Showing results by narrator "George Doyle" in All Categories

Many of the tales collected in "Mosses from an Old Manse" are allegories and, typical of Hawthorne, focus on the negative side of human nature. Hawthorne's friend Herman Melville noted this aspect in his review about Hawthorne and his "Mosses": "This black conceit pervades him through and through. You may be witched by his sunlight, transported by the bright gildings in the skies he builds over you; but there is the blackness of darkness beyond."

When Brian Doyle passed away at the age of 60 after a bout with brain cancer, he left behind a cult-like following of devoted listeners who regard his writing as one of the best-kept secrets of the 21st century. Doyle writes with a delightful sense of wonder about the sanctity of everyday things, and about love and connection in all their forms: spiritual love, brotherly love, romantic love, and even the love of a nine-foot sturgeon.

"The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses" is a collection of Theodore Roosevelt's published commentaries and public addresses on what is necessary for a vital and healthy political, social and individual life. Roosevelt states the main point of his speech in the opening remarks: "I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife.

In "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific" (1883), Friedrich Engels explains that Marxism is scientific socialism. Engels claims that whereas utopian socialism is idealist, reflects the personal opinions of the authors and claims that society can be adapted based on these opinions, scientific socialism derives itself from reality. It focuses on the materialist conception of history, which is based on an analysis over history, and concludes that communism naturally follows capitalism.

The Grimm Brothers rediscovered a host of fairy tales, telling of princes and princesses in their castles, witches in their towers and forests, of giants and dwarfs, of fabulous animals and dark deeds. Together with the well-known tales of "Rapunzel", "The Goose-Girl", "Sleeping Beauty", "Hansel and Gretel" and "Snow White", there are the darker tales such as "Death's Messengers" which deserve to be better known, and which will appeal not only to all who are interested in the history of folklore, but also to all those who simply love good storytelling.

Hawthorne published several short stories in various periodicals, which he collected in 1837 as "Twice-Told Tales". Much of his writing is placed in New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered to be part of the Romantic movement, and more specifically, Dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. This edition contains 40 short stories.

"Boule de Suif" (1880) is a famous novella by Guy de Maupassant. The story is set in the Franco-Prussian War and follows a group of French residents of Rouen, recently occupied by the Prussian army. The ten travelers decide, for various reasons, to leave Rouen and flee to Le Havre in a stagecoach. Sharing the carriage are Boule de Suif or "Butterball", a prostitute; a strict Democrat; a shop-owning couple from the petty bourgeoisie; a wealthy upper-bourgeoisie factory-owner and his wife; the Comte and Comtesse of Bréville; and two nuns.

"Phaedo", also known to ancient readers as "On the Soul", is one of the best-known dialogues of Plato's middle period, along with the "Republic" and the "Symposium". The "Phaedo", which depicts the death of Socrates, is also Plato's fourth and last dialogue to detail the philosopher's final day. In the dialogue, Socrates discusses the nature of the afterlife on his last day before being executed by drinking hemlock.

"The Perfect Wagnerite" is a philosophical commentary on Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen". According to Shaw: "I write this pamphlet for the assistance of those who wish to be introduced to the work on equal terms with that inner circle of adepts... The reason is that its dramatic moments lie quite outside the consciousness of people whose joys and sorrows are all domestic and personal, and whose religions and political ideas are purely conventional and superstitious."

"A Christmas Carol" is the first, and the most famous novella by Charles Dickens in the "Christmas Books" series. Scrooge, an old miser, is "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner". He hates Christmas, calling it "humbug". The tale begins on a "cold, bleak, biting" Christmas Eve in London, exactly seven years after the death of Scrooge's business partner Jacob Marley.

"Essays: The Second Series", is a series of essays written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, published in 1844, concerning transcendentalism. This audiobook contains nine essays: "The Poet", "Experience", "Character", "Manners", "Gifts", "Nature", "Politics", "Nominalist and Realist", "New England Reformers". Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of his age. He was a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of society.

"Notes from the Underground" (1864) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is one of the first existentialist novels. It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator, who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. The first part of the story is told in monologue form, or the underground man's diary, and attacks emerging Western philosophy, especially Nikolay Chernyshevsky's "What Is to Be Done?"

"Tess of the d’Urbervilles" (1891) is a novel by Thomas Hardy. Tess Durbeyfield is the oldest child of John and Joan, uneducated peasants living in an impoverished rural village in Wessex, during the Long Depression of the 1870s. One day, her father is given the hint that they may have noble blood and that they are successors of a noble Norman family D'Urberville. Tess' fortune is changed after one accident and she decides to visit Mrs. D'Urberville, a rich widow who lives in the nearby town, and "claim kin".

"A Tale of Two Cities" (1859) is a Dickens' novel set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The story opens in 1775, when Doctor Manette is reunited with his daughter Lucie after having been locked away in the Bastille for 18 years. Lucie nurtures her half-mad father back to health, but their troubles are far from over, as their lives become entangled with the emigrant son of the Marquis St. Evrémonde, the wayward ne'er-do-well Sydney Carton, and the vengeful Madame and Monsieur Defarge.

"The Republic" (380 BC) by Plato is a Socratic dialogue, concerning the definition of justice, the order and character of the just city-state and the just man. As Plato's best-known work, it has proven to be one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and historically. In it, Socrates along with various Athenians and foreigners discuss the meaning of justice and examine whether or not the just man is happier than the unjust man by considering a series of different cities.

"The Metamorphosis" (1915) is a novella by Franz Kafka. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed (metamorphosed) into a large, monstrous insect-like creature. The cause of Gregor's transformation is never revealed, and Kafka himself never gave an explanation. The rest of Kafka's novella deals with Gregor's attempts to adjust to his new condition as he deals with being burdensome to his parents and sister, who are repelled by the horrible, verminous being Gregor has become.

"Common Sense" is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Written in clear and persuasive prose, Paine marshalled moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for egalitarian government. It was published anonymously on January 10, 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution, and became an immediate sensation. It was sold and distributed widely and read aloud at taverns and meeting places.

"The Island of Doctor Moreau" (1896) is a classic of early science fiction and remains one of Wells' best-known books, and has been adapted to film and other media on many occasions. The novel is the narration of Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked man rescued by a passing boat, and left on the island home of Doctor Moreau, who creates human-like hybrid beings from animals via vivisection.

The narrator, an elderly, unnamed Manhattan lawyer, already employs two scriveners to copy legal documents by hand. An increase in business leads him to hire a third: the forlorn-looking Bartleby. At first, Bartleby produces a large volume of high-quality work. But one day, when asked to proofread, Bartleby answers with what soon becomes his perpetual response to every request: "I would prefer not to."

The fictional town of Mudfog was based on Chatham in Kent, where Dickens spent part of his youth. When "Oliver Twist" first appeared in Bentley's Miscellany in February 1837, Mudfog was described by Dickens as the town where Oliver was born and spent his early years, making "Oliver Twist" a continuation of "The Mudfog Papers". This allusion was removed when the novel was published as a book, under the title "The Mudfog Papers and Other Sketches" (1837).