Arts Podcasts
Librivox: Ragged Dick by Alger, Horatio, Jr.Join Now to Follow
Horatio Alger, Jr. was well known for his best-selling series of books highlighting “the American Dream” of poor boys making good and becoming rich and successful through “luck and pluck”. Ragged Dick was the first in this niche, and follows the adventures of Dick Hunter, a ragged bootblack as he makes the decision to “grow up ’spectable”, and how he goes about achieving his goals through the help of his friends, his inherent honesty, and his belief in hard work and study. (Summary by Alice)
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Librivox: Amendments to the United States Constitution (version 2) by United States, Founding Fathers of theJoin Now to Follow
The Constitution has a total of 27 amendments. The first ten, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified simultaneously. The following seventeen were ratified separately. (Summary from wikipedia.org)
By LibriVox
Librivox: War of the Worlds, The by Wells, H. G.Join Now to Follow
H. G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds in 1898, when there was much speculation about life on the planet Mars. The book is considered to be one of the first science fiction novels. In the story, an English gentleman narrates the events of a violent and fast paced Martian invasion. The frightening images of people fleeing from gigantic tripod machines and the prospect of life under Martian rule have served as a bottomless well of inspiration for popular culture. The novel has served as a template for many derivative or inspired works, including comics, countless books, a tv series, several films, a bestselling musical, and the famous Orson Wells broadcast. Overall, The War of the Worlds has become an early milestone in and inspiration for the invasion genre. The novel demonstrates Wells' typical pessimistic outlook on human nature and offers a good deal of critisism on society and people's ignorance and vanity. The War of the Worlds can be read as an indictment of European colonial actions around the globe at that time - with which the injustice of the Martian invasion can be compared. Wells has since been credited with predicting quite a number of technologies, such as laser-like rays, industrial robot-like machines, and chemical-warfare. (Summary by Stephan Möbius and Annie Coleman)
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Librivox: From October to Brest-Litovsk by Trotsky, LeonJoin Now to Follow
This account by Trotsky is of the events in Russia from the October Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd, to his signing of the Brest-Litovsk treaty with Germany on 3rd March 1918 which took Russia out of the First World War. The treaty exacted heavy losses for Russia in terms of annexations of land and financial indemnities to Germany. In this extended essay, Trotsky argues the reasons as to why he decided to sign what appears to be a disastrous agreement for Russia. (Summary by Rebecca)
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Librivox: Prince, The by Machiavelli, NiccoloJoin Now to Follow
ll Principe (The Prince) is a political treatise by the Florentine writer Niccolò Machiavelli, originally called “De Principatibus” (About Principalities). It was written around 1513, but not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli’s death. The treatise is not actually representative of his published work during his lifetime, but it is certainly the best remembered one. (Summary from Wikipedia.org)
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Librivox: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The by Stevenson, Robert LouisJoin Now to Follow
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a novella by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886. London lawyer Utterson is driven to investigate Edward Hyde, the unlikely protégé of his friend Dr Henry Jekyll, suspecting the relationship to be founded on blackmail. The truth is worse than he could have imagined. Jekyll’s ‘full statement of the case’, the final chapter of the book, explores the idea of dual personality that led him to his experiments, and his inexorable and finally fatal descent into evil. (Summary by David Barnes)
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Librivox: Short Poetry Collection 010 by VariousJoin Now to Follow
Librivox’s Short Poetry Collection 010: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
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Librivox: Johnny Crow’s Party by Brooke, L. LeslieJoin Now to Follow
A beautifully illustrated children’s picture book. Listen to the narration while you view (on gutenberg.org) a variety of delightful animals doing strange things such as the kangaroo who tried to paint the roses blue. This is a follow up to Johnny Crow’s Garden. (Summary by Jim)
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Librivox: Eve’s Diary by Twain, MarkJoin Now to Follow
Eve’s Diary is a humorous monologue about Eve’s experiences at the dawn of creation. She is fascinated by every aspect of the new world around her and… Adam! The following is an extract from Adam: “She is all interest, eagerness, vivacity, the world is to her a charm, a wonder, a mystery, a joy; she can’t speak for delight when she finds a new flower, she must pet it and caress it and smell it and talk to it…. And she is color-mad: brown rocks, yellow sand, gray moss, green foliage, blue sky…none of them is of any practical value, so far as I can see, but because they have color and majesty, that is enough for her, and she loses her mind over them…. If there is anything on the planet that she is not interested in, it is not in my list.” (Summary by Esther Lockwood)
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Librivox: Walden by Thoreau, Henry DavidJoin Now to Follow
Walden by Henry David Thoreau is one of the best-known non-fiction books written by an American. Published in 1854, it details Thoreau’s life for two years, two months, and two days around the shores of Walden Pond. Walden is neither a novel nor a true autobiography, but a social critique of the Western World, with each chapter heralding some aspect of humanity that needed to be either renounced or praised. Along with his critique of the civilized world, Thoreau examines other issues afflicting man in society, ranging from economy and reading to solitude and higher laws. He also takes time to talk about the experience at Walden Pond itself, commenting on the animals and the way people treated him for living there, using those experiences to bring out his philosophical positions. This extended commentary on nature has often been interpreted as a strong statement to the natural religion that transcendentalists like Thoreau and Emerson were preaching. (Description amended from Wikipedia).
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