Showing results by narrator "Jim Killavey" in All Categories

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic in which Verne prophesized many modern uses of the submarine. The story concerns the now famous fictional character Captain Nemo and his submarine, Nautilus, as seen by one of his passengers, Professor Pierre Aronnax. Over the years there have been many film, TV, and theatrical adaptations and variations of the book.

Politics is the second half of a single treatise by Aristotle (384 B.C.E - 322 B.C.E.), Ethics being the first. Both deal with one and the same subject: what Aristotle calls the philosophy of human affairs. He also refers to it as political science and social science. Aristotle collected and studied the constitutions of over 150 city states before writing his Politics.

George MacDonald was a Scottish author known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels. He inspired many authors, including W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Madeleine L'Engle and Mark Twain. C.S. Lewis that wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master". G. K. Chesterton cited "The Princess and the Goblin" as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence".

Robert Louis Stevenson, know mostly for his tales of adventure and horror, also had a humorous side. This black comedy of errors deals with a coffin that keeps disappearing, and then showing up again in very strange places.

Theodore Dreiser's first and perhaps greatest novel appeared in 1900. The story is about a young country girl who moves to the big city, where she starts realizing her own American Dream by embarking on a life of sin rather than by hard work and perseverance. On publication, it met with outraged disapproval and was immediately withdrawn as "too shocking and sordid for polite readers".

The Talisman is Sir Walter Scott's tale of the Crusades, a tale of chivalry, of violence, of virtue, romance, and deceit.

The American Civil War had ended, and the members of the American Gun Club tried to think of something else to interest them. At last they came up with the extraordinary idea of building the greatest cannon the world had ever seen and using it to launch a man-made "bullet" to the moon!

Stephen wrote astonishingly realistic stories of men under the stress of battle, the most famous being The Read Badge of Courage. He also wrote a number of very insightful stories with the same theme. This is considered one of his best.

Carl von Clausewitz was a Prussian soldier and German military theorist who stressed the moral and political aspects of war. This recording is the unabridged text of the first two books of Clausewitz's massive three volume treatise On War.

"The Haunters and the Haunted" is both a wonderful ghost story and a well-crafted example of Bulwer-Lytton's theory of the supernatural. It represents nearly 20 years' study of paranormal phenomena. On the one hand, it is a chilling tale of ghosts and terror, but on the other, it illustrate the author's theory "that the Supernatural is Impossible, and that what is called supernatural is only a something in the laws of nature of which we have been hitherto ignorant."

Sir Walter Scott gathered a popular audience, larger than any audience before. A great innovator,he created one of the outstanding literary forms of the past 200 years - the historical novel. In Ivanhoe, Scott brings to life 12th century England.

The Education of Henry Adams is among the oddest and most enlightening books in American literature. Henry Adams was the grandson of a president and the great-grandson of another one. He was also the son of the American Ambassador to England, and his secretery. As such he rubbed elbows, literally, with Presidents from Abraham Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt and with many of the great figures of his time.

First published in 1936, The Shadow Out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft appeared in the June issue of Astounding Stories. It weaves a tale of an extraterrestrial species called the Great Race of Yith that can travel through space and time and take over the bodies of other species. Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, an American living in the first decade of the 20th century fears he may have been possessed by the Yith. He sees strange vistas of other worlds and fears he is going insane. While on an expedition to prove the existence of this race, he makes an astounding discovery.

Arnold Bennett was an English writer who wrote both novels and practical self-help books. One of his most famous works is How to Live on 24 Hours a Day. This book contains nine practical and often humorous essays. The titles are "Mental Efficiency", "Expressing One's Individuality", "Breaking with the Past", "Settling Down in Life", "Marriage", "Books", "Success", "The Petty Artificialities", and "The Secret of Content".

The author describes his intent in writing this book in these words, "It is generally agreed that there are certain 'tricks' which make for mental efficiency, consisting of methods of apperceiving facts, methods of review, devices for arranging work. Some are the fruits of psychological experimentation; others are derived from experience. Many of them can be imparted by instruction, and it is for the purpose of systematizing these and making them available for students that this book is prepared.”

When a volcano suddenly seems to erupt and threaten a mountain town of North Carolina, Inspector Strock is sent to determine the danger. When an automobile race in Wisconsin is interrupted by the unexpected appearance of a vehicle traveling at many times the top speed of the entrants, Strock is again consulted. And when an odd-shaped boat is sighted moving at impossible speeds off the New England coast, Stock and his boss begin to wonder if the incidents are related.

James Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers of the early 20th century. Although best known for Ulysses and The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, he also wrote a number of shorter works. Chief among them is "The Dead," which was published as part of a collection in 1914.

Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, and Nobel laureate. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist. He was born in Monmouthshire into one of the most prominent aristocratic families in the United Kingdom. "A Free Man's Worship" is probably his most famous, and certainly the most widely printed of his many essays.

At Christmas, Laura Fleming lived her fantasy adventure. Paid to house-sit for the fabulously wealthy financier, C.W. Banley, while he traveled, she eagerly headed for New York City. As mistress of his elegant townhouse, she baked cookies and dressed the old gent’s richly-furnished residence for the holidays. As December rolled around, the lonely, lovely writer eagerly anticipated soaking up the Christmas atmosphere in the grand city. With only the cat for company, she’d turn Banley’s elegant home into a wonderland of sparkling lights, fragrant garland, and shiny tinsel.

"Araby" is one of the stories from Joyce's masterpiece, The Dubliners. As is the case with all the stories in the book, it culminates in an "epiphany".