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ID: 514261

Title: Murders in the Rue Morgue

Author: Edgar Allan Poe

Narrator: Christopher Ragland, Ghizela Rowe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 01:43:00

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.Poe is also one of a number of authors credited with inventing the detective genre with his Parisian sleuth C. Auguste Dupin. He featured in three stories including the legendary 'Murders in the Rue Morgue' and by sheer deduction, logic and a touch of Gallic arrogance revealed what was hidden to the rest of us.

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ID: 514262

Title: Poetry of Aphra Behn

Author: Aphra Behn

Narrator: Ghizela Rowe, Libby Brunton, Tania Rodrigues

Format: Unabridged

Length: 01:04:44

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Poetry

Summary:

Aphra Behn was a prolific and well-established poet and playwright but facts about her life remain scant and difficult to confirm. What can safely be said is that Aphra Behn is regarded as a key English playwright and a major figure in Restoration theatre. Her poetry is now far more appreciated and seen as a breakthrough for women of the 17th Century and beyond. Aphra was baptised on 14th December 1640 and grew up with the gathering tensions leading to the English Civil War, a time of much division and difficulty as the King, Parliament, and their respective forces, came closer and then finally into open conflict.By 1664 her marriage was over, less than a year after it began. She now used Mrs Behn as her professional name and moved towards pursuing a more sustainable and substantial career, working for the King's Company and the Duke's Company players as a scribe. Her first play 'The Forc'd Marriage', was staged in 1670, and thereafter many followed, including her later comic works, which were more commercially successful. She wrote 19 plays in all and contributed to many others as well as several works of prose.Along with her literary career there are claims she was a spy, that she travelled abroad, possibly as far as Surinam. She also claimed to have met a slave leader in Africa and based her story 'Oroonoko' on his life. Other accounts suggest that during her life she was also known as Ann Behn, Agent One-Sixty and Astrea. Her financial troubles seem to have also incurred her a brief stay in a debtors' prison. Whatever the truth, both her life and work seem rich, textured and full of adventure.From the mid 1680's Aphra's health began to decline. This was exacerbated by her continual state of debt and descent into poverty although she was often fond of saying that she had led a 'life dedicated to pleasure and poetry.' Aphra Behn died on 16th April 1689. She is buried in the East Cloister of Westminster Abbey and the inscription on her tombstone reads: "Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be Defence enough against Mortality." 1 - The Poetry of Aphra Behn - An Introduction2 - The Disappointment by Aphra Behn3 - On a Juniper Tree, Cut Down to Make Busks by Aphra Behn4 - The Willing Mistress by Aphra Behn5 - To Lysander by Aphra Behn6 - Love Armed by Aphra Behn7 - On Desire by Aphra Behn8 - The Counsel by Aphra Behn9 - Love's Witness by Aphra Behn10 - The Invitation by Aphra Behn11 - To Mrs B by Aphra Behn12 - On Her Loving Two Equally by Aphra Behn13 - The Dream by Aphra Behn14 - Song by Aphra Behn15 - A Ballad on Mr J H to Amoret, Asking Why I Was So Sad by Aphra Behn16 - The Return by Aphra Behn17 - Oh How the Hand the Lover Ought to Prize by Aphra Behn18 - The Dog in the Manger by Aphra Behn19 - Angellica's Lament by Aphra Behn20 - A Congratulatory Poem by Aphra Behn21 - A Letter to a Brother of the Pen in Tribulation by Aphra Behn22 - Epitaph on the Tombstone of a Child, the Last of Seven That Died Before by Aphra Behn23 - A Thousand Martyrs aka The Libertine by Aphra Behn24 - On the Death of the Late Earl of Rochester by Aphra Behn

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ID: 548520

Title: Poetry of the Sufis

Author: Hafiz , Rabia , Rumi

Narrator: David Shaw-Parker, Eve Karpf, Ghizela Rowe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 02:33:04

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Poetry

Summary:

Sufism had its origins in the early days of Islam and was defined by its mystical and philosophical absorption with the search for God and the love and grace of God. The striving for union with God was the ultimate Sufi goal but could not be achieved until death, so earthly life devoted itself to worship God, love mankind, respect nature and conquer the Self, severing the chains of our worldly life. Along the centuries numerous interpretations and definitions of Sufism have waxed and waned but the undeniable beauty of their verse in its myriad of forms including the musical Ghazal (love song), Masnavi (narrative) and Rubai (quatrain) always remains. Our chronological volume of the classic Sufi poets helps us understand the spiritual direction of Sufism, starting with Rabia in the 8th century through to Khwaja Ghulam Farid over a thousand years later.It is a journey of fascinating thoughts and beauty.1 - The Poetry of the Sufis - An Introduction2 - Your Hope Is My Heart by Rabia al Basri3 - In My Soul by Rabia al Basri4 - In Love by Rabia al Basri5 - The Holy Water by Rabia al Basri6 - If I Adore You by Rabia al Basri7 - Your Image Is In My Eye by Mansur Al Hallaj8 - I Do Not Cease Swimming by Mansur Al Hallaj9 - Thy Spirit Is Mingled In My Spirit by Mansur Al Hallaj10 - Awareness Is Rapture by Abdullah Ansari11 - I Came by Abdullah Ansari12 - The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam13 - The Walled Garden by Sanai Ghaznavi14 - All Pervading Consciousness by Farid ud-Din Attar15 - Bird Parliament or The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar (an Extract)16 - Why Was Adam by Farid ud-Din Attar17 - Intoxicated By the Wine of Love by Farid ud-Din Attar18 - An Ocean Without Shore by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi19 - With My Very Own Hands by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi20 - Fire by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi21 - Listen O Dearly Beloved by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi22 - You Speak of the Glory of God by Shams Tabrizi23 - I Shall Not Place You In My Heart by Shams Tabrizi24 - A Life Without Love by Shams Tabrizi25 - The Past Is an Interpretation by Shams Tabrizi26 - How Philosopher's Deceive Themselves by Jalaluddin Rumi27 - What Is To Be Done by Jalaluddin Rumi28 - Till Man Destroys Self by Jalaluddin Rumi29 - You Who Are My Soul's Repose by Jalaluddin Rumi30 - Fasting by Jalaluddin Rumi31 - Only Breath by Jalaluddin Rumi32 - Your Grief For What You've Lost Holds A Mirror by Rumi33 - Description of Humility by Saadi34 - One Body by Saadi35 - On the Excellence of Learning by Saadi36 - Who Attains the Secret of Unity. From the Mystic Rose Garden by Mahmud Shabistari37 - Why Call They a Creature United.

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ID: 529963

Title: Empty House

Author: Algernon Blackwood

Narrator: Ghizela Rowe, Richard Mitchley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 00:43:28

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. The Empty House is one of his most famous ghost stories. A man accompanies his adventurous aunt to a notorious haunted house. As the two exploring its' dark, empty rooms, it becomes apparent that the house has not forgotten the earlier tragedy.

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ID: 501471

Title: Far Above Rubies

Author: Netta Syrett

Narrator: David Shaw-Parker, Ghizela Rowe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 00:56:03

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Short Stories

Summary:

Netta Syrett was born Janet Syrett on 17th March 1865 in Ramsgate, Kent, one of 13 children.She was initially educated at home by her mother before those responsibilities passed to a German Governess and then, aged 11, Netta went to the North London Collegiate School. From there she attended Hughes Hall, Cambridge and completed a three-year course for a full teaching certificate in only one year.She taught for two years at a Swansea school before moving to teach at the London Polytechnic School for Girls. Her friend and colleague, Mabel Beardsley, introduced her to her brother, Aubrey, the famed illustrator and the then art editor for the illustrated quarterly 'The Yellow Book', and its literary editor, the American Henry Harland, who then published 3 of her short stories. Her writing is also notable for its use of women characters who were less dependent on others and the society around them and were able to forge new independent paths.Her debut novel, 'Nobody's Fault' (1896) was the beginning of a long and prolific output. For the next several years her writing and teaching careers ran alongside each other. A highly critical review of her controversial, for those times, play 'The Finding of Nancy' suggesting it was an autobiography led to calls from overly moral parents for her to resign her teaching position. Netta now concentrated solely on her writing, only retiring in 1939.Netta Syrett died after a long illness in London on 15th December 1943.

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ID: 529978

Title: Silver Poets

Author: Michael Drayton, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Thomas Wyatt

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

Format: Unabridged

Length: 01:07:45

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Poetry

Summary:

Poetry has over the centuries grouped poets or poems into many different themes and movements.Amongst its most unusual movements are the English wordsmiths, The Silver Poets.This select band lived during the sixteenth century reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st. Amongst their storied ranks were Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Philip Sidney, Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Davies, Michael Drayton and Mary Sidney (Herbert), the Countess of Pembroke.The theme The Silver Poets most often took to their pens was Love. Their offerings on the subject came in many poetic forms from the beginning of the English renaissance till the end of the Elizabethan Age. In this regard it broke with previous approaches and re-identified this complex emotion in new ways.Allied to this these poets spoke on many subjects, including faith and politics, in new ways against a background of a century riven by religious conflicts as it turned from the suffocating and corrupt Catholic faith to welcome, and at times reject, the purer form of Protestantism. Across Europe new ideas brought turmoil, the threat of invasion, new expressions of art and many other elements to these shores.It was also an age when England began to confidently survey the horizon and look to a future that promised much, including a golden age of literature, and fleets venturing overseas in search of trade, dominions and ideas.1 - The Silver Poets - An Introduction2 - My Lute Awake by Sir Thomas Wyatt3 - They Flee From Me by Sir Thomas Wyatt4 - And Wilt Thou Leave Me Thus by Sir Thomas Wyatt5 - The Forsaken Lover Consoleth Himself With Rememberances of Past Happiness by Sir Thomas Wyatt6 - Farewell Love and All Thy Laws Forever by Sir Thomas Wyatt7 - A Satire Against the Citizens of London by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey8 - London Hast Thou Accursed Me by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey9 - The Fraility and Hurtfulness of Beauty by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey10 - Life by Sir Walter Raleigh11 - My Last Will by Sir Walter Raleigh12 - Farewell To The Court by Sir Walter Raleigh13 - My True Love Hath My Heart and I Have His by Sir Phillip Sidney14 - Ode by Sir Philip Sidney15 - Sonnet I from Astrophil and Stella by Sir Philip Sidney16 - Leave Me O Love by Sir Philip Sidney17 - The Smokes of Melancholy by Sir Philip Sidney18 - The Doleful Lay of Clorinda by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke19 - O by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke20 - O Lord in Me There Lieth Naught by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke21 - To My Most Dearly Beloved Friend by Michael Drayton22 - To His Coy Love by Michael Drayton23 - The Ballad Of Agincourt by Michael Drayton24 - Glastonbury from Poly-Olbion by Michael Drayton 25 - Woodstock. Rosamond to King Henry by Michael Drayton26 - Sonnet I by Sir John Davies27 - A Lover Out of Fashion by Sir John Davies28 - Man by Sir John Davies

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ID: 507094

Title: Brothers

Author: Louisa May Alcott

Narrator: Ghizela Rowe, Laurel Lefkow

Format: Unabridged

Length: 00:57:00

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Short Stories

Summary:

Louisa May Alcott was born on 29th November 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania.She is most definitely a writer of her own experiences. Her father was a transcendentalist, philosopher and educational experimenter who founded, Fruitlands, a utopian community. Although poor, her liberal and progressive parents provided Louisa with much of her education, which was enhanced by many family friends that included Thoreau, Hawthorne and Emerson, a neighbour whose library she was often found reading in. She started writing stories as a way of providing the family with some financial stability. Times were difficult and the effects of poverty were always close at hand. During the Civil War she went to Washington to be a nurse and became ill with typhoid fever although she continued to write and build her success. However, the treatment for typhus gave her mercury poisoning which caused further health issues for the rest of her life and eventually contributed to her death. Alcott visited her father on his deathbed in Boston. Two days later on 6th March 1888 she also died resulting in a joint funeral. Well-loved for her classic 'Little Women' she was a superb writer in difficult times for any woman, a strong advocate of women's issues, the anti-slavery movement, temperance and social reform. Her work often reflects on the rich experiences in her life and these poignant short stories are a fine testament to this. Additionally under pseudonyms she wrote dozens of gothic thrillers and sensation stories. She is also famed for her children's stories. One of Alcott's most startling stories is the 'The Brothers' a tale of two brothers during the Civil War and the after-effects.

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ID: 529979

Title: In the Penal Colony

Author: Franz Kafka

Narrator: Ghizela Rowe, Richard Mitchley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 01:11:41

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Short Stories

Summary:

Franz Kafka was born on 3rd July 1883 in Prague, then in Bohemia, the eldest of 6, into a middle-class Jewish family.Life for the young Kafka and his passion for literature was often made an ordeal by his over-bearing and domineering entrepreneur of a father. In 1889 Kafka was sent to the Deutsche Knabenschule, an elementary school in Prague. His father would only allow him to be educated in German-speaking schools and even went so far as to limit visits to the synagogue to four a year.In 1901 he graduated from the classics-oriented Altstädter Gymnasium. Kafka did well there and across a large range of subjects. He now enrolled at the Charles Ferdinand University, to study chemistry, but quickly switched to law for which he obtained his degree in June 1906 and then performed the mandatory year of unpaid service as clerk at the civil and criminal courts.A job at an Italian insurance company left him little time to write and after a year he took another job with the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia where he stayed until ill health led to his resignation in 1922.Although he saw work as a means to pay the bills and to allow him time to write, he received several promotions and was noted as a good employee.By 1917 Kafka was suffering from tuberculosis, which required frequent periods of convalescence. Interspersed with this, were several intense affairs before he settled in Berlin with Dora Diamant, a 25-year-old kindergarten teacher who herself having left the ghetto now influenced Kafka's interest in the book of Jewish law, the Talmud.Kafka's on-going health was littered with problems. Apart from TB there were several other ailments, including migraines, insomnia, boils, depression, all usually brought on by excessive stresses and strains. He attempted to counteract all of this by naturopathic treatments, a vegetarian diet and consuming large quantities of unpasteurized milk.His tuberculosis still worsened. He returned to Prague, where he died on 3rd June 1924. He was 40.His literary works are few in number but towering in influence. His masterpieces include 'The Trial', 'The Metamorphosis' as well as a number of short stories which reveal facets of humankind that truthfully could only be born from Kafka's brain and pen.His classic short story 'In the Penal Colony' begins with the innocuous words "It's a peculiar apparatus," as the Officer explains to the Traveller, what this grisly machine will do to the prisoners who serve their time here.

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ID: 501473

Title: Stones of the Village

Author: Alice Dunbar Nelson

Narrator: Darrell Joe, Ghizela Rowe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 00:56:18

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Short Stories

Summary:

Alice Ruth Moore was born on 19th July 1875 in New Orleans where she was part of the multi-racial Creole community. She was the first generation seemingly born free after the Civil War and unusually for the times, obtained a university education which led to her becoming a teacher at a public school in New Orleans. In 1895, when she was 20, she published her first collection of short stories and poems, 'Violets and Other Tales', and moved to New York City where she co-founded and taught at the White Rose Mission, a Home for Girls. Alice was always politically active and sought to advance the position of black women. She began work as a journalist at the Woman's Era newspaper where her work was seen by the established poet and journalist Paul Laurence Dunbar. After corresponding for two years she joined him in Washington DC and they married in 1898. It was a difficult relationship, due mainly to Dunbar's fragile health, alcoholism and depression. After a severe beating she left him and moved to Delaware to teach for a decade though took time out to enroll at Cornell University.A short-lived marriage to Henry A. Callis, a physician and professor at Howard University ended in divorce and she became co-editor and writer for an influential publication of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. A third marriage to civil rights activist Robert J. Nelson came about, as did affairs with several women, notably the activist Fay Jackie Robinson. In Wilmington Delaware she and her husband devoted their time and writings to working for equality for African Americans and women's suffrage. Alice Dunbar Nelson was a natural and gifted writer across many genres, from novels, essays, plays to diaries, criticism, poetry and of course short stories, of which 'Stones in the Village' is a fine example. The protagonist, like herself, is light skinned from New Orleans, which allows for a social mobility and a unique position in American society that Dunbar Nelson captures with an imagination and insight to explores another divisive perspective on race. It is unsurprising that Alice was a prominent part of the early Harlem Renaissance and influenced many others including Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen.Alice and her husband moved to Philadelphia in 1932 and it was here that she died on 18th September 1935, at the age of 60, from a heart ailment.

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ID: 529981

Title: Great Good Place

Author: Henry James

Narrator: Christopher Ragland, Ghizela Rowe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 01:16:05

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-21

Publisher: The Copyright Group Ltd.

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Short Stories

Summary:

Henry James was born 15th April 1843 in New York City.His youth was spent travelling with his family receiving what was an "extraordinarily haphazard and promiscuous" education as they journeyed through London, Paris, Geneva, Boulogne-sur-Mer and Newport, Rhode Island, according to the father's current interests and publishing ventures. James studied primarily with tutors and only briefly attended schools. Undoubtedly the quality of his writing has ensured his name is enshrined in the American literary tradition. James was a committed Anglophile and spent most of his adult life as an expatriate in Europe. Many of his novels juxtapose the Old World with the New World. Classics such as 'The Portrait of a Lady', 'Daisy Miller' and 'The Ambassadors', display the entanglement between American and European cultures and mentalities. They highlight the differences between the two worlds through following the experiences of American expatriates in Europe. A prolific author he was able to easily move across genres to create vivid and totally real worlds and situations and to offer sophisticated observations of human relations as well as realistic, social criticism.As a critic James was unafraid to venture into reviews and essays of those other literary giants around him. These together with his short stories and, of course, classic novels, make Henry James an author to be not only admired but read, and read often. In 1915 Henry James became a British citizen.On 28th February 1916, at the age of 72, Henry James died in Chelsea, London.He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912 and 1916. He never won.The Great Good Place is a formidable short story with a sharp view of a writer who really needs to find peace but unexpectedly finds himself in paradise. Or does he?

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