Best Literature Podcasts (Page 396)

From the Preface of The Speaking Voice: principles of training simplified and condensed: "This book offers a method of voice training which is the result of a deliberate effort to simplify and condense, for general use, the principles which are fundamental to all recognized systems of vocal instruction. It contains practical directions accompanied by simple and fundamental exercises, first for the freeing of the voice and then for developing it when free."Parts I and II of the book comprise advice on vocal production and techniques, while some chapters in Part III provide detailed guidance on the vocal interpretation of various literary genres, including the essay, various types of poetry, short stories, dramatic monologues and plays. Some chapters comprise mainly examples for practice, and include complete poems and stories.The reader has endeavoured to follow the author's instructions, but makes no guarantee as to her success, especially in the poetic realm.

This is a little volume of poetry by Canadian poet Virna Sheard. Published in 1917, its subject is the then ongoing first World War. - Summary by Carolin

This was the weekly poetry project for 3 June 2006. Many “character” poems cut straight to the inmost psychology of their subjects, but here, the eponymous Richard Cory with all his wealth and charm is viewed entirely from the outside. Indeed as the poem ends, we realise with an unforgettable shock just how little we, the narrator, or perhaps anyone really knew about him. (Summary by LauraFox)

Who killed the man in the hansom cab? -- Who is Sal Rawlins? -- What will happen to Madge and Brian? -- Murder and family secrets create the intrigue in this excellent Australian mystery. Fergus Hume's novel, originally published in 1886, rapidly became a best-seller. It was very soon published in England and the United States, and over a hundred years later, Geoffrey Haines credited "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" as doing "more than any book to give the outside world a picture of Melbourne of the late 1880's" (in "A History of Victoria," 2006). This is one of those old-time gems that continues to entertain, both in print form and on the air and screens. (Summary by Lynette Caulkins)NOTE: The preface of this work mentions the culprit of the "whodunit" - which may spoil the project for some listeners. Be advised to skip the preface or listen to it at the end if you'd like to be surprised by the outcome of the story.Cast ListNarrator: Peter DannMan in a Light Coat and Mr. Roger Moreland: Andrew LatheronOliver White, Crown Prosecutor, and Valpy: Jim HedrickMalcolm Royston: ToddDue Coroner and Mrs. Grundy: Tally TigerDr. Robert Chinston: Tad DavisClement Rankin: Derek BenisonMr. Gorby, Sebastian Brown, and Peterson: Greg GiordanoMrs. Rubina Hableton: WendyKatzHillerBarber of Midas: Scott CaulkinsDuncan Calton: Adrian StephensFelix Rolleston and Demetrius: Joanna Michal HoytMadge Frettlby: Michele EatonBrian Fitzgerald: CaveatMark Frettlby: Andrew KennedyDora Featherweight: ElizaJulia Featherweight: SoniaCabman, Other, Gaoler, Jury Foreperson, Doctor, and Legal Clerk: David PurdyMrs. Sampson: Susan EssaryHerald Newsperson, Traveler, Talleyrand, Sancho Panza, and Writer: Jake MaliziaMr. Kilsip: Algy PugNewspaper Woman, Old Woman, Court Crier, and Scotch Nurse: D GeierLizer: Mira williamsMother Guttersnipe and Albert Dendy: TriciaGSick Woman: Margaret LangeSal Rawlins: Lynette CaulkinsColonist, Moore, Footman, and Cynic: Therese LindhomIsaac Disraeli and Shakespeare: Elijah FisherFrench Proverb: Belinda LovedayBook Coordinators: Lynette Caulkins and Annie Mars

Ida Laura Pfeiffer was an Austrian traveler and travel book author, one of the first female explorers, whose popular books were translated into several languages. "The Woman's Journey Around the World, from Vienna to Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia, and Asia Minor" is the travel diary of the first of her two trips "around the world", following her successful trips to the Holy Land and to Iceland. (Summary by Leni)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 8 recordings of The Negro's Complaint by William Cowper.This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for February 9, 2020. ------Cowper, an English poet, wrote a poem called "The Negro's Complaint" (1788) which rapidly became very famous, and was often quoted by Martin Luther King Jr. during the 20th century civil rights movement. - Summary by Wikipedia

As Earth's faster-than-light spaceship hung in the void between galaxies, Arcot, Wade, Morey and Fuller could see below them, like a vast shining horizon, the mass of stars that formed their own island universe. Morey worked a moment with his slide rule, then said, "We made good time! Twenty-nine light years in ten seconds! Yet you had it on at only half power...." Arcot pushed the control lever all the way to full power. The ship filled with the strain of flowing energy, and sparks snapped in the air of the control room as they raced at an inconceivable speed through the darkness of intergalactic space. But suddenly, far off to their left and far to their right, they saw two shining ships paralleling their course! They held grimly to the course of the Earth ship, bracketing it like an official guard. The Earth scientists stared at them in wonder. "Lord," muttered Morey, "where can they have come from?" (Summary by from the Gutenberg text)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of The Main-Truck; Or, A Leap for Life by George P. Morris.This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for March 27, 2022. ------A Nautical Ballad.[Founded upon a well-known tale from the pen of the late William Leggett, Esq.] - Summary from The Poem's Introduction

The “Nurse and Spy” is simply a record of events which have transpired in the experience and under the observation of one who has been on the field and participated in numerous battles—among which are the first and second Bull Run, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, the Seven days in front of Richmond, Antietam, and Fredericksburg—serving in the capacity of “Spy” and as “Field Nurse” for over two years.While in the “Secret Service” as a “Spy,” which is one of the most hazardous positions in the army—she penetrated the enemy’s lines, in various disguises, no less than eleven times; always with complete success and without detection.Her efficient labors in the different Hospitals as well as her arduous duties as “Field Nurse,” embrace many thrilling and touching incidents, which are here most graphically described. - Summary from the preface

LibriVox volunteers bring you 23 different recordings of Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of February 4th, 2007.

"Birds and All Nature" was a monthly publication of the Nature Study Publishing Company of Chicago. It includes short poems and brief descriptions of birds, animals and other natural subjects with accompanying color plates. The magazine was published from 1897-1907 under the various titles, "Birds," "Birds and all Nature," "Nature and Art" and "Birds and Nature." - Summary by J. M. Smallheer

War and Peace (Russian: Война и мир, Voyna i mir; in original orthography: Война и миръ, Voyna i mir”) is an epic novel by Leo Tolstoy, first published from 1865 to 1869 in Russki Vestnik, which tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. It is usually described as one of Tolstoy’s two major masterpieces (the other being Anna Karenina) as well as one of the world’s greatest novels.War and Peace offered a new kind of fiction, with a great many characters caught up in a plot that covered nothing less than the grand subjects indicated by the title, combined with the equally large topics of youth, age and marriage. While today it is considered a novel, it broke so many novelistic conventions of its day that many critics of Tolstoy’s time did not consider it as such. Tolstoy himself considered Anna Karenina (1878) to be his first attempt at a novel in the European sense. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Die Büchse der Pandora ist eine Tragödie in drei Aufzügen von Frank Wedekind. Sie ist die Fortsetzung von Wedekinds Tragödie Erdgeist. Beide Stücke wurden von Wedekind später als Bühnenfassung in einem Stück mit dem Titel Lulu. Tragödie in 5 Aufzügen mit einem Prolog zusammengefasst. (Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia)Die Rollen:Prolog:Der normale Leser: Algy PugDer rührige Verleger: Marty KrisDer verschämte Autor: SeepferdchenDer hohe Staatsanwalt: Herman RoskamsLulu: P. J. MorganAlwa Schön: Patrick WallaceRodrigo Quast: WupperhippoSchigolch: RapunzelinaAlfred Hugenberg: BirgitDie Gräfin Geschwitz: Ramona Deininger-SchnabelGraf Casti-Piani: Nadine Eckert-BouletBankier Puntschu: Herman RoskamsJournalist Heilmann: SeepferdchenMadelaine de Marelle: EzwaKadéga di Santa Croce, ihre Tochter: Libby GohnBianetta Gazil: Sandra GLudmilla Steinherz: Margaret EspaillatBob, Liftjunge: Julia NiedermaierEin Polizeikommissär: Herman RoskamsKungu Poti: John FrickerDr. Hilti: Marty KrisJack: alanmapstoneAudioschnitt: mahne und rapunzelina

Surely everyone knows “Maud”? Isn’t that the Victorian love song, where the man waits by the garden gate for his lover to appear for a secret rendezvous? Well, that may be the song, but Tennyson’s poem is longer and very much darker. It deals not with love but with the obsession of an unstable young man with the seventeen-year-old Maud, and his gradual descent into madness.The poem’s narrator has been excluded from an evening ball being held at Maud’s home, The Hall, and has climbed into her garden uninvited, convincing himself by a misreading the Language of Flowers that she has sent him a love-token in the form of a rose blossom. After the guests have left, Maud and her brother step out into the dawn, and soon the brother is lying mortally wounded at the narrator’s hand. He flees abroad, and later loses his reason after hearing of Maud’s own death. Finally, the narrator insists that he has at last recovered from his “old hysterical mock-disease” and has awakened to a better mind, fighting for his country in the Crimean War. But can he be believed? Many early reviewers took the narrator as stating the poet's own views on war, but Tennyson himself responded that he would hardly have chosen a narrator with an "hereditary vein of insanity" to represent his personal opinions.The collection includes several other well-known Tennyson poems, including “The Brook, an Idyl”, and “The Charge of the Light Brigade”. (Summary by Michael Maggs)

A charming memoir recounting 10 months spent among the country people of Ontario at the outbreak of the Great War. Resplendent in its descriptions and heartwarming in its depictions of the 'simple' folk living along Many Islands Lake. - Summary by KevinS

LibriVox volunteers bring you 22 recordings of To a Dog by John Jay Chapman, published in 1917. This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 6th, 2011 to mark this year's festivals of remembrance.Chapman's son Victor was the first American pilot to lose his life in aerial combat, while serving with the Escadrille Américaine in the First World War. This poem tells of the heartbreak of a bereaved father; the sentiment, though attributed to the son's dog, is familiar to all who have lost someone they loved, in peace or war. (Introduction by Ruth Golding)

To tell the truth, this story — “A trip to Polesye” — is not so much complicated with philosophical or psychological ideas. In this story author had another goal — to describe the beauty of places where he was born, the beauty of nature. The only thing which hero’s doing is the travel on horses across the small villages in the heart of Russia. You can also appreciate the artistic, colorful and talented description of all that nature if you will read/listen to this small story.(Summary written by Yakovlev Valery)

Der Dichter steht am Rande der Wüste und hadert mit dem Schicksal. Satan erscheint und bietet ihm Ruhm, Ehre, Bewunderung, Leidlosigkeit,... Wird der Dichter darauf eingehen, oder ist er mit dem zufrieden was nur der Erzengel ihm geben kann? Die Rollen wurden gelesen von: Der Dichter - Gaby Satan - Boris Der Erzengel - Karlsson Bühnenanweisungen - Availle Audioschnitt: Availle

Ces conférences autour de la poésie sont une occasion de voir, écouter et goûter autrement les textes de grands poètes de langue française.

The title says it all: stories about dogs. - Summary by david wales

A monthly book club and podcast for readers who enjoy an eclectic variety of books - and talking about them nonstop.

Riley and Daniel discuss media that they are interested in.

Com Arthur de Faria, autor do livro homônimo Elis, Uma Biografia Musical. 16 episódios que narram o gênio artístico da maior cantora brasileira de todos os tempos.

This Is one of the Hawkins series and a right good one at that! Big boys and little boys, manly and "yellow", all these figure in the adventures which are recounted and the reader is quite breathless by the time he has taken part even vicariously in the numerous pranks and serious experiences. Good wholesome lessons are taught also as when the bully of the group comes to realize some of the big things of life just before he is called to the larger life beyond this one A real boys book but girls will like It also. (Bookseller and Stationer 1923)Seckatary Hawkins, a fat boy with a cowlick hairdo, records daily minutes of the adventures of a remarkably organized group of boys. The group of ten or so boys (some boys rotated in and out of the club) have their own clubhouse on the river bank, complete with a stove for heat, a telephone, and even an organ for the required singing practice.While never the president of the club, Seckatary Hawkins is clearly the smartest member and the leader. He is regularly called upon by the books' few adult characters and many of the youthful ones to solve various mysteries and to keep the river bank safe. (Adapted from Wikipedia)