Showing results by narrator "Mary Woods" in All Categories

The Age of Chivalry, Thomas Bulfinch's masterpiece of history and fable, recounts the tales of Arthur and the Round Table. A timeless tale retold by Milton, Dryden, Tennyson, and writers before and since, the Arthurian legend has metamorphosed from medieval Welsh texts to the French vernacular romances of Chrétien de Troyes; from obscure histories of a British chieftain of the fifth or sixth century, to a chronicle of the advent of Christendom in the British Isles.

Many of the world's travails may be traced to the displacement of mythology by the age of science. Knowledge today is often deemed useful only if it enlarges our possessions or raises our station in society. If instead the criterion were to make us happier and more virtuous, mythology would have retained its proper place in society. The Age of Fable is Thomas Bulfinch's brilliant reconstruction of the ancient myths and legends that form the backbone of Western culture.

We the Living portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three people who demand the right to live their own lives. At its center is a girl whose passionate love is her fortress against the cruelty and oppression of a totalitarian state. Rand said of this book: "It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write."

What is life for Giles and Mary outside the willow-patterned cocoon? Giles is a countryman who relishes solitude. His wife, Mary, thrives in company and enjoys frequent escapes to London. After 30 years in a marriage of opposites, Giles and Mary have adapted to a life of domestic misunderstandings within comical misadventures.

A serious illness destroyed Helen Keller's sight and hearing before she reached the age of two. At seven, she was introduced to Ann Sullivan, the beloved teacher and friend who helped Helen to make contact with her world. Through sheer determination and resolve, Helen learned to speak, read, and write, and prepared herself for entry into prep school by the age of 16. She later enrolled at Radcliffe and graduated with honors. Her motto: "There are no handicaps, only challenges."

The first uncensored biography to investigate our era's most celebrated, distinctive, and confounding filmmaker reveals the controversial private life behind the iconic public persona.

The Wind in the Willows is a book for those "who keep the spirit of youth alive in them; of life, sunshine, running water, woodlands, dusty roads, winter firesides." So wrote Kenneth Grahame of his timeless tale of Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad, in their lyrical world of gurgling rivers and whispering reeds, a world that is both beautiful and benevolently ordered. But it is also a world threatened by dark forces.

This volume commences with the Great Depression and takes us to the mid-1980s. As the author of Basic Economics, Carson is well-suited to diagnose the causes of the stock market crash and the years of economic depression that followed. Further discussions include the New Deal, the start of Social Security, World War II, the Cold War, Welfare, black activism, Vietnam, the rise of the Conservative movement, Nixon and Watergate, the Carter presidency, and the beginning of the Reagan years.

Like Scheherazade, Stevenson, the consummate storyteller is at the peak of his craft. Who can resist the charm of the medieval romance in "The Sire de Maletroit's Door", the strangely enigmatic rogue Villon of "A Lodging for the Night", or the sheer delight of "Providence and the Guitar"?

By clever scheming, friends encourage Beatrice and Benedict's love affair, while Don Juan plots to ruin Hero and Claudio's chances of finding happiness together.

This first volume covers our heritage, our links to England, how the colonies grew, the mighty force of religion in early America, and the oppression felt by the colonists. It describes why our ancestors fought for their beliefs, and their efforts to create a government limited in scope by checks and balances so that it would not have the power to oppress the people.

It is both amazing and wonderful that so much of the richness of our language and our moral education still owes a huge debt to a Greek slave who was executed over 2,000 years ago. Yet "sour grapes", "crying wolf", "a dog in a manger", "actions speak louder than words", "honesty is the best policy", and literally hundreds of other metaphors, axioms, and ideas that are now woven into the very fabric of Western culture all came from Aesop's Fables.

Emily Dickinson today has gained her deserved place alongside Walt Whitman as one of the two greatest American poets of the 19th century. Beginning always with particulars of personal experience, her poems encompass life and death, love and longing, joyfulness and sorrow. With sparse, precise language, she conveyed a penetrating vision of the natural world and an acute understanding of the most profound human truths.

Carson begins this third volume by diagnosing the root causes which eventually gave rise to sectionalism as well as regional differences and changes, the election of 1824, the Adams administration, and the emergence of two parties. Also examined are the removal of the Indians, the plantation system, the Transcendentalists and American literature, the public-school movement, westward expansion, the election of Lincoln, and the Civil War.

This second volume discusses the move toward independence, the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, the battle for Canada, the struggle for the middle states, the battle for the South, the Constitutional Convention, the making of the Constitution, and the fruits of independence.

America in Gridlock is Volume 6 of A Basic History of the United States. This volume describes the philosophic and religious divide inherent in the issues of materialism, chronicles the debacle of the welfare state, depicts the continued polarity between conservative and liberal camps, addresses the collapse of Communism in Europe, and investigates government obstacles to production as well as assaying future trends in work, including self-employment.

The selections in this collection include classic short stories "Bartelby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville, "The Truth About Pyecraft" by H. G. Wells, "The Angel Child" by Stephen Crane, "A Journey" by Edith Wharton, "Phyllis and Rosamond" by Vriginia Woolf, and "The Flight of Betsey Lane" by Sarah Orne Jewett.

Carson's full-scale treatment of American history combines scholarly exactness with evocative passages that lead the listener to a clearer understanding of the people and events, the triumphs and the shortcomings, which have shaped this nation. Starting with the "filling out" of the West, this fourth volume goes beyond the standard historical facts and events of these formative 50 years of American history.

Microsoft: First Generation uncovers the range of surprising success secrets behind the upstart company that defined the Age of Information - and reveals, once and for all, exactly what makes Microsoft tick.

What began as a modest start-up partnership only 25 years ago has already surpassed all the giants of contemporary capitalism. How did Microsoft achieve all of this in so short a time? Cheryl Tsang steps inside the famous culture of loyalty, the storied “maniacal work ethic”, and the hardcore world of reckless risk-taking to reveal, once and for all, exactly what makes Microsoft tick.