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ID: 507092

Title: Lady with the Dog

Author: Anton Chekhov

Narrator: David Shaw-Parker, Ghizela Rowe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 00:53:55

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Short Stories

Summary:

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on 29th January 1860 in Taganrog, on the south coast of Russia. His family life was difficult; his father was strict and over-bearing but his mother was a passionate story-teller, a subject Chekhov warmed to. As he later said; 'our talents we got from our father, but our soul from our mother'. At school Chekhov was distinctly average. At 16 his father mis-managed his finances and was declared bankrupt. His family fled to Moscow. Chekhov remained and eked out a living by various means, including writing and selling short sketches to newspapers, to finish his schooling. That completed and with a scholarship to Moscow University obtained he rejoined his family.He was able to help support them by selling satirical sketches and vignettes of Russian lifestyles and gradually obtained further commissions. In 1884, he qualified as a physician and, although it earned him little, he often treated the poor for free, he was fond of saying 'Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.'His own health was now an issue as he began to cough up blood, a symptom of tuberculosis. Despite this his writing success enabled him to move the family into more comfortable accommodation. Chekhov wrote over 500 short stories which included many, many classics including 'The Kiss' and 'The Lady with a Dog'. His collection 'At Dusk' won him the coveted Pushkin Prize when was only 26. He was also a major playwright beginning with the huge success of 'Ivanov' in 1887. In 1892 Chekhov bought a country estate north of Moscow. Here his medical skills and money helped the peasants tackle outbreaks of cholera and bouts of famine. He also built three schools, a fire station and a clinic. It left him with less time for writing but the interactions with real people gained him detailed knowledge about the peasantry and their living conditions for his stories. His most famous work, 'The Seagull' was received disastrously at its premiere in St Petersburg. It was later restaged in Moscow to highlight its psychological aspects and was a huge success. It led to 'Uncle Vanya', 'The Three Sisters' and 'The Cherry Orchard'. Chekhov suffered a major lung hemorrhage in 1897 while visiting Moscow. A formal diagnosis confirmed tuberculosis and the doctors ordered changes to his lifestyle. Despite a dread of weddings the elusive literary bachelor quietly married the actress Olga Knipper, whom he had met at rehearsals for 'The Seagull', on 25th May 1901.By May 1904 with his tuberculosis worsening and death imminent he set off for the German town of Badenweiler writing cheerful, witty letters to his family and assuring them his health was improving. On 15th July 1904 Anton Chekhov died at Badenweiler. He was 44.

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ID: 529999

Title: Dead at 40

Author: Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Kafka, Jack London

Narrator: Christopher Ragland, Richard Mitchley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 04:51:38

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Short Stories

Summary:

Science, better diet, advanced medicines are all part of a process that in the modern age keep most of us going to a ripe old age.In previous times some diseases could only be slowed and not defeated. There toil of relentless attack on our physical forms brought misery and decay. Add to this that within our number some will self-destruct, demons will pursue their inner thoughts and life will be too painful to bear. Some may shuffle off the mortal coil for no discernible reason, but life will end early, they will not take up their three-score year and ten.In this collection of short stories some of our most popular and well-known authors are grouped together with an unfortunate tag: dead at 40.These authors are not run-of-the-mill or ten a penny; many are literary leviathans who left enduring works of literature and sadly may have left us many more had they lived. We will never know.Death for these authors was usually due to many health issues but primarily:-Edgar Allan Poe - Several causes have been given but, in truth, it remains a mystery.Franz Kafka - TuberculosisJack London - Dysentery, late-stage alcoholism, and uremiaMary Dods (writing as David Lyndsey) - Liver disease William Hope Hodgson - Killed at the Fourth Battle of Ypres in World War 101 - Dead at 40 - An Introduction02 - The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe03 - In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka04 - To Build a Fire by Jack London05 - The Prediction by Mary Diana Dods writing as David Lyndsey06 - Carnacki, The Ghost Finder - No1 - The Gateway of the Monster by William Hope Hodgson

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ID: 548528

Title: Difference

Author: Ellen Glasgow

Narrator: Ghizela Rowe, Kelly Burke

Format: Unabridged

Length: 02:06:00

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Short Stories, Literary Fiction, Classics

Summary:

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow was born on 22nd April 1873 in Richmond, Virginia.She published her first novel 'The Descendant' anonymously in 1897 at age 24. As a 'Southern' writer much of her work integrates themes of class and gender struggles, many of them based on her own experiences and relationships. She wrote realistically of the changing contemporary South; very different from the then idealistic escapist fare after Reconstruction.As the women's suffrage movement developed at the turn of the century Glasgow was very active, but later felt it had come at the wrong time for her, accordingly her enthusiasm waned although her later books did have heroines who displayed their ambitions in the social and political struggle.In 1923 came her short story collection 'The Shadowy Third & Other Stories' which included 'The Difference', a classic tale of a marriage hitting a problem and the moral and realistic reaction to that.Further works followed and, in 1941, she published 'In This Our Life'. This bold and progressive book on African-Americans, followed the central characters and portrayed the blatant injustices they faced in society. It won the Pulitzer Prize the following year.Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow died in her sleep at home on 21st November 1945. She was 72.

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ID: 514255

Title: Bhakti Poet Saints

Author: Guru Nanak, Kabir , Mirabai

Narrator: David Shaw-Parker, Ghizela Rowe, Laurel Lefkow

Format: Unabridged

Length: 01:06:00

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Poetry

Summary:

Whilst Europe endured the Dark Ages in the 6th & 7th Centuries devotees of Shiva and Vishnu in Southern India were creating the Bhakti Movement. Some of these exponents, as in our volume, were bestowed with the title of saint but some had the additional title of sant, swami or goswami.Broadly speaking, Bhakti poetry, as in Hinduism itself, is divided into 'Nirguna', the idea that the divine is formless as exampled by Kabir and 'Saguna' which interprets the divine as having physical form as captured by Mirabai. The rapid spread, of the Bhakti movement, with its theme of love and devotion to God, proffered by these rebellious poet saints, did, over the following centuries, meld with much needed Hindu reforms and went to the heart of human existence. These 'God possessing' rather than 'God fearing' poets rejected hierarchies and intermediaries in their spiritual devotion and were critical of rules, regulations and ritual observances administered by Brahmin priests in the sacred but elitist court and temple Sanskrit. Their poems, in their local language, emphasised personal devotion as a route to salvation with kind deeds and a humble life rather than ritual mediation, stretched the fabric of society. They were all from lower castes and many were women giving the movement an egalitarian spirit that helped reinforce the message that god's love was all-encompassing for every person willing to surrender to the divine. Furthermore, their verse was accessible, simple, innovative with new poetic forms and often expressed in songs with a fierce passion and ecstasy that demonstrated the movement's focus on inner, mystical and authentic devotion and humility. Impromptu performances with provocative outbursts of singing and dancing in unconventional settings or public gatherings evolved into poetic presentations and community recitals as the rapid popularity of the movement spread.

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ID: 501484

Title: Yellow Book - Vol 3

Author: Ada Radford, Constance Cotterell, Netta Syrett

Narrator: David Shaw-Parker, Ghizela Rowe, Richard Mitchley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 04:45:23

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Essays & Anthologies

Summary:

During the Victorian era the publishing of magazines and periodicals accelerated at a phenomenal rate. This really was mass market publishing to a hungry audience eager for literary sustenance. Many of our greatest authors contributed and expanded their reach whilst many fledging authors also found a ready source for their nascent works and careers.Amongst the very many was 'The Yellow Book'. Although titled as 'An Illustrated Quarterly' it was sold as a cloth-bound hardback and within were short stories, essays, poetry, illustrations and portraits. It was edited by the American author Henry Harland, who also contributed, and its art editor was no less that the formidable Aubrey Beardsley, the enfant terrible of illustration.Its yellow cover and name gave it an association with the risqué and erotic yellow covered works published in France. It was a visual shorthand for ideas that would push many boundaries of Society to more open interpretations. Being complete in each volume and slightly aloof it stayed away from serialised fiction and advertisements. Within each lavishly illustrated edition were literary offerings that included works by such luminaries as Henry James, H G Wells, W B Yeats, Edith Nesbit, George Gissing and many others from the ascetic and decadent movements of the time. The other notable inclusion was women both as contributors and amongst its editing staff, which was at odds with the then patriarchal gender norms. Although it only survived for 13 issues its reach and influence were second to none.

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ID: 514257

Title: Parisian Trilogy

Author: Edgar Allan Poe

Narrator: Christopher Ragland, Ghizela Rowe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 05:05:06

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Short Stories

Summary:

Edgar Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts on 19th January 1809. His father abandoned his family the following year and within a year his mother had died leaving him an orphan. He was taken in by the Allan family but never formally adopted although he now referred to himself as Edgar Allan Poe. His father alternatively spoiled or chastised him and tension was frequent over gambling debts and monies for his education. His university years to study ancient and modern languages was cut short by lack of money and he enlisted as a private in the army claiming he was 22, it is more probable he was 18. After 2 years he obtained a discharge in order to take up an appointment at the military academy, West Point, where he failed to become an officer.Poe had released his 1st poetry volume in 1827 and after his 3rd turned to prose and placing short stories in several magazines and journals. At age 26 he obtained a licence to marry his cousin. She was a mere 13 but they stayed together until her death from tuberculosis 11 years after.In January 1845 'The Raven' was published and became an instant classic. Thereafter followed the prose works for which he is now so rightly famed as a master of the mysterious and the macabre.Edgar Allan Poe died at the tragically early age of 40 on 7th October 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland. Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as 'congestion of the brain' or 'cerebral inflammation', common euphemisms for death from disreputable causes such as alcoholism but the actual cause of death remains a mystery.Many authors have been cited as inventing the detective genre. Perhaps the strongest claimant is the American Edgar Allan Poe. His creation of the Parisian sleuth C. Auguste Dupin with his quite astounding analysis and deductive powers allied to Poe's great imagination and wit create a literary tour de force.Poe's opening story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' met with phenomenal success and indeed is a still a favourite to this day. From this came the sequel 'The Mystery of Marie Rogêt' and then 'The Purloined Letter'. Together they create a strong and vibrant Parisian trilogy, a credit to Poe, Paris and, of course Dupin and a cast of unforgettable characters.

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ID: 529991

Title: Algernon Blackwood - A Short Story Collection

Author: Algernon Blackwood

Narrator: David Shaw-Parker, Richard Mitchley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 02:49:49

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Short Stories

Summary:

Algernon Blackwood was born on 14th March 1869 in Shooter's Hill, South East London, to a religious middle-class family. His mother was a widowed Duchess and his father was a Post Office administrator. Blackwood was interested in the paranormal and the supernatural at an early age, and had a thirst for anything on Buddhism, other Oriental philosophies, mysticism and occultism. In his writings the weaving of the supernatural into his various works, from ghost stories and children's stories to plays and long novels is clearly seen, his writings beautifully enriched by his long and diversified life experience. After leaving university and visiting parts of Europe, mainly Switzerland, the young writer went to Canada and the United States where he took on jobs including work as a farmer, a bartender, a secretary, a journalist, a reporter, running a hotel and teaching the violin. He was voracious in meeting new people and absorbing new ideas. In his late thirties, he returned to England where he published two of his supernatural stories in Pall Mall Magazine. As more of his highly entertaining stories were published so did his reputation and his bank balance. All those years of curiosity and experiences were starting to emerge from his writing.In 1906, 'The Empty House & Other Ghost Stories' was published with tremendous success. Further volumes of short stories followed and with it a larger audience and bigger paydays. He also published children's stories.Blackwood also had ideas for novels and to explore on a larger canvas the paranormal world and the relationship between man and metaphysical powers including, in 1911, 'The Centaur'. With the outbreak of the First World War, Blackwood was assigned to British intelligence to write propaganda to support the war effort.He was a prolific author with a quite staggering output which was also to include many plays. The exact number of his works is unknown as he would frequently write a story for a newspaper or periodical at very short notice. In 1949, Blackwood was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his literary talents and his services during the First World War. Algernon Blackwood died on 10th December 1951 after a series of strokes. He was 821 - Algernon Blackwood - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction2 - John Silence, Physican Extraordinary by Algernon Blackwood3 - The Empty House by Algernon Blackwood4 - The Return by Algernon Blackwood5 - The Kit Bag by Algernon Blackwood6 - The Second Generation by Algernon Blackwood

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ID: 545990

Title: 50 Shades of September

Author: Emily Dickinson, Lord Byron, William Wordsworth

Narrator: Ghizela Rowe, Gideon Wagner, Richard Mitchley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 01:22:51

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Poetry

Summary:

The Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave. This illustrious phrase encapsulates the aspirations of America and its people. In this volume we feature 50 American poets beginning with the Colonist Anne Bradstreet in the 17th century, when American poetry was entirely rooted in its parental British forms. From here our classic poets take us through Centuries of history, through Independence and expansion Westward, across the cities and vast landscapes of their words. Along the journey we also meet the Imagists, the poets from the Harlem Renaissance by way of the Transcendentalists and the Fireside Poets. The giants of the poetic way loom large; Walt Whitman. Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Edna St Vincent Millay. Our rambling poetic stroll gives voice to the nation's hopes, its dreams, its failings, its musings. We cannot hope to define America but we do provide the many changing moods and flavours of the times as we discover the essence of its soul.1 - Fifty Shades of September - An Introduction2 - September by George Arnold3 - September by Helen Hunt Jackson4 - September 1st 1802 By William Wordsworth5 - Lines Written Beneath an Elm in the Churchyard of Harrow-on-the-Hill September 2nd 1807 by Lord Byron6 - Sonnet XXL, Sacred to the Memory of Edward Spedding Who Died September 3rd 1832 by Henry Alford7 - An Indian Summer Day on the Prairie by Vachel Lindsay8 - Lines Written on the 6th September by Thomas Gent9 - Autumn in Sussex by Radclyffe Hall10 - Autumn in Cornwall by Algernon Charles Swinburne11 - Written in London September 1802 by William Wordsworth12 - Autumn by Kahlil Gibran13 - September by Carlos Wilcox14 - A Calendar of Sonnets - September by Helen Hunt Jackson15 - September by John Payne16 - The Name of it is Autumn by Emily Dickinson17 - September 1815 by William Wordsworth18 - Autumn Song by Dante Gabriel Rosetti19 - Autumn Dawn by Charles Sorley20 - An Autumn Sunset by Edith Wharton21 - A September Night by George Marion McClellan22 - In Autumn Moonlight by Robert Seymour Bridges23 - Indian Summer by Henry Van Dyke24 - September 1819 by William Wordsworth25 - The Autumn by Elizabeth Barrett Browning26 - Autumn by Thomas Hood27 - Elegy in April and September by Wilfred Owen28 - September 1918 by Amy Lowell29 - 21st September, 1870 by Charles Kingsley30 - An Autumn Rain Scene by Thomas Hardy31 - Sonnet. September 1922 by Ivor Gurney32 - September by Janet Hamilton33 - In September by Thomas MacDonagh34 - Autumn Overlooked My Knitting by Emily Dickinson35 - The Golden Wedding of Sterling and Sarah Lanier September 27th, 1868 by Sidney Lanier36 - To Autumn by William Blake37 - Written in September 1804 by Christian Milne38 - Autumn by Anne Bradstreet39 - Ode to Autumn by John Keats40 - Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley41 - Autumn - A Dirge by Percy Bysshe Shelley42 - In September by Amy Levy43 - Postscriptum, September 1913 by Thomas MacDonagh44 - Hold the Harvest by Fanny Parnell45 - September Midnights by Sara Teasdale46 - September 1913 by William Butler Yeats47 - Late September by Amy Lowell48 - Love's Harvest by Alfred Austin49 - Autumn by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow50 - A Carol of Harvest for 1867 by Walt Whitman51 - September Dark by James Whitcomb Riley

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ID: 514259

Title: Rappaccini's Daughter

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Narrator: Christopher Ragland, Ghizela Rowe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 01:25:33

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Short Stories

Summary:

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on 4th July 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, a town synonymous with the earlier Salem Witch Trials. It was instrumental in Hawthorne's later use of American Gothic and dark romanticism in his writing.At only four years old, his father died and his mother took him and his two sisters to live with her family and then on to their own home in Raymond, Maine. The young Hawthorne had a passion for fiction and poetry and voraciously read the works of Ann Radcliffe, Henry Fielding and Lord Byron. He was sent to college at his maternal uncle's insistence. During these years he met and befriended Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and future U S president Franklin Pierce. These friendships were lifelong and to have a crucial impact on his writings and career. At college Hawthorne had made attempts at writing short stories and essays but without opportunities to publish. It was only in 1828 that he finally published his novel 'Franshawe' to little success and so he began work as editor for the American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. Hawthorne's short stories were first published in magazines but in 1837 were collected and published as 'Twice-Told Tales'. A steady literary career still did not come his way and so he worked in a good position at Salem's port and married the love of his life Sophia Peabody. They moved to live in 'The Old Manse' at Concord, Massachusetts. Finally. in 1850 came spectacular literary and commercial success with 'The Scarlet Letter' followed by 'The House of the Seven Gables' the following year. In 1852, Hawthorne published a biography of presidential candidate Franklin Pierce. After Pierce's victory he was appointed consul in Liverpool, a position that offered prestige, money and fame. At the end of this appointment he returned several times to Europe before settling in Massachusetts and resuming writing and publication.During the early 1860's his health declined and on 19th May 1864 during a trip to Plymouth, New Hampshire. He was 59 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. 'Rapaccinni's Daughter' is a classic piece of literature from his pen. Set in Italy, it is an unsettling story of romance destroyed by science.

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ID: 529970

Title: Boleslaw Prus - A Short Story Collection

Author: Boleslaw Prus

Narrator: David Shaw-Parker, Ghizela Rowe, Richard Mitchley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 00:58:04

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Short Stories

Summary:

Aleksander G?owacki who wrote under the nom de plume Boleslaw Prus was born on 20th August 1847 at Hrubieszów in the Kingdom of Poland, at that time, controlled by the Russian Empire.At three his mother died and then at nine his father. Female relatives helped raise him but at 15 he joined the Polish uprising against the might of Imperial Russia. Wounded on the battlefield, arrested and imprisoned, he was later released into the care of a relative and resumed secondary school and then Warsaw University but poverty forced him to leave after two years. At some point he developed agoraphobia which often caused problems.In 1869, he enrolled in the Forestry Department at Pu?awy but was soon sacked and so he began a system of self-education that led to work as a newspaper columnist on a wide-ranging series of topics that eventually became the 'Weekly Chronicles' and spanned 40 years.With his finances now stabilized he married and then adopted his late brother-in-law's son. It seems he had doubts as to the scale of his talents and early on adopted the name 'Boleslaw Prus' for both his journalistic and literary offerings.His work as a short-story writer met with much acclaim. He wrote several dozen of them, originally published in newspapers and ranging in length from micro-story to novella. His keen observation of everyday life and sense of humor are evident in them. During his career he also wrote novels. After 'Pharoah', in 1895, he embarked on a four-month journey taking in Berlin, Dresden, Nuremberg, Rapperswil in Switzerland, where he stayed for two months, and his final destination, Paris. Here his agoraphobia was so bad he couldn't cross the Seine. However, his writing continued and in 1911 his novel 'Changes', though uncompleted, began to be serialised. It was never finished.Boleslaw Prus died on 19th May 1912, at his Warsaw apartment. He was 64. A National Hero, thousands attended both his funeral service and interment.1 - Boleslaw Prus - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction2 - Shades by Boleslaw Prus3 - Fading Voices by Bolslaw Prus4 - The Living Telegraph by Boleslaw Prus5 - Mold of the Earth by Boleslaw Prus6 - A Legend of Old Egypt by Boleslaw Prus

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