Showing results by narrator "David Thorn" in All Categories

For many enlightened, liberal-minded thinkers today, and for most on the political left, evil is an outmoded concept. It smacks too much of absolute judgements and metaphysical certainties to suit the modern age. In this witty, accessible study, the prominent Marxist thinker Terry Eagleton launches a surprising defence of the reality of evil, drawing on literary, theological, and psychoanalytic sources to suggest that evil, no mere medieval artefact, is a real phenomenon with palpable force in our contemporary world.

Sir Richard's family has spent years waiting for him to die, but despite his weak heart, the old man simply refuses to coopeate. In the meantime, he makes their lives miserable by changing his will every few months, depending on which of his strange brood he favors that moment. Now he calls them together to announce his most diabolical revision yet: complete disinheritance of all the wastrels who bear his name. But he never gets a chance to sign the papers—by morning, he's dead.

This Series, in seven parts, tells the story of America from the earliest founding through the days of Woodrow Wilson and The Great War (World War I). In this volume, you'll hear stories of explorers and pioneers.

When Britain intercepted a French ship and its precious cargo—an unhatched dragon's egg—Captain Will Laurence of HMS Reliant unexpectedly became master and commander of the noble dragon he named Temeraire. As new recruits in Britain’s Aerial Corps, man and dragon soon proved their mettle in daring combat against Napoleon Bonaparte’s invading forces.

All of us enjoy a story of battle and adventure. Some of us delight in the anxiety and excitement with which we watch the various strange predicaments, hairbreadth escapes, and ingenious contrivances that are presented to us; and the mere imaginary dread of the dangers thus depicted, stirs our feelings and makes us feel eager and full of suspense. A Golden Deed must be something more than mere display of fearlessness. Grave and resolute fulfillment of duty is required to give it the true weight.

In an ocean of weightless air where sunlight has never been seen, only the running lights of the city of Pacquaea glitter in the dark. One woman, Leal Hieronyma Maspeth, lives and dreams of love among the gaslit streets and cafés. And somewhere in the abyss of wind and twisted cloud through which Pacquaea eternally falls, a great voice has begun speaking. As its cold words reach from space to the city walls—and as outlying towns and travelers' ships start to mysteriously disappear—only Leal has the courage to try to understand the message thundering from the distance.

Entertaining stories of nature with a moral lesson thrown in for good measure are fun as well as thought provoking. Children will be enthralled with the intimate look into the lives of the woodland creatures and their way of life. Subtleness in making a moral point is always a strength in Ms. Gatty’s stories.

American poet, critic, and short-story writer Edgar Allan Poe is universally recognized for his cultivation of the macabre in fiction. His stories are characterized by an original kind of supernatural horror, often using the awareness of death as a catalyzing force in its own right. His tales and poems brim with psychological depth and intense imagery, made vivid through his musical language and hypnotic rhythms, which are especially captivating when heard aloud.

Under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll, Charles Lutwidge Dodson (1832-1898), published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865. Charles Dodgson was a brilliant and accomplished man. He was a mathematics teacher at Oxford for most of his career. He published several mathematics books as well as novels and poems. Dodgson was also a professional photographer and avid inventor.

The year is 1935. Beneath the sweltering sun of French North Africa only the tough, iron men of the Foreign Legion stand between the restless tribesmen of the interior with their dreams of jihad, and the innocent traders and colonists of the coastal towns. Lieutenant Crispin de Corville, a secret agent for the Legion, discovers a plot to unite the tribes and win the essential arms and ammunition for their revolt, taking them from the Legion itself.

These entertaining stories of nature, with a moral lesson thrown in for good measure, are fun as well as thought provoking.

Our Island Story, originally published in 1905 and later updated, details the history of Britain up to World War I (including some myths and legends associated with British history). Author H. E. Marshall based the book on her answers to her children's questions about the history of their "home island" (Great Britain). This combined volume covers the next 250 years and the period from the American Revolution to the Industrial Revolution.

Henry James' short but much acclaimed suspenseful novel, set in Venice, concerns an American editor's determination to acquire a collection of unpublished letters to the former mistress of a famous deceased poet. This Miss bordereau is now very elderly, living modestly in a dilpidated old palazzo with her shy, awkward and uncomely niece Tita, an unwitting "pawn" in the plot.

A chance encounter on the snowy slopes of a castle moat throws together three lonely teenagers: Emily, Simon, and the highly enigmatic Marcus, who is the catalyst for all that follows. At first the castle's ruins are merely the backdrop to a day in the snow. But when the three break into the forbidden interior of the keep, they find the castle taking on a different and deeper meaning. Despite the freezing conditions, they spend the night there, to experience the power of occupation.

This book is an extraordinary day-to-day documentary of the Civil War's most infamous Confederate prison, Camp Sumter, better known as Andersonville.

Thomas Bulfinch, as one reviewer put it, "Created an anthology of mythology." This audiobook contains the first 14 chapters of The Age of Fable, the first of three volumes, comprising Bulfinch's complete work. The Age of Fable recounts stories of Greek Gods, Demigods and the best known characters in mythology. In our times, many references are made to these stories and characters in the arts, especially in the fine arts, theatre, and literature.

Published after his death, Dickens brilliantly brings to life a broad cast of colorful characters in the never solved mysterious disappearance of one Edwin Drood, all set in the rural hamlet of Cloisterham around the Cathedral close. Against a background of opium dens, nocturnal graveyard visits, and moldering monastic crypts, Dickens weaves a tightly knit plot centered on the ominous disappearance of young Edwin Drood.

Through twenty-two connected short stories, Sherwood Anderson looks into the lives of the inhabitants of a small town in the American heartland. These psychological portraits of the sensitive and imaginative of Winesburg’s population are seen through the eyes of a young reporter-narrator, George Willard. Their stories are about loneliness and alienation, passion and virginity, wealth and poverty, thrift and profligacy, carelessness and abandon.

After learning that his explorer father is missing, Max is determined to find him, no matter what dangers may lay in his path. A secret clue his father left behind leads Max to the inhospitable wilderness of Namibia, where he soon discovers a potentially massive ecological disaster masterminded by Shaka Chang, a very powerful and completely ruthless man. Max needs all the help he can get, because whoever is behind his father's disappearance is determined to get rid of Max, too.

This Series, in seven parts, tells the story of America from the earliest founding through the days of Woodrow Wilson and The Great War (World War I). In this volume, you'll hear stories of explorers and pioneers.