Snoozecast

Tonight, we’ll read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen from the beginning, please find and listen to all the previous episodes easily at snoozecast.com/series.

“Pride and Prejudice” follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.

In the previous episode, Mr. Collins accompanies the Bennet daughters to Mrs. Philips’ dinner party. Mr. Wickham is there, and Elizabeth is charmed by him, and hears his tale of woe blamed on Mr. Darcy.

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Tonight, we’ll read excerpts from the “Ladies’ Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness,” written in 1860 by Florence Hartley. The excerpts will include “Conduct in the Street” and “Polite Deportment and Good Habits.”

The opening excerpt regarding conduct in the street refers to omnibuses. These were large horse-drawn carriages used for public transportation in the late 1800s.

Hartley was a Victorian-era writer covering topics of etiquette and needlework. She was also an advocate for women's health.

If you enjoy this episode, be sure to check out our other episode of excerpts from this title including “How to Behave at a Hotel” and “Places of Amusement.” That episode aired on June 21, 2019.

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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 selection of mouse-featured Beatrix Potter stories, starting with “Johnny Town-Mouse” and followed with “The Tale of Two Bad Mice” and “The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse.” To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

Beatrix Potter was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist best known for her children's books featuring animals. Though Potter was typical of women of her generation in having limited opportunities for higher education, her study and watercolours of fungi led to her being widely respected in the field of mycology. In all, Potter wrote thirty books; the best known being her twenty-three children's tales.

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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 our “Magic Cloak” series, from the book “Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak”, a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905. “The Magic Cloak” episode one aired on Nov 11, 2019. If you’d like to listen to this continuing story easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.The events of the book alternate between Noland and Ix, two neighboring regions to the Land of Oz. Baum, who also wrote “The Wizard of Oz”, commented this was the best book he had written.In the last episode, Tollydob, the lord high general, is wearing the cloak when he wishes he were 10 feet tall- and immediately grows to that height. The lord high executioner, Tellydeb, wishes he could reach an apple at the top of a tree and he suddenly has arms that can grow to whatever length he needs. Finally, Tallydab, the lord high steward, wishes his dog Ruffles could talk, and he now has a dog that not only talks but talks back. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

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Tonight, we’ll read a section from the King Arthur series written by Maude Radford Warren titled “Sir Gareth and Lynette.”

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, King Arthur decides he wants to marry Princess Guinevere and sends some of his men to ask her father, King Leodogran. This leads Leodogran to investigate King Arthur’s parentage to find out if he is truly from royal blood. Leodogran seeks the counsel of Queen Bellicent, who has a young son named Gareth. Gareth pleads with her to be allowed to join his older brothers in joining the court of King Arthur. She finally concedes, as long as he disguises himself as a lowly kitchen worker at first.

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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 “Persuasion,” the last novel fully completed by Jane Austen, along with being considered her most mature and refined writing, published in 1817. The story concerns Anne Elliot, a twenty-seven year old Englishwoman, whose family moves to lower their expenses and reduce their debt by renting their home to an Admiral and his wife. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

The novel was well-received at it’s debut, but its greater fame came decades later, and continues to this day.

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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 classic children’s story “Heidi”, published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. To unlock full episodes of this series, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

“Heidi” is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. “Heidi” is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.

In the previous episode, Sebastian, Mr. Sesemann’s servant, is ordered to take Heidi back to her mountain home. Heidi’s first stop as she hikes up the mountain is to Peter’s grandmother. They have a joyous reunion and then Heidi sets off higher up the mountain towards Grandfather. She is warned by Peter’s mother Brigida to be careful with Grandfather as he has been even more like an unfriendly hermit since she left.

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Tonight, we’ll be reading another chapter from the book “Bird Watching” published in 1901 by Edmund Selous, titled “Watching Birds in the Greenwoods.”

If you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to our “Blackbirds” episode, “Watching Birds from a Haystack” episode, and “Watching Seabirds”, from this series as well.

The author started as a conventional naturalist of his time, but Selous developed a hatred of the common practice at the time of killing animals for scientific study and was a pioneer of bird-watching as a method of scientific study. The author was a solitary man and was not well known in ornithological circles. He avoided both the company of ornithologists and reading their observations so as to base his conclusions entirely on his own observations.

The word “greenwood” refers to both unseasoned firewood and a forest in full leaf, as in summer.

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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 from Hans Christian Andersen called “Little Thumbelina.” Thumbelina is about a tiny girl and her adventures with marriage-minded toads, moles, and doodlebugs. She successfully avoids their intentions before falling in love with a flower-fairy prince just her size. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

Hans Christian Andersen was born in Denmark in 1805 to a shoemaker. An only child, Andersen shared a love of literature with his father, who read him fables and fairy tales. Together, they constructed panoramas and toy theatres, and took long jaunts into the countryside.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we shall read the next chapter to “Peter Pan”, the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie. To unlock full episodes of this series, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

When we left off, Wendy and Peter end up on Marooner’s Rock with the tide coming in after a fight with the pirates. They are both too weak to swim to shore or fly for home. The tide is getting higher and higher on the rock. Suddenly Michael and John’s kite drifts across the rock. The kite is too small to lift them both, so Peter tells Wendy to grab on and let it carry her home, sacrificing himself.

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