Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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,...

Ulysses is a groundbreaking novel in which Irish author James Joyce explores realism through stream-of-consciousness technique and shifting narrative styles. It was published in serial form between 1918-1920 and first published in book form in 1922. The story follows Leopold Bloom through Dublin during the course of one day: June 16, 1904. The events and characters of Ulysses parallel those of Homer's Odyssey, with Bloom corresponding to Odysseus. Although the book was the subject of early obscenity prosecutions, was banned in several countries, and has been considered unreadable by many, it ...

La compilation de poèmes intitulée "Les fleurs du mal" de Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) fit fureur et scandale dès sa publication initiale. Du coup, six poèmes furent censurés pour immoralité et n'apparaîtront que dans les publications d'après 1949. Voici l'édition de 1896 qui est une compilation presque complète de 152 poèmes, témoins du réalisme et de l'esprit innovateur et provocateur de Baudelaire. - Summary by Sonia

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of Talk by Stephen Vincent Benét .This was the Weekly Poetry project for February 2, 2025. ------Stephen Vincent Benét was an American poet, short story writer, and novelist. He wrote a book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body, published in 1928, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.This poem is taken from HEAVENS AND EARTH, A BOOK OF POEMS (1920) - Summary by Wikipedia

LibriVox volunteers bring you 22 recordings of To a Dog by John Jay Chapman, published in 1917. This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 6th, 2011 to mark this year's festivals of remembrance.Chapman's son Victor was the first American pilot to lose his life in aerial combat, while serving with the Escadrille Américaine in the First World War. This poem tells of the heartbreak of a bereaved father; the sentiment, though attributed to the son's dog, is familiar to all who have lost someone they loved, in peace or war. (Introduction by Ruth Golding)

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a novella by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886. London lawyer Utterson is driven to investigate Edward Hyde, the unlikely protégé of his friend Dr Henry Jekyll, suspecting the relationship to be founded on blackmail. The truth is worse than he could have imagined. Jekyll’s ‘full statement of the case’, the final chapter of the book, explores the idea of dual personality that led him to his experiments, and his inexorable and finally fatal descent into evil.(Summary by David Barnes)

LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 028: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.

This is a collection of poems read by LibriVox volunteers for the months of February and March 2011.

Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. "Why Women Should Vote" (Jane Addams, 1910) is one of several selections devoted to women's interests, as are Martha Foote Crow's "The Young Woman on the Farm" (1910), Alice Freeman Palmer's "Three Rules for Happiness," and Myrtle Reed's recipes for "Coffee Cakes, Doughnuts, and Waffles." Tradition and belief are treated in two selections from Kierkegaard, a letter from Japan ("When the Dead Return"), a creation myth ("Sky Weds Earth"), and an essay by Mark Twain on "Mental Telegraphy." Topics in history and political theory include "The ...

In what I have read so far this book appears to be a humorous character study on two levels. That between the uncle and niece and that of polite society in the 19th century. Anything can happen. I for one want to find out what will happen!! - Summary by Susan Morin (solo reader)

A collection of comedic short stories from the perspective of an old country man. (Summary by Philip Martin)

The story is about Elinor and Marianne, two daughters of Mr Dashwood by his second wife. They have a younger sister, Margaret, and an older half-brother named John. When their father dies, the family estate passes to John, and the Dashwood women are left in reduced circumstances. The novel follows the Dashwood sisters to their new home, a cottage on a distant relative's property, where they experience both romance and heartbreak. The contrast between the sisters' characters is eventually resolved as they each find love and lasting happiness. Through the events in the novel, Elinor and Marianne...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 20 recordings of Remembrance by Emily Brontë. This was the fortnightly poetry project for June 14th, 2009.

Alice Duer was a successful American author who wrote poetry, novels and screenplays and campaigned tirelessly for women's suffrage. Her sister Caroline was an editor at Vogue magazine. This beautiful collection published in 1896 and the first of their early poems, is centered around the themes of love, friendship and loss. - Summary by Nemo

Orpheu -- Revista Trimestral de Literatura foi um periódico publicado em Lisboa, que apesar de apenas ter dois números, teve grande impacto na literatura em língua portuguesa. O seu vanguardismo inspirou movimentos literários de renovação da literatura portuguesa, por ter introduzido em Portugal o movimento modernista. Os autores que se associaram nesse projeto ficaram mais tarde conhecidos como a "Geração de Orpheu", dentre os quais se contam Fernando Pessoa, Mário de Sá-Carneiro e Almada-Negreiros. - Summary by Leni

The Odysseys are a collection of stories about Ulysses' journey home from the war at Troy purportedly written in the 8th century BCE by Homer, a blind poet thought to have lived in the Greek colonies in Asia Minor, possibly at Smyrna. The events described are thought to have occurred centuries before being recorded by Homer, handed down orally since the twelfth century BCE, the golden era of the Greek Bronze Age when the world was populated by heroic mortals and often visited by the Gods. This verse translation in couplets by George Chapman was originally published in 1616, the first ...

This collection will put in one place, all the Farewell (or last) Addresses made by each of the 43 ex-US presidents.The first, George Washington's "Farewell Address", issued as a public letter in 1796, was one of the most influential statements of republicanism. Drafted primarily by Washington himself, with help from Hamilton, it gives advice on the necessity and importance of national union, the value of the Constitution and the rule of law, the evils of political parties, and the proper virtues of a republican people. He called morality "a necessary spring of popular government". He said, "...