Showing results by narrator "Robin Field" in All Categories

"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is a wild yarn involving a case of mistaken identity, a gambler who’d bet on anything, and a very unusual frog named Daniel Webster. First published in The Saturday Press in 1865, the tale was immensely popular, and in 1867 an expanded version was published with 26 additional short stories, told as only Mark Twain could tell them.

Born in 1800, William Holmes McGuffey had a remarkable ability to memorize, and could commit to mind entire books of the Bible. After becoming a teacher at the age of 14, classroom size was just one of several challenges faced by McGuffey. In many one-teacher schools, students - ages varied from six to twenty-one, and few textbooks existed. In 1835, a publishing firm asked McGuffey to create a series of graded Readers for primary level students. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays and speeches and it is estimated that at least 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960.

An American editor arrives in Venice on a quest to acquire some unpublished letters written by his favorite Romantic poet, Jeffrey Aspern. He tracks down the mistress to whom the letters were addressed, a now elderly Miss Bordereau, and presents himself as a prospective lodger. In hopes of gaining access to the secret papers, he begins courting Miss Bordereau's plain spinster niece, Miss Tina.

Written near the end of his second term as president, Washington's Farewell Address is more than the empty jargon of a politician – it is nothing short of the heartfelt concern of a gentle leader for his people's continuing welfare.

Having just lost a daughter to meningitis, Mark Twain wrote this book out of outrage toward the Christian Science movement and its founder Mary Baker Eddy. This movement emphasized the effects of prayer on healing the body and relieving sicknesses and other ailments. Although the founder of Christian Science appears to be altruistic with good intentions, Twain saw fraudulence and greed. Using his humor and wit, Mark Twain picks apart the movement in hopes of opening eyes to its falsehood.

Journalist Paige Keller, while recovering at a remote resort from an overseas assignment, is drawn into a community dominated by a fundamentalist church, a family of real estate developers, and a group of environmentalists, all in conflict over control of the valley's future. She goes undercover to discover what lies beneath the church's rituals and sacred ceremonies, but the more she learns, the deeper the valley's mysteries and seductions become.

When I am grown to man’s estate. I shall be very proud and great. And tell the other girls and boys. Not to meddle with my toys. Thus reads the whimsical, “Looking Forward,” of this delightful collection. From the sweetness of “Land of Nod,” to the imaginative dreams of “Pirate Story” and “Travels,” Robert Louis Stevenson’s beloved poems celebrate childhood in all its simplicity and joy.

Amidst all legend and lore surrounding America’s first president, the brilliant statesman George Washington’s character emerges in this engagingly narrated audiobook through his own words. In this key speech by the former Army general, the qualities of integrity, humility, others-focused mission, and concern for human freedoms are clearly seen – qualities that help define “greatness” and that created a lasting legacy.

Mother Goose's melodies belong to the children, and no addition or change should be made except by those who are in such close sympathy with the child-heart that they may act with the child's authority. This present edition of "Mother Goose" preserves the best of the verses which became so popular in England and America as to first demand their publication. It is the only truly classic edition that has been published in modern times.

In 1864, Oxford mathematician Charles Dodgson (under the pen name of Lewis Carroll) presented family friend Alice Liddell with the first edition of what would become an inimitable classic, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Seven years after Alice’s success, Carroll published Through the Looking Glass, the equally beloved sequel. Listeners will be delighted to accompany Alice on her journies.

Mark Twain is a master of adventure, mystery, and wit. This collection, containing three tales of mystery, offers a healthy dose of each—and more! In "Tom Sawyer, Detective", a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Tom Sawyer Abroad, take a ride down the Mississippi to Uncle Silas’ farm. Mark Twain’s satirical take on the immensely popular detective novels of the time provides enough twists and turns to satisfy any avid mystery fan.

The year is AD 29, and Jerusalem chafes under the Roman Empire’s continued presence and oppressive rule. In spite of that unpleasant fact, life goes on—but not for everyone. People die, some because it is their time, others by misadventure. One death in particular brings the city’s daily routine to a halt. A badly burned body is found behind the veil of the holy of holies—the temple’s inner sanctum and the most sacred space on earth for the Jews.

Sketches New and Old is a compilation of fictional stories written by Mark Twain. Among them is "A Ghost Story". In each story, one can catch a great sense of Twain's humor and creativity. These classic sketches from Twain are no longer than 10 minutes, but all show his quick witted humor in response to the events of the day.

In 1835, a publishing firm asked McGuffey to create a series of graded Readers for primary level students. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays and speeches and it is estimated that at least 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960.

With this satirical novella, English schoolmaster Edwin A. Abbott provides both a mathematical fantasy and pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. The narrator, “a Square,” resides in the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland. When he is visited by a sphere, he is suddenly faced with proof of the existence of three dimensions and is forced to see the limitations of his world.

Born in 1800, William Holmes McGuffey had a remarkable ability to memorize, and could commit to mind entire books of the Bible. After becoming a teacher at the age of 14, classroom size was just one of several challenges faced by McGuffey.

In 1835, a publishing firm asked McGuffey to create a series of graded Readers for primary level students. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays and speeches and it is estimated that at least 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960.

Twain's classic novel tells the story of a teenaged misfit who finds himself floating on a raft down the Mississippi River with an escaping slave, Jim. In the course of their perilous journey, Huck and Jim meet adventure, danger, and a cast of characters who are sometimes menacing and often hilarious. Underlying Twain's good humor is a dark subcurrent of Antebellum cruelty and injustice that makes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a frequently funny book with a serious message.

A murdered servant girl is found in the palace of King Herod Antipas. The prefect, Pontius Pilate, is in attendance. The populace has already been buzzing over the brutal death of one of their prophets, John, known familiarly as the Baptizer, and scandal is in the air.

Aristotle’s Poetics is the earliest-surviving work of dramatic theory and the first fully intact philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory. The respected Greek sage offers an account of what he calls "poetry" (which the Greeks understood to literally mean "making"), examining its "first principles" and identifying its genres and basic elements, including what he terms drama-comedy, tragedy, and the satyr play - as well as lyric poetry, epic poetry, and iambic pentameter, which he always associates with wit.