Showing results by author "Audiobooks Librivox" in All Categories

This work, Charlotte Bronte's second, is set in the England of the early 1800's, which was beset with political and social changes, represented by the Industrial Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. And there is much to do with those changes in values from those of the past. But at its core, this novel is about romance. And the plot primarily follows the struggles and triumphs of two couples, the two brothers Moore, Louis and Robert, and Caroline Helstone and Shirley Keeldar. The final scenes capture the essence of the change in this world, and one hopes for the more philanthropic and ...

Described as the Great Book of Wonders by Arthur Miller, this everyday tale of fraternal affection, sibling rivalry, obsession, lust, parricide, family intrigue, spiritual faith, death by economic deprivation and ultimate salvation in the soul, boasts (among other wonders) the perfect role for Marilyn Monroe, had Arthur only ever written the play. Madness, murder, mayhem and the courtroom drama to end all courtroom dramas it may be, but it is also (strangely) hilariously funny. It's all in the point of view. - Summary by Tony Addison

Originally published in serial form in 1879-80, “The Brothers Karamazov” is recognized as one of the very greatest masterpieces of world literature. It is the last and finest novel of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who died before writing a planned sequel. The story is organized initially around the efforts of adult sons to deal with their cantankerous and exasperating father. More important, they also have to deal with the problem of how to live in a world where it is difficult to be sure of the truth — whether that be “truth” about others, about oneself, or about deep questions such as faith,...

Women in Love is a novel by British author D. H. Lawrence published in 1920. It is a sequel to his earlier novel The Rainbow (1915), and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, pursues a destructive relationship with Gerald Crich, an industrialist. Lawrence contrasts this pair with the love that develops between Ursula and Rupert Birkin, an alienated intellectual who articulates many opinions associated with the author. The emotional relationships thus established are given further depth and tension by an unadmitted ...

Niebla es una de las obras más conocidas de Unamuno. Esta “nivola”, como el propio autor la denominó quizás para diferenciarla del resto de sus obras, nos cuenta una historia a veces cómica y otras dramática, cargada de planteamientos filosóficos. A la vez narra el enamoramiento de Augusto, joven de vida acomodada que pone en cuestión todo lo que le ocurre, el ser o no ser, la capacidad de decidir del ser humano, incluso llega a enfrentarse y a cuestionar a su creador, Miguel de Unamuno. (Resumen de Montse González)

Belye Nochi ”White Nights” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In this small story (though author states this is a sentimental novel) author describes in his traditional and particular way the internal world of one young lonely person.The hero’s 26 years old man, who is oriented into his internal world, who’s rather shy, and thus is in real demand of a soulful conversations and love. The action takes place in the city of a real and deep sentiments and romance — Saint Petersburg, the most romantic and European city in Russia. Not only the location is important, but also a time of a day: all ...

Briefly appearing in 1915, then banned and taken out of circulation for its adult treatment of sexuality, Lawrence's visionary novel The Rainbow attempts to situate the lives of three generations of the Brangwen family within the continuous social change marking the Victorian transformation of Britain. Farmer Tom and his Polish wife Lydia, whose peaceful rural existence re-enacts the potent myths of Genesis; artisan Will and the matriarch Anna, who go to live among the industrial and mining communities so rapidly sprung up around Nottingham; finally the restless Ursula who, moving to the city,...

The Rainbow is a 1915 novel by British author D.H. Lawrence. It follows three generations of the Brangwen family, particularly focusing on the sexual dynamics of, and relations between, the characters. (Summary from Wikipedia)

The Rainbow is the story of three generations of the Brangwen family, a sexual and religious collection of incidents that eventually shows the inertia of an individual consciousness to outgrow the commonplace and embrace the reality that lies beyond it. Throughout the novel, including its setting, the characters are being isolated because of their deviation from a conformist English society in a changing, steadily industrializing world. - Summary by shreyasethi

When Thomas Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1929), the citation made special mention of his first novel, “Buddenbrooks,” published in 1901, describing it as “the first great novel of the 20th century.”Events in the novel center on the Buddenbrook family, bourgeois owners of a wholesale grain enterprise in the northern German city of Lübeck. (The city is never named as such, but detailed references to landmarks leave no doubt that the setting is closely based on Mann’s hometown, just as the story is inspired by the Mann family history.) We follow four generations of ...

"Crime and Punishment" is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in the literary journal "The Russian Messenger" in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. It is the second of Dostoyevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is considered the first great novel of his "mature" period of writing. "Crime and Punishment" focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulates and ...

Amores is one of D. H. Lawrence's earliest works of poetry, published in 1916, was a precursor to his delving in free verse in later collections. The poems in this collection are characterized by haunting and dark themes, sensuousness and his controversial dealing with sexual topics. (Anusha Iyer)

After an unspecified family disaster, protagonist Lucy Snowe travels to the fictional city of Villette to teach at an all-girls school where she is unwillingly pulled into both adventure and romance. Summary by Wikipedia Cast list:Narrator: Mary J Lucy Snowe: Elizabeth Barr Graham/Dr. John: Robert Dixon Monsieur Paul: Herman RoskamsMadame Beck: Elizabeth Klett Polly/Paulina: Amanda Friday Mrs. Bretton: Michele Eaton Ginevra Fanshawe: Libby Gohn Mr. Home/Bassompierre: tovarischRosine [the portress]: LeanneMademoiselle St. Pierre [a teacher]: Kristin Gjerløw Isabelle [a student]: Arie Pere ...

The Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, is a work of enormous proportions. Setting out with the simple goal of offering "American households a mass of good reading", the editors drew from literature of all times and all kinds what they considered the best pieces of human writing, and compiled an ambitious collection of 45 volumes (with a 46th being an index-guide). Besides the selection and translation of a huge number of poems, letters, short stories and sections of books, the collection offers, before each chapter, a short essay about the author or subject in question...

The superb skill and dexterity of D.H. Lawrence, a writer who profoundly influenced the literature of the twentieth century, is very evident in this collection of poems conceived during the years of The Great War. Lawrence, living a semi-nomadic lifestyle in England throughout these years, seized the opportunity to write of events and their effects from an objective but by no means dispassionate perspective.Indeed the passion of Lawrence while attempting to understand the collective motivation of mankind in the name of wartime vengeance is very evident throughout this work, manifesting itself ...

This book tells the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman who conceives a child while her husband is missing at sea. The Puritan Elders of the New England settlement of Boston, where she lives, condemn her to wear a scarlet letter A to signify her adultery. She refuses to name her lover, and he too keeps his silence, but with a terrible cost. The tale is prefaced with an account of the Salem Custom-house where Nathaniel Hawthorne was working when he began writing The Scarlet Letter. Summary by Cori Samuel

Little Women is the classic story of The March family, which consists of Mr. and Mrs. March and their four girls--Practical, yet fashion conscious Meg, who longs for the nice things they used to have. Rambunctious, book worm, Jo, who wants to become a writer and wishes she were born a boy. Shy and quiet, home-loving Beth, who loves to play the piano and play with her kitties. Finally, the youngest, artistic Amy, who longs for an aristocratic nose!The story takes place during the American Civil War, and begins with Mr. March away from home as a chaplain to the Union army, while his wife and ...

Little Men is the sequel to Louisa May Alcott's bestselling book Little Women. It opens as Jo March and her husband Fritz Bhaer begin a school for boys, called Plumfield. The book follows the escapades of the Plumfield boys and the children of Jo, Amy and Meg as mischief, laughter and love fill the school. - Summary by Rachel Cast List:Narrator: Lynette CaulkinsNat Blake: MichelleHannahDan Kean: Jeanne VirayMrs. Jo Bhaer: Christine LehmanProfessor Fritz Bhaer: Larry WilsonTommy Bangs: Jasmin SalmaEmil, Bess Lawrence: MaybeCordeliaDemi Brooke: LydiaDaisy Brooke: JayKitty76Teddy Bhaer: JaanuNed ...

Little Men follows the life of Jo Bhaer and the students who live and learn at the Plumfield Estate School that she runs with her husband, Professor Bhaer. The mischievous children, whom she loves and cares for as her own, learn valuable lessons as they become proper gentlemen and ladies. We also get cameo appearances of almost all the characters found in the previous books, almost all of them happy and well. Meg's older two children, Demi and Daisy, also attend the school and so do Mr. Bhaer's German nephews Franz and Emil. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Life of Marcus Antonius and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Parthian War to Cleopatra's suicide. The major antagonist is Octavius Caesar, one of Antony's fellow triumviri and the future first emperor of Rome. The tragedy is a Roman play characterized by swift, panoramic shifts in geographical locations and in registers,...