Snoozecast

Tonight, we’ll read another story from the King Arthur series written by Maude Radford Warren titled “Sir Ivaine.”

If you’d like to listen to the first stories in this series, you can find our episode titled “The Sword Excalibur” that aired on April 10, 2020. If you’d like to listen to the whole series easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.

King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.

In the last episode, we learn of Sir Ivaine, who, among Arthur's Knights of the Round Table was one who was a mixture of good and bad, as indeed most people are. He was brave, kind-hearted, and merry; but at the same time fickle, sometimes forgetful of his promises, and inclined to make light of serious things. 

Sir Ivaine was overthrown by the evil Black Knight as a boy, and Ivaine sets out before the others to vanquish the foe. On his way, he befriends a lion. Sir Ivaine battles the Black Knight and wins, but in doing so finds himself wounded and confined within the castle walls of the Black Knight, separated from his lion whom is still outside the walls. He is protected at the top of a castle turret, in secret hiding, by a kind little maiden.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872. To unlock full episodes of this series, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired on April 15th, 2019. If you’d like an easy way to listen to these continuing episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.

One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales, George Macdonald’s “The Princess and the Goblin” tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie, who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home. 

When we left off, cave creatures, which descend from commonplace animals but have turned grotesque after generations without sunlight, enjoy playing in the moonlight now that they have a way out of the cave system at night. Meanwhile, Irene knows she has an important date to meet with the mysterious old woman upstairs. Instead, a cave cat jumps in her window and frightens her into running out into the dark. She makes her way back home by following the guiding light of her great-grandmother’s beacon.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The House of Mirth,” a 1905 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It tells the story of Lily Bart, a beautiful but impoverished New York City socialite. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

The commercial and critical success of “The House of Mirth” solidified Wharton's reputation as a major novelist.

The central theme of “The House of Mirth” is essentially the struggle between who we are and what society tells us we should be. Thus, it is considered by many to be as relevant today as it was in 1905.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908. This story was suggested by our patron, Lucienne. To unlock full episodes of this series, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.

Grahame grew up on the River Thames. As secretary of the Bank of England, he told his son bedtime stories that evolved into this book after he took an early retirement.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911. Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children's literature. To unlock full episodes of this series, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired March 9th, 2020. If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.

In the last episode, Mary realizes she is starting to like people and wonders if she could visit Martha’s family cottage. Also, Mary finds an old-fashioned key buried in the earth.

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Tonight, we’ll read “The Beryl Coronet” from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1892.

A beryl coronet is an emerald crown.

This story begins with a prominent banker making a loan equivalent to two million US dollars today to a socially prominent client, who leaves a beryl coronet as collateral. Imagine going to the bank and asking for a two million dollar loan. As collateral, you secretly offer the banker someone else’s fancy royal crown. Do you think that would work? Well, it may have worked in tonight’s episode.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read a story called "Charan, The Dancing Maiden", taken from the book “Korean Folk Tales” written by Pang Im but compiled, translated to English by James Gale and published in 1913. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

Pang Im was born in 1640, the son of a provincial governor. He was a great scholar and a disciple of one of Korea's first famed writers. When he was eighty years old, he became governor of Seoul, and held other high cabinet positions as well. In 1722 he played a part in a disturbance of the government and was exiled to North Korea.

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Tonight, we’ll read the next chapter to “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Experiments”. 

Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters. 

If you would like to start at the beginning, the first episode aired on December 18th, 2019. You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.

In the last episode, the little women learn that idleness does not necessarily lead to lasting contentment.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Odyssey,” in this the Samuel Butler translation, is one of two ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest works of literature still read by contemporary audiences. It follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

After the decade of war itself, his journey lasts for an additional perilous decade. In his absence, he is assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must contend with a group of rude suitors competing for Penelope's hand in marriage.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read "The Wild", sometimes known as “Walking”, a lecture by Henry David Thoreau first delivered in 1851. It is a transcendental essay that analyzes the relationship between man and nature, trying to find a balance between society and our raw animal nature. Thoreau read the piece a total of ten times, more than any other of his lectures. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

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