Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

LibriVox volunteers bring you 19 recordings of Summer by Marietta Holley..This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 13, 2020. ------Another tribute to summer. - Summary by David Lawrence

Wharton's 1917 novella Summer, like her more famous work Ethan Frome, is set in a very small rural New England town. Charity Royall longs to escape the claustrophobic confines of North Dormer and the inappropriate advances of her guardian Mr. Royall, who adopted her as a child from the nearby Mountain community. Hope arrives in the form of city boy Lucius Harney, who has come to research the architecture of the region; but will his presence in Charity's life mean her salvation - or her undoing? (Introduction by Elizabeth Klett)

Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems. She is famous for writing Goblin Market and Remember, and the words of the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter.Rossetti was educated at home by her mother and father, who had her study religious works, classics, fairy tales and novels. Rossetti delighted in the works of Keats, Scott, Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis. The influence of the work of Dante Alighieri, Petrarch and other Italian writers filled the home and would have a deep impact on Rossetti's later writing. Their ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of "Summer Dawn" by William Morris.This was the Weekly Poetry project for July 10, 2022. ------When this poem was first published in 1856 it had no title. Subsequently, the 1858 edition gave the sonnet its title of "Summer Dawn." And it is a sonnet, though it does not follow traditional English or Italian models. Perhaps Morris was giving hint of the Provençal 'alba.' These poems in their early form were conversations between two lovers. The requirement is that each stanza end with the word 'alba' [dawn]. Morris ends lines five and eleven this way. ...

A rich widow or two. An owner of 1000 acres of fine land. An heiress to the 1000 acres. Nefarious visitors of various sorts after the land, jewels, or whatever else they can get. Meddlers and neighbors. Faithful retainers and stalwart protectors. Comedy abounds. - Summary by ToddHWCast list:Joshua Wicks, owner of "close onto 1,000 acres": Wayne CookeMr. Peter Schultz, sometimes vendor of sausages: Greg GiordanoMr. Barry Bland, an Englishman possessed of a shady reputation and a talkative daughter: Andrew JamesCount de Musset, after the 1,000 acres and Arvilla Wicks: RémiArchie Barton, a young...

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was an English flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He won several victories, including the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during which he was killed. These are the letters that he wrote to Lady Hamilton, with whom he was having a notorious affair until his death in 1805. (Summary by Wikipedia)

This second collection of the correspondence of Oscar Wilde includes letters written when the Irish playwright was at the height of his success. Wilde defends several of his works from criticism and even censorship, and writes "prose poems" to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, that will eventually be read out in court. The letters, some of which have been excerpted or redacted, are sourced from auction catalogues, newspapers, biographies, and other texts in the public domain. For a complete collection of Wilde's letters, please see "The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde," (2000) edited by Merlin ...

The story is one of only two novels by Wharton to be set in New England. The novel details the sexual awakening of its protagonist, Charity Royall, and shares many plot similarities with Wharton's better known novel, Ethan Frome. Only moderately well-received when originally published, Summer has had a resurgence in critical popularity since the 1960's. (Summary by Wikipedia)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 17 recordings of A Winter Evening by Alexander Pushkin, translated by Martha Dickinson Bianchi.This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for February 13, 2022.-----Pushkin is a well-known Russian author and poet. Bianchi, the translator, was the niece of Emily Dickinson and is best known as an editor of Dickinson's poems. - Summary by TriciaG

A collection of nine letters written by the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, to his teenage son. "Their purpose is the inculcation of love and reverence for the Holy Scriptures, and a delight in their perusal and study." - Summary by Dale Barkley

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was an English flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He won several victories, including the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during which he was killed. These are the letters that he wrote to Lady Hamilton, with whom he was having a notorious affair until his death in 1805. (Summary by Wikipedia)

"Being some Account of Life and Work in the Province of Canterbury, South Island." A set fo 26 letters covering the Author's period of service in New Zealand as an Anglican priest. They cover his parochial work in Christchurch, on the West Coast, and Timaru. This is interspersed with commentary on Diocesan matters along with accounts of his journeys between New Zealand and England. - Summary by Beeswaxcandle

A series of letters on the early occupation of the colony, the Aborigines, etc addressed by Victorian pioneers to his Excellency Charles Joseph La Trobe Esq. , Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Victoria in response to a circular letter sent by him to a number of early settlers dated 29th July 1853. -It cannot be claimed for these papers that they are infallible records of our early history at every point.( from the preface),The last section ends with lists of Aboriginal words and phrases as were collected by a lady. I'm in 2 minds about these, I respect her desire to keep a record but do ...

The extended title of these volumes is 'Inculcating Morality by Entertaining Narratives”, and in the preface the Author indicates she offered them for approval to a friend who required works for girls aged twelve to seventeen that were not “too serious nor too childish....a mirror of truth and nature in which my girls may see themselves without danger to their native simplicity and without checking too harshly their natural curiosity and fancy.”By using examples supposedly from her own experience,“ Mrs Palmerstone” provides her daughter with the moral advice thought necessary to help...

James Hall was a soldier, lawyer, circuit judge, newspaper editor, historian, and author of fiction. He was also the first publisher of a literary magazine west of Pittsburgh. Hall originally wrote some of the letters in this collection in 1820, while voyaging by keelboat down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Shawneetown, Illinois, where he established a law practice. He appears to have revised the 1820 letters and added more prior to publication in London in 1828. Much more than a description of his travels, the letters include his observations on many subjects, reflecting current affairs ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 12 recordings of Music On Christmas Morning by Anne Brontë.Published in the 1846 collection Poems By Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell under Anne's nom de plume 'Acton Bell'. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for November 29th, 2009.

The writer of the following letters is a young woman who lost her husband in a railroad accident and went to Denver to seek support for herself and her two-year-old daughter, Jerrine. Turning her hand to the nearest work, she went out by the day as house-cleaner and laundress. Later, seeking to better herself, she accepted employment as a housekeeper for a well-to-do Scotch cattle-man, Mr. Stewart, who had taken up a quarter-section in Wyoming. The letters, written through several years to a former employer in Denver, tell the story of her new life in the new country. They are genuine letters,...

Organized by week, this devotional has a morning and evening meditation for every day of the year. Although these devotions are short in length, they are filled with spiritual goodness. In just a few sentences, Spurgeon is able to convey the wisdom of Scripture with eloquence and purpose. These daily messages provide Christians with the spiritual energy they need to begin and end each day. Spurgeon weaves a verse of Scripture into each devotion, helping readers draw deeper meaning out of the selected passages. This powerful devotional provides Christians with the spiritual nourishment required...

Elizabeth Bancroft went to England with her husband, historian George Bancroft, for three of the most dynamic years in European history. As Ambassador to England from the United States, George moved in the highest circles. In his wife's letters to their sons, her uncle, her brother, and Mrs. Polk (the President's wife), we see glimpses not only of early Victorian English life, but also of Queen Victoria herself! Mrs. Bancroft speaks of dinners with Benjamin Disraeli, visits to Wordsworth, weekends in the country with Louis Napoleon and Sir Robert Peel with such matter of fact aplomb that one ...

Thirty-one brief morning devotionals, simple enough for the child audience for which they were written, but also inspiring for adults needing some spiritual refreshment. ( Jael Baldwin)