Showing results by author "Audiobooks Librivox" in All Categories

Edith Wharton's 1913 novel is a devastating critique of American upward mobility, told through the journey of Undine Spragg from fictional Midwestern Apex City to New York to Paris. Undine is determined to acquire money and position through marriage, even if it means multiple divorces. - Summary by Elizabeth Klett

The Decoration of Houses, a manual of interior design written by Edith Wharton with architect Ogden Codman, was first published in 1897. In the book, the authors denounced Victorian-style interior decoration and interior design, especially those rooms that were decorated with heavy window curtains, Victorian bric-a-brac and overstuffed furniture. They argued that such rooms emphasized upholstery at the expense of proper space planning and architectural design and were, therefore, uncomfortable and rarely used. Wharton and Codman advocated the creation of houses with rooms decorated with strong...

The Douay Rheims New Testament, published in 1582, is a translation of St Jerome's Latin Vulgate which dates from the fourth century. It influenced production of the King James version of the Bible to come some years afterward, while being the only Roman Catholic authorized vernacular scriptures up until the middle twentieth century. Although updated linguistically in the 18th and 19th centuries to provide easier understanding by the laity and reduce its use of Latinized words, it strove to be faithful to the original translation. The work's importance is that it remains the scriptural texts ...

The Book of Changes (Traditional: 易經; Simplified: 易经; Legge: Yî King, Wade-Giles: I Ching; Pīnyīn: Yìjīng; Bopomofo: ㄧˋㄐㄧㄥ; Korean: 역경; Japanese: 易経; Vietnamese: Kinh Dịch)Fúxī (伏羲), King Tāng of Shāng (商湯), King Wén of Zhōu (周文王), his son the Duke of Zhōu (周公旦), and Confucius (孔子) have traditionally been credited as the originators of the trigrams (八卦 bāguà), hexagrams (卦 guà), hexagram statements (彖 tuàn), line statements (爻辭 yáocí), and Ten Wings (十翼) commentaries."The I Ching does not offer itself with ...

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a sophisticated novell with extremely hard to comprehend philosophical ideas lying on the border of paranoia, orthodoxal believing of God and psychological researches on human nature. Every sentence sounds like a sort of revelation to an unprepared reader’s mind and causes a deep flashback thoughts which are impossible to get rid of, which also require an immediate solution.Though it’s hard to define precisely what kind of content presented in novell but one can say it is a sort of impossible mixture of traditional Dostoevsky’s ideas of ...

The Brothers Karamazov (Russian: Братья Карамазовы) is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, and is generally considered the culmination of his life's work. The book portrays a parricide in which each of a murdered man's sons share a varying degree of complicity. The Brothers Karamazov is a passionate philosophical novel that explores deep into the ethical debates of God, free will, and morality. It is a spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, reason, and modern Russia. Since its publication, it has been acclaimed all over the world by ...

Fans of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women will remember that her heroine Jo wrote racy novels before turning her hand to more "serious" literature. Alcott, writing under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard, often did the same, and Behind a Mask (1866) is one of her sensation novels. It focuses on Jean Muir, who enters the home of the wealthy Coventry family as governess to their sixteen-year-old daughter. But is the beguiling Miss Muir all that she seems to be? (Introduction by Elizabeth Klett)

The Blithedale Romance is the story of four principal characters who work with -- and sometimes against -- each other on Blithedale, a communal farm antecedent to those that sprang up later in the 1960s, and similar to one on which Hawthorne himself lived in 1841. These communes arose out of the pressures on society and the individual brought by the Industrial Revolution. Some were organized around religious philosophies, some were secular. Among the secularists, the Transcendental movement mentioned in the novel espoused the idea that the individual's intuition, rather than religious dogma, ...

These lesser known stories were penned by Conan Doyle during the period between killing off Sherlock Holmes in 1893 and reluctantly resurrecting him some ten years later. The swashbuckling, eponymous hero, Etienne Gerard, is one of Napoleon's gallant French Hussars, who considers himself the finest of them all. Through these "Boys Own Adventures", Conan Doyle pokes gentle fun at both the French and the English. This is the second volume containing eight adventures. (Summary by Phil)

The Marble Faun is Hawthorne's most unusual romance. Writing on the eve of the American Civil War, Hawthorne set his story in a fantastical Italy. The romance mixes elements of a fable, pastoral, Gothic novel, and travel guide. In the spring of 1858, Hawthorne was inspired to write his romance when he saw the Faun of Praxiteles in a Roman sculpture gallery. The theme, characteristic of Hawthorne, is guilt and the Fall of Man. The four main characters are Miriam, a beautiful painter who is compared to Eve, Beatrice Cenci, Lady Macbeth, Judith, and Cleopatra, and is being pursued by a mysterious...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of "The Visionary" by Ellis Bell (Emily Brontë). This was the weekly poem for January 1, 2012.The first 12 lines originally appeared in one of a large group of Gondal poems, the word coming from the name of a fictitious island kingdom in a fantasy created by Emily and her sister Anne. When Emily finally consented to have some of her poems published in 1846, along with those of sisters Charlotte and Anne, she selected parts of the Gondal poems and removed all reference to the fantasy land. However, this poem first appeared in a new, expanded edition ...

When Julius Caesar returns to Rome from conquering the Gauls, Cassius and his friends are worried that he will try to seize power and make himself emperor. Cassius must act fast. He gathers Brutus, Cinna, and others to stop Julius Caesar and save the Roman Republic! This play was recorded in two weeks as part of Librivox's celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Summary by Esther ben SimonidesCast List:Narrator: Peter WhyFlavius, Casca, Volumnius: Maria KasperMarullus, Cinna the Poet, Poet, Dardanius: Ray KasperFirst Commoner, Decius Brutus, Fourth Citizen, First Soldier, ...

Le Rime sono una raccolta messa insieme e ordinata da moderni editori, che riunisce il complesso della produzione lirica dantesca dalle prove giovanili a quelle dell'età matura. Le rime giovanili comprendono componimenti che riflettono le varie tendenze della lirica cortese del tempo, quella guittoniana, quella guinizzelliana e quella cavalcantiana. Tra questo gruppo di testi Dante aveva scelto quelli che dovevano entrare a far parte della Vita Nova. (Summary by Wikipedia) N.B. Questa edizione (dell'Ottocento) contiene alcune poesie che gli studiosi non attribuiscono più a Dante, come per ...

Die Commedia, in späterer Zeit auch Divina Commedia („Göttliche Komödie“) genannt, ist das Hauptwerk des italienischen Dichters Dante Alighieri. Sie gilt als bedeutendste Dichtung der italienischen Literatur und als eines der größten Werke der Weltliteratur.(Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia)

WeltliteraturDante Alighieri, (*1265 in Florenz, gest. 1321 in Ravenna, Mutter früh verstorben, Vater Geldverleiher in Florenz), gehörte dem guelfisch gesinnten Stadtadel an, war verheiratet und hatte 4 Kinder.Als Mitglied des obersten Ratsgremiums trat er an der Seite der Weißen Guelfen, die sich für eine Autonomie der Stadt gegenüber dem Papst (Bonifazius VIII.) einsetzten, gegen die Schwarzen Guelfen und die Ghebelinen und geriet zwischen alle Fronten der politischen Lager.1302 wurde Dante in Abwesenheit (Botschafter beim Papst Bonifazius VIII. in Rom) zu einer Geldstrafe wegen ...

This is a collection of short stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the Russian novelist and short story writer. (Summary by sidhu177)

Shakespeare was passionately interested in the history of Rome, as is evident from plays like Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra. His tragedy Coriolanus was probably written around 1605-07, and dramatizes the rise and fall of a great Roman general, Caius Martius (later surnamed Coriolanus because of his military victory at Corioli). This play is unusual in that it provides a strong voice for the ordinary citizens of Rome, who begin the play rioting about the high price of food, and who continually clash with Coriolanus because of his contempt for plebians. (Summary by ...

Dante Alighieri racconta in questa opera il suo viaggio nei tre regni dell'oltre tomba. Il viaggio, avvenuto durante la settimana santa dell'anno 1300, inizia con lo smarrimento della corretta via e l'incontro della sua guida "Duca, Segnore, e Maestro" Virgilio. Virgilio condurrà Dante attraverso l'inferno prima, dove incontrerà le anime dannate divise nei vari cerchi a seconda delle loro colpe, e il purgatorio poi, dove incontrerà le anime che stanno espiando le loro pene in attessa di giungere in paradiso. Nell'ultima parte del viaggio, dalla cima della montagna del purgatorio fino ...

Il Paradiso è la terza e ultima cantica del poema di Dante, che dopo aver attraversato l'inferno e il purgatorio nelle due cantiche precedenti, giungerà ad attraversare i nove cieli che compongono il Paradiso, accompagnato da Beatrice fino ad arrivare alla visione della Trinità (L'Amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle...) - Summary by Pier

Het doel van deze vertaling is den Nederlandschen lezer in kennis te stellen met den volledigen inhoud van Dante’s Gedicht. De vertaling is zooveel mogelijk woordelijk, kan dus ook als handleiding dienen bij het lezen en bestudeeren van den oorspronkelijken, Italiaanschen tekst.De vertaling is in Proza.Waarom? Omdat de woorden, waarin het Gedicht vervat is, den dichter werden ingegeven in het scheppingsoogenblik door de volheid zijner fantasieën, gevoelens en gedachten zelve. Ook in het practisch-onmogelijke, maar theoretisch stelbare geval dat de vertaler evenzeer vervuld ware als de ...