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The Freelands family is a mixture: Tod Freeland is an uncommunicative gentle giant, his wife Kirsteen passionate and free-spoken, Felix is a literary man, Stanley the man of business, John is in politics. Their mother is a practical uncomprehending old lady while Nedda and Derek, the younger generation and cousins, fall head over heels in love. The story revolves around the ‘land question’ which was the chief matter of moment when the novel was written – British agriculture was depressed as imported food (chiefly from the USA) meant that domestic farmers were struggling. The rich ...

Brief plot lines of these 16 stories by Nobel Prize winning author John Galsworthy: 01, 02, 03 "A Feud" The breaking of an engagement ignites a feud. 04 "The Man Who Kept His Form" Ruding’s financial prospects disappoint. He adjusts. 05 "A Hedonist" Still single at 55, Vaness declares his love to a woman, 26. 06 "Timber" Hirries takes a celebratory afternoon walk in his forest. 07 "Santa Lucia" Old Trevillian recalls a past attraction begun at a casino. 08 "Blackmail" Money given to a needy woman leads to a blackmail threat. 09 "The Broken Boot" An impoverished actor chances upon an old ...

This is a collection of essays by John Galsworthy. A multitude of subjects is covered, but the essays are connected by an artistic spirit, and they are written much more like short stories than in the classical style of essays. - Summary by Carolin

Galsworthy's classic The Dark Flower is a study of love. Spring is the beginning when all is new and full of hope. However, the woman Lennan has fallen for is out of reach, a forbidden love. Can he overcome the challenges? As he matures, he discovers two different loves: the first is platonic, comfortable, and one that can last a lifetime. The other is crazy, passionate, and dangerous. As he matures, he settles into a somewhat boring and safe marriage, but then excitement and danger re-emerge in the form of a young mistress. The denouement comes as he makes the choice between the tried and ...

A small play in three acts. A kind of comic tragedy. The plot tells the story of the interaction between two very different families in rural England just after the end of the First World War. Squire Hillcrist lives in the manor house where his family has lived for generations. He has a daughter, Jill, who is in her late teens; and a wife, Amy, as well as servants and retainers. He is "old money", although his finances are at a bit of low ebb. The other family is the "nouveau riche" Hornblowers, headed by the single-minded and rich industrialist Hornblower, who throws old retainers the ...

In “The Country House”, John Galsworthy explores many of the themes he would later expand upon in his better known, nine-novel, “The Forsyth Saga”. This is a novel of English society as 1900 approaches. A divorce is being threatened in the Pendyce family, whose members are of the landed gentry. Such an event would be an enormous scandal. There is little action. The story paints, in exquisite language, the feelings of each of the six or so main characters. These feelings concern the necessity for family honor and the horror of scandal; the stifling effect of the social mores of the time...

'The Forsyte Saga' is the story of a wealthy London family stretching from the eighteen-eighties until the nineteen-twenties. In Chancery is the second book in the saga. Five years have passed since Irene left Soames and the death of Bosinney. Old Jolyon meets Irene and is enchanted by her. At his death he leaves her a legacy sufficient for her to live an independent life in Paris.Soames who is desperate for a son, attempts to effect a rapprochement but is rejected by her. Meanwhile Young Jolyon, now a widower,who is Irene’s trustee falls in love with herSoames suspects Young Jolyon and ...

John Builder is a solid, middle-class Englishman. He is very domineering but finds that the women around him are insistent on living their own lives. They will not let him take control. His world begins to fall apart around him. Summary by Michele Eaton Cast:Stage Directions: MichaelMaggsMr Builder: Adrian StephensMaud: Jenn BrodaGuy: John PaytonTopping: Alan MapstoneHarris: Andrew KennedyCamille: JennPrattMrs Builder: WendyKatzhillerAnnie: Michele EatonMayor: ToddHWAthene: Diana Helen KennedyRalph: Anthony JosephSergeant: David PurdyMoon: James R. HedrickChantrey: Mark KilkellyBoy's Voice: ...

Homer’s Iliad is the first great work of Western literature. Composed in twenty-four books of Greek hexameter poetry, it portrays the events of the last year of the Trojan War. Its translation into rhyming couplets by Alexander Pope is considered by some the greatest act of translation in English. Its power sweeps the reader along through an epic tale that begins with the wrath of Achilles and ends with the burial of Hector, breaker of horses. (Introduction by Steve Perkins)

The World English Bible (WEB) is a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Holy Bible. That means that you may freely copy it in any form, including electronic and print formats. The World English Bible is based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and a combination of the original ASV source text choices and the Greek Majority Text New Testament. The companion Deuterocanon/Apocrypha is derived from the Revised Version Apocrypha and the Brenton translation of the Septuagint into ...

Christian Science is a 1907 collection of essays Mark Twain wrote about Christian Science, beginning with an article that was published in Cosmopolitan in 1899. Although Twain was interested in mental healing and the ideas behind Christian Science, he was hostile towards its founder, Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910). He called her, according to American writer Caroline Fraser, "[g]rasping, sordid, penurious, famishing for everything she sees—money, power, glory—vain, untruthful, jealous, despotic, arrogant, insolent, pitiless where thinkers and hypnotists are concerned, illiterate, shallow, ...

This book of poems, written between 42 en 39 BC, was a bestseller in ancient Rome, and still holds a fascination today. Held to be divinely inspired not only by the Romans themselves, but by the Medieval Catholic church, The Eclogues is one of the most beloved collections of Latin short poetry. (Summary by Caeristhiona)The translator of this version is unknown. This recording is done in the form of a dramatic reading: in each eclogue, every character is read by a different Librivox volunteer.Readers of the eclogues that were done by multiple readers:Eclogue 1Meliboeus: Denny SayersTityrus: ...

A vivid description of wealth and poverty in Russia in Tolstoy's day, an inquiry into the root causes of economic inequality, and a vision of a more just way of living.Tolstoy recounts his own disturbing encounters with extreme poverty in Moscow, his initial idea of making the problem disappear by generous financial contributions, and his subsequent realization that the problem of poverty was much more intractable than he had imagined. He concludes that poverty is fundamentally linked with the luxurious lifestyle to which he and his class were accustomed, and that both are detrimental both to ...

In this collection three of the original titans in the field of fantasy literature (Edgar Allan Poe, George MacDonald, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu) take you on a magical guided tour of fairyland and adjoining countries and introduce you to whimsical, strange and even scary encounters and adventures with inhabitants such as good and bad fairies, ghosts and even the Devil. The stories included are “Cross Purposes” “The Carasoyn” “Bon-Bon” “The Child That Went With The Fairies” “Madam Crowl’s Ghost” and as an added bonus the beautiful (and cautionary) fairy poem “Queen Mab” ...

An unsatisfied wife kills her weak husband in order to carry on a sordid affair with another man. However, her selfish plans are spoiled when her husband continues to haunt her. This is often said to be Zola's first great novel. (Summary by BellonaTimes)

Librivox’s Children's Fiction Poscast is a collection of hundreds and hundreds short works for children (including single parts and chapters) in the public domain read by a variety of LibriVox members.

Librivox’s Short Story Collection 009: a collection of 20 short essays and fiction in the public domain read by a variety of LibriVox members.Note: Section 4, In The Year 2889 was originally published under the name of Jules Verne, but is currently believed to be the work of his son, Michel Verne.

LibriVox’s Short Story Collection 008: a collection of 20 short works of fiction in the public domain read by a variety of Librivox members.

LibriVox’s Short Story Collection 007: a collection of 20 short works of fiction in the public domain read by a variety of LibriVox members.

LibriVox's Short Story Collection 006: a collection of 20 short essays and fiction in the public domain read by a variety of LibriVox members.