Arts Podcasts
Librivox: Daddy-Long-Legs by Webster, JeanJoin Now to Follow
Daddy Long-Legs is a 1912 novel by an American writer Jean Webster, written in the form of letters. It follows the protagonist, a young girl named Jerusha “Judy” Abbott, through her college years. She writes the letters to her benefactor, a rich man whom she has never seen. (Summary from Wikipedia)
By LibriVox
Librivox: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by Baum, L. FrankJoin Now to Follow
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz was the fourth of 14 Oz books written by L. Frank Baum (1856-1919). Published in 1908, while Baum was resident in Coronado, California, it is considered one of the “darker” of the Oz tales. However, it also is enlivened by Baum’s considerable wit, penchant for puns, and dry social commentary. In this title, Dorothy, her kitten Eureka, Jim, a cab horse, and Zeb, a ranch hand, descend into the earth through a rift opened by an earthquake. There they encounter the “humbug” wizard who once ruled Oz. In their journey back to the earth’s surface, they meet a number of potentially dangerous magical peoples and creatures including the cold-blooded Mangaboos, invisible bears, the flying wooden Gargoyles, a den of dragonettes, and an eccentric inventor. With a little help from Ozma, the group end up in Oz where they are treated to feasts and celebrations. The animals end up humbled by a few of their experiences in Oz, where all animals can talk, and return home a little wiser. (Summary by Judy Bieber)
By LibriVox
Librivox: Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by Defoe, DanielJoin Now to Follow
Adaptation of the story of Robinson Crusoe for grammar school children. Tells how the shipwrecked sailor makes a new life for himself on the island, providing shelter, food, and clothing for himself from the few tools he rescued from the ship and what he is able to find on the island. He lives on the island over twenty years before he is finally rescued and during that time must re-invent almost everything necessary for daily sustenance. (Summary from The Baldwin Project.)
By LibriVox
Librivox: Fables for the Frivolous by Carryl, Guy WetmoreJoin Now to Follow
One of the earliest works by the American parodist, Guy Wetmore Carryl, these fables are adapted from Jean de La Fontaine’s original writings. The fables are written in verse, and are light-hearted re-tellings of fables from two centuries before, each ending with a moral and a pun. Among the more celebrated of the fables are The Persevering Tortoise and the Pretentious Hare, The Arrogant Frog and the Superior Bull, and The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven. (Summary written by Chriss)
By LibriVox
Librivox: Euthyphro by PlatoJoin Now to Follow
Awaiting his trial on charges of impiety and heresy, Socrates encounters Euthyphro, a self-proclaimed authority on matters of piety and the will of the gods. Socrates, desiring instruction in these matters, converses with Euthyphro, but as usual, the man who professes to know nothing fares better than the man who claims to be an expert. One of Plato’s well-known Socratic Dialogues, Euthyphro probes the nature of piety, and notably poses the so-called Euthyphro Dilemma: Do the gods love a thing because it is holy, or is a thing holy because it is loved by the gods? (Summary by LauraFox)
By LibriVox
Librivox: Warden, The by Trollope, AnthonyJoin Now to Follow
Amongst the great popular novelists of the nineteenth century who are still read today, Anthony Trollope stands alongside his contemporary, Charles Dickens. His two series of novels, the political (The Pallisers) and the clerical (The Barsetshire Chronicles) are the best known. This book is the first of the Barsetshire series and was also Trollope’s first really successful novel. In the mid nineteenth century there were a number of financial scandals in the Church of England including those of Rochester, where the endowments which should have supported the King’s School Canterbury had been diverted to the Dean and Chapter; and of the hospital of St Cross at Winchester where the Rev. Francis North, later the Earl of Guildford, had been appointed to the mastership of the hospital by his father the bishop. The revenues of the hospital were very considerable, the work involved minimal. The scandal soon broke. Trollope based ‘The Warden’ on the St Cross case, but in the novel the Warden is a kindly, devoted, priest, beloved by all that knew him and is racked by fear that he is accepting money to which he is not entitled. His antagonist is his prospective son-in-law John Bold and his (somewhat unwelcome) ally is one of Trollope’s strongest characters, the Archdeacon of Barchester, Dr. Theophilus Grantly. (summary by Andy Minter)
By LibriVox
Librivox: Spy, The by Cooper, James FenimoreJoin Now to Follow
James Fenimore Cooper's second novel, The Spy (1821), is based on Sir Walter Scott's Waverly series, and tells an adventure tale about the American Revolution. The protagonist is Harvey Birch, a supposed loyalist who actually is a spy for George Washington, disguised as 'Mr Harper.' The book brought Cooper fame and wealth, and is regarded as the first great success in American fiction. (Summary by Gord MacKenzie)
By LibriVox
Librivox: Princess of Mars, A by Burroughs, Edgar RiceJoin Now to Follow
Part One of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Mars-Series. Easy, swank, pulp read about an omnipotent gentleman teleported to Mars, finding an outlandish society of ape-, tree- and lizardmen, red-, white-, yellowmen, brains on legs, strange bastions and curious apparatuses, where the strongest survives and women are needy beauties to be saved. How can something be so platitudinous and at the same time so imaginative and enthralling? Boys’ book for sure. (Summary by Stephan)
By LibriVox
Librivox: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by Wordsworth, WilliamJoin Now to Follow
This was the weekly poetry project for 14 May 2006. Spring’s flowers come and go all too quickly, but Wordsworth’s classic poem reminds us that their blessings last.
By LibriVox
Librivox: Childhood by Tolstoy, LeoJoin Now to Follow
Childhood, published in 1852, is the first novel in Leo Tolstoy’s autobiographical trilogy, which also includes Boyhood, and Youth. Published when Tolstoy was twenty-three, the book gained immediate notice among Russian writers including Ivan Turgenev, and heralded the young Tolstoy as a major figure in Russian letters. Childhood is an expressionist exploration of the internal life of a young boy, Nikolenka, and was a new form in Russian writing, mixing fact, fiction and emotions to render the moods and reactions of the narrator. Childhood is Tolstoy’s first published work. Translated into English by C. J. Hogarth. (Summary by Hugh)
By LibriVox
