and unfeeling father and stepmother, and a marriage is arranged for her to a man she dislikes and fears.

Scorned by her 17th century New England Puritan village, Hester Prynne struggles to raise her precocious daughter, Pearl, who is the result of an affair and whose father is unknown. Despite being forced to wear a scarlet letter A as a brand for her adultery, Hester tries to live a life of repentance and dignity. Pearl's father comes forward as he is struggling under the weight of his own shame and sin.

Dive into the gripping tension of World War II with "So Long, Sister," a thrilling short story by Justin Case aka Hugh B. Cave, expertly narrated by Mike Vendetti. Set against the treacherous backdrop of the Bering Sea, this tale unfolds as a Navy PBY submarine chaser goes down, leaving its courageous crew adrift in the freezing waters.

This gripping tale centers around Esplan, a true artisan of storytelling whose meticulous craft shines bright in a realm often overshadowed by mediocrity. His stories, born of passion and genius, stand in stark contrast to the uninspired works of his nemesis, Burford--a writer whose skills are as deficient as they are persistent.

Madame Pratolungo is a close companion to Lucilla Finch, a young woman who has been blind since birth. Madame Pratolungo records the narrative of Lucilla's trials from falling in love with Oscar Duborg, her wealthy and shy neighbor, to ending up in a romantic entanglement between Oscar and his brother Nugent. When Lucilla temporarily regains her sight thanks to Herr Grosse, mistaken identities and manipulative schemes are there to greet her.

Paul Courtland was the most popular, well-liked man on campus. After watching his fellow classmates give another student a good hazing to try to break down his strong Christian values, Paul then watched the Christian man die in a fire while trying to save as many people as he could. The event changed Paul's life, when he encountered Jesus Christ himself. A young and beautiful woman named Gila had other ideas for Paul and wanted him all for herself. She did all in her power to woo him away from the unseen presence of Christ. Would she succeed?

A deeply influential novel from one of America's greatest authors, White-Jacket presents a view of life aboard a 19th-century navy ship that is equal parts humorous and sobering. Published a year before his masterpiece Moby-Dick, White-Jacket is based on Herman Melville's own experiences aboard the USS United States from 1843 to 1844.

Slowbridge's customs have been set in stone by Lady Theobald, who has decreed that young ladies should always wear white muslin to social events and that their only decoration should be fresh flowers - which invariably wilt by the end of the evening. Enter Octavia, bedecked in yards of lace and ribbons and with a profusion of diamond jewelry. She is soon informed that only married ladies wear diamonds in England. She makes other mistakes: Young ladies do not ask men to join them on terraces; they do not invite men to play croquet on their lawns.

Edgar Rice Burroughs tells us the story of the lost English prince, Richard, whom fate turns into an outlaw preying on the nobility of England. With tons of adventure, cross, and double cross, this tale will keep you engrossed from beginning to end.

This delightful fairy tale for all ages is filled with fantasy, wit, and wisdom. A classic penned in 1872 by author George MacDonald, it has inspired the work of his friend Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland), and many others, including C.S. Lewis (The Narnia Chronicles), J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), G.K. Chesterton (The Father Brown Mysteries), and Madeleine L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time).

Ramona Ortegna, foster child of Señora Moreno, is much loved by all who live and work at the Moreno Ranch, except the Senora herself who cannot bring herself to think of the girl as anything but a mixed blood child. Half white, half Indian, Ramona had been adopted by Senora's sister who then entrusted the child to her upon her death. Already embittered by the loss to the Americans of much of her Southern California land as the result of the 1846 Mexican-American War, the pious old woman is also distraught by the near destruction of California's Catholic Missions.

The Freaks of Mayfair by E.F. Benson is a series of satirical sketches introducing us to some bizarre inhabitants of Edwardian High Society of Mayfair, which was, and still is today, the stamping ground of the very wealthy. Each sketch introduces a different type of "freak". Sir Louis and Lady Mary Marigold turn snobbism into fine art; Sarah Whitehand is the social-climbing wife of an American toilet bowl magnate, and the so-called "Grizzly Kittens", Babs Begum and Charlie Gordon, cling desperately to their youth as they totter toward old age.

The Book of Tea is much more than a book about tea. It's a celebration of the arts and culture of Japan, and a portrait of tea ceremony, the "Way of Tea", as the pinnacle of Japanese spirituality and artistic life. Written in 1906 by Kakuzo Okakura, curator of Chinese and Japanese Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and a noted scholar and art critic, this modern classic traces the history of tea from its early medicinal uses in China, through the development of Chinese tea culture, and finally to the role of tea in Japanese Zen, culture, and politics.

Mike is among Wodehouse's earliest adult novels, and reportedly remained the author's personal favorite. The story follows the adventures of cricketing prodigy Mike Jackson, first at the prestigious Wrykyn public school, where he strives to achieve the unprecedented feat of a place in the First Eleven in his freshman year, and later (when to his father's annoyance Mike's academic performance at Wrykyn fall rather short of his sporting achievements) at Sedleigh, a smaller school with little sporting reputation, where he first encounters the immaculate and unflappable Psmith....

Franz Kafka's profound and disturbing novella Metamorphosis was first published in German in 1915. In this recent translation by David Wyllie, Gregor Samsa, a travelling salesman, wakes to find himself "transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin". How he, his family, and others deal with this untoward situation is subsequently revealed.

Orphaned cousins Jane and Lucilla, both 19, receive the exciting news that their guardian is at last allowing them to leave boarding school. But their rosy future is thwarted when they find he has made some bad investments and fled, leaving them with a cottage in the English countryside and a modest bank account.

When Bev and Felix arrive at the King farm in Prince Edward Island, they have no idea of the adventures and memories in store for them. Is old Peg Bowen really a witch? What secrets does the neighbor keep hidden in his spare room? What if tomorrow is the end of the world? And what is in the old blue chest? Along with their cousins, they learn the value of work and play, the wisdom of proverbs, how to struggle with temptations and face their fears.

Arthur Ransome (1884-1967) wrote Old Peter's Russian Tales while he was in Russia during the First World War, prior to becoming a war correspondent for The Manchester Guardian. There are 22 stories in all and are told by Old Peter at the behest of his grandchildren, Ivan and Maroosia, in a cozy log cabin in the middle of the forest. These are delightful re-tellings in Ransome's own words of Russian folk tales, and include stories such as "The Little Snow Girl", "Baba Yaga", "Frost", and "Salt".