Showing results by narrator "Frederick Davidson" in All Categories

In his first published work in prose, James Joyce paints vivid portraits of the people of Dublin, his city of birth, in a collection of stories whose larger purpose, he said, was to depict a "moral history of Ireland". From the first story, in which a young boy encounters death, to the haunting final story involving the middle-aged Gabriel, the book gives an unflinching and realistic portrayal of "dear, dirty Dublin" in the early 20th-century.

Born in an overcrowded slum in Scotland in 1813, David Livingstone worked 12-hour days in a cotton factory from age 10 to 24. But a pamphlet by Karl Gutzlaff changed his life. Resolved to become a missionary, he applied himself to medicine, self-educating and eventually qualifying as a doctor.

Three young truants from a church meeting on Sunday make their way to a seashore hideaway, where they observe a huge black man muttering incantations and performing weird rites. When the man discovers the children, he chases them with a knife. In defense, Davy Crawfurd flings a rock at him, and they narrowly escape. Years later, young David Crawfurd goes to South Africa to make his fortune and is caught in the very heart of a great native uprising. Under strange circumstances, he comes face-to-face with its leader, only to recognize the strange blazing eyes of the black man he had encountered as a child on the beach.

This monumental work made the Arthurian cycle available for the first time in English. Malory took a body of legends from Celtic folklore that had been adapted into French literature, gave them an English perspective, and produced a work which ever since has had tremendous influence upon literature.

This collection of eight world-famous cases from Doctor Watson's portfolio illustrates the singular mental faculties of Sherlock Holmes: a body on the London Underground; the strange disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax; a parcel containing some coarse salt and two freshly severed human ears.

On the night of the final performance of The Seagull, in which Charlotte had taken a leading part, her husband Hugo jealously watched her dancing with younger men at the backstage party. He started drinking heavily and continuously. Two days passed in an alcoholic daze. Charlotte disappeared, presumably with her lover, and, when her body was found in the coal shed, strangled with her own scarf, every sign pointed to Hugo as the murderer.

A case from his past is about to ruin Assistant Chief Constable Ned French's career. Heather Jonas, forced into a false confession to murder after a harrowing late-night interview session with French, has now served 15 years of her 20-year sentence. In all that time she's never appealed against her lot; but now, someone else has confessed, and a citizen's rights campaigner is determined to get to the truth.

The Professor, the first novel that Charlotte Brontë completed, is based on her experiences as a language student in Brussels in 1842. Told from the point of view of William Crimsworth, the only male narrator she created, the work questions many of the presuppositions of Victorian society.

Two American travelers have been killed—one with poison, the other with a knife through the heart—and the only clues at the scene are a woman’s wedding ring and the German word for “vengeance” written in blood. The military surgeon Dr. John Watson is brought in to investigate, along with his clever, arrogant new roommate, Sherlock Holmes.

A father and three of his seven children work brutal hours in a mine, facing hazards such as landslides, fire, and poisoned air, to scrape together enough money for food. When their lodger, Étienne, shares ideas about a workers' revolt, the family gradually embraces his plans. Soon the settlement is aflame with resolve to strike for better wages and working conditions. Savage and horrifying events ensue as miners clash with management and with each other.

In this largely autobiographical coming-of-age story, James Joyce describes the awakening young mind of a middle-class Irish Catholic boy named Stephen Dedalus. The story follows Stephen’s development from his early troubled boyhood through an adolescent crisis of faith—partially inspired by the famous “hellfire sermon” preached by Father Arnall, and partly by the guilt of his own precocious sexual adventures—to his discovery of his ultimate destiny as a poet.

Robert Browning's intensely romantic love affair with Elizabeth Barrett inspired some of literature's most celebrated verse. His view that love is the key to the meaning of life and life's animating force is evident in these collected poems.

Abandoned by her lover and left to bring up their two children alone, Gervaise Macquart has to fight to earn an honest living. When she accepts the marriage proposal of Monsieur Coupeau, it seems as though she is on the path to a decent, respectable life at last. But with her husband's drinking and the unexpected appearance of a figure from her past, Gervaise's plans begin to unravel tragically.

When a journalist at a singularly uncontroversial magazine allows his literary aspirations to run riot, circulation goes up, but so does the danger level...

This terse and startling novel is the story of a struggle for possession and of its devastating consequences. Three women seek to secure the affections of one man, while he, in turn, tries to satisfy them all. But in the middle of this contest of wills stands his unwitting and vulnerable young daughter. The conclusion of The Other House makes it one of the most disturbing and memorable of Henry James' depictions of the uncontrollable passions that lie beneath the polished veneer of civilized life.

A princely state in India, 1930, under the British Raj. To Bhopore and its opulent Summer Palace comes a handful of Western visitors to meet the outrageous Maharajah and his entourage. There they meet the Maharajah's heir, the sensual Porgy, and his English chorus-girl mistress. They meet the enigmatic chief minister, and the aloof British Resident, with his dignified little nine-year-old son. And before long they also meet sudden death.

His last and most controversial novel, Jude the Obscure provoked such widespread and bitter attacks that Hardy claimed it caused him to stop writing novels. The primary causes of the uproar involved Hardy’s frank treatment of sexual themes and his unconventional portrayal of the pillars of Victorian society: the British university system, marriage, and religion. Today, many consider this to be Hardy’s finest work.

In 1963, Samuel Eliot Morison, long one of our most distinguished historians, was awarded the first Balzan Prize in History, a prize that rivals the Nobel Prize in splendor and munificence. To receive the award, Admiral Morison had to go to Rome, where he delivered an address, "The Experiences and Principles of an Historian." This book includes the address he gave, as well a fascinating account of the award ceremonies, of which he was a central figure.

A twisted tale indeed, featuring love lost, alluring demons, idiotic servants, beautiful ladies, magicians, spells, pirates, and duels, Stolen from Gypsies has been called a comedic tour de force comparable to Shakespeare.

In the seventh century, at the dawn of Christianity, Bega, a bewitching Irish princess bestowed with miraculous powers, and Padric, a charismatic British prince gifted with the fiery power of the sword, sacrifice themselves for what they believe to be a greater destiny.