Showing results by narrator "Denis Daly" in All Categories

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was the adopted son of the Emperor Antoninus Pius and ruled from 161 to 180. His Meditations or "discourses with himself" were written in Greek between 170 CE and 180 CE, mostly while he was on military campaigns. Jeremy Collier's translation, while lacking the accuracy of the more famous translation by George Long, has a particular verve and color, imparting a vigor that is often lacking in the original text.

The 36 poems, many of which are written in Aussie vernacular, highlight the extraordinary, the comic, and the tragic of daily life in Australia. Quirks of culture, geography, and language are simultaneously caricatured and celebrated, while the challenges and ironies of human experience are touched upon with humor and pathos. Many of these poems first appeared in Australian periodicals during the early 20th century. As a collection, Backblock Ballads and Later Verses was first published in 1918 and includes the notorious mock anthem, "The Austra-laise".

Jim of the Hills is a verse novel written by celebrated Australian poet, C.J. Dennis (1876-1938). It is narrated by shy, hard-working Jim, who works for a sawmill in the Australian bush. With characteristic pathos and wit, the story unfolds in twists and turns as Jim encounters Ben Murray, the Widow, Old Bob Blair, and the angel with the sunlit hair. This Australian classic, originally published in 1919, is a true delight.

Carlo Collodi's whimsical recasting of the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea was first published in 1883 and has since become an established classic of children's literature. Geppetto, a poor wood carver, receives a piece of wood from which he carves a marionette. Much to his surprise, the puppet springs to life and embarks on a wild series of adventures.

Digger Smith is an Australian soldier who has fought at Gallipoli. An old mate of Ginger Mick's (The Moods of Ginger Mick), he returns from the war to visit the family of a fellow solder, Jim Flood. Narrated by Bill (the protagonist of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke and a neighbour of the Floods), the story is woven together with sobering reflections and emotive dynamics expressed within a community of neighbours - friends and families of Australia's soldiers.

This is is the second of the verse novels by C.J. Dennis and was published in 1916. It describes the adventures of Ginger Mick, a rough and ready associate of Bill, the major character of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke. After starting life on the criminal fringes of the dubious neighbourhood of Spadger's Lane, Mick signs up for service in the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign, where he dies a hero's death.

Doreen is a verse-novel by renowned Australian poet, C.J. Dennis (1876-1938). As one of the sequels to the 1915 verse-novel, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, it continues to follow the family capers of Bill and Doreen along with their young son. Originally published in 1917, Doreen is a classic work of Australian poetry.

Little is known of Norton F. Hazeldine, whose version of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was published in 1908. It is not stated whether this was an actual translation, although it appears to be an extensive reworking of the fourth or fifth edition of the translation by Edward Fitzgerald.

This small handbook of the theory and practice of Stoic philosophy has become one of the most influential of all texts from the ancient world. It has been a source of inspiration to rulers, philosophers, and social theorists, and its cogent prescriptions about the management of one's personal life can be applied with great benefit in the hectic and confused world of today.

The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke is a classic Australian work of poetry composed by renowned poet, C.J. Dennis (1876-1938). This verse-novel chronicles Bill's coming-of-age through romance, love, and fatherhood. From rambunctious street-strolling youth to settled, responsible father, Bill's story unfolds with keen Aussie larrikinism and humour. This work is narrated as a duet by Denis Daly (Bill) and Sarah Bacaller (Doreen).

André Gide met Wilde many times and was one of the small number of celebrities who maintained contact with him until his death in Paris in 1900.

This collection of meditations on spiritual development was published in 1920. In the words of the author: "You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self. And that self too shall be a foundation."

Oscar Wilde visited America in the year 1882. Interest in the Aesthetic School, of which Wilde was the most prominent representative, had spread to the United States, and Wilde decided to undertake an American lecture tour to explain the Aesthetic movement. Towards the end of September 1883 Wilde returned to England and immediately commenced a lecturing tour. His first visit was to Wandsworth Town Hall where he presented his "Impressions of America", the text of which was published in 1906.

Shaku's eminently reasonable worldview and his skillful exposition of a truly universal definition of divinity and its inevitable necessity are both compelling and difficult to refute. In particular, this collection of discourses probes deeply and revealingly into the fundamental questions that occupy the minds of believers and unbelievers alike: why men cultivate religion in the first place and what the secret of its persistent vitality is.

Unlike their biblical precursors, Kahlil Gibran's parables espouse the importance of personal spiritual insight rather than moral rectitude. In Gibran's view, sin and virtue, mercy and justice, and sanity and madness are all sides of the one coin - one cannot exist without its opposite.

This universalist spiritual treatise is the best known work by the Lebanese-born poet and artist Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931). The central figure of the narrative is a fictional prophet, Al Mustafa, who is about to set off on a journey back to his homeland. His departure is delayed when he encounters a group of people who urgently seek his advice on a wide range of topics ranging from the mundane to the highest flights of spiritual introspection.

First published in 1857, The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du Mal) is a poetry collection by Charles Baudelaire. In 1909, Cyril Scott published a translation of 54 of the poems, which is the subject of this recording.

For centuries, Newton's doctrine of the attraction of gravitation had been the most prominent example of a theory of natural science. However, as with many successful theories, there were some anomalies it could not explain. In his attempts to address these problems, Einstein developed a radical and equally influential theory, that of relativity. This essay is a classic exposition of the basic elements of Einstein's theory by his Dutch colleague, Professor H.A. Lorentz.

This play forms part of a tetralogy which focuses on one of Wedekind's obsessive themes: the destructive interplay between primal sexual urges and social convention. Each play revolves around a powerful young female character, who has the power to control and captivate men, but who in turn is destroyed by the exercise of that power. In this play, the dominant female is Fräulein Elfriede von Malchus, an idealistic crusader who visits a brothel operated by the cynical impresario Casti-Piani in order to rescue a young woman who has fallen into his clutches.

This grimly picturesque novel by Arthur Morrison was first published in 1897. The central character is Dicky Perrott, an urchin living in the Jago, an extremely squalid district of London's East End. The Jago is based on the Old Nichol slum, which lay at the back of Shoreditch High Street, and which has since been demolished. The novel describes Dicky's futile attempts to escape from the soul-destroying environment of the Jago, with the support of the Reverend Henry Sturt, who was based on the historical East End crusader, Arthur Osborne Jay, to whom the book is dedicated.