Red-haired Anne Shirley, the orphan girl mistakenly sent to live with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, has been one of the world's most beloved characters since the publication of Anne of Green Gables in 1908. In this dramatic reading, readers tell the story of Anne's adventures as she grows up on Prince Edward Island.
The prophet Al Mustafa, before leaving the city where he has been living twelve years, stops to address the people. They call out for his words of wisdom on many sides of the human condition, and he addresses them in terms of love and care. He has much to offer from his observations of the people, and he illustrates with images they can relate to.The author, Gibran, was influenced by the Maronites, the Sufis, and the Baha’i. His philosophy, though deist, is primarily aimed at the good within ourselves, and the common-sense ways in which we can unlock it. An illustration from his chapter on Friendship:“And let your best be for your friend.If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?Seek him always with hours to live.”The prophet’s gentle words have inspired their translation into over 108 languages. Listen to them with an open mind. You may find some burdens and frustrations hidden within you eased.
Old miser Ebenezer Scrooge undergoes a major transformation after being visited by his deceased colleague Jacob Marley, who warns him to change his ways and has three spirits visit him on the night of Christmas Eve.
Rilla of Ingleside (1921) is the final book in the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, but was the sixth of the eight "Anne" novels she wrote. This book draws the focus back onto a single character, Anne and Gilbert's youngest daughter Bertha Marilla "Rilla" Blythe. It has a more serious tone, as it takes place during World War I and the three Blythe boys -- Jem, Walter, and Shirley -- along with Rilla's sweetheart Ken Ford, and playmates Jerry Meredith and Carl Meredith -- end up fighting in Europe with the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
This story follows the lives of four sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Set in the tumultuous days of the American Civil war, readers grow to love the four sisters as they grow and mature into young women. This book has characters any girl can relate to because each of the four March sisters has a unique and different personality. A story that the young and old have enjoyed for years, this book truly is a classic.
Rainbow Valley, the seventh book in the Anne of Green Gables series explores the world of Anne & Gilbert’s six children along with the exploits of the Merediths, the children of the town’s new minister. With no mother and an absent-minded father, the Meredith children are not being properly brought up. This leads to their many adventures causing the ladies of the town to gossip, risking their father's job. These kind-hearted, but misguided children fumble their way through bringing themselves up, and learn about life and love along the way
This short novel of Twain’s, from 1903, is told from the point of view of a loyal and beloved family pet. Themes of heroics, valor and heart-wrenching tenderness fill this work. The story is also filled with happy events as well as sad ones and is ultimately about what dogs are to us … best friends. A Dog’s Tale is quintessentially Twain.
First published in 1766, the loveable and innocent Dr Primrose and his family have given pleasure to all that have read it.The story opens with the vicar losing his fortune and moving to another parish. What follows is a tale of love,deceit,betrayal,humour and a hidden hero…..It was one of Charles Dickens favourite books and a source of inspiration to him. No further recommendation is needed. Enjoy.
When Beale and Ida Farange are divorced, the court decrees that their only child, the very young Maisie, will shuttle back and forth between them, spending six months of the year with each. The parents are immoral and frivolous, and they use Maisie to intensify their hatred of each other.
This is the third book in The Chronicles of Barsetshire, the first two being The Warden and Barchester Towers; however, although some characters from the first two books are referred to, there is no need to read/ listen to them first to enjoy Dr. Thorne.
It is mainly concerned with the romantic problems of Mary Thorne, niece of Doctor Thomas Thorne (a member of a junior branch of the family of Mr. Wilfred Thorne, who appeared in Barchester Towers), and Frank Gresham, the only son of the local squire, although Trollope as the omniscient narrator assures the reader at the beginning that the hero is really the doctor.
Themes of the book are the social pain and exclusion caused by illegitimacy, the nefarious effects of the demon drink and the difficulties of romantic attachments outside one's social class. The novel also gives a vivid picture of electioneering and all the barely legal shenanigans that accompany the event. Most of the action takes place in a village of Barsetshire and a country house not far off.When their father dies, Doctor Thomas Thorne and his younger, ne'er-do-well brother Henry are left to fend for themselves. Doctor Thorne begins to establish a medical practice, while Henry seduces Mary Scatcherd, the sister of stonemason Roger Scatcherd. When Scatcherd finds out that Mary has become pregnant, he seeks out Henry and kills him in a fight.
While her brother is in prison, Mary gives birth to a girl. A former suitor offers to marry her and emigrate to the United States to start a new life but refuses to take the baby. Doctor Thorne persuades her to accept the generous offer, promising to raise his niece. He names her Mary Thorne but wishing neither to have her illegitimacy made public nor to have her associate with the uncouth Roger Scatcherd, he keeps her birth secret. He tells Scatcherd that the baby had died.
After his release, Scatcherd rises quickly in the world as a railway project undertaker. In time, his skills make him extremely rich. When he completes a seemingly-impossible important project on time, he is made a baronet for his efforts. Throughout his career, he entrusts his financial affairs to Doctor Thorne. When Thorne becomes the family doctor to the Greshams, he persuades Scatcherd to lend ever growing sums to the head of the family, the local squire, who has troubles managing his finances. Eventually, much of the Gresham estate is put up as collateral.
Katy Carr always gets in trouble for everything. When her mother died, she told Katy to be a mother to the little ones. But it seems like Katy can't do anything right. Her Aunt Izzie always scolds her, so one day Katy decides to ignore her aunt's command and ride the swing in the barn. Suddenly, something cracks, Katy feels like she's falling, and everything goes dark.
Inspired by the real life story of Caroline Norton, a friend of the author's, this book tells about a lively woman who is trapped in a miserable marriage. Yet Diana is not one to give up in her quest for love, happiness and fulfillment.
This book tells further stories from the period of Rebecca's sojourn in Riverboro.
A tale of the quaint and old English traditions of celebrating Christmas. Irving travels to the English countryside and meets an old schoolmate, who invites him home to spend Christmas at the family estate.
The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In is the second of Charles Dickens' Christmas books, published in 1844. Its contemporary setting is the "Hungry Forties", a time of social and political unrest, and the book has a strong moral message. It remained popular for many years, although its fame has since been eclipsed by that of A Christmas Carol, the first of the series.
Our hero Toby ("Trotty") Veck is a poor but hard-working man, whose beloved daughter Meg is due to marry on New Year's Day. Trotty, who is appalled by newspaper reports of crime and immorality, is further depressed by his encounters with the rich and influential Alderman Cute and Sir Joseph Bowley, who make him feel that the poor have no right to exist in society, and his daughter has no right to marry. Trotty hears messages in the chimes of the church bells, which lead him to visit the belfry at night on New Year's Eve...
A one-act play. Eccentric (crazy?) Captain Hagberd has been waiting for years for his son to come home from the sea. He has scrimped and saved, outfitting a house for Harry to inherit upon his return, which will be in only "one day more." He has also planned that Harry will marry Bessie, the repressed maiden next door. Note: The recording was done outside, so there will be some ambient noise (airplanes, lawn mowers, birds, children... etc).
More humorous adventures (1925) by the world’s most misunderstood English boy.
Molly and her father have lived alone since the death of her mother. Now Mr Gibson decides it will be in Molly's best interests for him to marry again. The new "Mama" brings to the household many changes, including a glamorous new step-sister. Mrs Gibson starts scheming to have Cynthia marry one of the sons of the local squire, but she does not understand Cynthia's reluctance or why Molly is meeting Mr Preston in the forest. Secrets, love affairs and society gossip abound in this social commentary novel written by Mrs Gaskell (author of North and South and Mary Barton). Love across the class divide, love of parents for children and step-children, love which is a 'heated fancy', love between sisters, and sincere self-sacrificing love of one person for another whether brother or beloved - all are delicately and delightfully drawn in this masterpiece of 19th century literature, and all are brought to life in this dramatic reading with a stunning cast of voices.
A story told, through the viewpoint of a sewing needle, about family life and siblings. The narration from the needle tells how he was made and witnesses the relationships within the family. The needle also makes friends with a thimble and some scissors.
John Builder is a solid, middle-class Englishman. He is very domineering but finds that the women around him are insistent on living their own lives. They will not let him take control. His world begins to fall apart around him
Set in late Victorian England, “Consequences” follows the life of Alexandra Clare, a girl born into an upper class Catholic London family. Raised from birth for the privileged life of a wife and mother, Alexandra never quite fits in with her or her family’s expectations and fails at seemingly everything she tries – school, the marriage market, family life.
This scene of 'Domestic Bliss' is from Poems of Cheer by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. (Pub 1914)
A 1908 NaNoWriMo forerunner, told in twelve chapters, each with a different author. The basic plot was to show how an engagement or marriage would affect and be affected by an entire family. The project became somewhat curious for the way the authors' contentious interrelationships mirrored the sometimes dysfunctional family they described in their chapters. The collaboration may have been an uncomfortable one, but a final product did emerge with some clever and entertaining contributions from its often squabbling authors.
Brother Jacob is a short story by George Eliot, in which she explores the relationship between the selfish, self-centered and ambitious David Faux and his idiot brother, Jacob.
Aurora Floyd is the spoiled, impetuous, but kind hearted daughter of Archibald Floyd, a wealthy banker and his wife, an actress who died shortly after Aurora's birth. As a teenager she is sent away to finishing school in Paris. This is volume two of the story which tells of Aurora's life with her husband John Mellish. This is a story of love, murder and the search for justice.
"If Burke Denby had not been given all the frosted cakes and toy shotguns he wanted at the age of ten, it might not have been so difficult to convince him at the age of twenty that he did not want to marry Helen Barnet."
"Of course the inevitable happened. However near two roads may be at the start, if they diverge ever so slightly and keep straight ahead, there is bound to be in time all the world between them. In the case of Burke and Helen, their roads never started together at all: they merely crossed; and at the crossing came the wedding. They were miles apart at the start—miles apart in tastes, traditions, and environment. In one respect only were they alike: undisciplined self-indulgence—a likeness that meant only added differences when it came to the crossing; and that made it all the more nearly impossible to merge those two diverging roads into one wide way leading straight on to wedded happiness." (From the book)
This all sounds complicated. This complicated situation is conveyed to us by the couple and some of their friends. However, more complications rise when a daughter is caught in the middle - a clever and wonderful girl who had to endure a sad and bitter life: live with her abnormal mother and be employed by her father, without knowing it's him. Her parents know what's best for her, but does Betty know what's best for herself? Will Betty be able to forgive her parents?
With seven children and a home to take care of, Margaret wondered how her Mother could be so happy living a life that seemed all drudgery. As Margaret has new experiences, she comes to realize that "her mother was not only the truest, the finest, the most generous woman she had ever known, but the happiest as well".
This collection of useful information on "Common Things" is put in the interesting form of "Why and Because," and comprehends a familiar explanation of many subjects which occupy a large space in the philosophy of Nature, relating to air, animals, atmosphere, caloric, chemistry, ventilation, materia medica, meteorology, acoustics, electricity, light, zoölogy, etc.
Here we were, only a month married, and spending our honeymoon at a most charming summer resort, where there was no excuse for getting out of patience. Everything was beautiful and attractive: Little hotel, strange to say, quite delightful; no fault to find with surroundings and accommodations; my darling Bessie, as sweet as an angel and determined to be happy and to make me happy; everything, in short, calculated to give us a long summer of delight.
That is, if Bessie had only been an orphan. But there was her mother, who had joined us on our summer trip, after the first two weeks of unalloyed happiness, and threatened to accompany us through life. (excerpt from chapter 1)
A man and his three children leave the “Little Mother” at home in the city and set up temporary housekeeping in a country cottage to supervise the remodeling of the house he has just purchased there. The story is narrated by the father. His interactions with his children, interspersed with his own recollections of past events, make for hilarious reading.
This is Jerome at his best, IMHO, although this is apparently one of this lesser known novels.
Caroline is a very intelligent woman. She received a good convent education until her father lost his fortune in a failed venture and died soon after. While her sister marries, Caroline has to go to Paris to support herself as a lady companion. In Paris, she is exposed to a privileged world she cannot dream to take part in. Or can she? Can her love for the good Marquis of Villemer win over social class and prejudice?
This is the story of Ellen Brewster, pretty little daughter of shoe-mill workers in a Northeastern US town of the late 19th century. After the mill shuts down, her family struggles to make ends meet, but as the years pass, Ellen grows up into a prize pupil and pride of the community. The story also covers the birth of the American labor movement and the relationships between rich and poor.
The second of the 'Little Ottleys' trilogy, an Edwardian comedy of manners. Several years have passed since the events in 'Love's Shadow', but Bruce Ottley is as difficult and irksome as ever. His beautiful wife Edith continues to gently manage his foibles, and regards him with a fond tolerance. But then she meets the enchanting - and very handsome - Aylmer Ross. The attraction between them is undeniable, and Edith's quiet serenity is shattered. Could this spell the end for the Ottley's marriage? Feather light, dialogue-packed and often tongue-in-cheek, this is a charming second instalment of a story which - despite its apparent superficiality - shows that Leverson had a keen understanding of human nature and of the society in which she moved.
Betrothed to one woman but married to another whose heart will be broken
Ruth never expected to have a house of her own. Raised in an orphanage, she is forced to work for her living. She chooses to work in a book store, until the Great War. She serves in France and then marries. But what would she do with power? Would she be contented to settle down as a happy country wife? How would her husband take their very different backgrounds?
Written by a fictitious first-person narrator, this book puts a humorous spin on encounters with several famous people of the time. "I set forth from my office in London upon my pilgrimage to the shrines of the world's illustrious. Readers everywhere are interested in the home life of men who have made themselves factors in art, science, letters, and history, and to these people I was commissioned to go." This version has been read as full cast dramatic reading. -
Ferns Hollow is the sad, but sweet story of a young boy who tragically loses his parents and has to care for his two sisters and crazed grandfather. He finds himself in many difficult situations which test his faith and courage. This book is about how he made it through many trials with God's grace and guidance, learning many life lessons on the way.
Cradock Nowell: a Tale of the New Forest is a three-volume novel by R. D. Blackmore published in 1866. Set in the New Forest and in London, it follows the fortunes of Cradock Nowell who, at the end of Volume 1, is thrown out of his family home and disowned by his father following the suspicious death of Cradock's twin brother Clayton, their father's favorite. In Volume 2, the story picks up with those left behind at Nowelhurst and the question of who is now heir apparent to the Nowell fortune. Meanwhile, Cradock discovers life independent of the Nowell name and fortune is not easy. At the end of volume 2, we leave Cradock fighting for his life and his beloved Amy rushing to be with him. It was Blackmore's second novel, and the novel he wrote prior to his most famous work Lorna Doone.
*Warning: Some listeners may be offended by some of the language. Words that were considered acceptable in the nineteenth century are not always politically correct today. It is LibriVox policy to leave the original wording as the author intended.
A collection of short Christmas works by the author of The Story of the Fourth Wise Man
Is housekeeping such a trial? Mrs. Smith thinks so and confesses all in this merry account of her escapades and near disasters!
Seemingly down-on-his-luck Australian sheep rancher and orchard grower kindly teaches his loving family the value of money through 'plain living'. Fellow fans of Jon Cleary's "The Sundowners", set a generation later, may enjoy this.
It is a common trend, up until this very day, to reveal the difficult side of being a great artist. Madame Okraska is no different. Great artists are, sometimes, very complicated. Sometimes the price of success is too high, for them and for those around them. Would Madame Okraska and her adopted daughter be able to pay it? Do they have to? Do children have to do everything in order to keep their parents happy, even when their own happiness and bliss is just around the corner? Tante deals with these questions and more. It is a brilliant psychological thriller, right between the psychological thrillers written by Anthony Trollope and Mary Elizabeth Braddon and those written in the 20th century. This book was in the top ten list of best sellers of 1912.
Frustrated with life in the tenements generally and the negative influences on his children specifically, a father decides to move his family to the country, where they live off the land and breathe fresh air.
The book which now appears before the public may be of interest in relation to a question which the late agitation of the subject of slavery has raised in many thoughtful minds, viz. — Are the race at present held as slaves capable of freedom, self-government, and progress. The author is a coloured young man, born and reared in the city of Philadelphia. This city, standing as it does on the frontier between free and slave territory, has accumulated naturally a large population of the mixed and African race. Being one of the nearest free cities of any considerable size to the slave territory, it has naturally been a resort of escaping fugitives, or of emancipated slaves. In this city they form a large class — have increased in numbers, wealth, and standing — they constitute a peculiar society of their own, presenting many social peculiarities worthy of interest and attention. The representations of their positions as to wealth and education are reliable, the incidents related are mostly true ones, woven together by a slight web of fiction. From the Preface by Harriet Beecher Stowe
What is childhood? For Taffy, the only son of a vicar, it includes prayers, games, and a lot of quality time with his loving family. When Taffy's father receives a post in the north of England and the family has to move, everybody has to make the best of the situation. For the first time, Taffy has friends. He is even taken to a vacation. But things are darker than they seem. There are things that Taffy, as a child, does not comprehend. This book is about the gap between adults and children, about a perfectly imperfect childhood, and, most importantly, about unconditional love and optimism.
In the final instalment of the 'Little Ottleys' trilogy, three years have passed since Bruce and Edith's marriage was in danger of collapse. Thanks to Edith's forgiving and patient ways they have put their difficulties behind them, and their lives seem on an even keel despite the advent of the First World War. But change is in the air: Bruce and Edith have a house guest - the intriguing Madame Frabelle charms everyone she meets and seems to show no signs of leaving. And then Edith's old flame, the charismatic and bewitching Aylmer Ross, comes home injured from the front, and Edith's carefully constructed life is thrown into confusion once again...
The Teacup Club (For the Advancement of Woman) is formed when Dorothy decides to found an intellectual club of her own - to teach her fiance a lesson! The club’s discussion topics (official) includes Theosophy, Politics and Women in Legislature. The club’s unofficial topics include Emily’s new dress, man-flu (it's causes and cures) and the great mystery of the missing chafing-dish. A witty drama and a comedy of manners, secrets and politics (both official and unofficial).
"The Visioning, Susan Glaspell's second novel, tells about Katie Jones, a young woman who lives in the comfortable world she knows with a charming circle of friends. Her brother is an army officer, and her uncle lives in Washington. The world she knows is the world they let her see. Until Anne comes into the picture. Katie saves Anne from killing herself. Katie invents a story about Anne, a story which suits Katie's world, but what would she do, and feel, when she discovers the truth? The story focuses around Katie's eye opening experiences and her search for place and meaning in the new world she slowly discovers. Glaspell's usual charm and witty observation, this book is a wonderful read. It could also be of interest to fans of Virginia Woolf's "Night And Day."
A child teaches a man that money isn’t everything at Christmas time and changes his life.
The Reverend Mr. Artman is a widower of three years and is worried he might not be able to escape the clutches of Miss Carlton, his housekeeper, much longer. Luckily, if he dismisses her from his employ, he has Doris and three other daughters to run his household.