Showing results by narrator "Jennifer Dixon" in All Categories

One of ancient Rome's most significant legacies is a legal framework for hereditary slavery. Under the Roman principle that would come to be known as partus sequitur ventrem (the offspring follows the womb), enslaved women bore enslaved children regardless of the identity of the child's father. For centuries, across the globe, this legal doctrine was invoked to justify control over enslaved women's reproductive labor.

Anthony Trollope is among the best-loved novelists in the English language. This Very Short Introduction will place Trollope's work in the context of his life and times, drawing on recent scholarship to illuminate his central interests and literary strategies. The major series of novels (the six novels located in the fictional Barsetshire, and the six Palliser novels) are explored alongside the novels set in Ireland, his travel writing, and his less well-known fiction.

Tolkien's Lost Chaucer uncovers the story of an unpublished and previously unknown book by the author of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien worked between 1922 and 1928 on his Clarendon edition Selections from Chaucer's Poetry and Prose, and though never completed, its 160 pages of commentary reveals much of his thinking about language and storytelling when he was still at the threshold of his career as an epoch-making writer of fantasy literature.  

Elizabeth and Darcy dream of a peaceful life together in idyllic Pemberley, but when rumors start circulating that Napoleon intends to invade the Kingdom by sea, they are sent with a group of Royal Mages to the coast of Kent to discover the truth. But the truth is hidden under multiple layers of uncertainty, and they soon suspect they have been lured into a trap. Faced with danger and betrayal, Elizabeth and Darcy must depend on each other to survive. Will their circumstances bring them closer together, or tear them apart?

Published in 1905 by Frances Hodgson Burnett - author of the beloved The Secret Garden - this is the story of Sara Crewe, the adored and pampered daughter of a wealthy widowed father. Sara suffers great losses but taps in to her "inner princess", and with strength, imagination, and storytelling, she triumphs over her sad circumstances while at the same time inspiring her fellow school companions.

The Tale of Pigling Bland - written by Beatrix Potter describing the adventures of the pig of the title and how his life changes upon meeting a soul mate, in much the same way that Potter's life was changing at the time the book was published.

Listen to the story of Peter who did not listen to his Mother and got into trouble!

One of the earliest creative approaches to feminist literature, this sinister horror story tells of a woman's mental anguish and unconscious struggle with conformity in a society that generally viewed women as weak and hysterical creatures unable to think for themselves. The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), a prominent American feminist, paved the way for other authors like Sylvia Plath and Alice Walker. She suffered mental illness during her life and ultimately committed suicide.

Beaten and left for dead in the English countryside, clergyman and reformer Tom Cross is rescued and nursed back to health by Miranda and Simon Thorne, reclusive siblings who seem to have as many secrets as he does. Tom has spent years helping the downtrodden in London while lying to everyone he meets, but now he's forced to slow down and confront his unexamined life.

Chaucer wrote about everyday people outside the walls of the English court-men and women who spent days at the pedal of a loom, or maintaining the ledgers of an estate, or on the high seas. In Chaucer's People, Liza Picard transforms The Canterbury Tales into a masterful guide for a gloriously detailed tour of medieval England, from the mills and farms of a manor house to the lending houses and Inns of Court in London.  In Chaucer's People, we meet, again, the motley crew of pilgrims on the road to Canterbury.

Alice George is a headstrong young British woman who finds herself living among the Tuareg, a tribe of nomadic warriors. While the outside world faces the catastrophe of World War I, the Tuareg continue to crisscross the Sahara as a matrilineal society in which the men are veiled, and the women hold property—a world in which anything can happen. It is a world well suited to eighteen-year-old Alice, who discovers a life she could never live in corseted England. In 1917, Alice returns home to a world completely alien to the one she left in the Sahara.

We live in an age of displacement. Refugee numbers are increasing due to a proliferation of fragile states. And yet, rising populist nationalism has undermined the political willingness of rich countries to accept migrants and asylum seekers. Given these contradictory trends, how can we create sustainable refugee policies that enable displaced people to live in safety and dignity, while operating at scale? The Wealth of Refugees draws upon a decade of original qualitative and quantitative research to offer practical solutions. 

The Baby Boomers studied here, living in the UK and Canada, were the last generation to have been routinely baptized and taken regularly to mainstream, Anglican churches. So, what went wrong—or, perhaps, right? This study, based on in-depth interviews, is the first to offer a sociological account of the sudden transition from religious parents to non-religious children and grandchildren, focusing exclusively on this generation of ex-Anglican Boomers.

Suzanne Morse, a midwife in Watertown, moves to a remote frontier town with her husband and two children in 1666. A hands-on, practical woman who needs people, she bonds with the first two women she meets. The minister's new wife, Abigail Willard, wants to learn Suzanne's trade. At the same time, Dancing Light, a medicine woman across the river, calls her to heal her sister, dying of a white man's disease, with white medicine. In no time, Suzanne becomes known as an effective healer among Groton settlers. However, her friendship with Dancing Light arouses the town's approbation.

Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1737-1809), originally published anonymously (by "an Englishman") in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776. This revised edition was published on February 14, 1776. It had a great influence at the time, particularly with regard to the colonies becoming completely independent of Great Britain as well as bringing about the issuance of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress in July 1776.

Supernatural short story written especially for the young Anne (Nannie) Wynne. It was originally published as "The Ghost's Touch" in The Irish Fireside, 30 September-14 October 1885; Harper's Weekly, 23 October 1885; and in The Ghost's Touch and Other Stories (with "My Lady's Money" and "Percy and the Prophet", Harper's Handy Series, no. 30, 1885).

Considered the pioneer of modern inspirational thought and motivation, James Allen (1864 - 1912) published As a Man Thinketh in 1903. This is a powerful little self-help treatise, which essentially discusses how, by adjusting the way we think in response to external circumstances, we can shape our lives, personally, professionally, physically, and psychologically, towards the ultimate goal of inner peace and serenity.

Lyndon Orr published his story of Aaron Burr in 1912 within his Famous Affinities of History. Here he briefly and simply compares Burr's life with Alexander Hamilton's and attempts to dispel some of the negative opinions that surrounded him as the "villain" who shot and killed one of the Founding Fathers of the USA in a duel. Orr also describes Burr's strong relationships and the mysteries surrounding the women in his life, particularly his daughter.

Five excellent short stories all with an intriguing "twist" in their tails!

Emma is the delightful classic about a financially independent young woman with a "happy disposition" who does not consider marriage for herself. She does, however, find amusement in playing matchmaker with the lives of others in her own social class. Her meddling into the love lives of her young friends has surprising results.